I want these…
and these…
and these…
and I will take these too.
Sam and I were just reminiscing about the days when we’d get new dresses every year for Easter. After age 20 we should all get new shoes.
{Via DailyCandy, all images courtesy of olsen Haus}
{Photo by Jason Evans}
The perfect day in Newport, Rhode Island begins at 6:15 am. I awake without an alarm clock and lie in bed considering images and thoughts from dreams the night before. 6:30 am. The house is quiet. My beautiful wife smiles while she sleeps. I get up and put on a pot of coffee and sit on the couch to meditate. On the way to the couch I greet the valencia-orange sunrise that quickly fills our living room. It’s like that just about every day but on this particular Friday morning, the view out the window is exceptional. Fog blows in off the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred yards south of us. I watch it for a moment as it makes its way up the valley below our neighborhood. 6:45 am. Breathing deep and counting the calls of the new birds of spring in New England. I disappear from there and feel energized and ready to go when I open my eyes. I pack up my faithful canine companion Jack and head for work.
7:30 am. I’m the first one at our studio – a short walk from the house. This morning I needed to finalize the new salaries for our staff. In a difficult business climate our studio is busy and doing well. Everyone gets a raise this year and is still working 40-hour weeks. We’re thriving and it feels great. I write letters to each employee thanking them for their hard work and detailing the raise and new salary.
{Photo by Jason Evans}
8:30 am. I take a coffee and cigarette break outside while the studio staff arrives. While I’m out there I get the perfect phone call on the cell. It’s my neighbor who tells me he has a referral for me. His good friend and colleague is a boat builder in Bristol and looking to design and build a new website. I take some information and thank my neighbor. He’s a great guy all around.
10 am. A quick morning pow-wow with the other designers. Projects are going smoothly and looking good. I check my to-do list and I’m pretty well caught-up. Still have to prepare the bloody taxes – which aren’t that hard to do but too many numbers for an artist on a Friday. Procrastination kicks in and I check the local web cams to see if there’s any surf. Should have been flat as a lake but to my surprise some really nice looking waves at first (Easton’s) beach. I send out a few texts and IMs to the guys I surf with. No response… they’re trapped in meetings. I call the Water Brothers surf report. A mystery swell is hitting the rocky corner at Easton’s Beach perfectly. It rarely breaks like this and when it does it’s the perfect wave. Picking up the pace at my desk I dash off 10 or 20 emails to clients, prospects and staff. In come a few more… our office admin has prepared much of the numbers for the taxman. I get back in touch with a prospect at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. I check in on a logo contest we submitted work to.
11 am. We’re working on an environmental project for a filmmaker attempting to traverse the Northwest Passage and interviewing politicians and locals about what will become of this new frontier. The Passage is an illusive shipping route through Canada and the Arctic that’s opening up due to climate change. Its a great project and the client approves the design work of his website and movie title treatments without any changes. Amazing. Our Intern comes into my office with a great looking flier she designed for the RI Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation‘s new member movie night event. Such a great group and its a pleasure to support their efforts. Made a note to write them a check for our corporate membership.
{Photo by G.E. Long}
12:30. Surf is still looking really good at the beaches. Still no word from my surfing companions. My wife and I decided to do a vegetarian diet for the month of March so I grab a granola bar and a banana, chug some water and head outside for the mid-day cigarette - pure contradiction but hey no one’s perfect. I work through lunch sending another 10 or 20 emails off followed by a long phone call with a client looking to expand their website publishing system. I gather the specs and give her some tips on the books and publications she’s working on. I get another email from our Northwest Passage Film client. His director wants historical maps, charts and other graphics incorporated into the film website and trailer. Fun stuff. The work is rolling in and the client is one of our favorites. Everything is going so smoothly today but the real joy of this perfect day is yet to come.
