March 20, 2015 by suzannesmom
I have yet to see for myself any marked improvement in Boston traffic resulting from the city’s use of the Waze app, but maybe that’s because I didn’t try to go to the football parade right after the blizzard.
Nick Stockton reported, “Even on a good day, Boston’s roads are more tangled than a Celtic knot. … So the city’s traffic managers decided to call in the apps.
“Specifically, the city reached out to Waze, a driving and directions tool owned by Google. By sharing the [snowy Patriots] parade route on the service, the city helped users steer themselves around traffic, potentially easing the overall road burden.
“That one-time data fling has resulted in a longer term data-sharing relationship. … Boston will give Waze a heads-up about any planned closures, and in return the app’s owners will give the city’s traffic management center access to its profoundly valuable stream of user data. In the short term, this will let the city be more responsive to traffic problems as they arise. But going forward, Boston’s road-runners hope the data will help them fine-tune their traffic light timing and keep congestion from building up in the city’s intestinal road network. …
“Boston isn’t an outlier here, either: Governments all over are using private companies to fill technology gaps. Google’s transit specification—the way it pushes bus and train times to Google Maps users—has become the de facto standard for how cities publish their mass transportation schedules. Entire states are buying cycling data from Strava to build better bike lanes.” More here.
Maybe the next occasion for Boston to use Waze will be the upcoming marathon, when the three people we’re calling Team Sweden will be running (Erik, his sister, and their cousin), and it’s impossible to drive.
(Thank you, The Fort Pointer, for tweeting this story.)
Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe/Getty Images
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged app, boston, cycling, nick stockton, postaday, strava, Suzanne Kreiter, waze | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2015 by suzannesmom
What would it be like to live in an earth dome? The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (Cal-Earth) can help you check out the concept for a day or a weekend or the 12-15 weeks it will take to teach you to build a dome home. Maybe you’d rather settle for building just a “rocket stove mass heater.” Cal-Earth can teach you to do that, too. Hesperia, California, is the place. (Although Cal-Earth’s mailing address is Claremont, near Suzanne’s alma mater.)
From the website: “Superadobe technology was designed and developed by architect Nader Khalili and Cal-Earth Institute, and engineered by P.J. Vittore. Superadobe is a patented system (U.S. patent #5,934,027) freely put at the service of humanity and the environment.”
The television station KCET has more. Reporter Kim Stringfellow says, “As a humanitarian, architect and teacher, Khalili developed the Superadobe building technique incorporating a tubular sandbagging system filled with locally sourced earth that are reinforced with a barbed wire technology and stabilized lime, cement, or asphalt that is locally produced. Dwellings can be used temporarily or may be stabilized, waterproofed, and finished with plaster to create a permanent building. Originally from Iran, Khalili’s structures and building techniques are inspired and informed by centuries of earth building found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. He also is known for his Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire construction system which as also known as Ceramic Houses. ”
Tell me this is not a hobbit house.
Photo: Geoff Lawton
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged architecture, art, cal-earth, California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture, ceramic, earth dome, environment, Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire, Geoff Lawton, hobbit, iran, kim stringfellow, middle east, Nader Khalili, postaday, sandbag, superadobe, sustainable, tubular | Leave a Comment »
March 18, 2015 by suzannesmom
Teny Gross tweeted this nice story from the Brown University alumni magazine.
Courtney Coelho wrote, “On a snowy December evening, lights were visible through the second-floor windows of List Art Center as the visual arts department’s Critique Intensive held its last session. Mixed with the students in the large studio space were four working artists—Elise Ansel ’84, Chitra Ganesh ’96, Keith Mayerson ’88, and Rob Reynolds ’90—who’d spent sixteen weeks with the class, teaching, critiquing, and discussing art.
“The class was the brainchild of Chair of Visual Art Wendy Edwards, who hopes it will serve as a model for future classes. ‘Alumni bring a generosity to their approach to the Brown students,’ Edwards said. ‘They love coming back here, they love giving, and they’re very professional and committed to helping our students.’ ” More here.
Speaking of art education in Providence, RISD just got a new president, an artisan herself. Meredith Goldstein at the Boston Globe writes, “The Rhode Island School of Design has chosen its 17th president. Rosanne Somerson takes the title effective immediately, the Board of Trustees announced [in February]. Somerson, a RISD grad and furniture designer, has been serving as the school’s interim president since January 2014. The board says it chose to keep Somerson in the job after a nine-month international search.”
