The Mountains

14/12/2023

“Design lovers and cannabis enthusiasts alike can all agree that Great Barrington is home to some of the most inviting dispensaries in the region. And in a sea of similar sublimity, Rebelle stands out for its uniquely exquisite aesthetic. Founder and CEO Charlotte Hanna knows a thing or two about good design. Coming from a family of developers—and working in the sector herself before joining the cannabis industry—she says that she grew up surrounded by floor plans. When she first began conceptualizing the look and feel of Rebelle—one of the first dispensaries to open on the East Coast—Hanna knew designing the right environment was essential. ‘I wanted to make the space inviting and create a warm and welcoming experience because, for many people, it’d be their first time visiting a dispensary,” she says. “I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of ‘Hygge,’ the Danish concept of creating a space that feels cozy.’ (The term itself originates from ‘hugga,’ a 16th-century Norwegian word meaning ‘to provide comfort.’) ‘There’s a reason why the Danish people are some of the happiest people on the planet even though they live in darkness half the year. It’s attributed to this idea of coziness and how they design spaces.’”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/weed-rebelles-feminine-mystique/

By Melissa Reid.

12/12/2023

Associate Editor Izzy Hochman shares: “What makes a pumpkin patch in our region stand out? Besides a top-five ranking by USA Today? Kelder’s Farm is a 200-year-old farm located in Kerhonkson, NY. Owner Chris Kelder says having a close-knit family, being blessed with good soil and creating new experiences for families have all contributed to the success of the farm. The senior Kelder runs the farm with his wife and son, John, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that on any given weekend, John ’s kids, sister, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephews are all helping with the farm. ‘It’s really gratifying to see my father, who’s in his 80s, still doing a lot of field work,’ John says. ‘He loves that. It’s a family affair. We have some great key staff that helped us a lot; but at its core, it’s a family business.’”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/halfway-there-kelders-farm-in-kerhonkson-was-rated-among-the-best-in-the-nation/

By Izzy Hochman.

What makes a pumpkin patch in our region stand out? Besides a top-five ranking by USA Today? Kelder’s Farm is a 200-year-old farm located in Kerhonkson, NY. Owner Chris Kelder says having a close-knit family, being blessed with good soil and creating new experiences for families have all contribut...

07/12/2023

“In the picturesque town of Pittsfield, MA in the heart of the Berkshires, a brewery and tap room opened last year with the goal of challenging conventions and advocating for greater diversity, equity and inclusion: Hot Plate Brewing Co., co-founded by Sarah Real and Mike Dell’Aquila. Their journey from beer-chugging college friends to married brewery owners has been a two-decades long meandering love story, with each step leading them to create a brand that not only serves exceptional beer but also shatters barriers and stereotypes.

Sarah and Mike’s paths first crossed at Penn State, where Mike’s beer knowledge didn’t extend far beyond the domestic light lagers poured at keg parties. But Sarah—who was two years ahead of him in grad school—was handily working her way toward completing a “beer passport” (think: Around The World In 80 Beers, with a stamp for each beer “completed”) at a pub called Zeno’s. Eventually, Mike joined her on her journey and the experience opened their eyes to the vast world of craft beer.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/thirsty-hot-plate-brewing-co-isnt-just-about-crafting-beer-its-about-fostering-equity/

By Anthony Giglio.

05/12/2023

Writer Abbe Aronson shares: “Guess what’s not comfortable for snuggly Sundays in front of the fireplace? Florence Knoll sofas. There was a time when a statement like that would cause me to roll my eyes and gently set you straight, maybe even telling you that with the proper oversized decorative pillows (an Alexander Girard motif?), any sofa was ripe for snuggling. But that’s all changed, because in the nearly two decades I’ve lived in the shadow of the Catskill Mountains, I’ve morphed from a strict modernist to—dare, I say it?—a design maven who embraces any number of styles and periods, from Primitive Americana to French bo***ir. To my eye—and to the eyes of others whose taste I applaud—strictly modern is, well, strictly boring.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/then-now-next-the-modern-mountain-aesthetic/

By Abbe Aronson.

