Speak Out! recent blogs
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Pretty Much the Most Important Thing
By Bethany Saltman 06/23/08
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How do I Assess Risks versus Benefits of Treatment Options?- 3
By Puja Thomson 06/16/08
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By Sparrow 05/23/08
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By Sharon Nichols 05/22/08
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Dora Who?: On Raising a Weirdo
By Bethany Saltman 04/25/08
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What is the Sound of No Steps?
By David Aston-Reese 04/21/08
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By Trish Malone 04/04/08
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How do I Assess Risks versus Benefits of Treatment Options?- 2
By Puja Thomson 03/26/08
Arts & Culture
Bang in the Berkshires
The Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival offers a full schedule of performances by composers from America and abroad, as well as workshops, live improvisation, children’s events, master classes, music business seminars, free gallery recitals, and more.
Blessed by the Bard“The aesthetic that we espouse, which is Shakespeare’s aesthetic, is that the language leads the action of the play,” Packer explains. “You have to be deeply connected to the play, always involving the energy of the audience. There is no fourth wall.” | 
Cool KatzThe people inhabiting Katz’s paintings are of a type—slender and white, crisp and clean, conveying a certain ease (if not affluence). They are, in fact, more object than subject. | 
Notes from UndergroundA dynamic of eternal fame is the subject of Glimmerglass Opera’s 2007 festival season, as it explores the ancient story of Orpheus in four operas and a concert spanning a period of four centuries through July and August. | 
Wheeldon on a RollChristopher Wheeldon has whipped up more excitement in the ballet world than any dance-maker in decades. |
Zazen Poetics“The future of literary culture in this country is pretty much dependent upon the independent literary press. If we don’t do it, who’s going to? I’m a proselytizer for poetry. I’m passionate about it,” says Chase Twichell. | 
July Portfolio: Stephen HannockAt a distance, his paintings look like traditional scenes of rivers, mountains, or city skylines. As you approach them, though, they envelop the eye in layers of visual and textual interplay. | 
July Portfolio: Mohawk Hudson RevivalThe show Douglas chose, while possessing the Regional’s usual variety, is perhaps more weighted toward craft than is usual for a contemporary art exhibit—craft, in this sense, meaning the expert use of materials as a defining element of the work. | 
Metaphysical GroundVincent Serbin will exhibit new, landscape-based work through July 23 at Galerie BMG. |
Rudely Stamped RichardKnown for their refreshing takes on Shakespeare classics the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has slyly reworked the tale of the bloodthirsty hunchback king, the bipolar villain we love to hate. | 
Bob Dylan's 115th OpusLundy represents a new generation of opera singers, unlike the classic rotund performers who would “park and bark” (stand in one spot and sing). | 
Soap OperaSara Lamm has always been intrigued by Dr. Bronner’s soap, so much so that it inspired the creation of a performance piece based on the 3,000-word spiritual message found on the label. | 
Ballads of Sinners and StrangersLetters feels like a Midwest barn dance on one track and on the next, Jewell’s sultry, mature voice—at just 27 years old—resounds like it would in a smoke-filled lounge of another era. |
Sacrament of SolipsismTaking a leaf from Kurt Cobain’s book, Elliot Smith nosedived into depression, heroin addiction, and, in a shrewd career move, a 2003 suicide at age 34. | 
Art and AllusionWithout a doubt, the sheer intensity of experience available at the Ulster County Jail is unmatched anywhere else in the Biennial. | 
July Portfolio: Pamela WallaceDutchess County resident Pamela Wallace has crafted for herself a life with a single organizing principle—the sheer act of making. | 
Frankly Mr. ShanleyFor a luminous example of theatrical symbiosis, look no further than the two-decade relationship between playwright John Patrick Shanley and the Powerhouse Summer Theater program at Vassar College. |
Food & Drink
Food and Function
Local 111’s chef, David Wurth, uses the bistro’s close proximity to regional farmland to create new, rustic American cuisine that emphasizes local organic and grass-fed ingredients.
Books
Book Reviews: Varieties of DisturbanceLargely devoid of setting, definitive narrative structure, character development, and other familiar conventions, these 57 stories defy easy categorization. | 
Book Reviews: Nine Ways to Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from HereThe epigraph, a quote attributed to Heraclitus, best captures the essence of these essays: “You could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you.” |
Subversive ComplicationsThe praise her first book received couldn’t match Kakutani’s exuberance over Eat the Document. Spiotta’s “stunning new novel,” the Times critic proclaimed, possessed “the staccato ferocity of a Joan Didion essay and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of a Don DeLillo novel.” | 
Coming Up RosesPaetro told a friend she’s reached the point where her name will be linked to James Patterson’s in her obituary. | 
Dana Spiotta: _Eat the Document_ ExcerptFive state borders, and then she was handing over the cash for the room—anonymous, cell-like, quiet. |
