“I’ve been listening to Tony E since he’s been a senior in High School. He used to play basketball and I always would see him and Brian O’Connor beatboxing and freestyling. I’ve followed his music career since then and believe he’s one of the best storytellers to call New York home. He’s Beacon through and through and you can feel it in his music.”
— Ali T. Muhammad
Tony Echandy lived in Beacon for more than a minute. Performing at the Spirit of Beacon Day last year before he took the leap to leave Beacon for NYC, the rapper known as Tony E will be on the Spirit of Beacon’s Main Stage on Veteran’s Place at 2:30pm.
Hailed for his gritty, emotional and raw lyrics, Tony’s vulnerable delivery makes his songs captivating. Last year, Tony had released “Life Is Crazy.” His latest track, “Ice Cold” is out now. LyricalLemonade declared: “If you’re a fan of gritty, underground hip-hop, then you need to check out Tony E’s new single ‘Ice Cold.’”
Says Ali T. Muhammad, a Beaconite, former City Council member and current Spirit of Beacon Board Member: “I’ve been listening to Tony E since he’s been a senior in High School. He used to play basketball and I always would see him and Brian O’Connor beatboxing and freestyling. I’ve followed his music career since then and believe he’s one of the best storytellers to call New York home. He’s Beacon through and through and you can feel it in his music.”
Catch Tony E freestyling “On The Radar,” where he returned after 4 years as the Radar got off the ground. Keep up with Tony E on his Instagram and YouTube. He’s hard to catch, as he travels to LA and other locations for different experiences.
Co-Organizer Tim Parsaca sets up the bonfire area at Veterans Place, in preparation for the live music and performances playing there on Saturday, November 5, 2022. Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth
Warm November wind swirled crunchy leaves between parked cars on Main Street as the sun came out through the morning fog once again in Beacon, NY, creating the perfect Saturday scene for the first Beacon Bonfire Festival. Starting Friday and erupting Saturday (November 4 and 5) is a schedule of 100 live performers and artists in 14 venues and galleries.
All of Main Street was open, while Veterans Place (side street between Post Office and Towne Crier and across from Masjid Ar-Rashid Islamic Teaching Center) was closed so that people could enjoy dancing, sitting in patio couches around a fire pit, and watching performances. The casual setting, however, made it feel like Main Street was closed as people slowed down to walk, watch and listen.
This big concept idea is being described as an “immersive music and arts exploration” by its organizers, who include a collection of performers, including Kelly Ellenwood, who is behind some of Beacon’s longest lasting initiatives, including Wee Play, the Beacon Free Loop, and busy time served for BeaconArts.
An aerialist performs during the first Beacon Bonfire as the first band at the Veterans Place stage starts. Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth
Starting from the embers of bonfires made during the height of the COVID pandemic, when everyone was separated and could not gather indoors, a group of Beaconites gathered outside around a bonfire in locations that were sometimes not announced until the day of the bonfire. Co-organizers Christian and America Olivo Campbell told the Highlands Current that they started the bonfires as a way to make it through the pandemic. The first one had 20 people, and it grew from there as more dates were put into the calendar spread via group texts. Jeremy Schonfeld came on board to organize the music from his connections in the Beacon music scene, and Kelly’s husband Tim Parsaca, who worked for Madison Square Garden for decades building or “unbuilding” sets, as Christian puts it.
Venues Participating In The Beacon Bonfire
Venues for this festival include the main stage at Veterans Place, which has patio couches set up around fire pits, Reserva Wine Bar, Bank Square, Lotus Works Gallery, Dennings Point Distillery, Quinn’s, Found Space 364, B House, Towne Crier, the Beacon Building, Silica Studio, Masonic Lodge, KuBe Art Center (aka The Old Beacon High School), Howland Cultural Center, Maria Lago Studio, and Dogwood.
Performers Performing During The Beacon Bonfire
Beaconites will recognize several names, and see a few new ones including of the spoken word. Lena Rizkallah who ALBB’s sister company Tin Shingle has written about and is normally associated with financial advice and education, will be storytelling with Bridget O’Neill’s group at the Masonic Lodge. You can find Nina Day and Friends, the Wynotte Sisters, the Whispering Tree, Toybox with Rinde Eckert and Friends, The Costellos, Tara O’Grady, Stephen Clair Band, Spilled Milk, and many others.
Brandon Lillard and Katie Hellmuth were able to interview two of the performers before the Saturday got rolling: The Costellos and Beacon Performing Arts Center. The Costellos shared two songs with the podcast, that was live streamed on A Little Beacon Blog’s Instagram. The first song gave serious beach vibes, and the second was a dreamy love note between the two, written during a seven week stint that they were away from each other.
Listen to the full interview at Wait What Is That? when it gets published next week.
Under the ornamental rafters of this historic landmark building, Tara will be interviewing Jon Slackman of Five Corner Films about their music video collaboration, and also performing with guitarist Tony DePaolo. DATE: ON DEMAND: March 11-25 ORDER TICKETS HERE > WATCH PROMO HERE >
Beaconite and singer Tara O’Grady has been busy since moving to Beacon from NYC after she survived her long battle with COVID-19 one year ago, which did weaken her voice, thereby canceling her singing career. Upon moving to Beacon, she searched around for new creative income opportunities.
Since then, she has been selling her vintage clothing collection from the 1940s-1960s at Jaz On Main; as well as her 5 albums of jazz, blues and folk music; hosted a book signing for her memoir “Migrating Toward Happiness” at Draught; making music videos with collaborator and film maker Jon Slackman of Five Corner Films; and this Saturday, March 11, 2021 at 8pm, is airing their first live-streamed TV show, “Howlin’ at the Howland," also created with Jon.
The singer/songwriter moved to Beacon, New York in August 2020 and “discovered the jewel of her new town, the Howland Cultural Center,” she says. The show will be performed live from within the Howland Cultural Center and then streamed On Demand for limited time, showcasing the Howland’s revered, architecturally ornate backdrop. Viewers can buy tickers here to support the show.
