David Bowie Was Right
Woodstock lost its coolest resident yesterday; David Jones put out a new album, then said goodbye.
He was always able to see trends before they happened and I imagine he saw what was going on in our part of New York's Hudson Valley.
If we aren't changing, we're deteriorating. That's a bit of Eastern wisdom I remember from all my reading of Buddhist texts when I was trying to make sense of a world that was moving too fast for me. And this area where I grew up, nestled between the Hudson and the Catskill Mountains, is changing.
Look at uptown Kingston on New Year's Eve, photo from MidHudson News:
You undoubtedly don't understand how surreal this crowd is, but take it from one who has watched a crumpled up newspaper blow up this street at night with nothing else in sight - this is incredible.
These are people fiercely in love with their new upstate town. They're young and they're energetic and they're determined to create a real community here. In my opinion, they're a great addition to an area that's been moping since its main employer left town thirty years ago.
Brooklyn expats have created a new land - Kingstyn...a reviving city with a great vibe, lots of culture, and a belief that there's nowhere better. All they have to do is get the city to hack those shocking taxes down to size and they might just be right.
Then there's Woodstock. Big changes here, too. Just a couple of years ago I really despaired of its future. Always a silly but endearing place, it felt like it was becoming a caricature, with aging hippies and New Jersey motorcyclists in tie die dominating the landscape.
But now there's a younger vibe. Many say it's because of Air BnB and I believe it. Younger people discovered it as an easy weekend getaway and have fallen in love with the streams, the mountains and the relaxed vibe. There are families with young kids. There are European transplants, particularly from the UK. There are artists and musicians and the same kind of creative people who made Woodstock something special back in its Albert Grossman-era heyday.
Phoenicia, snowy little exit off Rt 28, is now hip. Rosendale, an endearing blink of a village between New Paltz and Kingston, is hip. The other side of the Hudson may be rolling hills and manicured estates, but the west side of the Hudson is wooded, wild and funky- it's cool again.
Bowie was right again.
Changes
He was always able to see trends before they happened and I imagine he saw what was going on in our part of New York's Hudson Valley.
If we aren't changing, we're deteriorating. That's a bit of Eastern wisdom I remember from all my reading of Buddhist texts when I was trying to make sense of a world that was moving too fast for me. And this area where I grew up, nestled between the Hudson and the Catskill Mountains, is changing.
Look at uptown Kingston on New Year's Eve, photo from MidHudson News:
You undoubtedly don't understand how surreal this crowd is, but take it from one who has watched a crumpled up newspaper blow up this street at night with nothing else in sight - this is incredible.These are people fiercely in love with their new upstate town. They're young and they're energetic and they're determined to create a real community here. In my opinion, they're a great addition to an area that's been moping since its main employer left town thirty years ago.
Brooklyn expats have created a new land - Kingstyn...a reviving city with a great vibe, lots of culture, and a belief that there's nowhere better. All they have to do is get the city to hack those shocking taxes down to size and they might just be right.
Then there's Woodstock. Big changes here, too. Just a couple of years ago I really despaired of its future. Always a silly but endearing place, it felt like it was becoming a caricature, with aging hippies and New Jersey motorcyclists in tie die dominating the landscape.
But now there's a younger vibe. Many say it's because of Air BnB and I believe it. Younger people discovered it as an easy weekend getaway and have fallen in love with the streams, the mountains and the relaxed vibe. There are families with young kids. There are European transplants, particularly from the UK. There are artists and musicians and the same kind of creative people who made Woodstock something special back in its Albert Grossman-era heyday.Phoenicia, snowy little exit off Rt 28, is now hip. Rosendale, an endearing blink of a village between New Paltz and Kingston, is hip. The other side of the Hudson may be rolling hills and manicured estates, but the west side of the Hudson is wooded, wild and funky- it's cool again.
Bowie was right again.
Changes
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