Boardwalk carousel spins for 100 years

By Jory John

SANTA CRUZ -- For nearly 100 years, the Looff Carousel, more commonly known as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's merry-go-round, has been traveling in circles.

Generations of theme park visitors, from toddlers to great-grandparents, have ridden horseback, attempting to throw their accumulated brass rings into a giant clown's mouth, lighting it up.

The carousel will commemorate its 100th anniversary on Aug. 3 but the Boardwalk began celebrating the milestone earlier this month. On Dec. 1, a commemorative poster designed by Boardwalk art director Jill James was released, featuring rows of brass rings on a black background. Three of the 100 rings are encrusted by jewels, while larger text reads "Looff Carousel," the "O's" also represented by rings.

James, who frequented the ride when she was a child, worked on the poster for about three months.

"I used to come here with my older brothers, and throwing the rings into the mouth was a really competitive thing for us," she said.

She said she wanted to do something modern, but also felt the pressure to properly honor the Boardwalk's centerpiece.

After being given free rein to experiment with different mock-ups, James produced designs that were more traditional, she said, including one with imagery of the wooden horses. It was the rings that she kept returning to, though.

"We all gravitated toward this design," she said. "I grew up with the carousel, so that was on my mind, but I

also wanted to be contemporary, be about today. The design we decided to go with is very different. It's not your typical amusement park poster."
A limited edition of 1,500 posters were produced on quality museum paper stock, using light-fast ink. The posters are being sold for $10 in the Boardwalk's gift shop, guest services office and website.

The Looff Carousel is the oldest ride at the Boardwalk and has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark. The horses were originally hand-carved by Danish woodcarver Charles Looff, who manufactured more than 50 carousels in his lifetime, and the ride was delivered to the amusement park in 1911. It has never changed locations, while various attractions have sprouted up around it over the years. The next oldest ride at the Boardwalk is the Giant Dipper, the world-famous wooden roller coaster, which opened in 1924.

The carousel goes through about 40,000 rings each year, according to Boardwalk spokeswoman Brigid Fuller, who said sometimes the rings are returned to the Boardwalk's administrative offices by mail. Meanwhile, the horses are retouched annually by an artist who spends most of December on the project.

Although it's quiet now due to the Boardwalk's off-season, music for the carousel is typically provided by two antique band organs, one built in 1894, the other constructed in 1912. They have both been restored in the interim.

Fuller said the carousel would be in operation starting Dec. 26 and will run through Jan. 2. She added that the ride is a vital part of the Boardwalk's history.

"It's very beloved here," she said. "We spend a lot of time and effort taking great care of it. Those horses take quite a beating during the year, so there's quite a bit of maintenance that goes into keeping them looking really good."

Kris Reyes, the Boardwalk's community relations director, said the Boardwalk wanted to kick off the carousel centennial with a "nice showpiece, something we could share with our guests, fans and the community."

"It really doesn't matter if you're 10 years old, or if you're 80 years old," Reyes said. "Everybody loves the carousel. It is certainly a ride worth celebrating."

James has also contributed a design, commemorating the carousel's anniversary, to Felton's Hallcrest Vineyards, featuring a close-up of a wooden horse, placed on a black background. The label denotes that the carousel was recently ranked the No. 2 carousel in the world by monthly trade newspaper Amusement Today.

In coming months, the carousel will continue to be celebrated through a variety of Boardwalk promotions, Fuller said.

"It's a very important occasion in West Coast amusement park history," she said. "We'll have more announcements about our plans for the carousel soon."

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Little Miss Generosity Nine-year-old Morgan's fundraising idea catches on

Sometimes a little idea can go a long way.

As nine-year-old Morgan Lindeman scanned the pages of The Province last month for her class's current-affairs assignment, she was moved by a story about the Empty Stocking Fund.

Fast-forward a few days later, and the Grade 4 student at Surrey's Ecole Riverdale Elementary came up with the idea to ask the 500 students in her school to donate a loonie or toonie each to help less fortunate families at Christmastime.

"When it comes to Christmas, most nine-year-olds write out lists of all these expensive gadgets they want," mom Kelly Skog said. "Not her. She wants to give what she can."

Teacher Kristi Marasa added that "[Morgan] just came into the class with a jar and an idea."

The Empty Stocking Fund pickle jar at the school's reception sits just a few metres from a colourful poster proclaiming December "Generosity Month," a message the little girl has clearly taken to heart.

"Christmas is a time for giving," Morgan said Thursday, taking a break from decorating gingerbread houses with friends Kyla Lokey, Ariana Michalik and Mikayla Schneider.

"We get a Christmas and other families don't, so my mom and dad and I thought it would be nice to raise money for them."

Morgan was honoured in front of her classmates and presented with the school's SOAR award -- Success, Organization, Attitude and Respect -- at an assembly this week.

"It made me feel really good," she said proudly.

The generous campaign won't end once Christmas rolls around. Little Morgan already has a plan for 2011.

"This year, however much we get, we can try and get more next year, and then challenge other schools to do the same," she said.

Standing nearby, her beaming mother said the family is very impressed by Morgan's initiative.

"She wanted to give back, so other kids get to have a Christmas like hers," Skog said

"We told her it's OK to ask for help when you need it, and when you don't need it, to give help."

The school is also fundraising for the Surrey Christmas Bureau, one of the 27 community service organizations, Salvation Army centres and Christmas bureaus that are beneficiaries of the Empty Stocking Fund.

Province readers raised $404,000 last year for the Empty Stocking Fund, which helps provide food, shelter and gifts to thousands of B.C. families.

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The Rock Garden of Chandigarh

One day 36 years ago, Nek Chand, a humble transport official in the north Indian city of Chandigarh, began to clear a little patch of jungle to make himself a small garden area. He set stones around the little clearing and before long had sculpted a few figures recycled from materials he found at hand. Gradually Nek Chand's creation developed and grew; before long it covered several acres and comprised of hundreds of sculptures set in a series of interlinking courtyards.

After his normal working day Chand worked at night, in total secrecy for fear of being discovered by the authorities.When they did discover Chand's garden, local government officials were thrown into turmoil. The creation was completely illegal - a development in a forbidden area which by rights should be demolished. The outcome, however, was the enlightened decision to give Nek Chand a salary so that he could concentrate full-time on his work, plus a workforce of fifty labourers. Nek Chand's great work received immediate recognition and was inaugurated as The Rock Garden of Chandigarh.

Now over twenty five acres of several thousand sculptures set in large mosaic courtyards linked by walled paths and deep gorges, Nek Chand's creation also combines huge buildings with a series of interlinking waterfalls. The Rock Garden is now acknowledged as one of the modern wonders of the world. Over 5000 visitors each day, some 12 million people so far, walk around this vast creation - the greatest artistic achievement seen in India since the Taj Mahal.

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Free Farm Stand

The Free Farm Stand happens on Sundays 1-3pm in Treat Commons Community Garden located at Parque Niños Unidos at the corner of 23rd St. and Treat Ave. San Francisco, CA

http://freefarmstand.org/

Thanks Chef Stephanie!

Tempe woman gets wallet with cash she lost 5 years ago in Washington

by Ryan O'Donnell

Ryan O'Donnell report two teens in Washington State found something that belonged to a woman who lives in Arizona.

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From Seedlings to Servings: 11-Year-Old Grows Tons of Veggies for the Homeless

By Diane Herbst

 It sounds like a sub-plot from Jack and the Beanstalk. When Katie Stagliano brought a single cabbage seedling home from school as part of a third-grade class project, the 9-year-old planted it in the soil in a tiny plot in her family's back yard. She watered and weeded appropriately. Next thing she knew, that seedling grew into a monster-sized, 40-pound cabbage.

