SPEND Sonic $olar $ense Hugh genius Does it pay to buy or lease panels? Reynolds TIME Preserving Maryanne Elliott Auerbach WISELY Amacher’s for Congress? with legacy Almanac COUNTY BEAT > 14 Weekly ART > 4 ENVIRONMENT > 12

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2015 VOLUME 10; ISSUE 53 ULSTER PUBLISHING, INC. WWW.KINGSTONX.COM KINGSTON TIMES ONE DOLLAR TOWN OF ESOPUS BUSINESS Rising Star Charles Ferri aims to bring ‘destination distillery’ to riverfront property BY DAN BARTON he way he tells it, Charles Ferri had always wanted to get back to the Hudson Valley and set up a top-notch distillery. The T way there just happened to go through Oregon. Ferri, who grew up in Hopewell Junc- tion and graduated from John Jay High School, worked on Wall Street for a spell The 19th-century building at the heart of the new Star Estate. but made a name for himself out in the Pacific Northwest as the creator of Star egon, distilled with Cascade a 19th-century building (the yellow one Vodka. “My heart’s always been in the Mountain water and filtered with brown trim used as a retreat by the Hudson Valley,” he said, and he’s been five times through lava rocks order) and a more-recent brick structure. “longing” to get back home, but five years before being bottled. Ferri, who’s appeared on the Esquire ago, an opportunity for a partnership But always, he said, there Network’s Lucky Bastards reality show, ended up with him founding Star Vodka was that homeward pull, to do said he spent a year or so looking locally out in Oregon, and building that brand what he did in Oregon — and for the right spot for his enterprise, but it into a success. more — here. was his wife who happened upon it while Ferri’s vodka is an “ultra-premium” In October, Ferri closed on taking a ride up 9W. “What is this? Stop product which drinks so smooth, he says, a 27-acre riverfront parcel on the car!” Ferri said his wife said. “This is it should be served sans adornment or Route 9W in the Town of Eso- your dream. This is it.” dilution (“neat, on the rocks, in a straight pus that was subdivided from Ferri’s enthusiastic about the site’s martini,” he suggests). The vodka is made a 117-acre piece once owned future. It’s been rechristened the Star from handpicked non-GMO corn from by the Christian Brothers. The Estate and he’s working on turning it the Midwest, which is brought to Or- Charles Ferri. part that Ferri bought contains (continued on page 6)

REGION COUNTY GOVERNMENT Parete leaves power Legislature chairair to bbee back-benched come 2016 BY HUGH REYNOLDSEYNOLDS wo-term Ulsterr County Legisla- ture Chairman Johnohn Parete willwill vacate that top spot on Jan. 1, relegatedrelegated to a rank-and-file positionition bbyy the same cross- A proper sendoff T party coalition thatat bbroughtrought hhimim to the fore. But he’s apparentlytly con-

ROBERT FORD vinced that he made a differencerence Firefi ghters salute Capt. Jack Rose’s casket. while chairman. “Bipartisanship works,” ssaidaid Parete, who also has held postsosts Thousands bid farewell to Jack Rose, of county Democratic chairmanman and appointed Democratictic Mount Marion’s fallen firefighter BY JEREMIAH HORRIGAN county elections commis-s- sioner. “We won a few, wwee hey stood, three-deep, Rose and his fellow firefighters had lost a few, but mostly wee along Saugerties’ Lafayette been called out on mutual aid to a house established that the legis- Street, wearing their dress fire at 11 Fel Qui Road in Centerville. lature would have a strong blues, their thin white Flames were reported coming from the voice in making policy,” he T DAN BARTON cotton gloves and somber building’s first floor; a team of firefight- said at a press conference John Parete. expressions. They were waiting the in- ers, including Rose, were detailed to Monday afternoon at the evitable command. And when it came, the basement to put out the blaze. Rose chairman’s office in the County Office Donaldson and himself, the only Demo- more than 1,000 firefighters from across became separated from his team, but he Building. crats in the coalition, for the necessary the state and beyond snapped to attention was quickly located and taken from the “I believe the legislature finally came votes. Last year, legislators Chris Allen and raised their right arms in salute. basement. to birth with John,” said Parete’s deputy of Saugerties and T.J. Briggs of Ellenville The long, mournful goodbye those Once outside, Rose became unrespon- chairman, former chairman Dave Don- (continued on page 6) firefighters had come to Saugerties to say sive and firefighters initiated lifesaving aldson of Kingston. to their brother, Capt. Jack Rose of the measures. Continued efforts at HealthAl- Parete was elected chairman of the Mount Marion Fire District, had begun. liance Hospital’s Broadway Campus failed 23-10 Democratic majority legislature Rose died a few days before Christmas to revive him. in 2014, but needed all 10 Republican doing what he loved: fighting fires. (continued on page 2) members to join his son Richard of Accord, 4 NEWS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2015 KINGSTON TIMES

