Kitsch Heaven: The Kutsher's Online Carpet Museum
So I’ve just got back from LimmudNY – wifi was down for a day, so you’ll have to wait for reviews/thoughts on some of the sessions. But let’s just say that Kutsher’s is kitsch nirvana: the faded grandeur of this mother-hen of the old Catskills resorts has an old-school feel that’s part Jewish renaissance interior decor, and part whatever was on sale when they recarpeted that particular room. I’m not saying that I didn’t have a weekend replete with intellectual debate, a more-carbs diet, and a range of session presenters from textual to hipster (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).
It’s just that I couldn’t get over the carpets. There are patterns that are Cheadle (pink, green, flowered), lurid (bright green and red), mismatched (there’s a couple of images of great carpet joinage), all coupled with faux Louis XV wallpaper. And the names: the Stardust Room (we saw Debbie Friedman and Basya Shechter, although not together, but for pesach you get Dudu Fisher), the Deep End (great, er, bar) and the Launch Pad.
So, preserved for posterity: a time will come when Kutscher’s either redecorate, or the whole thing fades into oblivion.
I give you: The Kutschers Online Carpet Museum. You read it here first.
As they say in NY – enjoy.
Thanks for this. Momma K had all sortsa funny stories about Kutcher’s and Monticello, and I’m glad someone dug the old school vibes as much as I did. I think Franky Valley had an autographed picture in the Flying Saucer Cafe. Good times!
Mobius has his own UFO moment on the way to Kutsher’s (no c in Kutsher’s) many eons ago…he was on Route 84, headed west to the Quickway, and I was driving. Let him tell you about it…we found out we weren’t seeing things after we spoke to the folks in the flying saucer–and there are rumors that the valley between Rte. 52 and the Quickway is a major area of activity. Some one even wrote a book about it.
I had a similar idea during Limmud, but mine was for a “Museum of Jewish Smells of the 60s and 70s.” It would include a “Hall of Stale Cigarette Smoke,” the interactive “Guess That Burnt Meat” pavilion, and of course, the “Hayden Vomitorium,” also known as the Stardust Room.
Thanks for this awesome carpet montage! I didn’t even realize as I was running all over kutsher’s that there was such a vareity! It’s hilarious to think that there are so many types. I think that it actually ads alot of charachter to kutshers and would even suggest that mainstream hotels also employ a variety of patterns while building!