In each episode, Tara will be interviewing a local artist and co-creating with them using their artform, whether it be filmmaking (episode one), music, painting, writing, dress making, photography, etc. In addition, between the art making interviews. Tara will then perform live with different musicians.
Tara tells A Little Beacon Blog: “The show airs a full year and a day after I last performed live in front of an audience in Manhattan. I have not been able to sing since last March when all my gigs and my income ceased. It took me all year to gain back my strength and my voice after having COVID.” Musicians and other live performers have felt the emotional withdraw from connecting with a live audience in the same room, as we heard with the Beacon-based Wynotte Sisters.
About The First Episode
The premiere of Episode One is called "Seasons of Love" featuring the 4 seasons Tara has experienced in the Hudson Valley through cinematography and classic jazz songs about summer, autumn, winter and spring.
Under the ornamental rafters of this historic landmark building, Tara will be interviewing Jon Slackman of Five Corner Films about their music video collaboration, and also performing with guitarist Tony DePaolo.
And Inside Look At This Beaconite’s Battle With COVID
Tara, a writer, shared with us her experience surviving COVID in the early months of 2020 that it was recognized in this country. This is her story:
I just moved to Beacon two weeks ago. It was love at first sight. I had never been here before July when I decided to escape NYC. I stepped on to Main Street and within seconds said out loud, this is my new home. I'm a jazz singer. My last day performing in Manhattan was March 10. I didn't know it would be my last. I didn't know how serious the virus was. My fever started March 24. It lasted 21 days. The shortness of breath lingered for 5 weeks. I couldn't sing. I couldn't even walk half a block to a store. It took me all summer to build up my strength to be able to walk two miles and not get out of breath, to be able to ride a bike up a low incline. But I'm better now. Despite being an unemployed musician. My unemployed neighbors in Queens were also struggling. They are still lining up daily at community centers to receive free food. They are sleeping on mattresses on the sidewalk. Crime has increased. So has suicide. I wanted to get out and find a place where I felt safe. I've only been here two weeks and I've been able to attend live music in the Towne Crier, outdoor yoga at the Stony Kill Farm, and connect with musicians and other artists in town who are as open and friendly as my family back in Ireland. I've never felt so embraced by a community so quickly, except for Donegal where I spent every summer on a farm with my grandparents.
Before I even found an apartment, Jaz on Main, the vintage store, offered to host a book signing for me when I went in to try to sell them my vintage clothing collection that I wear when I perform. I'm also an author with a published memoir. I had plans to continue to perform at book launches and teach writing from here to Europe, but all was put on pause. Living in Beacon for me will me more than a pause to wait out the global pandemic. I have finally found a place to call home, something I've been searching for my entire life. I really love it here.
Artisan Wine Shop was one of the first to announce the drop of the Wynotte Sisters Christmas Album, ”Christmas Spirits” a band here in Beacon made of up 3 women who are each in additional bands and have wide-ranging careers in music. They travel the country and world, teach classes, serve as bartenders, and work in wine shops. You most likely have seen their faces, but you might not know anything about them behind-the-scenes.
One of the sisters, Sara Milonovich, is a a well-known part-time worker in Artisan Wine (she’s now gone full-time mid-pandemic). The Wynotte Sisters play at Dogwood and other venues from time to time (Dogwood is closed for the winter to say safe during pandemic). After Artisan promoted the album (download it here!), A Little Beacon Blog reached out to the sisters to check in and see how they were doing mid-pandemic. With event venues closing, and singing together to record a song a little risky, what are their lives like right now?
These are fascinating reads, and are unedited so that you can experience them in full. Give each a minute. The world as they knew it stopped for them on different days in March, 2020.
Sara Milonovich when she was 12. This is her very first recording on a cassette of her on the fiddle. She remastered it for digital download during the pandemic. Please also note her rockin’ turtie-neck. Photo Credit: Sara Milonovich
I've been a full time professional musician for the past 20 years, as a fiddler/violinist/singer/songwriter in a variety of scenes/genres: with my own alt-country band, Daisycutter; as a freelance accompanist for artists like Richard Shindell; as a recording artist for hire; teaching fiddle and songwriting at camps and in private lessons; and subbing the violin chair for the Broadway musical, "Come From Away." (As well as with the Wynotte Sisters!) I'd also been working part time, two days a week, at Artisan Wine Shop, for the past 5 years.
I played my last show on Broadway on March 10: on March 12, Broadway went dark, and by that weekend every other gig I had through the summer had been cancelled (cancellations would continue to roll in throughout the coming weeks as well.)
“Even finishing those songs during the pandemic was a unique challenge: when we needed to record one final song, we created an outdoor “recording booth” out of packing blankets so we could all sing together - but without having to be in the same room with more closely-spaced microphones like we would have done before! ”
— Sara Milonovich
I went in to work at Artisan Wine Shop the following Monday, and with the lockdown going into full effect, wine sales increased so dramatically that I began working full time (actually overtime those first couple of weeks), and have remained full time ever since. That, combined with some recording projects I've been able to do from my home studio, have "kept the lights on" during the pandemic. It still feels incredibly surreal, and not a little ironic to me, even after so many months.
As far as my life as a musician though, it's been devastating. Financially, of course, but also mentally and emotionally. The sense of isolation and loneliness is overwhelming at times. And of course it's professionally devastating as well, not just personally, but our whole industry is in jeopardy now. (How do you even try to rebook tours into venues that don't know whether they'll be able to survive long enough to reopen?)
I've played some live stream shows this year- although the technology is a good additional resource to connect with people, there's absolutely no substitute for the energy and magic that happens at a live performance, and I think when things do get better, we'll all be so thrilled to embrace that sort of real, live, human connection again.
I have a new record with my band Daisycutter that will be released next year- hopefully at that point we'll be able to see some progress towards whatever the "new normal" ends up being.
With the Wynotte Sisters, the holiday season is our busiest time of year, and we look forward to those shows all year long. Without the chance to perform live, we decided this year would be the time to gather the songs we had been recording over the last few years and put them together in a full length album.
