limb from limb

Beacon Profiled in NY Times

2007-04-27T12:07:00.000-04:00

A Makeover in Progress, and Modern Art, Too By ELSA BRENNER

"In Beacon, the ruins of hat-making, brick and carton factories are being reincarnated as artists� lofts and once-boarded-up storefronts have reopened as boutiques."

beacon profiled

2007-03-29T16:48:00.000-04:00

Beacon is profiled in a "7 Hot Hometowns" story in the current issue of Hudson Valley Magazine. The site requires registration, so I'm pasting the Beacon entry below:

Beacon: An Arts-Fueled Transformation

This once-gritty community�s manufacturing past laid the foundation for its recent dramatic revival. From the late 1800s through the 1950s, Beacon was a bustling factory town (bricks and hats were the main exports), but it fell onto hard times in the late 1960s as manufacturing collapsed and Americans abandoned Main Street for the mall.

But in 2003, a 24,000-square-foot decaying Nabisco box factory was purchased by the Dia Foundation and eventually transformed into Dia:Beacon, one of the world�s largest museums of contemporary art. Beacon�s renaissance was on. While some local communities have flirted with creating an artists� district, Beacon got the job done: artists� lofts are available throughout town, galleries dot the main drag, and works by local artists hang on many restaurant and coffeehouse walls. Several years ago, a new generation of residents, many priced out of New York City, arrived in town, snatching up much of the large Victorian housing stock at bargain-basement prices. The Metro-North train line, which runs a packed 75-minute express into Grand Central several times a day, as well as Beacon�s proximity to Route 84 and Stewart International Airport, add to the city�s appeal.

But Beacon is about far more than the arts. Situated at the northern end of the Hudson Highlands, the city is beautifully nestled between the river and its namesake mountain. Stunning 1,503-foot Mt. Beacon attracts locals and visitors who want to hike its steep trails, gaze at the ruins of an old hotel on the summit, and marvel at the remains of what was once the world�s steepest incline railway. Outdoor buffs can also wander around a variety of state parks, take a kayak on the river, or venture out for a free weeknight trip on the Woody Guthrie � a sailboat originally owned by folk artist (and longtime Beacon resident) Pete Seeger and now run by a local sloop club.

�I love living here. The proximity to the river, to the mountain � and still having the train to hop on to the city � is just wonderful,� says Debra Adamsons, owner of World�s End Books and a recent transplant to the area.

Beacon still has a way to go � we wouldn�t recommend walking down Main Street by yourself in the middle of the night � but the city is working hard to secure the resources that will make its renaissance permanent. A brand-new, state-of-the art high school opened in 2002, and a huge waterfront �green� hotel and conference center are in the works. Housing prices have risen dramatically in the last few years, before leveling off in 2006. Nonetheless, with median prices just around $300,000, Beacon remains among the most affordable towns in Dutchess County. And many residents treasure its �rough-around-the-edges-cum-quirky� appeal. �I love the funky aspect of the town,� says a two-year resident. �I feel like something is going on here.�

Spring's here. New photos at Flickr.

2007-03-29T16:51:00.000-04:00

Spring's here. New photos at Flickr.

Man and WIHF: A good article about the plight of t...

2007-03-29T16:49:00.000-04:00

Man and WIHF: A good article about the plight of the Working In-Home Father (WIHF), juggling kids and a job from home. I can relate.

twin video blogging

2007-03-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

Shep and Ruby playing camera games. Video requests? Send them in. These two know a frightening number of songs and can even personalize their messages. I plan to catch up on some posting this week, so stay tuned.

the ex-neighborhood

2007-02-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

We're all fascinated with our former neighborhoods. Morbidly so in the case of most Williamsburg rejects/expats. It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who felt that whole gentrification thing happened mighty fast. From WaPo's story on it yesterday:

Anthropologist Neil Smith of City University's Center for Place, Culture and Politics has tracked gentrification with an obsession worthy of Ahab. He's charted the transformation of blue-collar neighborhoods, from Shaw in the District and San Francisco's Mission to the wharfs of London and the canal-lined streets of Amsterdam. This isn't the old block-by-block stuff, the grinding rehab of old rowhouses by scruffy young gentry. He's convinced he's found a new beast.

