Catskill Mountains

When Comedy Went to School Is an Expertly and Lovingly Assembled Artifact

H.R. of Bad Brains is Not Crazy, Insists Jamie Saft

With a monstrously flowing godlike beard, multi-instrumental guru Jamie Saft resembles a Hasidic mountain man who should be jamming on meaty blues licks with his beloved ZZ Top instead of the downtown avant-gardist and John Zorn ensemble vet for which he's known. The catch is, dude actually makes hi ... More >>

The Men Play a Sold-Out Bowery Ballroom Tonight: Read Fun Facts That Didn't Make Our Cover Story

Last week's cover boys the Men released their latest album, New Moon, on Tuesday. Tonight, the dudes take the stage of the Bowery Ballroom to a sold-out crowd. And even though we spilled thousands of words in ink about these guys, there's a bit that didn't make the story. Here now, lotsa lotsa handy ... More >>

What To Do With a Wild Pheasant

Here's what the wild pheasant looked like after I yanked it from the freezer this morning. State laws prohibit restaurants from serving real wild game, and all the avians and other animals that masquerade as such are usually just "farm-raised game." Oxymoronic, isn't it? As such, that wild boar r ... More >>

Breckenridge Brewery's Vanilla Porter: Weathering a Nor'easter with a Beer from the West

Style: American Porter Serving style: Bottle poured into glass Location: My apartment during Nor'easter Cost: $14 for a six-pack from the local bodega ABV: 4.7 percent [See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

Victory Prima Pils: A Happy, Hoppy Standard

Victory's Prima Pils Style: German Pilsner Serving style: Draft Location: Beloved Cost: $6 ABV: 5.3 percent [See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

Wolaver's Pumpkin Ale: Nothing Says October Like Beer and Pumpkins

Wolaver's Pumpkin Ale Style: Pumpkin Ale Serving style: Draft Location: The Scratcher Cost: $5. Happy Hour! ABV: 5.35 percent [See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

Sixpoint Sweet Action: A Delicious Trifecta (That You Can Enjoy At Brooklyn Pour Tomorrow!)

Before we get into this, did you know that Brooklyn Pour is tomorrow? Tickets are sold out, but hey, if you hang around outside the venue, you never know what's possible. Anyway, onward to the beer! Sweet Action from Sixpoint Brewery in Red Hook Style: A blend of pale ale, wheat beer, and cream al ... More >>

Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills

Saranac India Pale Ale from Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York Style: American IPA Serving style: Bottle Location: Little Pond Campground in the Catskills, which is somewhere upstate outside of the city. Don't ask me to explain it more than that. Cost: A fellow camper brought it, and I swip ... More >>

What Should I Do with This Lamb Head?

[See More Good Stuff: Trying To Beat the Heat? Check Out Korean Naeng Myun | Photos: The New Amsterdam Market's Dairy Fair | Beigel's Knows What Your Nose Likes] At a family reunion in the Catskills this weekend, my fabulous relatives picked this tasty lamb clean, but left the head and neck intact. ... More >>

Swallow Some Nettles at Parish Hall!

The locavoric folks behind Egg open a new Williamsburg spot

This Week in the Voice: "Gary Jones" Wants Your Nudes

This week in the Voice, out today, Camille Dodero writes about the FBI's investigation of revenge porn entrepreneur Hunter Moore, noting: "as more unsuspecting subjects ended up on Is Anyone Up, more of them claimed that they'd been hacked -- that someone had actually gained access to their e-mail a ... More >>

Kutsher's Tribeca: Pseudo Summer in the City

A new spot evokes the Jewish resort hotels of the past

This Week in the Voice: Air Safety on the Cheap; Are Unpaid Internships Legal?

In the Voice's first issue of 2012, Nick Pinto writes about airport security contractors, like Prince Jackson, who make minimum wage and have no health insurance or sick days -- yet are responsible for keeping the terminals safe. "The scene today at airport-terminal security doesn't look so differen ... More >>

What's Happening This Week: A Talk and Tasting, a Halloween Menu

Our weekly dining and drinking newsletter features all the hottest epicurean events in the city. Sign up for it here! Kutsher's Talk & Tasting Tenement Museum October 24 at 6: 30 p.m. In anticipation of Zach Kutsher bringing a taste of his Catskills country club to Tribeca this fall, he and his res ... More >>

Our 10 Best Loaves of Bread in NYC

​The rustic loaves at Balthazar are cradled in a birch branch. As Pablo Neruda says: "The best poet is the man who delivers our daily bread: the local baker." And indeed he was right. Little gives as much pleasure as a freshly baked loaf, and here are the 10 that please us most. Note that th ... More >>

Escaped Bull Flees Slaughterhouse In Queens

This bull charging down Liberty Avenue in Jamaica Queens was escaping a local slaughterhouse, where it was slated to meet its end. It drew support and admiration for its daring escape from onlookers.