The Globe article is here. Disegno magazine has an interview with Somerson, here.
Photo: Mike Cohea
Rose Congdon ’15, left, and her classmates critique work created for the visual art department’s Critique Intensive, a class taught by four alumni artists last semester.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, artist, brown university, Chitra Ganesh, Courtney Coelho, Critique Intensive, Elise Ansel, Keith Mayerson, list art center, Meredith Goldstein, Mike Cohea, postaday, providence, Rob Reynolds, Rosanne Somerson, Rose Congdon, student, teny gross, Wendy Edwards | Leave a Comment »
March 17, 2015 by suzannesmom
I wrote about New American Public Art back when I first posted a photo of the group’s giant geometric snowballs in Dewey Square.
I looked them up. Their tumblr blog says, “We are a collaborative of artists, engineers, programmers and designers with the mission of developing beautiful, interactive public art. Our method of development is always contextual. The existing physical and social aspects of a space are integral to the installation. The art form we create is more than the physicality of the work, it is the social curiosity and interaction of the audience with the piece.”
Alas, curious snowplows interacted with the interactive snow sculptures, and the snowballs are no more. But the artists seem to be fine with their work being ephemeral. Their approach supports the notion that it is good to notice things that can’t be captured permanently. It’s good just to enjoy. And interact.
I say that, but I’ve been regretting for two weeks that I couldn’t bring myself to capture in a photo several strangers facing me on the subway since one woman was looking my way. It would’ve been a great shot. In the midst of a sea of black-coated commuters, there were three astonishing reds: a woman with a bright red shawl, another with a red-red coat, and a young man with brilliant new red boots.
I’ve been looking for reds ever since and pondering how to take a photo without being noticed.
Check out American Public Art installations here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, dewey square, ephemeral, giant, installation, New American Public Art, photo, postaday, snowball | 4 Comments »
March 16, 2015 by suzannesmom
If I ever get tired of tai chi, I’m going to hunt down a ballet class like the one described at Newsday by Donna Kutt Nahas.
“Older adults,” she writes, “are taking their places along the ballet barre and living out their childhood fantasies. Once the province of the young, ballet is drawing late-life ballerinas and, to a lesser extent, male ballet dancers, who are returning to the art after a decades-long absence. Some, with no previous experiences, are attempting pliés and pirouettes for the first time.
“There is no statistical data on how many in the over-50 set are skipping yoga or the gym for ballet, but experts say the physically strenuous and mentally challenging pastime can improve vitality and provide a social outlet for older adults.
” ‘Ballet is low-impact, aerobic, weight-bearing, great core training and great for joint mobility, because you work the muscle in numerous positions,’ says Chris Freytag, an emeritus member of the board of directors of the San Diego-based American Council on Exercise. ‘And it’s great for brain fitness, because you have to connect your brain to doing a number of steps or sequences.’ “More at Newsday, behind the firewall.
On second thought, I think tai chi is more my speed. I took a lot of ballet as a child and even as a young adult. But I think I better just watch the ballerinas do it. And before long, it’s likely that one of the grandchildren will be taking it up.
Photos in the longer article: John Williams, Steve Pfost and Jeremy Bales
People are taking up ballet in their 50s, 60s, and beyond.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American Council on Exercise, ballet, Chris Freytag, Donna Kutt Nahas, elderly, fitness, Jeremy Bales, John Williams, newsday, older, postaday, seniors, Steve Pfost | 2 Comments »
March 15, 2015 by suzannesmom
Goats are becoming increasingly popular for controlling invasive plant species.
Joanna Jolly writes at the BBC News Magazine, “Each country has its own invasive species and rampant plants with a tendency to take over. In most, the techniques for dealing with them are similar — a mixture of powerful chemicals and diggers. But in the US a new weapon has joined the toolbox in recent years — the goat.
“In a field just outside Washington, Andy, a tall goat with long, floppy ears, nuzzles up to his owner, Brian Knox. Standing with Andy are another 70 or so goats, some basking in the low winter sun, and others huddled together around bales of hay. …
” ‘We started using them around this property on some invasive species. It worked really well, and things grew organically from there.’