upon issues Kingston is currently Following the ceremony, Noble Cahill’s temporary move BRIEFLY NOTED facing and priorities of his incom- will host a catered reception right ing administration.” in City Hall. “It is my fi rm belief Assemblyman Kevin Cahill New year, new mayor The swearing-in ceremony will that City Hall belongs to all of reminds constituents that his dis- Mayor-elect Steve Noble will include vocal performances by us and that the doors should be trict offi ce has moved temporarily become Mayor Steve Noble, and Rebecca Martin, Christine Noble open to the community,” Noble from its location at the Governor Alderman-at-Large Jim Noble, as and Robin Carey, the reciting stated. “I look forward to sharing Clinton Building on 1 Albany Ave., well as fi ve aldermen and four of the Pledge of Allegiance by this special day with all who at- Suite G-4 down the street to 65 alderwomen will also take their children from the Everette Hodge tend and introducing community Albany Ave., Suite C. The perma- oaths of offi ce at a New Year’s Community Center, an invocation members to our hard-working de- nent offi ce is undergoing needed Day ceremony in Common Coun- by Father John Borzuchowski of partment heads and employees.” maintenance and renovation, cil chambers at City Hall. Immaculate Conception Church, According to the statement, stated Cahill’s offi ce in a release; The noon ceremony is open to and a blessing from Johann guests are encouraged to arrive the process is expected to take the public. Christoph Arnold, senior pastor of early as seating is limited. City until early February. “By taking this oath, I am com- the Bruderhof Community. Hall is a fully accessible facility; “Our hosts, the Landmark De- mitting to this city, its residents, PHYLLIS McCABE State Supreme Court Judge the ceremony will include a sign velopment team, are working to businesses, and all who call Steve Noble. James P. Gilpatric, will administer language interpreter and Span- make our facility as modern and Kingston their own, that I will lead the oath of offi ce for both Steve ish language translator. For more up to date as possible. The new from a place of integrity, trans- his Annual Message he released and James Noble. Aldermen will information, contact City Clerk offi ce is open to meet our goal parency, and professionalism.” on social media this week. Noble be sworn in by City Court Judge Carly Winnie at (845) 334-3914 of offering top rate constituent stated Noble in an excerpt from stated his message “will touch Phillip Kirschner. or at [email protected]. service without interruption dur-

ART Miss Havisham. “She was totally brilliant and loved by her MFA students,” Bielecki said. A collaborator with John Cage who had spent time as a fellow at MIT and other prestigious institutions, Amacher “was The Amacher archives experimenting in a way that was fascinating to me and other people in the experimental music community,” said Pauline Oliveros, an electronic music pioneer, Preserving the work of a sound-art genius BY LYNN WOODS composer, and multimedia artist/performer who also lives in Kingston. Oliveros, who met Amacher in 1980 at the New Music America festival in Minneapolis and subsequently rented a room in Amacher’s house for a few months, noted that Amacher “developed her own language sonically and in her scores. Ideally I would love to see a space devoted here to her archive, where scholars could come and study her work.” Amacher lacked an heir, so the preservation of her archives has been entirely dependent on her friends. Robert The, a visual artist who had lived in Amacher’s house in 1999, served as her health-care proxy after she fell and suffered a brain injury, followed by a de- bilitating stroke. He began drying out her mildewed papers and carefully boxing and labeling them. After her death, he transferred them to the storage facility, paying the monthly fee out of his own pocket. Bill Dietz, a Berlin-based composer and another close friend who’d assisted Amacher on many of her European installations, has also been involved in the preservation effort. After a stint of teaching at Bard this summer, he extended his stay in Kingston to help catalog the materials. “I created an inventory of all the boxes containing the most important print materials, including 15,000 images,” he said. Seventy boxes contain her unreleased tapes of audio material, many in fragile condition; Bielecki is spearheading the digitalization of the tapes. (“She was particularly fond of recording the sounds of trains,” he noted, adding that she would change the pitch or otherwise distort the sound.) Dietz said there’s been a lot of interest in the ar- chives, with requests coming in monthly and a pub- The house on Marius Street. lisher interested in releasing a French edition of her writings. A professor at the University of California-San Diego is writing a book about her. Raising funds The and Dietz plan to raise money to pay for the tape transfers as well as the storage costs. The goal is to “get the materials out in the world in the right way,” said Dietz. “If everything is published and digitalized, then maybe these things don’t have to be here and could go to an institution.” According to Bielecki, the University of Pennsylvania has expressed interest; Amacher attended the school on a full scholarship and became the disciple of Karlheinz Stockhausen, a famous European avant-garde composer (he’s featured on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album) who was a guest professor in 1964. Besides working with Bielecki, The and Dietz have Maryanne Amacher. Amacher in her younger years. recruited Lawrence Kumpf, artistic director of the Issue Project Room in New York City who recently co-curated an exhibition of Cecil Taylor’s work at the Whitney, to tacked on shelves in a storage room dated Gothic