The Rogovoy Report 1.22.24

From around the corner to around the globe...

Jan 21, 2024

What Happens When a Berkshire School Bans Smartphones? A Complete Transformation

(The Guardian) WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - When the weather is nice, the Buxton boarding school moves lunch outside. Students, faculty and guests grab their food from the kitchen, and eat together under a white tent that overlooks western Massachusetts’ Berkshire mountains. As the close of the school year neared last June, talk turned to final assignments (the English class was finishing Moby-Dick) and end-of-year fun (there was a trip planned to a local lake). It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon – except that no one was on their phones. Buxton was wrapping up the first year of a simple yet novel experiment: banning cellphones on campus. Or, rather, smartphones. Most everyone agrees that the school is better off without these hell devices. (And yes, that includes students.) There are fewer interruptions during class, more meaningful interactions around campus, and less time spent on screens.

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What Holocaust Remembrance Forgets: Popular accounts of the Holocaust overlook its irrationality and often disordered violence (TNR)

How to spot a frenemy — and be a real friend (The Atlantic)

Portrait of the artist as an office drone (New Yorker)

FASCISM WATCH:

Fears grow that a President Trump would use military as his personal militia (NBC News)

The cult of Trump, by Lucian Truscott IV (LTN)

The ruin that a Trump presidency would mean (The Atlantic)

What is the history of Fascism in the United States? (The Nation)

Trump plays ‘I’m rubber, you’re glue’ game with Biden (The Guardian)

How the coalition that defeated Donald Trump crumbled, by Jonathan Chait (New York)

Protests sweep Germany after exposé of far-right party’s deportation ‘masterplan’ (The Guardian)

Far-right figures try to create Christian nationalist ‘haven’ in Kentucky (The Guardian)

The Triplex’s Sam Handel turns over the keys to restaurateur Josh Irwin (courtesy Triplex)

Restaurateur Josh Irwin to Open ‘Fast Casual’ Restaurant, Juju’s, in Space Adjoining Triplex

(The Rogovoy Report) GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Berkshire restaurateur Josh Irwin (Cantina 229, MoonCloud) will open a “fast casual” food establishment in a space adjacent to the Triplex Cinema. Plans call for a 550-square-foot space, accessible from both the interior of the Triplex and the exterior on the Triplex patio via a takeout window. Juju’s will open in May to kick off the summer season. The Triplex patio will be open for outdoor eating in the warmer weather.

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Mezze Bistro offering a culinary passport to Italy (RI)

Tunnel City Coffee is on the market for $995K (Berkshire Eagle)

Pittsfield native Elizabeth Banks visits Hot Dog Ranch (Live959)

Mel the Bakery moves upstate to Hudson (ATU)

Willa brings hyperseasonal farm-to-table dining to Millerton’s Main Street (Chronogram)

Misto, fan-favorite pop-up and caterer, opens café in Red Hook, N.Y. (RI)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

James Taylor sings with his All-Star Band at sold-out Tanglewood performance on July 3, 2023 (photo Hilary Scott/courtesy BSO)

James Taylor to Mark 50 Years at Tanglewood with Fourth of July Weekend Concerts

(The Rogovoy Report) LENOX, Mass. - James Taylor returns to Tanglewood with his All-Star Band for performances on Wednesday, July 3, and Thursday, July 4, 2024, at 8pm, in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. This summer marks 50 years since Taylor first performed at Tanglewood on July 30, 1974. The two dates scheduled this July will bring the total number of Taylor’s appearances on the Shed stage to 51, making him one of the most frequent Tanglewood guest performers of all time. Tickets for James Taylor at Tanglewood go on sale January 29 at 10am at 888-266-1200 or online via the Tanglewood website.

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A Dutch artist collective sourced 600 discarded taillights ahead of their MASS MoCA residency. They’ll be used to create a symphony of light (Berkshire Eagle)

A preview of art exhibitions opening at Berkshires museums this spring and summer (B Eagle)

The Clark’s research center marks 50 years by opening vaults for exhibit (ATU)

Adams native Nathan Johnson’s newest play is set in the Berkshires (B Eagle)

Art Omi to break ground on $60M network of pavilions and visitor center in spring (HV360)

Filmmaker Bonds features Columbia County in new movie (HV360)

In narrowly focusing on Leonard Bernstein’s tortured personal life, Maestro fails to explore his tortured artistic life (NYRB)

The genius of The Bear lies in its sense of synchronicity (New Statesman)

