I’m upstairs at Joshua’s in Woodstock, trying to post a blog on the WFF 10 blogosphere body, but cannot sign in. And now I’m out of time, gotta go see a documentary at the Bearsville Theater right NOW. So, I’ll post this to WFF on this HVBP site, and make my apologies for the snafu.Later.

I got back early Sunday evening from a weekend at Omega, on the pastoral campus near Rhinebeck, attending the annual “Women & Power” conference. The big names this year included, as the title of this blog tells you, world famous feminist Gloria Steinem, 75, and longtime (to put it mildly) White House bureau chief for UPI and current Hearst columnist Helen Thomas, 89, not to mention brilliant novelist Isabel Allende and fabulous singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant.

Also on the bill were a couple dozen or so women of accomplishment and renown, ranging from age 19 on up. There was Alberta Nells, youth leader of the Navajo Nation; Edit Schlaffer from Austria, founder of Women Without Borders; Liza Donnelly, staff cartoonist for the New Yorker; Courtney Martin, author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” and editor at femisting.com (a great site for blogging on women’s issues); superjocks and Olympic medal-winners Angela Hucles (soccer) and Jessica Mendoza (softball); Donna Lopiana, another superjock and former CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation; Sarah Jones, whose “Bridge and Tunnel” one-woman show was a long-running hit on Broadway …

Well, you get the drift. LOTS of great women of all ages, sizes, colors, nationalities and so forth. And a few very good, brave men.

I took a lot of notes on Saturday, and went off to the cafe (great place, great snacks) to write an on-site blog, but of course I couldn’t remember my dang password, so this will be a bit like a plate of leftovers. I serve it up with apologies.

 First, let me say that Gloria Steinem, at least from the 15th row, looks absolutely fabulous, darlings. I mean, slender and handsome, with a good jawline and a waist. Same great bouffantish hair, same great laugh, same tinted glasses… and also the same wisdom and intelligence. Her message was basically that we cannot categorize and label one another — sex race, nationality, income level, education level are all layers of construct that limit progress, limit cooperation. We must take people as individuals, not as part of groups She said that traveling to Africa coupled with what we have all learned about the migration of human DNA from that continent profoundly imbued her with the sure knowledge that we are indeed all the same, from the same birthplace. Yay, Gloria.

Oh, I am already running out of steam writing about all that transpired. Here are a few more highlights, just to give you an idea. And maybe next year, you’ll be at the “Women & Power” weekend yourself!

1. Sakena Yacoobi, an Afghan woman who has been opening and running schools for girls and young women in Afghanistan and the border area of Pakistan, in the refugee settlements, was passionate and inspiring.

2. Isabel Allende is beautiful, smart, funny, smart, honest, smart and a real hoot. I could have listened to her all day long. I sorta wished she’d had more time on her own, rather than segueing into a panel discussion with her daughter in law and others, though there were some great moments therein.

3. Saturday evening’s entertainment was great — Liza the cartoonist was super, Natalie was divine, and Sarah Jones brought down the house, y’all! Check HER out on YouTube!

4. Helen Thomas, especially the section where she was one-on-one with Pat Mitchell — so feisty, so tough, so passionate

5. Courtney Martin … remember this name. This young woman really knocked my socks off with her savvy media sense.

6. The food (vegetarian and totally yummy)

7. The massage (an add-on) from Lynn at the Wellness Center

Well, if there are any questions from anyone who reads this blog, ask away and I’ll try to answer them! I’ve got to run now — going to see “Julie and Julia” at the Rosendale.

Peace, out.

2

By Barry Lewis

Times Herald-Record

BETHEL - How do you keep the spirit of Woodstock alive a week after celebrating the 40th anniversary of what was one of the iconic moments in American history? You bring on stage together one of the true icons of the 1969 Woodstock festival and one of the great orchestras in American history.

So there was Arlo Guthrie, guitar in hand, telling a damp crowd of under just 5,000 Saturday night at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts that he was glad to be back, and that he “brought the biggest band this time.” With that he began a series of storytelling songs, backed by the The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. The forever-hippie with the flowing white shoulder-length hair, jeans and a black vest who told the world and some half-a-million on Yasgur’s farm that “The New York State Thruway is closed” and whose song, “Coming into Los Angeles” was banned on radio stations, now accompanied by 72 musicians in their starch white shirts and black pants, led by Keith Lockhart, himself dressed in all black, who said he was just 9-and-a-half at the time of Woodstock and but that “he heard stories.”

It was the perfect match.

The Boston Pops played American classics by classic American composers. John Williams, “The Olympic Spirit,” a series of westerns sounds by Aaron Copland and the 1927 stirring, “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin.

Guthrie played a combination of nine moody, whimsical, rock and folk standards, mixed with his own unique blend of one-liners, tales and observations that both entertained and enlightened.

