Hudson

Another damp saturday and Cindy can't paint so I'm off to Hudson across the NY state line and always interesting because of the galleries and stores and  federal architecture but mostly because it's constantly evolving - every couple of months there seems to be new ventures opening and yet it remains community rather than mercenary oriented. I like it there and at one point considered moving there. But there is also crippling poverty like the Berkshires has never known.

   This photo pretty much sums up the day.

But Hudson didn't disappoint and I had a great time. I decided to start from the bottom of Warren Street and work my way up since the newer, edgier galleries have clustered down in the one and two street blocks where rents are cheaper.







You can rent this building very inexpensively. But the heating bill is a bear.




 I loved the photocollages by Nadine Boughton at Davis Orton Gallery. Could have been corny but they weren't.  Called 'The Pleasures of Modern Living' you can look at some of them yourself at davisortongallery.com .   Okay I just looked at the website and the images are too small and don't do the collages justice. Pity.

Usually I can't resist having lunch at Le Gamin - because it reeks of France - and when I want ratatouile, I'm not going to spend three hours cooking each vegetable separately - even the plain old coffee tastes like Paris. But since I was switching it up - I tried a more formal place - Vito - and had a very good tuna caesar salad. Unfortunately, the music playing was about as real as canned laughter and the view was marred by a large seventies style apartment building - the kind with rimless windows - like sans serif type capped off with dirty cornflower blue plastic panels.

The other highlight was a unusual show at the Deffebach Gallery called 'Out of our Minds / Ooom.
It was hard to tell what was going on and the gallerist was a little snotty - she said the film was just beginning - I said no thanks thinking - film equals video equals performance art - no, no, no . I recoil at performance art - live or taped. Meredith Monk is my idea of a recurring nightmare.

But it was hard to resist the tent, the dramatic music and the brand new HD Panasonic monitor.  So I sat in the tent - it was good - for more than 20 minutes of the 28 total - the whole thing fell apart when we got to the lumber camp and everything they axed turned bloody plus the lumberjacks were crappy actors and the music got commercial. Check it out for yourself: ooomfilm.com/trailer. Also, the tent was cute but it's hard to concentrate in a light room. It should have been pitch black.

The farmers market was good - here's a still life of my bounty and a candlestick sparrow I bought at lili and loo.




Holly










oomfilm.com/trailer