None of her classmates' cabbages grew so large. Katie didn't even add any sort of magic fertilizers, or receive any special gardening tips from adults. "Absolutely not," her mom, Stacy, tells Tonic. The biggest known OS Cross cabbage ever — the "OS" in the name stands for "oversize" — was 55 pounds, according to Bonnie Plants (the company that provided free seedlings to Stagliano's class as part of a nationwide school gardening initiative). So this wasn't a record, but it certainly was something.

Some might call it beginner's luck, yet others might call it fate—because what Katie did next turned her story into a heartwarming tale that's touching people all over the world. Katie decided that her green-leafy pride and joy should be donated to a local soup kitchen, where it was made into meals for 275 people (with the help of some ham and rice). "I thought, 'Wow, with that one cabbage I helped feed that many people?'" says Katie, now entering sixth grade. "I could do much more than that."

So with the help of her parents, Katie started her own nonprofit, Katie's Krops, and began planting vegetable gardens specifically to feed the needy. She has six right now, including one the length of a football field at her school in her hometown of Summerville, S.C. Classmates, her family and other people in the community help plant and water, and Bonnie Plants donates seedlings. This past year, Katie took her commitment to a new level, providing soup kitchens with over 2,000 pounds of lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables. Katie and her helpers are now harvesting the spring planting, and another 1,200 pounds will be donated by October.

"She just walks in like a proud little girl with her treasures in her arm," says Sue Hanshaw, CEO of Tricounty Family Ministries, the soup kitchen in Charleston, S.C., where Katie first brought her 40-pound crucifer. "I love what she exudes, caring for others. It's made a big impact on a lot of people."

Says Elois Mackey, 49, a formerly homeless mother of two who has received a weekly vegetable delivery from Katie since September: "She is showing that you can help other people no matter how young you are. I love the vegetables she brings."

Katie is a well-spoken 11-year-old who juggles the life of a school child with that of a world-changer. Swim practice, tennis matches, and studying (she has had the highest GPA of her class for the last four years) are sandwiched between daily waterings and tending.  "It makes me feel good," says Katie. "I feel bad for those people who have to go to Palmetto house [a homeless shelter where she and residents recently planted a garden], but I feel good that I'm helping people."

Katie's desire to help as well as create sprouted early. "She's always been very inquisitive and wants to go above and beyond," says her mom, Stacy, 41. "It's like, 'What about this and why aren't we doing this?"

Since the age of four, Katie has placed first in competitions that include inventing a toothbrush now on sale that teaches water conservation, for the Dr. Fresh company. "When you put the toothbrush in your mouth to brush," says Katie, "it plays a rap song that says, 'Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, and you can save eight gallons of water.'"
As a third grader, upset about a local drought, Katie decided her school, Pinewood Prep, needed to conserve water. Katie wrote the headmaster over Christmas break, suggesting how the school could better conserve. Soon after, the high school's advanced placement environmental studies teacher called to meet with her and work on a water conservation project. Katie's suggestions for rain barrels to catch water and other ideas were soon implemented throughout the school. "As a parent, I am so moved," says Stacy. "I say to her, 'I hope some day when you are a parent, you have a kid who is as amazing as you so you can see it from a mom's perspective.'"

Much of the thanks goes to Stacy and Katie's devoted group of helpers, including her 7-year-old brother, John Michael, who has toiled in two of the gardens to plan pumpkin patches.

Since February of last year, master gardener Lisa Turocy has not only sat shoulder to shoulder with Katie planting and giving advice, she's transformed her entire front yard into a garden with 600 seedlings. "If I can help her change the world," says Turocy, "that's awesome."

Locals Linda and Bob Baker, golf professionals with 41 acres of farmland set along a rutted dirt road on the outskirts of Summerville, gave Katie some acreage for a garden. Bob lugged his John Deer tractor to Katie's school to till the soil, and taught Katie how to drive the machine. Says Bob: "It makes you feel so good to see someone that young with that amount of compassion, step in there and really make a difference."

Since she started, Katie has been contacted by schools and parents as far away as South Africa looking for advice on planting gardens of their own, specifically to help needy individuals in their communities. And Katie’s story has inspired supporters to donate to Katie’s Krops to help her buy irrigation equipment, fertilizer and other supplies for her six gardens.

As one of Katie's best friends told Tonic, most kids their age mainly like to watch TV and play on computers; they don't like to do what Katie does. Another friend, Anna Semar, 11, who was inspired by Katie to grow her own vegetable garden, says: "If there were more people like Katie the world would be a better place."

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Good Samaritans save life of Rio del Mar bicyclist who suffers heart attack

By Cathy Kelly

RIO DEL MAR -- George Hurley suffered a severe heart attack while riding his bike up a hill on a lonely stretch of San Juan Road on Memorial Day. He fell, lost consciousness and was without a pulse for several moments.

Luckily, he was not alone.

Hurley, 59, of Rio del Mar, called out to his brother as he fell.

Vince Hurley, a 60-year-old Seascape attorney, was riding with his brother, who was a short distance behind. He said he would normally not have stopped until he reached the top of the hill.

But something in the way his brother called his name made him turn around.

"I still shiver remembering that call," he said.

He couldn't see his brother, so he wheeled around, swinging into the road, he said.

He spotted him on an embankment beside the road, pulled him down and began performing CPR.

Vince Hurley is a former police officer who had CPR training years ago, but he was rusty.

Moments later, a passer-by stopped, and then a second.

In what the group calls amazing odds, both motorists who stopped to help had CPR training.

Tyler Scofield, 25, of Aptos said he recently received recertification at Reiter Berry Farms, where he works as a ranch manager.

"It just clicked into gear," he said.

Then Lori Fiorovich of La Selva Beach, an owner of Crystal Bay Berry Farm, ran up as well.

She coached the other two on the timing of the chest compressions, but it soon became apparent he was not breathing and they turned him on his side to dislodge something in his airway. Fiorovich said she began praying.

Firefighters arrived soon after, used a defibrillator and got a pulse.

Vince Hurley estimates eight to nine minutes elapsed; he said it seemed like a lifetime. He said he was composed until firefighters asked who the man was. He told them it was his brother, and that he has a wife and three kids.

"It was the most intense 10 minutes I'll ever live," he said. "Working on your own family member and holding it together is not that easy."

All four say the experience changed their lives.

George Hurley, an engineer and builder, said doctors at Watsonville Community Hospital and Dominican Hospital told him the CPR saved his life.

He was in a drug-induced coma for five days, and some worried he might have some cognitive loss, but he is expected to make a full recovery. He doesn't remember anything about the bike ride or the days after.

"It's just amazing," he said. "God's hand was all over this."

He said the experience has led him to make some changes.

"I'll live my life differently," he said. "We were a pretty healthy family, but we will live in a healthier way. And I have to look at balance, especially with work. I've been taking on a lot the last couple of years."

His wife, Susan, said it seems like many things came together that day to guide her husband's recovery.

"I'm so grateful they all listened to that inner voice," she said. "It was an amazing journey on several levels."

The American Heart Association website states effective CPR can double a victim's chance of survival. It states that approximately 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.

The Santa Cruz County Chapter of the American Red Cross offers CPR and other life-saving training courses, and organizes at least one free training per year. Emergency Services Manager Patsy Hernandez said they train some 8,000 people in the county each year. The Red Cross requires annual recertification training.

For information, call 462-2881.

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Korean Air Plants Trees in Baganuur

Written by Ch.Sumiyabazar

More than 200 employees of Korean Air have descended in Ulaanbaatar this week to plant tens of thousands of trees in Baganuur District of Ulaanbaatar.

Korean Air started its Global Planting Project in 2004 to fight desertification of forests which is causing pollutant yellow dust spreading across Asia. The company sends new employees and South Korean college students to Mongolia every year to plant trees in what is now called the “Korean Air Forest”. The first trees planted in 2004 are now higher than two meters.

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Evening Shot of the San Francisco Skyline from Coit Tower

This gorgeous photo of the evening skyline was taken by local photographer Scott Mansfield. It was taken half way up Coit Tower in North Beach.