He began with a series of somber selections that mixed well with the talent behind him: “Darkest Hour,” “Last Train,” “St. James Infirmary,” “If You Would Just Drop By” and “Epilogue” because as Guthrie explained, he “didn’t want to subject the orchestra to songs about picking a pickle.” He knew when to throw in some Catskill lines that fed a pleasing audience: “I married my wife one month after Woodstock - I’m her ticket to sainthood” and when to sing the favorites, “City of New Orleans,” “This Land is Your Land” and even a comical version of “Coming into L.A.” with the Boston Pops mixing some themes from Pink Panther, Get Smart, Mission Impossible and James Bond.

Forever the storyteller, Guthrie explained what he did and not remember about playing at Woodstock and the Lockhart-led Boston Pops gave a rousing “The Stars and Stripes Forever” as the encore.

That’s America.

By Barry Lewis

Times Herald-Record

BETHEL - Jim Messina walked on stage from one corner, his long lost partner of more than 30 years ago, Kenny Loggins walked on stage from the other. They each took their places on stools, strapped on their guitars and with many of the 5,500 who had braved Friday afternoon’s tornado warnings, thunderstorms and flood advisories to make it to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts shouting out songs of their youth, Loggins promised, “we’ll do all of them.”

They did.

For nearly two hours the popular early 70s duo offered up stretch of musical genres, ranging from their Top 40 radio station driven soft-rock mega-hit sing-along-you-know-all-the-words songs “House at Pooh Corner” and “Danny’s Song,” to the funky “Your Mama Don’t Dance.”

Backed by a talented six-piece band that each were given the chance to show off their musical reach, Loggins and Messina moved from those familiar soft rock favorites to a stretch of down home country songs, “Long-Tailed Cat,” “Listen to a Country Song” and “Holiday Hotel.”

Kenny Loggins said he had just recorded a new “Family” album with one song featuring the vocals of Mr. Messina, noting it was the first time the two had recorded together in nearly 30 years. With that they went into a clever cover to the Beatles’ “Two of Us” that was given a country twist at the end. There was even a wee bit of a Celtic in their play list on “Be Free” with Jim Messina hitting the mandolin.

Kenny Loggins moving out front, bending his knees and reaching for the sky with a gospel call as he moved from the soulful start of “Georgia on My Mind,” into the group’s heart-thumping “Back to Georgia.”

It was night that not only featured a reunion of Loggins and Messina, but of their shirt-tail country-rock cousins POCO with its former leader, Richie Furay. POCO was formed in 1968 by Messina and Furay after the breakup of Buffalo Springfield. The two eventually left the group but not before Furay led them through a string of hits that he performed on stage with the group, incluidng, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” and “Call it Love.”

Furay stayed on stage as POCO sang their top hit, “Crazy Love” and “Heart of the Night.” The reunion was complete when Messina came out for the final POCO song, “Better Think Twice.”

There might have been some disappointment that Loggins didn’t play some of his own solo hits when he became the movie soundtrack star of the 1980s (”I’m Alright,” “Footloose” and “Danger Zone”). That might be down the road, as this was only the second leg of their reunion tour. But it seems that this show is all about the group Loggins and Messina, which was enough to leave the audience satisfied.

How do you pay homage to Woodstock–arguably the world’s most famous concert–three days before its 40th anniversary?

Try this.

Put the pop-rock band O.A.R. on stage at Bethel Woods, add a young crooner named Matt Nathanson, and let the two play a rousing cover of a famous Woodstock performance.

That’s what happened Wednesday night when O.A.R. and Nathanson ended the main portion of their set by belting out Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help from my Friends.” Nathanson even emulated Cocker’s signature scream toward the end of the song.

Most in the crowd were not old enough to remember Cocker’s performance in 1969, just before the rain drenched Woodstock. But the 20- and 30-something concertgoers were probably familiar with the TV show “The Wonder Years,” which used Cocker’s song as its theme. And so they stood and shouted along. It was the most memorable performance of the night.

But it shouldn’t overshadow the rest of the show, which was equally impressive.

Nathanson, best known for his recent hit “Come On Get Higher,” entertained the crowd with his spot-on singing, sexual jokes and California attitude. Noting that a lot of pre-teens were in the crowd, Nathanson said one of his songs was about locking one’s self in a hotel room with a girl for three days and “eating ice cream.” He followed that up by saying, “Wink, wink.”

To change the pace, Nathanson mixed his songs with covers of ’80s tunes like Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl,” and  The Outfield’s “Your Love.”

The headlining act, O.A.R., had the entire crowd standing by its third song. The only disappointing part was that the crowd was small. Official attendance was somewhere near 4,000, small enough that  O.A.R. front man Marc Roberge invited people on the lawn to join the crowd under the pavillion, which is generally a forbidden move.

