Hi Friends,
It’s Memorial Day weekend! The time of year when locals are more patient with a snapping turtle in the road than a lost AirBnB renter. When the traffic cones are more abundant than peony blooms. When we gleefully drive 20 minutes out of the way to avoid the back up on 299 or 44/55, knowing we can hit our favorite swimming holes on a Tuesday after work.
A quick PSA that as a Hudson Valley resident you are legally entitled, nay obligated, to threaten the life of anyone who shares the location of a swimming hole on the internet.
Swimming Hole Secrecy is the corollary to Ramp Patch Rules: If you didn’t learn about it on the internet, don’t put it on the internet.
This makes roughly everything else in the Hudson Valley fair game for blabbing. Most of what we have here is better protected by being shared: Mongolian food in a New Paltz yurt, historically accurate mini golf, women fueled by bitterness, and our robust DIY music scene. It’s the artists, farmers, purveyors and business owners that make our home to attractive to tourists.
While my goal here is to get you, dear neighbor, off the internet and into the community as fast as possible, I will just this once ask you to post, tag, share, etc etc etc about your favorite local businesses. These summer weekends are usually the majority of their annual revenue, so help them cake up on Saturdays so they can stay open for us on Wednesdays.
FJORD WINERY GAMAY NOIR BLANC
Sponsored by our friends at Boutique Wines, Spirits and Ciders
Your friends hosting the Memorial Day cook out gave you terrible instructions. “We don’t need anything!” they said. “Bring something to drink!” There will be a moment this weekend when you will be standing in a luxuriously air conditioned shop, wondering what to bring besides ice. (Always, ALWAYS bring ice.)
The basic question of Red or White is paralyzing - as reds often go better with what’s on the grill, but whites have a higher quaffable factor. The porch-pounders, if you will.
Why not get you a New York girl who can do both?
Meet the Fjord Gamay Noir Blanc!
Here you have a local Hudson Valley winery, growing a red grape that is most famously from France and used in the production of Beaujolais.
Fjords beautiful example of a Blanc de Noir starts as whole cluster pressed into a stainless steel tank, and is aged one month prior to filtration and bottling.
Expect this dry wine to have wonderful notes of citrus, particularly lemon zest, along with guava and Bosc pear and some zippy acidity on the finish.
Fun wine fact: Almost no red wine grapes produce red juice. The juice from your favorite red grapes from Cabernet to Malbec comes out of the grape white. It’s the contact with the grape skins that add color and tannin.
Inside we’re all the same. We just need a good squeeze. 🥰
You can purchase this wine directly from Fjord or at Boutique Wines Spirits & Ciders in Fishkill NY.
Thursday, May 21
Josie and the Pussycats Screening at Four Brothers Drive In in Amenia with a live Q&A with actor Paul Costanzo. Pre-film happy hour, soundtrack-inspired live music by Sad13, drive-in food specials, movie-themed cocktails. Enjoy some Riot Grrl anti-capitalist nostalgia with a double shot of Parker Posey.
To Salvage or Abandon: Saving Hasbrouck House at The Crawford House in Newburgh: How the house that was once HQ for General Washington got saved from ruin. Enjoy a cocktail and learn how and why to prevent Hudson Valley historic sites from becoming luxury condos.
Friday, May 22
Catskill Brewery Oyster Party in Livingston Manor: Raw oysters, lobster rolls, caviar, and cold beer from noon til sold out. The Friday–Saturday format means you can do it twice. 12–7pm Memorial Day weekend.
Love, Velma's official Memorial Day Weekend dance party featuring DJ Harlan spinning an all-vinyl set. One of the best venues around, so just suck it up and become a member.
Saturday, May 23
Cassis Cookbook Club with Shaina Loew-Banayan & Amiel Stanek at Current Cassis in Catskill: Monthly book swap goes cookbook-themed with two of the valley's most interesting food people as hosts. Bring books to trade.
City Winery Hudson Valley: Bud Break in Montgomery: Celebrate the official start of patio season with new releases and nibbles plus lawn games and meandering walks through the vineyard.
Burlesque Bash: Circus of Tease at Assembly Kingston: Aerialists and areolas, plus the Vaudeville standards like comics and classic sideshow acts. Bring those singles, honey!
Seedling Sale at Enoki Catskills in Saugerties: Gentle Time Farming and Herban.cura a pop-up for a seedling sale — chrysanthemums, eggplant, Thai basil, Jimmy Nardello peppers, cannabis seedlings, and herbal remedies (the other kind.)
Tabletop Shop Pop-Up at Sweet Flower Farm in Copake: Garden Club HV brings together Bow Glass Works, Goldie Home, Sweet Flower Farm, and Ada Loves You — glassware, linens, flowers, and CAKE.