Watching the city electrify, as the night approaches, is a wonderfully meditative experience. It happens gradually, individual windows turning on adding single squares of light, slowly filling the foreground with a mixture of tungsten, fluorescent and halogen light. All the while the sky, depending on conditions, evolves through a color palette unique to that particular day.

Scott goes on to describe the complex process of how he shot this photo on his blog,Scott Mansfield Photography. There are some great photos on his blog featuring architecture and urban landscapes, check it out! You can also follow him on Twitter at @scottmansfield.

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The #1 food you should eat (and probably don't)

My dad’s family is from Norway and for as long as I can remember we’ve been eating fish balls, fish puddings, pickled fish, fish in a tube and fish in a can. Most people thought it was a little weird.

But these days, I’m feeling less like an outcast when I bust open a can of fish, especially sardines. I know a lot of you have strong feelings about sardines, but want to know why I love them?

Sardines (Pacific, wild-caught) are one of the healthiest foods we can consume, according to the health and environmental experts we interviewed for “Sea Change” in our latest issue of EatingWell magazine. These days so many of us are trying to get more omega-3 fats in our diet, because they benefit your heart and your brain. Click here for delicious recipes to help you eat more of these super-healthy omega-3 fats. These nutritional powerhouses are one of the best sources of omega-3 fats, with a whopping 1,950 mg/per 3 oz. (that’s more per serving than salmon, tuna or just about any other food) and they’re packed with vitamin D. And because sardines are small and low on the food chain, they don’t harbor lots of toxins like bigger fish can. Find out why leading scientist Carl Safina thinks eating smaller fish can benefit your health and our oceans. Plus, they’re also one of the most sustainable fish around. Quick to reproduce, Pacific sardines have rebounded from both overfishing and a natural collapse in the 1940's, so much so that they are one of Seafood Watch’s “Super Green” sustainable choices. (Click here to find out which 6 super-healthy fish and shellfish you should eat and which 6 to avoid.)

If you’re trying sardines for the first time, or you just really want to learn to like them, here are a few tips and a few recipes to stoke your sardine love:

For more healthy and delicious tips check out:
The secret to baking healthier cupcakes
4 must-serve Mexican dips with a healthy twist
Could you quit meat once a week?

Now try sardines in these delicious recipes:

Greek Salad With Sardines The fresh, tangy elements of a Greek salad—tomato, cucumber, feta, olives and lemony vinaigrette—pair well with rich-tasting sardines. Look for sardines with skin and bones (which are edible) as they have more than four times the amount of calcium as skinless, boneless sardines.

Spring Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette A bold, layered salad that showcases sardines and asparagus, this beautiful dish adds variety to your weekday dining. If you prefer tuna to sardines or have fish from the night before, go ahead and use that instead.

Sardines on Crackers
A protein-packed and portable snack.

Makes: 4 servings
Active time: 5 minutes | Total: 5 minutes

4 whole-grain Scandinavian-style cracker, such as
8-12 canned sardines, preferably packed in olive oil
4 lemon wedges

Top each cracker with 2 to 3 sardines each. Finish with a squeeze of lemon.

Per cracker: 64 calories; 2 g fat (0 g sat, 1 g mono); 20 mg cholesterol; 8 g carbohydrates; 4 g protein; 1 g fiber; 94 mg sodium; 102 mg potassium.

Tomato Toast with Sardines & Mint (pictured above)
Canned sardines make an elegant, yet inexpensive appetizer when served with fresh mint, tomato and onion on toast.

Makes: 12 toasts
Active time: 15 minutes | Total: 30 minutes | To make ahead: Cover and refrigerate the sardine mixture (Step 2) for up to 2 days.

1 4-ounce can boneless, skinless sardines packed in olive oil, preferably smoked
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 slices multigrain bread or 12 slices baguette, preferably whole-grain
1/2 medium ripe tomato
1 tablespoon very thinly sliced yellow onion

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Flake sardines with a fork into a mixing bowl. (The pieces should not be mashed, but should be no bigger than a dime.) Add mint, oil and salt; toss gently to combine.
3. If using whole slices of bread, cut off the crusts and cut each into four triangles. Place the triangles or baguette slices on a baking sheet and bake until crispy and golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. As soon as you remove them from the oven, rub each slice with the cut side of the tomato. As you progress, the tomato will break down until only the skin remains; discard any remaining tomato.
4. Top each toast with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the sardine mixture. Top the sardine mixture with a couple of onion slices and serve immediately.

Per toast: 41 calories; 2 g fat (0 g sat, 1 g mono); 5 mg cholesterol; 3 g carbohydrate; 0 g added sugars; 3 g protein; 1 g fiber; 113 mg sodium; 63 mg potassium.

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Coffee: Is it healthier than you think?

By Sarah Klein, Health.com

(Health.com)  -- Elaine Murszewski is a self-proclaimed coffee addict.

"I have been a coffee drinker for more years than I can remember," she says. "My coffeemaker must have an auto-start feature so that when I wake up, it's ready."

The 53-year-old former software company representative from Aurora, Colorado, never uses cream or milk because they just "spoil the taste." She prefers coffee over alcohol -- even at a bar.

Murszewski has a lot of company. More than half of adults in the U.S., or 54 percent, are habitual coffee drinkers, according to the National Coffee Association. In fact, 146 billion cups are consumed in the U.S. each year, nearly three times more than tea.

But for years, coffee had a bad reputation. Linked in many people's minds with smoking, coffee is associated with over-caffeination and insomnia.

The caffeine found in coffee can stay in your system for up to 12 hours, making it more difficult to fall asleep, and it affects your quality of sleep as well. Caffeine is also a diuretic, meaning that it increases urine output, which can lead to dehydration.

Health.com: 12 surprising sources of caffeine

The general consensus used to be that tea was the better bet in terms of health benefits. But recent research suggests that despite the downsides of coffee, the "devil's brew" does have an upside: Coffee drinkers may be at lower risk of liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson's disease.

Health.com: The many perks of coffee

And in 2009, two coffee studies suggested additional benefits: Coffee-drinking men seemed to have a lower risk of advanced or lethal prostate cancer than other men, and middle-aged people who drank moderate amounts of coffee -- three to five cups a day -- had the lowest risk for dementia and Alzheimer's disease later in life compared to less (or more) frequent drinkers.

Can drinking coffee even help you live longer? Maybe. A 2008 study found that women who drank coffee regularly -- up to six cups a day -- were less likely to die of various causes during the study than their non-coffee-drinking counterparts. Because consumption of decaf coffee showed similar results, researchers don't think caffeine is at work.

Coffee contains antioxidants

While coffee drinkers may have other lifestyle habits that could explain the potential health benefits, researchers are also looking for compounds in coffee that explain the results.

One possibility? Antioxidants, those healthy compounds most often associated with fruits and vegetables. While the amount of antioxidants per serving is indeed much higher in things like berries, beans, and pecans, these foods are consumed less frequently than coffee.

In fact, a 2005 study found that Americans get more antioxidants from coffee than anywhere else. More than half of adults drink coffee daily, and the average coffee drinker downs about three cups each day.

"Most people drink it for the caffeine," says Joe A. Vinson, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton who led the 2005 study and has studied coffee extensively. "[But] it's the Number 1 source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet."

Polyphenols or flavonoids, the type of antioxidants found in coffee, are also found in other foods and drinks, like tea, red wine, and chocolate. All three have been proven to moderately help brain function, a benefit that can't be chalked up to caffeine, says Vinson, who has received speaking fees from the National Coffee Association. Caffeine, the most commonly used drug in the U.S., says Vinson, does affect alertness, but hasn't been found to offer much in the way of health benefits.

Health.com: The healing power of tea

Polyphenols are the "the good guys in coffee," says Vinson. "If you're not interested in keeping alert, then it seems decaf coffee would be your best bet."

