The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) continues to bring good times to Saratoga Springs with its freshly revamped Ballet Gala: The Four Seasons on Saturday, July 21. The Ballet Gala will cap off the NYC Ballet’s 2018 season with a musical celebration of the centennial birthdays of two of American’s most prized artistic geniuses: composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and ballet master and choreographer Jerome Robbins. The NYC Ballet’s main performance, which begins at 8pm, includes four pieces written by or paying homage to the American artists. The evening will include two of Robbins’ most celebrated works, The Four Seasons, written to excerpts of music by Giuseppe Verdi, and Other Dances, set to four mazurkas and one waltz by Chopin, as well as a new 2018 ballet by Justin Peck (NYC Ballet’s Resident Choreographer) called Easy, inspired by the choreography of Robbins with a Bernstein musical score.
The centerpiece of the performance, however, is the SPAC premier of a new ballet directed by Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Warren Carlyle. Something to Dance About will pay tribute to the Broadway career of the NYC Ballet’s legendary co-founding choreographer, Robbins. The ballet had its World Premiere at the NYC Ballet’s 2018 Spring Gala on May 3. Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of SPAC, loves the new piece. “Complete with 30 dancers and 124 costume changes all in a breathtaking 30 minutes, the ballet is an imaginative nod to Robbins’ Broadway works and the ‘can’t miss’ performance of the season,” says Sobol.
A scene from ‘Easy,’ the ballet by NYC Ballet Resident Choreographer, Justin Peck. (Paul Kolnik)
As always, the Gala will also feature its preshow festivities, which start at 5:30pm. But this year’s lawn party has been transformed into an interactive, almost carnival-like experience. Throughout the lawn and ballroom sections of the audience, there will be various pop-up performances produced by the artistic director for Saratoga Arts Fest, Nicole Coady (we recently covered Coady’s new series on Amazon Prime, Adventures of Snow White & Rose Red). Elizabeth Sobol attended Coady’s show at the Arts Fest Gala called The All Hallows’ Eve Dark Faerie Tale Masquerade. “[She] enjoyed the way performances just popped up unexpected at different moments throughout our gala,” says Coady about the show. “So she invited me to bring a little bit of that fun, pop-up experience to the lawn party at the SPAC Ballet Gala.”
Also part of this new immersive experience will be avant-garde stilt walkers, walking amongst concertgoers and dressed in “Four Seasons”-themed costumes designed and crafted by Kim Vanyo. “I decided to dress each of the stilt walkers in a costume representative of the seasons with ornate wigs made from organic mosses, leaves, twigs, grasses and other woodland components scoured from the flower district in NYC,” says Vanyo, who, in addition to costume and clothing design, has studied classical ballet most her life. “As a nod to the ballet, each performer also will be outfitted with over-the-top tutus—five feet long!”
Last year’s NYC Ballet fireworks.
There will also be a slew of free dance and musical performances before the main show, courtesy of the School of the Arts, Saratoga City Ballet and Northeast Ballet Company, modern dance group Nacre Dance Company, soul singer Kim Lisinicchia and local favorites Chuck Lamb with Ria Curley, among others.
Tickets to the gala events are $250 or $165 for Junior Guests (up to age 35) and include a champagne cocktail party, gourmet food by Mazzone Hospitality, fantastic seating for the main performance and admission to an After Party with complimentary dessert. Cost to attend just the NYC Ballet performance ranges from $55 to $125. Visit spac.org for more details.
When I say that one of the top three concerts I’ve ever been to was just one guy with a ukulele, people don’t believe me. Did he have a backing band? they ask. No. Was he singing, too? No. Just one person and a little four-stringed instrument. I’m, of course, referring to Jake Shimabukuro, a ukulele virtuoso born in Honolulu, HI, who will be bringing his chops to Saratoga Springs’ Caffè Lena on Monday, July 30. (He’ll be performing at 7pm and 9pm.) Shimabukuro took the ukulele, an instrument long relegated to accompaniment, and turned it into a diverse solo instrument fit for practically any musical genre. His signature sound is evidence of this: He plays a smooth mix of rock, blues, classical, jazz and traditional Hawaiian. A video of Shimabukuro playing his own fiery arrangement of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in Central Park went viral shortly after it was posted to YouTube in April 2006. (See below; it’s been viewed a staggering 16 million times and counting.) Since then, the Hawaii native has been living the dream, performing with a multitude of music stars from a diverse range of genres, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy Buffett and Cyndi Lauper. He’s also recorded more than a dozen albums along the way. I talked with him about his upcoming gig at Caffè Lena, and what it’s like being a ukulele star.
Will your gig at Caffè Lena be your first? Have you ever been to Saratoga? You know I’ve been in that area, but I believe this will be my first time having a concert there. So I’m really looking forward to it. I love those real intimate venues. I started out playing in little coffee shops [in Hawaii]. The first coffee shop I played at in Hawaii was a little place that couldn’t seat more than ten people. But I’ve always loved having that intimacy, feeling like you’re just in someone’s living room playing. That’s always a real treat.
When did you start playing ukulele? My mom played, and she put it in my hands when I was about four years old. She taught me a few chords, and I just fell in love with it.
How many hours do you practice per day? I used to practice a lot. I never really clocked my time, but I could sit and just play for five or six hours straight, you know, without even a bathroom break. [laughs] I just loved it. My parents would take it away from me so I’d do my homework or eat dinner. But even when they sent me to my room to go to bed, I’d sneak out and grab my ukulele and practice really quietly in my bedroom. Then about five years ago, my wife and I had our first baby. And then practice time got a little shorter. [laughs] And then three years ago we had our second baby, so now I’m lucky if I can even get an hour in at the end of the day.
