A John Lennon scarecrow, above, stands watch over Bovina Farm Day on Sunday, Sept. 6, one of the contestants in the festival's scarecrow contest. The Lennon scarecrow didn't win--that honor went to "Edgar Allen Crow," by Marni Greenberg, below. Photos by Julia Reischel.
Above: Helene Angley, the winner of "New Faces of Comedy" Contest at this year's Woodstock Comedy Festival, will perform on Friday, Sept. 18 at the Kleinert-James Theatre in Woodstock. Photo via heleneangley.com.
The weekend of Sept. 18 through 20, the third annual Woodstock Comedy Festival brings big talent and laughs to Ulster County. Friday night’s Laughingstock! at the Kleinert-James Theatre will feature eight standup comics, including Helene Angley, the winner of the festival’s first-ever New Faces of Comedy contest. Saturday will honor the all-time greats in the afternoon, with insider-driven panel discussions about Joan Rivers, George Carlin and a look at the life of a stand-up comic.
Saturday night brings this year’s headliner, the Grammy, Tony and Emmy-nominated comedian and actor Robert Klein, to the Bearsville Theatre stage. And on Sunday, Upstate Films will present the documentary “Just About Famous,” followed by a batch of comic short films, including the award winner of the festival’s first film competition.
The Walton Reporter has on-the-scene reporting from the Delaware County town of Colchester, where a tractor trailer apparently smashed into a home around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The driver of the truck has been injured, the paper reports:
A medical emergency helicopter was on the scene to transport the driver of the truck to a trauma center. Residents, Paul Siegel and family, inside the home located at 3691 Fuller Hill Road, were not injured in the crash.
The garage, attached to the residence, was torn away from the home in the collision. The collision also forced the vehicles stored inside the garage through the structure and onto the lawn.
Nearly 80 people gathered on a hillside in the Delaware County town of Franklin on Saturday, Sept. 12 to protest proposed natural gas pipelines and a planned gas compressor station. The site was chosen because it overlooks a field which is on the planned route of the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline.
The Constitution Pipeline received federal approval last year and is now awaiting permits from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The NED pipeline unveiled its plans to build a similar pipeline along a similar route last year, and would require the construction of multiple compressor stations in the Catskills.
On Saturday, protestors wore surgical masks, held signs and waved puppets as several speakers took to the microphone during an hour-long event that began and ended with Franklin resident Jason Starr singing an original folk song, “Up on Hebbard's Farm.”
We're gearing up to publish the next edition of the Catskills Food Guide, our annual print publication devoted to local food, farms and dining in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster counties.
A few things to look forward to in the 2016 Catskills Food Guide:
The Catskills Food Guide is published in early January, and is distributed throughout the year at local restaurants, farms and businesses around the Catskills and a few select locations in the New York City metro area.
Above: Bovina-based Esquela wins first prize at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Photo by Wendy Buerge, via Esquela's Facebook page.
Esquela, a rock band based in the Delaware County town of Bovina, took home a national title on Saturday: the best company band in the world.
The band won The PlayOff 2015, a battle-of-the-bands contest sponsored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Inc. Media that pitted company bands from around the country against each other.
Half of Esquela's members work at Indiepay, a payroll processor for arts companies that has an office in Delhi. Band founder and bassist John Finn is Indiepay's CEO.
Above: Photo via the Woodstock Riding Club's Facebook page.
Founded in 1947, the Woodstock Riding Club has been running horse shows for generations of Ulster County kids on its property at the base of Ohayo Mountain. Over the decades, membership in the club has waxed and waned, and right now the organization is recruiting new members.
"It goes in waves," said Jane Booth, the club's treasurer, who has been a member for 25 years. "You get a bunch of kids and they ride, and then you watch them grow up. My son is 17. He started out as a lead liner at three years old, and now next year he’s going off to college."
To keep the club running, "we need to get more people," Booth said. "If the area loses that, the riding club, there’s really no other venue locally that can fill its spot."
The club aims to be the place where a kid first learns to ride a horse--it's not just for experts, Booth said.
At the Big Eddy Film Festival in Narrowsburg next weekend, filmmakers Caroline Laskow and Ian Rosenberg will attend the Catskills premiere of "Welcome to Kutsher's," their documentary about the legendary Borscht Belt resort that inspired the film "Dirty Dancing."
"Welcome to Kutsher's" takes a close look at the last chapter of the 100-year history of Kutsher's Country Club, which was sold and demolished in 2014 to make way for an Ayurvedic wellness center.
The film reminisces about the resort's role as a mainstray of American Jewish culture for an entire generation, and explores how Kutsher's influenced the development of comedy, professional basketball and vacationing.
From the documentary's promo materials:
Image via the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society's website.
If you've always wanted an excuse to dress your dog in a grass skirt, tomorrow you'll have your chance at the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society's "Bow Wow Luau," a combination fundraiser, pet costume contest and dog-and-cat-adoption festival in Delhi.
Dogs and owners are encouraged to dress in their "brightest colorful tropical island shirt or grass skirt," and prizes will be awarded for best costumes. There will be an obstacle course, a limbo contest, an "island fusion dance performance," face painting, a grooming demonstration, a "hula hoop dog maze" and a "coconut bowling fetch" contest. HCHS staff will do their best to introduce you to a dog or cat you'll fall in love with and bring home with you.
There were lots of close political contests across the Catskills in yesterday's primary election. Here are the results in the hottest races.
DELAWARE COUNTY
In the race for Delaware County Family Court Judge, Conservative voters overwhelmingly chose Porter Kirkwood over Gary Rosa 68 to 30, but Independence voters preferred Gary Rosa to Porter Kirkwood 94 to 70. Heated accusations have been flying between the candidates about ethics violations this past week, as we reported yesterday.
In Harpersfield, Jim Eisel, the long-serving chairman of the Delaware County Board of Supervisors, won his first-ever primary with 89 Republican votes. That was 23 more votes than Ed “Rusty” Pick, who got 66. Pick also has the Democratic party’s endorsement.