Those who passed up the concert missed an interesting mix of reggae-inspired rock, acoustic ballads and stadium-shaking anthems. O.A.R. is not a predictable band. Sometimes their songs are anchored by a slick saxophone, a wrenching guitar solo, or the underlying rhythms of a keyboard.

Aside from the cover of Cocker’s hit, the two biggest crowd pleasers were “Shattered” and “Hey, Girl.”

Perhaps the most unique part of O.A.R.’s set happened when the band brought their instruments close to the edge of the stage and performed a stretch of acoustic songs in front of a simple, crimson backdrop. Roberge said the move felt right because of the “quaint atmosphere.”

It’s no secret that O.A.R. likes to be close to their fans. After all, the band played at bars on the college circuit before making it big. But that period of closeness also hinted at the band’s biggest strength. When O.A.R. moved toward its dancing, singing, clapping fans, it felt like those guys you hear on the radion were singing with you, not at you.

“It’s a good, family vibe here,” Roberge said in between songs. “I feel like we’re all in this together, so let’s have some fun.”

- Adam Bosch

The cool part about The Original New York Doo Wopp Show at Bethel Woods Saturday night - now a as much a yearly happening as the New York Philharmonic is that you’re put in the mood for those early sounds of rock-n-roll before you ever get to your seat.

Walking the grounds you pass Jeff’s ‘55 red and white Chevrolet, Pat’s ‘67 yellow Corvair, and Hank’s ‘62 red Corvette. Get a bit closer to the Pavilion stage and you’ll hear those fine harmonizing sounds from the five-member acapela group, Reunion.

Now the 4,000 attending, on a picture-perfect summer night - finally- could be transformed onto a Brooklyn streetcorner where Willie Winfield and the Harptones are doing, “Sunday Kind of Love” in their red double-breasted suits. Nice. The smooth steps are a plus.

For even the casual music fan,  you may not remember the names of the groups (and truth is if you look up you would not be seeing all the original members) but you know the songs. Great songs.

The Duprees with “Have You Heard” and the that familair theme to the old Million Dollar Movie and their classic “You Belong To Me.” Charlie Thomas and the Drifers with “Up on the Roof” and “Under the Boardwalk.” The amazing high notes of Kenny Vance and the Planotones doing his old Jay the Americans hit, “Cara Mia,” and finally Fred Paris leading four folks (supposed to be the Five Satins) with the classic “Still of the Night.”   

Folks - this was and always will be music.

For the most part you really have to trust that Tony DeLauro’s show has some original members, and as I mentioned, not all the group as the same number of members as their name might suggest, but don’t let thet get in the way of a night when the original sounds of rock filled the mountains where 40 years ago the ultimate rock happening took place.

Nice touch at the end - the sounds of “Happy Trails” … till we meet again.

- Barry Lewis 

         

Peter and Paul without Mary?

Kind of like the Papas without the Mamas, as the Record’s Barry Lewis told me as we strolled into Bethel Woods a few hours ago.

Because Mary Travers is ill from complications for bone marrow replacement treatment,  Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul  Stookey played Bethel Woods as a duo.

And while they really missed Mary’s soaring top harmonies - especially on slower tunes like “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Peter and Paul (you just can’t call the guy Noel) have been singing together  long enough (48 years) that their voices meshed like the grains in the rich wood of their acoustic guitars.

Plus, the surprisingly robust crowd of about 3,000, which surely would have been bigger with Mary, supplied plenty of harmony  on classics like “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Lemon Tree” and, of course, “Jet Plane” during the show that at times was part campfire sing-along, 60s protest march and, thanks to Yarrow, Catskill comedy.

And on  a day when part of Sullivan County was declared a disaster area because of flooding, so many of Peter and Paul’s songs provided as much hope as the sun that tinted the clouds shades of orange and purple at the start of the two and a half hour show.

“Weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain,” Peter and Paul sang to open the evening.

 ”This little light of mine, I’m gonna make it shine,” Peter sang to start the second half of the show.

And as the crowd sang along, you couldn’t help but believe them.

Steve Israel

It was worth the $21 ticket price and the drive to New York City just to see the sixth installment of the Harry Potter franchise in IMAX.

Even if it was only for the first 10 minutes.
  This is the line to my right, which extended through the door where there was at least another 100 people sitting on the floor.

  This is the line to my left  which went downstairs to the first floor.

The movie is out now, but is only being shown in IMAX in NYC, the only venue on the east coast. The lines, as expected, were long, and people sat mostly cross-legged on the floor, either speed-reading the last few lines of the sixth book or talking with their friends about how the movie will be different from the book.

A trailer for the “Half-Blood Prince” was shown as well as some behind-the-scenes shots before people were instructed to put their 3-D glasses on and the preview for Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” was shown. It comes out in November and will be shown entirely in 3-D. From the looks of it, you’ll definitely want to see this, as long as you don’t mind the feeling of being shot into the sky, dropping back down to the ground and having some ghosts in your face.