2 pm. The important stuff on my to-do list is done (except for finishing taxes which we already filed an extension for). One last call to the surf report – no update, the beach cam still looks really good. I can see a few guys are out in the water. It’s sunny and the birds are saying that this is one of the first warm days of spring. I make a final round checking in with designers. They don’t need anything from me so I let them know I’m leaving early. It’s Friday and I’ve already put in 60 hours or so. I need fresh air and exercise. I tell the staff I may be back around 4:30 or 5pm and that if I don’t see them thank you for your hard work and have a great weekend. I speed home, tear of my clothes and wiggle into my wetsuit. It’s a 6x4mm winter wetsuit. Heavy, but warm. I leave the car running and crank up the heat. Jack stares at me sadly because he knows I’m going to the beach without him.
{Photo by G.E. Long}
2:30 When I arrive at First Beach a few minutes later I’m astounded. A chest-high set of waves is peeling in long lines. There’s one or two guys out and the sun is still shining. I grab the longboard from off the car. It’s just big enough to consider wearing a leash (that cord that attaches the board to your leg). I much prefer surfing without it even though I’ll be over by the rocks. I go without the leash and paddle out into the frigid water as a flock of geese fly overhead. The sun is shining and the water is clean and clear. The waves are coming in and peeling off the rocky coast. I grab the first one and drop in, then cut back and get a little cover up inside the tube. It doesn’t get any better than this. I grab another wave. This one’s really walling up and again I cut back, drag my hand along the wave to stall out and wait for the lip to peel over my back. I get low and tuck in. Another guy paddling out is looking down the line of the wave at me… just far enough away not to intrude. We’re both “stoked.” About an hour goes by… more prefect waves rolling in. A bunch more guys are in the water but no one seems to want to line up in the cove along the rocks where I am. I’m all alone frolicking in lovely weather and perfect surf.
4:30. I take one last wave in and check emails at the car. Nothing critical. I blast one or two more emails out from the iPhone trying not to get any water on it. Still in my wetsuit I throw the phone back in the car and head out for a few more waves.
It’s 5:30 when I finally get back to the house. I crack a beer in the basement bathroom and it goes down pretty quick while I peel my way out of the wet and heavy winter wetsuit. Jack comes down to see what’s the commotion. A long hot shower and the feeling returns to my toes and feet. I finish getting dressed and my lovely wife Fede walks in the door. I tell her all about my Perfect Day. She had one too. We’re both really enjoying life and nothing feels better than that. We hang out for a while on the back porch but it gets too cold as the sun goes down through the gigantic tree in our backyard.
7pm. Fede and I make a few pizzas in the kitchen – Tomato and garlic and another with left over veggies. Fede applauds my skillful pizza making. She loves that I cook for her and I love that she loves it. We eat and drink and talk for a few hours and eventually make it to bed for long night’s sleep.
Matt Dutra is the President and Chief Creative Officer of Rubic Design/RDI, a graphic design and website development studio in Newport, Rhode Island.
{My Perfect Day is a weekly Tidepooler series that reveals the most wonderful and interesting places in cities and towns around the world, as shared by the people who live there}
{Photo by mhobl (off for a while)}
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the legendary art and design movement called the Bauhaus. It was 1919, World War I had just ended, and Germany was in a sorry state. Everyone was eager to move on and build a better future. Unfortunately, as the 1920s came to a close and the Nazi party rose to power, the nation took an ugly turn. Though the school was forced to close, and many of its founders emigrated, the legacy of the movement lives on in the furniture and buildings that surround us today. But what’s so fascinating about the Bauhaus is that it went beyond mere aesthetics, delving into philosophical and societal issues.
I recently spoke with the Dessau Bauhaus Foundation’s new director Phillip Oswalt on the occasion of the anniversary. Read my article on The Local to see what he had to say.
My darling Samantha is visiting from London! So I might not be blogging too much this week. We’ve been having a marvelous time together.
On Saturday we watched Jenny Graf make wonderful noise rock at the Kunstraum Richard Sorge.
Yesterday, we saw Jane Fonda slip out of her spacesuit and the Pink Panther prance across the screen at KW Berlin. The exhibition “Vorspannkino” presents fifty-four title sequences from Barbarella to Vertigo. Now Sam’s in love with Saul Bass.
Today we might go see Robert Lubeck’s photographs of Jackie Kennedy, Lee Radziwill, and other 20th century icons, at the Martin Gropius Bau.