“They are now known as the Eco Goats — a herd much in demand for their ability to clear land of invasive species and other nuisance plants up and down America’s East Coast. …
“One of the reasons goats are so effective is that plant seeds rarely survive the grinding motion of their mouths and their multi-chambered stomachs — this is not always the case with other techniques which leave seeds in the soil to spring back.
“One of the more high profile jobs they have worked on was cleaning up the Congressional cemetery in Washington two years ago. Large crowds came to watch as the animals spent a week chomping the overgrowth of Honeysuckle, Ivy and Poison Ivy. …
“This is one of the things he likes about taking goats into urban areas — the response of the city-dwellers, who are ‘fascinated,’ he says, to see how efficiently the goats gobble up the vegetation. …
“Goats aren’t a silver bullet. Knox often combines the goat clearance with some manual root cutting and even with a chemical treatment if needed. But his goats have started to make an impact on the weeds choking America and, he says, they are having a lot of fun doing it.”
More of the story — and some great pictures — here.
Photo: BBC News
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brian knox, eco goats, goats, invasive, joanna jolly, plants, postaday | 2 Comments »
March 14, 2015 by suzannesmom
Mary Ann is a creative person and a great source of blog ideas. She also remembers topics I’ve enjoyed in the past. For example, the stealth book artist in Scotland. She sent me word of the artist’s new accessibility.
The BBC reports, “An anonymous artist has been leaving delicate paper sculptures made from old books at locations in Edinburgh and around Scotland for more than three years. The identity of the woman has remained secret despite the international attention that the book sculptures have received.
“BBC Scotland’s arts correspondent Pauline McLean conducted an interview with her — via email to maintain her anonymity.
“Question: Why did you start making the sculptures?
“Answer: The first book sculpture, a little tree for The Scottish Poetry Library, was made primarily as a response to library closures and cutbacks. But it was also as a bit of fun for the library staff who, throughout Scotland, the UK and much further afield, provide a service in straitened times — above and beyond. It was a poor attempt to illustrate the notion that a book is more than just a book — and a library is a special kind of building.
“It’s no secret that I would like everyone to have access to books, art, artifacts and the buildings that house them. Not just those with the money for a ticket. I think it’s true that the immediate way we can and do now access information has altered things. But it remains important to have expert help, to see things for real, to have buildings set aside that inspire and make expectations of us and that anyone can enter. …
“I like to think the sculptures have served their purpose in some small way, but I do worry that they overly draw attention to themselves as objects. My intention was never that they be viewed as artworks or even that they would last. They are, after all, made from clapped-out old books. The end for me though was in leaving them. Once a gift is given it is in the hands of another.” More here.
There are several good pictures of book sculptures at the BBC site. Suzanne’s Mom couldn’t resist the one below. It makes me nostalgic for the inspired ceramic tea cups of Anne Kraus.
Photo: Anonymous book sculptor
“Nothing beats a nice cup of tea (or coffee) and a really good book.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anne kraus, art, book sculpture, library, pauline mclean, postaday, scotland, sculptor, tea cup | 2 Comments »
March 13, 2015 by suzannesmom
In parts of South Sudan, honey is providing a bit of hope for the future. Barbara Lewis reports at Reuters that the charity Honey Care Africa has invested $1 million in the country, helping farmers earn more than $75,000 from beekeeping and benefiting 400 families.
“A harvest of honey from the equatorial forests of South Sudan will help its struggling poor and, through the pollination of bees, improve the nation’s crop yields, those involved say.
“Spring production over the coming weeks is expected to deliver 60 tons, double the volume of an initial batch of exports last year to Kenya.
“South Sudan’s honey harvests had suffered because decades of fighting closed off the former main trade route through the north.
” ‘Honey production is not a panacea. We’re not trying to save the country or eliminate the conflict, but we do want to do our part,’ Madison Ayer, head of the development charity Honey Care Africa, told Reuters.
“Honey Care Africa has been working since 2013 in South Sudan, where it sees potential to collect honey from bees immune to the problems that have depleted colonies in the United States and to a lesser extent in Europe.
“The charity has worked in Kenya for a decade, but droughts can be a problem for honey-making there, so it sought to expand. …
” ‘When I get the money from the honey, I pay the school fees of my children. I buy other things like sugar, tomatoes, onions. I keep some money with me for emergencies in case my children get sick,’ Lilian Sadia James, one of the South Sudanese beekeepers working with Honey Care, says.”
