The Rogovoy Report 8.26.24

From around the corner to around the globe...

Aug 25, 2024

Should We Think of Our Children as Strangers?

(New Yorker) - The fact that children are their own people can come as a surprise to parents. This is partly because young kids are so hopelessly dependent, but it also reflects how we think about parenthood. Before we have children, we often ask ourselves if we want them; we mull whether having them will make us happier or more mature, or bring meaning to our lives, or in some sense fulfill our destinies. We talk as though having children is mainly “a matter of inclination, of personal desire, of appetite,” the philosopher Mara van der Lugt writes, in “Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?” She sees this as totally backward. Like Dr. Frankenstein, we are neglecting the monster’s point of view. What will our possible children think of their existence? Will they be glad they’ve been born, or curse us for ushering them into being? Having children, van der Lugt argues, might be best seen as “a cosmic intervention, something great, and wondrous—and terrible.” We are deciding “that life is worth living on behalf of a person who cannot be consulted,” and we “must be prepared, at any point, to be held accountable for their creation.”

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My Auschwitz Vacation: On Holocaust tourism (Harper’s)

Holocaust Museums at a Crossroads: Their narratives have long been built around the stories of survivors. But with that generation dying off they need new ways to keep their testimony vital, by Edward Rothstein (WSJ)

The trouble with friends (New Yorker)

Apple Intelligence is coming. Here’s what it means for your iPhone (The Observer)

FASCIST TAKEOVER WATCH:

Trump launches antisemitic attack on Josh Shapiro over DNC speech (TNR)

Trump has Chernobyl-level meltdown over Harris’s Democratic National Convention triumph (Vanity Fair)

Trump goes on bonkers five-minute rant over a simple question (TNR)

RFK Jr. was my drug dealer (The Atlantic)

The story that JD Vance's “Hillbilly Elegy” doesn’t tell (New Yorker)

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Dance Theatre of Harlem Exhilarating at Jacob’s Pillow

(ATU) by Tresca Weinstein, BECKET, Mass. - Occasionally, two things that don’t make sense together on paper can create something transcendent when they merge in real life. It’s an alchemy of sorts, a chemical reaction between two conflicting, yet meant-to-be components that produces an unexpected rightness — or, as the kids say, fire. That’s the case with Dance Theatre of Harlem’s “Blake Works IV,” onstage at Jacob’s Pillow this weekend, which combines William Forsythe’s precise, fluid choreography with James Blake’s choppy, at times dissonant, yet luminous music. Danced by one of the most brilliant companies performing today, it’s a poem of sound, silence and shifting shapes. Like Blake’s songs, which sometimes cut off mid-sentence or change direction with no warning, the ballet is subtle, unpredictable and exhilarating.

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PREVIEW: Jazz pianist and composer Ted Rosenthal to celebrate Leonard Bernstein-adjacent saxophone works at Tanglewood (Berkshire Edge)

PREVIEW: Judy Collins played the very first Tanglewood Popular Artists Series Concert in 1968. She can’t stop coming back (Berkshire Eagle)

10-day Hudson Eye Arts Festival returns (HV360)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

EMTs Tess Fedell, Crystal Marcantel, and Kaileen Wolfe

Paramedics, EMTs, and the Crisis in Rural EMS

(Berkshire Argus) by Bill Shein - EMTs and paramedics respond to emergencies all day, every day. They’re trained to do a job, assess a human being, and provide care in sometimes harrowing situations. If we’re lucky, the rest of us experience these emergencies rarely — if ever. But the realities of modern working life, extensive training requirements, and rising costs mean it’s no longer possible to rely solely on volunteers to staff ambulances and deliver the most advanced prehospital medical care.

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First identified living Elizabeth Freeman descendant makes pilgrimage to Berkshires (WAMC)

After three public hearings, Great Barrington Board of Health approves Order to Correct for Housatonic Water Works (Berkshire Edge)

Great Barrington and West Stockbridge file appeal in Housatonic Water Works rate case (B Edge)

West Stockbridge finds The Foundry in violation of special permit sound provisions (B Edge)

Williamstown Planning Board again takes up short-term rentals (iBerkshires)

Final phase of Williamstown’s Cable Mills housing complex set to break ground (iBerkshires)

Mill Town to build office building, mixed income housing in and around Pittsfield’s infamous Site 9 (WAMC)

WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: Free lending library in Pittsfield suffers a loss when reading bench stolen (B Edge)

Wahconah Park restoration advancing with support from parks commission (iBerkshires)

Temescal Wellness’ CEO says debts incurred by the company’s North Adams grow operation led to its closure (Berkshire Eagle)

Appalachian Trail viewshed in Tyringham now protected (B Edge)

New owners plan to start a wellness center at former Option Institute in Sheffield (B Eagle)

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley endorses Leigh Davis for state representative (B Edge)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Seth Rogovoy, author (photo Chad Weckler)

Photographer Chad Weckler Captures Hudson’s Artistic Soul

(Chronogram) HUDSON, N.Y. - The city of Hudson packs more juice into just over two square miles than many places do into 20 and always has. Whether in its early whaling era, its later industrial boom, the colorful reign of Diamond Street as the Hudson Valley’s wildest red-light district, or its current iteration as a mecca for arts, antiques, fashion, and hospitality, there’s a potent vivacity in the air here. Resident and photographer Chad Weckler has captured an evocative and powerful expression of its current moment in Creative Exposure: Portraits of Hudson, New York, a book that gathers photos and short verbal profiles of 107 of its denizens into a vivid mosaic of lives being lived.

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A stalled trail project is causing friction for businesses in Hillsdale. Can they build a bridge? (WAMC)

FINANCING THE POCKETBOOK FACTORY: A revamped federal program to attract foreign investors is helping fund renovations at a major redevelopment project in Hudson (Albany Business Review)

Hudson law bans dog tethering for extended times (HV360)

Paid parking coming to all of Warren Street in Hudson (HV360)

Hudson removing shade trees on Warren Street as part of "Hudson Streetscapes" improvement plan (GoR)

Mill Street residents in Hudson speak out against housing development in flood plain (GoR)

Catskill unsatisfied with resident’s attempt to clean native lawn (ATU)

After years of research and advocacy, a Black Livingston descendant is acknowledged in a new exhibit at Clermont State Historic Site in Germantown (ATU)

Cheap European flights, millions in investment: Stewart Airport attempts a comeback (ATU)

Developers unveil revamped proposal for Woodstock ’94 site, to include 150-room hotel and conference center (ATU)

Howe Caverns to host sixth and final ‘Naked in a Cave’ event this September (ATU)

Woodstock Town Board turns down $13K funding request for film festival (Daily Freeman)

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