And tomorrow, we’re heading to the Ostbahnhof, where we’ll hop on a train and see where it takes us…
The perfect day in Roanoke starts early. The western Virginia valley air is crisp in the early morning hours. From my house in north central Roanoke we ride bicycles past Huff Lane public school into an adjoining park. We pass through a chain link fence and enter sprawl-city: Valley View Mall may be a self-contained indoor mall but it’s surrounded by haphazardly placed big-box stores. Fortunately there’s a wide sidewalk and not even a mile later we’ve split off the road and descended down the Lick Run Greenway into a wooded area in Northwest Roanoke that’s home to at least 73 different species of birds. In spring or fall, we’re likely to find neotropical migrants following the locals birds in foraging flocks.
{Photo of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial courtesy of vacationplanning.net}
After a couple of miles we’ll ride through Booker T. Washington Park before crossing busy Orange Avenue – the city’s major east-west corridor. We pass through Gainsboro – an inner-city neighborhood that’s one of the city’s oldest. It was home to Henry Street, a bustling black commercial district that during its heyday hosted such luminaries as Cab Calloway and was at one time home to Oscar Micheaux, one of America’s first black filmmakers. But Gainsboro was subjected to urban renewal, a government experiment in the 60s and 70s that replaced many blocks of houses with industrial development.
On the decimated neighborhood’s periphery we see the historic Hotel Roanoke and the Winston Link Museum, which is home to iconic photographs that are better known than the name of the man who shot them. We’ll gawk at the Taubman Museum of Art but generally ignore it en route to Ernie’s, where we’ll grab breakfast. The grits are fine, but this greasy spoon is best known for its potato cakes. After breakfast we’ll again pick up the bike route that now winds its way past the homeless in Elmwood Park and up Williamson Road – the city’s major north-south corridor – before slicing up Mill Mountain’s western face.
Not many cities have their own mountain – and aside from the 89-foot neon star it’s largely undeveloped near the top. We’ll pass joggers, hikers and other bicyclists on our way to the 1,740 foot summit, which offers a view of the city’s downtown that’s broadcast on a city webcam.
From here we’ll descend the summit, passing through South Roanoke. Known by locals as SoRo, South Roanoke is just about as white as Northwest Roanoke is black. Roanoke avoided the strife that affected much of the South during the civil rights movement when white and black leaders cut a deal to talk businesses into integrating without force or violence. Despite that – some say because of it – the city remains one of the most segregated in the nation. As the school board considers shifting school attendance zones, it faces the possibility that it may worsen the problem further.
{Photo by shyzaboy}
But it’s our perfect day, so we sweep through SoRo, bidding the city’s gentry farewell before climbing Wonju Avenue – named for Roanoke’s sister city in South Korea – and arriving at Awful Arthur’s. Roanoke is a good five hours inland, so the seafood isn’t what you’d expect in someplace like Charleston, SC, but we’re not here for the food. Instead, we take advantage of Roanoke’s recent surge in microbreweries. When I returned to the city in 2003, Roanoke lacked a local microbrew despite a large contingent of advanced home brewers. In recent months, however, there’s been a small explosion of local brewers entering the market. And Awful Arthur’s boasts not one but several varieties. So let’s toast to your and my health.
Then we’ll ride down the road another mile or so to Grandin Court. Some folks say this is where the SoRo wanna-bes live, but Grandin Road itself is ground-zero for Roanoke hipsterdom. We should grab a quick bite at Grace’s Place Pizzeria before stepping next door to take advantage of the going-out-of-business sale at Plan 9 Music – Roanoke’s last indie record store. Let’s grab dessert at Pop’s Ice Cream & Soda Bar before leaving Roanoke to head 30 miles south.
I guess leaving the city may be technically breaking the rules? But it’s my perfect day, and one of my favorite spots in the Roanoke area is Franklin County. This is largely a rural county, but it’s packed with tons of interesting stuff. To the north, FrCo supports Roanoke as a bedroom community. To the east is Smith Mountain Lake, which has drawn a large number of retirees from New England, New York and its surrounding environs. To the south is tobacco country, and to the west we find deep dark hollers that gave Franklin County its reputation as “the moonshine capital of the world.” It’s impossible to go to a party down here without running across a mason jar or three filled with some variation on the basic recipe – smooth or harsh, fruity or clear, you find all kinds.