30/11/2023

“Rhinebeck avoids the spotlight. Don’t confuse it with the modern art scene you’ll find in Beacon, or the old money attitude that permeates some of the Berkshires enclaves. Those wishing to see and be seen should just stay on the train as it cruises by on its way to Hudson—because Rhinebeck is where people come to disappear.
Perhaps that’s why, for a town of its size, so many celebrities come from or settle there. Emma Roberts, Rufus Wainwright and Ramona Singer—all known for their dynamism and larger-than-life screen and stage presences—were born there, yet no longer call it home. Others come here to soak in its quiet atmosphere and slower pace of life. After making it big in Hollywood, the actors and friends Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have settled in Rhinebeck and co-own the adorable (and irresistible) Samuel’s Sweet Shop. They walk freely up and down Market Street, blending in with everyone else. You never know who you’ll bump into in this town.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/street-rhinebecks-undercover-style/

By Todd Plummer.
Photography by Beth Schneck.

28/11/2023

“Picture waking up to the sound of a flowing waterfall. You get ready for the day surrounded by an oasis, but here’s the twist—walk just down the street and you’re in downtown Woodstock, NY. This is life at Woodstock Way Hotel.

Ryan Giuliani, who’s called this rock ’n’ roll holy ground home since 2004, and his business partner Jesse Halliburton, noticed a shift in the waves of people coming up to the Hudson Valley circa 2015, and they seized upon the moment to develop a new hotel. Giuliani says creating an escape for this changing audience was key. So, they snagged a bit of land with the cascading Tannery Brook Waterfall and plenty of greenery—and something you pretty much never get in a nature-surrounded retreat: walkability.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/shelter-chasing-waterfalls-at-woodstock-way-hotel/

By Isabel Hochman.

22/11/2023

Editor at Large Hal Rubenstein shares: “I’d be happy to eat every meal off a grill. While, come winter, I never hesitate to invest three hours braising brisket, rolling matzoh balls or simmering Bolognese in a Le Creuset Dutch oven, grilled meats, poultry, seafood and veggies just taste lighter and fresher, even seem healthier when savored right off those open flames. I know I’m not alone in my gustatorial ardor, which means others out there are bemoaning the fact that our time is running short.

Consequently, I’m offering recipes, some I’ve been preparing for years, some I’ve adapted from restaurants reviewed in past issues of The Mountains, that I love but will also have you manning the grill for the shortest time possible, so you won’t have to juggle tongs and a flashlight to read the meat thermometer. But keep that hoodie handy, just in case.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/still-hungry-grilling-season-is-not-over/

By Hal Rubenstein.

31/10/2023

“So, when The Mountains’ new design editors, Eduardo Rodríguez and Herman Vega, were tasked with visually representing the current residential interior design of this region, they were more than up for the challenge. From homes ripped from the pages of national shelter magazines to the partners’ Ulster County bungalow, weekend retreats turned semi-permanent residences are rethinking what a fashionable hinterland pad can be. The result is country living with a decidedly Manhattan twist.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/interior-design-how-manhattan-chic-invaded-the-country-aesthetic/

Produced by Eduardo Rodríguez and Herman Vega.
Text by Simon Murray.

26/10/2023

Editor in Chief Richard Pérez-Feria shares: “As I arrived on-set to direct this issue’s cover shoot with movie star Matthew Modine ('Full Metal Jacket', 'Birdy', 'Stranger Things', 'Oppenheimer'), celebrity photographer Mike Ruiz and I decided we wanted Modine to exude ‘fashion’ on this cover to embody The Mountains’ ‘Style & Design’ theme. When the mind-blowingly nice actor walked in, I became worried: the subject of our exclusive cover story was dressed—how do I say this?—randomly. It was, in its own way, daring, but when the giraffe-tall thespian emerged from the changing room a few minutes later wearing the gorgeous wardrobe options we had selected for him, Modine was, in a word, transcendent. As much as the former Millbrook, NY resident clearly doesn’t concern himself with fashion’s fastidiousness, the talented man standing in front of me transformed into nothing less than a modern-day Cary Grant, Hollywood’s forever stylish king.

Even as I write this, I realize I’m wearing a black PGA Tour-branded polo I bought at Marshalls for $14. What’s crazier, I ask you, spending $850 for a yummy Roberto Cavalli wear-it-once shirt or being seen at Marshalls clearance rack with a smile on your face? I finally have my answer: I’m possessed no more.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/from-the-editor-out-of-fashion/

By Richard Pérez-Feria.
Photography by DR Pictures.

24/10/2023

“For those of us in a particular generation, when Matthew Modine’s name comes up for whatever legitimate reason—his winning turn in the megahit 'Oppenheimer'; his equal parts creepy-fascinating role as Dr. Martin Brenner in 'Stranger Things'; his life-changing portrayal in Stanley Kubrick’s war masterpiece, 'Full Metal Jacket'—we find it difficult to extricate the talented actor from the Material Girl because when they were both starting out, the movie 'Vision Quest' forged them together in ways they may not yet fully understand.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/10/exclusive-matthew-modine-goes-big/

By Richard Pérez-Feria.
Photography by Mike Ruiz.

