The Seed Saver: Sue Sie on Rhinecliff, Dirty Gaia, and Reconnecting People to the Earth

The Seed Saver: Sue Sie on Rhinecliff, Dirty Gaia, and Reconnecting People to the Earth

Norm welcomes Sue Sie, a longtime Rhinecliff resident who arrived via an ex-husband, a Bard professor's house, and a lot of determination. She stayed; he did not. That was 1989, and she has been one of the most quietly essential figures in the local environmental landscape ever since. Sue is an architect by training. She designed Gigi Trattoria, Terrapin, and Gabby's, among others, but has not practiced in about 20 years. These days she channels her energy into Dirty Gaia (dirtygaia.org), the environmental education nonprofit she founded to reconnect people with the natural world. The conversation covers the organization's seed library at Morton Library, this summer's Farm and Garden Ramble expanding into Red Hook, the upcoming Threshfest, and her ongoing work with Pollinate HV to promote native plants and protect at-risk pollinators. They also get into: how to save tomato seeds (ferment, rinse, dry), the Berkeley Hot Composting method, the bokashi fermentation technique for composting meat and cheese, the appalling self-regulatory framework for pesticide testing, and why the American lawn is an ecological wasteland. Sue is also a diver, certified in murky New Jersey Atlantic waters and polished in Bonaire, and a devoted cook who dreams in dishes and makes a mean Swiss chard with chickpeas and fennel. Produced by Norm Magnusson, Jennifer Hammoud, and Matty Rosenberg @ radiofreerhinecliff.org Send comments to comments@radiofreerhinecliff.org

Local Painter, Financial Advisor, and Performance Artist Richard Marr on Investing, Painting, and the Planet

Norm sits down with Richard Marr, a Rhinebeck-based artist and Merrill Lynch financial advisor whose two careers have more in common than you might think. Richard's paintings are spare, reverent studies of water and light that grew out of his deep engagement with environmental issues, which also drives his investment work and his membership in the Citizens' Climate Lobby, where he helps lobby Congress for climate solutions each year in Washington. They chat about the OVO Gallery he and his wife Carol ran in South Orange; how a visit to Dia Beacon set them on the path to Rhinebeck; kayaking the Hudson with a sail attached; the ESG investing movement and why Republicans helped kill the acronym; his Antioch College work-study years and the greaser friends he grew up clamming with in Bellport, Long Island; a deep dive into Tai Chi and the influence of John Cage and Alan Watts; and his current show Near and Far at Type Gallery in Millbrook. Richard also previews a new performance piece built around interviews about the Hudson River, with proceeds going to Riverkeeper. Throughout, he returns to a single conviction: that art, like a long-term investment, is not finished until someone else receives it. Produced by Norm Magnusson, Jennifer Hammoud, and Matty Rosenberg @ radiofreerhinecliff.org Send comments to comments@radiofreerhinecliff.org

The Doctor Is In: Dr. Greg Tumolo on Pets, People, and Practicing in Your Hometown

Norm is joined by Dr. Greg Tumolo of Rhinebeck Animal Hospital, a born-and-raised Rhinebecker who followed his father into veterinary medicine and never really left, except for 15 years in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he went to vet school, skied as much as possible, and eventually realized he wanted to come home. The cover the practical to the philosophical: how Dr. Tumolo thinks about euthanasia as a gift rather than a burden; why he got certified in animal acupuncture; the corporate consolidation sweeping through the veterinary industry; his 25-foot sailboat Blue Mae (named for his daughters' middle names) at Norrie Point; and a famous patient: Rockefeller the owl, plucked from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and brought to Rhinebeck Animal Hospital for X-rays. Produced by Norm Magnusson, Jennifer Hammoud, and Matty Rosenberg @ radiofreerhinecliff.org Send comments to comments@radiofreerhinecliff.org

The Rhinecliff Cinephile Behind NYU's Cinema Studies: Dana Polan

Norm sits with Dana Polan, the Martin Scorsese Professor and Chair of the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at NYU Tisch. The chat ranges across a lifetime of thinking seriously about American film. Dana grew up in New York and Westchester, did his doctorate in France, and was later knighted by the French Ministry of Culture as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts. He explains how cinema studies emerged from English departments in the 70s, why USC made its production students take film history (and why they usually came back grateful), and how a young teaching assistant named Martin Scorsese could remember individual shots from films he'd seen years earlier. Dana explains the difference between a movie and a film, with Spielberg's own quote about Close Encounters as a starting point. Dana lays out the case for Scorsese as artist and Lucas as entertainer, the 80s backlash of hard-bodied masculinity in Die Hard and Rambo, the femme fatale in Double Indemnity and The Killers, and the way recent films like Barbie and Everything Everywhere All At Once try to have it every way at once. He makes the case for The Florida Project and the first Die Hard, pushes back gently on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as accidental pedagogy, and explains why Strangers on a Train was the film that made him realize movies were made on purpose, shot by shot. Dana is currently co-writing Hoboken to Hollywood: The American Places of Frank Sinatra with Chuck Granata for Reaktion Books' Reverb series, and he shares stories from his Sinatra odysseys, including a tour of the Twin Palms bachelor pad in Palm Springs and a sobering evening in Las Vegas watching Sinatra's grandson perform in a no-gambling lounge. Produced by Norm Magnusson, Jennifer Hammoud, and Matty Rosenberg @ radiofreerhinecliff.org Send comments to comments@radiofreerhinecliff.org

Tate and Ola Rubinstein: A Family, A Fair, and 45 Years in the Hudson Valley

Norm sits down with Tate and Ola Rubinstein, the husband-and-wife team behind Quail Hollow Events and the 45th annual Woodstock-New Paltz Art and Crafts Fair, returning to the Ulster County Fairgrounds Memorial Day weekend, Tate grew up at the shows his father Neil and uncle Scott founded in 1982, and Ola, an art historian by training, took over day-to-day direction after the couple moved back from New Mexico in 2017. They talk about the road back to the Hudson Valley, life in Placitas under the Sandia Mountains, raising two daughters who are serious gymnasts, and the meditative pull of tennis (with a few words about Jim Morrison's on-court personality for good measure). Norm gets to what it actually takes to put on a fair this size: 220 juried exhibitors, a 30-person staff drawn largely from SUNY New Paltz, the puzzle of laying out the grounds without putting two jewelers next to each other, and the diligence required to make sure every maker is really making their own work. Produced by Norm Magnusson, Jennifer Hammoud, and Matty Rosenberg @ radiofreerhinecliff.org Send comments to comments@radiofreerhinecliff.org