More here.
Photo: David W. Cerny/Reuters
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged barbara lewis, bees, David W. Cerny, honey, Honey Care Africa, kenya, Lilian Sadia James, Madison Ayer, postaday, south sudan | 2 Comments »
March 12, 2015 by suzannesmom
Some African communities are rediscovering the value of mud for building cool, comfortable homes — and sparing trees.
This story is from the Thomson Reuters Foundation by way of the the Christian Science Monitor feature “Change Agent.”
“Building a house in the poorest villages of southern Mali has for years involved cutting trees for timber frames and struggling to save cash for a corrugated iron roof. Now families are turning to an alternative: Nubian-style domed mud-brick homes that are cheaper, protect fast-vanishing local forests, and make homes cooler in the worsening summer heat, experts say.
“Earthen homes with vaulted brick roofs – a style adopted from Nubia in northern Sudan – are being promoted across the Sahel, including in Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Mauritania, as part of efforts to build resilience to climate change.
” ‘Most people, more than half, don’t have the decent housing they dream of because it costs too much to build. This is going to change with the Nubian vault,’ predicted Chiaka Sidibe, a mason in Massako, one of the Malian communities adopting the new building style.
” ‘You just have to make mud bricks that don’t cost money, and fellow villagers help you to build your house,” he said. …
“The local office of the Association la Voûte Nubienne, the international non-governmental organization that is promoting the Nubian vault building style, has helped train local builders in mud-brick construction techniques. The aim is to build a sustainable, self-supporting market for the homes, said Moussa Diarra, the NGO’s local coordinator.
” ‘It can take much time to reach this goal, but I’m confident the initiative will succeed,’ he said.”
More here.
Photo: UN Climate Change Secretariat
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged africa, Association la Voûte Nubienne, Burkina Faso, Chiaka Sidibe, climate change, global warming, home, house, mali, Mauritania, Moussa Diarra, mud, potaday, Sahel, Senegal, sudan, sustainable, Thomson Reuters Foundation, UN Climate Change Secretariat | Leave a Comment »
March 11, 2015 by suzannesmom
A year or so ago the Unitarian Universalist Association sold their historic but drafty headquarters on Beacon Street near the Massachusetts State House and started fixing up a former warehouse in the Fort Point area, also referred to as the Innovation District.
Whether in the long run this will prove to have been a wise move remains to be seen. But having decided to take a peek at the new place recently, I feel I am qualified to opine that the new headquarters is better insulated.
The building at 24 Farnsworth Street, which in addition to the UUA headquarters, houses the Beacon Press and a UU bookstore, was extremely quiet when I went on a weekday afternoon — like a library of yore. There was a receptionist in the reception area, two people working quietly at computers in the bookstore, and low voices from two meeting rooms in the back. I took a few pictures. I really liked the high ceilings and the tall warehouse pillars and windows.
I am crazy about the Fort Point area, but I am also concerned that the plethora of brand new office buildings is not helping the area’s vulnerability to a future Hurricane Sandy. It’s next to Boston Harbor and extremely exposed. Some builders are actually incorporating flood walls.
The Boston Globe had this story: “Boston’s effort to redevelop its waterfront is running into a major obstacle: Water. From downtown to East Boston to Dorchester, rising sea levels are posing an increasingly urgent threat to developers’ plans to build hundreds of homes, offices, stores, and parks along Boston Harbor, with many acknowledging the need to reinforce existing properties and redesign new ones in case of flooding from another Hurricane Sandy-like storm. …
“Several building owners are already preparing for the growing possibility of flood waters. At Fan Pier, developer Joseph Fallon has moved critical electrical systems higher in his buildings. Nearby, developers of a residential tower at Pier 4 are proposing to use special flood barriers for lower entrances. And the newly built Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown is surrounded by protective walls and landscaping buffers, and no patient programs are located on the ground floor.”
The entrance to the new UUA headquarters is up several stairs, so maybe the planners were cognizant of potential floods and hoping never to regret their loss of the hill.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beacon hill, beacon press, boston, charlestown, fort oint, innovation district, joseph fallon, postaday, spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, unitarian, uua | Leave a Comment »
March 10, 2015 by suzannesmom
John recently reminded me about an organization started in Boston to help people with disabilities or experiencing homelessness to create and sell their art.
The Miami Herald is one of many outlets that have picked up the story.
