dog on fleas

dog on fleas
Originally uploaded by Cup and Top Cafe

It's a big week for shows in the little Village.

Last night it was Dog on Fleas at the Tivoli Library. Hell of a party wrapping up the Summer Reading Program. The third floor of the Village Hall rocked out with short people hopping from foot to foot and generally makin' mayhem. (One dad, looking on politely at the opener, was down on all fours riding his kid around like a dancing pony before it was all over.) Hilarity is a contagion.

If you haven't yet, you gotta see this band.

"How I got big, I just can't explain.
I was just out there standin' in the clover,
Next thing you know my life's almost over.
How I got big, I just can't explain."

From "When I Get Little (I'm gonna be a boy)."
Kid stuff? No way. Way!

Natalie Live and Local

Natalie Merchant's Birthday
Originally uploaded by jurvetson

Did you catch Natalie Merchant at the Spiegeltent last night? On Saturday night, she decided to perform new material from her forthcoming album, and with some scurrying, a piano and an appreciative audience gathered Sunday night. Intimate, casual and an utter delight.

She is a singer-songwriter in her bones and has been writing songs continually since her last release about five years ago. With her lovely little girl off to kindergarten last fall, she turned her full attention (almost full) to creating her new album. As she said last night, many of her collaborators have been dead over 100 years. With a cultural anthropologist's eye, she has unearthed children's poetry (some familiar and some wholely new to us) and set it to music. Collaboration with the living rounds out the project. It's a musically diverse recording with a New Orleans jazz band and a full orchestra appearing.

But, last night was just Natalie, a piano, a little red notebook of music she compiled in the wee hours the night before, and a pen. She sang, played, joked, and made notes in the margins as she worked through the material. It was as much a song-writer's workshop as a performance, and aren't we lucky to have been there.

6th Annual Tivoli Pie Contest

The judges of Saturday's 6th Annual Tivoli Bread & Baking Co. Pie Contest had quite a challenge this year, as usual.


With nearly a dozen pies contending and scores of people patiently milling around with forks, the connoisseurs chose five winning pies.


Tivoli resident Jacquie Goss took top honors with her lattice-topped peach pie. Her prize, a $100 gift certificate for dinner at Mercato in Red Hook (next year, better break out the rolling pin and give it a shot!).


As he has for the past five years, ten-year-old Alex Gonnella judged pies along side his uncle Mikee Gonnella (baker extraordinaire), Gerard Hurley ( filmmaker and pub owner), and past contest winners Mary Crinnin and Mariah. Alex's known predilection for peach may have tipped the panel toward Goss, but there were plenty of prizes to go around.


As has become the habit of the good people of Tivoli, the minute the final winner was announced, the polite circle of pie aficionados closed in on the table and cleaned those pie plates! Sweet end to a sweet day.

.....
The Annual Tivoli Bread & Baking Co. pie contest is held each year on Tivoli Yard Sale Day. A sign up sheet hangs in the bakery in the days leading up to the event. No entry fee. And, it's a local fresh fruit sorta contest. In season is always best. The bakery is at 75 Broadway. 845.757.2253.

Yard Sale on Steriods

The 21st Annual Tivoli Yard Sale Day is now just a heap of free stuff at the curb, but if you braved the traffic and the frenzied shoppers in our otherwise peaceful village, you may be in possession of a find or two.

Or, as a friend of the 212 persuasion once observed, you may have hauled home something that will end up for sale on your own lawn next summer.

As usual, Mayor Marc (as we still fondly think of him) was pressing the flesh at the four corners and handing out yard sale maps. The ambitious among us use it to guide their drive-buys.


I made a casual perusal of the highlights on Broadway (on foot and with coffee). My reward? This groovy (late) mid-century lamp table for my living room reno.


AND, "The Magic Music Box" made by the Plastic Injecto Corp. of Union, New Jersey. Includes follow-the-dots sheet music for classics like "Swanee River" and "Comin' Thru the Rye." Only $8. I know. You're jealous.

So... What did you get?

.....
The Annual Tivoli Yard Sale Day is sponsored by the Tivoli Community Association. It is held on the last Saturday of July. To be included on the printed map of Village yard sales, contact the Village Clerk's Office at 845.757.2021. There is a $10 fee for map listings.

