The Rogovoy Report 5.27.24

From around the corner to around the globe...

May 26, 2024

Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

(The Atlantic) by Gary Shteyngart - My first glimpse of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optic nerve to try again. The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots. Vibrant, oversignifying colors are stacked upon other such colors, decks perched over still more decks; the only comfort is a row of lifeboats ringing its perimeter. There is no imposed order, no cogent thought, and, for those who do not harbor a totalitarian sense of gigantomania, no visual mercy. This is the biggest cruise ship ever built, and I have been tasked with witnessing its inaugural voyage.

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The Secrets of Suspense: Understanding the most fundamental technique of storytelling can teach us something about being alive (New Yorker)

Busy doing nothing: Spiritual immobility in modern life (TLS))

Americans are drinking half the coffee they did in the 1940s (The Guardian)

FASCIST TAKEOVER WATCH:

Do you want a ‘Unified Reich’ mind-set in the White House? (NYT)

Trump’s fascist talk is what’s ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ (WaPo)

Every time Donald Trump has invoked Hitler and the Nazis (The Forward)

Two out of three in US worry political violence could follow a Trump v Biden election (The Guardian)

At least 66 members of far-right group in rural Oregon standing for office (The Guardian)

Berkshire International Film Festival: ‘It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This’

(Berkshire Edge) GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - The 18th annual Berkshire International Festival will start on Thursday, May 30, and run until Sunday, June 2. This year’s festival will include 70 films. Since its inception in 2006, the festival has brought filmmakers and their films from around the world and has honored members of the filmmaking industry. The festival also celebrates Berkshire County residents who are part of the international filmmaking community, including Dan Braun who grew up with his brother Josh in Stockbridge. Both co-founded the New York-based movie sales, production, and distribution company Submarine Entertainment. “Having the Berkshires represented in the world of filmmaking by the festival is important,” Dan Braun said. Film production manager Elizabeth Aspenlieder described the Berkshire International Film Festival as “a melting pot for some of the most talented artists in the world…. There is something for everyone at this festival,… It doesn’t get any better than this.”

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Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward, Ladysmith Black Mambazo headed to Mahaiwe (The Rogovoy Report)

Famed klezmer clarinetist Margot Leverett to perform free concert at Chatham Synagogue (The Rogovoy Report)

Disposable Future: ‘The Plastic Bag Store’ at MASS MoCA (Chronogram)

MASS MoCA’s Like Magic can cast a spell, depending how you approach it (ATU)

Opening night at reanimated Dream Away Lodge draws big crowd (B Edge)

Great Barrington Public Theater promises ‘season of family dysfunction’ (B Edge)

The Mount gears up for ‘liveliest summer yet’ (B Edge)

Arlo Guthrie’s historical artifacts on display in exhibit at Guthrie Center (B Edge)

Nina Chanel Abney's Lie Doggo at Jack Shainman Gallery’s The School: A monumental, bold celebration of complexities of certain blackness/whiteness realities that inform American profile (Chronogram)

Three-day comedy festival headed to Saugerties (Chronogram)

Arlene Shechet uses her outdoor voice with ‘Girl Group’ at Storm King (ATU)

Career-spanning concert pays tribute to composer-trumpeter Frank London (The Rogovoy Report)

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NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

Ticket resale sites often buy tickets to Tanglewood events in large quantities as soon as they go on sale by the BSO.

Think You’re Buying Tanglewood Concert Tickets from the BSO? Make Sure You Double Check.

(Boston Globe) LENOX, Mass. - In April, former New York Times reporter Joe Berger decided to order tickets to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s July 5 opening night at Tanglewood. Berger typed “Tanglewood tickets 2024″ into a Google search engine looking for the BSO official ticket sales website. The top website displayed by Google was labeled “Tanglewood Music Center Lenox/2024 Lenox Events & Tickets.” Berger clicked it open. Up popped a landing page saying “TicketsCenter” in big letters at the top, and below that, “Tanglewood Schedule” superimposed on a color photo of the Tanglewood music shed, which Berger, 79, a longtime classical music fan, easily recognized. Below the photo, the website listed more than 50 summer events at the music mecca in Lenox, with tickets available for specified prices. “I gave not a second thought to the possibility that this was not an official site,” Berger later said of the website. Within minutes, Berger rang up $822 on his credit card for four tickets. The price seemed a little high, which he attributed to the event being an opening night, he said. But the website wasn’t an official BSO site. It was a ticket resale lookalike called Tickets-center.com. Had he gone to the official BSO website, as he intended, Berger could have purchased four tickets in the same section and same row for $316. He had overpaid by $506, with that money going to a website he’s now convinced makes money by taking advantage of consumers, particularly older ones who may not be tech savvy. “What happened to Joe Berger happens hundreds, if not thousands, of times each summer,” said Amy Aldrich, BSO director of patron experience. “We get complaints like Joe Berger’s every single day.”

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Stockbridge voters approve spending on old town hall restoration, 25 mph speed limit for thickly settled areas (WAMC)

Williamstown voters approve Progress Pride flag display, charter revisions, cottage housing (WAMC)

Parties disagree on overhaul to North Adams pot ordinance (WAMC)

West Stockbridge Planning Board in limbo over The Foundry proposal to drop sound-monitoring requirements (B Edge)

Bushels of good news: Berkshire orchards off to ‘spectacular’ start in 2024 (Berkshire Eagle)

After seven years, the owners of Wigwam Western Summit are selling the business (B Eagle)

Carter White dies at 90 (Berkshire Edge)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Jared Widjeskog, host of "The Sugar Shack Jukebox," in the window of WGXC's new studio on Main Street in Catskill.

WGXC Community Radio Relocates Main Studio to Catskill

(Chronogram) CATSKILL, N.Y. - For WGXC (90.7 FM), radio is no longer a disembodied voice speaking to you from the ether, it’s a face in a window on Main Street. On May 1, WGXC, the radio station operated by the Acra-based transmission arts organization Wave Farm, relocated one of its two broadcasting stations from the basement of the First Presbyterian Church in Hudson to a storefront at 393 Main Street in Catskill. The new location, with its storefront studio, is much more visible to the public. One broadcasting booth is set up in the window, so listeners, whether they’re tuned in from their car or listening online, can put a face to a voice while cruising by, separated only by a pane of glass.

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Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson gets $5M to expand psychiatric unit (ATU)

Beer World plans to open cannabis store in Catskill (ATU)

Former Hudson mayor Rick Rector remembered as dedicated mayor, friend (HV360)

County's plans for strip mall in downtown Hudson provoke opposition (HV360)

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