Time to telegraph Roxbury 1898 and let them know you're coming

Turn of the Century Days offer "heirloom" opportunities on Labor Day Weekend, so RSVP today

Roxbury's ninth annual Turn of the Century Days during Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30-31) will offer all the agreeable pursuits of 19th century mountain life, from vintage base ball games, homemade fruit pies and historic house tours to children chasing after hoops and juggling with Vaudevillian acrobats. Although most activities will be ongoing (with no admission charge), a few new and special offerings require your RSVP, including silhouette portraits and getting outfitted for a commemorative community-wide portrait. keep reading for more information.

John Gorka at RAG

JOHN GORKA, one of America’s preeminent singer/songwriters, will appear at The Roxbury Arts Group on Thursday, July 24 at 8 pm. $18. Reservations at 607 326-7908.

Gorka began his career when he was a student at Moravian College in eastern Pennsylvania in the 70’s at Godfrey Daniels, a venerable music club. There he encountered legendary folk troubadors like Stan Rogers, Eric Anderson and Tom Paxton. Soon he was performing his own songs, often as an opener for visiting acts. It wasn’t long before his stunning baritone voice and songwriting talents began turning heads in the New York City and Boston folk circuits. Those who had at one time inspired him had become his peers. keep reading

Abstract Artist Duo at RAG

DEBORAH SCHNEIDER & SEAN SCHERER will exhibit their work at The Walt Meade Gallery and the Old Bank Gallery of the Roxbury Arts Group fromr July 26 through August 26. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, July 26 from 2-6 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday- Saturday from 10 am -4 pm and by appointment. (607) 326-7908.

Long time friends, Schneider and Scherer are exhibiting together for the first time. They share a deep interest in abstraction and its potential for generating beauty. Approaching the idiom from their unique perspectives, each project charts a very different area of abstraction offering the viewer a strong sense of the vastness of the field. keep reading

Electric Junkyard Gamelan at RAG

Prepare for a night of music that is as visually stimulating as it is melodic, funky, rocking and guaranteed to keep you grooving in the aisles. On Saturday, July 26th at 8 pm The Electric Junkyard Gamelan comes to the Roxbury Arts Group. $10. (607) 326-7908.

The group performs on Dame's innovative instruments such as the Rubarp and Big Barp (electric rubber band harps), the Sitello (an electric cello/sitar combo), the Terraphone (copper pipe horn), the Clayrimba (a three octave tuned clay pot "marimba") and an arsenal of percussion instruments fashioned from kitchen ware, old farm equipment, turntable platters and truck springs. The group plays original groove driven music played on self-invented instruments fashioned from coat hangers and rubber bands, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, clay pots, saw blades and truck springs Its four musicians play haunting modal melodies that float over funky bass lines and layers of danceable interlocking rhythms.

Formed in 1998 by composer, multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder Terry Dame, Electric Junkyard Gamelan is a four-piece ensemble that performs original compositions on sculpturally striking instruments invented by Ms. Dame. Its style was initially inspired by traditional Gamelan music of Indonesia but today incorporates influences from funk to Indian classical, Klezmer to hiphop. The music is shaped by the sensibility and humor of this unique composer. Keep reading

RAG presents  METTAWEE RIVER THEATRE COMPANY   in  NANABOZHO, WINNEBAGO CREATION TALE

The Mettawee River Theatre Company will celebrate its 33rd season and its 26th appearance with The Roxbury Arts Group The production will incorporate many small puppets and giant figures, including an enormous Grandmother Earth. with a new production of the Winnebago Native American creation tale, NANABOZHO.  The performance will take place on Wednesday, July 30 at 8 pm on the Cyr Center Lawn in Stamford.  Rain venue will be the Church Hill Gym behind the library in Stamford.  Suggested donation is $5.  Please bring chairs and picnics and come early (watching the troupe set  up is half the fun).  “We are so pleased to be presenting this traditional highlight of RAG’s season in conjunction with our new venue,  76 MAIN! In Stamford,” says Susan Kenny, RAG’s Executive Director. keep reading

Roxbury Nine vie for their sixth Keator Cup on Labor Day Weekend

After nearly a decade of fierce vintage sport, the Nine will remember and retire some of its founding stars

The Roxbury Nine vintage base ball club will bring home their ninth season of play all Labor Day weekend with three days of action and emotion. The Harry M. Keator Vintage Base Ball Tournament in Roxbury's Kirkside Park begins on Friday evening, August 29, and continues full throttle all Saturday and Sunday, August 30 and 31, with the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. — a match the Roxbury Nine has never lost.

