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Just south of the Village of Rhinebeck
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The best eating establishment in the Mid-Hudson Valley

Our reviewers will be covering the magnificent  MATCHBOX CAFE in Rhinebeck where everything is the best in the area without exception.

Oct 13,2011....Reviewed by Solomio Holmes..( formerly of  The L.A. Free Press, and 
                        Mother Jones ) 
Located at 6242 Route 9 just about 1/3 of a mile south of the Village of Rhinebeck
Phone them at 845 876-3911......
'Comfort Food and Cookies     Stay Nice '
My only regret is that my dear late friend Orson Welles had not lived to enjoy
the Matchbox Cafe....Bob Lemkowitz  ed/pub; and now for the review of Matchbox by our food reviewer Solomio Holmes. 

As Mr. Lemkowitz has said, Mr Welles would have delighted in the Matchbox as he was not only a great chef but a food critic and gourmet as well. Mr. Lemkowitz and 
Mr. Welles would travel about seeking out roadside establishments that featured in-house home style cooking. Their trips would take them from Mr. Welles apartment at the Stanhope Hotel to small eating establishments between New York and Chicago. Now about the Matchbox..This exquisite establishment run by Sam and Joann Cohen is ( according to your reviewer) the BEST and I will repeat, the BEST
eatery in town and for that matter the Best in the Hudson Valley. What a surprising treat and for that matter what a great score for the Village of Rhinebeck. There is not a way to describe the deliciousness of the food and the space except to say go there and see for yourself. Comfort food, burgers, char-dogs, nachos, grilled peanutbutter and banana sandwiches, french fries, onion rings...then cookies, brownies, shmoogies, pound cake, petit fours...I can't take it anymore, I'm dyin' here.
I have been told by Mr. Lemkowitz that Joann's Kasha Varnishkes are the best of all time and he had never had a mushroom gravy with chunks of mushrooms included.
Mr. Lemkowitz told me himself that he has sampled KV ( Kasha Varnishkes) in cities
the world over and that includes Rue des Rossiers in the Marais district of Paris..
The KV prepared here is the heavyweight champ of all KV's ever made in any bubbies kitchen from Brighton Beach to Rivington Street. Get there as soon as possible, don't miss this treat. Wait a second , what's this...Mr. Lemkowitz is giving me a plate of Matchbox's Lasagna...hold on...I can't take it..this is too good to be true, just when you think you have seen and tasted it all...here comes the Lasagna..
I have to take a time out to soak my head !! I went back a day later and you would think there would be nothing else to surprise me, but lo and behold out comes the Pumpkin Cheese Cake...now good readers, I have had CheeseCake at Juniors, Lindy's, Old Blakey's, Davenports, Terrence's Place and of course Baby Watson, BUT, this was so extraordinary that words cannot express the texture, taste and consistency of Sam and Joann's creation. One word of warning however, ladies, hold on to your skirts and buckle your seatbelts before tasting this confection and order it early before Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
Solomio Holmes for the Hudson Valley Review

Movie Review by our editior/publisher Mr. Lemkowitz
The Tourist   Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp ( distributed by Columbia Pictures)
The stench left by this disgusting film caused the theater owner in Red Hook, NY to call in a fumigation service to air out the theater and also had to purchase a few dozen bottles of Air Wick to be placed in strategic spots....Jolie is an actress whose only interest is in posing for 'headshots' in every scene. Depp has become a stiff and a cartoon character who is more interested in buffoonery  than in doing his job. There should be a skull and crossbones rating on anything these two produce in the future and as for Columbia Pictures, Ms Columbia should be holding her nose in reaction to the stench created by thse two frauds. And by the way, each of them received 11 million dollars for their participation. G-d Bless America    
                       

Greetings from Wall Street
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ACT 1...Bankers take advantage of lax regulations, run wild
             and pay themselves princely sums while the bubble bursts.
ACT 2..Bankers are bailed out by YOU and I with no strings attached
            while the rest of the citizenry suffers
ACT 3..Bankers show their gratitude by turning on the folks who saved
            them, throwing their support and wealth ( provided by US) behind
            the fiends who promise to not increase taxes on the very rich and 
            cut and slash teachers, cops, firemen and civil service workers who they
            have portrayed as the cause of all of it...
      
            Given all of this, how can you not support the citizens taking part
            in this protest ?  Where is Maximillian Robespierre when he is needed ?

Fidel at the Chelsea Clinton Wedding
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Santo Barbaro ( Magnum)
Bob Lemkowitz/ Metropolitan Museum
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Backstage ..Daido Moriyama
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11x14 signed and dated

'SALT'  another disgusting film featuring Angelina Jolie...watching this film was
akin to sitting in the electric chair and having the executioner scream in your
face for 102 minutes.. the only pleasure was watching two kids throw Milk Duds
at the girls in the front row..............

