Red Boots

Can't even tell you how happy I was to get these boots in the mail today. In fact, they may just be the very thing to get me through the week.

Site Specific

I can't help but love a live performance which integrates its site directly into the action. ann and alexx make LILAC DANCES is a site-specific performance on the historic Lilac Steamship, currently docked on Pier 40, off the West Side Highway just north of Houston Street. Ann Robideaux and Alexandra Shilling's use of music, movement, and dance to interact with the ship's architecture. The show will run this weekend: October 2, 3, and 4 at 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Also happening is a site-specific exhibition, a group photography show at the Bowery Mission: Now and Then: Photography of the Bowery, which includes work by artist Louise Millmann. You can catch it any Thursday in October from 6:30 until 9:00 pm or November 6th at 1:00 pm.

Potic Cottage: A Work in Progress

The leaves are turning already as work on Potic Cottage continues. Hugs and kisses to James for his efforts on getting us heat upstairs, as well as making progress in the bathroom. Using white pine, he was able to finish the walls so we have some privacy. Although I had planned to search for a vintage mirror for the space, I found this round mirror at Lowes for $40 and I was just as happy. I also decided on grey for the tub, though I still need to do a touch up on the white feet. As for bedroom walls, we are making do with vintage fabrics, a concept that has grown on me more and more.

Saving the Bowery

This coming Monday, September 28th at 7:00 pm, Dixon Place is hosting The Vanishing City Forum Series Part III: "The Historical and Cultural Price of the Changing Bowery." The night should prove to be a celebration of the Bowery's richly diverse heritage, and a cautionary tale on how overdevelopment can threaten the integrity of a neighborhood. With a panel of zoning experts, film directors, public advocates, historians and journalists, the discussion will probe the side effects of poor urban planning: displaced residents, the loss of small businesses, and diminished cultural diveristy, not to mention destroying historic charm.

National Solar Tour Coverage

Back in the news--- Newsday's Home and Garden section features the Oak Beach project today. But unlike the last piece, not only is Bouler Design Group mentioned, thank you, but the details of the project are laid out. Reporter Jan Tyler presented the true vision of the project: using design to heighten the site's solar exposure as opposed to shoehorning photovoltaic panels into a structure which might not provide maximal results. And top results it gained, with the house achieving the highest Energy Star rating on Long Island.

Canned Ham: Live From NYC

Very few of us would have the courage to a) write an intensely personal memoir revealing our lives, b) perform it on stage to a live audience, and c) talk about sex in front of our parents. Tom Judson did all three last night at NYC's Dixon Place, with style, wit, and an accordion. The show, which was just a glimmer of an idea earlier this year, became a reality to a packed house of Tom's family and friends. Afterwards, we gathered at the Remedy Diner to recap the highlights of his performance. Producer Robbi Kearns shared with us his hopes to raise enough capital in order to kickstart a NYC run of the show this coming November before Tom hits the road in his camper for a national tour. If the life lessons of Tom's show hold true, anything is possible. For more on Tom, check out Wickham Boyle's article in Gay City News.

Autumn in the Air

A happy new year to those of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah. September is a time of renewal, perhaps moreso than January. The combination of a new school year and the crispness in the air leads to a new sense of purpose for me. I get new notebooks and sharpen my pencils, jotting down all sorts of goals-- what I'm going to read, what I plan to create, what I'd like to see. As I head indoors, I begin nesting again, looking for ways to make the house cozy, buying more comfort foods, brewing an extra pot of tea, lighting a candle as the sun sets. I take out sweaters and scarves, stockings and boots, envisioning brisk walks with the dog surrounded by falling leaves.

I haven't always felt this way. Autumn was merely a precursor to a long, dreaded winter, but these days I realize I don't have time for dreading anything. Life is a series of fleeting, flickering moments and to dread anything as constant as the change in seasons is to waste precious time.

In the News

photo by Karen Wiles Stabile

Check out the Oak Beach project featured in Newsday today in the business section, in an article about retirees who turn to alternative energy as a more efficient way to live. Although James and Bouler Design Group aren't mentioned, ahem, we are happy to have the residence and the client showcased. It's also good press for the Town of Babylon, which was honored earlier in the year by the Long Island chapter of the USGBC for its forward-thinking incentives to use alternative options. But in the end, it's incredibly encouraging to see how people are using a variety of approaches, both big and small, to green their home.

Tom Judson: A One Man Show

There's still time to get your tickets to Tom Judson's one man show, Canned Ham, a chronicle of his life-- from Broadway to adult films, to house renovation and beyond. Time Out New York's current issue features Tom and the show, which will take place Wednesday, September 23rd and Thursday, September 24th at Dixon Place on the lower east side. This is no ordinary event-- with a line up of Broadway's heavy hitters helping Tom put the final touches on his performance, so don't miss it. Otherwise you will have to hit the road as Tom travels in his camper, with performances criss-crossing the United States.

Yellow Limousine

The suburbs are full of 'em-- empty school buses. The New York Times this weekend described the precipitous decrease in the number of students walking to their neighborhood school, even into the teen years. Fears of abduction often override a child's independence. One mother allowed her ten-year-old son to walk to soccer practice, only to have a concerned neighbor contact 9-1-1. With childhood obesity on the rise and greenhouse gasses in the ozone, it is counterintuitive to provide a bus for practically every student in the district; however this is standard practice in the 'burbs.

Not only are parents wary of letting their children walk to school, it has gotten to the point where even the bus is eschewed. Parent after parent drives the little darling straight to the school's front door. True, some students have early morning or after-school obligations, but more often than not, it is a convenience, allowing students that extra ten minutes of sleep or the luxury of being lax in one's schedule. The traffic snaking around school buildings every morning leaves cars idling while buses pull into the parking lot only a third full.