Photo shoot details:
Fashion Stylist: Alison Hernon at Exclusive Artists
Junior Fashion Stylist: Shanelle Butler
Assistant Fashion Stylist: Sienna Ropert
Hair: Marco Medrano
Grooming: Alexandria Gilleo
On-Set Coordinator: Isabella Joslin

19/10/2023

From our Editor in Chief, Richard Pérez-Feria : “It’s here! Another stunning issue of The Mountains has dropped. Our first anniversary edition is filled with what you’ve come to expect from Mr. Magazine’s Launch Of The Year: gorgeous design, compelling features and how-did-they-get-that? exclusives, including my fascinating sit-down with Hollywood icon — and star of Oppenheimer and Stranger Things — Matthew Modine. The amazing photographer Mike Ruiz makes his debut in the magazine with this truly eye-catching cover. Kathleen Gates, Kevin Sessums, Martha Frankel, Hal Rubenstein, Erika Phenner, Jane Larkworthy, Tara Solomon, Simon Murray, Herman Vega, Eduardo Rodriguez, Melissa Reid, Sean McAlindin, Marco Medrano, Abbe Aronson, Isabel Hochman, Mitch Rustad, Sarah Carpenter, Mira Peck, Isabella Joslin, Anthony Giglio, Robin Baron, Jack Rico, Bill Cary, Robyn Perry Coe, Christopher Joslin, Todd Kingston Plummer, Sandy MacDonald, James Long and Alan Katz all contributed to the genuine editorial magic of this extraordinary magazine. And there were still so, so many others, too.” Go to themountainsmedia.com for the full digital issue!

17/10/2023

Senior Editor Sarah Carpenter shares: “The last thing I want to do after I’ve been driving for a couple hours is step indoors and crowd around a table. The perfect road trip break is one that frees the knees, I say. Maybe I’m just getting old. Just off the Glasco Turnpike in Saugerties, NY near the Hudson River is a road tripper’s dream stop: Opus 40. About an hour is plenty of time to take in this outdoor work of art. Grab some food to-go from one of many nearby restaurants and pop outside for a sprawling open-air respite from that seated position. There’s plenty of picnic space, complete with chairs and tables if you want (I opt for a picnic blanket) and your legs will appreciate the wandering you’re wont to do amongst the hand-crafted maze of stone.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/halfway-there-stone-cold-fabulous-opus-40/

By Sarah Carpenter.

26/09/2023

Contributing Editor Tara Solomon shares: “I don’t know about you, but my early 20s were spent watching MTV and shopping at the mall, among other low-brow pursuits. Unlike Isaac Jeffreys, an enthusiastic 23-year-old Rhinebeck native with a BFA from Parsons School of Design who’s built an impressive portfolio photographing abandoned hotels in New York’s famed Borscht Belt—a hobby since high school, a time when I was laser-focused on scrapbooks and braiding my hair. Jeffreys, an old soul who enjoyed listening to his grandparents’ stories about their summers in the Catskills, spent ‘a good amount of time dreaming of the past.’ Fascinated by the mystique and glamour of the bygone era, the atypical zillennial has documented 75 historic Borscht Belt resorts throughout Sullivan and Ulster counties where Jewish families famously vacationed en masse from the 1920s through the 1970s.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/borscht-belt-faded-beauty-everywhere/

By Tara Solomon.
Photography by Isaac Jeffreys.

25/09/2023

Editor At Large Hal Rubenstein shares: “Yes, there’s music playing at Casa Susanna though Chef Efrén Hernández doesn’t allow any melodies running through his kitchen. It clouds his thinking. And from the look and taste of the results of his creative process, he has a lot going on, and a lot that’s deservedly being noticed. I admit to arriving at Susanna with a positive bias, since Hernández transformed a hastily conceived dining room at the Rivertown Lodge in Hudson and turned it into one of the town’s most enviable dining destinations. In fact, if Rivertown served nothing but Hernández’s sourdough bread and the elixir from its Merlinworthy Frozen Negroni machine (Santa, I know it’s early, but are you listening?) I’d still be a regular.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/restaurants-lil-debs-oasis-and-casa-susanna-are-sublime/

By Hal Rubenstein.