You once said: “If everyone played ukulele, the world would be a better place.” Do you still feel that way? I think what’s nice about the ukulele is that it’s not intimidating. There’s something about the instrument; when you pick it up and play it, it brings out the kid in you. I’ve seen people do this many times: They’ll pick up the ukulele and do a funky or real comical pose with it. There’s just something about it. You don’t feel like it’s a real or serious instrument. When you pick it up, you feel silly. I think it’s great.
Did you set out to change the opinion that it’s not a real instrument? Or did it just sort of happen? Yeah, I think it just kind of happened. I remember when I was a kid, I’d just turn the radio on and try to play along to whatever song was playing. I remember that being so much fun. That’s when I realized that the ukulele is capable of playing a lot of different types of music. Because when I first started, the ukulele was mainly used for traditional Hawaiian music, and that’s what I love. Later on, I gained an interest in different styles of music—classical, jazz standards or rock ‘n’ roll and blues—and it completely changed the way I played the instrument.
One of my very first memories is of stepping on a bee. The details are foggy, but I do remember walking around barefoot on my driveway one minute, then sitting down and crying the next. Fast forward two decades, past countless bee stings while playing in the yard, camping and hiking, and I find myself in a veil, white coat and honey-coated gloves, willingly walking toward a busy beehive. I’m following Saratoga Springs-based beekeeper, Jen Dunn, whose indifference toward the thousands of bees swarming around us makes me feel a little braver. But I’m still in a cold sweat.
“In my experience, knowing a beekeeper is often the gateway to becoming one,” Dunn says. When Dunn was living in Germany in high school, her landlords kept bees, and the idea of taking up the hobby stayed in the back of her mind. It wasn’t until three years ago when she moved back to Saratoga from Rwanda—where a swarm of bees had taken up residence in her laundry room, making her what she calls a “bee haver” rather than a keeper—that she decided to get her own hive. Now, Dunn keeps 14 bee colonies, each of which can have up to 70,000 bees in it, in three locations: her home in Saratoga; Betterbee, one of three major bee supply companies in the country, located in Greenwich; and Pitney Meadows Community Farm, where she’s proposing to the farm board a community apiary where people can rent hives for a year and learn beekeeping from her.
Out in the backyard, Dunn walks me through a hive check-in, making sure the queen—marked with a white dot—is where she’s supposed to be and that the bees aren’t forming swarm cells, which indicate that the queen’s going to leave to form a new colony. Throughout the process, Dunn chats casually about bee reproductive processes and behavior, all the while fidgeting around in the hive without gloves. I, meanwhile, am focused on making myself invisible.
A bee colony “bearding,” or clustering outside the hive to keep the honey at the correct temperature, is in full effect. (Jen Dunn)
Finally, Dunn puts the lid back on the hive’s box, and I can breathe again. In her kitchen, we extract honey from two honeycombs using a large, barrel-shaped contraption, and fill two mason jars. Dunn sells her honey on Facebook, with the help of her two daughters and to St. Peter’s Church. “I feel like I should share my honey,” Dunn says. “I’ve always felt this. Since I started keeping the bees, I felt like the bees were doing most of the work.” For that reason, she keeps 50 percent of her profits from sales to St. Peter’s, to cover the cost of production, and donates the rest of the money to SNACpack (Saratoga Nutrition Assistance For Children), an organization that provides food for children in need.
Saratoga County’s actually a great place to keep bees, says Dunn, not only because we have a resource like Betterbee so close by, but also because of the diverse flora in our area, which offers bees a number of sources from which to forage. The big picture, though, shows honeybee populations suffering. Between 1947 and 2008, the number of hives in the US dropped 60 percent, from 6 million to 2.4 million, according to the U.S. National Agricultural Statistics. Dunn identifies three main reasons for the decline: monocultures, because they give bees only one foraging source; neonicotinoid pesticides, a type of agricultural insecticide that was just banned in Europe; and the Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite that attacks honeybees. Dunn pulls up some photos on her computer of her bees, showing the adverse effects of the mites, including a virus that causes deformities in bees’ wings and abdomens. “I just learned this, and it’s why SNACpack really appeals to me,” says Dunn. “One of the biggest problems caused by the Varroa is malnutrition. Nurse bees get sick and can’t take care of their brood, so the brood doesn’t have enough food to properly develop. I think that’s so sad—bees are starving as babies!”
With honeybees dying off en masse, it’s caring beekeepers like Jen Dunn who may ultimately save them. And now that I know her, if what she says is true—if knowing a beekeeper really is the gateway to becoming a beekeeper—I may be joining the bee-saving force, too. Traumatic childhood memories be damned.
Watch saratoga living‘s Natalie Moore and Madeline Conroy reporting from a swarming beehive on Facebook Live here.
Growing up in Vermont, horses were the love of my early adolescence. I loved taking long rides down back roads alone or with my best friend—and the sense of emotional and physical communion whenever I rode one of these formidable, beautiful animals. Just being on a horse made me feel like I could handle anything; it forced me to be aware of the powerful, majestic creature beneath me. Although I seldom get to ride these days, every time I have the chance to saddle up, I do, and it makes me feel alive (if incredibly sore). Which is why I leaped at the chance to interview superstar (and former teenage phenom) polo player, Brandon Phillips.