Researchers have investigated other compounds in coffee, such as chlorogenic acid, which also gives eggplant its bitter flavor. In fact, there are potentially hundreds of biologically active compounds in coffee. "One of the detriments of working with foods and beverages is they're mixtures," says Vinson. "There's no magic bullet compound; it's the mix."

The beneficial effects could be due to natural agents that discourage the growth of harmful bacteria, or those that encourage the growth of helpful bacteria, called probiotics. Coffee may also alter levels of gut peptides, the hormones naturally released to control things like hunger or fullness.

Coffee may even have a hormone-like effect in the body, says Clinton Allred, an assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food science at Texas A&M University. A compound known as trigonelline "can act like estrogen," he says. "People didn't know coffee would carry such activity."

Because it acts as a hormone, trigonelline may be dangerous in women who have breast cancer, but it may also protect against colon cancer. "Estrogen is preventative of tumor formation for colon cancer, we believe," says Allred. "But it's just way too early for us to know [all] this particular compound could do."

Coffee drinkers may have healthier lifestyles

Another obstacle in pinpointing the benefits of coffee is that it's difficult to isolate the effects of coffee from other healthy habits or lifestyles associated with coffee drinking. A 1999 study of coffee and tea consumption in Scotland, for instance, found that coffee drinkers were younger, had higher incomes, and were healthier in general than tea drinkers.

Coffee drinkers in the U.S. seem to fit a similar profile. Seventy percent of Americans with an annual household income of $150,000 or more drink coffee, compared with 54 percent of Americans in a household making less than $25,000 a year, according to consumer market research firm Experian Simmons.

Research has shown for decades that poorer people are more likely to die from virtually any cause than people with a higher socioeconomic status. Wealthier people are more likely to be physically active and eat healthier, and less likely to smoke -- behaviors that could prevent some of the conditions assumed to be affected by coffee.

"That's the problem [with most of the studies done on coffee]," says Vinson. "There's no perfect study out there because they can't control all the variables. The problem with a human study is everybody's different."

To isolate the benefits of the coffee in particular, newer studies have focused on filtering out the effects of less-than-healthy behaviors, like smoking, that coffee drinkers are likely to engage in.

In a 2008 study, Esther Lopez-Garcia, a researcher in the department of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, in Spain, found that coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of death from all causes than people who didn't drink coffee.

Although the participants in her study were all nurses and health professionals, she says the results are probably applicable to people with similar education and socioeconomic status. "However," she warns, "[generalizing the results] has to be made with precaution, because it's clear that socioeconomic status influences mortality."

Of course, coffee isn't a quick fix, and may even cause problems in some people. It can worsen existing heart conditions, and caffeine could cause sleeping problems, as well as a racing heartbeat and anxiety. Plus, many coffee drinkers are only adding calories and fat to their diet by mixing in heavy cream and too much sugar.

Health.com: America's healthiest superfoods for women

More research needs to be completed before doctors can recommend coffee to their patients, experts say.

"It is always difficult to give dietary recommendations based on studies that lasted only several months, because they cannot investigate long-term effects," says Christian Herder, a diabetes researcher at Heinrich Heine University, in Dusseldorf, Germany. In a 2010 study, for instance, Herder found that changes in coffee-drinking habits had no adverse effects on diabetes risk factors.

But because the study lasted only three months, he says, it didn't provide enough evidence to directly recommend -- or prohibit -- drinking coffee. "There seems to be no reason to discourage middle-aged men and women from drinking coffee," Herder adds.

However, says Lopez-Garcia, "anyone with health problems that can be worsened by coffee -- insomnia, anxiety, hypertension, or heart problems -- should ask the doctor about his specific risk."

A better understanding of the risks and benefits of coffee might not come anytime soon. "Studies are few and far between," says Vinson. Plus, he says, many of the studies that have been done entailed "super-high consumptions" (12 cups a day, for example) and may not apply to the normal amount Americans typically drink.

So far, evidence of coffee's health benefits is limited. "I want to be convinced, but I haven't been. It's not cause and effect; it's just a hint," says Vinson. "[But] there are a lot of wonderful hints."

In the meantime, coffee drinkers can still dare to hope their precious brew is also good for them. Murszewski says she has noticed benefits from her java habit. "I have not asked my doctor about the benefits of coffee, although I have noticed that when suffering from a migraine, coffee helps," she says. "It's not full-blown with drinking coffee."

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Recovering skinhead tries to open eyes of closed minds

Over the last two decades, Frank Meeink, 35, has undergone quite a metamorphosis. In 1997, he spent a year having a five-inch swastika tattoo removed from his neck and the words "skin" and "head" lasered off his knuckles. Other racist and offensive tattoos, including a portrait of Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels that was on his chest, gradually were colored over and incorporated into more benign images.

Why this former skinhead gang leader decided to disavow the white supremacy ideology of hate and violence and preach racial harmony (to children, no less) is a tale of transformation that goes way deeper than Meeink's physical appearance and into territory even he couldn't have imagined when he was terrorizing non-whites and gays.

It's a long haul that would take him from his south Philadelphia neighborhood to the Illinois prison system, where he would share some of the most intimate details of his life with black and Hispanic inmates.

"I talked to these guys about my daughter being born and about things I would never tell my Aryan or biker friends (who were also in prison)," Meeink told me while in Chicago last week speaking at events for the Anti-Defamation League. "I cried when my cousin was killed, and it was my friend, a Latin King (gang member) who came over and comforted me. I think about those days now and we were all just kids. I was 17 in an adult prison."

Meeink (pronounced MINK) was introduced to the world of white supremacy when he was 14 and spending a weekend at a cousin's house in rural Pennsylvania. It was a time in his life when he was at his most vulnerable. Having survived beatings from his mother's boyfriend, he was sent to live with his father, whose house was in a white enclave in a neighborhood that was predominately black and poor.

That meant the high school Meeink attended was overwhelmingly black.

"There was just a handful of us white guys, and we would get off the trolley and run as fast as we could through the neighborhood," Meeink said. "I hated going to school. You never knew what was going to happen. It was always, ‘God, I hope somebody doesn't jump me.'"

By the time Meeink was recruited into the skinhead movement, he said he was susceptible to anybody who would take an interest in him and make him feel empowered.

"I was a soda bottle that had been shaken and was ready to explode," he said. "I was just waiting for somebody to take the cap off and direct the explosion. I could have gone in any direction. It just happened I went with skinheads."

For sport, Meeink and his band of brothers got drunk and "did missions," spray-painting synagogues, beating up homeless people, blacks and gays. Once a month, they would attend Klan rallies to reaffirm their separatist beliefs.

He said that when he was 16 he left Philadelphia, because the police were after him, and moved to Springfield, Ill., where he was the host of his own public access talk show, "The Reich." He appeared on national television shows, becoming the face of the young skinhead movement.

Then one evening in Springfield, he and his roommate kidnapped a skinhead adversary and beat him for hours while they videotaped it. Meeink, 17 at the time, was arrested and later sentenced to three years in prison.

While there, he made alliances with black and Hispanic inmates through studying the Bible and playing basketball and football.

"I was good at sports, and they saw that even though I still had the swastika tattoos," Meeink said. "Yes, there were intentional fouls all the time. But I would keep on playing and they respected that."

After a game, it was commonplace for him and fellow players to walk back to their cells, discussing whether their girlfriends would remain faithful without them, or whether their public defenders were capable stewards of their cases.

"At the time, I knew I probably wouldn't want to have anything to do with them on the outside," he said. And, indeed, when he was released from prison, he tried to realign himself with the skinheads.

But by then, his life had changed.

"You begin to look at people as individuals," he said. "And I began to learn about how there was so little difference in DNA between the races. (And yet,) for the longest I said, ‘Blacks, Hispanics and Asians are OK, but there was something different about Jews.'"

