Weird Poughkeepsie

A Dump Grows in Poughkeepsie

Another exciting tourist attraction in Poughkeepise, the rat infested garbage dump that was once a vacant home at 245 Church Street.

This house which is owned by: Putnam County National Bank of Carmel,burned down over a year ago. It has become yet another area eyesore.

Come and see for yourself, filthy old mattresses, gallons and gallons of used cooking grease and empty Goya bean cans, old broken television sets and assorted debris.

It is bad enough the scorched remains of the house are still there, but the nefarious locals have taken it as a catch all for all the bulk items they can’t get rid of.

Other entertaining events are: The Feeding of the feral cats and the ensuing rat parade. Everyday around mid-afternoon one of the local disheveled Cat Ladies shows up in a decrepit car with garbage bag windows

and tosses out 20lbs of Little Friskies….. a few sad, diseased cats limp out and eat……… but that’s nothing, come back around nightfall and rats, bigger than cats,will be having a vermin buffet. I am sure Crazy Cat lady thinks the cats are doing  well but it’s the rats who do best. It’s like visiting an impoverished 3rd world country so get your shots unless you enjoy tetanus and hepatitis

Meanwhile, right next door  Jim Sullivan, who along with his wife, Gina, owns Cardinal Assets of NY LLC, a contracting company based in Pawling, is working hard to fix up the adjoining  house, making another beautiful renovation of a historic home. The contrast between the two situations could not be more extreme

But what the Hell, this is a city of hilarious contrasts from Serial Killers to Opera Houses and from Rat Filled Dumps to Beautiful Old Homes

Kingston Rock and Roll Flea Market, Saturday May 18th

This is going to be a unique and amazing event, full of rare collectables, funky hand made crafts and awesome eccentric goodies and it’s only $3.00 with a portion of that going to the PAL Boxing League

Kingston, New York – On Saturday, May 18^th an indoor rock n roll flea market will be held from 10am – 5pm at the Murphy Center in mid-town Kingston (467 Broadway next to the Rite Aid Pharmacy).

A variety of vendors will be on hand offering vintage and new vinyl records, cds, memorabilia, vintage toys, collectibles, outsider art, handmade jewelry, guitars, t-shirts and more. There will be a DJ all day. $3 at the door with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Kingston Police Athletic League (PAL) Boxing program http://www.kingstonpal.com/.

FREE admission for kids under 12 with an adult.

This is the first Rock n Roll Flea Market at the Murphy Center. Promoter Chris Orlando hopes to give people an alternative to ordinary shopping with an emphasis on local artists and businesses.

There will be over 75 Vendors form the Hudson Valley and beyond some include:

Lix Online: All the way from Chicago selling horror merchandise

Pop’s Tattoo of Kingston: Miranda and Cookie will be selling tattoo inspired art prints

Redline T shirts: Vintage hot rod shirts

Pulp Sushi: Handmade jewelry

Darkside Records: Hudson Valley’s premier record store

Zanti Jewelry: Selling Monster Jewelry

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

Liza Minnelli at the Bardavon Friday May 17th

The Legendary LIZA performs at the Bardavon this Friday, May 17th a rare chance to see Hollywood royalty perform live up close and personal right in our Weird Poughkeepsie

The Bardavon is one of the most beautiful theaters in the Hudson Valley as well as the entire State of NY. Located in the Heart of Weird Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley, this event will be the beginning of an amazing weekend in the Hudson Valley. Come up for the weekend and on Saturday attend the Rock and Roll Flea Market and the Queen City Arts Festival.

Bardavon Gala 2013

Starring the Legendary LIZA MINNELLI

Friday, May 17, 2013 – 8 p.m.

Annual Celebration Marks Theater’s 144^th Birthday

(Poughkeepsie, NY) Liza Minnelli will take the stage on Friday, May 17 at 8PM for the Bardavon’s annual fundraising gala celebrating the theater’s 144th birthday.

Liza Minnelli, winner of four Tony Awards, an Oscar, a special “Legends” Grammy, two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy, is one of the entertainment world’s consummate performers. In film, on stage and in television, Liza has won critical acclaim, a multitude of fans, and recognition from her peers in show business, giving new dimension and credibility to the word “superstar.”

Every year, Gala proceeds help underwrite many programs that cannot support themselves on ticket sales alone — programs like our school residencies that bring artists and musicians to local students, ambitious symphonic events, and special events for senior citizens.

The Bardavon Gala is always one of the Hudson Valley’s hottest tickets. Following the performance, Gala guests will stroll from the Theater on Market to Main Street for cocktails, great food, and a night of dancing at the Bull & Buddha. Black tie is optional.

The Bardavon expresses its deep appreciation to all of the Bardavon Gala 2013 sponsors for their generous support:

Presenting Sponsors: James J. McCann Charitable Trust as well as Marianne Murray & Richard Rowley.