Horses have been more than just a sidecar to Phillips’ successful sporting life. They helped him recover from a brutal boyhood battle with cancer, and that struggle inspired Phillips to become a champion for sick children, using his elite status in polo to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research. “I’ve always looked at it that God was testing me,” says Phillips of his early bout with cancer. “Many thousands of people get tested and don’t make it. I was the lucky chosen one to get through it, so I have to try to help others.”
In 2014, Phillips, who’s based in Wellington, FL, the epicenter of polo in North America—and who was in Saratoga Springs as recently as last summer—founded Polo For A Purpose, a fundraiser for the Wellington-based Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), using his connections to bring on sponsors and top players for an exhibition game that has become a wildly successful charity event. Last year’s edition raised half a million dollars for LLS, a top privately funded researcher on blood cancers, which also provides services and education for patients and their families. “He was our entrée to the polo world,” says LLS Executive Director Pam Payne. “He’s unpretentious, kind, passionate and committed—a joy to work with. I don’t think he’s in it for ‘Look what I’m doing.’ He’s in it for all the right reasons.” She couldn’t have read his intentions better. Says Phillips of his charity work: “I don’t want a kid to go through what I went through.” He also mentors children with cancer and brings groups of them to polo matches at the luxurious International Polo Club Palm Beach. “It’s also bringing kids out to take their minds off it. Every kid loves a horse.”
Phillips is based in Wellington, FL, the country’s epicenter of polo. (Scott Teitler)
Phillips certainly did. Now 40, he was raised just outside of Toronto, and was an avid athlete as a child, with a horse-loving family to boot—his father and brother were amateur polo players, two uncles were Olympic show-jumpers and his mother and sister were fox hunters. Then, when he was just 14, he was stricken with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and doctors gave him six weeks to live. He spent months in the hospital enduring relentless, painful treatments, but his tough athletic spirit enabled him to beat the odds. “It was just what you had to do,” Phillips tells me. “I’m not going to die, so OK, I’m going to have to go through hell. I’ve always looked at things, especially since then, as, you get through it and you go on.”
When he recovered, Phillips was too weak to play ice hockey, which had been his favorite sport. He turned to polo, where horses provided nonjudgmental companionship and compensated for his now-skinnier frame. At 16, a family friend took him to see the US Open Polo Championship in New York on White Birch Farm, the estate of celebrity Publisher, Producer and White Birch Team Owner, Peter M. Brant. Incredibly, the following year, Phillips launched his career at the top of the sport, playing in the US Open with White Birch and some of the world’s best players. “It was like I went from throwing a baseball in my backyard to playing for the Yankees in the World Series,” Phillips says. “I got very lucky. And I didn’t know enough to be intimidated.”
These days, Phillips is unquestionably a top-tier player in the sport. “He’s a wonderful teammate, a very good horseman and he’s very, very quick,” says Frederic Roy, Editor and Publisher of The Morning Line, a top polo publication. “He has a classic style.” Although Phillips has become something of a polo world celebrity and hunk, favored by area society columns, he’s kept his down-to-earth attitude intact. He’s got a country drawl, drives a pickup truck, wears jeans and dons a baseball cap. He plays for and manages Annabelle Gundlach’s Postage Stamp Farm team, and his personality was part of the draw for his patron, whom he mentored to become one of polo’s rare female players. “It was his character and honesty and integrity and who he is as a person,” says Gundlach. “He was always there and doing the right thing. For some people, it’s all about the money. It’s not like that with him.”
Now, as Phillips turns the corner into middle age, he knows that an accident in an arena thundering with horses could end his career—or worse. But the drive that enabled him to beat cancer keeps him devoted to the game that’s brought so much excitement and fulfillment to his life. When I ask how long he’ll keep playing polo, he doesn’t hesitate: “’Til my body breaks in half. I don’t see myself doing anything else.” As a lifelong lover of horses (and now, polo), I’m glad that he’s made up his mind.
By any measure, what Matt Baumgartner has accomplished by his mid-forties is nothing short of remarkable. After growing up in Utica and graduating from Union College in Schenectady, Baumgartner went to work for the town’s most famous employer, General Electric, before leaving that gig at 23 to open what would become Albany’s beloved burrito and beer joint, Bombers Burrito Bar, in which he sold his interest last year. He’d come to establish 14 restaurants, bars and other businesses across the Capital Region and elsewhere Upstate—including four Wolff’s Biergarten locations, The Olde English Pub in Albany, The Little Rice Ball in Troy and what has become his pet project and dream come true, June Farms.
Situated across 120 acres in West Sand Lake, about ten miles due east of the state capital and yet a world away, June Farms is not only where Baumgartner hangs his hat, but it’s also home to an exotic menagerie of draft horses, Scottish Highland cattle, chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, a dog and, as this place sprang from the imagination and drive of one of the area’s most successful entrepreneurs, another business (or, actually, businesses). There’s a lounge, the Pony Barn, which is open to the public in season, as well as a wedding venue (a recent episode of a Bravo show—Baumgartner wouldn’t say which one—was recently filmed there), plus a number of perfectly appointed private cabins you can rent by the night.
