The Rogovoy Report 2.6.23

From around the corner to around the globe...

Feb 05, 2023

Is the Kafkaesque Now Just Completely Normal?

(The New European) by Will Self - Time was when people really did say quite a lot of things were Kafkaesque quite a lot of the time. Why? And more to the point: why have they stopped? Have any number of situations, scaled all the way up from the personal to the political, simply ceased to manifest that numinous – yet absolutely distinctive – quality we associate with Franz Kafka’s writings? Or is it, rather, that for all the accessibility of those writings – certainly as compared with those of his fellow modernists, Proust and Joyce – there’s no longer the critical mass of actual Kafka readers required to keep the ascription in circulation?

The GOP Attack on Ilhan Omar Trivializes Antisemitism

(New York) - One of the first things the Republican Party did upon gaining control of the House of Representatives was to restore committee privileges to Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose positions were stripped over a series of deranged and bigoted statements. One of its next moves was to impose the same punishment on Ilhan Omar over her past antisemitic statements. The absurdity and vindictiveness of the Omar decision is thrown into the starkest relief when you consider it in conjunction with the treatment of Greene, who most notoriously claimed the Rothschilds may have used a space laser to set forest fires in California in order to clear land they could sell for a rail project and likened COVID restrictions to the Holocaust. Republicans are sending a message that antisemitism is nothing more than a partisan attack line. Their censuring of Omar and elevation of Greene is an open door to antisemites on the right.

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Today’s Republican party has a serious antisemitism problem. The easy acceptance and amplification of all sorts of anti-Jewish hate that party leaders engage in emboldens all the worst bigots, raving racists, and far-right extremists across the globe, all the while threatening Jewish people here and everywhere. So it is more than a little rich that House Republicans voted on Thursday to remove Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee, where she’s served since 2019, because, they say, of her antisemitic views. (The Guardian)

Is Donald Trump losing his mojo? (New Yorker)

Donald Trump, the Institutional Arsonist, threatens to use his core skills—peddling conspiracy theories, spreading lies, sowing distrust—against the GOP (The Atlantic)

GOP national sales tax talk backfires, as Dems see political gold (Politico)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Violinist Brings New Concert Series to Sheffield

(RI) SHEFFIELD, Mass. - Born in Honduras, violinist Jorge Avila came to the United States to study at the Mannes College of Music in NYC. But it was his three summers at Tanglewood that initiated his love of the Berkshires. The area became a big part of his life; he grew close to people who had second homes in the Berkshires and visited them often, all the while becoming a sought-after violinist, performing, recording and serving as concertmaster in various orchestras. As artistic director, Avila, along with Trudy Weaver Miller, the producer, formed the Lich Gate Concert Series in Sheffield.

Jen Beagin (photo Franco Vogt/courtesy Scribner)

Hudson Author Jen Beagin Concocts Homegrown Social Satire

(Chronogram) by Seth Rogovoy, HUDSON, N.Y. - With Big Swiss, Hudson novelist Jen Beagin leaves behind Mona, the house-cleaning protagonist of her first two novels, in favor of Greta, a worthy and no less lovable successor to Mona. Whereas the latter snooped around her clients' homes and through their belongings, Greta does a different kind of snooping: She transcribes therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. This gives Greta direct access to the innermost thoughts and secrets of Om's patients and also provides Beagin with an innovative narrative device, wherein the reader is made privy to the transcripts of the sessions as Greta types them up. At her best, Beagin is an acute social satirist, and now that she has lived in Hudson for a good number of years, she nails the quirks of this community-in-transition with recognizable tropes, including "Hudson was overflowing with people who'd successfully reinvented themselves" and "Like most people in Hudson, they were better looking than average and dressed like boutique farmers." Read also LA Times review.