In that same edition of the Times, a book about new urbanism was reviewed, calling for people to embrace neighborhoods which encourage pedestrian behavior. It's an idea I fully embrace, but I can't help wondering if parents would still use the car, no matter how close the distance. And what would we lose in the process?

Verace: Virtual and Reality

As you can see, progress continues on the Verace project, both inside and out. The courtyard has been excavated with landscaping and walkways being installed, and the interior is moving towards a working kitchen. Keeping fingers crossed for a November opening.

Louise Millmann: Collage Artist

Extra pictures today to try to convey the very exciting collage show at Ripe Art Gallery. The opening today proved to be unusual in a number of ways.

Our friend (and guest blogger for BDG) Jesse Neuman came out from the city to give the children a master class music lesson, which was a treat for us all. Afterwards, I brought him along for artist Louise Millmann's opening in Greenlawn, NY. Millmann has been busy. This past Thursday, her work was in the group show A Book About Death, an homage to Ray Johnson. From what I hear, lines snaked out the door with gallery-goers waiting to get in.

Today Louise Millmann blew me away with her clever and incredibly executed images-- mixing nostalgia with Dada and Cindy Sherman with an incredible dose of her cunning wit. By Photoshopping herself into images from Life Magazine and integrating text, line, and color, the images had both a uniqueness and a familiarity. Whew. Although Louise and I had done an art swap recently-- an etching of mine for a collage of hers-- I simply had to have another one of her works. So did Jesse. The hardest part was choosing. In the end, I liked this one-- it reminded me of constructivist graphic geometry with the humor of a dog looking up the woman's skirt.

I am fortunate to know Louise since 1984, having grown up in the same town and traveled in the same circles. Even then she took pictures, performed impersonation acts, and made indie films. Fast forward years later and we find ourselves teaching together in Jericho High School. It wasn't until the opening that I realized how our lives have wound themselves in similar paths. Person after person who walked into Louise's show was a person I knew from my distant past in Northport all the way to my very present in Jericho. I ran into Nelson Rowe, an animation artist I haven't seen in in 23 years, and then Suzanne Valenza, who sits two desks over from me at work. It was a collage of my own life, both nostalgic and familiar.

A Day of Service

What better way to honor those who perished on 9/11 than by performing good deeds? As you may already know, President Obama designated the day as a day to not only remember but to help one's community. The ability for an individual to create social change is foremost in my mind these days, as I am midway through the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Mortenson, who drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village after failing to reach the summit of K2, the world's second largest mountain, was looking to honor the life of his late sister in his climb, and decided that her memory would be best served by building schools instead. The book chronicles how a seemingly average man can achieve extraordinary acts, as Mortenson builds not only one school, but many. His Pennies for Peace campaign is one my Senior Experience class is planning on undertaking, hoping to raise a good portion of the $12,000 needed to build a school.

But we want to support local efforts as well. Another example of a person who exemplifies the President's call to serve the community is Jericho resident Aimee Holtzman, founder of RockCANroll, a not-for-profit hunger relief organization. Inspired by her favorite music of the sixties, Holtzman believes that an individual can indeed change the world, one can of food at a time. Her premise: if each concert-goer brought a can of food to hear his or her favorite band, thousands of non-perishable items could then be distributed to food pantries in the area. Holtzman, who has partnered with radio stations, Capital One Westbury Music Fair, even race car drivers, makes her extraordinary efforts to help others seem simple. My students were inspired by her presentation and decided to designate Friday classes 'Food Pantry Days'. They also began to consider other school events where people could bring a can for donation. If you check out her site, Holtzman is nominated for a monetary grant awarded to a Jewish Community Hero which she would like to use to expand her grassroots organization, so please consider voting for her by clicking on the link.

The Virtual and the Real

On the way out to Robert Moses on Fire Island, you pass a sweet little island called Captree, home to a state park and a small residential community. Bouler Design Group was commissioned to design a cluster of three houses on the island. What had once been a modest family compound, the new structures were designed to reflect the individual tastes and the needs of each homeowner while still relating to the others as a whole. The computer generated images give a sense of the forms and their connection to the site, which is seen below.

First Day

Bathroom Inspiration

The bathroom in Potic Cottage is up and running. Lighting fixtures, tub, toilet, and sink are in, as is a portion of the white pine paneling we plan on using for the entire room. As for the chandelier, I bought it in the children's decor section of Target for under $40. James was skeptical about the fixture, thinking it was out of place, so months later I was tickled to find this collage on Style Files, an eclectic blog with some lovely decor ideas, which featured a chandelier over a claw foot tub. Although our space is far more rustic than the white ones in the top photos, I like the mix of the wood and the porcelain, with the chandelier providing feminine element. The flooring, which James designed and built, is a mix of reclaimed wide cedar planks and concrete, and the sink reuses a slab of walnut James had stored since he made furniture over ten years ago. Each inch of wood was calculated into the construction with little waste which we will burn in the winter. From his years of furniture making, James finished the wood with a thin layer of water-based polyurethane and then a coat of wax which he proceeded to rub in throughout the day.

I am thinking of painting the underside of the tub-- a color perhaps. I am also in search of a vintage mirror for over the sink, hoping the right one for the room calls out to me. Recently I drove past a medicine chest on the side of the road but was moving too quickly to stop and take a look. It may be for the best since I'm thinking a mirror alone might work better. I'm very open to suggestions on the tub and/or the sink's mirror.