Beauty and The Beads

David Chute is happy to report that Strike Back has been re-upped.

Cinemax action hit Strike Back will be back to strike again in 2012, powered by strong ratings and a growing cadre of passionate fans – including many who held mock funerals when 24 was canceled.

Actually I made that last past up, but as the drive to prevent terrorist mastermind Latif (Jimi Mistry) from setting off a WMD races toward its finale, the state of suspended animation that viewers settle into between installments is strikingly familiar. My prediction is that SB, too, will be an even bigger hit on DVD than on first broadcast, with viewers devoting entire lost weekends to the adventures of Section 20 operatives Scott and Stonebridge.

And just to make sure we don’t rest too easy after hearing this news, a warning note is sounded in the official press release: “Due to plot spoilers in upcoming episodes, the cast of season two will be announced at a later date.” This could be a fake out, of course, designed just to keep us on edge, but I wouldn’t count on it.

One advantage that Strike Back certainly has over 24: it isn’t locked into a format that dictates the rhythm of every installment. Episode 8 is a welcome change up, with the straight-ahead structure of a classic adventure story – of a Western, in fact, in which two veteran wilderness scouts escort a group of stranded pioneers through injun territory to the safety of the nearby fort.

In a story set in ultra-corrupt post-Soviet Kosovo, though, it’s a little harder to tell the white hats from the black. The cavalry officers who come riding up on their noble ATVs may not want to rescue you after all. They may be looking to slice out your liver for sale to the highest bidder. The Dexter meets X-Files sequence in which in which a group of mercenary surgeons gear up to extract salable body parts is an all-too plausible horrorshow.

The two leads were impressively coordinated partners last time, but now they’ve been separated and Episode 8 is a Damien Scott special, the one we’ve been waiting for, in which a willowy blonde touches him so deeply that he decides not to go to bed with her. Scott also comes a step or two closer to unraveling the conspiracy that that he caught wind of in Iraq, the secret that got him cashired. We’ve gathered in past episodes that his troubles were closely related to the weapons Latif plans to unleash in episodes 9 and 10.

The finale will mark the return to the show of the excellent director Daniel Percival (Dirty War) who in the first few episodes set Strike Back’s distinctive tone—which could best be described as hell-bent with heart, in which ferocious action has dramatic significance and is undertaken for a reason.

[PHOTO: Sullivan Stapleton, Annabelle Wallis. Photographer: Egon Endrenyi/Cinemax.]

The hollow plink of slit drums calls villagers to gather in ritual fashion. The elaborate flourish of melodic piano keys draws listeners to fashionable rituals.

The slit drumlanky breadfruit timbers carved with totemic facial featuresrepresents a rite of passage to the indigenous New Hebrides people and their ceremonial culture. It is said that when a man accumulates enough wealth, represented by his herd of pigs, he pays for a drum to be made and advances to a higher social status.

You will find no pigsducks perhaps, but no swinebeyond the threshold.

But the incongruous pairing of the Vanuatu artifacts with an 1854 rosewood low signature Steinway box grand piano, yes, amid other juxtapositions at this Joshuas Landing contemporary waterfront home, a repository for its residents eclectic collection of artifacts, antiquities and fine art.

For the first time in their lives, the intrepid worldly couple hired an architect, Kevin Pfirman, to create a house, with the gallery at the center, that would showcase their prized acquisitions amassed during decades of living and traveling, in the continental US and abroad. The slit drums and Steinway rangelike their cultivated palatefrom one extreme to the other. Tribal masks and figures are displayed on pedestals on an Asian carpet that blankets a Cape Fear Riverwood floor. Hundreds of pieces of cypress form the puzzling vaulted ceiling that soars above it. Buttressed by exposed beams, the upper walls of this private art gallery are perforated with clerestory windows. Three of the gallerys interior walls are lined with paintings. The fourth wall, framed by posts, opens to the adjacent corridor.

Like an orange peeled, the architecture reveals an exposed structurea collection of sectionsand supports the massing of the house, where the wingsone for living and entertaining, the other for sleeping and repairingconverge in the middle, surrounding the gallery and its adjacent dining room.

The floorplan supports the wandering of guests from the gallery and the dining room into the corridor. The corridors glazed exterior doors open onto a covered porch. Porch steps lead down into a secluded courtyard. Looking back at the home from the courtyard, the gallery and dining room sparkle like jewels inviting guests to float into and out of Mort and Judy Nebletts stunning Hewletts Creek home.