As if all that weren’t enough, Baumgartner, who’s openly gay, has been a passionate supporter of LGBTQ rights in New York for many years. Back in 2011, long before the Oscar contender Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Baumgartner held to account—by way of a particularly conspicuous billboard—a state legislator, Republican Sen. Roy McDonald, who at the time was wavering on a vote in favor of same-sex marriage in New York. Baumgartner was recognized by the national newsmagazine The Advocate on its “40 Under 40” list in 2012. He’s also built quite the active—and highly entertaining—social media presence, with thousands of followers on Twitter and Instagram. (His nom de guerre? “@Burritoboy,” naturally.)
saratoga living checked in with Baumgartner to talk about living one’s dreams, lessons learned and farm life.
Secrets To Success In Creating Start-ups “I’m pretty fearless when it comes to starting new businesses. I never worry about the downside of it or the risks I’m taking. I think even in failure, you can learn a lot about the next business you want to start. It’s also fun to start a business.”
Why He Sold His Stake In Bombers “I’d had the business for 20 years. When I was younger, 40 sounded like it was centuries away, and I always said that when I was 40, I’d like to sell and do something else with my life. I don’t have the emotional attachment to the restaurants that you’d think I would. I love them, and I’m attached to them, but I know they’re in good hands. I felt like it was the right time to pursue other dreams, like the farm.”
On Creating A Real, Working Farm From The Ground Up “I was living in New York City and going down three or four days a week because I’d started a menswear line there. The restaurants and all were doing great, but I didn’t feel happy. I wanted to do something to enrich my soul—to work the land and breathe the fresh air. As much as I love the restaurants, this is giving me a lot more happiness than I ever thought it would.”
On The Lost Art Of And Appreciation For—Farming “Farming needs a better brand marketing campaign. It’s something people feel is impossible, but it isn’t. It’s sad the way we’ve eaten as a culture, and it’s a privilege to see an animal raised in front of you and to know how you raised them and that they were treated well. It’s really easy to grow your own food and for a family to eat for an entire year on what they raise. If people knew that, there might be more people willing to purchase a couple of acres. You know, farming isn’t even listed on the census anymore.”
On June Farms Becoming The Next Martha Stewart Or The Beekman Boys “I respect Martha Stewart and the Beekman Boys so much—the Beekman Boys are my idols! But I’m really focused on just keeping June Farms a simple and happy place.”
Music lists are pretty subjective. I should know; I’ve written about a thousand of them in my career. I’ve done lists on the most influential rock bands, the druggiest Beatles songs and the greatest Eric Clapton guitar solos. I even did one on the Phil Collins tunes that “secretly rule.” Here are the top five musical moments (in no particular order) in the history of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center—according to us.
Two months after this photo was taken in May 1966, The Philadelphia Orchestra debuted at SPAC. (SPAC)
1. THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA [August 4, 1966]
Maestro Eugene Ormandy, who spent a jaw-dropping 44 years conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, first raised his baton at SPAC on August 4, 1966, for the venue’s opening night event. Patrons were treated to the Overture in C Major from Ludwig van Beethoven’s The Consecration Of The House, which includes a march and trumpet fanfare. In other words, perfect welcoming music.
Harry Belafonte was the first non-classical performer to appear at SPAC. (SPAC)
2. HARRY BELAFONTE [June 29, 1967]
Showing off its early progressive roots—the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing at this point—SPAC invited Jamaican-American superstar Harry Belafonte, best known to modern audiences for his take on the Jamaican folk standard “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” to be its first nonclassical act to perform there on June 29, 1967. That year, Belafonte had released his Belafonte On Campus album, which featured a pair of songs written by Caffè Lena regular Tom Paxton—who’d be part of a packed folk festival lineup there the following month.
A shot of the crowd at The Grateful Dead’s second largest crowd in 1983. (SPAC)
3. THE GRATEFUL DEAD [June 27, 1985]
Drivers know to stay away from the various roads near SPAC when the Dave Matthews Band or Phish is in town—but on June 27, 1985, all traffic bets were off. The Grateful Dead, which had lassoed in a stunning 37,801 fans the previous June, logged a record-breaking audience of 40,231 Deadheads on that day. Aside from the band pleading with one fan to stop hanging over the balcony, the affair was one of peace and love—and great music. The Dead ended their set, aptly, with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”
Jackson Browne recorded his song “Rosie” backstage at SPAC in 1977. (SPAC)
4. JACKSON BROWNE [September 1, 1977]
Live albums are a dime a dozen, but it’s not every day that a song that’s cut elsewhere at a music venue works its way into the grooves of an LP record—and subsequently gets listened to by millions of adoring fans. That’s exactly what happened on September 1, 1977, when Jackson Browne brought his tour to SPAC. He and his band recorded the piano ballad “Rosie”—you can hear someone joke, “It’s Mozart, at two years old,” at the beginning of the recording—in the backstage area. Three months later, it would wind up as the third track on the critically acclaimed, platinum-selling 1977 album, Running On Empty.
5. WHITNEY HOUSTON [September 2, 1987]
I grew up on Whitney Houston music, so she makes the list. That September 2, 1987, she was touring in support of her greatest album, Whitney, which included four No.1 singles—two of which landed her on this list. At the MTV Video Music Awards, which aired nine days after her SPAC show, the cable channel ran Houston’s performance of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” that she taped at the gig. Also, her official music video for “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” was filmed at SPAC, too. How cool is that?
