For this week’s The Friday List, I thought I’d start out with a bit of etymology for you all. “Cabin fever” is a term that, according to several Google-able sources, originated around the late 19th century (or 1910, according to the Oxford English Dictionary) and was used to describe being pent up in indoors during the cruel months of winter. OED clocks its earliest known use to come from the writing of Bertha Muzzy Bower, an American author who came into pseudo-prominence during the late 19th and early 20th century for her writing about the American Old West.

Now, as we reflect upon the snow-laden landscape before us, keeping our restless hearts stuck indoors or, for those of us willing to chance fate, taking a precarious and slippery walk or ride down Broadway, it’s hard to imagine being literally trapped indoors, with snow plummeting down for weeks at a time, and not getting that feverish glow that would make even the most stable of us wince at the slightest discomfort.

For some of us, though, this forced sequestering can be medicinal, allowing us to slow our rat-race brains and finish some projects or books we’ve been putting off since we “never have the time.” I for one have been squeezing out as much time to read during the day as I can and, notably, have been locked into Roni Horn’s Weather Reports You, a “collective self-portrait” about a small town in Iceland told through residents’ transcribed stories about their relationship to the weather.

If you are one of those stir-crazy folk who can’t bear to spend (another) weekend indoors, fear not, the weather doesn’t stop the slew of happenings Kingston always manages to provide. The events this week all take place on Saturday, providing you with an itinerary for the day that seems like it’s out of a storybook under the subhead A Perfect Saturday.

First up on this week’s list is another Saturday Movie Matinee put on by the Kingston Library, this month showing one of my all-time favorite flicks: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in the Community Room at 1 p.m.

Directed in 1989 by Terry Gilliam, of Fear and Loathing, Brazil, The Fisher King and Monty Python’s Flying Circus, fame, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a whimsical, fantastical adventure of epic proportions that seems straight out of a child’s dreamscape (and stars the beloved Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman and Robin Williams, among others).

The library appropriately describes the movie as “a lavish celebration of the triumph of make-believe over reality.” I don’t want to reveal too much, but know that this movie is sure to impress and bring you out of your feverish, reclusive cradle. Plus, the screenings are always totally free, open to all ages and the library even provides popcorn for attendees.

After the matinee, which will conclude around 3 p.m., you’ll have well over an hour to grab a late lunch and make your way over to the Center for Photography at Woodstock (in Kingston) to witness a collection of four near-cataclysmic art openings, including award-winning contemporary-poetry-powerhouse Ocean Vuong’s first ever photography showing.

For a poet-journalist, this is big news, and not only as an appreciator of Vuong’s work but the fact that his photography is being shown right in our backyard for the first time to the public is major.

His work, in his writing as well as this upcoming exhibit, deals with the immigrant experience, and in this exhibit specifically he deals with this theme from the perspective of the working-class. Vuong, a Vietnamese-American raised in Connecticut, has, according to the exhibition description, “long made photographs – often turning to them in the process of writing.” The images we will see displayed this weekend “capture the textures of immigrant and working-class life in America with a rare tenderness, offering a profoundly personal meditation on loss, survival, and belonging.”

In addition to the photographs, CPW and Kingston-based 1080PRESS worked on a limited-edition artist’s book, bringing the lyric and the visual together, which will be available at the show.

Titled Sống, meaning “to live” in Vietnamese, Vuong’s premier exhibit is sure to mesmerize fans new and old alike, but, if that wasn’t enough, CPW has three other openings on Jan. 31 as well, including Nona Fuastine’s What My Mother Gave Me, the first-ever retrospective of the late artist’s work, recognized as “one of the most fearless and transformative voices in contemporary photography,” Qiana Mestrich’s Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate, who recently received the CPW 2025 Saltzman Prize for Emerging Photographer of the Year, and Jiatong Lu’s Nowhere Land. Winner of the CPW 2025 Portfolio Review Prize, Lu’s work studies the U.S medical system’s failures in addressing chronic tick-borne illnesses. Lu’s work will be available to view until March 1, while the other exhibits are open until May 11.

CPW is located at 25 Dederick St., and the openings for these four exhibits are from 5-8 p.m. An RSVP is required for attendance and can be located at any of the previous links provided. If you are unable to attend the opening, CPW’s open hours are Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Finally, from 7-9 p.m., after you sneak out of the opening with a good helping of serious art coursing through your veins, you’ll have a chance to break down the somber veil at the Arts Society of Kingston’s Improv Comedy Showcase, featuring work from Hudson Valley Improv.

Hudson Valley Improv, the award-winning regional improv troupe and training regime, organizes live improv shows across the valley, offering “a conservatory-level approach that empowers people to connect, create, and grow through the transformative power of improvisation.”

The showcase features program graduates performing their final set as well as their National Touring Company bringing totally unscripted hilarity based on audience suggestions.

Early tickets are $20 and general admission is $25. There are no tickets being sold at the door. The show is 18+, though they allow younger attendees on a case-by-case basis. They ask you email info@hudsonvalleyimprov.com to check about this.

The Arts Society of Kingston is located at 97 Broadway, and more information about the event, along with tickets, can be found here.

Now that you all know my weekend plans (and, trust me, this is just accounting for Saturday travails), I hope to see you for a very Baron Munchausen weekend, where we can let our imaginations and creativity wander through the winter wonderland we’re encased in.