SCHMAVE is the indie / lo-fi / jazz project of Avery John, based out of the thriving music scene of New Paltz, NY. In Avery’s New Paltz bedroom, there is a small path weaving between music equipment, leading to the recording gear and a blanket-lined closet that serves as makeshift vocal recording booth. The debut album, Painted Post, is filled with references to books, cryptic and relatable personal experiences, and stream-of-consciousness thoughts that often reflect indecisiveness. The live ensemble creates an intimate, yet energetic atmosphere, drawing everyone’s eyes and ears to the stage.
Tani Ikeda is an Emmy winning director who creates narratives, documentaries, music videos, and commercial films. She was recently selected as one of Sundance’s 2018 intensive screenwriting lab’s fellows and was also named one of Film Independent’s 33 Emerging Filmmakers as a Project: Involve Directors Fellow. Ikeda was an Executive Producer and Director on the Blackpills Documentary TV Series “Resist” with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors about the fight against LA County’s 3.5 billion dollar jail plan. At the age of 21, Tani Ikeda co-founded imMEDIAte Justice, a nonprofit that fosters the talents of young women artists working in virtual reality. She is the current executive director of imMEDIAte Justice and was named one of the “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World,” by the Utne Reader. Ikeda tours the country speaking at universities and national conferences about storytelling as a tool for social justice. Tani holds a Bachelors Degree in Film Production from the University of Southern California and currently resides in Los Angeles. (@taniikeda)
PUBLIC ARTIST & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Jess X. Snow is a queer asian-canadian public artist, filmmaker, poet and educator. As a result of the rootlessness and migrations that marked her childhood, she developed a stutter which she overcame through her discovery of visual and written language. Her work explores survival, memory, joy, and our relationship to the Earth by amplifying the voices of women, queer people of color, and migrants who refuse to be defined by borders and time. Her work has been supported by the Tribeca Film Institute Migration Co/Lab, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center, and has appeared on PBS Newshour, The LA Times, and NBC Asian America and outdoor walls across the country. Through film, mural-making, poetry and youth art education, she is working toward a future where queer, migrant youth of color may see themselves heroic on the big screen and the city walls & then can face the possibility to grow up and create their own. (@jessxsnow)
PUBLIC ARTIST & ART DIRECTOR
Layqa Nuna Yawar is a migrant latinx artist, large scale muralist, agitator, educator and organizer born in Ecuador and based out of Newark, NJ. He migrated to the USA from Cuenca, Ecuador during one of the country’s most severe economic and political periods of instability in the late 1990’s. He works in a range of mediums, including studio painting, public murals, installation, project curation, sculpture, public art and street interventions. His work has been written about in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, The Huffington Post, NBC Latino, Fusion, Brooklyn Street Art and other publications, books and online. The artist’s practice also extends to curation, project production, mural-making workshops and educational lectures through spaces like El Museo del Barrio, Rutgers University and The Newark Museum as well as projects like Creative Art Works in New York City, City Without Walls in Newark and Conect Arte with the UN World Food Program in El Salvador. (@layqanunayawar)
Evan Griffith Dando formed The Lemonheads with two high school buddies in late winter ’86, in their senior year at Boston’s tiny Commonwealth School.
A few months later, they spawned what is now one of the most sought-after punk relics of the 80s, the indie EP Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners. Boston-based Taang! Records immediately picked up on The Lemonheads, with three college radio pleasers to follow: the LPs Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988), and Lick (1989). In 1990 Atlantic Records took notice of the massively expanding Lemonheads fanbase in Europe (where they toured in 1989) and America by signing the band and releasing their well-received (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) fourth LP, Lovey.
Even by this time, The Lemonheads lineup had been volatile: more than a dozen different configurations over a period of just five years, all sorts of bit parts and reshuffles, with Dando as the only constant. At one point it got so confusing that an ex-drummer, just a week after getting kicked of the group, answered The Lemonheads’ ad to replace himself. By a conservative estimate, the band has had more than ten bass players and at least a dozen drummers over the years.