I spent most of my weekends in the 1990s with my lipstick red Fender Stratocaster Squier plugged into my 10-watt Marshall amplifier, jamming with friends. One session stands out, because it was the first and only time I ever jammed with the guy. That was Jimmy Huntley, who invited me over to his house one night to play with his band, and I remember fumbling embarrassedly through The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm,” not being able to figure out a single lick or chord change. Back then, Jimmy was sort of a big deal: He was the first kid in my high school class who got serious about a genre of music other than classical or jazz and decided to make a go at a career in it. I’m pretty sure the first time I ever went to Caffè Lena was to see Jimmy play there, and I sat through the entire show jealous as hell. The guy was living my dream. And he was doing it at one of Saratoga Springs’—and arguably, the world’s—greatest folk clubs. And he was good. Damn.
Saratogians have long been blessed with innumerable choices when it comes to enjoying their culture, whether it be Caffè Lena, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Proctors in nearby Schenectady or the acoustical wonder that is Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Below, find a dozen of the area’s top arts venues (in no particular order)—and what you can expect from each of them.
The Philadelphia Orchestra performing at SPAC. (Tom Stock)
SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (SPAC)
Location: Saratoga Springs
Capacity: 25,000 (with 5200 sheltered seats), 20,000 on lawn
Need To Know: Think of SPAC as a cross between Central Park, Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden—without all the ride-sharing nightmares getting there. (It actually has a real parking lot.) At SPAC, you can get your high-society fix with The Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City Ballet, while its Live Nation lineups of pop, country, hip hop and classic rock acts offer more than a few opportunities to do your best Auto-Tune impression or work on your air guitar skills.
The Inside Scoop: “Our incredible, best-in-class venue, perfectly situated among towering pines, healing waters and exquisite, historic architecture, provides a unique and transformative experience that keeps both artists and audiences wanting to come back for more. Top artists from all genres—from Kendrick Lamar to The Philadelphia Orchestra, Dave Matthews to New York City Ballet, Zac Brown Band to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center—love the Saratoga experience: a perfect confluence of man-made and natural beauty, adjacent to an exceptional, culturally vibrant Downtown.” —Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO, Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Winner of ‘The Voice,’ Sawyer Fredericks, performing at Caffè Lena. (Joseph Deuel)
CAFFÈ LENA
Location: Saratoga Springs
Capacity: 110
Need To Know: Everyone from Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris to Don McLean and Ani DiFranco have played early gigs at Caffè Lena, the oldest continuously operating folk venue of its kind in the US. While it’s always been an intimate affair inside, the nonprofit arts venue got a $2 million boost in 2016 to renovate and expand its existing space. So now even more of the local hipsterati can snap their fingers in applause and shout “Dig it, Daddy-o!”
The Inside Scoop: Caffè Lena takes a three-pronged approach to artist bookings, says Executive Director Sarah Craig. First is catching the artists on the rise early on in their career—the ones who’re “probably going to be the festival and concert hall headliners in the coming few years,” she says. Next is landing the folks that have already made it and pitching them on performing at the historic venue. (They almost always say yes, she says.) Lastly, they bring in artists who’ve had “a tremendous amount of history with the venue,” such as Bill Staines, who’s been playing at Lena since the ’60s. Catch him there on July 6.
A pre-renovation interior shot of Universal Preservation Hall. (Tony Colasurdo)
Need To Know: Erected in 1871 in Downtown Saratoga, complete with stained-glass windows and a 3000-pound bell cast in nearby Troy, the Hall was a fixture before falling into disrepair and being condemned in 2000. (It was arguably one of the better-looking edifices in need of repair in town, though.) UPH is now undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation, that will no doubt transform it into one of the Spa City’s next great arts venues. It’ll rain live music and feed hungrily from the partnership it has with Proctors. It’s set to open to the public in 2019.
The Inside Scoop: “UPH is going to be a year-round cultural anchor in the heart of Saratoga, and we’ll be filling the room with great live music of all stripes on every night we can. We’ll also offer Broadway, cabaret and some live theater and children’s programming. And the School of the Performing Arts at Proctors will have a presence here as well. We can’t wait to open the doors!” —Teddy Foster, Campaign Director, UPH
Schenectady’s Proctors is a grand old theater built in the Italian Baroque style. (Richard Lovrich)
PROCTORS
Location: Schenectady
Capacity: 2646
Need To Know: First opening in 1926 as a vaudeville venue, Proctors, a grand old theater built in the Italian Baroque style, changed hands a number of times throughout its history, switching from a live venue to a movie theater. (That’s how my mom remembers it from her childhood.) Eventually, it was reborn as the multi-genre event space we know today. Patrons can now catch a range of shows at Proctors, including on-tour Broadway musicals (sizzling-hot shows, such as The Book Of Mormon and Hamilton, are coming in 2019), dance concerts and movies.
The Inside Scoop: Is Proctors still in reinvention mode? Not so much, says CEO Philip Morris. “We’re applying our dreams to current circumstances, which, I feel, is a different thing, a different approach. We have a very specific mission and we apply it to today’s environment.”
HOME MADE THEATER (HMT)
Location: Saratoga Springs
Capacity: 496 (at the Spa Little Theater)
Need To Know: Founded in 1985, HMT got its start on the tiny stage at the pre-renovation Caffè Lena. It’s since become the resident theater company at the Spa Little Theater—near SPAC in the Saratoga Spa State Park—upping the seat-age to just under 500. (HMT’s in season from roughly September to May.) Over the years, HMT has staged productions of everything from Dial “M” For Murder and Hair to The Wizard Of Oz and Charlotte’s Web. Famous Saratogian David Hyde Pierce has even leant a hand raising funds for it over the years. (Hey, if it’s good enough for Dr. Niles Crane, it should be good enough for you).