Don’t take my word for it – check out the late Keister Greer’s definitive “The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935” or the sexier, probably-gonna-be-a-movie-someday novel “The Wettest County in the World.”
The reason we’re in Franklin County, though, is the county’s system of blueways – kinda like this morning’s greenway except we’re talking about rivers. We can fish for trout on the Pigg River – it just got stocked on Tuesday. Or better yet, we can hop in a canoe at any one of dozen put-in spots and take a trip up the Pigg or down the Blackwater. The county hosts a weekend of river events – going from an after-dark float down the Blackwater to the heavily crowded “see and be seen” Pigg River Ramble to the calmer, catered Breakfast on the Blackwater.
I know we’re in Franklin County now, but on another perfect day we could do something awful similar except on the Cowpasture River – my favorite waterway in all the world. So whether in a canoe or inner tubes, let’s float a while. Maybe wet our fishing lines. Then let’s find a party somewhere close. There’ll be moonshine. And since this is the perfect day, we don’t have to worry how we’ll feel tomorrow morning.
Mason Adams covers city, state and federal politics for The Roanoke Times. When not working he hikes, scours used bookstores, referees women’s flat track roller derby and looks for other excuses to run around Virginia and its sister states – generally acting like a damned fool along the way.
{My Perfect Day is a weekly Tidepooler series that reveals the most wonderful and interesting places in cities and towns around the world, as shared by the people who live there}
A toy piano wedding march and a Dadaist veil add moments of delight to a cheerful winter celebration in Berlin.
Who: Kerstin and James
Date: February 6, 2009
Ceremony: In Germany, it’s compulsory to marry at the local Standesamt, a civil registration office, sort of like a town hall. Kerstin and James married at the Standesamt Berlin Mitte, right in the center of the city. The bright, cheerful room, known as the Parochialzimmer, was decorated with a tulle-swathed amaryllis and paintings of the TV Tower. A dapper man in a smart three-piece suit officiated.
Reception: After the ceremony, the bride, groom, their parents, and all their guests went across the street to a cafe called Weinwirtschaft im Podewil where champagne, coffee, and Häppchen (a German hors d’oeuvre similar to Italian bruschetta, with meats and cheeses) were served. The cafe was decorated for spring, with fuchsia tulips on the tables, and arrangements of birch logs and forsythia.
Bride Wore: A chartreuse blouse with a knee-length black skirt, black tights, and 1920s style shoes. A friend presented Kerstin with a powder blue hat which she wore during the reception.
Flowers: Kerstin carried a bouquet of red carnations. During the era of the German Democratic Republic, red carnations were popular flowers. Symbols for the labor movement, they were usually present at celebrations, a tradition that often continues in former GDR regions of Germany today. “My grandfather often brought carnations,” Kerstin said.
Intriguing Details: Before the ceremony, the bride and groom kissed under a small white canopy made of tulle and lace. “It could be a cheese cover, or a fruit cover, or a Dadaist bridal veil, in this use I assume it was a bridal veil,” explained Kerstin.
See more photos from Kerstin and James’ wedding.
{Can I feature your wedding on Tidepooler? Email me!}
Here’s a heart warming story about an Irish step dancing troupe from the Bronx that I wrote about for Gothamist last year. Now go drink some green beer.
An early start to a warm, sunny day in March or April would be how my perfect day would begin in Memphis. I would waken to the chatter and songs from the plentiful varieties of birds adding to that great spring-fever mood. First thing, I’d put on my running shoes to get some exercise and fresh air. My cat, Ted thinks he is a dog and literally follows me just like one so it would be more of a choppy run-walk trying to get him to stop stalking the squirrels and morning doves along the way. We’d go from our home to the very south end of the river walk which runs along the Mississippi to Martyr’s Park. This spot has the prettiest view of the trestle bridge that reaches across to Arkansas, and of the tug boats bustling along moving their huge loads of cargo.