Even that sentiment changed when a Jewish antique furniture store owner gave Meeink a job and the two spent long car trips across New Jersey talking and eventually becoming friends.

Now Meeink lives in Iowa and runs a multiracial youth group, Harmony through Hockey (www.harmonyhockey.org). He travels the country speaking about diversity and tolerance, and has a new memoir, "Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead."

"Young skinheads come to my talks and ask me whether I betrayed the family," he said. "I might have been in that gang when I was younger, but now I'm in a gang with my wife and children and setting a much better example."

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New Bionic Eye Could Restore Sight

Researchers working for the Boston Retinal Implant Project have been developing a bionic eye implant that could restore the eye sight of people who suffer from age-related blindness. Although the bionic eye will only help individuals that were born with functional eyesight, the implant is expected to considerably improve their lives.

The implant is based on a small chip that is surgically implanted behind the retina, at the back of the eyeball. An ultra-thin wire strengthens the damaged optic nerve; its purpose is to transmit light and images to the brain's vision system, where it is normally processed. Other than the implanted chip and wire, most of the device sits outside the eye. The users would need to wear special eye glasses containing a tiny battery-powered camera and a transmitter, which would send images to the chip implanted behind the retina. The new device is expected to be quite durable, since the chip is enclosed in a titanium casing, making it both water-proof and corrosion-proof. The researchers estimate that the device will last for at least 10 years inside the eye.

The scientists explain that the bionic eye will be affective for individuals who once had sight, since their brain knows how to process visual information. The unfortunate people who were born blind do not have the neurological capability to process the data received via the wire. Furthermore, the optic nerve must be at least partly functional. Otherwise, the data will not be fully processed. For many individuals that were born blind, this is a problem as well, since their optic nerve has never been used. However, most of these individuals have a natural compensation mechanism, in the form of enhanced senses, such as hearing and touch. 

Although the device will not be able to restore the eye sight of the entire blind community, researchers  are certain many people will benefit from the technology. For instance, age-related macular generation is the leading cause of blindness in the industrialized world, with about 2 million Americans currently suffering from the condition. The new technology will hopefully assist people suffering from this condition, and individuals suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (a genetic condition), but will not help glaucoma patients.

The researchers note the device has some limitations, and it will not restore perfect vision. However, they are sure it will give people the advantage of having a general sense of their surroundings. Hopefully, the technology may enable people to recognize faces and facial expressions. "The thing is to significantly improve the quality of life for blind patients," said Joseph Rizzo of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, who has co-directed the project with MIT's John Wyatt since 1988. 

This summer, the researchers plan to test the implants on animals. Within the next few years, they hope to start performing human trails. Wyatt says: "What level of achievement that would actually be is hard to know; but the idea is of not having to use the white cane - to walk around, find the sidewalk, avoiding a telephone pole. Being able to navigate safely in an unfamiliar environment, that's the big topic."

TFOT has covered the discovery of the last retinal movement-detecting cell and the latest stem-cell research that has improved our understanding of blindness. Another article recently published by TFOT deals with mind controlled bionic limbs, which were designed to assist disabled people in their daily lives.

Thirty six researchers joined collaborated on The Boston Retinal Implant Project, including scientists from MIT, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and the V.A. Medical Center in Boston. For more information about the project, see the Boston Retinal Implant Project website.


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Drink up girls: wine isn’t fattening

Jonathan Leake

WOMEN who like a glass of wine after work can relax: they are likely to gain less weight than those who stick to mineral water.

Moderate female drinkers also have a lower risk of obesity than teetotallers, according to new research. The findings, from a study of more than 19,000 women, is at odds with most dietary advice: that alcohol consumption leads to weight gain.

The research suggests that a calorie from alcohol has less impact on weight than a calorie from other foods and that the way the body deals with alcohol is more complex than realised. One theory is that in regular drinkers the liver develops a separate metabolic pathway to break down alcohol, with surplus energy turned mainly into heat, not fat.

In the study, Lu Wang, a medical instructor at Brigham and Women’s hospital, Boston, and colleagues asked 19,220 American women aged 39 or older with a healthy body weight to describe their drinking habits in a questionnaire. About 38% drank no alcohol.

Over the next 13 years the researchers found that all the women tended to gain weight but the non-drinkers gained the most. The women’s overall weight gain decreased as alcohol intake increased.

There was also a difference according to the type of alcohol: red wine was associated with the lowest weight gain; beer and spirits were linked to the highest weight gain.

The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, seems to confirm that there is no clear connection between alcohol consumption and weight gain.

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‘Gribble’ marine pest may be key to biofuel breakthrough, say scientists

A marine pest could be the key to a biofuel breakthrough, say scientists. Gribble, which resemble pink woodlice, plagued seafarers for centuries by boring through the planks of ships and destroying wooden piers.

But now environmental scientists are taking a keen interest in the crustaceans.

A team of British researchers has learnt that gribble have a gift for digesting wood not seen in any other animal.

Enzymes produced by the tiny creatures are able to break down woody cellulose and turn it into energy-rich sugars meaning that gribble could convert wood and straw into liquid biofuel.

A gribble-like processing plant could make sugars from woody raw material that can be fermented into alcohol-based fuels for vehicle engines.

Researchers at the universities of York and Portsmouth made the discovery after carrying out an extensive study of digestive genes from the gribble species Limnoria quadripunctata.

They found the crustacean’s long digestive tract is dominated by enzymes that attack cellulose and lignin, the normally indigestible material in woody plant tissue.

The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was made possible by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Centre, a £26 million network of expert groups looking at bioenergy.

Duncan Eggar, the BBSRC’s Bioenergy Champion, said: “The world needs to quickly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and sustainably produced bioenergy offers the potential to rapidly introduce liquid transport fuels into our current energy mix.”

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Art briefly helps patients draw themselves out of mental illness

Awakenings Project believes art boosts recovery

A week into his hospitalization at the Elgin Mental Health Center, Jeffrey Eppard was given pencils and paper and invited to draw anything he wanted. The subject he chose was his left arm.

He outlined it in a blur of charcoal, then filled in the details: the lines crisscrossing his palm; the bracelet spelling out "Angel"; and the still-fresh scar that began at his wrist and slashed toward the crook of his elbow.

The wound was a remnant of the suicide attempt that had landed him in the hospital. He said evoking it with a sketch was, to his surprise, a comfort.

"It brings back some of the anxieties, but it's not entirely bad," said Eppard, 24, who suffers from bipolar disorder. "Just visually seeing it (on paper) tells me it's OK. I'm sick, but it's going to be all right."

Though he used the language of recovery, it was no therapy session. It was a simple afternoon of drawing put together by some who had battled their own demons that they believed could be quieted, at least for a moment, with a swirl of graphite.

The organizers were from the Awakenings Project, a collective of people with mental illnesses who have found strength in art. They meet weekly in a suburban studio to draw and paint, and, on occasion, they travel to mental health centers to share their materials and enthusiasm with those still emerging from crisis.

"My hope is to unleash the joy," said Irene O'Neill, one of the group's founders. "I just want people to get into it and have fun."

Psychologists long have believed that art provides a window into troubled minds, but what once was mainly a diagnostic tool — Draw a tree that represents your feelings — has become an instrument of healing.

Randy Vick, a therapist who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said making art brings a precious sense of control to those suffering from schizophrenia and other mental disorders. When the mind, body and emotions unite in the act of creation, a person can feel he has regained power over his life, Vick said

The Awakenings Project doesn't offer formal therapy, but it follows similar principles. It was founded in 1996 to showcase the artistic abilities of people with mental illness, allowing them to earn self-respect.

"Most people with a mental illness don't work, so they don't have a work identity," said co-founder Robert Lundin. Exhibiting their art "gives them a kind of identity in the community. They can legitimately call themselves an artist."