The Inside Scoop: “Home Made Theater is a community-based theater company that uniquely fits between the worlds of true community theater and a semi-professional company. We try to provide people who want to be involved in theater with a professional and positive experience. And, hopefully, we’re bringing quality theater to this community.” —Stacie Mayette Barnes, Producing Manager, Home Made Theater
Albany’s Palace Theatre.
THE PALACE THEATRE
Location: Albany
Capacity: 2800
Need To Know: You get a similar sense of awe walking into the Palace for the first time as you do Proctors. It’s a gorgeous auditorium—one that makes you feel like you’re in the presence of something great or powerful. First opening its doors in 1931, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Jerry Seinfeld have all played there. It’s also hosted ballet, Broadway plays and movies. It’s not to be missed.
The Inside Scoop: “We certainly cast a wide net in respect to who we’d love to see perform here, but do so keeping in mind the size of the theater and what artists and genres tend to perform best in this market.” —Sean Allen, Director of Marketing, The Palace Theatre
Albany’s The Egg stands out on the city’s skyline. (The Egg Performing Arts Center)
THE EGG
Location: Albany
Capacity: 982 (Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre), 450 (Lewis A. Swyer Theatre)
Need To Know: If you’ve ever driven by Albany, you’ve probably had a tough time wrapping your head around the oddly shaped building on the city skyline. That’s the one-of-kind structure known as The Egg, completed in 1978, which was designed by Wallace Harrison, who had a hand in planning NYC’s Rockefeller Center. Nowadays, it serves as one of Albany’s top event spaces, luring in everyone from jazz-rock acts the Squirrel Nut Zippers to the Ajkun Ballet Theatre, which does a three-week residency there annually. It’s the only venue in town that’s as entertaining on the outside as it is on the inside.
The Inside Scoop: “It’s harder for us to get noticed in the summer, but we still have two wonderful, beautifully air-conditioned theaters here, which some people enjoy a little bit more than the big outdoor spaces. The majority of the programming that we do is roots, rock and jazz, with a little comedy thrown in, which people have come to expect from us.” —Peter Lesser, Executive Director, The Egg
TIMES UNION CENTER
Location: Albany
Capacity: 17,500
Need To Know: Whereas Saratogians are most likely to catch mainstream music acts in the summer months at SPAC, the Times Union Center in Albany has us covered for the rest of the year. As a sports arena, it hosts college basketball games (it’s Siena Men’s Basketball’s home court) and doubles as an Arena League football stadium (it’s the Albany Empire’s home field). As far as music is concerned, in the coming months, fans will be able to catch jam-band powerhouse Phish; he who brought sexy back, Justin Timberlake; and longtime heavy metal gods, Metallica.
The Inside Scoop: “The reality is most tours either decide that they want to play the outdoor amphitheaters in the summer, or they’ll play arenas instead. It’s not that the TU Center is a better play than SPAC. It all depends on the size of the production going out on tour and where the artists feel comfortable performing.” —Bob Belber, General Manager, SMG/Times Union Center
A bird’s eye view from one of the boxes at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.
TROY SAVINGS BANK MUSIC HALL
Location: Troy
Capacity: 1253
Need To Know: Built in 1875, the Music Hall is renowned in the area for its incredible acoustics—which sort of appeared there by accident, the result of the space being upgraded with a gigantic concert organ. Because of its sonic wonders, the Music Hall is able to book a wide variety of artists, the majority of whom favor hollow- over solid-bodied instruments (i.e., classical, folk and Americana performers). Recent shows have included everyone from Black Violin and Ray LaMontagne to Randy Newman.
The Inside Scoop: “There’s a connection that happens between the performers on stage and the audience that is deeper than in other halls. The Music Hall is one of the best preserved 19th-century concert halls in the country. Even the seats are original—including racks for gentlemen to place their top hats and ladies to hang their shawls on. You just don’t find those sorts of details in many other theaters.” —Jon Elbaum, Executive Director, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
COHOES MUSIC HALL
Location: Cohoes
Capacity: 460
Need To Know: The Cohoes Music Hall first swung open its doors in 1874 and hosted what can only be described as a circus-sideshow-act’s worth of talent, which included Buffalo Bill Cody, one of P.T. Barnum’s prized elephants and John Philip Sousa (it’s the fourth oldest operating music hall in the US). These days, it hosts solo artists, theater troupes, jazz acts and tribute bands. The venue—and its town—have got a bit of that little-train-that-could going for it, too, and I can’t help but respect that.
The Inside Scoop: “While it’s important to book headliners, it’s as important to support up-and-coming acts as well as our local and regional artists by bringing them to the stage. I’ve always felt that it’s necessary for venues to be a community resource, and to actively support the needs of the community. Downtown Cohoes is seeing the opening of new restaurants, residential projects and improvements that are making it more livable and beautiful. It’s an exciting time to be in business here.” —Holly Brown, Executive Director, Cohoes Music Hall
An interior shot of the Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College.
ARTHUR ZANKEL MUSIC CENTER
Location: Saratoga Springs
Capacity: 600
Need To Know: I grew up going to Skidmore College orchestra concerts at Filene Recital Hall. Capacity was 235, and it always felt like it was on the verge of bursting at the seams. Students got a huge upgrade when the college built the Arthur Zankel Music Center, which seats more than twice as many patrons and has the big-boy look the college’s arts program long deserved. While its lineup shades more toward the highbrow, with its list of Who’s Who in the classical and jazz worlds, it’s hosted the occasional mainstream heavyweight: Paul Simon, father to Skidmore alum Lulu Belle Simon, taught a master class there last year.