"We are witnessing the corporate and geographical restructuring of cities -- the wealthy are suburbanizing the center and pushing the poor to the fringes, and it's turbocharged," Smith says. "Artists are disposable -- developers just toss them out in hopes they'll colonize the next 'hot' neighborhood."

Shep is a tactile wonder, always has been. Lunges...

2007-02-22T11:42:00.000-05:00

Shep is a tactile wonder, always has been. Lunges around the house, swinging his arms and jabbing his elbows in the air. Kicks doors, topples chairs. He doesn't eat much and the difference with ruby's appetite is starting to show in their builds. He gets a distended tummy on those rare occasions when he does eat a large meal and is slightly thinner of frame, whereas ruby is stocky like a baobab.

Nina Simone sings Hebrew folk tune Erets Zavat Ch...

2007-02-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

Nina Simone sings Hebrew folk tune Erets Zavat Chalav (1962)

moved

2007-02-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

Coming soon: photos of the Beacon house all fixed up. Meanwhile here's one of the Brooklyn apartment, moments before our final farewell.

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. New web comic ...

2007-01-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. New web comic from Smith and comic artist Josh Neufeld. Smith earlier published Shooting War, about a video blogger on assignment in Iraq.

"First Ze Take Hollywood" in The Observer describe...

2007-01-19T14:52:00.000-05:00

"First Ze Take Hollywood" in The Observer describes Ze Frank's relationship with United Talent Agency, which he's tapped to rep him for feature film roles. Here is a person of many projects: His show ends in March after a year-long run; during that time he's been recruiting for a social network project; and now he's going after film roles. Oh yeah, and he's a programmer who studied neuroscience in college. I approached Ze once at a conference where he was a speaker on a panel about viral and buzz marketing. I was covering the event for ClickZ. He told me he thought the daily video blog format was problematic "for all kinds of reasons." Number one being "shit, no days off?"

Beacon

2007-01-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

I'm riding the train south from Beacon to Grand Central Station. It's 6am. To the west is the river, mist-clothed. We pass Bannerman's Castle, an already junked 19th century knockoff of a medieval palace, rotting on an island. We pass a tugboat towing a barge laden with crushed cars, piled in stacks of 20. We pass bridges, boathouses, vacant factory buildings. The ticket man stops, punches my ticket, talks with the women behind me about someone's knee surgery.

It's my first commute down the Hudson River. We've just bought a house, and yes, we're moving in just two weeks.

You can see the photos of our house here, including pre- and post-demo. Even as I write contractors are there, spackling walls and sanding floors.

We closed Thursday 1/11 and began demoing Saturday. We started with the carpet then moved to the drop ceilings. They came out in about an hour. We left a layer of carpet padding down to protect the floors, which turn out to be fir, a softer wood but not so soft as pine, which is what we have upstairs. Should be lovely when finished. After the ceilings we pried off the fake wood paneling, likely installed in the late '70s, early '80s. That was a bitch. Inside the window frames were old cast iron window counter weights that had been clipped off and left in the wall when the windows were replaced some years ago. We have a box of 30 or so of those on the porch now. Odd that all this detritus now belongs to us. The messiest piece of the job was taking out the plaster wall that separated the living room from the dining room, thus creating a single large living area. We had to be a bit careful, since we knew there was a chimney in that wall, which we intended to leave standing. Most of the palster fell away when tested with a pry bar. Some had to be hammered. Small chunks remain which we'll chisel off later.

The main room now looks completely wrecked. I'm thrilled.

We met with contractors all that weekend: Hector for the walls and widening a door; Rocky for the picket fence; Kevin for the floors.

Also that day, the neighbors across the street had a first-day-of-summer porch BBQ and we went over for beers. Met a bunch of interesting people, three of them ex-brooklynites. Put my mind at ease about the kinds of people we might end up hanging out with. There are cool people in this town. One named Erin runs a design store and is about to open a beer and wine lounge next door to it. Another named Sean is a third generation glass artist and works in his father's giant glass studio in town. The neighbors, Jason and Carly, are very handy, have three cats and a dog, and I expect will end up being friends. They cooked venison on the porch, which sadly wasn't shot locally but was brought down from Maine by one of the people there, whose father hunts.

