Columbia County, NY (Hudson, the Chathams, etc.) gets better and better, and is no longer the best kept secret. Not only home to local people who were smart enough to discover the area a long time ago, it’s now been discovered by second-home owners from near and far. It’s also teeming with well-known people from all parts of the art world: musicians, writers, designers, film people, actors, so many! People like Courtney Hunt, who wrote and directed ‘Frozen River’, the film that garnered 20 Oscar nominations in various categories. Hunt lives right here in East Chatham, is on the advisory board of FilmColumbia (which starts this Friday, 10/22) and has directed the new film ‘The Whole Truth’, which will be shown at the Festival this week.

Marina Abramovic, the renowned modern artist, bought a very interesting home recently in the Chatham area, and just this week The New Yorker Magazine ran a tremendous article about her. She is often noted in The New York Times,along with a myriad of other highly regarded publications, and has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and other places with installations of her exciting art forms and concepts.

The food and wine scene has blossomed exponentially, and wonderful new, farm-to-table eateries and wine bars are opening throughout the County. Hudson is now being called ‘The New Brooklyn’ with all these fantastic new places. And, the farms are right here, bringing their bounty to these establishments.

Unless you want to pay $500.00 a ticket for Broadway shows like ‘Hamilton’, (which I had seen it when it first opened!) there’s almost no reason to head back to big City; why bother with crowds, noise, traffic, pollution, when almost everything you could want is right here!!