But out of this primordial chaos came a veritable Golden Age for The Lemonheads. A 1991 tour brought Evan to Australia, where by chance he met songwriter Tom Morgan and future Lemonheads bassist Nic Dalton. Their collaboration made all the difference for the next Atlantic release, It’s a Shame About Ray (1992), a concentrated blast of pure pop perfection that clocks in at just under 30 minutes. Thanks to songs such as “Confetti”, “My Drug Buddy”, “Rudderless”, and “Ceiling Fan in My Spoon”, Dando hit a whole new audience (“they’re getting younger,” he confessed to Kathie Lee Gifford at the time).
Mainstream media hype of The Lemonheads shifted into high gear, with lots of wild speculation as to the exact nature of the relationship between Dando and long-time friend Juliana Hatfield (who played bass and sang on Ray). It also didn’t hurt when a 1993 People magazine spread devoted a full page to Evan as one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world. That news came to Evan in New Zealand, on his 26th birthday. When a magazine rep called to tell him he was among the “fifty dishiest people”, Dando recalled, “I thought she said busiest”. And I thought, ‘kin right!” With all the traveling, I was busy!”
Atlantic released a smash follow-up, Come on Feel The Lemonheads, in October 1993. The album brought Dando a genuine charting single (“Into your Arms”) as well as instant classics such as “Great Big No”, “Down About It”, “Being Around”, and “You Can Take it with You.” In winter 1993/1994 Evan Dando was in your living room, thanks to live appearances on the Letterman and Leno late night network TV shows. Inevitably, in Warrington, Pennsylvania, a 20-something named Jeff Fox published the first issue of his backlash ‘zine Die Evan Dando, Die.
Two years of brutal touring for The Lemonheads followed, which Evan punctuated with some high-profile personal meltdowns on various continents that caught the imagination of a press ever eager for negative copy. Still The Lemonheads (now with Boston friends John Strohm on guitar and Murph on drums) managed to crank out a defiant 1996 release Car Button Cloth, with some of their best melodic pop/punk to date: “It”s All True”, “If I Could Talk I”d Tell You”, and “Tenderfoot”. After a year promoting the record, Dando announced at the 1997 Reading Festival that he was disbanding The Lemonheads. Atlantic released a Best of The Lemonheads album in 1998, and a lot of geezers surmised that that was that.
“I just decided to duck out for a while”, explains Dando of his self-imposed exile from the scene. “I didn’t have it in me. It took until I met my wife in 1998 until I got back into making music.” That would be Elizabeth Moses, Newcastle-born English supermodel and musician. Once married in 2000, Dando started to come alive again like Frampton, first with a 2001 live album Live at the Brattle Theater/Griffith Sunset, and then in 2003 with a well-received solo LP, Baby I”m Bored.
In 2004 Evan Dando found himself fronting the MC5, the most incendiary rock band of 1960s America, as lead vocalist in a 41-show tour. And it was hard to miss Dando during 2005 and early 2006, as he toured widely in North America and Europe with various bass players (Juliana Hatfield and Josh Lattanzi) and drummers (Bill Stevenson, Chris Brokaw from Come, George Berz of Dinosaur Jr), and occasionally as a one man electrical wrecking crew. Memorably, in September 2005, Dando, Stevenson, and Lattanzi played two instantly sold-out shows in London as part of the Don”t Look Back series, where they rocked through It”s a Shame About Ray from start to finish.
In 2006 came The Lemonheads, released on Vagrant records and recorded with Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez of The Descendents. Stevenson co-produced with Dando, and wrote or co-wrote three of its eleven songs, while long-time collaborator Tom Morgan added another two. There were cameos from bassist Josh Lattanzi (“Poughkeepsie”, “Rule of Three”, “In Passing”), Garth Hudson (of The Band, who plays keyboards on “Black Gown” and “December”), and some real foot-on-monitor guitar work by Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis (“No Backbone”, “Steve’s Boy”).