Judy Neblett spent a year working with Pfirman to design the structure.

It is the first time we dont have a formal living room, Mort says. We had been traditional people, he continues. Its a fun house.

Judy describes their previous home, a historic dwelling on the Intracoastal Waterway and Masonboro Sound. You came into a small entryway and then it was a two-story gallery, but their appetite for art and antiquities outgrew the space. Here we were seven years ago, not ready to get rid of our art. Our kids cant take it; its too big. We realized we needed to build.

Having lived abroad for long periodsthe Nebletts once visited the home of silk industrialist Jim Thompson. Thompsons famed House on the Klong in Bangkok was assembled from multiple Thai country dwellings, which Thompson filled with collectibles. In spite of his beautiful objects, the house itself had an enviable sense of calm for which the Nebletts had searched the globe.

I spent a lot of my life traveling overseas on business, Mort says. Using Thompsons Bangkok house as a model, Mort adds, Kevin did exactly what we asked him to do.

Judy explains, We like to entertain, so we had to have a dining room, and Mort has ducks, so we had to have a duck room, so thats how it evolved.

Having owned a gallery for a short while, Judy, a former art history major, says she and Mort have collected art forever. Everything we have means a lot to us and our life, she says. Weve been married for almost 46 years, so weve really collected for a long time.

The Nebletts also possess an unbridled reverence for place. From his early days as a Wilmingtonian and a Wrightsville Beach boy, and her childhood spent in Pennsylvanias Brandywine River region, the Nebletts honored the natural setting.

Case in point, at the far corner of the homes living wing is Morts office.

Its a great place to have an office, he says. Gesturing toward the view of the creek, he explains, This is tidal, so later in the day it will be completely high; you wont see any of the oyster beds.

Nebletts office, his third consecutive duck room, is tinted Mandarin red, trimmed in crisp white. His array of relic working waterfowl and shore bird decoys includes a handful of ornamentals.

I like ducks and I like the out of doors, says Mort, a game hunter as well as an artifact hunter.

We used to go to flea markets before they were a big deal, Judy says. One local antique dealer, auctioneer DC North, was instrumental in rounding out the decoy collection. Most of these are by known carvers, Mort says.

The waterbird collection, some pieces more than 100 years old one cork bird decoy that was shot over by Teddy Roosevelt hunting on Quogue, Long Islandrepresents well-known North Carolina and Virginia decoy carvers, Ned Burgess and Alvira Wright to name two, that North helped Neblett curate during a long fertile period of collecting.

I thought we would miss living on the waterway because you could look straight across to the ocean, but I love this because I love birds, Judy says. We see all kinds of birds.

Covering the floor of Morts bird room is a textile woven by Sinai nomads. They dont make rugs like Persians but they weave pretty pieces. Somebody, a merchant, put an edge on it. I just liked the colors, he says.

Throughout the home the floors are carpeted with rugs from the Far East to the Middle East, China and Iran. Lamps made from Thai temple drums and a repurposed sheep shearers table are functional living room accessories as well as conversation pieces; in the dining room, Afghan lintels above the mantel and a table they have carted around ever since they lived in Australia in the 1960s, tell part of their story. Everywhere there is art on canvaspaintings by Maude Gatewood and outsider artist Howard Finster; Tiffany art glass displayed near $25 trinkets from Harbor Island Antiques; clay tiles from the British Museum gift shop and a clay teapot from the Cameron Art Museum gift shop.

Built by Lee Cowper, in phases, Pfirmans design, an assemblage of individual buildings, linked by corridors and outdoor spaces, specified some traditional seacoast board and batten exteriors combined with unique, maritime industrial building materials, like corrugated, galvanized aluminum siding.

When they found it, the land had long been Joshua Franks farm, an area also used by hunters who would bring their kills to the creek bank for field dressing, leaving the carcasses behind. When the Nebletts chose the site for their home, the US Department of Agriculture awarded them a grant to clean it up. In addition, as stewards of the natural wetland area they are required to meet certain criteria, establishing an osprey nest platform, a rain garden and planting only vegetation that is indigenous to southeastern North Carolina.

Now, pavers crease lush carpets of grass to form pathways and as many as 50 urns, imported from Asia, are potted with tropical specimens that Mort cultivates and maintains himself.

