HudsonValleyGoodStuff

Cool Foodie Event: Sample 20 different restaurant appetizers at the Taste of Woodstock on May 22nd to Benefit WFF

Taste of Woodstock is going to be an evening of fun tasting in Woodstock, NY on Wednesday May 22nd from 6-9pm. Participants will start at the Woodstock Film Festival office, get a wristband, a glass of wine, and a map, and will walk around town visiting all 20 participating restaurants. (The restaurants that are on the outskirts of the town will be hosted by different businesses in town. (See below). 

You can stroll around town and try out every restaurant by spending about 5-10 minutes at each of the 20 stops. You will get a small appetizer sized portion at each stop, so you'll need to bring your appetite! Until May 10th the tickets are $50 each, after that they will be $70 each and $80 on the day of the event. I'm really looking forward to covering this event. FYI, the restaurants in bold have been mentioned on HVGS. of the restaurants listed have been featured in Hudson Valley Good Stuff!

WDST 100.1 FM Radio Woodstock will be in the Village and will be playing great music all night long. Tickets can be purchased online.

Restaurants:
    1.    Bistro-to-Go
    2.    Bread Alone
    3.    Catskill Mountain Pizza Co.
    4.    Corner Cupboard
    5.    Cucina
    6.    Garden Cafe
    7.    Giovanni's Pizza Grill
    8.    Joshua's
    9.    Landau Grill
    10.    Little Apple
    11.    Maria's Bazaar
    12.    Mountain Gate
    13.    New World Home Cooking Co.
    14.    Oriole 9
    15.    Peace, Love & Cupcakes
    16.    Red Onion
    17.    Sunflower Natural Foods
    18.    Sunfrost Farms
    19.    Woodstock Wine & Liquors
    20.    Yum Yum Noodle Bar

Hosts:
Westwood Metes & Bounds (hosting The Red Onion)
Mirabai of Woodstock (hosting Cucina)
Center for Photography (hosting Sunflower Natural Foods)
Lily's (hosting New World)
Loominus (hosting Sunfrost Farms)

Vegan quesadillas from the Garden Cafe, one of the 20 restaurants taking part in Taste of Woodstock

 

Mentalist Lucas Handwerker wows the Woodstock crowd with mind games, charm & the unknown!

There was an impatient buzz swirling through the sold-out crowd at Byrdcliffe Kleinert/ James Center for the Arts in Woodstock last Friday night (Feb. 22nd) for The Process: Lucas Handwerker. I overhead one woman whisper, "He has been doing this since he was 8!" I was among the curious. The crowd applauded when 19 year old Lucas Handwerker appeared on the small stage. He asked all those who believe that certain people carry psychic powers to raise their hands.  He then reassured those people that was not his purpose. Instead of predicting our futures, he is going to lead us through a journey of the mind so he invited us to go along. My mind was open to wherever this boyish oracle was going to lead it. 

He asked us to write down our dream job on an index card, and summoned 4 volunteers to go on stage so he could figure out which dream job went with which person.  He guessed correctly, giving us insight into what their body language revealed.  (Tip: when you stop getting body language cues, look at the person's feet!)

Then audience members were asked to write down a "Will I Ever" type question on an index card, and he came close to pinpointing the man sitting a few seats away from me who was dreaming of a beach house. Then, we were asked to write down our biggest fear, and Handwerker led the audience through a mental exercise to help us shed our greatest fear.

The evening was fast paced, and I wanted to take notes, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself. (The last thing I wanted to do was to be targeted to get on stage with "Public Speaking" scrawled on my index card as my biggest fear).   At times Handwerker paced a bit, and played chess. Besides the climactic ending which I won't give away, the most memorable part was when volunteers from the audience were blind-folded while they practiced "free writing" and "free drawing" in front of the audience. My only involvement was that I was one of the 8 who were asked to pick a 6-digit number.

The Process definitely made me think, "How does he do that?" Before going to sleep that night I was trying to figure out his secrets. How did he know that woman's name? Does he just have a knack for knowing which women are named Donna? Well, Donna is a common enough name and all the Donna's I know are super nice, strong friendly women, but how could he know for sure? Ok, I guess he is plugged into to our brainwaves somehow.  

All I know is that Lucas Handwerker did captivate the audience in Woodstock. He has a very unassuming stage presence. His confidence comes across, but he is self-depricating, and funny at times. What will Handwerker be up to 10 years from now? I predict he will be performing in front of bigger crowds. He just launched a Kick Starter campaign to raise money for a feature length film on his work ("Discover The Hidden Power of Your Mind" to be presented at the Woodstock Film Festival.  Have you seen Lucas Handwerker perform? What did you think?

 

Scenes & Photos from the Woodstock Film Festival: Timothy Hutton, Simi Stone, Krishna Das & brilliant filmmakers!

I really enjoyed the 13th Annual Woostock Film Festival this past week. I saw "One Track Heart" the Krishna Das documentary, Oma & Bella the film, Mariachi Gringo, Simi Stone and Cleaveland Jones in concert, and an interesting panel about TV & Film "The New Crossover Paradigm between the silver and small screen" with Timothy Hutton.

It's always my favorite week to be in Woodstock, and the film festival seems to get better and better every year. I wish I had time to see more films, but I really loved the movies I did get to see. Will post short reviews later on in the month.

Timothy Hutton & Meira Blaustein, co-founder of the WFF

Film & Television Panel: Blaire Breard, Thelma Adams & Timothy Hutton

Rosendale Theater on a gorgeous fall day

"Rhymes with Banana" filmmakers

  

Mariachi Gringo, filmmakers Tom Gustafson and screenwriter Cory Kruekeberg

 

 

David Baron and Cleveland Jones

 

Simi Stone sang to a packed Colony Cafe on Thursday night

 

 

Krishna Das during the Q & A

Sold Out show for "One Track Heart"