Above: Video of Richie Havens performing "Freedom" at Woodstock in 1969.
Folk legend Richie Havens, who was the opening act at the 1969 Woodstock festival, died on Monday of a heart attack in his home in Jersey City. He was 72.
Havens and two members of his band were pressed into urgent service as other musicians -- including the planned opening act, the folk-rock band Sweetwater -- fought traffic on the roads leading to Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Woodstock, New York. Read more
Seeds of change, sprouting at last. Photo taken in a Catskills garden on April 17 by Julia Reischel.
The official Earth Day, April 22, falls on a Monday this year. Celebrations and events around the region are taking place this weekend, next weekend, and in between. (Properly so: Isn't every day supposed to be Earth Day?)
Here's the Watershed Post's guide to the goings-on.
DELAWARE COUNTY
The little town of Andes is celebrating Earth Day in true no-nonsense Catskills style -- by getting to work. On Saturday, April 20, citizens will convene at 9am at Hogan's for the annual Andes litter pickup. Bring gloves, boots and any trash-grabbing "reacher" tools you may have at hand, and feel free to email annroberti@yahoo.com for more information. Read more
Trouble, billiards and romance come to Boiceville tonight as Onteora Middle and High School students put on "The Music Man" as their spring musical. Above, Onteora seniors Zoe Patschke (as Marian the Librarian) and Seth Owitz (as Professor Harold Hill) discuss the plague of immorality threatening River City. Photo via Maxanne Resnick.
The Music Man, Onteora Middle/High School’s Harry Simon Auditorium, 4166 State Route 28, Boiceville. Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 18, 19 & 20 at 7:30pm; Sunday matinee April 21 at 2pm. $12 adults; $8 students and seniors. More info on Facebook.
Press release:
Meredith Wilson’s THE MUSIC MAN Onteora Middle/high school spring musical Read more
Above: Filmmaker Dennis O'Clair offers a sneak peek at what's in store at the fourth annual Woodstock Writers Festival.
The fourth annual Woodstock Writers Festival takes as its mission “bringing the hottest names in literature to the coolest town in the world" -- and just as when a warm and cold front collide on high, expect sonic booms and pyrotechnics.
Martha Frankel, the festival's executive director, says Woodstock is the perfect scene for all these literary goings-on.
“There’s the laid-back thing,” Frankel said. “And Woodstock is very small -- there’s no getting away from things. If you want to come and meet writers you’ll meet them; there’s nowhere for them to hide…Planning this is like playing with a chemistry set; sometimes things ignite and you never know what will happen."
There's a matchmaking element to the festival, too. Read more
Storytelling and good food have gone together since time immemorial. This Sunday evening, the Peekamoose Restaurant in Big Indian celebrates both, with “Talking With Our Mouths Full: An Evening of Stories about Food."
Sunday's adventure in locavore lore will feature Catskills writers Carrie Bradley Neves, Tony Fletcher, JD Louis, Jennifer Kabat, Jessie Koester, Bethany Saltman, Eric Steinman, and Kitty Sheehan, each of whom will get 8 minutes to wax lyrical about their relationship with food. Admission is free, though we suggest you pony up $10 for wine and snacks -- which, knowing the Peekamoose's reputation for lovingly crafted and locally-sourced food, are sure to be savory. Read more
Above: The Catskill mountains still waking up to spring, seen from a high perch atop Sam's Point in Ellenville. Photo taken April 7, 2013 by Ethan Myers; shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr pool.
Spring is taking its sweet time getting to the Catskills this year. The raw March weather might be taking its toll on fingers and toes, but it's also doing a fine job of preserving the cathedral-like ice formations on Kaaterskill Falls, as photographer James McCracken found when he hiked the falls with Marshall Rudd on Thursday.
After a grueling hike, we took a much needed rest at the summit of Slide. Two feet of hard packed snow with about 4 inches of fresh snow. It was snowing that day but we were above the storm and when we got back to the car it had snowed about 4 to 6 inches.
