Whitecliff opens second location in Hudson
Whitecliff Vineyard in Gardiner has opened its second tasting room, Whitecliff at North River, at 4150 Route 23 in Hudson. Located on a ten-acre vineyard and in a historic orchard, the new tasting room will be open weekends through October, Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Stop by or make a reservation by e-mailing whitecliffnorthriver@gmail.com or by calling (845) 853-0404.
The Insult next Movies with Spirit film screening October 16
The thought-provoking Middle Eastern political drama The Insult, about a trivial dispute that gets blown out of proportion, eventually consuming all of Beirut, is the next Movies with Spirit screening, on October 16 at 7 p.m. at Rondout Valley United Methodist Church at 25 Schoonmaker Lane in Stone Ridge.
In the film, two men – Tony Hanna (Adel Karam), a Lebanese Christian garage-owner, and Yasser Salameh (Kamel El Basha), a Muslim Palestinian construction crew foreman – have an argument about a pipe that drips water from an apartment terrace onto the street below. They exchange harsh words and demand apologies. One punches the other. Their dispute explodes into a volatile, contentious trial, complete with a media circus. As the matter winds its way through the courts, memories of past atrocities are dredged up, and Lebanon’s civil war, which officially ended in 1990, seems on the verge of erupting all over again.
The film’s trailer can be found on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/The-Insult-Movies-With-Spirit.
The screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion. Refreshments will be served. Attendees over age 12 are asked to contribute $10 a person.
Movies with Spirit screenings comply with all federal, state and local health and safety protocols, including those of the screening venues.
The monthly Movies with Spirit series, organized by Gerry Harrington of Kingston, seeks to stimulate people’s sense of joy and wonder, inspire love and compassion, evoke a deepened understanding of people’s integral connection with others and with life itself and support individual cultures, faith paths and beliefs while simultaneously transcending them.
For more information about The Insult and the rest of the series, contact Harrington at (845) 389-9201 or at gerryharrington@mindspring.com. Details are also available at www.facebook.com/MoviesWithSpirit.
HV Pathways students draw inspiration from Opus 40
Launching a 30-day learning challenge, the Hudson Valley Pathways Academy (HVPA) at Ulster BOCES sponsored a field trip to Opus 40, an environmental sculpture park located in Saugerties. During the course of the September 17 visit, the HVPA students, known as young scholars, were asked to draw inspiration from artist Harvey Fite’s monumental accomplishment before challenging themselves to spend 30 days pursuing a passion, developing an interest or mastering a new skill.
“If you’re passionate about something and willing to stick with it, amazing things, like Opus 40, can happen,” principal learner Joseph Salamone, the principal at HVPA, told the inquisitive young scholars, pointing to the former bluestone quarry, which Fite spent 37 years transforming into a work of art.
The trip to Opus 40, Salamone suggested, was the perfect way to launch the first challenge of the new school year at HVPA. Located on the campus of SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, HVPA features innovative, mutually beneficial partnerships among high school, college and industry. The young scholars spent several hours wandering the grounds, admiring Fite’s artistic accomplishment, taking notes in their field notebooks and considering what kind of challenges they might want to undertake.
Referring to the 30-day challenge, lead learner Steve Masson, who teaches English at HVPA, told the young scholars, “This is an individual as well as a schoolwide initiative. I want you to think of what you can accomplish in 30 days. We’re going to value the process, whether you are trying to start learning a new language, how to juggle or whatever else you might be interested in.”
While giving the HVPA young scholars a tour of the park, Opus 40 educator AnnMarie Callan pointed to areas where the self-taught stonemason’s work was arguably less-than-perfect. After years of practice, persistence and hard work, however, Fite did become a highly proficient stoneworker, creating acres of beautiful stone paths, ramps and platforms on the site. There were, Callan suggested, useful lessons to be learned from Fite’s artistic journey.
Among the field trip attendees was Katie Rescalvo-Gomez, a Chapter 3 (the equivalent of Grade 11) young scholar from the Kingston City School District. “I’m thinking that maybe I will go running every day during the challenge,” she said. “I want to get better at it.”
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