Sunday, February 14, 2010

WINTER EXPLOSION @ HV RESORT

Saturday evening, Terry Bernardo and I had the privilege of attending the Winter Explosion Fashion Show at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson. Joined by 350 of the guests in the grand lobby, Terry and I witnessed not only a runway of delight, but several vocal artists and of course the unmistakable banter from Miss Reisi camping it up as the Emcee.

It was a treat to hear from Gordon Chambers at the beginning of the event. A singer songwriter known for penning hits for Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Anita Baker. Pulling four of his entourage from the audience as back up, the four of them had the crowd in shock. Sheer power in vocals I havent heard in quite a while.
With designers such as Karl Trogdon, Earle Bannister, Terrell Mason and Andrew Nowell, we saw a variety of styles. Finally, the "Next Top Model" portion of the show was allot of fun, with one of the models/designers getting a fashion spread in one of the national mags out of New York City.

The three day event was partially sponsored by Swerv Magazine; A national Gay & Lesbian publication for the black community and brought guests from the west coast, Atlanta, DC, Philly and Chicago. All three days were filled with festive workshops which included over 100 guests hitting SkateTime 209 for several hours of "old school" disco. You had to see it. They even did a 70's fashion theme at the rink.

The weekend came to a close Sunday night with a performance from Ledisi (pictured above) in the Manhattan Theatre. The Summer Explosion will take place the last weekend of July. I understand the attendance for the warmer events is double. Terry and I were wondering why there weren't any other representatives from the town or county present this weekend? Did our county tourism department know anything about it?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since this is your Blog, we get to see where you go and hear about whatever you hear about. Do the other Legislators get out as much as you do?
I also notice you have been with Terry during a number of events and meetings so I guess you two are getting along well. Other than you two, do you see anyone else bringing this level of attention to county happenings from the representative side?

TRB

Anonymous said...

Wow, I just checked out the website www.WinterExplosion.com

Last year, the singer was Fantasia and before that Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan!

This is outstanding work. This is exactly the sort of WINTER tourism business that towns like Kerhonkson need. It's nice to see a local business like Skate Time 209 partnering with an out of town group.

The sales tax revenue that tourism groups like this help subsidize our County Government.

Didn't the Ulster County Tourism department leave Skate TIme 209 out of their tourism book a few years ago because they didn't consider them a tourist destination? What a bunch of idiots? How else are out of towners supposed to find out about recreation such as roller skating?

Anonymous said...

How about our city tourism director? Last time I looked the City of Kingston was in Ulster County. We have one, don't we?
Kate Cook?

Would that also fall under the Main Street Manager or is that just for city of Kingston events?

Anonymous said...

Hey 1:52. Skatetime was left out of the Tourism directory at the hand of Mike Hein, who was retaliating for one of the Bernardos runing against him for Executive. As far as our tourism depatrtment is concerned, they are too busy promoting Hein, to have time to promote Ulster County. Many of us hped that when Legislator Madsen was seated, he might be able to do something about that. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Terry and Mike BFF's <3

Anonymous said...

Mike, while there were a few buses at SkateTime, there were also 11 buses of guests between Bellaire, Hunter and Windham taking advantage of the great skiing in the area.
Their website reveals that they contribute much to the sales tax revenue for Ulster & Greene. You guys in county government should be grateful.
The last question I would ask is what part, if any, did our local LGBT center have to do with this group? If nothing, wouldn't this be part of the worth of tax free status? Help the taxpayers people!

Anonymous said...

good thing you went this past weekend as they have filed for bankrupcy