Tickets to Liza Minnelli at the Bardavon are available at the following prices:

$225 (includes premier performance seating, post-show party plus tax deductible contribution)

$175 (includes preferred performance seating plus tax deductible

contribution)

$125 (performance only).

Tickets can be purchased at:

Bardavon Box Office UPAC Box Office

35 Market Street 602 Broadway

Poughkeepsie Kingston

845.473.2072 845.339.6088

or through TicketMaster 800.745.3000 or www.ticketmaster.com

The Poughkeepsie Seer Andrew Jackson Davis

Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910)

Andrew Jackson Davis is often referred to as the “John the Baptist” of modern Spiritualism, for he preached the advent of spirit communication in the United States with an evangelical fervor. Davis grew up in extreme poverty in Blooming Grove, New York, a small hamlet along the Hudson River, the only son in a family of six. His mother was illiterate, but highly religious, and quite likely encouraged her frail, nervous son to receive visions and to hear voices early in life. Davis’ father was afflicted with alcoholism and barely managed to provide any sustenance for his family in his trade as a weaver and shoemaker. Only one of the family’s five daughters survived to adulthood.

When he was 12, Davis’ clairvoyant impressions and spirit voices manifested convincingly enough to persuade his father to move the family to Poughkeepsie. Five years later, in 1843, Davis attended a demonstration on mesmerism conducted by Dr. J. Stanley Grimes. Mesmerism, usually defined as an old-fashioned term for hypnotism, developed out of the theories of certain physicians in the sixteenth century that humans could project and control their animal magnetism, sometimes inducing trance states in themselves or in others. In the 1760s, Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) began healing patients with what he believed was the result of animal magnetism’s effect on a kind of “universal fluid” that flowed between the stars, the human body, and everything on the planet, but which today would likely to be attributed to light trance states and the power of suggestion.

With Davis’s childhood experiences of hearing spirit voices, it is not surprising that he was found to be a good subject by a local tailor named William Levingston, who had decided to experiment with mesmerism on his own. Once Davis had entered an altered state of consciousness, he seemed to have the ability to see through the human body and to diagnose the cause of illnesses and medical disorders. Within a short period of time, Andrew Jackson Davis was being proclaimed as the “Poughkeepsie Seer.” Men and women were coming from miles around to draw from his magnetic powers, and Levingston abandoned his tailor shop to devote all of his time to overseeing Davis’s healing ministry.

On the evening of March 6, 1844, Davis experienced a life-altering event that would direct the course of his personal destiny. All he claimed to remember was being overcome by some power that made him feel as though he were literally flying through the air. When he regained consciousness the next morning, he found himself in the Catskill Mountains, 40 miles away from Poughkeepsie. Had the spirits transported him through the air and deposited him there in the mountains? Or had he walked 40 miles in one evening while in a trance? And why did he suddenly awaken to find himself in this particular spot?

While Davis claimed never to learn the answer as to how he got to that particular setting in the Catskills, he soon learned the reason why. He said that first the spirit of the Greek philosopher Galen (129 C.E.–C. 199c.e.) materialized before him, then the spirit of the Swedish seer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), both of whom provided him with mental illumination and spiritual revelation. From that day onward, Andrew Jackson Davis set forth on an extensive lecture schedule, proclaiming the advent of spirit communication for humans everywhere. He claimed a great cosmic doorway was being opened, and ministers from the spirit world would soon be making themselves available for contact with those individuals who wished to gain from their wisdom and inspiration.

While on tour, Davis met Dr. S. Silas Lyons, an experienced mesmerist, who was able to induce a deep trance state in the Poughkeepsie seer. In November of 1845, with Lyons as the mesmerist, Davis as the prophetic voice, and Reverend William Fishbough as the stenographer, dictation was begun on The Principles of Nature: Her Divine Revelations and a Voice to Mankind. The process lasted for 15 months, and often small crowds of enthusiastic men and women, including such luminaries as American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), bore witness to the words as they poured forth from the entranced Davis.

In 1847, the book was published and was received eagerly by a public seeking new revelations from a modern prophet. Although some critics pointed out many similarities to the writings of Swedenborg concerning creation, philosophy, and religion, Davis’ champions replied that the seer was a man of modest education who had never read the works of the great Swedish mystic. Davis had, in fact, only five months of formal schooling. However, there should be little mystery if the Principles of Nature contained echoes of Swedenborg, for it was his spirit who had manifested with Galen to inspire Davis. Due to the success of his book, Davis began issuing Univercoelum, a periodical which was published from 1847 to 1849 and was devoted to clairvoyance, trance phenomena, and his Harmonial Philosophy.

