The Rogovoy Report 7.3.23
From around the corner to around the globe...
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REQUIRED READING
The Death Cult of the American Car
(The American Prospect) - There are too many cars and trucks that are too heavy and tall, driving too fast on streets that are too wide, with too many points of conflict. Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians are maimed and slaughtered at rates that would count as a hair-on-fire emergency in any other rich country. Yet instead of doing anything about that, the government, half paralyzed by bureaucratic inertia and half comically in bed with the various vehicle industries, twiddles its thumbs. Read more: U.S. pedestrian deaths are at highest level in 41 years (NYT)
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How Plastics Are Poisoning Us: Without plastic we’d have no modern medicine or gadgets or wire insulation to keep our homes from burning down. But with plastic we’ve contaminated every corner of Earth. by Elizabeth Kolbert (New Yorker)
RFK Jr.’s Inside Job: How a conspiracy-spewing literal Kennedy posing as a populist outsider jolted the Democratic Party (New York)
THE ROGOVOY REPORT
The Secret Jewish History of ‘American Graffiti’
(Forward) by Seth Rogovoy - The first image viewers see when watching American Graffiti, the quintessential movie about late-1950s/early 1960s automotive and rock ‘n’ roll culture that is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Aug. 11, 2023, is a shot of Mels Drive-In. By the time the movie takes place, in summer 1962, Mels was a real-life chain of drive-ins spread across Northern California. The original Mels opened in San Francisco in 1947, founded by two Jewish businessmen, Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs. The first song you hear in American Graffiti is “Rock Around the Clock,” recapitulating its essential role in the 1955 movie, Blackboard Jungle, one of the very first films to portray the emerging teenage “culture” fueled by early rock ‘n’ roll. The song was written by two Philadelphia-born Jewish songwriters named Max C. Freedman and James Myers.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Mark Morris Dance Group Opens Jacob’s Pillow With Buoyant Burt Bacharach-Inspired Program ‘The Look of Love’
(Boston Globe) BECKET, Mass. - Jacob’s Pillow opened its 91st season on Wednesday night with the Mark Morris Dance Group, the company that has appeared on the Ted Shawn stage more than any other in the festival’s history. For his troupe’s first performances at the venerable summer festival since 2019, Morris presented his newest work, “The Look of Love,” to a score of 13-plus songs from the Burt Bacharach-Hal David songbook of the 1960s and 1970s, arranged by Ethan Iverson. The 10 dancers were accompanied by seven musicians in the pit, led by the glorious heartbreaker of a vocalist, Marcy Harriel, who probed the emotional sense of the lyrics, in contrast to the mostly unsentimental but engaging choreography.
Women Rule the Landscape – Then and Now – in Cole Exhibits
(ATU) CATSKILL, N.Y. - The problem begins if you think women don’t usually paint landscapes. OK, you admit, they do now — women do everything now — but what about in the 1800s? “Women Reframe American Landscape” at the Thomas Cole House gives proof that women did everything then, too. And women are growing our understanding of the landscape into the 21st century.
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Tanglewood’s ‘Symphonic Ragtime’ on July 8 marks a homecoming for director Jason Danieley (Berkshire Eagle)
LuluFest Lenox to feature female jazz musicians, composers and bandleaders in mid-July (RI)
Singer-songwriter Vance Gilbert, headed to the Guthrie Center on July 8, has toured the country with some of folk’s finest, including Arlo Guthrie (B Eagle)
Poet Leslie Harrison, former Berkshire Eagle photographer, sees publication of 'Reck,' her third book (B Eagle)
For Emerson String Quartet, a memorable swan song and triumphant farewell at Tanglewood (B Eagle)
Berkshire Jazz Showcase on July 8 features homegrown talent (B Eagle)
TSL in Hudson marks 50 years of music, art and service (HV360)
Glimmerglass heads into season with new director (ATU)
NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES
Berkshire Health Systems Says North Adams Hospital Will Reopen a Decade After Closure and See Patients in 2024
(WAMC) by Josh Landes, NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Almost a decade after the sudden closure of the hospital in North Adams, Berkshire Health Systems says it will reopen the facility in early 2024. North Adams Regional Hospital will no longer be a satellite of Berkshire Medical Center, but will be its own organization -- albeit limited to 25 beds — far fewer than the almost 300 at BMC.
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PCB-transport trucks proposed for route down Lee’s Main Street (Berkshire Edge)
Town of Lee drops lawsuit against Monsanto (B Edge)
Filtration system money for Housatonic residents is a ‘Band-Aid’ fix that might not be enough to filter brown water (Berkshire Eagle)
GB selectboard pushes decision on HWW customer aid to July 10 meeting (B Edge)
’Save the Triplex’ group raised $225K from sale of Gregory Crewdson prints. Plans are now moving forward for August reopening. (B Eagle)
One year after child drowned when a lifeguard should have been on duty, Pittsfield forgoes lifeguards at Onota Lake this summer (B Eagle)
Dottie’s nearing final permits for expansion into former Mission Bar and Tapas to create a new nightspot, Dorothy’s (iBerkshires)
As of July 1st, undocumented immigrants can apply for a Mass driver's license (WAMC)
A beaver dam that broke in Pittsfield State Forest flooded downtown New Lebanon, N.Y. (ATU)
Berkshires should see some sun through holiday — and maybe a bit more rain (B Eagle)
NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY
Kinderhook Is Buzzing
(WAMC) by Ralph Gardner Jr., KINDERHOOK, N.Y. - In the last year or two, Kinderhook has developed something that resembles buzz. The centerpiece of that renaissance is a recently completed collection of shops and restaurants collectively known as The Knitting Mill. Located on the site of a late 19th and early 20th century knitwear factory, its success may be due to the fact that it wasn’t conceived by a developer but by friends artist Darren Waterston and Lower East Side restaurateur Yen Ngo. Started as a pandemic fever dream the result is the Aviary, a superb Southeast Asian restaurant run by Brooklyn chef Hannah Wong that anchors the complex. The inventive menu’s winning streak extends to the contiguous Morningbird Café where the spicy Thai lemongrass sausage breakfast sandwich is worth a detour. 2 Note Hudson, a small batch bath and beauty care company, next door is where my children spend their allowances, or rather their salaries, these days. And just up the street is the Jack Shainman gallery, The School, presenting ambitious, large-scale exhibitions in what used to be Kinderhook’s high school.
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Gov. Hochul calls smoky, unhealthy air ‘new normal’ (ATU)
Forecasters predict smoky summer (HV360)
Change to Hudson city truck route proposed (HV360)
Visitors warned about peregrine falcon nesting at Rip Van Winkle Bridge between Hudson and Catskill, N.Y. (ATU)
A beaver dam that broke in Pittsfield State Forest flooded downtown New Lebanon, N.Y. (ATU)
Former Hudson resident Windle Davis, innkeeper and member of New Wave group Human Sexual Response, passes away (GoR)
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Roll Call: Founding Members
Anne Fredericks
Anonymous (5)
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Benno Friedman
Richard Koplin
Steve and Helice Picheny
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Elisa Spungen and Rob Bildner/Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook
Julie Abraham Stone
Mary Herr Tally