Brittany Chandani writes, “When Harvard graduate Liz Powers received a grant for social work, she decided to help homeless or disabled artists by sharing their artwork with the Boston community.
“When Powers realized there wasn’t a professional marketplace to sell their works, she organized an annual art show. Customers, however, wanted more than a yearly show, leading Powers and her brother, Spencer, to develop ArtLifting.com, an online marketplace devoted to selling artworks created by homeless or disabled artists. ArtLifting, a project incubated at the Harvard Innovation Lab, selects artists from nonprofits and homeless shelters across the country; it curates their art to highlight the top pieces from each artist. …
“Upon finding an Instagram tag #ArtTherapy, Spencer contacted David McCauley of Rise Up Gallery in Wynwood [FL], who simultaneously contacted Spencer upon seeing his Instagram page for ArtLifting. The serendipitous moment made the perfect partnership. …
“McCauley, an artist who broke his C6 vertebrae in a diving accident, moved from New Jersey to Miami to establish Rise Up Gallery, a branch of the nonprofit foundation he created in New Jersey after his accident. The pop-up gallery exhibits quarterly at various locations. McCauley also conducts free art therapy workshops at Jackson Rehabilitation Hospital. …
“ArtLifting now features three Florida artists on its website: David McCauley, Laurie Kammer and Elizabeth D’Angelo. ”
More about the artists here. See art that is for purchase at ArtLifting, here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, ArtLifting, Brittany Chandani, David McCauley, disability, Elizabeth D’Angelo, homeless, Laurie Kammer, liz powers, marsha halper, Miami Herald, postaday, Rise Up Gallery, spencer | 2 Comments »
March 9, 2015 by suzannesmom
Not sure how I learned about this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but I knew right away it would be good for the blog. It seems that enterprising neighbors of some vacant urban land started a garden on it 35 years ago, always wondering what would happen if the owners ever turned up.
Reporter Paul Hampel writes, “Joe Spears was ready to give up the farm. He had no legal claim to the plot of land in Kinloch, after all. Spears was just one of several dozen people who, without any official clearance, had been planting and harvesting greens, okra, melons, beans, tomatoes and peppers for the past 35 years on about nine vacant acres abutting North Hanley Road.
“When an executive from one of the largest construction firms in the Midwest approached the amateur farmers in the fields last fall, it looked like a good thing was coming to an end.
“ ‘We were never trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes,’ Spears, 70, of Rock Hill, said … ‘It wasn’t our property. And it wouldn’t be right for us to make a scene when the rightful owners told us to move on.’
“The rightful owner, Clayco Inc., explained that the minifarms lay in the path of the planned expansion of NorthPark Business Park, the company’s massive development … Then came a proposal that caught the farmers, including Armstead Ford, by surprise.
“ ‘Clayco offered to give us another place to farm,’ Ford, 75, of Northwoods, said. ‘I was hopeful but skeptical.’ …
“Clayco president Bob Clark allayed those concerns when he announced that the company was relocating the farmers to 8 acres in Berkeley that they had asked him for, just across North Hanley Road from the old farm.
“And the farmers won’t have to capture rain in barrels or haul in water to the new site: Clark, 56, was throwing in an irrigation system, along with a building on the property that has running water, electricity and restrooms.”
Read the rest of the story here, and check out the other photos.
Photo: Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Armstead Ford, 75, stands in the spot of his former garden at the “Kinloch farms.” Clayco is giving the urban farmers their own swatch of land, which the group will own outright.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged armistead ford, beans, bob clark, clayco, construction, farm, greens, joe spears, kinloch, Laurie Skrivan, melons, north hanley, okra, paul hampell, peppers, photo, post-dispatch, postaday, squatter, st. louis, tomatoes, urban garden, vacant | 4 Comments »
March 8, 2015 by suzannesmom
It’s Daylight Savings, the sun is shining, the snow is starting to melt, and the birds are sounding excited.
I don’t think snowy Boston will get its record accumulation, but at least it has a shot at a stronger transit system, especially if the guys backing a summer Olympics decide the competing cities have trains and buses that work even when challenged.
Here are a few recent photos that show us moving on from winter to spring.
