New this year and making their debut appearance in the Northeast
will be the Huval Family Cajun Band. Returning from Lafayette,
Louisiana, the Creole Zydeco Farmers share the top spot on the bill
with the Al Berard, Errol Verret Trio. Traveling from the Atchafalaya
River Basin, these Basin Brothers (as they are also known) will
conduct a special music workshop in addition to hosting a number of
fais-dodos over the weekend.
North country entrants include Magnolia, the Bayou Brethren,
Cajun Chaos, the Chanka Chank Zydeco Band, Hot House Zydeco, and the
Allons Dansers.
Dance workshops for waltz, jitterbug, two-step and zydeco styes
are part of the deal as are music workshops on playing the various
forms. And food; food is a major draw at Molloy's yearly hoedowns.
Bill is a serious cajun chef, and he and his associates will brew
pots of gumbo, red bean cajun stews, jambalayas and some special
festival recipes throughout the event. Both vegetarians and carnivores
will be provided for.
There is a barn on the property for evening indoor dances and there's
an outdoor stage and dance floor too for daytime. Rain or shine,
they're prepared for another big year. Camping is included with the
weekend fare and day tickets are available, as well. The site is
located off Route 82N near Clinton Corners. Call (845) 724-5270 for
details.
Stay tuned for news on the upcoming re-opening of the Joyous Lake.
Currently, the target date is next Thursday night, May 22. Hopes
run high that this rejuvenation of the Woodstock landmark will, in
fact, be a joyous one and, so far, things are looking good. The
interior has been brightened up with new peachish colored paint, the
floors have been sanded and refinished, and the Tinker boys have
purchased an awesome looking sound system as well as a full
complement of stage lights. Plans are to bring in name talent as
well provide a larger venue for local acts.
Big time media attention hit a
Woodstock Times columnist
this week! Yes kids, out of this quagmire of mud, slugs, and black
flies we call home; an occasionally humble columnist from these pages
made it to New York City and the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater to
talk star power with none other than late night TV magnate, David
Letterman. Was it the glamorous Otto, who tracks the Nightlife with
cunning innuendo and satire? Was it the illusive Werewolf, who
stalks the dark passages of stage door entry ways and green rooms in
search of the creative? Or, was it the guy who sits in a dark room
all by himself gazing through a teeny little lens like a peeping Tom
on the lives of the stars? You guessed it, in these times of social
malaise where degradation of the fabric of the universe is the order
of the day, it was the voyeur who made it to glory in pixeland
promoting his new tell-all book, Secrets of the Night Sky.
Our astronomer in residence, Bob Berman, appeared Monday night on
The Late Show and by all accounts, fared well with the often pesky
host, David Letterman. Appearing to have actually cracked the cover,
Letterman described Berman's work as "the perfect book for a dumb guy
like me" and relished in the notion that the knowledge he'd picked up
from reading it really made him "feel like a big shot." Citing
tidbits like the difference between a meteor, a meteoroid and a
meteorite and, news that Pluto has been "demoted" to non-planet
status; the two talked space with abandon.
And, did you know that the satellites in polar orbits are the ones
that are spying on you and that the man-made orbiters that blink on
and off are actually broken satellites that are tumbling out of
control? These galactic gems and many more await in
Secrets of the Night Sky, though odds are that regular readers of
Berman's Night Sky column published weekly in the Alm@nac section
of Woodstock Times have gotten a pretty good head start on the
contents of the book.
So, did Bob so much as mention his home town? Did he ever allude to
his day job of writing our back pages? Did he give any clue that
his little observatory is tucked away here in the mountains of
Woodstock? No, not directly but, there was one give-a-way clue;
Berman is the first non-musician guest in recent history to have
appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman wearing blue
jeans (and that, too, is a fact).
Haven James has been a consistent contributor to the Music & Arts
scene around the Hudson Valley and beyond for almost a decade through his
column, Werewolves of Woodstock, published weekly in the
Woodstock Times
A writer, musician, philanthropist, and Mac addict; he lives
reclusively, high atop Overlook Mountain with his son and a menagerie of
animals, both wild and domesticated. Though currently unmarried, rumors
abound as to his intimate relationships with Madonna, Sandra Bernhardt,
and Eli Bach; though he insists these notions to be pure hearsay. His
identity has remained a mystery to all but the closest of friends as he
often travels in disguise and appears unannounced and undercover at
concerts and venues in a dedicated effort to get the real story.
Go to the Werewolves of Woodstock page for
more articles by Haven James.
Haven James can be contacted at
werewolves@netstep.net
Posted on May 16, 1998