Even finishing those songs during the pandemic was a unique challenge: when we needed to record one final song, we created an outdoor "recording booth" out of packing blankets so we could all sing together - but without having to be in the same room with more closely-spaced microphones like we would have done before! Luckily the weather held out for the day we had planned to record!
We like to joke that we're not really a "garage band" so much as a "dining room table band", so we wanted to offer some holiday cheer for people to listen to as they enjoyed smaller holiday celebrations at home this year, hence the title of the album, "Christmas Spirits", and all the images that conjures up.
The best thing people can do in the meantime, is support independent artists the same way they should support small businesses (that's what we are, after all) - shop local, and buy albums, merch, or downloads directly from the artists, rather than using a streaming service such as Spotify.
I have been a musician (I'm a bass/ukulele/guitar player and singer) and part time bartender/server for the last 25 years, and for the last 7 years I've also been teaching at Beacon Music Factory - individual lessons as well as group classes and adult rock camps. Besides the Wynotte Sisters, I also play with my own band the Pre-War Ponies, Daisycutter, Stephen Clair, Hank & the Skinny Three, and the Jack Grace Band to name a few. Needless to say I was pretty busy before March 14th.
I played my last gig in NYC on March 12th, my monthly residency with the Pre-War Ponies at Barbes, a small bar and venue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was supposed to play at SXSW in Austin with Stephen Clair in March, fly to Atlanta to start working with Edan Everly (son of Don Everly) in April, and play a festival with Sara and Daisycutter in Montana in July. All cancelled. I was smack in the middle of a Neil Young rock bootcamp, which abruptly came to a halt and has yet to resume. The restaurant I work at in Newburgh shut down for 3 months, and most of my individual lessons stopped too.
The first thing I did after realizing I had almost no work and barely any income was to go and buy gardening supplies - seeds, starter trays, a little plastic greenhouse for my porch etc. I figured I could grow at least some of my food, and it gave me something to do that I wouldn't have had time for normally. Then I applied for food stamps, and eventually, unemployment.
“The first thing I did after realizing I had almost no work and barely any income was to go and buy gardening supplies - seeds, starter trays, a little plastic greenhouse for my porch etc. I figured I could grow at least some of my food, and it gave me something to do that I wouldn’t have had time for normally. Then I applied for food stamps, and eventually, unemployment. ”
— Daria Grace
I've been very lucky, actually. The restaurant reopened in mid-June, and I also started working one or two days a week with my friend's ecological landscaping business around the same time. Musically I've been fortunate as well, as I have had multiple opportunities to play live outside in safely distanced situations through the summer, and even a few live Facebook shows with no audience. Yesterday (12/6/2020), Sara, Greg, Vibeke and I made a little video (outdoors!) for an upcoming virtual holiday show sponsored by the Colony in Woodstock. It was a balmy 39 degrees, and I think all our fingers were frozen solid by the time we got it right, but it felt so good to sing and play that none of us cared.
“So many of my musician friends are struggling right now - financially and emotionally, and I even know a couple people who died of COVID. It’s also tragic that so many long running music venues will be closing forever, and criminal that a lot of this suffering could have been avoided with better leadership on a National level.”
— Daria Grace
So many of my musician friends are struggling right now - financially and emotionally, and I even know a couple people who died of COVID. It's also tragic that so many long running music venues will be closing forever, and criminal that a lot of this suffering could have been avoided with better leadership on a National level. The whole country will be struggling to heal from the effects of this pandemic for years to come, and we've been changed forever. I just hope we can learn from our mistakes and continue to help each other through this dark time.
Vibeke Saugestad, a translator of fiction from English to Norwegian, with her new Penguin, after mastering ventriloquism. Photo Credit: Vibeke Saugestad
I work as a translator of fiction, from English to Norwegian. Right now I am translating Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half. I also read audio books in a small home-made basement studio. Both my translation work and my audio book work is freelance, for Norwegian publishers.
I have been very fortunate, as my day job didn’t change much with Covid. I guess the book industry is really the one part of the cultural sector that hasn't suffered substatially. If anything, people have found more time to read, and have turned to literature for comfort and entertainment.
As far as The Wynotte Sisters goes, that all stopped, of course, and I have sure missed my sisters, our regular rehearsals around the dining room table, the odd gig throughout the year and of course, our Christmas tour. We had big plans for Christmas 2020, but we are happy to be able to get some holiday cheer out to people with a digital release, and hopefully some time in 2021, we’ll be able to pick up where we left. One fun thing that came out of lockdown, was that I started doing ventriloquism. A way to be creative without having to socialize with others, I guess. I’ve had lots of fun with my Punguin, and I hope, have put a smile on some people’s faces.
Original, folk and grassroots activist musicians have been the heartbeat of Clearwater’s musical community; and over two dozen artists from around the country will be performing in a 12-hour Mother’s Day Tribute to Toshi Seeger on Sunday, May 10th from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The event will be curated by a favorite Clearwater Festival performer, Fred Gillen Jr.
Tribute to Toshi Seeger
This Mother’s Day event will be a special tribute to Toshi Seeger, whose creative vision and environmental work made an enormous impact in the Hudson Valley, which lives on in Clearwater’s traditions still today. Beyond being an organizer, mother, road manager, photographer, and camera woman, Pete often credited his wife Toshi as being "the brains behind the operation.” Toshi also served on the Newport folk Festival board from its inception, insisting that they bring the musicians to the stage that were the mentors to the popular folk musicians of the ‘60s. She helped found Folklore Research Films, worked on the Rainbow Quest TV Series, produced by Sholem Rubenstein. Toshi was also the Executive Producer of "The Power of Song." She booked many musicians for Clearwater’s Great Hudson Revival, started the groundbreaking Litter-Picking & Recycling initiative and ensured wheelchair accessibility and ASC Interpretative Signing at the Festival.
Story tributes to Toshi Seeger will happen throughout the day by musicians, Seeger family members and others.