mansion on Kingston’s Marius Street help “stabilize things.” Composer/performer Richard at the Allways Moving & Storage facility on and riding her bicycle around in a leather aviator hat Teitelbaum, a colleague of Bielecki’s at Bard, has also Grand Street is an unusual and irreplace- and goggles. Utterly devoted to her work and hard- been instrumental in providing support. A benefit able trove — more than 200 cardboard pressed for money, she closed off most of the mansion is planned in the spring, with an auction of works S boxes filled with scores, notebooks, tapes, in her later years. She lived in two rooms and donned donated by Amacher’s friends. audio mixers and other material that belonged to a bucket as an impromptu hardhat when she used the “Maryanne had many visual artist friends as well as electroacoustic pioneer and sound installation artist bathroom to avoid the ceiling leaks and falling plaster. people from all fields who want to support this effort,” Maryanne Amacher. Friends helped out: some years ago, concerned about said The. “Many of the people she knew were younger Amacher, who taught in Bard College’s MFA pro- the precarious second-floor balcony, Bob Bielecki, an than her and became very hot.” (One example: Sonic gram, was, prior to her passing in 2009, a leading experimental sound designer and engineer who also Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, who collaborated figure in the experimental music community, with teaches at Bard—he designed Laurie Anderson’s in- with Amacher in a video posted on YouTube.) breakthrough sound installations all over the U.S., struments starting in the 1970s—recruited some Bard Dietz pulls out one of the six notebooks made by Europe, Asia and Central and South America. students to help him remove the balcony. Amacher in the 1960s, when she was still in her twen- She was also a local eccentric, living in a dilapi- Despite the squalor of her digs, Amacher was no ties. Entitled “Space,” it consists of pages and pages of KINGSTON TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2015 NEWS 5 ing these improvements,” stated sity located in New York in or They become the second and board’s legislation action com- 657-6383. Interviews will take Cahill. after December 2014, have an third board members who have mittee, and she had lobbied the place in February. The district offi ce’s phone num- adjusted gross income of less recently stepped down before the state heavily on several topics ber, (845) 338-9610, remains the than $50,000 and be enrolled end of their terms. The fi rst was such as school testing and tax Glasco apartments same. in the federal Income Based Gideon Moor. relief. Recently, McGillicuddy has approved Repayment plan or Pay as You “I have been elected town pushed to take wifi out of the Kingston developer Paul Page Student loan forgiveness Earn plan. Recipients will have a justice for Olive,” Davis said, primary and middle schools, cit- plans to build an 80-unit apart- Gov. Andrew Cuomo an- maximum of 24 payments, equal “and it is considered a confl ict of ing possible health risks to young ment complex in Glasco off Route nounced Tuesday that applica- to their monthly student loan interest to serve both roles at the children. 32 at the same site as a contro- tions are now being accepted repayment amount, paid on their same time.” Both Davis’ and McGillicuddy’s versial affordable-housing project for the new “Get On Your behalf. Applications are accepted McGillicuddy, who’s served for terms were due to expire in proposed several years ago. The Feet” student loan forgiveness year round; visit hesc.ny.gov/Ge- seven years, with nearly half that 2017. community rebelled against that program. The program, part of tOnYourFeet to learn more and/ time spent as board president, Moor, who resigned in Au- ill-fated project, and the opposi- the governor’s 2015 legislative or apply. said she wanted to spend more gust due to a move out of the tion helped oust long-time town agenda, offers up to 24 months time with family. She was initially district, was replaced by Kevin supervisor Greg Helsmoortel, of federal student loan debt Onteora trustees elected with three other candi- Salem. The remaining fi ve trust- who won his seat back in the relief to recent college graduates step down dates as part of a majority which ees ask any district resident next election after the issue living in New York. Two Onteora school board overturned a proposed plan from over the age of 18 interested died down. This time around, the To qualify, applicants must trustees, Ann McGillicuddy a past board to close Phoenicia in serving to fi ll out application proposal called for market-rate have earned an undergraduate and Tanya Davis, resigned at Elementary. She sat on several on-line at Onteora.k12.ny.us or apartments. There has been no degree from a college or univer- the board’s Dec. 17 meeting. committees and chaired the to contact the district clerk at public opposition. brown-tinted paper inscribed with rows large dormer windows, the turret and of notated black-outlined squares. The sliced-off corners, which give the interior notations allude to “the ways in which a feeling of being in the round, and the sounds can appear in a space,” Dietz said: Gothic board and batten siding (most of A non-linear process of sound making which has been removed and replaced that emphasized new ways of listening. for now with plywood, due to extensive “Some of her sounds were based on water damage) make