So it's real, we've done it! Now please, please everyone come visit. xo, z

HoMu: The Homeless Museum is "a product of New Yor...

2007-01-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

HoMu: The Homeless Museum is "a product of New York City's cultural decline...", a "budget-and-staff-free, unaccredited arts organization that enables and engages cultural dialogue practiced at the intersection of the arts and homelessness."

Sterling DeWeese, formerly of Dirty Rainbow, Madis...

2007-01-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Sterling DeWeese, formerly of Dirty Rainbow, Madison Electric and Black Fantastic, has a new band: Heavy Hands. MySpace page here. Go Sterl!

Feel Design is a design and craft store in Beacon....

2007-01-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

Feel Design is a design and craft store in Beacon. The website doesn't tell you much but it's a good place. In the display window are a wasp nest and triumph motorcycle.

Two weeks after Christmas, Ruby still talks ince...

2007-01-10T09:16:00.000-05:00

Two weeks after Christmas, Ruby still talks incessantly about presents. Bringing home and unpacking groceries is opening presents. Sorting letters and bills is opening presents.

Shepard's not as obsessed, but then his grasp on Santa and the Christmas concept is more tenuous than his sister's. For him it's about shredding up paper, plain and simple. If underneath all that he finds a toy, even better.

He had a bad day yesterday. You know you're in for it when Shep wants to wash his hands. Repeatedly. He pushes a chair toward the kitchen until it collides with the safety gate we keep there to prevent unwanted brainings caused by falling crockery. Then comes the moaned request: waassh... hands. Parental inaction lasting longer than two seconds immediately jacks up the urgency by a factor of 10. "Wash! Hands!" You open the gate and he scrapes his chair up to the sink and climbs on top, turns on the faucet and holds his arms out. His sleeves are immediately soaked through but he's happy and you've got a ten minute extension on your peace of mind. Half an hour later, after eating four bites of prunes with cheese for dinner, he's at it again. Wash! Hands! Nearing bedtime, you resist the demand this time, at which moment his world falls apart and the wailing begins.

Next up: Beacon update!

About a Boy: Surfing as a cure for severe autism.

2007-01-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

About a Boy: Surfing as a cure for severe autism.

Democrats Push for Changes to No Child Left Behind...

2007-01-09T12:07:00.000-05:00

Democrats Push for Changes to No Child Left Behind: Jean's aunt Aileen, who retired from teaching last year, says the law took much of the pleasure out of her job.

what happens when we let them dress themselves.

2006-12-29T10:26:00.000-05:00

what happens when we let them dress themselves.

Jonathan Lethem's Promiscuous Materials project: L...

2006-12-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Lethem's Promiscuous Materials project: Lethem offers a selection of stories to anyone, primarily filmmakers and staged productions, for a dollar. No exclusive rights to the material, so someone else could be working with the same story at the same time you are.

Let me know if you'd like to option one of these stories and I'll go in on it with you.

fathers, sons and balloons

2006-11-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

What does it say about our food system when farmed...

2006-11-28T16:24:00.000-05:00

What does it say about our food system when farmed fish are organic and wild fish are not? As Brooke wrote in her email on this, "Careening toward linguistic absurdity."

it sucks to be TASERed

2006-11-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

...at a city council meeting. dude didn't want to remove his Dodgers cap: "It's like my crown. It's like asking a king to remove his crown." (via brooke)

My old friend Pete Gurney's blogging about mount...

2006-11-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

My old friend Pete Gurney's blogging about mountain biking. The site's ultimately going to focus on his bike group in N. Michigan, but right now he's using it to post and write about biking and windsurfing during a trip out West. Really nice to see Tim Rosenow's mug (at right below). Haven't seen nor heard from that guy in three years or more.

The Online Auteurs: good story in the Times about ...

2006-11-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

The Online Auteurs: good story in the Times about Ze Frank and other self-made Web comedians and film makers. I'm a big fan of Frank, so I love the biographical data in the last third of the piece.