The Villa 2023

September 25th - October 7th
42 Caridi Drive, Catskill, NY 12414

Hey there birds and bees, remember when we did that thing last year where we all went to the woods and made music and hung out? (Or maybe you weren’t there… use your imagination) Well, I wanted to do that again this year, so I booked this place ^^^^ for 12 nights at the end of September, and I would love for you to come and make music/paint/write/cook/hang out.

Some improvements this year:

  • Individual rooms! No more communal sleeping unless you pass out on the couch in the living room. There are EIGHT BEDROOMS!

  • We’ve traded the pool table for a full on POOL! Pool hangs!

  • PRIVACY! No dude living in the basement, no need to be quiet at midnight, lots of lawn space to hang out on without annoying neighbors.

  • Close to HUDSON, SAUGERTIES, CATSKILL and cool spots, as opposed to old One Diner Hancock. Easier to get to as well, 20min from the Hudson train station.

  • Not sure if this is an improvement, but the house is a swanky VILLA as opposed to a haunted ass school house (which I liked but I’m hoping this place is less damp and falling down).

Price$

This year we’re not doing quite as many days. 17 days was uh, quite a few days, so this seems more manageable. The cost per day is a bit more than the last place but hopefully the previously mentioned improvements justify the cost. Since we have individual rooms, this year I think it makes more sense to price the retreat per room rather than per person, so the prices below are per room. If you have a partner (or two!) that means you split the cost which makes things cheaper for you. There are several rooms with king size beds too so take that as you will.

The food budget though will be per person per day. We did $15/person/day last year and that worked pretty well. The idea is that the food budget will cover common necessities- bread, eggs, cheese, coffee, etc - basically breakfast, lunch and snacks, then dinner we might have to supplement. But honestly last year the food budget covered a lot of dinners as well. I’ll also be flexible with people who have food restrictions and might be buying most of their own food.

Plan A: Whole Hog (all 12 nights)
$810 (~$67.5/night)

Plan B: Half Hog (7 nights)
$475 (~$68/night)

Plan C: Weekend Piggy (1 Weekend / Fri+Sat night)
$150 (~$75/night)

Plan D: Weekday Piglet (Sun-Thurs nights)
$70/night

So to figure out how much it’ll run you, you’ll need to do a little math. For instance, if you split a room between two people for a week, you’ll each be on the hook for $237.5 each for the room and then $105 for food ($15 x 7 days), so your individual cost for a week would be $342.5. You’re smart, you can figure out the math, I have faith in you.

If you don’t have someone to split a room with but can’t afford a whole room on your own, we’ll figure something out, I don’t want to discourage people from flying solo.

So those are the basics. While I encourage people to use this time to pursue whatever project they’ve got going on, there will be an emphasis on music making. I plan on bringing up a recording set up, instruments, amps, etc and making a little music space either in the big living room or the side living room depending on the vibe. If you were there last year you’ll know what’s up, but if you weren’t you can check out how it went down here.

I know this is a little ways off, but I’d like to get an idea of who might be interested so I can figure out filling rooms. Even if you can’t come, do me a solid and fill out the form below so I can get a sense of who’s interested. This will help me make sure I’m not over inviting or under inviting people.

Hope to see you all there and make a shitload of noise and fun memories again.