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration / Isabel Wilkerson  ( Random House)
Ms.Wilkerson is the first African=American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Journalsim. In her new book she chronicles the decades long migration of African-Americans from the South to the North and West, from World War 1 to the 70's,through three individuals and their families. This book is a masterful narrative  of the long and difficult journey and a must read for those wanting to understand how we developed into a modern nation...
JULIO LOBO SUGAR KING OF HAVANA / JOHN PAUL RATHBONE / PENGUIN PRESS
'The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo Cuba's Last Tycoon'
Cuba has known many rich men since Christopher Columbus first introduced sugar cane to the island but even among the legendary tales of wealth and influence , Julio Lobo's life stands apart. Lobo was the richest man in pre-revolutionary Cuba, Lobo remains emblematic of an era which came to an end when Castro marched into Havana fifty years ago. Lobo led a remarkable life thta mirrored the many rises and final fall of the troubled Cuban republic.

Saxophone Colossus...a new book about the great Sonny Rollins to be reviewed coming up /  also   Mr. Rollins will be signing this book at B&N on Warren St, NYC in Sept...call there for details...

Bruce Davidson..the great MAGNUM photographer " East 100th Street" "Brooklyn Gangs" and "Subway" will be signing his new book called "Outside/ Inside" and new 3 volume set on OCT 4 at B&N   86th st/Lexington Ave..do not miss this signing as copies of this 3 book volume are selling for $450-600 signed.. The books can still be purchased at Strandbooks in FIRST EDITION  for $155 ( A real bargain)


' WHEN THAT ROUGH GOD GOES RIDING' by Greil Marcus / Listening to Van Morrison.....

Greil Marcus is America's most insightful cultural critics who is at his best with this new book
as he pursues Van Morrison's particular and peculiar genius through the extraordinary and unclassifiable moments in Morrison's career, beginning in 1965 and continuing in full force to this day. Marcus covers the uniqueness of  Morrison's art which put him in a class with only a few other performers of his generation.  The book is published by PUBLIC AFFAIRS... Mr. Marcus will appear at Barnes and Noble 17th Street on Oct 18 for a book signing. 



The domain name has been sold by Mr. Lemkowitz to a subsidiary of News Corp ( News Corporation)
Mr. Lemkowitz will still be editor/publisher until such time that he will not be editor/publisher/photographer and local radio host. That time will not come soon as he works CHEAP !

This site is under new construction as of
  SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
All photography shown on this site will be that of Mr. Lemkowitz our ed/pub except where indicated.

An arranged marriage ( Brighton Beach)
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photo B.Lemkowitz

At the Met
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B. Lemkowitz

                          GEOFFREY CHAUCER'S

                   THE CANTERBURY TALES   (reviewed by B. Lemkowitz )
                              
                                   A RETELLING

                                 BY PETER ACKROYD  ( VIKING BOOKS $35 )

           








             
            Now,      as every English schoolboy knows..........

  Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
  The droughte of Marche hath pierced to the roote
  And bathed every veyne  in swich liquor
  Of which virtu engendered is the flour

  in the retelling.............

' When the soft sweet showers of April, reach 
  the roots of all things, refreshing the parched earth
  nourishing every sapling and every seedling, then 
  humankind rises up in joy and expectation....'

      I was sitting in my backyard last summer with my friend Larry the rug dealer when out of nowhere he starts reciting the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English..... " When that April with his showers soote..." Holy Shit said I   .. and almost fell off the bench, I was stunned, not that Larry is a dope or something, but how many times in your life do you hear that narration..? I won't get into the details  but what he uttered are a few of the most famous lines in all of literature, especially to an Englishman.

Peter Ackroyd, the great English critic,historian and writer has turned his hand to a retelling in prose of The Canterbury Tales, arguably the greatest poem in the English language. The U.K. Observer has described the new prose version as a ' new crib for generations of students to come'

Geoffrey Chaucer ( 1343-1400) English poet and diplomat is creditied as being the first author to demonstrate the legitimacy of the vernacular


We are sorry that Knopf and Pantheon Books... ( Pantheon being an imprint) do not find us to be a legitimate  reviewer of books despite the fact that we have been doing this for 33 years both in NYC and now for 10 years in the mid-Hudson Valley...shame on you !!! 

THE HISTORY OF WHITE PEOPLE / NELL IRVIN PAINTER / W.W. NORTON / $ 27.95 cloth/ 512 pages.

Do white people belong to a race ? Is there more than one white race? Why have beauty and whiteness been so paired through the ages ? All these answers and more lie in this fascinating and comprehensive assessment of western ideas of race, beauty and blood from antiquity to present .
A masterpiece of scholarship. 'THE HISTORY OF WHITE PEOPLE' explains that notions of race-white,black beautiful and ugly - are and always have been as fluid as the changing face of America.


Thanks to Elyse Topalian and Rebecca Herman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for escorting us through the Museum's Picasso exhibition after hours. Our tour will be covered in the late May edition of our newsletter.

SLUGFEST...and the winner is .....
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Portrait by Nadine Robbins

Our new food critic Jan Leviathan will be checking out some of the local and regional restaurants
in order to burst the ' culinary bubble' that exists here in the Hudson Valley. As Ms. Leviathan says
" some of these places just plain stink" . We are looking foward to her observations.

The only site in the Hudson Valley to cover book reviews, art and photography shows, author and artists book signings and appearances. e-mail us at  hvreview@aol.com
The Wreck of the Medusa...Gericault 1819
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photo B. Lemkowitz
if  e-mail is not available, call us at
917   673-0301
 

Photos and artwork by B.Lemkowitz except where indicated


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