The Inside Scoop: “Summer concerts at Skidmore College are designed to inspire Skidmore students and engage and entertain audiences from throughout the greater Capital Region. Most of the artists we present also teach in our summer music institutes, which gives our students the unique opportunity to study with internationally known musicians.” —Maria McColl, Associate Director for Summer Institutes, Skidmore College
Putnam Place doubles as a night club and live performance venue. (Kiki Vassilakis)
PUTNAM PLACE
Location: Saratoga Springs
Capacity: 500
Need To Know: When I was growing up, the local pool hall, where everybody went after high school let out, was this place called Putnam Den. It was a little rough around the edges, but it certainly had character. It’d later morph into a full-blown event space, and I remember seeing Saratoga band, The Figgs, play there at least once. Just this past winter, though, the venue got an extreme makeover, with upgrades hither and yon—including an epic (and huge) LED wall high atop the back of the stage. It’s now a classy music venue, nightclub and event space—its new bar is truly a thing of beauty. (saratoga living had its relaunch and recent 20th Anniversary parties there.) Hey, you might not be able to play pool there anymore, but it’s about as close to a banging pool party as you’ll get in land-locked Downtown Saratoga. (saratoga living‘s Chair is the owner of Putnam Place.)
The Inside Scoop: “Unlike a lot of the spots in Saratoga, we’ve successfully become a year-round location. Our goal is to be a welcoming spot for all and not alienate anyone. It’s my hope to foster a sense of inclusion while elevating the nightlife and music scene in our great city. When fans tell me they can’t believe they just saw members of Phish or Blues Traveler or Wyclef Jean in their backyard, at a beautiful, intimate venue, I feel a sense of pride and gratitude.” —Tiffany Albert, Co-owner, Putnam Place
On June 26, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple confirmed to the Times Union that immigrants detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were being held at the Albany County Jail under contract with the federal government. At the time, more than 200 immigrants, 16 of whom had been separated from their families, were reported to be held in a special wing of the jail. Just two days later, on Thursday, June 28, nearly 100 more immigrant detainees arrived at Albany International Airport, maxing out capacity at the facility in Colonie and bringing the immigrant population at the jail to around 330.
Since then, officials at Albany Law School along with The Legal Project (a private nonprofit that was founded by the Capital District Women’s Bar Association in 1995) have been providing the detainees legal representation and access to translators. However, the volunteers been overwhelmed with the influx of new immigrant groups, some of which weren’t even aware or told where they were—or even speak Spanish. Though most are from the US-Mexico border, a large number speak a variety of different languages: French, Hindi, Punjabi, Mandarin, Polish and Russian.
URGENT APPEAL for INTERPRETERS in ALBANY, NY (please RT)
Dear friends, I am one of a small cadre of volunteer lawyers and interpreters for the locally based Legal Project out of SUNY Albany. We’ve never seen anything like this.
Despite the assumption that all immigrants being detained are from Spanish-speaking countries, the influx of immigrants from a number of different countries isn’t all that unusual, says Professor Sarah Rogerson, Director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School. “It’s not strictly an issue of South and Central Americans,” she says. “People fleeing violence all over the world will try to get to the western hemisphere however they can and then work their way up to the Untied States.” Rogerson says she’s spoken with immigrants in the Albany County Jail from Cameroon, Syria and Kyrgyzstan, among other countries. “What’s really happening is that people are getting an up-close look at what the border actually looks like. It’s not just the rhetoric that politicians sling around. It’s really a border zone that’s very complex.”
What is unusual, says Rogerson, is the treatment of many of these immigrants. The vast majority are asylum-seekers, which has specific legal requirements under US and international law (and is different than just crossing the border to have a better economic future). Asylum-seekers usually flee their home countries under fear of violence or death and must physically present themselves at a legal port of entry. What follows is a Credible Fear Screening (a test to determine if someone has credible fear of persecution or torture from his or her home country), a court date, multiple background checks and a very lengthy and competitive application process. Even after all this, which can take months or years, an immigrant can still be denied asylum. However, it’s atypical for asylum seekers to be flown hundreds or thousands of miles away from where they entered illegally or, in the case of some at the Albany County Jail, transported away from legal ports of entry. On top of this, the vast majority of the detainees in the facility in Colonie still haven’t received their Credible Fear Screening, which is necessary for determining asylum status in the US.
Rogerson and other lawyers from Albany Law School have just launched the second phase of their project: one-on-one consultations to better prepare immigrants for their Credible Fear Screenings, which will be conducted here in the Capital Region. Rogerson’s quick to note that these interviews can be intense and personal: “Imagine if part of your Credible Fear Claim involved sexual assault. That’s not something you’re necessarily going to tell a stranger from a new government authority.”
If you are an attorney or interpreter interested in volunteering your services, email [email protected] or call 518-435-1770 ext 327.
For this week’s edition of The Calendar, we have a list full of things that are a celebration of all things Saratoga, everything from this beautiful city’s history with Thoroughbred horses and ballet to its love of Dave Matthews, folk music and, yes, the potato chip! Well, if you’ve read up on your Saratoga history then you might know that the Spa City claims to be the home of the first deliciously crisp and salty potato chip, allegedly cut in 1853 at Moon’s Lake House on Saratoga Lake (check out Managing Editor Natalie Moore’s article “The Great Potato Chip Controversy of 2018 ” in saratoga living’s “Wedding Issue”). Is the story true? Well, the short answer is, Shhh, you don’t want to ruin it for the people behind Saratoga’s Chip Festival, do you?
