The Rogovoy Report 4.3.23

From around the corner to around the globe...

Apr 03, 2023

Why Americans Care About Work So Much

(The Atlantic) - Here is a history of work in six words: from jobs to careers to callings. The decline of organized religion and social integration in the 20th century left many Americans bereft of any sense of spiritual progress. For some, work rose to fill the void. Many highly educated workers in the white-collar economy feel that their job cannot be “just a job” and that their career cannot be “just a career”: Their job must be their calling. I call this new religion “workism.” It is rooted in the belief that work can provide everything we have historically expected from organized religion: community, meaning, self-actualization.

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The Finnish secret to happiness? Knowing when you have enough. (NYT)

Why the animal kingdom is full of con artists, by Elizabeth Kolbert (New Yorker)

DEI Denial is the modern day lynching (Boston Globe)

Arlo Guthrie on Aging, Alice, And Why He’s Unretiring ... Sort Of

(Boston Globe) by Lauren Daley, WASHINGTON, Mass. - I happen to call Arlo Guthrie right after a snowstorm. The Berkshires “got hammered,” he reports. His car was stuck. A neighbor came to help. Now he’s warm inside his Washington home, just “crunching the last of my Triscuit.” “That didn’t used to bother me when I was 25 or 30. I’d be out there diggin’ and stuff like that. But at this age, that’s heart attack stuff — so I let her do it,” says Guthrie, 75. In the background, his wife, Marti Ladd Guthrie, bursts into laughter. A lot has changed for Guthrie in recent years. Aside from marrying Marti in 2021, Guthrie announced in 2020 that he was retiring. In conversation, he’s the same ol’ Guthrie fans are familiar with: talkative, quick, funny. He’s always had the ”gift of gab,” he says — as evidenced in his 18-minute Thanksgiving anthem, “Alice’s Restaurant.”

Laura Sumner’s ‘Red Clay Blue Sky’ Offers a Perfect Balance of Innocence and Experience

(Chronogram) by Seth Rogovoy - Like Shawn Colvin, Laura Sumner boasts a voice that turns on a dime from vulnerable to confident, a perfect balance of innocence and experience that the Hudson Valley-based folk rock singer-songwriter explores here in detail. Grammy Award-winning producer Marc Swersky bathes the effort in a lush soundscape of shimmering guitars and keyboards. As a five-song EP, Red Clay Blue Sky is a collection of small plates, leaving one looking forward to the delicious, full-course meal that awaits.

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Born into a cult, singer Mikel Jollett -- of The Airborne Toxic Event -- is reaching out to students about turning their own trauma into art. He will speak at Williams College on Tuesday night. (Boston Globe)

Folksinger Doug Mishkin traces his musical origins to summer camp in the Berkshires (RI)

Natalie Merchant’s lost American songs (New Yorker)

FOOD & DINING

Filli’s Spreads the Deli Love with Third Location

(RI) NEW LEBANON, N.Y. - Filli’s Deli and Jersey Baking is a throwback to a time and flavor that quickly resonated with locals and transplants when it opened on Main Street in Valatie in 2019. Filli’s quickly connected with the community — its straightforward, timeless recipes and deli service take one back to the delis of Long Island and NYC’s many 'burbs. Now, just a few years later, the family business, helmed by Damon Filli, is about to open its third location in New Lebanon.

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New Billsville doughnut shop seeks to sate cannabis-induced munchies (iBerkshires)

Historic Miss Adams Diner closes ... again (iBerkshires)

Amici co-owner says he hopes to reopen the West Stockbridge restaurant by the end of May (Berkshire Eagle)

Gould Farm’s Roadside Cafe demolished on Route 23 in Monterey; new cafe to open in early 2024 (B Eagle)

Starving Artist Cafe in Lee completes its renovation (B Eagle)

Dinosaur-themed snack bar opens in North Adams (B Eagle)

From the Met to the Royal Palace, Harney & Sons, a local tea, travels the globe (ATU)

Piaule Catskill is the best meal in the Hudson Valley (ATU)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

Laundromat owner Paula Kohler looks proud as she stands in front of the former Individual Laundromat building, which will soon reopen as the LaundryLand Laundromat on 11 School Street. (photo Shaw Israel Izikson)

A Cleaner, Brighter Future (For Clothes) in Great Barrington

(Berkshire Edge) GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - Back in February 2022, the last laundromat in town, Clean All Over Laundromat in the Big Y shopping plaza, closed its doors. This left the town without a laundromat for the first time in decades. After the laundromat’s closure, Sandisfield resident Paula Kohler started her search to open a new laundromat in town. After a very extensive and exhaustive search, Kohler found the former location of Individual Laundry at 11 School Street as a suitable location for a new laundromat. Kohler is working towards opening LaundryLand by the end of May.

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Public records reveal domestic drama ahead of suspension, departure of North Adams police chief (WAMC)

Vallieres to step down as North Adams city clerk after less than a year (WAMC)

‘I could die here, because it happens to people’: a Pittsfield high schooler describes the terror of shooting hoax (WAMC)

Simon’s Rock launches new degree program designed to elevate LGBTQIA+ students into leadership roles (Berkshire Eagle)

Berkshire Roots employees are negotiating their first contract as a unionized workforce — and the cannabis industry is paying attention (B Eagle)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Bliss Towers public housing complex in Hudson, N.Y. The city is looking to build new public housing, demolish Bliss Towers, and build additional housing in its footprint. (photo Will Waldron/Times Union)

Hudson to Choose Developer To Reimagine Public Housing

(ATU) HUDSON, N.Y. - The Hudson Housing Authority will announce which developer has been selected to completely rebuild the city's public housing portfolio during a meeting April 17. Rental prices have accelerated in the city of 5,900 since the pandemic, leaving public housing one of the only affordable options. But the two HHA buildings — Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments, with a combined 131 units — are in disrepair. The city wants to construct new apartments, move HHA tenants into them, then demolish the old apartments and construct additional, mixed-income units on the land.

The Rogovoy Report