Facebook Live Concert Lineup
The Facebook Live concert will raise much needed funds for Clearwater’s critical environmental action initiatives and educational programming. Performers and presenters include: David and Jacob Bernz, Laura Bowman, Tom Breiding, Sarah Browne, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, Julie Corbalis, John Cronin, Moraya DeGeare, KJ Denhert, Emma's Revolution, Susan Fisher Wright, Lori Frazer-Gross, Fred Gillen, Jr, Shirl and Steve Kaplan of Great Blue, Manna Jo Greene, Lisa Gutkin, Reggie Harris, Markley & Balmer, Mel and Vinnie, Rick and Donna Nestler, Tinya Seeger, Carolann Solebello, Spook Handy, and Matt Turk.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis and leaves many of us unable to be together on Mother’s Day. We hope to bring families together and share some music in the spirit of Clearwater’s folk and grassroots tradition.
This concert and other Clearwater fundraising efforts support the important environmental work, which includes:
promoting safe decommissioning of nuclear power plants, including Indian Point. Clearwater sponsored the ground-breaking Fall 2019 Regional Decommissioning Forum whose information was the foundation of legislative policy in 2020 for a state-wide Decommissioning Oversight Board of New York State agencies;
opposing new fossil fuel plants such as the proposed Danskammer expansion;
participating in the investigation of industrial runoff into the Hudson River from riverfront communities;
promoting the cleanup of PFOS, which contaminated Newburgh’s drinking water supply, from the source at Stewart Air National Guard Base;
ensuring accountability in the ongoing participation in the Hudson River PCB remediation;
and building a renewable energy future with the development of a seven-county Mid-Hudson Regional Renewable Energy Implementation Plan.
Launched in 1969 by legendary folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater has been at the forefront of the environmental movement as champions of the Hudson River. To date, more than half a million people have experienced their first real look at an estuary’s ecosystem aboard the sloop Clearwater. Clearwater has become the grassroots model for producing positive changes to protect our planet. For more information, visit www.clearwater.org.
It's a busy Friday. It's a Friday where some banks opened to take applications from businesses applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), but there's a flood of applications and some banks are delaying in order to prevent fraud. The new owners of Homespun Foods have been on it like bonnets from the beginning, trying to save their restaurant, and applied today, and have a hopeful response. We'll send you their story soon.
In the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) department, masks are being talked about in a big way for a variety of reasons. There's the shortage of hospital-grade ones. Beacon Makers, organized by the Mutual Aid Beacon and Beacon Moms Group (and possibly others) have also been on it like bonnets and have been making CDC-approved emergency masks for weeks to try to help the front lines at the hyperlocal level in Beacon and beyond. The making continues, as a lot more masks and gowns are needed.
All of these articles are going to come to you, but after our regularly scheduled Retail Therapy Guide. Get this guide, know how to get your wine delivered, treat yourself to a new shirt or pair of glasses, and then continue on with the harder stuff.
BUT FIRST, A THANKS TO OUR ADVERTISERS
As best we can, people are trying to pay in place - keep the system moving as if money is still flowing. A Little Beacon Blog has some advertisers who have stayed on, and we appreciate them so much. Their support helps us report on the virus, and business developments in town. To those businesses who needed to pull out, we get it! And we support you too, and know that we are cheering for you to make it to the other side of the apex.
Advertisers trying to continue to support us (give them extra love!):
Antalek & Moore Insurance Agents.
As you juggle which bills to pay, pay your insurance bill if it's through an agent. If people skip their insurance premiums, the good people at Antalek & Moore don't get their commissions. Antalek & Moore employs several people, and they work hard doing homework to make your home and business insurance life easier. If you aren't in their good hands yet, call them today to transfer your insurance to them. Honestly. They do the work for you. They find the right fit with an insurance carrier, and they do the rest. Need a new Workers Comp policy? They are on it. Change of address? Done.
Binnacle Books.
Huge supporters of many movements. Order your books through their easy web page. The fact that an independent bookstore even opened in the past few years is amazing, and now they're riding out a pandemic.
Eat Church.
Bless them. Their food truck is powered down for now and they are still supporting ALBB. They are also involved with Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), so any extra love we can throw ARF's way to encourage you to donate to help the dogs and cats, we will. Donate here. Or adopt!
Luxe Optique.
Another huge supporter of local, and thinking outside the box to make things work, and make you happy with your vision and your style. We miss their faces and energy so much!
PTACEK Home.
Newbies to Beacon from Garrison, and they dove right in months before the pandemic shut them down. They have the custom-made furniture shop off the beaten path, but really they make homes and custom-designed furniture. See below for ideas.
LLTO (Live Light Travel Often).
Partners with PTACEK Home in the shop only, Tamara Reynolds is the founder of LLTO and its curated stock of beautiful products from her travels to Japan and knowledge of artisan-made goods.
Virtual Benefit Concert - Howland Chamber Music Circle Presents
Day: Saturday, April 4, 2020 Time: 8 pm ET, 7 pm CT, 5 pm PT PURCHASE TICKETS > OurConcerts.live, a new venture dedicated to supporting and promoting classical music, will bring together some of classical music’s biggest stars in a virtual benefit concert. Proceeds will go to the Artist Relief Tree, a new fund created to financially support artists who are affected by cancellations due to COVID-19.