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True-crime events in Berkshires inspire Margery Metzger's debut book (ATU)

Denise Markonish named chief curator at MASS MoCA, a first (Berkshire Eagle)

At MASS MoCA, color is artist Amy Yoes' primary material (B Eagle)

Hudson’s own Meshell Ndegeocello to appear in upcoming annual jazz festival (Chronogram)

Newburgh sculptor Daniel Giordano's work on view at MASS MoCA and in Hudson (Chronogram)

Painter Cy Gavin’s move upstate inspires updated, modern take on the Hudson River School tradition (NYT)

Guest violinists Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, and Anne-Sophie Mutter to appear with BSO at Tanglewood this summer. Pop artists headed to Lenox include Steve Miller Band, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Train, and, of course, James Taylor (Boston Globe)

SPAC unveils New York City Ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra 2023 season (ATU)

The ageless exuberance of Michael Tilson Thomas (Alex Ross/New Yorker)

NYS grant offers choreographers something vital – time (ATU)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

Housatonic River (photo Bart Jones/courtesy Housatonic River Commission)

Housatonic River Receives ‘Wild & Scenic’ Designation

(Berkshire Edge) - The Housatonic River Commission has announced the federal designation of the Housatonic River as a Wild & Scenic River for the 41 miles of the Housatonic River from the Massachusetts border to the Boardman Bridge in New Milford, Conn. This 41-mile section of the Housatonic River is now a member of the National Park Service’s Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers Program, a federally funded consortium designed to protect and enhance exceptional rivers throughout the country. The Commission will also be entitled to receive federal funds to carry out its management plan for the Housatonic River, including the pressing need to improve and control public access to the river for recreation.

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COLLATERAL DAMAGE: With loss of warehouse space due to Shire City Herbals foreclosure, Berkshire Organics -- a kind of farmer’s market delivery service - to close this week (Berkshire Eagle)

Berkshire entrepreneur/restaurateur Ryan Salame maxed out donations to chronic liar and newly sworn-in Rep. 'George Santos' (SF Gate)

Town of Washington goes after owner of famed and beloved, long-shuttered and now-demolished Woody's Roadhouse for back fines. But why does the Berkshire Eagle describe Woody’s as ‘infamous’? (B Eagle)

Downtown Lenox mixed-use condo and retail development still seeks developer (B Eagle)

Housatonic water company customers seek immediate redress for unsafe, dirty water (Berkshire Edge)

Five citizen petitions — ranging in topics from Housatonic Water Works, adjustments to the short-term rental bylaw, and an addition to cell phone tower regulations — have been certified for this year's annual town meeting in Great Barrington (B Edge)

Man linked to shooting outside North Adams bar Key West faces new count of threatening prosecutor (B Eagle)

Berkshire Black Economic Council announces grant recipients (iBerkshires)

Bricks falling from North Adams mill causes sidewalk closure (iBerkshires)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Michael Boris: A Humble Atelier Packed Wall to Wall with Chic Couture

(RI) HUDSON, N.Y. - In an unassuming shop down at the river end of Hudson's Warren Street, couture fashion designer Michael Boris says he’s doing the best work of his celebrated career. But while his 40-plus-year career is celebrated madly by longtime clients — for creating designs that exude strength and grace for all women — he has remained mostly off the radar, proliferating and thriving in the industry without expending much-if-any energy on press or marketing. His garments are so good, it seems, these traditional avenues of self promotion just weren’t necessary. The Hudson store, for instance, has no website or internet presence at all.

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Hudson debates law restricting ‘formula’ businesses (GoR)

Columbia County newspaper bought by local media group (ATU)

Federal lawsuit filed on behalf of man who died after Catskill police Taser ignited him (ATU)

NYS Assembly redistricting would 'severely disadvantage Hudson' (GoR)

‘Ungovernable’: A teenaged Ella Fitzgerald’s year in Hudson girls reformatory (ATU)

Hudson public schools set up new 'academy' program to steer youth into business, local government, youth recreation, marketing, musical and theatrical arts, technology, and creative writing (GoR)

The Rogovoy Report