2017 DINING BY DESIGN ON THE PIERS IN NEW YORK CITY

THE PATH TO ZERO

For twenty years the design industry has come together sponsoring an event raising awareness and financial support in the fight against AIDS. After twenty years the event and its purpose are still relevant. Research has enabled AIDS to no longer be a death sentence but many infected do not have access to these life-saving drugs. New drugs continue to be in development to entirely eradicate the epidemic and the design industry continues through events like Dining by Design to support the elimination of this horrible scourge.

Here are some of the participants in New York's 2017 entry into the Dining by Design franchise held in conjunction with the Architectural Digest Show at Piers 92 and 94.

Crate&Barrel set their table as if it was a counter at a highly sophisticated restaurant and you had a prime seat at the bar

Ralph Lauren took us seaside with a fresh west coast look

They set a table any yacht would be famous for with red, white, blue and gold you were definitely sitting at the captain's table.

Blue Ocean Design and Charleston Limewash created this suspended table in an olive green box with contrasting flashes of lavender. This table combined both rustic elements with contemporary flair.

You have to love those simple metal stools with the white duck seat covers held in place with those huge grommets strung with naval rope.

AJ Madison is an online company offering a huge line of appliances at competitive pricing and shipping nationwide. The wall behind their table depicted the logos of many of the brands they represent.

In contrast the actual table resembled a medieval banquet. I have to assume you tore at the feast like heathens and dueled with your competing quests as you walked around the table fighting for food with your bare hands since there weren't any chairs for you to sit at or utensils for polite eating.

2033The collective of Perkins + Will, Steelcase, Coalesse, Designtex, Empire Office and Arktura produced a sleek black table with chairs strung up like some sort of S&M bondage event. The orange chairs counter-weighted with black weights were anything but Halloween.

Interior Design magazine has been a major sponsor of the New York event for the past several years. Their table anchored the far end of the pier. Their very graphic table has deconstructed their theme, "Love".

The table by M Moser Associates was a favorite.  It was not only visually stunning but it was an education in the history and future of AIDS on the "Race to Zero".

While the written wall at M Mason's table told the history of the struggle the mirror on the side was like a look into the future

I've been on a search for art for one of our clients, first here in New York and then online where I found a company named Twyla. We were on our way to South by Southwest on another assignment when I discovered that this company, Twyla, that we had been communicating with was an Austin based company. While in Austin we tried to meet up with them but it didn't work out.

So when I got back to New York and got to Dining by Design I wasn't expecting an Austin art house to have come all the way to New York to set up a table and that this would be the place we'd finally connect; at their very beautiful table.

The New York Design Center took on a different tack by pairing with Fair, a new showroom at 200 Lex started by designer Brad Ford, selling product from Fair's collection of ceramic vases and cups to benefit the event.

Gensler + Knoll gave us magenta and a lot of it in there space emphasizing the reality that the fight is far from over

I don't like to be disappointed and especially by my idol, Ellen, but I've got to say her collaboration with Thomasville was a bit of a letdown. The furniture seemed a bit more appropriate for a homogeneous corporate office than a residential dining room.

Even the faux painted walls had the look of a concept that wasn't fully thought out or fully executed

Constructed by students from Parsons from debris collected throughout all five boroughs in New York City this table was one of the most original. It was also built and conceived with the purpose of giving back. Since all the materials used to build their table were found objects the students donated their allotted budget back to HIV/AIDS activism

Each year the richness of talent displayed at the Dining by Design event is only matched by the generosity of an industry stricken so heavily by an epidemic that saw so many loses. Each year the advances in care inch closer to a full cure so that seeing zero infections is no longer a dream and a prayer but a possibility.
THE GALLERY

Ranch House Cafe, Route 285, Vaughn, New Mexico, 1997
Jeff Brouws, photographer
Represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston

AUSTIN COURTESY OF SXSW

AN AUSTIN PHOTO ALBUM

The Vision Council, a non-profit trade association for the eyeglass industry, had hired us several years ago through a PR firm we had done work with and used as our PR firm when we first launched our furniture line. The PR firm and the Vision Council parted ways a couple of years ago and our relationship went with it.
So it was a total surprise when earlier this year TVC came calling saying they were in a desperate situation. They were going to sponsor a lounge at South by Southwest commonly referred to as SXSW for those like me who had no idea of the acronym and they needed someone to design their lounge. It was several weeks into the design phase before I realized what the event was since our communications were all through email and they always used the acronym when referring to the event. I was delighted and excited to work on the project and also to cross off my bucket list a trip to Austin. Living much of my life in Madison I had frequently heard Austin and Madison referred to as sister cities mostly for their liberal and unconventional outlook on life.
I took my daughter along as my co-pilot and we arranged to spend an additional two days to see what we could see of Austin. So here are some images of what we found, our lounge, SXSW and the fact that although the feel may be very similar certainly the weather and the size of each city are vastly different.
THE LOUNGE

THE SCENE

FOOD

UNCOMMON OBJECTS

SOUTH CONGRESS

EPILOGUE

We loved our stay. We only touched an infinitesimal part of our Southern sister city, we're hoping to be invited back for next year. Fingers crossed, see y'all in 2018.