“We started out in Jam and Buzzcocks territory,” explained Dando at the time, “We got some psyched-out country on there as well, but all of it is squarely in The Lemonheads tradition.” Following a Rhino reissue of …Ray in 2008, complete with stripped-down demos, next up for The Lemonheads was a covers LP, Varshons. The idea for the band’s new covers record was inspired by Gibby Haynes, ringmaster of the Butthole Surfers, who for years has made mixes for Dando, a longtime friend. “Making a good mix is an art, and Gibby has it down,” says Dando. “I thought it would be fun to share these songs with other people like he shared them with me. So I picked the ‘greatest hits’ from his mixes and covered them, along with a few other songs I always wanted to play.”
Varshons was produced by Haynes and features Dando along with Vess Ruhtenburg (bass) and Devon Ashley (drums). The collection is filled with strange bedfellows – from G.G. Allin to Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt and garage rockers The Green Fuz. The Lemonheads make each track their own, with help from actress Liv Tyler, singing back up on Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” and Kate Moss, who sings over the dance groove of Arling & Cameron’s “Dirty Robot,” which also features lead guitar by John Perry on loan from The Only Ones.
Varshons unearths a pair of psychedelic treasures with “Yesterlove” – a song recorded in 1969 by the group Sam Gopal featuring future Motorhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister – and “Dandelion Seeds” from July, record collector’s Registered Landmark Band. For “Layin’ Up With Linda,” the band filters Allin’s cold-blooded tale through the swaggering country-honk of The Stones’ “Dead Flowers.”
Filled with obscure nuggets, the tracks on Varshons cut a wide swath, jumping from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica and like all good mix tapes, you never know what is coming next.
Kirtan and Healing Mantras–An Experiential, Musical, Self-Healing Practice
Class Description:
“Mantra” translates as “mind-protection” or “mind-training. Please join acclaimed mantra musician Lee Mirabai Harrington for an evening of kirtan and healing mantras. Through the recitation of sacred syllables, divine Names and Tibetan medical mantras, we can align ourselves with divine energies and achieve a state of unity, oneness, transformation and inner peace. Kirtan music is participatory call-and-response chanting that cultivates a state of oneness and joy. Chanting helps reduce stress, open the heart, and connect with your authentic self. No experience required and all ages welcome. You don’t need to be a singer to participate–just bring your curiosity, your open minds and your heart.
Bio:
Hailed as “one of the best kept secrets in the chant world,” internationally acclaimed vocalist Lee (Mirabai) Harrington leads chants from the Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh traditions. For decades, she has explored how these combinations of practices and teachings can enrich the body, mind and spirit. With a musical background in Classical Indian Vocals, rock and gospel, Lee loves to lead high-spirited, uptempo kirtans, combining the metta and wisdom energies of Buddhist mantras with the heart-opening euphoria of the devotional Bhakti tradition. Her kirtans are deep and profoundly healing. It’s an opportunity to really discover one’s own basic goodness, which exists in each one of us. Lee’s critically-acclaimed album of mantra music, “BEYOND THE BEYOND: A MANTRA MUSIC EXPERIENCE” was released in 2016 with Spirit Voyage Records and placed on several “best of” conscious music lists. A student of His Holiness Karmapa, she is currently working on a second album of Buddhist mantra music with California producer Ben Leinbach.
The Pilates method has long been used for improving function, focus, and strength. It is also used as a key component in many physical therapies and rehabilitation practices. Here is your chance to learn and practice the fundamentals of Pilates and integrate your life.
Bio:
Cory Nakasue has taught Pilates for 15 years and is well versed in its classical, contemporary, and rehabilitative applications. This class is appropriate for anyone looking to build core strength, increase mobility, and sharpen mental concentration.
