Vibe Check: Cocktails & Clairvoyance and Social IRL
This week in Saratoga happenings... Plus: This Old House and auditioning for The Gilded Age
Cocktails & Clairvoyance
Two days before Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo takes the stage at the Palace Theatre in Albany, and three months before Hollywood Medium Tyler Henry brings his Evening of Hope & Healing to Proctors in Schenectady, Latham-based psychic medium Tracy Fluty dazzled a sold-out crowd of 100 (3 men, 97 women) at Gideon Putnam in Saratoga Springs with her clairvoyant gift. “I bet most of the people here want to meet someone,” one newbie guest said during the cocktail hour, referencing Tracy’s psychic ability to predict the future, rather than her mediumship, which allows her to communicate with those who have crossed over. “I know who I’m going to meet,” her older friend said. “My maker.”
Actually (and thankfully) neither turned out to be the case—all 11 guests who were chosen at random to talk with Tracy were there to hear from a loved one who had passed on. There was Shannon, who wanted advice from her late grandmother about what she should do during a transition period in her life. “You are built to work for yourself and to teach and empower other people,” Tracy said. “I think of a yoga teacher.” “I am a yoga teacher,” Shannon replied, before looking to the sky: “Gram—please be more specific in three minutes or less!” Tracy admitted that that probably wouldn’t happen: “Your guides are saying to you, ‘We’ve given you a blank slate—create.’”
Then there was Meg, who asked to hear from her Aunt Mary, but her grandmother was the one who came through. “She’s saying, ‘I can’t believe she’s not asking about me!’” Tracy said. It eventually came out that Aunt Mary was a fairly quiet person, and was potentially letting Meg’s grandmother come through with a message about her children: The time frame of her second child’s birth was divine, and big things will happen in her life. (Meg’s daughter was born following a miscarriage; rather than thinking of the two pregnancies as two different spirits, Tracy said her daughter’s spirit just decided to come later than scheduled, and that the things that happen in her life will be greatly affected by that.) Meg’s youngest child on the other hand, apparently will have one heck of a throwing arm.
Alyson was told that her late brother, who was always protective of her, has faith that she’ll be all right following a bad relationship and added at the very end that he was throwing a feather at her. (After the event, she admitted that she was newly single and her brother had never liked her ex-husband either. She also whipped out her cell phone case to reveal—yup—a feather. “How could she KNOW? I keep them everywhere.”) Gladys was told that she will be given a gift, though it may sound a bit morbid: “The day that you pass,” Tracy said, “You’ll never see it coming.” Mary Agnes (“She’s a nun,” Paul Hennessey whispered in my ear. “She has to be.”) got confirmation that her uncle, who had died in combat in World War II at the age of 19, had read the book in which his niece shared his story—without Mary Agnes even bringing up that she had done so. (“He goes, ‘Honey, I love it.’”) Her Catholicism did indeed come up, but she was very much not a nun and actually felt connected to Judaism. And Nancy Rose learned that her mother, Louise Rose, has been caring for “two that aren’t her own,” which Nancy interpreted as her siblings’ two miscarried babies—her mother’s unborn grandchildren. She couldn’t, however, interpret the fact that her mother has been spending time in her heaven with Joe, who keeps a jug of sangria nearby at all times. Tracy said that it was probably an older relative she had never met.
While she was doing ultra-personal readings, Tracy did manage to slip in some food for thought for the audience, including the meaning of seeing 11:11 everywhere (change is coming), what peonies represent in Spirit World (the big blooms mean a big transformation is coming and also reference the month of May), and this piece of wisdom: “Nobody in this room should feel a deep connection to this earth,” she said. “We’re just passing through.”
Social IRL
Historically, and I’m talking all the way back in, like, 2013, you may have gone to a party, met someone, and then added him or her on social media. But these days, the tables have turned—following two years of COVID lockup and an increasingly maniacal scrolling through of Instagram reels, social media has become the way to meet people. More often than not, however, budding friendships don’t make it past the DM stage. This past Monday, Sue of @thesuecasa, Nicole and Randi of @hautemessesindresses and Kristen of @snappedbykiki set out to change that by putting on Social IRL, Saratoga’s first-ever networking event centered around meeting people you met online in real life.
