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by Seth Rogovoy
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 7, 1996 -- I have no figures to prove it, but given the size of the Berkshires, I wouldn't be surprised if this region produces the most independent periodicals per capita of any area in the nation. If not, I cannot imagine any place coming close to the Berkshires in terms of the quality of the many specialty weeklies and monthlies focusing on a variety of topics. And, amazingly, for the most part they're free.
The latest issue of the Great Barrington-based Women's Times -- one of the best local publications of any sort -- celebrates its third anniversary by looking at women in non-traditional work environments. These include Elaine McNabb, who sells automobiles in Pittsfield, Jane Perlman, who runs a scrap metal yard in Pittsfield, Theresa Tatro of Great Barrington, who climbs telephone poles for NYNEX, Lee native Cynthia Wassell, who drives a tractor-trailer rig, and Tania Hernandez, a member of the Williamstown Police Department.
The theme that runs through most of these women's stories in the September issue is the importance they attach to showing young girls that they can do anything they want. As Perlman writes, "My most rewarding moments are those in which I serve as a role model for second-grade girls in classes touring my facility. I tell them about recycling, but I make sure they know that women can run cranes, backhoes, forklifts, and businesses just as I do." To say nothing of writing personal essays.
The free monthly, which also includes event listings, service directories, news and reviews of particular interest to women, is edited by Eagle columnist Michelle Gillett and published by Eugenie Sills, and can be found at various drop-off points around the county. At least as impressive as the good writing in the newspaper is the hefty amount of advertising it boasts. Businesses apparently view The Women's Times as a valuable way to reach readers. Upcoming issues will focus on women at midlife and women's roles in technology.
The Artful Mind is a free monthly also based in Great Barrington, with a focus on the visual and performing arts. The "artzine," as it calls itself, is distinguished by its profiles of and interviews with artists that emphasize the artistic process rather than the product. It also includes original poetry and fiction, and is published by Harryet Candee. The masthead lists no editor.
The September issue profiles sculptors Gene Flores, Jack Bloom, and Joby Baker, who is also a painter and engraver. The paper also includes a calendar of events, descriptions of gallery shows, and ads from seemingly every gallery in the county.
Published in Cheshire and co-edited by registered nurses Karen Gold and Ce Swanson, the Care Givers' Compendium -- less than two years old -- is a free, consumer-oriented publication focusing on health and medical care.
The summer issue focuses on children's issues. Jane Shiyah, a school adjustment counselor for the Greylock School Union, explains just what it is that school counselors do and why they are needed. Dr. Susanne L. King of Lenox writes about the effects managed care has had on the mental and emotional welfare of children. Other features include an interview with a pediatric nurse practitioner, a look at a therapeutic, horseback-riding program in Williamstown, medical-oriented listings and calendars, and the increasingly complex and important role played by school nurses.
Edited by Edwin Treitler in Pittsfield, New Visions is a free quarterly which describes itself as "dedicated to holistic health and the balance of mind, body and spirit."
The fall issue includes a feature about curanderos, who appear to be folk healers in Mexico, one who mixes herbal- and faith-healing techniques, another who performs a kind of self-taught chiropracty.
Psychotherapist Nanette Hucknall of Monterey writes a column about dealing with mid-course career changes, and Randy Spiers of Great Barrington writes about something called "ascension consciousness." Apparently, "we have entered an era in which our self-created, artificial rhythms have become too disharmonious for us to continue with them." No doubt that accounts for the macarena.
As enjoyable as these and other features -- including "Trance- formations in Clay," "The Fountain of Joy and Youth" and "Health Tips for Drummers" -- are to read, the best part of New Visions is definitely the ads touting things like "Etherium Gold: A Supplement for the Spirit," "Holistic Chiropractor: Past Life Therapy," "Transpersonal Counselor," "Karmic Cleaning," "Certified Rolfing," "Positive Astrology," "Psychic Readings: Past Lives, Current Obstacles, Coming Attractions" and "Relocational Technology."
Can you say "new age?"
The essay, excerpted from a book of the same title to be published next month -- which on the basis of the article we should all run out and buy as soon as it's available -- contends that our well-meaning zoning bylaws have in fact backfired and encouraged the wholesale corrosion of everything that is civil and humane about small-town life.
To illustrate his diagnosis of what is wrong with our towns and cities, Kunstler uses his hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as an example. But the example could just as easily be Pittsfield, North Adams or Williamstown -- indeed, our entire region is threatened by the eradication of traditional neighborhoods and downtowns. The substitution of the highway strip and suburban sprawl for the traditional ideal of Main Street is not only ugly, but "economically catastrophic, an environmental calamity, socially devastating, and spiritually degrading," writes Kunstler.
North Adams, take note: "When Saratoga Springs invested tens of thousands of dollars in Victorian-style streetlamps in an effort to create instant charm, the gesture seemed pathetic....like putting Band- Aids on someone who had tripped and fallen on his chainsaw."
Pittsfield, before ripping down England Brothers, take note: When the anchor building of Saratoga Springs was demolished "with a kind of mad glee....[w]hat had been the heart and soul of the town was now converted into a kind of mini-Outer Mongolia."
Kunstler offers a prescription for a "new urbanism" to restore the sort of living and working spaces that were once prevalent throughout the land -- designs and arrangements that fostered a sense of community, respected individual enterprise and privacy, and did not make every person a prisoner of the automobile.
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