William Parker, James Brandon Lewis, BASIC, Marc Ribot and Maria Usbeck
Plus, umbrellas for protests, heat, humidity, and Hudson Valley Sounds.
This Week:
The week in preview in the Hudson Valley Show Paper. Art, events, protests, shows, rallies, exhibitions, meetings, be-ins, and umbrella workshops.
Hudson Valley Sounds with Jaded Azurites, Michael Bisio, and Jason “Wolfman” Martin.
Greene County-based transmission artist Julia Weist discusses her lurking inside the surveillance system.
Important Local Reads from Mayuko Fujino, Catie Hilverman, Ben Noll, and Wreckless Eric.
First off, the heat and humidity will impact anything happening in the Hudson Valley this week, so check for cancelations and delays. Secondly, this is one of the best weeks locally for jazz fans with a free William Parker/Patricia Nicholson outdoor show, plus William Hooker, Alan Braufman, and James Brandon Lewis in Kingston, and other performances from Mike Pride, Jazzmeia Horn, Marc Ribot, and Corey Wallace. Stay hydrated out there, and read below for the best Hudson Valley events of the week.
Monday, June 23
Avg. 85°, Low 73° at 5 a.m., High 98° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
PROTEST
A candlelight (!) vigil on a very hot day against the new United States war in Iran from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in front of the Elting Memorial Library, on Main Street, in New Paltz.
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MUSIC
Ukrainian band Vopli Vidopliassova is joined by Matt Darriau of The Klezmatics at The Falcon, in Marlboro, NY.
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FILM
Also punk DJ Mike Schnapp spinning.
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MUSIC
Faun Fables with local hero Rager opening at The Avalon Lounge, Catskill.
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Tuesday, June 24
Avg. 85°, Low 74° at 5 a.m., High 97° at 2 p.m. per Merry Sky.
MUSIC
Kilt, Kite, Spreaders, and Instant Harm bring the noise to Catskill.
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Wednesday, June 25
Avg. 81°, Low 74° at 11 p.m., High 89° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
MUSIC
BASIC is back at Tubby’s, Kingston. Best guitarist?
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MUSIC
Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog — Ribot on guitar and vocals, Shahzad Ismaily on bass, moog, and electronics, and Ches Smith on drums and electronics — perform in Albany.
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Thursday, June 26
Avg. 73°, Low 69° at 5 a.m., High 80° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
PROTEST
The group “Not Above the Law” writes, “On Thursday, June 26, we’re showing up at courthouses and town squares across the country to say: in America, we don’t let the government disappear people. That’s not who we are…. A key focal point of this campaign will be to call on local sheriffs to refuse to cooperate with directives from ICE to engage in federal immigration enforcement, such as renting jail beds to ICE, participating in immigration raids, and transferring people to ICE detentions. Sheriffs have wide discretion in how much they cooperate with ICE. Participation in federal immigration activities places additional burden on sheriffs’ offices and can erode local community trust in local law enforcement.” Protest is 2-3 p.m. in Kingston.
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MUSIC
Jazz legends William Hooker, Alan Braufman, and James Brandon Lewis at Tubby’s. Performing the recently unearthed 1977 album “A Time Within”
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MUSIC
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MUSIC
Ecuadorian musician Maria Usbeck, Venezuelan artist Lulannie, and Brooklyn’s Michael Beharie in Catskill.
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Also:
June 26: The Straps and Julia Blair in Hudson.
June 26: Blasé Debris, Dmitry Wild (album release), The Dionysus Effect at No Fun, Troy.
Friday, June 27
Avg. 70°, Low 65° at 5 a.m., High 76° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
MUSIC
Swedish unpop band Leopardo plays after Kingston’s Tiny Blue Ghost and Jelly Kelly open at Tubby’s.
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Saturday, June 28
Avg. 72°, Low 66° at 5 a.m., High 78° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
RADIO
Amateur Radio Field Day 2025, Saturday June 28 - Sunday June 29, 2 p.m. - 2 p.m., where the public is invited and may operate radios. Also, there will be emergency operations demonstrations and contests. At 69 Connelly Rd, Hillsdale.
DETAILS.
OPENING
This is the first institutional solo exhibition of Harold Stevenson in New York, with a 3:30 p.m. performance at Art Omi in Ghent from audio composer, choreographer, and sculptor Kinlaw.
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MUSIC
Vocalist Jazzmeia Horn, and Black Nile at Mass MOCA, in North Adams, MA.
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Also:
June 28: Junior Toots at Colony, Woodstock.
June 28: Corey Wallace Dublet at Love Velma, Ellenville.
June 28: Community Rave Network at The Avalon Lounge, Catskill.
Sunday, June 29
Avg. 73°, Low 66° at 5 a.m., High 80° at 5 p.m. per Merry Sky.
MUSIC
Free outdoor concert from jazz legends William Parker (above) and Patricia Nicholson at Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. If you have never seen Parker, you must at some point.
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WORKSHOP
Local artist Elisa Tucci leads a workshop in Kingston on how to strategically paint umbrellas for rallies and protests. Attendees should bring their own plain umbrella, with painting supplies and snacks provided.
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Also:
June 29: Todd Rundgren at The Egg, Albany.
June 29: Julie Doiron, Caged Animnals, Luah at Tubby’s, Kingston.
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Monday, June 30
FILM
The film “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me” screens, with directors Drew Nicola and Olivia Mori taking questions afterwards in Saugerties.
DETAILS.
Also:
“Transformers” closing party at Baba Yaga Gallery, Hudson.
Peretsky, Vildava, Lea Bertucci and Michael Beharie at The Avalon Lounge, Catskill.