Following what ended up being a let-down of a storm, around 40 guests—39 women and one man—filtered into Lucy’s Bar slightly soggy. (“I’m a psycho tornado chaser,” said sole male attendee Brad Cranston of @off_leash_dogs, who was actually bummed that weather forecasters had over-promised on the severity of the storm.) Inside the itty bitty bar, though, guests wearing their Instagram handles on name tags were networking up a storm while sipping on craft cocktails and snacking on wraps from Spring Street Deli.
I ran into Moxxi Coffee’s Leslie Swedish, who had donated a coffee basket for the raffle; Jo-Ann Lant, whom I met when she was working at Fat Paulie’s but has since then struck out on her own dog- and house-sitting business (she recognized Brad from Tinder); Brie DeCrescente, whom I’d just met at Music & Mingling; and Kate VanHerp, an HBO video-editing goddess and recent Saratoga transplant from the City who will be joining me at Piper Boutique’s Denim Jacket party on Thursday.
Also in attendance was Alysha, a.k.a. @thesouthtroyhousewife. “I’ve seen that girl on Instagram and thought she had cool tattoos,” Lucy’s co-owner Zach VanEarden said. Zach himself was sporting a vintage Tin & Lint T-shirt featuring an illustration by the late, great Hud Armstrong, and a name tag that said “I like to drink” in place of his Instagram handle. Somehow I completely missed hiker chick/dog mom Allison Kozel, who’s engaged to my friend Jay and whom I’ve DMed with extensively; and Audrey Knizek, my most favorite Capital Region food photographer, came down with COVID and wasn’t able to attend. Luckily, Monday wasn’t the end of Social IRL. “I am forever grateful to this crew, our first Social IRL event attendees,” Sue said in an email sent out after the event. “I have a feeling that we've set something great in motion, and I hope that you'll stick around for everything that we've got in store for the future.”
Quote of the Week
“What’s going on with aliens?”
—a Cocktails & Clairvoyance audience member during the Q&A session after the show
Casting Call
By now, just about everyone in the Capital Region should know that HBO’s “American Downton Abbey” hit The Gilded Age filmed in Troy. And now they’re gearing up to start filming the second season in August—and they need extras (specifically ones who don’t dye their hair).
Spoiler alert: Some big scenes must happen on the tennis court. Casting director Belle writes: “This season, we are seeking some featured tennis players along with general background for paid background work.”
Think you have what it takes? Follow the directions on the flyer. Everyone else, catch the first season streaming now—there’s even a Saratoga reference delivered by the indomitable Christine Baranski.
Save the Date
On Tuesday, city officials and a slew of local arts organizations—Caffè Lena, Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Tang, Yaddo, Opera Saratoga, C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios and Home Made Theater—announced a new weekend-long arts event with an old name: All Together Now. Though you may remember last year’s All Together Now, a multi-venue art exhibit orchestrated by the Tang, this All Together Now is what SPAC’s Elizabeth Sobol calls “a snapshot of all the amazing things that were already happening in the city and the county on a particular weekend in June.” Those things include two Live Nation shows at SPAC June 2 and 3, SPAC’s Festival of Young Artists June 5, a poetry and dance event at Yaddo June 4 and 5, and a community talent show put on by Saratoga Arts on June 3.
ICYMI
We missed the first few Saratoga episodes of the grandfather of home improvement shows This Old House—but we’re thrilled we caught the episode that aired Thursday night as a rerun. “Saratoga is a great town,” it starts, stating the obvious. The star of the show is a house built in the 1860s that stayed in the same family for seven generations. If rebar and junction boxes are your jam, you’ll love the renovations they filmed. For the rest of us, there’s a (private) secret garden tour that spotlights the homes of Heather Madigan and Mary Martin. Samantha Bosshart appears on air, and the second intro booms, “North Broadway in Saratoga Springs has some of the most notable houses you’re ever gonna find anywhere.” We’re so proud. Look for further episodes Thursday evenings on PBS.
This Week in Saratoga Living After Hours:
On Monday, we puzzled readers with a word scramble, whose answer reveals a slam-dunk Saratoga pun.
Then, on Tuesday, we took readers on a single-day, Saratoga Saturday journey—from the Historic Homes tour, to the Spring Auto Show, to Bloody Mary Fest, to Comic Con, to the Wesley Gala.