St. William's Church at Long Point

This Saturday, Svoboda and his lively troop of professional actors put on this year’s site-specific play in the found space of St. William’s Church at Long Point–a historic church turned non-for-profit, non-denominational, boat access only retreat and cultural center.

Residents Andrew Boyd and David Lloyd talking to Director Stephan Svoboda

This year The Adirondack Lakes Summer Theater Festival presented an adaptation of The Conference of the Birds, originally written and produced by legendary stage director Peter Brook.  The play, which depicts a conference of birds searching for philosophical answers and a spiritual relationship with “God,” explores various dramatic and storytelling styles from around the world.

Stephan Svoboda's "The Conference of the Birds"

BMC residents not only had the opportunity to attend and enjoy the production, but alsogo to ride the historic WW Durant as the sun set over Raquette Lake for a celebratory champagne cruise following the play. Blue Mountain Center staff are excited to bring the Second Session of residents to The Art Center’s next production, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which will be at Long Lake Town Hall on July 14th, at 8pm.

Sunset View from the WW Durant

Resident Orin Langelle took these photographs. Langelle is working on four decades of his concerned photography here at Blue Mountain Center. To sample his latest photographic essay, please go to Chiapas, Mexico: From Living in the jungle to ‘existing’ in “little houses made of ticky-tacky…” More of his work work can be found at Climate Connections.

-SMK

Nesting Loon

Unfortunately, this family of loons has chosen a dangerous nesting spot with high boat traffic.  However, luckily, someone has put up a sign marking the nest and encouraging boaters to be careful. We are looking forward to the end of the month, when the eggs will hatch and we can see little loon chicks swimming around and riding on their parent’s backs.

-SMK

-SMK

Resident Orin Langelle took this photograph of our bridesmaid costumes. Langelle is working on four decades of his concerned photography here at Blue Mountain Center. To sample his latest photographic essay, please go to Chiapas, Mexico: From Living in the jungle to ‘existing’ in “little houses made of ticky-tacky…” More of his work work can be found at Climate Connections.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Karen Aqua, who died on May 30, 2011. Karen was a Resident at BMC in October, 2006. She inspired fellow Residents and staff alike with her beautiful and patiently crafted animated films. Her work and life received a fine appreciation in this article in The Boston Globe. More information can be found by visiting her  website. - Ben

And look! Some of us (ahem: Sophie, Alice,  Nica) even created our own art objects for the machine. See, BMC staff are artists too.

Read more about the vending machine project here!

- Nica

Our collection of arrivals include a new dock that drifted to shore after surviving near biblical floods, seemingly abandoned by its owner. It has yet to be claimed – $100 or best offer.

Up shore, we’ve witnessed an unlikely attraction — one of our turkeys has found itself in a torrid love affair with our ground keeper’s pick up truck ((un)fortunately not visible in this picture).  While we are in full support of this (why not?) his friends, it seems, are not. Here we spotted a necessary intervention.

In other news, a newborn fawn has been making public appearances, seemingly unfazed by the peculiar armor sported by staff members as they attempt to survive black fly attack.  Our latest strategy is training the fawn to shame the flies away through passive resistance (but in a cute way).

See Bambi plotting.

It seems Bambi has won our battle (fingers crossed) and the last few days have been clear skies! GOODBYE BLACK FLIES, CATCH YA’ LATER! In celebration, we made our first trek of the season to Castle Rock. Anybody know how to get down from here? – Alanna Costelloe-Kuehn

ANN Members Braving the Black Flies in 2009

This year ANN has grown and evolved.  They met on Wednesday and Thursday to build bridges and generate new ways to support the work.  On Friday they invited a larger group of nonprofit leaders to come to BMC for a day of training on communications and new media.

The latest census data has some very depressing numbers for Adirondack communities.  Hamilton County itself lost over 10 percent of its population, the average age went up 11 years, and only 26% of houses in the area are occupied year-round.  We at BMC are working to keep our towns afloat and help our neighbors explore new ideas and find inspiration (see www.indianlaketheater.org).  We are also joining up with efforts to save the local fire department and resurrect the closed grocery store in Indian Lake.  It’s a lot, but we’re working on it.  - Ben

To Be Heard (www.tobeheard.org) explores the lives of three high school students in the Bronx who connect to one another through slam poetry in a Power Writing class. As the film unfolds, each character comes to a unique understanding of the defining principle of the film: “If you don’t learn to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you.” As Eddie says, “The concept evolved into something less about the [writing] program and more about the characters’ real lives. They approach language as a weapon—as active, powerful.” We don’t want to spoil the movie so we’ll leave it by highly recommending the film.

Still frame from To Be Heard

After the screening Eddie led an informal Q&A session with the audience. Our conference attendees had turned out in force, and we were joined by a great crowd of enthused local viewers, including two North Creek high school teachers who brought students from their classes. The audience responded emotionally to the powerful story and their many questions ranged from the technical to the artistic to the personal; covering aspects of the characters’ lives that couldn’t be fully developed in the feature length film. (He also informed us the DVD release will include some of the material that didn’t make it into the final cut).

Eventually, Eddie had to bring the Q&A to a close – we could have gone on forever! The BMC crowd loaded back into out various Volvos and wound back through the Adirondack night to BMC where, lucky for us, blueberry pie still waited for us. Over his slice, Eddie answered more questions around the kitchen table, updating us on a story that’s still unfolding. – Alanna Costelloe-Kuehn

Eddie contemplating a waterfall

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To Be Heard is the winner of both the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize and he Audience Award at the DOC NYC film festival, and the Sarasota Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary. For more information visit (http://www.tobeheard.org/)

Peas and lettuce were planted, leaves raked, windows washed,  and the “email center” moved above ground (let there be light.) Thanks to all who came and participated in the surge of beautification, mending and camaraderie. Where would we be without you?

A few pictures, for those who could not be with us:

Visit Blue Mountain Center’s Facebook fan page to view the full photo album.

Conference season is now in full swing and between serving lunch, building fires, and listening in, we’re hiding behind computers as we anxiously await the inevitable invasion of Black Flies. (Everyone but immune Ben.)

This is all to say, hello, and welcome to our blog! We’re hoping it will be a good forum for keeping you updated on what’s in the works here at BMC. You can also stay on top of alum happenings and post your own events on our Facebook page.

Next up: the Memorial Day Mini Residency. Consider throwing your name in the hat for the 2012 lottery. – Nica Horvitz