(PS. If you are on ello, would you look for suzannesmom there? I need more contacts to help me figure out this so-called anti-Facebook, which carries no ads. It’s very art- and design-oriented, which is lovely, but I think I’d get more out of it with friends.)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boston, ello, photos, postaday, public transit, winter | Leave a Comment »
March 7, 2015 by suzannesmom
First there was the photo, which was tweeted with a link to tumblr. But tumblr offered no story and no credit. I did some searching and found the story at The Trumpet. It reminds me of this post on Sam and Leslie’s Uni, a pop-up library that has traveled from New York to Kazakhstan and many places in between.
At The Trumpet, Jeremiah Jacques reports on a Mongolian Andrew Carnegie (without the fortune). “What do you do if you are a young book lover? You go to the library. But what if you live in the rural regions of the Gobi desert? Your situation would be bleak — were it not for Dashdondog Jamba. He has devoted his life to writing, translating, publishing and transporting books to children all over Mongolia with his Children’s Mobile Library.
“ ‘I can’t remember how many trips I have made—I have lost count,’ Mr. Jamba said. ‘Sometimes we travel by camel, sometimes on horseback, and with horse carts or ox carts; we now also have our van.’
“Over the last 20 years, his library has traveled 50,000 miles through every province of Mongolia — mostly before the van was part of the operation. Jamba’s assistants are his wife and his son. They often spend several days in one place to give as many children as possible a chance to read their books.
“ ‘[It] is a little different from other libraries,’ Jamba says. ‘The walls of this reading room are made of mountains covered with forest, the roof is blue sky, the floor is a flower-covered steppe, and the reading light bulb is the sun.’
“Jamba created his library in the early 1990s, shortly after Mongolia abandoned communism and adopted free-market economics. Life in Mongolia changed dramatically, mostly for the good. But organizations focused on children’s literature fared badly. They were viewed as profitless, so no private investors wanted to take them over. Most children’s libraries were converted into banks.
“Jamba tried to keep the libraries alive. … Ever since, he’s been writing children’s books, translating foreign youth literature into Mongolian, and bringing books to children who would otherwise never read them. Several of his original books have earned the Best Book of Mongolia award. Some of his stories have been put to song. Some have been made into movies. In 2006, his mobile library won the prestigious ibby-Asahi Reading Promotion Award.” More here.
Photo: Dashdondog Jamba
Dashdondog Jamba has traveled more than 50,000 miles through every province of Mongolia with his Children’s Mobile Library.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bactrian, camel, children, Dashdondog Jamba, gobi desert, ibby-asahi promotion, jeremiah jacques, library, mobile library, mongolia, portable library, postaday, sam and leslie, uni | 2 Comments »
March 6, 2015 by suzannesmom
Imagine my surprise, driving along, flipping channels, to hear the unique voice of John and Suzanne’s high school history teacher, long retired. And he was on Only a Game. I know the show’s host is eclectic, but I couldn’t see how Bill Littlefield was going to work into his sports show Eliot Lilien’s expertise in World War I or Russian history.
Well, what do you know! It turns out Only a Game was focusing on the high school’s 50 years of a sport that Mr. Lilien started there: fencing.
Littlefield writes that 50 years ago, to get the program started, Mr. Lilien “found a few opponents at other secondary schools in the Northeast, and some at colleges, and some at clubs. …
“ ‘When you first began the program 50 years ago,’ I asked, ‘did you ever imagine that it would still be going strong in 50 years?’
“ ‘I didn’t think about,’ he said. ‘But I’m very grateful that it has been, and that this high school has been willing to support it.’
“Some of Lilien’s first recruits showed up hoping to bring Dungeons & Dragons to life with swords. He had to teach them that the sport required not fantasy but discipline, balance, tactics, psychology, and brains — most of the time.
“ ‘Of course, if you’re faster than anyone else, and stronger, it becomes less important,’ Lilien said.
“ ‘The mental part of it?’ I asked.
“ ‘If you can launch a gigantic attack, it doesn’t make any difference how smart the other person is. He’s gonna get hit,’ Lilien answered.”
Listen to the interview at Only a Game.
I wonder if the 50-year mark at the high school as anything to do with the local resurgence of interest in fencing. The space across from my hairdresser, where the wonderful craft shop Dabblers used to be, has morphed into a fencing studio. Fun to watch when you’re getting your hair cut.
Photo: Jesse Costa/Only a Game
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bill littlefield, dabblers, eliot lilien, fencing, high school, only a game, postaday | 2 Comments »
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