Yes, that’s right, your eyes (and stomach) aren’t deceiving you. In honor of its spurious history with the spud, Saratoga has brought back for the third year in a row its increasingly popular Chip Festival. Held at the Saratoga City Center on Saturday, July 14 potato patrons and enthusiasts will be able to enjoy whatever flavor or style of potato chip they’d like, even potato tortillas and other similar snack foods like popcorn, pretzels and chips and salsa. The festival is from 10am-4pm and will include family-friendly activities, tastings and even a potato chip contest, all in celebration of one of Saratoga’s most addictive contributions (allegedly) to the snack food universe. (Whoever made the contribution, seriously, thank you!).
Chip Festival is presented by the Saratoga Springs Lions Club, and with $5 general admission, it won’t put a dent in your wallet or purse. Plus, children 12 and under get in for free. So check out Chip Festival this Saturday, or any of these other fun events happening in and around Saratoga.
I love straws. I mean, who doesn’t think an ice-cold water—or margarita, if you’re me—tastes better sucked than sipped? (Well, my boyfriend doesn’t, but he hates bagels, so he can’t be trusted.) As an avid, if not fanatical, recycler, (hide your empties) I’m quite torn. Apparently, or so my Earth-loving, Vermont-dwelling Facebook friends have pointed out, straws are bad for the environment. First grocery bags, and now this? I already have a meltdown whenever I forget my reusable Hannaford bags at home—so what am I to do when all I want is a Coffee Traders vanilla iced coffee with extra ice to go? Sip it straight out of the cup? What am I? Some sort of wild animal?
In my research into the straw crisis (see Saratoga’s Mint Crisis for more calamitous news), I came across strawlessocean.org, which has informed me of several life-altering facts:
Americans use over 500 million straws every day.
Most plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter.
Seventy-one percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have been found with plastics in their stomachs.
By the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
As much as I’d like to hate the messenger—these Strawless Ocean people—I can really only hate myself. How many sea turtles have had straws stuck up their noses because of my coffee-loving ways?
Starbucks’ Cold Foam Cascara Cold Brew comes in a cup with a straw-free lid. (Natalie Moore)
But enough about the problem. I’ve found the solution! While out for drinks at Hamlet & Ghost—home of Saratoga’s best, and probably only, Gin Gin Fizz—I found (*drumroll*) reusable straws! In two varieties! One was a metal straw, peeping out of a Whiskey River, and one was a reusable plastic one, in the legendary Gin Gin Fizz. My (slightly buzzed) mind was blown. The mastermind behind Hamlet & Ghost’s decision to swear off single-use straws is owner Brendan Dillon. “It’s easy for us to see just how much waste there is with plastic straws,” he tells me. “We don’t like to see hundreds of them go into the garbage every night. More and more bars have been making the switch over [to reusable straws], especially in New York and California. It’s just about doing our part.” The Mouzon House, Dillon says, has also switched its straw policy, but to no straws, rather than reusable ones. Saratoga Tea & Honey Co. has also jumped on the reusable straw bandwagon, and Caffè Lena now uses cardboard straws in their drinks.
One of the reusable straws that Hamlet & Ghost is now using at its location in Downtown Saratoga. (Hamlet & Ghost)
Of course, Hamlet & Ghost and The Mouzon House are dine-in restaurants and bars, so reusable straws and no-straw policies are practical endeavors. It’s fast food chains, where customers take their drinks to go, and need lids on their cups, that will have a harder time making the transition to a no-straw policy or to compostable (usually paper) straws. Starbucks, however, announced July 9 that it will eliminate plastic straws from all of its locations by the year 2020. The company’s Seattle locations have already made the change, as the entire city—all 5,000 restaurants—banned the use of single-use plastic straws and utensils as of July 1, a movement the city is calling “Strawless in Seattle.” The rest of Starbucks’ locations, including the one on Washington Street and Broadway in Saratoga, which I stopped by the morning of the company’s announcement, have started the transition to strawless with their Cold Foam Cascara Cold Brew, which comes with a lid you can sip right out of. Starbucks also has long had reusable cups for sale, offering customers ten cents off their beverage order when they bring their own cup.
Realistically, straws make up only about four percent of plastic trash by number of pieces, and less than that by weight. But straws are a “gateway plastic,” says actor Adrian Grenier, who co-founded Lonely Whale, a foundation that campaigns for people to #StopSucking (which, by the way, is quite applicable to life outside of straw sipping, if I do say so myself). Straws are one way people can easily understand the pollution problem, and giving them up is relatively easy to do. Plus, talking about straws leads to larger conversations about pollution as a whole. Since the Lonely Whale campaign started, many celebrities, including actresses Ellen Pompeo and Amanda Seyfried, have made the pledge to #StopSucking. “OK, Adrien and my friends at Lonely Whale,” Pompeo said in an August 2017 Instagram video. “I accept your challenge, and I vow never to suck again.”
I’m thinking about making the pledge, too, despite my love for straw-sucking. I already have a reusable cup—I just have to start remembering it on my coffee runs. And with two delicious single-use straw-free options (the Cascara Cold Brew and any of Hamlet & Ghost’s amazing cocktails) right here in Saratoga, I may just succeed.