OurConcerts.live is pleased to present an evening of extraordinary music. Streaming live from their homes, pianists Emanuel Ax and Jon Kimura Parker, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, clarinetist Anthony McGill, harpist Bridget Kibbey and others will give an intimate view into some of their favorite pieces. The artists are graciously donating their time to benefit their colleagues. Information >
Malfatti Glass: Free Giveaway
Day: Saturday, April 4, 2020 Time: 12 to 2 pm Digital Location: 10 Willow St., Beacon
Malfatti Glass is a local glass-blowing shop right here in Beacon, who is loved nationwide. Also, one of the glass-blowers, Jill, is your local representative on the Zoning Board. She and her husband Joe are giving away 50 pairs of Prosecco "Seconds" (glasses that for one reason or another would be included in their annual seconds sale) to show their support for the community during this time of anxiety and uncertainty. You can pick up, BUT you have to maintain social distance. Grab and go, don't linger, and wait for the person in front of you, six feet away, to leave first. The glasses have been sanitized, wrapped in clean tissue, packed in cardboard tubes, and the tubes wrapped in more tissue by a glove-wearing packer following best practices. Glasses will be available for pick-up from a box at the end of the driveway. Malfatti Glass: Raise A Glass for a Toast (digitally) Time: 8 pm Location: Instagram @malfattiglass or Facebook
Streaming
Day: All Day, Every Day Location: Your House
Local Beaconite Gwynne Watkins is an entertainment and culture journalist for Yahoo Entertainment, Vulture, Elle Magazine, and GQ. She gave A Little Beacon Blog recommendations for family-friendly TV watching. Get Details > SXSW Film Selections Will Stream On Amazon Prime For Free For 10 Days Get Details > HBO To Stream 500 Hours Of Free Programming, Including Full Seasons Of ‘Veep,’ ‘The Wire,’ ‘Silicon Valley’ Get Details >
A Little Beacon Blog updates our Restaurant Guide constantly. When we see changes on social media, or get a tip from a reader, we dive in and update. To cut to the chase of who is delivering and needs your biz: 2 Way Brewing (select days), Baja 328, Bank Square Coffee, The Beacon Daily, The Pandorica (good menu! great desserts), Big Mouth Coffee Roasters, BJ’s Soul Food, Melzingah Tap House, Miz Hattie’s BBQ, MoMo Valley (Himalayan), Max’s On Main, Quinn’s, Enoteca AMA, Roma Nova, Trax Coffee, Végétalien (check IG for dates).
Fundraisers have also been posted to the Guide, like for The Yankee Clipper's GoFundMe and Chill Wine Bar Gift Cert. Rumors of a few new openings may be around the corner, so keep refreshing that Restaurant Guide!
VÉGÉTALIEN
This weekend, Végétalien is doing a test run with DoorDash/Curbside Pick-Up/Takeout starting Friday, April 3, through Sunday, April 5, from 10 am to 3 pm. You can call to order at (845) 765-1943, send a message on their Instagram, order through DoorDash, or email at vegetalienbeacon@gmail.com. They will only be accepting cards or exact cash. If this weekend goes well, their takeout hours will be extended. Follow their Instagram for updates. Information > ARTISAN WINE SHOP
Wine and spirits delivery. Need we say more? Order online. In advance. Delivery or in-store pickup available. Start Browsing >
EAT CHURCH (Closed For Now)
Eat Church shared a super easy recipe for making bread at home. Here's what owner Mark says: "This is the most stripped-down bread recipe I've got, as it makes a great standard white loaf but requires so few ingredients and so little effort. Great one to make with kids as most folks have the ingredients in the pantry." Get the ingredients here > Eat Church is a Sponsor - thank you!
MIZ HATTIE'S - CURBSIDE DELIVERY
(inside Hudson Valley Food Hall)
We ordered it last week. There was so much food, we had lunch well into the next day, and snacks into the night. Bottles of wine are also available. A Little Beacon Blog has written about Miz Hattie's before. Order from Miz Hattie any day of the week.
BEACON FARMERS MARKET OPEN
The Beacon Farmers Market opens for pre-online ordering (Friday afternoon order deadline) and Sunday pickup. Normally, pre-ordering ends on Fridays for Sunday pickup, but you could maybe still try! Now also offering delivery. Details Here >
LUXE OPTIQUE
We know you are in Luxe Optique withdrawal. We are, too. We miss their energy. More importantly, you miss your next pair of frames. Here's what you need now: an easy pair of glasses that don't need the expert touch of Laurie or Ryan for adjusting. You need a pair of La Fonts, which may sit just right from the beginning. This Luxe Optique customer loves jogging in her leopard La Fonts. They never need fixing. Shop Now, Call Later! > Luxe Optique is a Sponsor - thank you!
THE CHOCOLATE STUDIO
Did you know that The Chocolate Studio also offers vegan and gluten-free brownies, vegan/GF cheesecake, cookies, vegan donuts, vegan mini-lemon bundt cakes, and vegan/GF raspberry bars? Order and pay online now! Delivery is FREE! Available on their website!
BINNACLE BOOKS
Binnacle Books is keeping their Instagram updated with books you can purchase online. They'll be delivering stock from the store directly to local customers or special-ordering new books from their distributors, which are shipped directly to your mailbox, whether you’re local or not. Order anything through https://www.binnaclebooks.com/order-books, and reach out via their Instagram DM with any questions! Get Details > Binnacle Books is a Sponsor - thank you!
PTACEK Home
See all of the looks created at PTACEK Home, and start dreaming. These looks can be in your home, too. Either from the showroom store in Beacon (when it re-opens), or custom-built or designed just for your space. Start Dreaming > PTACEK Home is a Sponsor - thank you!
LLTO (LIVE LIGHT TRAVEL OFTEN)
With all that is happening in the world, LLTO is grateful to practice and promote minimal living, rich with connection and quality. They can help you create your home sanctuary, with items that have meaning and purpose, and take advantage of their FREE SHIPPING*. These are naturally scented bath flakes from Tosaryu. Aromatic hinoki (Japanese cypress) chips. Sustainably made from recovered byproducts of the hinoki wood manufacturing process. Includes two pouches. $10. Made in Japan. Buy Online! > LLTO is a Sponsor - thank you!
ZAKKA JOY Shop online, with free shipping on all orders over $50 with coupon code EWGERMS, and free Beacon no-contact doorstep delivery with coupon code SHOPLOCAL.
SALON DAE with DANIELLE
Got transitioning hair? Are you a new curly girl? Not sure how to shampoo and condition? Danielle's got you, over at virtual Salon Dae. In this video, she treated one side of her hair with conditioner and she shares tips for the other side. Watch the video.