In time, the group began to seek out and cultivate that talent. It rents a downtown Elgin studio, where its members produce oil paintings, watercolors and collages. It spreads the word at national mental health conferences. For the last five years, it has reached out to institutions where people with severe mental illnesses are treated.

That is what led O'Neill and four fellow Awakenings volunteers to the Elgin Mental Health Center one recent Saturday. They passed out pencils, paper and a few art books to a dozen patients, and after they made a few introductory remarks, the sketching began.

Francis Chereck, 29, had an elegant, polished style. He had taken plenty of art classes when he was younger, he said, and even now, despite the bipolar disorder shaking his life, he liked to draw video game characters to give away as gifts.

He drew a human eye, its pupil dabbled with points of light, its lid heavy with charcoal. He shaded the corner over and over again until it appeared to be weeping black tears.

Art teachers "always told me not to overshadow," he said. "I tend to like things dark. That's just me."

John Miller, 30, worked in a lighter vein, reproducing simple likenesses of a rabbit and bird he had found in a book. Then he tried a freehand portrait of his childhood home. It was a place of sad memories, he said, yet he smiled as he drew its crooked stairs and wind-whipped flag.

"I think art's a good getaway," he said. "When we're sitting here doing this, it takes us away from our troubles. It's like we're kids again."

Other sketches were difficult to grasp. They were patchworks of runes, figures and phrases that remained impenetrable, even after their creators tried to explain them.

One young man stricken by schizophrenia drew symbols in the chunky, 3-D style of a graffiti tagger. The man, who asked to be called "Pi," said he was obsessed with numbers and formulas. Reproducing them gave him a feeling of tranquility.

His drawing was striking and skillful, but he dismissed it, telling a visitor to take it away.

"It's frivolous," he said. "I'll reproduce it another way, another time. I could burn this right now and it wouldn't mean anything to me."

A moment later, though, he asked to look at an image of his sketch that had been captured by a Tribune photographer.

"Oh, that's beautiful," he said.

He went back to the visitor with two clean sheets of paper, urging him to sandwich the drawing between them so the lines wouldn't smudge.

Such small moments of pride were evident throughout the three-hour session. But when it ended, it was hard to say whether it had produced any lasting effects. Most of the patients left their work behind when they headed back to their rooms.

Packing up the materials, O'Neill said she was optimistic. Her bipolar disorder brought her plenty of misery after she was diagnosed in 1976, when she was 20. She had been hospitalized against her will, clapped into straitjackets and shot up with debilitating medications.

But she never lost her childhood love of art. And when she helped found the Awakenings Project, she said, she learned that her painting and collage-making — and most important, her relationships with other artists — could give her stability.

She had a new identity, one in which her mental disorder was only a single shard in a larger mosaic. Maybe, she said, art could help a few more reach the same place.

"Some of them will re-identify as artists," she predicted. "Some will start to see themselves in a different light. People get back in touch with themselves and know that they are more than just their illness."

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DEVO Plays The 2010 Winter Olympics!!! Tonight!

Devo and the focus-grouped comeback album

Monday night, Devo will publicly launch the marketing campaign for its forthcoming album -- its first in 20 years -- when the Los Angeles-via-Ohio band performs at the Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. With the release of the album not due until the spring, the Olympics appearance won't be the grand unveiling of new material, which principal Gerald Casale promises will occur at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. But if all goes according to plan, the path leading up to the final product may make for a better story, anyway.

Casale speaks of Devo's May release, which the band has narrowed down to three possible titles, as somewhat of a formality. It's one aspect of a recently signed all-encompassing merch, music and tour record deal with Warner Bros., but the forthcoming album isn't necessarily the centerpiece.

"People still do that," Casale said of releasing a new CD. "We don’t feel it’s very important. I don’t know how many people buy CDs. When you look at the number of downloads Lady Gaga had compared to hard physical product, it’s 100,000 to one. That’s the way people get their music. This idea of the precious order of a 12-song CD is passe. It’s over. People go and get what they want off the Internet and the put it on their iPod and shuffle it."

That's one reason why Casale said the band won't be making the final decision on the songs and track-listing for its upcoming album. Instead, he said, the band will trust the consensus reached by those polled by an advertising agency. Casale said the new-wave pioneers have retained a company called Mother L.A. and that the firm will present focus groups with multiple mixes of new songs.

"It’s an art experiment," Casale said. "The experiment is the business of art. It’s always there, but nobody ever talks about it."

Of course, Devo has championed the theatricality in marketing for much of its career, making it a sort of mission statement. When the famously red-domed band released its first single in 17 years in 2007, it did so via a Dell commercial, and the band's Mark Mothersbaugh, via his Mutato Muzika company, has long celebrated the art of advertising, having scored numerous commercials.

If Devo would seem to have a handle on anything, marketing would appear to be at the top of the list. "It’s just fun, to use business as part of the creative process, even if it’s satirical," Casale said. "Devo is just real now. Devo is not ahead of its time. Devo is not scary or shocking. ... We’re the house band on the Titanic, and we’re here to entertain as we all go down."

Mother L.A. is unlisted, and the company's website is full of generic stock photos. Devo is the only client named on the firm's roster, and Casale declined to answer how fans who want to take part in the focus groups would go about such a task. To further interject an air of cynicism here, the L.A. Weekly has already revealed that Mutato has some ad agency vets in its ranks. A Warner Bros. spokesman promised that the label is indeed working with an advertising firm named Mother L.A. on the album

In response to our skepticism, Casale said it will all eventually be made available for viewing. The alternate takes of each song, Casale said, will likely make their way to release as well. "We’ll put this on YouTube, so people will see what happened, and then we’ll also put out bonus tracks of the non-focus-group-approved music," he said.

"For anyone who is interested, we’d like to let them examine this as an open book," he continued. "Here’s our first demos, and here’s the songs that never reached anybody, and here’s the ones the focus group didn’t like."

As for the music, Devo worked with an assortment of name producers on the new material. Santigold, the Dust Brothers' John King, and the Bird and the Bee's Greg Kurstin are among the artists who contributed. With Devo's dance-informed-rock having come in vogue again, Casale said the members wanted to go to those who point to the band as influence, intending to find out what "their idea of Devo was."

"When we were new, we were shocking and so different, only we owned that aesthetic," Casale said. "Now a lot of bands cite Devo as their influence. A lot of music sounds like Devo, especially a lot of the new music from groups like the Ting Tings, the Kills, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip. We love that stuff. It sounds like the kind of energy we had in the beginning."

It was Kurstin, who recently produced Lily Allen's "It's Not Me, It's You," who brought the biggest changes to Devo's sound. "In terms of surprise factor, Greg Kurstin was the most transformative," Casale said. "He brought a kind of sparkle to the sound itself. It still sounds like Devo, but it sounds very contemporary."

Yet in terms of what to expect, Casale isn't completely tipping his hand, although longtime fans may find some changes shocking. When the act performs Monday night at the Olympics, for instance, its headgear is expected to be blue.

"You couldn’t get more of a broad-spectrum audience than the Olympics," Casale said. "People aren’t there to see Devo; they’re there to experience the Olympics. It’s like a cold call in business. They’re not there to cheer for you."

-- Todd Martens

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Booking a Flight the Frugal Way

By MATT GROS

It used to be so simple. You wanted to go to Paris, so you called a travel agency, gave them your dates and budget, and with any luck, you soon had in your hands a real paper ticket with a real dollar value. Even in the early days of the Internet, it was easier. You went to one of the few booking sites — Travelocity or Expedia, most likely — searched for your route, paid with a credit card and that was it. Maybe you even got a paper ticket in the mail. Those were the days!

Today, however, booking a flight is a total mess. Travelocity and Expedia have been joined by Bing and Orbitz and Dohop and Vayama and CheapTickets and CheapOair and Kayak and SideStep and Mobissimo and and and … I could go on and list every single Web site out there, but I won’t. There are just too many. Instead, I’ll lead you through the steps I make when I’m booking a flight myself.