On March 31, 1848, it is said that Davis predicted the coming of modern Spiritualism when he reported that he had awakened that morning hearing a voice telling him that the good work had begun: “About daylight this morning a warm breathing passed over my face, and I heard a voice, tender and strong, saying, ‘Brother, the good work has begun. Behold, a living demonstration is born.’ I was left wondering what could be meant by such a message.” Although Davis and his followers would not ally themselves with the Spiritualist cause until 1850, it would often be pointed out that the Fox sisters first challenged “old Splitfoot” on March 31, 1848, and that the “voice, tender and strong,” had obviously been referring to their “living demonstration” of spirit communication.

In July 1848, after creating a bit of scandal for the conservative times, Andrew Jackson Davis married Catherine Dodge, a wealthy heiress, who was 20 years his senior. Their union was unhappy and brief, and she died in 1853, leaving her estate to Davis. Davis continued to lecture and teach his Harmonial Philosophy for many years. At the age of 60, he acquired a medical degree, but soon thereafter he retired to Boston, where he ran a bookshop and prescribed herbal remedies to his patients. Andrew Jackson Davis died amidst his books and herbs in 1910, a quiet ending to the full life of the “John the Baptist” of the Spiritualist movement.

Andrew Jackson Davis The Poughkeepsie Seer

John Waters Christmas Show at the Bardavon, Saturday Dec. 1st

We here at Weird Poughkeepsie are beyond excited to see this show and to host all the strange and interested people who will be descending on or special little place on the Hudson.

In many ways I feel that Poughkeepsie is an alternate universe version of John Waters’ Baltimore……. Oh how I wish the Congress was still open it would be the only place worthy of the after-party

The Bardavon Presents

A JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS

“The Pope of Trash” will provide a Joyeux Noël like no other…at the Bardavon

SATURDAY December 1 at 8pm

(Poughkeepsie, NY) The Bardavon is proud to present A John Waters Christmas on Saturday, December 1 at 8pm at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY. The sponsor is M&T Bank. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center.

Like a wayward Santa for the Christmas-obsessed, John Waters will cruise into town with his sleigh full of sticks and stones, spreading yuletide cheer and lunacy in his critically acclaimed one-man show. Torn between capitalism and anarchy, the legendary filmmaker (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, etc), raconteur, and best-selling author feels “Christmas crazy” this year – “needy, greedy, horny for presents and filled with an unnatural desire to please.”

Waters’ rapid-fire monologue explores and explodes the traditional holiday rituals and traditions. He shares his religious fanaticism for Santa Claus, and an unhealthy love of real life holiday horror stories. Delving into his passion for lunatic exploitation, Christmas movies, and the unhealthy urge to remake all his own films into seasonal children’s classics, “The Pope of Trash” will provide a Joyeux Noël like no other.

John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Waters’ 1970s and early ’80s trash films feature his regular troupe of actors known as the Dreamlanders—among them Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Edith Massey. Starting with Desperate Living (1977), Waters began casting real-life convicted criminals (Liz Renay, Patricia Hearst) and infamous people (Traci Lords, a former porn star).

Waters skirted mainstream film-making with Hairspray (1988), which introduced Ricki Lake and earned a modest gross of $8 million domestically. In 2002, Hairspray was adapted to a long-running Broadway musical, which itself was adapted to a hit musical film that earned more than $200 million worldwide. After the crossover success of the original film version of Hairspray, Waters’ films began featuring familiar actors and celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Edward Furlong, Melanie Griffith, Chris Isaak, Johnny Knoxville, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor, Kathleen Turner, John Travolta, and Tracey Ullman.

Although he maintains apartments in New York City and San Francisco, and a summer home in Provincetown, Waters still mainly resides in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, where all his films are set. He is recognizable by his trademark pencil-thin moustache, a look he has retained since the early 1970s.

Tickets are $100 VIP Meet & Greet, $60 Gold Circle, $40 All Seats, $30 Rear Balcony, and are available through:

Bardavon Box Office                   UPAC Box Office

35 Market Street                          601 Broadway

Poughkeepsie                              Kingston

845.473.2072                               845.339.6088

or through Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000 or www.ticketmaster.com.

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1920) at the BARDAVON and after party at Union Square: Friday Oct. 26th

A fun night of vintage horror followed up by a signature cocktail and extended Happy Hour at Union Square just a few feet away from the Bardavon!

What better way to kick off Halloween week than a classic horror film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment

Save your ticket stub and head over to Union Square directly after the show

Union Square is located at 51 Market Street in Poughkeepsie, NY.
For more info, call 845-232-5675

Serving Food & Drink Late Night, Every Night Until 3am!
Check out our night life page and calendar page for nightly specials and happy hour deals!