COMING SOON
Jaded Azurites — Columbia County-based poet Karen Schoemer on voice and Mike Watt from the Minutemen on bass — release their sixth album on June 27. Below, “Inshallah,” is out now, written by schoemer/watt, produced by watt, with train footage by Schoemer, and Gaza footage by Shorouk Mohamed Abu Deeb for the video edited by Schoemer.
MICHAEL BISIO
Hudson Valley-based bassist Michael Bisio on this just reissued 1983 recording with Richard Mandyck on saxes, Ron Soderstrom on trumpet, Beth Chandler on violin, Bob Nell on piano, and John Bishop playing drums.
ARONE DYER
Arone Dyer (from Hudson-based Buke and Gase) leads her Dronechoir on Saturday, June 28 at Roulette Intermedium, at 509 Atlantic Ave., in Brooklyn with a live webstream here. Dyer has a preview of the show, and an update on her volunteer fire-fighting, here.
Fast Forward FireFighter!
Next show is June 28 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NYC
WILL STRATTON
Beacon-based Will Stratton is off to Europe in July.
JASON WOLFMAN MARTIN
The imminent arrival of a new album from Troy-based Jason “Wolfman” Martin is the biggest news in Hudson Valley music this month. Martin specializes in snappy, weird pop songs, makes entrancing low-fi experimental analog videos, and often wears hybrid wolf-human costumes in his “Power Animal System” project. So far, all we have is a social media-shared track list of the forthcoming album. Martin says the cassette “Powertape” will be out in August.
Last weekend the Greene County-based transmission artist Julia Weist, who teaches at Bard, was included in the group show “The Arrested Image: Identity Through the Lens of Law Enforcement,” curated by Sophie Landres, that opened June 21 and is up through Nov. 2 in the Dorsky Museum’s Chandler and North Galleries. Above, her “Vehicle Sightings” gives you a peek at her interactive, thought-provoking work. In 2015, Weist's public artwork “Reach” went viral: it was just a single word ("parbunkells"), that had never been used on the Internet, on a billboard in Forest Hills, Queens.
Somebody has your data
Weist previously wrote this stunning opinion article in the Times Union (photo above). Weist writes, “In 2022 I became a licensed private investigator, and my neighbors’ data is returned when I search for myself in the powerful databases I gained access to once I became a PI…. I applied for this license after taking a state-issued exam at the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building in Albany and completing an FBI background check. My application was unusual because my investigative experience has come entirely from working as an artist: I create research-intensive projects for exhibitions in galleries and museums, often about the use and misuse of data. Typical applicants for PI licenses are retired police officers or fire marshals who’ve been on a force for at least 20 years. I received a government contract to do research in 2019 — part of a public art commission — but it wasn’t clear if this and similar projects would be considered relevant to the application. So I was surprised when I received an approval letter from the Division of Licensing Services.”
Listen to my interview, recorded last October, and cut off, with Weist below.
This past weekend, Weist’s work also opened in another show, in California. Weist writes, “From 2020-2021, I invited each of my elected officials for a studio visit and many accepted. I photographed those who came including a Superintendent of Highways, County Judge, Town Clerk and even New York’s current Lieutenant Governor (then a Congressman)…. ‘Lobbying: Studio Visits with My Elected Officials.’ I now think of these works as documentation not of the interaction but of a methodology that involves being a hyper engaged citizen stuffing art into the open windows of civic systems. So the “Slow School” show at @moskowitzbayse for the gallery’s 10th anniversary includes Weist’s photos of Joseph Stanzione (District Attorney), Charles M. Tailleur (County Judge), Shawn Marriott (Town Supervisor), Janet Partridge (Town Clerk), Joseph van Holsteyn (Highway Superintendent), and Patricia Handel (County Legislator, above). “Slow School” is up from Aug. 16.
BEAKUENCY
"The Birds of America", an Audubon-inspired stop-motion animation piece by John Quinn
A piece made up of 1,000 photographs of Audubon's birds, inspired by the artist's time at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, where he learned about the complicated past of James Audubon.
By Mayuko Fujino
ALL MY DEAD AND LIVING THINGS
Before You Vote: Kamal Johnson, Joe Ferris, and Who They Are Beneath the Platform
Five questions for Hudson’s Democratic mayoral candidates — about values, memory, and what’s worth protecting.
By Caitie Hilverman
BEN NOLL WEATHER
Blast of heat and humidity to start week
Update #659: The week will start with record-breaking heat and extreme humidity in the Hudson Valley, followed by a return of rain.
By Ben Noll
WRECKLESS ERIC
Broccoli - my first greenhouse, adventures outside the recording studio...
By Wreckless Eric
Former Catskill resident Wreckless Eric has moved back to England, but started a Substack column.
Tom Roe, the writer of this column, makes this weekly radio show.
Donald Drumpf Theatre 242: The Fortunate Son Falls Asleep At His Soggy Birthday Parade While Five Million March Against Him
Democracy makes a small comeback, but will it get locked away?
This week: “The Fortunate Son Falls Asleep At His Soggy Birthday Parade While Five Million March Against Him.” The new/old president needs an elbow in the side this week on the “Donald Drumpf Theatre” radio show. Opening theme includes clips from Rod Serling; Bill Cosby; Donald Drumpf; Eric Cartman; Jon Stewart; Richard Nixon; Kent Brockman; and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Thanks for the songs from Golden Earring ("Twilight Zone"), Pavement (“No More Kings”), Kim Gordon (“Bye Bye 25”), The Rolling Stones (“Paint It Black”), Metallica (“King Nothing”), and Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Fortunate Son”). Clips and excerpts from Seth Meyers; John Oliver; Jimmy Kimmel; Stephen Colbert; Karen Bass; and Ali Velshi. Episode 242.
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