| Watershed Post

Roadside Attraction: A performance-art postcard from the '70s comes to Prattsville

Scene from "Roadside Attraction." Image courtesy of Third Rail Projects.

Flattened by Hurricane Irene’s floodwaters, feisty little Prattsville is coming back strong -- and even emerging as a hotspot for avant-garde art, thanks to the Prattsville Art Center, a brand-new nonprofit that recently got a major boost from the national nonprofit ArtPlace. This Sunday night, arts mavens and curious onlookers will assemble on Prattsville's green for what may be the first dance-theatre performance here in a century.

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Third Rail Projects

NewsShed: Last day of the heat wave

Above: Wolf Lake in Sullivan County, looking pretty spectacular in this recent photo by John of Catskills Photography. If you've got one of these handy, you may want to get in it today.

Thank God it's Friday, Catskills. The weekend is almost upon us -- and so are some thunderstorms, slated to roll into the region on Saturday along with plenty of rain and possibly some hail. After a week of oppressively muggy heat, we'll gladly take frogs and locusts if they promise to cool things down a little.

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This weekend: Rosendale Street Festival

It’s the 35th Street Festival weekend in the Festival Town, and sweet, funky little Rosendale will be turned on, tuned in and turned inside out on Saturday and Sunday. This year’s count is, in Street Fest parlance: One street, two days, five stages and 74 bands. Impressive as those numbers may be, they don’t begin to tell the story of the massive volunteer effort that turns Main Street to an Ulster County Mardi Gras, or the night-before-Christmas-in July excitement that’s rippling through town right now.

The Festival begins Saturday and ends Sunday dancing down the street with two parades, led off by the Rosendale Community Improvement Association Brass Band. Dozens of vendors from near and far line the pavement. Craft stations at various stages will aid kids of all ages in creating banners, jewelry, and instruments, keeping them happily busy while their adults boogie down. Get your rhythm on at the ongoing Community Drum Circle and take a break in the air-conditioned Rosendale Theatre, where they’ll be serving up the Reel Expressions Youth Film Festival on both afternoons.

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Rosendale Street Festival

This weekend: Hudson Rising sails into Kingston

Above: The Clearwater, a 106-foot sloop dedicated to environmental education on her native Hudson River. Come get up close and personal with her this Saturday at Hudson Rising, on the Kingston waterfront.

This summer, four Hudson River cities are playing host to Hudson Rising, a traveling celebration of tall ships, local food and culture, and the bright green future of the waterfront. This weekend, it's Kingston's turn: The historic waterfront district will be aswirl and aglow with a multifaceted celebration of the mighty Hudson, and the people that have grown up around her.

NewsShed: Grandpa Woodstock meets the TSA

Above: Image from a Fox13 newscast that aired Wednesday in Salt Lake City, where Grandpa and Grandma Woodstock -- two legendary characters from our own Woodstock, NY -- were stranded in an airport for a few hours, along with their dog Hector. The problem? Grandma Woodstock had no ID. "She forgot where she put it, probably 10 years ago," Grandpa told a Fox13 reporter.

Peace, Catskills. (It's too hot for anything else.)

The heat wave continues, with temperatures hovering in the 90s in most of the Catskills, and tomorrow may be even hotter. Look for a break in the weather by Friday night or Saturday -- but that break may involve heavy storms and possibly hail. Keep an eye on the weather.

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Deposit comes alive for the annual Lumberjack Festival

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines: A good old-fashioned sack race at the 2011 Deposit Lumberjack Festival.

The village of Deposit, normally an entirely peaceable and decorous little place on the West Branch of the Delaware, got its name because the pine logs harvested to the west were deposited on the shores just at that spot, later to be made into large rafts for their journey downriver. Hence, lumberjacking has a long and honorable history in these parts.

Since 1976, when Deposit collectively decided to have the best bicentennial party ever, that heritage has been celebrated with the annual Lumberjack Fest, which has grown from three days to four. Today -- Thursday -- is Family Day, with an afternoon full of games and entertainment for the younger set, a carnival, and several performances of Sylvia and the Magic Trunk.

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Deposit Lumberjack Festival

Study finds deadly strain of encephalitis in Hudson Valley ticks

Above: The black-legged or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis. Photo by Scott Bauer of the USDA; published under Creative Commons license. Source: InsectImages.org.

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Catskills Irish Arts Week brings the old country to Greene County

Photo from Catskills Irish Arts Week's Facebook page.

The Catskills have been a favorite haunt and cultural crucible for wandering Irish folk for well over a hundred years. The Michael J. Quill Center -- christened for the indomitable Mike Quill, who took on the British occupiers back home in his youth and led New York City transit workers out on strike in the 1960s -- has been giving this freethinking centuries-old style of bliss a home in East Durham since 1987. This week, you’re invited to join in the joy, as the Catskill Irish Arts Festival draws world-class talent together for a week of teaching, learning and lots and lots of music.

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Catskills Irish Arts Week

NewsShed: Ducks, schmucks, and strokes of luck

Above: A female common merganser, photographed recently in Hortonville by John of Catskills Photography and shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.

Still no word from the state Department of Environmental Conservation on why they raided William Hrazanek's junkyards in Fleischmanns and Arkville last week -- but it might have something to do with a nasty chemical spill discovered on another property he owns in Mount Tremper. Stay tuned.

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Mount Tremper chemical spill linked to Fleischmanns junkyard operator

Above: Piles of earth surrounded by hay bales and covered with tarps dot William Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property in Shandaken on July 11. They are part of the remediation of a chemical spill on his property. Photo by Julia Reischel.

A large chemical spill was discovered last month on land in the town of Shandaken owned by Catskills junkyard operator William Hrazanek. The spill occurred near a tributary of the Esopus Creek.

In an incident that appears to be related, several of Hrazanek's junkyards in Fleischmanns, across the county line in Delaware County, were raided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on July 9.

Despite Freedom of Information Law requests by the Watershed Post, neither the DEC nor the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have released any information about the chemical spill, nor have they indicated whether nearby wells or the Esopus Creek were contaminated.

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