One of the sites biggest challenges was designing and building the house around a spreading live oak tree. We actually cantilevered over the roots of the tree, Judy explains, so the roots are not disturbed by the house. Supported by concrete pilings and steel girders, the wings of the house form a large horseshoe. It made sense to make a big U, Judy adds, and it made sense to have you come into the gallery.

Because of the northern exposure and the heavy tree canopy, few plants would grow inside the courtyard designed by Tony Parker of Classic Landscapes. Scott McGhee was the onsite arborist. Today, a statement rock pirated from the northeast Cape Fear River is surrounded by a split-leaf Japanese maple, ornamental grasses and quilted moss.

The courtyard view is also framed through the couples master suite windows on the ground floor of the two-story, three bedroom, three and a half bath wing.

It is so calming to look out here, Judy says.

Home of Distinction Resources

Homeowners
Mort and Judy Neblett

Architect
Kevin Pfirman, Architect, PLLC

Building Contractor
Lee F. Cowper, Inc

Appliances
Atlantic Appliance amp; Hardware

Audio/Visual
Sentinel Security

Kitchen, Bath amp; Specialty Hardware
Bird Decorative Hardware amp; Bath

Plumbing
Kersey Coastal Plumbing

Plumbing Fixtures
Bird Decorative Hardware amp; Bath

Electric
Seaport Electric Company

Electric Fixtures amp; Lighting
Coastal Lighting

Hardwood Supplier
Cape Fear Riverwood

Hardwood Installer
Ed Newsome Floors

Tile Installer
Justin Pfeffer Tile Company

Trim Carpenter
Jamie Topping

Kitchen Designer
Maryann Sonnett, Creative Kitchens

Brick
Roger Moore Brick

Painting
Damp;B Painting
Just Faux Fun

HVAC
Southeastern Heating amp; Air Conditioning

Landscape Design
Tony Parker, Classic Landscapes

Landscaping
Stone Garden

Scotts Treescape
Fitness Tree

Pavement/Driveway
Lee F Cowper, Inc.

Deck/Boat Lift
Southeastern Marine Contractors

Fireplace
Lamp;D Masonry

Master Bedroom Headboard
Blue Hand Home

Custom Wood Chairs
Curtis Martin, Martin Custom Woodworking amp; Antique Restoration

Draperies
Stricklands Window Coverings

Marble/Granite
Southeastern Tile

Specialty Woods
Interior and Exterior Cypress
Marsh Lumber

Rugs/Art/Antiques
Gallery of Oriental Rugs

Photovoltaic Panels
Cape Fear Solar

The Greece Community Education Center will be offering jewelry-making classes this fall.

Beading Basics will meet from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at Olympia High School, 1139 Maiden Lane. This class will teach students how to make simple pieces with just a few supplies and tools. Students will complete two to three pieces of jewelry. Supplies are included with the class fee of $27.

Jewelry Making with Precious Metal Clay will meet from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm on Wednesday, Oct. 12 and Wednesday, Oct. 19, at Apollo Middle School, 750 Maiden Lane. Students will learn the basics of working with silver precious metal clay. A supply fee ranging between $28 to $35 is payable to the instructor in the first class, in addition to the course fee, which is $36. The deadline to register for this class is Friday, Sept. 30.

Just Earrings will meet from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Apollo Middle School. Students will learn to create beaded earrings and leave with four or five pair of finished earrings. Supplies are included in the price of the course, which is $29.

Beading Buddies will meet from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Olympia High School. Students should bring their own supplies and tools and be ready to network with other artists. The course costs $23.

Pre-registration is required and classes fill up quickly. For more information or to register, call 227-5500 or go to greece.augusoft.net.

LAKE VILLA Andrea Dawn Heinz and David Joseph Marrinson, both of Lake Villa, were married in a double-ring ceremony at 6:30 pm Friday, July 29, 2011, at the Lehmann Mansion in Lake Villa. The Rev. David Gaddini officiated.

She is the daughter of Thomas and Dawn Heinz of Johnsburg. He is the son of David and Patricia Marrinson of Cary.

Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore an elegant ivory mermaid-fit gown with intricate beading.

She carried a…

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Avery McHugh poses for a photo in a safe halloween costume and one deemed not safe by a child safetyin this composite image taken on the front porch of her home on Wednesday afternoon.

6 days ago 

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regrets having gone shoe-shopping and out for a night at the theater while Hurricane Katrina ravaged the US Gulf coast, she wrote in excerpts of her memoir released Sunday.