22/09/2023

“Longtime New York City media executive Andy Plesser opened his Lakeville, CT home he shares with his wife, Manhattan radiologist Kathy Plesser, to capture a moment in geographic and tech curiosity: important new media players at rest. Plesser, who’s organizing an executive retreat July 16-18 in Salisbury, CT at the White Hart Inn, says he’ll host 75 media and advertising executives as they explore and debate the future of the tech industry. Ten media powerhouses joined Plesser recently to break bread and tell tales on a sunny day in ever-bucolic Litchfield County, including Sean Buckley, Tal Chalozin, Bob Ivins, Alexandra Levy, Marc Mallett, Rob Norman, Joanna O’Connell, Spencer Reiss, Suzanne Taylor and Paul Woolmington. The Mountains asked these knowledgeable folks one kinda-sorta important question: So, what does the future of media look like? Good one, right?”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/media-tech-vips/

By Richard Pérez-Feria.
Photography by Anne Day.

21/09/2023

Editor At Large Kevin Sessums shares: “Hudson has its own Elvis, a divinely talented one named Perkins who finds the swagger in the swing of his sweetness, this rocker who revels in redefinitions; that’s the way he rolls. My first Christmas in Hudson he and his godmother, fashion world legend Nuni Boylan, and her son Wyndham, who was in Perkins’ band Dearland, came over to cook dinner and afterward Elvis and Wyndham got out their guitars to jam and made Nuni and me comfortable enough in their coolness to help them carry some tunes when carols were suddenly being conjured along with the rock ballads. The next day I was walking down Warren humming one of Perkins’s songs from his Elvis Perkins In Dearland album, ‘123 Goodbye.’ Its last lines: ‘…It was happy, 1, 2, 3/It was sad, 1, 2, 3/We were happy once you and me/When we were sad/1, 2, 3 goodbye, goodbye/1, 2, 3 goodbye, goodbye/Ready, 1, 2, 3 goodbye, goodbye/Steady, 1, 2, 3 goodbye, goodbye/Nice to know you, 3 goodbye, goodbye/It’s nice to meet you, 3 goodbye, goodbye/Are you ready, 1, 2, 3 goodbye.’ And then I fell quiet. I found a mindfulness to my silence—as I’ve found it here in this sentence finally after having sat humming to myself as I wrote all the previous sentences in this story scored by my memories of musical interludes during my life in Hudson. For five years there was the hum of home about the place for me. But then it faded—like the sound of a high school band several blocks away during the town’s Flag Day parade, a bit off-key yet curiously captivating.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/dispatch-our-personal-elvis/

By Kevin Sessums.

20/09/2023

“Heading east for an important meeting, it flew by my view on the left, driving up Route 23. Like a beacon for what, I didn’t know, but it caught my peripheral attention, nonetheless. Barnwood Restaurant never left my mind as my meeting commenced, although there’s plenty else about Catskill, NY to keep my attention. Rolling hills and deep woods. Beautiful old homes and newly renovated architectural marvels. Wraparound porches with wooden handrails and wire cross bars to keep you safe while allowing great views of the woods and streams. Picture windows replacing small eyelet four-on-four casements. All meant to bring the outdoors in. Exteriors painted black to blend in are instead striking and majestic.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/pit-stop-barnwood-restaurant-is-worth-the-trip/

Pictures and Words by Alan Katz.

08/09/2023

Contributing Editor Martha Frankel shares: “‘You know what you should do?’ he texted. It was the spring of 2019. Winter was just fading. ‘Come out here to Vegas!’ He was my pal Connor Kennedy, the guitar virtuoso who would turn 25 a few months later. I laughed. I’m an addict in recovery. Part of my addiction, which I chronicled in my memoir Hats & Eyeglasses, was to online poker. And although I sometimes play live poker, Las Vegas isn’t a good place for someone like me, someone prone to excess, someone who thinks 3:30am is prime decision-making time. ‘That’s not gonna happen, boychick,’ I texted back. Connor was in Vegas for a three-month residency, playing guitar with Steely Dan. It was a dream job. More than that, even. But he was alone a lot and wanted company. ‘My hotel doesn’t have a casino,’ he texted a few nights later. ‘It’s where all the musicians stay. The rooms have nice little kitchens. I bought a cast iron pan. I’ve been making steaks.’”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/diary-jam-session-with-connor-kennedy/

By Martha Frankel.
Photography by Fletcher Moore.