{Photo by jbcurio}
After a relaxing hot bath, the next item on the agenda would be brunch at Quetzal with my boyfriend, Gary. This is a wonderful cafe on Union Avenue which is only one of a small handful of restaurants that offers a healthy menu as opposed to the usual sausage, biscuits and gravy served elsewhere in this city. The homemade cashew granola served with fresh strawberries, pineapples, bananas, and mango is my favorite. We would linger for a leisurely meal, complete with coffee and a USA Today crossword.
Since it is still such a gorgeous day out, I can’t pass up a good healthy hike in the woods at Meeman Shelby State Forest. It’s about a 20 minute ride from downtown Memphis but well worth it. It is filled with miles of beautiful nature trails and the hike can be as short or long as you so choose. We’d just do the 3-mile loop on this particular day because there are a lot more things to get in before it draws to a close.
Because this is my perfect day then my niece, Molly and nephew, Ben would be visiting from New England, and we’d go to the Memphis Zoo. This place has such a phenomenal array of animals and the exhibits are generally pretty nice. There are so many big cats, from ocelots to snow leopards to white tigers. I think that the pandas, hippopotamuses, and orangutans would make Molly and Ben laugh the most with delight. We’d get ice cream cones and walk around until their little feet would tire.
{Photo by ChaseGordon}
After getting home to shower and change, Gary and I would venture out to Beale Street to meet up with some friends. Specifically, we’d head on over to W.C. Handy Park where there is fantastic live music and even better people watching. Along the way we’d be entertained by the boys who, on a daily basis, do back handsprings and all sorts of flips from one end of Beale to the other, hoping to earn a little monetary reward from the tourists. At the park, the music is usually a fun bluesy mix and inevitably an Elvis tune will be covered at some point. We’d enjoy a Corona or two as a little pre-dinner treat.
{Photo by memphislocationscout}
Speaking of dinner…The restaurant at The Inn at Hunt Phelan would be sounding mighty tasty about now. Just a three block walk east and there we would be. This beautiful building is an old antebellum mansion that has a very interesting history. In addition to being a great example of old haunted southern architecture, it served at various times as General Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters for a portion of the Civil War, a hospital, and a postwar school for freed slaves. And now it serves a mean Kettle One and Cranberry and offers a menu containing delicious gourmet southern fusion. We would be dining out on the courtyard where there are lush, gorgeous gardens surrounding us complete with the only pomegranate tree in Memphis (although I’m not certain this is true), and a regal, ornate fountain that has a fire lit atop it casting eerie but beautiful shadows upon this historical site.
{Photo by bearclau}
To conclude this fine evening, we’d head on over to The Flying Saucer where they serve a full bar in addition to over 80 different types of beers on draft. The Dempseys, my favorite local band would be playing. We’d be entertained by their awesome energetic rockabilly show complete with stunts on a bass fiddle and big personalities from this musical trio.
I would probably start to hit the wall before the band is even done with their last set as a result of my early get up and full day. At this point I would have to call it a night, say good bye to our buds and Gary and I would catch one of Memphis’s finest Mr. Roger’s Neighborhoodesque trolleys home to end my perfect day.
Katie recently lost her job as a national account executive for an employee background screening company and is now preparing for the arrival of her first child come June.
{My Perfect Day is a weekly Tidepooler series that reveals the most wonderful and interesting places in cities and towns around the world, as shared by the people who live there}
Hydrangeas are beautiful every time of year. Did you know they’re also called Hortensia? Especially in France, where Hortense is a popular name for girls. Josephine Bonaparte’s daughter’s name was Hortense Eugénie Cécile de Beauharnais Bonaparte. I love how the French have endless names…
Learn how to make a lovely hydrangea arrangement on Design*Sponge.
{Photo by Tanakawho}
A jungle spa, carved into the Mexican hillside, surrounded by the splendor of the Valle de la Sierra Oriental Mountains. A remote retreat, overlooking the tranquil waters of Banderas Bay. This intimate hotel looks to me like perfection. How I’d love to wake up upon hand-embroidered pillows, beneath a snow white net, stroll across a woven rug, emerge into the open air of a private terrace, and listen to the crash of Pacific waves far below.
{Photos by Jae Feinberg, courtesy of verana.com}