Return Brewing Memorial Day Weekend in Hudson: DJ $tone and Nublu at 3pm, tattoos by Sad Tatter, and BBQ from Lil Piece running all weekend. If you have ever chosen to be spontaneously tattooed at one of these pop ups I need you to email me immediately.
Raw Fish Residency at Sunshine Colony in Livingston Manor: Chef Thom Chun launches a summer-long handroll residency at Sunshine Colony — every Saturday 3–9pm. Heaven. I love you, Meg.
ZURI + JAIRO + DESPOT at Everything Nice in Ellenville: DJ ZURI on all-vinyl (deep cuts, unexpected turns), JAIRO on poetry, and DESPOT headlining with death industrial. Free, all ages, 5–7pm, does not mean you should bring small children.
Old Pawn Night Market at Industrial Arts in Beacon over artists, vendors, live video art from @the_artist_rooster, and two mind-melting sets from Old Pawn and Paul Belading. No cover, 6–11pm.
CIRQUE DE SIR ECHO at Reason and Ruckus in Poughkeepsie: A stacked night celebrating the release of Sir Echo's EP 'To Fly With Clipped Wings' — three bands, face painting, tarot readings, an excellent follow up to Josie and the Pussycats.
Sunday, May 22
Traveling Therapy Pigs at Cooper's Daughter in Claverack: Petting pigs is better for your blood pressure than eating them — spend a Sunday in the cocktail garden meeting the pigs and noshing from This and That Food Truck (vegan options!!)
Shit Kicker Sunday at Denning's Point Distillery in Beacon: $5 Genny Cream Ales, $10 Boilermakers, $7 Picklebacks, and classic country on the playlist.
Scorpio Rising + Lucifer Rising with Live Score at Orpheum Theater in Saugerties: Upstate Films screens two Kenneth Anger classics — both major influences on John Waters and David Lynch — with a live score from Constant Smiles. Seeing a film with a live band is genuinely intensely cool. Would recommend.
Sunday Service at The Flying Goose in Kerhonkson: It’s time to kick off Pride! It’s a creekside DJ dance party to fundraise for the Kingston LGBTQ+ Center, with barbecue from Mill & Main next door.
Monday, May 23
Kite's Nest Seedling Community Day in Hudson: Kite's Nest and UPCO host a free Memorial Day hang — ReGen Teens' seedling sale with teas, herbs, and fresh beverages, plus an Enoki Catskills food pop-up. Bring a blanket. 12–3pm.
Wednesday, May 27
Nonfiction for No Reason (NFNR) at Unicorn Bar in Kingston: NFNR — the Seattle-based literary event series that spotlights writers whose work has never been published — lands at Unicorn Bar in Kingston, co-hosted by Katie Lee Ellison and Jessica Lynne, with readings from Tarisai Ngangura, Cherita Sebree, May Teng, and Melisse Gelula.
DOPE JAMS 21ST ANNIVERSARY
My sincerest apologies for missing last week’s column. I took the day off to sit and meditate and cry a few tears of joy in the Ojas Sound Room at the Cooper Hewitt. I had filed a whole article on Son Rompe Pera at the Falcon but it turns out the date had passed by the print deadline. I was too blissed out to scramble and write something new. Sorry! Anyway, go down to the city and have a spiritual moment in front of this thing. It’s worth it.
This week we’re gonna take a little journey down to Brooklyn in 2005 and then up to far reaches of the Northern Catskills. This was a weird time! Brooklyn was still cool and kinda sketchy! I threw a rave in the Domino Sugar factory in 2005! Come on! Anyway neither EDM nor social media had really become a thing yet, and piracy was hitting its stride. Which is why it was absolutely bonkers when Paul Nickerson and Francis Engelhardt opened Dope Jams, a record store in a completely ungentrified corner of Bed Stuy. This was a spot for the heads. Whenever Amy tells people that I DJ she always has to say “no not that kind” and Dope Jams is sort of why.
This DJ mix from 2006 is comprised largely of records that I bought from that store. After a seven-year run, they gave up on Brooklyn and relocated up to Oak Hill in Greene County. They have a gorgeous storefront where Paul slings stuff from his 40,000-record collection. But behind the storefront is also…a club? A church? A campground? A cult compound? I don’t know what to call it but there is a barn with a WILD Soundsystem and a crazy light rig and basically all the vibes that you can no longer find in Brooklyn because tik tok etc. They’re opening the ravebarn on Saturday to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the shop. Expect Paul to lose his shit on the rotary mixer and maybe some special guests. Hope to see you there.
MAKE LOVE THIS WEEK
Schedule your swimming hole hooky day and put a “doctor’s appointment” on your calendar now.
Cheers,
Amy
A Maker and Lover