Pardoned Cow Will Retire in the Catskills

​A cow that managed to escape the confines of what must have been a not-fun-at-all slaughterhouse in suburban Philadelphia has been given a pardon by Governor Tom Corbett's office. Kayli, the cow, had broken free while being loaded into a holding pen at the butcher's. In the chaos that followe ... More >>

Actual Wild Strawberries Appear in the Union Square Greenmarket

​Yes, wild strawberries are almost unbelievably small. Maybe you've stumbled upon a patch while hiking in a remote part of the Catskills in late springtime, lured across a meadow by a tiny flash of brilliant red, but for most of us, wild strawberries remain an idea rather than a reality, or m ... More >>

Ramp-O-Rama at Farmers' Markets This Weekend

​This is what Rapunzel's mom sold her out for? They've been showing up in dribs and drabs for the last week, but ramps will be available in quantity at this weekend's farmers' markets. Count on at least three or four stalls to have substantial quanitities at Union Square, including stalwarts ... More >>

L.A. School District Bans Jamie Oliver, All Reality TV from Schools; Chick-fil-A Isn't the Only One That's Anti-Gay

​The Los Angeles Unified School District has denied a request by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution to film at a local high school, and has banned all reality TV shows from shooting in schools. [Hollywood Reporter] A Finnish group that calls itself the Food Liberation Army has "kidnapped" a statu ... More >>

On Friday, That White Stuff May Again Fall From the Sky

Never forget!​Okay, we're going to go ahead and put this out there, because that's the best way of making sure it doesn't happen, right? Or that, if it does happen, we'll be prepared? (Looking at you Sanitation Department.) Here's the scoop: There's a new storm to watch, and it may be coming o ... More >>

Saturday Brought More Bagels to Brooklyn

​This weekend was a high-gluten one for Brooklyn, thanks to the opening of bagel stores in both Park Slope and Ditmas Park. On Saturday, per Here's Park Slope, the Bagel Market opened on Saturday on Seventh Avenue, while Catskills Bagel opened on Cortelyou Road, according to Ditmas Park Blog.

Smoked Eels and Trout, Wild Foods, and Catskills Products at New Amsterdam Market This Weekend

Trust us, this looks way more appetizing than an actual eel.​Back in May, the New Amsterdam Market commandeered the Marble Cemetery for a fundraiser showcasing a variety of wild botanicals from Vermont. On Sunday, the Vermont food gatherers will return to the market, and they'll have plenty of ... More >>

August 29: Bread Alone Cafe in Boiceville, NY

​Bread Alone's mixed nut tart is rarely found at the bakery's stalls in the city, but you can get it from its source in the Catskills. The Bread Alone stand is a fixture in many of the city's greenmarkets, selling fresh and crusty loaves in two dozen varieties. Yes they have hippie breads pav ... More >>

'Discovery Presents Marcos Cabral'

August 27: Canning Tomatoes

​$15 buys a hell of a lot of ripe tomatoes in Schoharie County in late August. In the northern Catskill Mountains, the site of the haunted world of 18th-century Dutch New York as described by Washington Irving, the tomato crop arrives in late August with a vengeance. Suddenly, after tomatoes ... More >>

WELCOME TO TOMORROWLAND

A rocker retreat with mere mortals

Battle of the Blueberries: Wild Vs. Cultivated

​Wild blueberries on the left, cultivated on the right There's been a bumper crop of blueberries this year, maybe because we had a damp Spring, or maybe they've done well in an especially hot Summer. Pints of regular blueberries have been selling for $3.50 to $7 in farmers' markets, while str ... More >>

My Big Gay Italian Wedding!

​No, I didn't have one. Don't worry, I'm committed to being a spinster for at least 40 more years (at which point the male version of Anna Nicole Smith willl surely find me and bury me). But CLICK HERE for my column about how I happened to see the show of that title--the one starring the fetc ... More >>

The Felice Brothers

SNOWBIZ

Murray Hill . . . on ice!

Holocaust Survivors Face Eviction in Four Seasons Lodge

Things to do this weekend for (mostly) free

​ Leaf peeper map of NYS (the Catskills reach peak leaf) The big news this weekend is openhousenewyork weekend, which opens up sites around New York for tours and events, all free. The upside: all free. The downside: a lot of the events are already filled up. You can find programs that are st ... More >>

Bum's Rush: City Sends Homeless to Paris, Florida, Etc. to Save Money

​Remember when the city was shipping homeless men to the Catskills -- and the homeless indignantly returned and demanded shelter in Manhattan, which they found more exciting and convenient to drugs and crime victims? We sure have come a long way since then. Now we're sending homeless people to ... More >>

Culinary Landmarks of Upstate New York

Not sure what the equation on the side of this broken-down orange panel truck means, but I encountered it on the southern edge of Grand Gorge, New York, in the remote northwestern Catskills (click to fully savour). make the jump for further culinary landmarks 

What's Your Favorite Word For a Penis?

And don't say penis! That's so coldly clinical even doctors tend to stay away from it. Here are some other possible choices: *Schlong. I like it, though it sounds a little Borscht Belty--like something that would have been served in the Catskills with cole slaw and some Polish jokes.

CHECK IN

Richard Greenberg’s vacation resort hosts unhappy love affairs and drama

Two Catskills Comics Quip and Quibble in The Joke

Gypsy Caravan

The New Dealer

With Spitzer at the table, Pataki's casino cronies pull an inside straight

A Brooklyn Barn-anaza

Cloonshee Farm RIP, Indeed

NY Mirror

Infinite Jest: Countless Variations on a Classic Naughty Joke

Golem Gets Married

Doner Party

Theater

NY Mirror

Crash Rash

Learning From the Demolition Derby