Elizabeth Gross here! I am an herbalist, bodyworker, yoga instructor and end of life doula living and practicing in Kingston, NY. I help people experiencing major life and death transitions to receive ongoing, concentrated support so they remain self connected and cared for before, during and after their time of need. My main offering is called The Selkie Sessions, a series of seven weekly meetings where Thai yoga bodywork is combined with herbalism, nutritional guidance, somatics & contemplative practice to support client’s through major life transitions, when concentrated care is often needed most. I also teach in depth workshops on herbal self care, run a small herbal infused body oil product line, and weave willow caskets for green burials locally.
In this class, participants will come together in a circle to create an improvisational symphony of sound with their voices. They explore how to let creative energy flow from inside their bodies (including shadow aspects of their psyche), out through their throat chakra, and then collectively create a living breathing piece of music that holds the power to transform their lives in positive ways. This class offers an introduction into a personal practice one can take with them and practice everyday.
Bio:
Madeleine Grace has over 10 years of experience exploring somatic voice exploration and various styles of music. She is a performing singer/songwriter certified in Somatic VoiceWork and ties these pieces together in both one-on-one and group vocal exploration classes that can bring healing to both body and mind.
Our bodies, full of life and movement, are the path and guide for this work. We will examine a particular aspect of our anatomy as a focus for our moving experience. Peering into our body provides a window into the form and function of our structure. Beginning gently, bringing our mind into our architecture and substance, we will encourage a listening body.
Through subtle stretching, touch and simple movement patterns we will play with our dynamic articulation. We will practice somatic improvisation, leading and following the body through a discourse with itself, exploring anatomical and universal pathways of movement. We will approach some movement exercises designed to hone balance, increase coordination and enliven respiration. Often, we conclude class with a piece of choreography, in which we can apply the previous work. No movement experience necessary.
Bio:
Charlotte Gibbons is a Columbia County based movement artist and teacher. She made work and danced in NYC and has self-produced her own work as well as being presented by AUNTS, The Kitchen, Dixon Place, Danspace Project and Movement Research at the Judson Church. While in New York, Charlotte had the pleasure of dancing with Daria Fain, K.J. Holmes, Jennifer Monson, Anna Sperber and Nina Winthrop, and she was a 2009 Movement Research Artist in Residence. She has a BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. In 2010, Charlotte traveled to China and focused on studies of Pure Yang Gong Fu and Taoism. She now teaches movement and qi gong in the Hudson Valley, check her out at the New Paltz Dance Coop newpaltzdance.com.
Her dancing life has taught her how to navigate the material world with kinesthetic awareness and a patient grasp of personal possibility. Charlotte believes that cultivating a relationship to one’s person is a lifelong task that must be approached from every direction.
Enjoy the cleansing heat of a wood-fired Finnish-style sauna in the afternoon and evening hours as the day cools down.
Our mobile spa unit offers a changing room, chromatotherapy (variably colored light), soothing sounds, optional bursts of steam, and an outdoor cold shower for full therapeutic effect and to send you off into the night fresh and clean. Maximum capacity is eight people at a time.
We’ll be in the back of Keegan Ale’s parking lot (20 Saint James St.). Hours are: Saturday,3-10 p.m. and Sunday3-9 p.m. If there is space come on in! You may reserve a time slot ahead of your sauna bath; please talk to us about this at the facility. Parties of 5-8 people may reserve a time slot for a private 1-hour sauna session.
Please bring two towels (one to sit on, one for after taking a shower.) We will have a limited amount of rental towels: two towels/$10.
Sorry, Sauna Purists: this is a public event and we can only allow clothed sauna bathing. Please bring a swim-suit or a robe, or wrap yourself in a towel.
Bio:
Henning is a life-long sauna enthusiast who turned his passion into an occupation. His business “Spa Fleet – Mobile Sauna Rental” provides clients with the opportunity to enjoy the experience of sauna anywhere in the Tri-State area, the Catskills, and beyond.