In “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington,” which arrives in bookstores next week, Rice, the top US diplomat during president George W. Bush’s second term, writes ruefully that she later came to understand it was a major political misstep during one of the most violent and costly storms ever to hit US shores.

“I didn’t think much about the dire warnings of an approaching hurricane called Katrina,” she wrote in an excerpt of the book published on the Politico.com website, saying that she had flown to New York for a brief holiday in late August 2005.

Rice wrote that she called then-Secretary of Homeland Security Mike Chertoff as the storm advanced, inquiring if there was any way she could help, and was told that “he’d call if he needed me.

“I hung up, got dressed, and went to see ‘Spamalot’” she said, referring to a hit Broadway play.

“The next morning, I went shopping at the Ferragamo shoe store down the block from my hotel,” she wrote.

When it became clear that Katrina was even more severe than feared, Rice said she called the president to say that she was returning to the US capital.

“The airwaves were filled with devastating pictures from New Orleans. And the faces of most of the people in distress were black. I knew right away that I should never have left Washington,” she wrote, sensing a brewing public relations disaster both for her and for the president.

Sure enough, she wrote, minutes after the phone call, a senior aide showed her the headline of an article posted on a political website.

“Eyewitness: Sec of State Condi Rice laughs it up at ‘Spamalot’ while Gulf Coast lays in tatters,” it read.

Rice added that she “sat there kicking myself for having been so tone-deaf. I wasn’t just the secretary of state with responsibility for foreign affairs; I was the highest-ranking black in the administration and a key advisor to the president. What had I been thinking?” she writes in the book.

“In retrospect, the hurricane’s aftermath was the first in a spiral of negative events that would almost engulf the Bush presidency,” she writes in the memoir, which is due to be published by Crown Books on November 1.

“There were many missteps, both in perception and in reality. I’m still mad at myself for only belatedly understanding my own role and responsibilities in the crisis.”

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Monroe wore the green velour dress, designed by Travilla while she sang ‘I’m Gonna File My Claim’ in the 1954 Western, where she played Kay Weston, a gambler’s wife.

The dress was sold at an auction in China through Julien’s Auctions.

Other items auctioned included Madonna’s black bustier with gold accents and black beading, and Princess Diana’s black velvet and white taffeta gown, CBS News reported.

Michael Jackson’s custom-made black spandex, fingerless forearm gloves with covered thumbs, silver metal buttons and buckle, and a pair of gold metal-framed sunglasses with reflective lenses worn by the late Legend of Pop was also sold at the auction.

ANI

Alyssa Ruggles, 5, of Ponte Vedra Beach, has an elaborate makeover done by face-painter Alice Baumgardner of Daffy the Clown Co. Sunday during Winn-Dixies Family Day at the Jacksonville Open.

published: Sunday, October 23, 2011

Muddy fun hits sticking point

By ED BALDRIDGE

edbaldridge@newssuncom

SEBRING – We are not breaking any laws or county ordinances. We are trying to make something out of a failed development. Something that families can use and enjoy, said Gabe White, former professional baseball player and partner in Saddleridge Ranch.

The possibilities are endless, White said.

White was speaking in response to a Tuesday decision by county commissioners to possibly seek a moratorium on using the 1,136-acre ranch at 1200 Marguerite Rd. in Lake Placid as a outdoor recreational club, complete with mud pits and a mud track as well as camping, fishing and other activities.

White, with his partners Jeff Kennedy and Steve Copeland, have worked out a way with the property owners, Braha Sebring LLC, to put the fallow acreage to productive use by allowing the public somewhere to enjoy outdoor activities like four-wheeling.

There is no safe and legal place to go in Highlands County right now if you want to ride your four-wheeler with friends. We want to provide that, said White.

Commissioners responded to a request by the Skipper family, who own adjoining property, to fully investigate the plans to have large crowds visit the ranch.

John Skipper, who has a parcel to the north of the property, expressed concern that the outdoor activities would draw thousands of people and could bring other issues as well.

A mud bog track is planned for this area, and it came as a complete surprise to me. I called the zoning department to check for a permit, and they said they had no knowledge of this. Our group of neighbors then called the water management district, and they said they knew nothing about it, Skipper told the commissioners.

They (mud boggers) just dont have a very good reputation about what they bring in, said Skipper about other areas that have mud tracks.