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Big Towel Spa’s two mobile sauna's are parked at Hudson’s public Oakdale beach for the winter season, from October 2023 to March 2024 (photo Cassie Cummins/courtesy Chronogram)

Big Towel Spa at Oakdale Beach: Hudson’s Mobile Sauna

(Chronogram) HUDSON, N.Y. - In the heart of Hudson, a novel wellness experience is gaining steam among locals. With its two wood-fired, mobile saunas sitting atop six-foot by 12-foot utility trailers, Big Towel Spa breaks the classic American spa mold, offering a distinct, accessible sauna experience that people in Hudson are obsessed with. Currently stationed at Hudson’s recreational lakefront, Oakdale Beach, for the fall and winter season, Big Towel Spa aims to make the sauna experience widely adapted and accessible to all. As their fires warm the frigid winter air, the community comes together to embrace an ancient approach to well-being.

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

For Karen Allen, Acting and Knitting Go Together Like a Hand in Glove

(Berkshire Eagle) GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - After navigating college life in “Animal House,” or assisting to locate the lost Ark of the Covenant with Indiana Jones on the big screen, actress Karen Allen has been working on a new craft: knitting. Allen opened Karen Allen Fiber Arts in 2004, a knitting studio in Great Barrington which sells clothing and textiles. Al Roker, the TODAY show’s weather anchor and co-host of TODAY’s 3rd Hour show stopped by the Berkshire shop to learn more about her business and how her two careers overlapped. While being in movies, theater or in the shop as a textile business owner and creator may seem like careers that are worlds apart, Allen said, “They’re all things that I have a true and deep fascination for. Somehow those three things seem to create a full meal; a full way of navigating my way through life.”

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North Adams, Mass. and Hudson, N.Y. named to ‘Most Charming Small Town in Every U.S. State’ list (Afar)

Lee builds on status as gateway to the Berkshires (BusinessWest)

Lee Select Board moves to slash number of local manufacturing, cultivation cannabis facilities (Berkshire Edge)

GB Finance Committee funds study evaluating potential acquisition of beleaguered Housatonic Water Works (B Edge)

Stockbridge Select Board moves forward with forming joint Mohican Commission to further acknowledgement of indigenous population (B Edge)

State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli slams governor for ignoring Southern Berkshire; supportive of police searching school for book based on anonymous complaint (WAMC)

Seniors in a low-income housing complex in Great Barrington who have been using space heaters say they are ‘freezing’ (B Eagle)

Adams hires former Pittsfield Police Chief Wynn as director of Greylock Glen Outdoor Center (iBerkshires)

Ny Whitaker named director of Du Bois Freedom Center in Great Barrington (Rogovoy Report)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Stills from “Volks-Deutsche Jungen in U.S.A.” (“German Youth in the U.S.A.”). The 25-minute film is the only existing documentation of Camp Highland, a Nazi summer camp for children in Windham operated by the German American Bund. (National Archives)

When the Nazis Came to the Catskills

(ATU) WINDHAM, N.Y. — It’s a clear day in 1937, and a group of young boys are exercising, swimming and wrestling at what seems to be a typical summer camp in the Catskill Mountains. When it’s time for the flag roll call, the boys’ playful demeanor turns militaristic. The stars and stripes are raised, but waving in the wind next to it are two other flags: one with a swastika and another with a lightning bolt, the emblem of the Hitler Youth. These scenes are immortalized in the film “Volks-Deutsche Jungen in U.S.A.” (“German Youth in the U.S.A.”), now held in the National Archives. They depict Camp Highland, a Nazi summer camp for children in Windham operated by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization that was active in the 1930s and sought to build an Aryan movement in the U.S. These scenes are immortalized in the film “Volks-Deutsche Jungen in U.S.A.” (“German Youth in the U.S.A.”), now held in the National Archives. They depict Camp Highland, a Nazi summer camp for children in Windham operated by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization that was active in the 1930s and sought to build an Aryan movement in the U.S.

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Not much has changed since then: Far-right extremism is thriving in rural areas. Here's what it looks like in Upstate New York (NCPR); White supremacist flyer found in Catskill (HV360)

Hudson, N.Y., and North Adams, Mass., named to ‘Most Charming Small Town in Every U.S. State’ list (Afar)

Documentary ‘Hudson, America’ to have local premiere (HV360)

On the market: A Rhinebeck artist compound and a roomy Hudson cottage (Curbed)

Regional GOPers excited about possibility of ‘Vice President Stefanik’ (WAMC)

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