I’ve covered this territory a bit before — here and here — but today I’ll try to go into more detail. For this experiment, let’s imagine a simple domestic trip: a weekend of snowboarding in Jackson Hole in Wyoming at the beginning of March.

My first stop is, as it’s been for years now, Kayak.com. It’s the simplest airfare search engine — minimal graphics, no discount vacation deals to confuse me, and it searches almost every other site out there — and also the most flexible. I can not only choose a window for my departure and arrival times but also decide where I want (or don’t want) to spend a layover, or which frequent-flier alliance to stick with.

Kayak gives me two decent-looking options: $231 on American Airlines (Newark to Jackson via Chicago) and $241 for Delta (via Atlanta); taxes and fees included in both figures. I’m lucky here — I have gold status on American, so I can avoid the checked-baggage fees for my snowboard.

Of course, I don’t stop there. Next, I’ll check ITASoftware.com, a somewhat complicated site that makes it feel as if you’re a travel agent tapping into unusual, semisecret routes. Maybe there’s a faster way to Wyoming, perhaps through Minneapolis? Not this time. For the Jackson Hole trip, ITA finds the same American Airlines itinerary, pricing it at $230 instead of $231. Frankly, it’s a pretty normal trip, so there are no surprises. And anyway, ITA doesn’t let you book tickets, instead directing you to other sites or travel agents.

So, I check out another site: cFares.com, which has a twist. For a $50 annual membership, you’ll get small rebates if you book through them. Each rebate may be only $8 or $20, but if you fly several times a year, that can add up quickly. And last spring, cFares found me a flight from New York to Paris for $543.17, or about $200 less than any other search engine found.

For my theoretical ski trip, cFares knocks that $241 Delta flight down to $229 via the rebate (clicking the link sends you to Orbitz to book), but it doesn’t bring up the American flight at all.

And so, finally, if I were going to book this trip, I’d go straight to AA.com, login with my frequent-flier account and buy my ticket right there. Except … I’ve waited too long! In the couple of hours between when I first started searching and when I eventually decided to book, the fares have gone way up — the flight is now $298. Still, because I have status on American, it’s the better deal.

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Decorating the Night in Brooklyn

By PENELOPE GREEN

IT was Valentine’s Day at the House of Yes, an old ice warehouse turned event space in Bushwick, Brooklyn: The three-story “skybox” was swathed in red satin and velvet, and red aerialists’ silks hung from the circus truss that spanned the ceiling. Kae Burke, 23, who runs House of Yes with her high school pal Anya Sapozhnikova, twined her way up and down the silks, while Marcie Grambeau, a 23-year-old New York University student wearing a red satin mini-cheongsam, fishnet stockings and stilts, played “Tainted Love” on her violin. Rhiannon Erbach-Gruber, 30, resplendent in a red satin petticoat and bustier, was singing from a perch halfway to the ceiling.
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Forty guests lured there by a Facebook page had paid $40 for an evening of dim sum and spectacle devised by Tara McManus, 27, a costume designer and event producer. Servers and performers received a small fee, but many had worked for pizza and the chance to be a part of the run-up to the event, creating costumes and decorations. “This is why I moved to New York,” said Ms. Grambeau, grinning down from her stilts.

Armed with glitter and grit, glue guns and sewing machines, impresarios like Ms. Burke and Ms. McManus have been redecorating the landscape of the city’s after-dark underground, tweaking and honing the warehouse parties that have roved Brooklyn for more than a decade into ever-more-refined environments.

Theirs is a tight-knit community of makers and performers, who share resources — from bolts of fabric and guest lists to manpower — and some ideologies, the most urgent of which is a do-it-yourself mentality that defines a good time not as passive entertainment but as a participatory event. With roots that reach back to ’60s “happenings,” it’s an ever-cresting notion of participatory culture — that’s culture with a capital C — that has been nurtured at festivals like Burning Man and careers through New York City’s many quasipolitical or creative tribes, from street theater to burlesque.

For those raised on the New York clubs of the ’70s, ’80s or even ’90s — whether your touchstone is the Mudd Club or Limelight — this is a startlingly healthy night life scene, in which décor trumps drugs.

A few miles away from the House of Yes extravaganza, another Valentine’s Day pageant was unfurling. Larisa Fuchs, 31, had transformed a Prospect Heights loft into “The Vault of Golden Vapors,” a theme party with vintage Chinese jazz and Asian burlesque and an extravagant opium-den décor. Early in the evening, Laura Lee Gulledge, a body painter, observed over her shoulder that “glitter is the herpes of the craft world,” as she blew red glitter on the arm of Naomi Ruth, 30, a poet who had moved into the space two weeks earlier (rent: $800). Ms. Ruth was no stranger to glitter: Her new home had hosted six theme parties in the last week alone, she said.

“I’ve just gotten out of a relationship,” she said, “and I didn’t want to do ‘safe.’ So I came here, and now I’m lost in the vortex.”

Wrapped in a costume that was part Chinese Empress, part Lorelei Lee, Ms. Fuchs drifted past, beaming her approval.

“Doing things is more fun than just watching, and people are more creative than they think they are,” said Dan Glass, 43, a freelance writer and fire-effects maker who has deployed his jaw-dropping fire sprinkler, fire whip and fire rope both at Burning Man and at Ms. Fuchs’s recent Halloween party, where he torched pumpkins on a rooftop at dawn.

“It starts with something easy — costumes — and builds from there,” Mr. Glass continued. “Not only do people have more fun, but the overall effect, as time goes on, is people feel more of a sense of community and more of a sense of responsibility for their community.”

MS. BURKE was studying fashion at F.I.T. and attending Brooklyn’s theme parties because she was new to the city and didn’t have any friends. “But I had this awful social anxiety, which meant I couldn’t stay longer than an hour at a party,” she said. “I didn’t know how to stand around and do nothing.”

So she began volunteering at Kostume Kult, a costume event and street theater club (KK sends a “fashion camp” to Burning Man each year and a float to New York City’s Halloween parade), spray painting this, stitching that, and before long she was organizing her own events. She and Ms. Sapozhnikova, who also attended F.I.T., began to hold parties in their first home, a basement in “deep Bushwick.” They bought an aerial rig on Craigslist, just because they couldn’t resist the listing, found a teacher and started performing as an aerial girl troupe. But in April 2008, a kitchen fire burned the place to the ground, wiping them out.

The new House of Yes, which they financed by throwing fund-raisers and built with the help of friends, is a sparkling event space with a three-story “sky room” and circus truss — you, too, can learn trapeze, at their weekly classes — and an enticing second-floor Make Fun Studio, filled with sewing machines, fabric, props and costumes that Ms. Burke rents out. Material for the Arts, the city’s program that offers castoff materials, furniture and supplies to nonprofit arts organizations, has been a rich source for them.

To show their indie Martha Stewart commitment, Ms. Burke and Ms. Sapozhnikova sport matching tattoos of yardsticks that stretch from wrist to upper arm. “We’re dedicated to making stuff,” Ms. Burke said.

Watching her M.C. Sunday night’s party from 20 feet in the air, clad in a red lace unitard and hanging upside down, it was clear she no longer suffered from social anxiety.