People have been craving schedule and routine in their lives. Fitness centers have been providing that. Here are a few:
BEBHAKTI YOGA
Tune into kids yoga on Tuesdays at 3:15 via zoom with BeBhakti Yoga! A great way in which our children can interact in a safe and fun manner, while being physically active and stimulated! And bonus, this can count as P.E. for home schooling! Parents, feel free to join in on sleepy pose at the end of class. Information >
FIREFLY YOGA
Digital yoga classes are also available through Firefly Yoga in Fishkill. Our Managing Editor, Marilyn Perez, teaches Slow Flow (Gentle) class Fridays at 11:30 am via Zoom. Open to all levels! Drop-in rate is $10. Sign up through the MINDBODY app at least an hour beforehand so you can receive the meeting room link.
ANTALEK & MOORE
Antalek & Moore has been hard at work (remotely) researching opportunities for small businesses and sharing them on their Facebook page - such as a recent SBA Webinar on YouTube about Economic Injury Disaster Loan Basics. Be sure to follow them also on Instagram! Antalek & Moore is a Sponsor - thank you!
We got a suggestion in from a reader, who wanted to know how to send financial support to A Little Beacon Blog to help us continue to produce. Even just $5. First of all: THANK YOU to that reader for wanting to do this!
If you are feeling like you want to contribute to ALBB as a reader, then visit thenew link in the ABOUT tab, called: “I Want To Support ALBB!” Different amounts are available, starting at $5. Clickhere or on the graphic above to learn more about how you can help! Support Here >
People Who Have Given Reading your comments about what ALBB means to your life has been humbling and keeps us going. Thank you. See Who Supported >
Did y’all notice that NOW 97.7 stopped playing Top 40 and started playing Country? You probably listen to Spotify, and this radio business is too old-school for you, but I for one do love listening to local radio in my car. The flipping around the stations for catching random songs cannot be beat. However, my kids are the boss of what we listen to (usually) and if it’s not Kidz Bop, it is/was 97.7. The raging debate for a while was if it was pronounced 97 “point” 7, or just plain 977 with no hyphen or dot. Apparently it was the latter!
But then, 97.7 as we know it disappeared. Country songs started coming out of those call letters in the first days of January 2020. This discovery was made in my older car, which has questionable, imprecise radio frequency, so I blamed it on that. Days later, I verified in my newer car, that indeed, country music was coming out of 97.7. Not that I don’t like country music. I like to line dance! But this was our Top 40 go-to spot on the FM dial.
Next, I verified the change with the 97.7 app. Yup. There, too, was the country. And now articles covering country celebrity gossip were in the news feed! As well as Hudson Valley headlines. The 97.7 app was still good for Hudson Valley headlines (as depressing as they could be, like when human remains are found behind a diner), which are now associated with the Hudson Valley Post. (Another not-great story that showed up when I looked at the station’s news: this one about New Paltz drinking water being contaminated.) It’s a less overwhelming place to go for headlines than Google News, though do keep going to your Google News, folks, as that source picks up A Little Beacon Blog headlines as well!
But finally, Wikipedia confirms the change, another step in the long and interesting history of WCZX 97.7. What this change really means for my family is… that I finally get to listen to K104.7 and WALL Radio - a move my son has protested against each time. But now we get to hear the celebrity headlines in the morning, and the mid-morning mashup of ‘90s songs. WALL Radio reads all of the political headlines. I’ll miss PopCrush Nights with Lisa Paige (hadn’t heard Kayla aka “KT” yet) that I would catch during Kid Pickup. Not sure where to find them again. I’ll still keep the 97.7 app on my phone for the quick scroll of local headlines, but I’m glad for the freedom in radio tunes on my dial.
Clearwater’s The Great Hudson River Revival will be produced on a much smaller, intimate scale as compared to years past, with tickets for 529 attendees only. Normally a million-dollar event, last year’s festival suffered a financial loss of $190K due to a rainy forecast, according to the organizers. The organization has been working its way out of that loss since June 2019.
For many years, The Great Hudson River Revival was Clearwater’s most important annual fundraiser. It has since grown into the country's oldest music and environmental festival, uniquely spreading environmental awareness, education and activism. With no corporate sponsorship, this loss made a big impact on the organization.
“The Great Hudson River Revival was a major success last year, in the sense that thousands of people joined us to celebrate the Hudson River through music, dance, volunteerism, education and activism,” said Clearwater Executive Director Greg Williams in a press release. “Due to many factors, including a wet weather forecast and rain on Sunday causing low attendance, the festival suffered a financial loss of approximately $190K. Since June, we have been working to keep the organization stable, while paying down our debt to festival vendors, and we are grateful for their patience. It would be irresponsible of Clearwater to move forward with replicating another million-dollar Clearwater Festival in 2020 without having addressed the financial loss we incurred in 2019. We expect that these steps, with the public’s ongoing support, will put us in the best position to return with Revival in 2021."
Williams continued in the press release: "We hope that our transparency will give the public some confidence that we keep our mission close at heart; to continue the work that we do year-round on the Hudson, educating and inspiring the next generation of environmental leaders.”
The Community Celebration for June 2020 will be a unique and intimate event for 529 attendees. Attendance will be very limited due to venue space capacity, but will provide a familiar welcoming weekend of unity, action, education, food, music, crafts, and merrymaking.
Details about the 2020 Great Hudson River Revival will be announced soon. Clearwater expects to return to a full-scale event in 2021, re-envisioned as a sustainable, less-commercial event, according to the press release.
For 2020, a Clearwater Community Celebration will take place on Saturday and Sunday, June 20 and 21, on the festival’s traditional Father’s Day Weekend on a smaller portion of Croton Point Park, in Croton-on-Hudson, NY.
Other Ways To Donate In The Meantime
To contribute to Clearwater’s ability to continue to hold festivals, and/or other programming, you can click here. You can choose whether to have your donation committed to a specific program, or to be used where it is most needed.