BARDAVON KICKS OFF 2012/13 FRIDAY FILM SERIES

WITH SILENT CLASSIC HORROR

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1920)

With live accompaniment on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

(Poughkeepsie, NY) The Bardavon 1869 Opera House will open its 15^th season of classic films on the big screen with the enduring 1920 silent horror film classic Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde on Friday, October 26 at 7:30 pm, at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. This special Halloween presentation will feature Juan Cardona, Jr. performing live on the theater’s Mighty Wurlitzer Organ. And all seats are just $6.

The Bardavon’s Friday Film Series is made possible by: Marshall & Sterling Insurance and The Poughkeepsie Journal. The Wurlitzer Organ is presented exclusively by: the New York Theatre Organ Society.

By the year 1920, there had already been several different film versions of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella. But no one has ever portrayed Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde as successfully as John Barrymore. Directed by John S. Robertson, this chilling classic has amazing special effects for its day. It’s the best-known silent adaptation of the tale in which Dr. Jekyll devises a potion that separates the good and evil of the human persona – and in doing so unleashes Mr. Hyde.

John Barrymore starred on stage at the Bardavon in a 1922 production of Hamlet. See attached photo from that tour.

Juan Cardona, Jr. has been the house organist at the Bardavon for over 11 years, and the staff organist at the Thomaston Opera House for past 16 years. In 1994 and 1995, he won first place in the American Theatre Organ Society’s Hobbyist Division Competition. Juan began his silent film work by accompanying cartoons at a stage production of School House Rock at the Thomaston Opera House. He also accompanied the Academy Award-winning film Wings as his first full-length feature. He went on to score other films including Phantom of the Opera, Robin Hood, The Beloved Rogue, Tell it to the Marines, Speedy, The General; and silent short comedies The Great Race, Big Business and One Week.

The Bardavon Marshall & Sterling Friday Film Series will continue on: November 9,                 The Maltese Falcon – 1941 murder mystery with Humphrey Bogart; November 30,              : Pee Wee’s Big Adventure – the 1984 big screen debut of Pee-Wee Herman; February 15, The Way We Were – The 1973 romance with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford; March 8, Annie Hall – Woody Allen’s 1977 classic also starring Diane Keaton;  April 19, The Magnificent Seven – This 1960 classic, one of the most popular movie westerns of all time, stars Yul Brynner, the baddest bald man in the West.

All seats are just $6 and are general admission. Tickets are available at Bardavon Box Office, 35 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, 845.473.2072, or through Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000 or www.ticketmaster.com..

The Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Inc. (the Bardavon) is a New York State nonprofit corporation that owns and operates two historic theaters – the 944-seat namesake theater in Poughkeepsie and 1500-seat Ulster Performing Arts Center (UPAC) in Kingston – and the region’s premiere orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. It presents top-notch music, dance, theater, and classic films for diverse audiences at both its venues; stages free annual outdoor events in local communities; and partners with regional schools to offer unique arts-based learning experiences. The Bardavon also continues to restore and preserve its historic theaters for future generations to enjoy. For more information, go to www.bardavon.org

The Old Observatory at Vassar

The Vassar College Observatory  represents the varied accomplishments of Maria Mitchell, the astronomer,  professor and women’s education crusader who taught at the observatory from 1865 to 1888. The old observatory is located on the Vassar College campus  in Poughkeepsie, NY. The Observatory is no longer used and is not open to the public. However, Vassar College’s grounds are open to the public,  as is the New Observatory.  [From the Vassar College Observatory website]

Burlesque Event Auditions TODAY in Poughkeepsie

It might be last minute but……. if you have a Burlesque or Sideshow style act they are holding auditions today for upcoming weekly shows!

Here is the LINK to the Craig’slist ad

Bill the Painter

Bill the Painter

Every now and then you come across a craftsman who does his job well and for a very fair price. Bill is that guy. a life long Poughkeepsie native and well known around town. In my neighborhood alone he has worked on many houses taking pride in his work and in improving the look of the entire neighborhood.  He has been trusted to complete the 6 color paint scheme on one of Weird Poughkeepsie’s landmarks, The Halloween House.  He’s an old school painter and handyman. When you work out a price you are working it out with the man who will be doing the job, not a salesman selling a bill of goods.  He’s the real deal. He does the work without complaint and with the energy of a man half his age. A veteran, a bit of an ex hippie and well aware of the workings of our strange little city,  if you need some work done or a very careful and professional paint job on your “landmark”

Call Bill the Painter at 845 380-0246 or email him here or comment with questions

“Little Shop of Horrors” tonight at the Bardavon

Tonight at the Bardavon on of the funniest musical comedies ever and a classic you will be repeating lines form for weeks “It’s your professionalism that I admire” is my favorite and I use it sarcastically often!

It’s a Weird movie for Weird people like yourselves so check it out.  It is a beautiful print and there will be a live organ recital before the screening starting at 7:00 and the movie starts at 7:30

Bardavon

Bardavon • 35 Market Street • Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 BOX 845.473.2072