There is a lot of underage activities, alcohol, etcetera. Our concern is about the amount of traffic that could come to this area. I would ask that the commission look into this, Carol Skipper said.

Carol Skipper also asked the commissioners to look into the proposed usage of the agricultural land.

My main distress in this is that the county road is so inadequate to carry that amount of traffic, Carol Skipper said.

Carol Skipper described problems with semi-trucks that miss the 90 degree turn in front of her property and have plowed over her fences in the past.

I dont think people that come to this kind of activity are good drivers or careful drivers. I worry that I will go out to my front gate one morning and find somebody dead out there, she told the commission.

Kennedy and White visited the News-Sun on Friday, and brought their maps and facts to counter the statements made by the Skippers during the commission meeting. Kennedy said that other adjacent property owners support the idea.

I was kind of surprised on Wednesday when someone told me about this. We have been meeting with the water management folks and county staff about this. The water management people felt this was a great alternative use for a failed development, Kennedy said on Friday.

We are not just a mud bog events, this is a family oriented outdoor recreational club. There is camping, fishing, bird watching. This is where you can take the family out and do outside activities for not a lot of money, said White.

We realize there is no special rules for mud bogs or that kind of activity on the books, but we are covered under outdoor recreational club, said Kennedy.

Gary Ritter, with the South Florida Water Management District, told commissioners that his agency had already done a fly-over and that none of the planned activities were in the designated wetland areas, but his agency would send out an investigative letter to make sure that the property was being used and permitted property.

In any situation, we try to work with the land owners before we do any enforcement, Ritter said.

County Planner Mark Hill recommended a moratorium be placed on mud bogging in order to give the county time to draft land usage regulations to deal with Saddle Ridge.

Mud bogging is not now specifically defined in our land regulations for use. Therefore it is not clear what is legal and what is not legal in this specific land designation of agriculture, Hill said. This could take six to nine months to draft regulation.

We realize that there are no specific rules for a mud bog park, just as there are no specific rules for many other activities and uses that occur on a daily basis. I do not believe that the purpose of government is to regulate every aspect of our daily lives. In fact in a free society, rules should be primarily made to protect the citizens from the tyranny of government. I would welcome further discussion with myself and my partners and we would love to give any interested parties a tour of the property and share our ideas for the club, Kennedy wrote in an email to the commission on Thursday.

This is so much more than just a mud bog track. This is a place where families and church groups and Boy Scouts can camp and fish in a safe environment. This is where we could organize safe outdoor events that are family friendly and bring revenue into Highlands County. These folks have to buy groceries and gas when they come or go, White said Friday.

The board voted 4-0 to take action to task you to start addressing this and then we will come back next week will be the moratorium, Board Chairwoman Barbara Stewart told Hill.

Since there is so much money involved in this, I hear $900,000 to over $1 million, what is the process for this? Stewart asked Ritter.

St. Lucie County drew more than 30,000 visitors for a two-day event, Ritter said, although White told the News-Sun the number was probably closer to 10,000.

But they got their permits through us and through the county, Ritter explained.

Ritter also discussed legal battles and enforcement they enacted to shut down a mud bog event in Palmdale that was using wetland areas.

We are working to get everything together with the water management district and to do everything properly before we move forward, White said Friday.

With his return to live-action filmmaking on the horizon with Flight starring Denzel Washington, director Robert Zemeckis is also keeping his producing hand busy as well. Heat Vision has word that Zemeckis will produce a paranormal adventure film called Charles Fort with Evan Spiliotopoulos (who wrote the forthcoming Snow White and the Huntsman) slated to write the story described as a period Ghostbusters. The story is an adaptation of a short Dark Horse comic series which sees early-twentieth-century American researcher and writer Charles Fort turned into an adventurous paranormal investigator. More below!

The four-issue series from 2002 has Fort getting caught up with aliens and murderers in New York City at the turn of the 19th century. The comic isnt too far removed from Fort himself as the researchers real-life books like The Book of the Damned and New Lands were some of the first to look into such phenomenon and science fiction ideas as levitation, teleportation, alien abduction and plenty of other paranormal elements. While Fort himself was a skeptic, he apparently enjoyed collecting data to support explanations for things that he felt were no less possible than the scientifically accepted ones. This sounds like a Sherlock Holmes meets Ghostbusters kind of story, and in the hands of Zemeckis, could be really fun.