You know you’re listening to 92.1 FM now that it’s officially December, and hopefully you’re catching other holiday songs on other stations to get you out of that 20-song loop on the radio station dedicated to Christmas music since before Thanksgiving.
Amazing news for you: You can break out of the music in your car and step into the Towne Crier on Beacon’s Main Street for not one, but several Christmas music shows. One of them features Sloan Wainwright (aunt of Rufus Wainwright, who has several albums, or maybe you heard him on a Starbucks mix-tape album back when Starbucks was making those). Sloan and Rufus Wainwright are from a musical family, but Sloan has been dubbed “The Voice” (see below for why). Sloan’s Beacon show is the “20th Annual SLOAN WAINWRIGHT & FRIENDS Holiday Whiz-Bang Shin-Dig” on Saturday, December 14, 2019 at the Towne Crier, and comes packed with a Santa, a Muppet, and backup singers!
For the past 20 years, Sloan Wainwright has performed this show, which includes her merry posse of harmony-singing “Sloan Flakes” - some of whom are Beaconites you know, including Amy Soucy, a Beacon-based folk singer (Sloan Wainwright described her voice on her 2015 album “This River” as “enchanting,”) as well as Sharon Goldman (listen to her music here - if you like Sally Dworsky, you’ll like Sharon Goldman).
The show contains a mix of Christmas favorites (covers) like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Run, Run, Rudolph,” and “Blue Christmas,” along with original songs from Sloan and some of the group. There are also special guest artists who do their own sets.
This year, the guest artists include The Empty Bottle Ramblers - who bring driving Cajun accordion two-steps and sweet twin-fiddle waltzes of southwest Louisiana. The multi-instrumentalist, Hubby Jenkins, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops (OMG their fiddle and banjo sounds), will also be performing.
INSIDER TIP: The Towne Crier has the big performance room for the music in the back, but their restaurant is pretty large too, and is kid-friendly and large-party friendly (they even have a separate bar room). If your friends are visiting you on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and there is just no room for you in any restaurant, you have a good chance of not only finding room at the Towne Crier for all of you, but you’ll find a pretty wide-ranging menu for your gluten-free and vegan friends, plus those who like dessert. Their grilled cheese, for instance, is spot-on good. You may or may not find yourself eating it off of a kid’s plate next to you. (It’s even more perfect with soup.) Next time, the Towne Crier may be the first on your list of go-to restaurants to hit.
If you want to hear Sloan Wainwright outside of holiday songs, listen to this rendition of “Walkin’ After Midnight.” No wonder she is called “The Voice” in her musical family!
The Howland Chamber Music Circle is a collective of musicians who appear in the world’s greatest concert halls, and also right here in Beacon at the Howland Cultural Center for their regularly scheduled concerts. The HCMC’s Pop-Up Series offers four opportunities to enjoy the chamber music circle at different locations around town.
This Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 3 pm, the musicians will be performing their final pop-up concert for the season at St. Andrew & St. Luke Episcopal Church. This concert is part of their Vent Nouveau program, a partnership with Beacon High School to expose students to chamber music. The performance will feature several high school students.
About Vent Nouveau, Beacon High School, and Howland Chamber Music Circle
Vent Nouveau has been Artist-in-Residence at Beacon High School since 2017, and has worked closely with the school’s band program to enhance their music education and expose students to the wide world of chamber music. Vent Nouveau is dedicated to bringing attention to the wide variety of chamber repertoire for winds, brass, and percussion instruments.
Vent Nouveau is composed of musicians who have performed with some of the country’s leading symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and New World Symphony. These artists first collaborated with one another in the prestigious West Point Band, and now put their virtuosic talents toward exploring chamber music from the traditional to the obscure. Offering versatile concert programs that range from two- to twelve-member ensembles, it is the first group of its kind in the NYC-surrounding area. More information on Vent Nouveau and upcoming events can be found at www.ventnouveauny.com
About The Howland Chamber Music Circle
The Howland Chamber Music Circle is recognized as a leading arts organization in the Hudson Valley, bringing world-class music to the Hudson Valley. Musicians who perform for the Circle regularly appear in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each season the Circle presents eight chamber music concerts, a four-concert Piano Festival, a very popular Classics For Kids concert series, and a free concert series, the Pop-Up Concerts, to the Beacon community.
In 2016 the Howland Chamber Music Circle was awarded the Dutchess County Executive’s Arts Organization Award through Arts Mid-Hudson for its exceptional music programming and community reach, and for enriching the lives of Hudson Valley residents through music. Through its educational outreach program, the Howland Chamber Music Circle brings enjoyment, knowledge, and skill in music to many young people in the area. In partnership with local school districts and community groups, the Circle has sponsored artist residencies throughout Dutchess County, most recently in the Arlington and Beacon High Schools.
The Roundhouse of Beacon has signed on as the Title Sponsor for the Rock Out 4 Mental Health summer concert, happening on Saturday, June 1, 2019. This show of support for the first year of this event is a big help to getting T-shirts made and helping to make this event possible. One of the first events of its kind, Rock Out 4 Mental Health aims to remove stigma around mental health needs by bringing people physically closer to the resources and services that are available to them in Dutchess County.
Only five more Gold Level spots are available, and a handful of Silver Level sponsor spots if you want to get your business behind this event! Click here for details.
Wellness Providers As Vendors At Concert
Vendor spots for wellness providers are still available, and the concert attendees need to know about you! If you are a wellness provider, you can book your spot online here. Food vendors are also welcome! This is a great way to meet new people. There are limited spaces, so do it now.
So far, you’ll be able to interact with the following groups: Astor Services for Children & Families, CAPE, Children's Home of Poughkeepsie, CoveCare Center, Dutchess County Department of Behavioral & Community Health, Empire Concessions, I Am Beacon, Innate Chiropractic (Wappingers Falls), NAMI Mid-Hudson, and People USA.
Getting closer to the big day! It has been a pleasure being on the Planning Committee for this event, and we’re looking forward experiencing the day.