Feelings will be running high on Friday evening, August 29, as the Nine pay tribute to their late manager, John McAlonen, during the opening game with Fleischmanns Mountain Athletic Club. On Sunday, Aug. 31, the team will retire six of its founding players in its first Roxbury Nine Hall of Fame induction ceremony. For sports fans of every age, the entire weekend is a once-a-year opportunity to watch the early history of base ball unfold right on the field, as eight teams from all over the Northeast compete. Whether it's the underhand, slow pitch days of the 1860s or the fast pitch game of the Nine's signature 1898 year, it's base ball played by its most ardent amateurs, for the history and the love of the game. keep reading

Community Arts Seminars

This year Community Arts Funding is bringing 20 theater performances, 17 concerts, 7 art exhibits, 17 lectures/ workshops A series of one-hour application workshops will be held throughout the County this summer.and 16 performances for children and family audiences to audiences throughout Delaware County. The Roxbury Arts Group will again administer this program in 2009. Grants of from $500 to $5,000 will be available to not-for -profit organizations and artists in Delaware County. keep reading and see schedule for seminars.

Roxbury secures Preserve America funds to extend heritage tourism year round

Roxbury's heritage tourism programs have once again garnered Preserve America grant dollars to bring added economic stimulus to its educational and historic tourism activities throughout the year.

"Roxbury in the Gilded Age" was awarded more than $66,000 to augment and market successful summertime heritage tourism programs like "Railride into Yesteryear" and "Turn of the Century Days." keep reading

GLIMMERGLASS OPERA TRIP

Monday, August 19th

Reserve your seat for our annual trip to Cooperstown. Join us for a fabulous buffet luncheon at the lovely Otesaga Hotel on Lake Otsego and then to a 2 pm matinee performance at the renowned Glimmerglass Opera of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate". keep reading

What's new for 1898 Labor Day Weekend? More than you think!

Roxbury's Turn of the Century Days invites everyone to get in the picture

Many moons from now, your grandchildren can point to your image in the 19th century summertime landscape of Roxbury's Kirkside Park. There you are, surrounded by base ball players in baggy flannels, suffragists, vaudeville jugglers, and all your fellow 19th century friends and neighbors . . . click!

On Saturday, Aug. 30, a community-wide panoramic portrait of everyone in period dress will make Roxbury's Turn of the Century Days a fun family memory for generations to come.

It will be "1898" the entire Labor Day weekend in Roxbury, but except for that "say cheese" moment, don't expect time to stand still: All the agreeable pursuits of the late 1800s will be going strong all throughout this idyllic Catskills hamlet. keep reading

"Reading Between the Lines" ADULT BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP at the Roxbury Library

The Roxbury Library Association will be offering a fall 2008 adult book discussion group program, featuring four major American novels that explore the themes of tragedy and loss. Funded by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, the "Reading Between the Lines" Adult Book Discussion Group Program enables participants to contemplate humanities topis in depth through shared reading and conversation.

Led by Roxbury resident and poet Barry Seiler, the RLA "Reading Between the Lines" program series will take place at the Roxbury Library on four Saturdays from September through December 2008:

• Saturday, September 13, 2008: 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.- ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner;
• Saturday, October 11, 2008: 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.- AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser;
• Saturday, November 15, 2008: 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.- O LOST by Thomas Wolfe; and
• Saturday, December 13, 2008: 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.- THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers.
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