Super Saturday

It’s party time tomorrow, all day and for much of the night, in two GreeneLand villages. In Athens, the annual street festival begins. with a parade starting at 10am. from the D R Evarts Library, and ending at 11pm., or later, after Riverside Park fireworks. The all-day festivities include 12 bands, lighthouse tours, sidewalk crafters and vendors, entertainers, pony rides…. In Catskill, after the Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market at Historic Catskill Point (with music), Second Saturday Stroll festivities will include at least two new gallery shows: works by Gail Gregg (photos, paintings, collages…) at Gallery 384, and, at nearby M Gallery (350 Main St), under the title “Attempting Grace,” pictures by Jimmie James. These are in addition, of course, to ongoing exhibits at the other six downtown galleries, as well as events at other shops. Moreover, parents can park their children tomorrow at the Community Center, with care and entertainment provided. Meanwhile, at Windham’s performance hall, the 10^th anniversary of the Windham Chamber Orchestra will be celebrated by, of all things!, a concert. Starting at 8pm. With visiting soloists.

10=number of enterprises on West Bridge Street that will have been established between last January and next December, says Village President Vincent Seeley. Many of the newcomers already are established. At any rate, the West Bridge revivalists include Dimensions North, the restoration building specialists led by Rich Rappelyea; masseuse Beth Tilley, at Massage ‘N Mind; an Italian delicatessen, where a pizza parlor operated briefly; a kids’ shoe specialist (including hand-painted footwear), on the site of the erstwhile Bill’s Grill; a bridal shop, which owner Amanda Passaretti has daringly dubbed The Bridal Shop; a real estate agency; a lemonade stand (“Yeah Boy,” run by foodie Bill Muirhead); a haircutting salon, in the former Army-Navy Store; another delicatessen (M & M), at the erstwhile House of Wax; and “Tin Man” Scott Ursprung’s heating and air conditioning business in the former Ritters Garage. That is just a couple of doors west of Divine Enlightenment, where Diana (“Hello from Heaven”) Harris provides (according to a Daily Mail report) a “bridge” to “the angelic and spiritual world.”

PAINTERS’ PODIUM is the prospective name of a gazebo-like structure that soon will eventuate on Catskill Creek, in the midst of the prospective Artists’ Ledge condominium development. It will present a viewscape, open to the public, that is just what Thomas Cole and other painters saw and portrayed in the 1800s. Construction of the project will begin, we understand, in about two months. Eventually the development will swallow the current Tatiana’s Restaurant--which is not, repeat NOT closed; and still serves good food in comfortable settings, indoor and out.

UPDATE: ST LAWRENCE CEMENT. We reported last week (briefly, vaguely) on a lawsuit by the Riverkeeper organization against St. Lawrence Cement company, a suit based on allegedly polluting outflows from the company’s plant at the south end of the town of Catskill. After that we talked with Tony Madrazo, human resources manager at that facility. According to Mr Madrazo, Department of Environmental Conservation investigators came to the site, “made a thorough investigation” and “confirmed” the defendant’s claim that the strange-colored plume that flowed into the Hudson River from the SLC site was not plant discharge but rather was outfall of muddy clay from an eroding embankment. “It was not pollution but was still an eyesore. The DEC made recommendations about re-routing the outfall and we implemented them. No un-permitted activity occurred.” For more information: amadrazo@stlawrencecement.com.

JUST OPENED, on Main Street in Catskill: another addition to the burgeoning art scene. In this case it is not a gallery but rather is a studio, where the distinguished graphic designer, Michel Goldberg, will pursue his creative fancies. He will be creating a few more sculptures, drawings, prints and paintings that he will exhibit in September. Choosing items from the Goldberg oeuvre will be the distinguished Athenian artist Carol May (no kin to the journalistic wretch who afflicts Seeing Greene).

TRAVEL TIP. If you’re traveling to Sicily, says a returning GreeneLander, there’s a Bed & Breakfast in the town of Selinunte that is eminently worth a visit. It’s called Villa Sogno, and from Charme e Relax it gets this buildup:

Dipped in the nature to little minuteren from incontaminate beaches…it offers the of a hotel, the confidentiality of a house and the services of a Bed & Breakfast that every brace can wish. The beginning dwelling century, has been restructured completely holding account of the style ‘Neoclassico’ and modernized for giving a great one confort with last technologies…rises in means to the nature, encircled from plants (secular palms, citrus groves and ulivi), offers to the possibility of parking…. The structure has eight matrimoniale rooms…furnished with furnitures of several ages and equips you of all the comfort. Passing for a tree-lined tree-lined avenue. It is possible to have use of one swimming pool, …mails on the back for giving greater confort and privacy to the hosts. The moving atmospheres for the reading and relax, the solarium, terrace-panoramic with annexed common space or on hand of the customers…. Income with hall furnished …with one common zone for the reading and the relax. A veranda to the closed one for breakfast service, it knows it recreational with Tv Satellitare,.. 2 matrimoniale rooms to the flat earth….. Fabulous sight of the templi and the sea…is possible to admire one. … On the back neighbor the swimming pool is present an alcove with the two matrimoniale rooms in Arabic style. Easy raggiungibile with every half it is lend to being a point of departure for the excursions…. Telephone & Fax 0924 941038

NAME GAME. “I was doing field work on the east bank of the Hudson River south of Albany, NY. I opened up the topographical map, found our location and started laughing. My colleagues were puzzled until I explained that we were along the banks of the Black Black Creek Creek (Black Schwarzenkill Creek.” --Liz Mikols.

IN PREPARATION: Coxsackie Capers. The Boat Rescue Fiasco. Gillibrand’s Challengers. Seward’s Reform Proposals. Bad News-Giving: Local Examples.