Pie Contest!

Biggest event of the summer in the Village of Tivoli. Celebrity judges. Prizes. And an orgy of pie eating when it's all said and done. Bring a fork.


Sign up now at Tivoli Bread & Baking Co. Judging at noon on Saturday, July 25, Yard Sale Day!

Uke Joint

Hope you caught the show. The tip jar probably hauled in enough gas money to get that Lincoln to aaahh... Kingston.

Big Weekend in the Little Village

The weekend surprised us with a bit more sun than we've grown accustomed to, and a couple of nice little events were that much more pleasant as a result.


On Saturday night, the Tivoli Artists' Co-op held an opening reception for their annual 3-D show. Ten member artists' work in various media, a decent glass of wine and a room full of artists and friends to chat with. It was a full house and a sweet evening.


On Sunday morning, the second meeting of the Tivoli Bread & Baking Co. Wiffle Ball League (kids vs. adults) got off the ground, and we even needed sun block! Balls were whacked, bases were loaded, points were scored, but not in that particular order, of course.


Pitcher Mikee Gonnella was on the mound lobbing big plastic balls into the sweet spot. No one keeping score. Everyone was a winner. (Note fathers relaxing with coffee in the outfield.)



And, to top off the weekend, Chuck Mead's cherries are in at Mead Orchards; and Mikee knows just what to do with them. Piping hot bakery action, and a lovely finish to the weekend. Cherry tarts with Sunday night supper.

Tivoli Day

Due to a lack of ... ahh ... preparation, Tivoli Day has been rescheduled for Saturday, August 1st. Do not despair. It will be worth the wait. As details are dreamed up, we'll keep you posted.

Thaw

The ice is melting. And, this week the maple sap began to run. If your taps are in, you know that already. It's a little early, but we'll take it. Cold weather in the next few days will slow things down, but by late month collection (and boiling) should hit high gear. My friend Jo will be out there flipping pancakes and drizzling them with fresh maple syrup in a few weeks. Go over to the farm and get some. Really. If you miss it, you'll kick yourself.


And, there's green out there if you know where to look. Believe me, I've been looking. These little beauties will surely open their snowy faces very soon. Don't worry. I won't let it pass you by.

Ice Yachting

There's a sheet of clear ice locked in place on the banks of Athens, just 20 miles north of Tivoli on the Hudson's west shore, and ice boats are taking full advantage. If you've been around here any length of time, you've heard about ice boating. You may even know that FDR had a boat named The Icicle. You probably also know that the ice just doesn't set up every winter, but this year the wicked cold nights have been kind to the yachting set.

The ice in Athens is so good, in fact, that cars from as far away as Maine and Quebec are parked in the DEC Boat Launch this weekend. And a half-dozen boats from the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club are in the mix. (I hear the guys from Montreal are itching to race, and they were just pulling in when I left.)

If you don't know ice, you'd think this year's snow would make skating along in an ice boat impossible; but sunny days melt fresh snow, thickening the ice and forming a perfectly level surface. Good thing, too, because these boats can get up to 70 miles per hour with the right wind.

Today was a little gusty, but tomorrow's another day.


The guys ('cause it is mostly guys) who own these boats love the history of their sport as much as they love wind, ice and speed. You'll see rigging that reminds you of the schooners that used to grace the River, and the sound of wind-whipped sails will make you grin. The Hudson River Ice Yachting Club keeps tabs on ice conditions off Rhinecliff, Tivoli Bays and Athens, and the guys can fill you in on the local lore of their sport, which has been going on here since the 19th century.

Parking's tight this weekend, but don't let that deter you. Head up to Athens, now. Cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Turn right onto 385 North. Through the Village to the DEC Boat Launch just north of town, and get out on the ice. Dogs, kids, sleds and skates encouraged.

Addendum: The guy out on the ice with the big camera must have been from the Times. Camera envy.

Bday #3

One of Tivoli's sweetest little residents has turned three, with a party to prove it.

The under 5 set ping-ponged themselves off bouncy toys and eachother in a way that would have landed the under 45 set in the emergency room. Happily the under 45's hung in the kitchen near the coffee urn.

It was a bright moment in an otherwise quiet January. Pink cupcakes all around.