Finally the Warner Bros. logo appeared and the theme music began playing and the audience started clapping and hollering.  The flying scene where the bridge is destroyed is absolutely fantastic and when Dumbledore puts the furniture back in the house that Horace Slughorn has been crashing at , you’re actually trying to avoid being hit by flying records and pieces of a chandelier.The crowd actually groaned when the red glasses logo flashed on the screen, telling you to take off your 3-D glasses.

I’m not going to giveaway what happens in the movie because there’s a lot of you who probably haven’t seen it yet. What I will say is the interaction between the actors, especially the kids, is hilarious at times. It actually makes you forget how heavy this movie actually is. When Harry says the word “pinchers” and makes his two index fingers go up and down, you’ll laugh so hard you’ll almost cry. Two other funny scenes are when Hermione hits Harry in the head with a rolled up newspaper and when Ron climbs into bed with Harry after he’s eaten the chocolate laced with a love potion. The actress who plays Lavender is totally over-the-top and Luna is her usual goofy self.

The movie, all two and a half hours, were outstanding. What I will say is some of the scenes you expected to see were not there. One scene inside the Ministry of Magic did not make the cut and the last scene in the book also didn’t make the movie. Also, the Harry/Ginny kiss scene was done differently. The tension between Ron and Hermione you could barely cut with a knife and the scene at the lake with Harry and Dumbledore was one of the best in the movie. Some scenes were added, that I felt were unnecessary, but, overall, the movie was definitely worth the two year wait.

I can’t wait to see it again!

 

“All Suffering Soon to End!” Not just the saying on a Jehova’s Witnesses pamphlet. It’s the title of the new exhibit at Callicoon Fine Arts. It has been open, but will really kick off Saturday with a reception, joined by M.G.M. Grand, a dance troupe from Brooklyn that uses modern styles and experimentation.

That’s our cover this week. Elsewhere we have an interview with the legendary George Benson, info on all the upcoming shows (including the Bad Company concert at Bethel Woods) anda review of “My Sister’s Keeper,” the newest film starring Cameron Diaz.

Check out Go! on Friday.

Yesterday, I had to go to Kingston right after work in order to drop off some audio cassettes for transfer to CD. I took the job to a company called the Ellenbogen Group, which used to be in uptown Kingston, in a little ol’ hard-to-find building. Now, however, Ellenbogen (which does excellent work, btw) is part of an impressive enterprise called Seven21 Media, with a big building on upper Broadway.

Anyway, after I found someone to write up my order (it was after hours and the place was basically closed), I met my pal Bryn at a really good Mexican restaurant right across the street from Seven21, El Danzante. After we ate (a lot!) and shot the breeze (la brisa) and had a bottle of Negra Modelo (cerveza), we bid each other adios. Bryn took off for Bearsville while I, dauntless seeker of cheap thrills, walked a block up Broadway to the Basement, my now-favorite club/bar in Ulster County.

The Basement is everything a bar that books bands should be. It is gritty, it is dark, with a black-and-red paint scheme, it has a very good sound guy, a very good bartender, cool beers on tap, a young crowd that doesn’t look at me as if I am a troll who crawled out from beneath the compost heap, and it has heavy, LOUD music.

The famed pitcher Satchel Paige said something* about jangling your body around a bit, just to keep the juices flowing, and in keeping with that advice, I like to take my sexagenarian self to hear rock music on a pretty regular basis — a lot more often than I avail myself of massages or whatnot. Works for me. So I was happy to get a chance to stop in at the Basement to hear a band called Full On, made up of some people I know - Shawna on guitar and vocals, Dee on bass and backing vocals (aka roaring), and a drummer whose name I don’t know but who is darn good at his job. A talented, passionate, good-looking band is Full On.

Anyway, I paid the modest cover charge ($4) and got a Blue Moon Honey Moon Summer Ale ($4) and enjoyed the music. A lot. It made the furniture vibrate. It made me very, um, “jangled,” which was the desired effect.

I had to go home before the next bands played. One of them, the headliner, was Jucifer. They had set up a little display table with merch and some terrific-looking posters, from past shows, I presume. I’ll have to check them out on MySpace or something. I love hardcore music, but I don’t love the vocals, generally, because there’s no tunefulness, no melody. But, you know … talkin’ ’bout my ggggeneration. I do love what it does for the adrenalin, so I rock on as best I can.

I really recommend the Basement if you like hard, driving, loud, grindcore (or whatever you call it) rock. Really a good place. It’s on the beginning part of Broadway just off Albany Avenue, down a bit from the Health Department building where you can get tested free for STDs and across from the Probation Department (irony? I think not).

And remember: Drink responsibly. Do not drink and drive. 

* Satchell’s advice: “Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.” Collier’s magazine, 1953