Some cities have symphony halls. Beacon has a group of professional musicians who started meeting in someone’s living room, who now play regularly in the Howland Cultural Center on Main Street in Beacon, N.Y. The group is called the Howland Chamber Music Circle, and you have most likely attended one of their performances or kids instrument “petting zoos.”
“This is a great place to perform. It’s like being inside an instrument itself.”
— A Howland Chamber Music Circle Performer
For several Beaconites, listening to this amazing grade of music is an every Sunday afternoon kind of thing. We may not realize just what we have at our fingertips at the Howland Cultural Center, whose unique architecture has special acoustic advantages in which world renowned musicians come together to play. So we asked the Howland Chamber Music Circle to recall their history for our readers, so that we may better understand this group who is now popping up to perform in other locations throughout Beacon and the Hudson Valley. A board member of the Howland Chamber Music Circle, James Lichtenberg, researched and wrote this article for you:
The ‘Chamber’ of the Howland Chamber Music Circle Was A Living Room in the 1980’s
Gwen and Bill Stevens, Howland Chamber Music Circle (HCMC) co-founders. Photo Credit: Howland Chamber Music Circle
The Howland Chamber Music Circle (HCMC), founded in Beacon, N.Y. in 1993, in the verdant valley of the Hudson River, began in the 1980s, appropriately enough, in a chamber… the living room of HCMC founders Gwen and Bill Stevens (sadly, they both passed away in 2018). Gwen was an accomplished musician, teaching piano at Vassar. Friends and neighbors would arrive to enjoy spontaneous performances by other artists whom Gwen invited to play on their two gorgeous Steinway grand pianos.
One of the more frequent attendees, Polly Gage, suggested to Gwen that they also promote house concerts for gifted young musicians. With the assistance of a friend and fellow pianist, Ed Loizides, and after contacting their respective alma maters, Yale and the Manhattan School of Music, they began the process of finding young talent, expertly aided by Robert Besen, then of the Concert Artists Guild. Besen was taken by Gwen’s enthusiasm and made it possible for her and an enthusiastic cadre of volunteers to learn the ropes of bringing exciting programs to a growing audience.
Howland Chamber Music Circle Outgrows The Living Room
Photo Credit: Howland Chamber Music Circle
As the number of attendees swelled, home venues grew inadequate. Gwen began to think about a venue somewhere in Southern Dutchess County to accommodate wider audiences. Among the considerations was a music barge in the Hudson River itself.
Then, in 1992, Gwen and Bill attended an exhibit of historic photos at the Howland Cultural Center, located at the far east end of Beacon’s Main Street. The Center’s building, a gothic jewel designed by Richard Morris Hunt, features walls of richly-carved wood beneath an open vaulted ceiling, and a space capable of seating 120 people. Not surprisingly, the two HCMC founders were struck by the potential of that space for chamber music.
First HCMC Concerts Start In Howland Cultural Center In 1993
Photo Credit: Howland Chamber Music Circle
The Howland Cultural Center agreed to produce a series of concerts under their auspices. The premier three-concert season in 1993-1994 featured the Meridian Brass Ensemble, the St. Lawrence String Quartet and a string duo of Ayako Yoshida and Semyon Fridman. As Besen remembers, “[If] a walk around the Howland Center (quite different from today) was…more than a little scary, the concert was well-attended. The venue was…magnificent…. Over the years I’ve booked 39 performances.”
“You can walk out of your house and hear world-class artists just a few blocks away.”
— One Beaconite
With the increasing abilities of the Stevens and their associates to secure talent, the growing annual programs became a staple of the Hudson Valley music calendar, with the unique venue a draw in its own right for both listeners and artists, who were only too happy to return to play in subsequent seasons. As one performer put it, “This is a great place to perform. It’s like being inside an instrument itself.” The sell-out audiences, standing and clapping for encores add, no doubt, to their pleasure. One Beaconite, also a musician, exclaimed, “You can walk out of your house and hear world-class artists just a few blocks away.”
Photo Credit: Howland Chamber Music Circle
With continuing success in the early years, it became evident that the “Circle” should be more formally established to ensure its future. In April 1999, it was incorporated as a not-for-profit membership corporation, independent of the Howland Center.
Twenty-five years later, its annual offerings have grown to include a 12-concert season, featuring four pianists and eight chamber music groups -- with Sunday afternoon performances (in the 2018/19 season) including the Juilliard and Brentano String Quartets, and pianists Jeremy Denk and Simone Dinnerstein. Along with its dozen formal concerts, the Circle also hosts a number of pop-up concerts in other Beacon venues, a Classics for Kids series, co-sponsored by the HCC, as well as music residencies in local high schools. To celebrate its founders on the group’s 25th anniversary, HCMC commissioned a beautiful string quartet by local composer Debra Kaye, performed in the spring of 2018 by the Voxare String Quartet.
The 2018/19 season also reflects the continuing aspirations of HCMC to take new paths and broaden its appeal, including this season’s “concertante” approach, adding soloists to the quartets, like the oboist James Austin Smith, who performed with the Telegraph Quartet, harpist Bridget Kibbey, who will join the Daedalus Quartet, as well as rising violinist Alexi Kenny, partnered with pianist Renana Gutman. In addition, there will be a break-out “living-room” performance by the So Percussion group, whom The New York Times called “exceptionally inventive with instruments galore!”
Established and applauded as it may now be, the Howland Chamber Music Circle is not content to rest on its laurels. Rather, it is dedicated to continuing the inspiration of its founders in finding ever new ways to bring broad and engaging programs of music to its supportive community in Beacon and beyond. The hills of the Hudson Valley are indeed alive with the sound of music.
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The City of Beacon entered into a contract with Legal Services of the Hudson Valley to provide increased access to Beacon tenants facing eviction. They may also be able to help with sources of rent arrears assistance. Call the paralegal, Steven Mihalik at 845-253-6953 to inquire.
Dutchess County Helpline. Open 24/7 to take your calls, listen, and give you resources.
Malfatti Glass: Free Giveaway
MIZ HATTIE'S - CURBSIDE DELIVERY