07/09/2023

Contributing Editor Tara Solomon shares: “Growing up in Miami Beach during the 1960s & ’70s, my best friend Susan Whitebrook spent three to four weeks every summer at the tony Concord in the Catskills, where she learned to dance the hustle and had her first kiss—an innocent peck on the lips with a young waiter working his way through college named Gary, when she was sweet 16. (And, no, it didn’t happen at clandestine staff quarters as depicted in Dirty Dancing, although the guest-employee romance was certainly a thing, Susan recalls, adding that she also slow-danced to “The Lady in Red” with another young waiter, Teddy, at the hotel’s Night Owl Lounge. Teddy had a twin brother, Susan shared, but we didn’t press for details.) Everyone, it seems, has a Borscht Belt story—indelible memories of their summer happy place. Overlooked and forgotten since the area’s decline in the mid-1980s, the Borscht Belt is making its big comeback—with a museum of its own, slated to open spring 2025, and an annual festival celebrating the Borscht Belt vibrant lifestyle starting this summer.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/preview-the-borscht-belts-history-drives-new-museum/

By Tara Solomon.

06/09/2023

“Andrew Arrick and Michael Hofemann have had a weekend house in Hudson for more than a decade-and-a-half. They say they loved escaping New York City to submerge in the local shopping scene and scope out the many antique dealers. Hofemann says Hudson was a respite from the craziness of Manhattan (though he admits the kinetic Gotham energy still has a place in his heart). ‘As it turns out, Andrew and I both thrive here in Hudson. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.’
FINCH hudson has become a sanctuary for art and design lovers alike. Hofemann says the shop reflects Hudson’s diverse community. ‘It’s not just antique stores,’ he says. ‘It’s not just dealers. It’s writers and actors. There’s a whole art community, and there’s an entire music scene happening right here.’ FINCH hudson’s co-founder insists he makes a conscious effort to create an experience for the art-attuned shopper with curated music mixes and a selection of visual art, antique furniture (1920s-’70s), clothing and textiles. The shop’s focus is vintage, modern furniture, but over the years they’ve added men’s apparel, bath and body products. Timed with their ten-year anniversary, FINCH hudson launched a second floor of wares: women’s apparel, textiles, bedding and much more.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/married-to-it-a-decade-of-love/

By Isabel Hochman.
Photography by Alex Lawson.

05/09/2023

Catch them soon before they hit Taylor Swift status. The magnitude of talented, accomplished musicians in this region is far too great to cover, but here are a handful of the most exciting, creative and up-and-coming artists we’re lucky to call neighbors. Featuring Marco Benevento, Daniel Villegas and Decora, Lee Falco, Upstate, Al Olender, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Jeff Haynes and The Felice Brothers.
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/special-report-the-music-artists-to-watch/

By Sean McAlindin
Marco Benevento Photo by Seth Olenick.
Decora Photo by Matt Petricone; Daniel Villegas. Photo by Chandler M. Stanley.
Upstate Photo by Bridget Badore.

28/08/2023

Contributing Editor Simon Murray sat down with DSGNER’s Eduardo Rodríguez and Herman Vega. He shares: “I’ve lived in the Hudson Valley long enough to know that there are two prevailing design aesthetics. The first we’ll call the “general store,” with its rustic wood paneling, folksy wallpaper and decidedly antiquated furniture (“this is my grandmother’s side table”). Businesses with this décor feel arrested in time, as if modernity in its tomorrow-bound haste up and left streaming toward the horizon, leaving these poor charming places to lapse into dust. Which is to say, the general store aesthetic is less a choice and more a series of hardships calcified into a fossil-like existence. But boy, do they have personality to spare. The other prevailing aesthetic is austere minimalism. Sleek, shorn and brittle like bone—or smooth and everlasting like titanium—these ultra-modern, glassy interiors call to mind Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. They also feel more than a little soulless. These polarities are so at arms with each other, you’d be a little daft to think that any design could incorporate both. Except, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. A much-needed interior redesign of the Central House in Germantown by the boutique studio DSGNER, headed by Eduardo Rodríguez, puts forth a more daring, 21st-century aesthetic that feels like a connective piece of tissue between the past and present.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/interior-design-central-house-in-germantown-will-blow-your-mind/

25/08/2023

Sean McAlindin shares: “The simple fact about this region is: the more you look, the more you find. Like its bountiful nature and cultural history, the music of the mountains is diverse, expansive and never-ending. It’s true Hudson suffered a major loss when Helsinki closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. The beloved BSP Lounge across the river in Kingston suffered a similar fate and, in the Berkshires, The Mission in Pittsfield and HiLo in North Adams both permanently shut up shop. But for every venue to close, it seems like two new ones open. We counted more than 70 live music venues scattered throughout our region. Here are a few you simply must check out.”
Check out our top picks for music venues in the mountains: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/special-report-the-music-the-venues/

By Sean McAlindin.