EIGHT years ago, Ms. Fuchs and her friend Jamie Kiffell were both single and investigating the then-new world of online dating. Armed with a trial subscription to JDate, they sallied forth, sometimes meeting prospects together, sometimes alone, and sending each other copious post-mortems by e-mail — which eventually inspired them to write a handbook for online dating. To market the book, they began throwing parties under the name Gemini & Scorpio, for their respective astrological signs.Enlarge This Image“We were also having trouble finding things to do on our dates that catered to our type — our type being so-called ‘creative adults,’ meaning ‘creative but can still hold down a job,’ ” Ms. Fuchs said. In other words, she said, they wanted to make singles parties that didn’t stink. And they achieved that to such a degree, they couldn’t keep couples out.While Gemini, or Ms. Kiffell, is now married and living in Los Angeles (“Her husband was the waiter at the diner where we hung out to edit the book,” Ms. Fuchs said), the Gemini & Scorpio parties are still going strong: there have been gypsy-music dance parties at a Coney Island bathhouse, a “circus throw down” in a vintage tent with fire spinners, and all manner of burlesque and other vintage mises-en-scène. “Nightclubs are over,” Ms. Fuchs said. “They’re too expensive and they’re just not interesting.”At the Urban Sanctuary last Tuesday, Ms. Fuchs was knee deep in yards of iridescent tulle, gold vinyl and red velvet, culled from Material for the Arts. Volunteers had shown up to make 100 red-and-white tissue-paper blossoms as big as your head. Ms. Fuchs now has an intern, Michelle Bruenn, who was so inspired by the events that she veered away from law school to learn at Ms. Fuchs’s satin knee. “I love that I am her Plan B,” Ms. Fuchs said as she gave a tour of Sanctuary’s 2,000-square-foot space, which boasted two Balinese beds and a kissing booth that Ms. Fuchs said was left over from the adult-theme party she had held there over the weekend. “Don’t worry,” she added soothingly, “we washed everything.”IF everyone was an artist in the ’90s, this is shaping up to be the era of the events producer. With his partner, Mark Winkel, Kevin Balktick, 25, seems poised to become the David Rockwell of the alt-events world, an organizer of vast, multistructured events inspired by those at Lunatarium, a 20,000-square-foot space in Dumbo, Brooklyn, shuttered since 2004, which might be described as the Studio 54 for the Moveon.org crowd.Standing in an empty 13,000-square-foot warehouse in Sunset Park the other day, Mr. Balktick pointed out the remnants of his New Year’s Eve party, at which 2,500 guests wandered through a wonderland of 30 artists’ installations, including a Mylar-coated geodesic dome, a bar sculptured from ice and a room-size tent. A lone streamer lay on the cement floor, along with a cardboard box filled with moldy peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches neatly stacked in Ziploc bags.His artist’s call — the entreaty that party promoters e-mail to names in their voluminous address books — was typically enticing: “We are seeking art projects, performers, activities, production crew and volunteers of all kinds,” it read in part. “Sculpture, installation, activities, games, theme camps, performances, decorators, carpenters, riggers and general volunteers are all welcome. A strong D.I.Y. ethic is important. We can provide the space for your project, a crowd to enjoy it, transportation assistance and a modest stipend, but it’s ultimately up to you to get it together, make it happen and clean it up afterwards.”Mr. Balktick — who works part time in computer security and whose father worked as a stage manager for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade when he was growing up — has dedicated himself, he said with some passion, to “promoting creative culture here, that is, shaping New York culture in a way that isn’t work-oriented.” Like other producers, he is unfazed by the low profit margins, “whereas from a business perspective, not making a profit would be a failure.”“I love that everyone comes with this attitude of ‘I’ll bring tools,’ ” said Ms. Erbach-Gruber, an event producer/D.J./musician/you name it, last seen singing in red satin on a perch at the House of Yes. “I just love the effort.” Recently, Ms. Erbach-Gruber reminisced about an Alice in Wonderland party at Lunatarium, with a white paper rose garden that guests, in playing-card costumes, painted red with cans of paint she handed out. A huge volunteer team had been corralled to paint a section of the 20,000-square-foot loft’s floor in a chessboard pattern, and guests danced so hard they erased all traces of it.“I’ve never seen a picture,” she said sadly. “You just had to be there.”
EIGHT years ago, Ms. Fuchs and her friend Jamie Kiffell were both single and investigating the then-new world of online dating. Armed with a trial subscription to JDate, they sallied forth, sometimes meeting prospects together, sometimes alone, and sending each other copious post-mortems by e-mail — which eventually inspired them to write a handbook for online dating. To market the book, they began throwing parties under the name Gemini & Scorpio, for their respective astrological signs.
Enlarge This Image

“We were also having trouble finding things to do on our dates that catered to our type — our type being so-called ‘creative adults,’ meaning ‘creative but can still hold down a job,’ ” Ms. Fuchs said. In other words, she said, they wanted to make singles parties that didn’t stink. And they achieved that to such a degree, they couldn’t keep couples out.

While Gemini, or Ms. Kiffell, is now married and living in Los Angeles (“Her husband was the waiter at the diner where we hung out to edit the book,” Ms. Fuchs said), the Gemini & Scorpio parties are still going strong: there have been gypsy-music dance parties at a Coney Island bathhouse, a “circus throw down” in a vintage tent with fire spinners, and all manner of burlesque and other vintage mises-en-scène. “Nightclubs are over,” Ms. Fuchs said. “They’re too expensive and they’re just not interesting.”

At the Urban Sanctuary last Tuesday, Ms. Fuchs was knee deep in yards of iridescent tulle, gold vinyl and red velvet, culled from Material for the Arts. Volunteers had shown up to make 100 red-and-white tissue-paper blossoms as big as your head. Ms. Fuchs now has an intern, Michelle Bruenn, who was so inspired by the events that she veered away from law school to learn at Ms. Fuchs’s satin knee. “I love that I am her Plan B,” Ms. Fuchs said as she gave a tour of Sanctuary’s 2,000-square-foot space, which boasted two Balinese beds and a kissing booth that Ms. Fuchs said was left over from the adult-theme party she had held there over the weekend. “Don’t worry,” she added soothingly, “we washed everything.”

IF everyone was an artist in the ’90s, this is shaping up to be the era of the events producer. With his partner, Mark Winkel, Kevin Balktick, 25, seems poised to become the David Rockwell of the alt-events world, an organizer of vast, multistructured events inspired by those at Lunatarium, a 20,000-square-foot space in Dumbo, Brooklyn, shuttered since 2004, which might be described as the Studio 54 for the Moveon.org crowd.

Standing in an empty 13,000-square-foot warehouse in Sunset Park the other day, Mr. Balktick pointed out the remnants of his New Year’s Eve party, at which 2,500 guests wandered through a wonderland of 30 artists’ installations, including a Mylar-coated geodesic dome, a bar sculptured from ice and a room-size tent. A lone streamer lay on the cement floor, along with a cardboard box filled with moldy peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches neatly stacked in Ziploc bags.

His artist’s call — the entreaty that party promoters e-mail to names in their voluminous address books — was typically enticing: “We are seeking art projects, performers, activities, production crew and volunteers of all kinds,” it read in part. “Sculpture, installation, activities, games, theme camps, performances, decorators, carpenters, riggers and general volunteers are all welcome. A strong D.I.Y. ethic is important. We can provide the space for your project, a crowd to enjoy it, transportation assistance and a modest stipend, but it’s ultimately up to you to get it together, make it happen and clean it up afterwards.”

Mr. Balktick — who works part time in computer security and whose father worked as a stage manager for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade when he was growing up — has dedicated himself, he said with some passion, to “promoting creative culture here, that is, shaping New York culture in a way that isn’t work-oriented.” Like other producers, he is unfazed by the low profit margins, “whereas from a business perspective, not making a profit would be a failure.”

“I love that everyone comes with this attitude of ‘I’ll bring tools,’ ” said Ms. Erbach-Gruber, an event producer/D.J./musician/you name it, last seen singing in red satin on a perch at the House of Yes. “I just love the effort.” Recently, Ms. Erbach-Gruber reminisced about an Alice in Wonderland party at Lunatarium, with a white paper rose garden that guests, in playing-card costumes, painted red with cans of paint she handed out. A huge volunteer team had been corralled to paint a section of the 20,000-square-foot loft’s floor in a chessboard pattern, and guests danced so hard they erased all traces of it.

“I’ve never seen a picture,” she said sadly. “You just had to be there.”

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