Rogovoy Report For September 25, 2015

This weekend our region boasts comedy, a new orchestra, exhibits of local and national photography, readings of new works of fiction and poetry, and an all-star selection of Woodstock-based rock talent re-creating the music of one of the Hudson Valley’s greatest bands ever, Steely Dan.

American West, a dual exhibition of photography and objects, opens at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield this weekend. Included are the travelling exhibition “National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West,” featuring stunning photography from the last 125 years, and “Go West,” organized by the Berkshire Museum, and including objects, artwork, and interactive stations pertaining to the grand adventure of the American West. The pair of exhibitions will be on view this Saturday through Sunday, January 3, 2016. The Preview Party for American West takes place tonight from 5:30 to 7:30pm.

Comedian Paula Poundstone will perform at the Colonial in Pittsfield on Saturday at 8pm. Paula Poundstone is recognized as one of Comedy Central’s 100 greatest stand-ups of all time. Poundstone won an American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-up Comic, and in 2010 she was one of a select group voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame.

The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, will make its debut performance at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Daniel Arts Center’s McConnell Theater. Featuring special guest pianist Anna Polonsky, the Orchestra Now will perform lesser known works by Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn. This event is free and open to the public.

Spaces and Moments: Images by Marcia Powdermaker and B. Docktor, a photography exhibition by the winners of last year’s Spencertown Academy Arts Center juried regional art exhibition, opens on Saturday  with a reception from 4 to 6pm. The show will remain on display through October 18.

An all-star group of rock ‘n’ roll talent, including Jules Shear, Gail Ann Dorsey, Rick and Jerry Marotta, and Scott Petito, will pay tribute to the Hudson Valley’s most famous rock group ever in “Reelin’ in the Years: The Music of Steely Dan” at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, at 9pm.  Years ago, Donald Fagen settled down not far from Bard College, in the Bearsville section of Woodstock, and he has been a steady presence on the region’s music scene, playing a recurring role in Levon Helm’s Ramble. The “Reelin’ in the Years” tribute includes a coterie of Woodstock-area musicians, some of whom have performed with Steely Dan and Fagen, including Rick Marotta, the original drummer on many of the group’s hits. The musicians are also promising some special unannounced guests to help get across such all-time favorite tunes as “Reelin’ in the Years,” “Peg,” “Aja,” “Kid Charlemagne,” and “The Royal Scam.”

Poet Rebecca Wolff and novelist Andrea Kleine will read from their work at Third Floor Gallery in Hudson on Sunday at 3pm. Both are celebrating the publication of new books: Wolff's new poetry collection, “One Morning”, and Kleine’s gripping debut novel, “Calf” (Soft Skull Press), a literary page-turner that brings back the murderous, obsessive era of John Hinckley, Ronald Reagan, Jodie Foster, Mark David Chapman, and its effect on a few regular families in Washington DC in a story that is at once intimate yet stunning in its apt, sweeping portrayal of a nation seemingly gone violently mad. The reading, presented by Karen Schoemer, Bookseller, is free and open to the public.