24/08/2023

“What happens when stars align, and you come upon a spot—a restaurant, mind you—whose ambiance ebbs and flows with a rhythm all its own. It doesn’t announce it, or hand you a tambourine upon arrival so you can join in an upcoming sing-along (check, please!). And yet you can sense instantly by how everyone who works there, from Carla, the greeter/manager who waves hi from across the room to the server stealthily sliding effortlessly through a bar throng with a glistening lacquered mound of fried plantains, that all in residence have adopted the same languid but focused pace. What’s more, you can immediately tell who the regular customers are—and there are a lot of them—because they’ve all adopted the same sultry sway. No one’s playing an instrument. Maybe there’s actual music on. I don’t even remember, and I’ve been there a dozen times. But Lil’ Deb’s Oasis is pure jazz.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/restaurants-lil-debs-oasis-and-casa-susanna-are-sublime/

By Hal Rubenstein.

23/08/2023

Wait, is that…No, it couldn’t be… Do you know we’re surrounded by musical luminaries in the mountains? Our region is home to so many iconic musicians. Sean McAlindin featured some of his favorites: Arlo Guthrie, Natalie Merchant, Melissa Auf der Maur, Tommy Stinson, James Taylor, Jack DeJohnette, Daryl Hall and Pat Metheny.
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/special-report-the-music-superstars-among-us/

By Sean McAlindin.
Arlo Guthrie photo by Eric Brown.
Natalie Merchant photo by Shervin Lainez.
Melissa Auf der Maur photo by George Holz.
Tommy Stinson photo by Vivian Wang.
James Taylor photo by Norman Seeff.
Daryl Hall photo by Lora Karam.
Pat Matheny photo by Jimmy Katz.

22/08/2023

“Fan-girling Ruth Reichl is tricky. With a career that’s bursting at the seams with remarkable accomplishments—from celebrated restaurant critic for The New York Times to serving as the last editor in chief for food bible Gourmet and even judging on Top Chef Masters for years—spotting her at the local grocery store incites an instant case of the jitters,” says Editor at Large Jane Larkworthy. “But she’s just so normal, her approachability will swat away your proverbial autograph book, leaving you thinking, ‘I bet she would come to dinner if invited.’ We talk about the writing process (or lack thereof), her beauty routine (or lack thereof) and why Natalie Portman could never play her in the inevitable award-winning biopic. We curl up in conversation from the author’s breezy, hilltop home in Austerlitz, NY.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/in-conversation-ruth-reichl-ravenous/

By Jane Larkworthy
Photography by Shannon Greer

04/08/2023

Sean McAlindin went on a music pilgrimage through the mountains with his daughter Penelope. He shares: “While I knew this region was historically rich in music and culture, you could see the tumbleweeds rolling down Warren Street after dark, and it wasn’t exactly easy to meet new friends during COVID.

I was lucky enough to jam with some guys at Buddhist art dealer Alan Fernández’s Gallery 707 Hudson, and eventually got a gig playing piano on Friday nights at Isaan Thai Star. But I missed my old friends and the close-knit bandmates who’d made waves with me playing hippie festivals throughout Northern California. So, I strummed my banjo while Penelope explored the turbulent banks of Esopus Creek. As I plucked the lonely strings, somehow, the subtle magic of the mountains found its way into my soul.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/special-report-the-music/

By Sean McAlindin

03/08/2023

In our exclusive cover story, Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin shares: “The end goal for me and my work would be to live in a world where there’s more acceptance, more unity, more embracing of each other. This will be achieved through music with the musicians I conduct, in the institutions I lead or wherever I’m surrounded by music. But here’s the thing, I’m never alone in this. I’m the figurehead because I’m the conductor, yes, and people see me wave my arms in the front of the stage. But I have a very gregarious job because I alone can’t do anything. It’s a team effort or none of us will succeed. I don’t see Utopia, my friend, but I still think that if we all contribute seriously to the arts, it can be done. And it will be done. But I’m so tired of the naysayers. I’ll always be the optimistic conductor. I’m always the person who sees the possible in everything I do.”
Read more: https://themountainsmedia.com/2023/07/exclusive-meet-classical-musics-messiah-yannick-nezet-seguin/

By Richard Pérez-Feria.
Photography by Arthur Elgort / Philadelphia Orchestra.