the house unique. field recordings and had a spectral sonic Connors recently opened the house to quality,” he said. “When she would hear visitors for an impromptu Christmas a specific sound that was interesting, party; inside, amid framed lumber sup- she’d filter that sound or add electronic ports propping up the rotted beams of the support to emphasize it and use the same ceiling, was a jumble of stuff — chairs, sounds over and over again. From the lamps, a file cabinet, an antique sink and mid-1970s on, she was making large- gray, dust-covered Selectric typewriter scale installations in which the place- and turntable. ment of large speakers was crucial. Going “That should be saved — make sure into a big building you’d hear how the water doesn’t get on it,” said Bielecki, surroundings changed those sounds.” pointing to a computer hard drive with A key component of her work was a rusted bottom; he noted that its con- “making the listener the focus and cre- tents might be “priceless.” David Lee, ative participant,” added The. a photographer and friend of Connors who’s involved in the renovation, said The shape of sounds he found a letter from a MIT professor Her “architectural stagings” varied in a box in the attic that contained the the wavelength of the sounds so that decaying remains of a cat. He also found they were perceived as actual shapes; boxes of unpaid bills and letters from listening to a piece from 1980 from the Amacher’s mom when Maryanne was “Music for Sound Joined Rooms” series in high school. on YouTube, the complex sounds, which A few years before her death, “Mary- drone, vibrate, chime and seem to rush anne got a big award, the Prix Ars Elec- toward one, like high-pitched violins tronica award, for an installation she bowing at hyper-speed, then recede, is did in Mexico City,” said Bielecki. The a pulse-racing, out-of-body experience. piece consisted of sounds produced in a Amacher later evolved the notion of cave beneath the Pyramid of the Sun at “ear tones,” or “otoacoustic emissions,” Teotihuacan, which included Amacher in which the ear itself creates the sound rubbing against the cave walls with a in response to her use of electroacoustic Bundt pan; entitled sound technologies. Bielecki said the Sound Characters 2: Teo!, it was shifts in pitch and movement of the recorded on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. sounds, played at very high volume, A review on AllMusic noted “Amacher’s stimulate the listener’s ears to create music had a constant sense of darkness their own sounds. It is the ear tones, lurking in the background, much like rather than the sounds that produce the environment in which it was cre- them, that Amacher was writing for, ated. Whereas so much Western music according to Bielecki. Bill Dietz and Robert The. is concerned with bringing light to the “Maryanne had been around some darkness of the world, in this piece, Am- really amazing minds from the beginning — math- decay and the still-intact chateau-like roof. Designed by acher brought the darkness to the brightly lit Palace ematicians, engineers, people like Claude Shannon, Arthur Crooks, the architect of Kingston’s City Hall, it de las Bellas Artes.” the father of the information age, and Marvin Minsky, was built in 1876on a massive limestone outcropping, She was, Bielecki repeated, “totally brilliant.” a founding father of artificial intelligence,” said The. a site that would have afforded spectacular views of Buried in the archives are many unrealized projects, the Catskill Mountains. According to Connors, it was including a technology she invented called “ear pearls,” converted into a senior residence in 1909. Amacher which would be a kind of “sunglasses for your ears; lived in a large room with French windows that had they’d filter things out or color frequencies around been added on at that time. you,” according to Dietz. The steep slate roof, which almost doubles the As some of her gigs dried up—many institutions height of the building and features exceptionally were no longer able or willing to pay the expense of a large-scale installation set up for a month — “it was hard for her to maintain the house,” said The. “She had nothing, no tenure or insurance.” What she had was “incredible courage,” added Dietz. “On top of dealing with existential things, she was able to maintain this incredible rigorous work and keep creative.” Happy New Year! Restoring a gem Serving Th e Hudson Valley For Over 70 Years Thank you for your business Among the boxes and equipment are a few personal SHINGLES • METAL • FLAT ROOFS items, including a bottle of Chanel and a tin of her • Residential & Commercial • Standing Seam Visit us at SharpTransmissions.co tobacco. Many of her possessions are still in the house; Roofi ng & Siding Metal Roofi ng for Money Saving Coupons! it had been in foreclosure and was at risk of being torn • Single Ply “Membrane” • Blown Fiberglass down when it was purchased by artist Dennis Connors Roofi ng Systems Insulation Or Make An Appointment last August. Connors plans to convert the house into a www.jaroofi ng.com B&B, including a room devoted to Amacher’s life and Hours: Monday - Friday • 8am - 5pm art. He’s so far funded the work himself but hopes to 339-2020 Saturday • 8am - Noon get a grant to complete the restoration. Free Estimates • No Obligation • Financing Available The house is spectacular, both for the state of its Showroom: 3 Clarendon Ave, Kingston 712 Ulster Ave., Kingston • 845.339.5141