CABLE JUNKIE

HOW CABLE INVADED MY LIFE

I'm an addict. I'm addicted to cable TV. I can't stop watching MSNBC. It's like a bad accident on the highway. I don't want to look. I want to speed on by but I know I'm going to slow down and look over. The warning is coursing through my head in a battle between good and evil, "Don't' look, don't look it's only going to be awful". I don't want to see it but I can't help myself. I'm an addict and Trump made me this way. From the moment he rode down that brassy escalator from his high tower I was hooked. The crown of golden hair spun from a mix master like a sundae topping of whipped cream. I knew I couldn't quit him. The statuesque Melania, a lollipop of eye candy, mysteriously quiet and simmering with a dizzying coating of sugar and salt always walking two steps behind. Who wasn't going to watch? A clown and a Barbie doll putting on a show.
There had been a prelude foreshadowing the main event: his Birther movement, the Apprentice, the massive ego, the arrogance. He had primed me even before the primaries began. He was Tom Brady in a suit and cable TV was his football field. I couldn't stand looking at him but he put on such a game I had to watch.
It didn't even start out slow. It was right from the beginning I stopped watching the normal primetime fare on the other networks. It was Morning Joe with Joe and  Mika and the cast of pundits at six in the morning when I was in New York but 5am when I was back in Madison. I'd set my alarm to make sure I didn't miss a single tweet or name-calling. Then Stephanie Ruhle, and Andrea Mitchell carried me through the afternoon until Chuck Todd took over followed by Greta Van Susteren who held sway until the nightly line-up of Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, my beloved Rachel Maddow and the soft-spoken Laurence O'Donnell and my weekends with Joy Reid. Then they had to add Brian Williams as a nightcap after which they do a repeat of the whole nightly line-up in case you missed something or like me had to watch it twice.
I go to sleep with the TV still on letting the voices of cable drift in and out of my dream life. Until Way Too Early comes on before the sun rises. This addiction is sick. I know it's bad for my health but like the lovers in Brokeback Mountain, "I just wish I could quit them."
But there's always a new tweet, an absurd new reversal of policy or another cabinet post being debated and voted on for someone so completely unqualified for the position. What do you do? Turn it off? I've tried but five minutes of "The Voice" and I'm back. What did I miss, and more often than not there's a new leak or development coming out of the White House or Mar-A-Logo pulling at my indignation and cementing me into my seat in front of the TV.
I pull out my Stairmaster at six-fifty-five in the morning in time to catch the opening, "Your World in Sixty Seconds" on CBS but then it's right back to MSNBC. Every once in a while I'll turn to CNN but my loyalty to my commentators is strong and hard to untether.
I keep thinking something will come along to break this cycle. The election is over. Hillary lost, well we all lost, so shouldn't the drama be over too? It only deepens.
The weekends are the worst. There are gaps in the coverage that ache with the pain of a missed lover. I channel surf with my fingers on the remote punching and punching looking for news, there must be something.
Clearly I need help but for the moment I don't see any way out.
Wait - they just released the data on Trumpcare and it's not great news for the Donald. I have to take my fingers off this computer keyboard and let them do their duty on the remote. I'll keep you posted on his up-coming tweet.
THE GALLERY

Donald Trump Speech
Nate Gowdy, photographer
From Time Magazine

AGING

WEARING MY AGE LIKE A TATTERED SUIT

When a day starts out good you end up testing fate because there's usually nowhere to go but down. I had transferred from the E train to the A train at Forty-second and Eighth. The last stop on the E is the World Trade stop or in my case the first stop if you're going in the opposite direction and I was heading back up town. I had gone down to the Financial District for a little treat, a little shopping trip to the new mall sprawling out under the Oculus and the Freedom tower. I mentioned it had been a good day. I had gone downtown looking for new shoes. I needed some comfortable shoes for the warmer weather. I'm extremely hard on shoes. They don't last for more than a season on my duck feet. I ended up at Century 21 where I found the perfect pair of Clarks drivers. Not too tight and priced with a nice Century 21 reduction. So nice I convinced myself to buy two of the same pairs: one brown and one black. The people packing up your shoe purchases at the sales counter always make you take your shoes in the box they came in so they don't have to figure out a way to dispose of the boxes. Two shoeboxes for size elevens necessitate a fairly good-sized bag.  It did make me look as if I was carrying a rather heavy load but it was a bit deceptive, Clarks drivers are fairly lite weight.
I didn't have to wait long for the A to show up. As it pulled in to the Forty-second street station I could see it was pretty full. When the doors opened I realized I wasn't going to get a seat. Fine. My shoe bag wasn't heavy and I'd have to change trains again once I got to 59th Street. Once the doors closed I grabbed an overhead sissy bar in front of a two-person seat next to the door. A middle-aged black woman sat nearest the door snoozing with her head bouncing off her chest with each raspy breath she let out. Next to her sat a young woman reading a romance novel, probably an assistant or receptionist at an accounting firm or small corporate office. Her hair was a bit messy and her clothes were just a bit above drab taking her out of the fashion or advertising fields but there was a sweet shyness about her. The shyness was what threw me when her eyes jerked up from her book. There was this sense of guilty as she caught my eye and asked me if I would like her seat. I was a little startled and a bit offended but I smiled back, shook my head and politely told her no, I was getting off in a few stops. She went back to her book as I started to obsess with my internal dialogue about not thinking of myself as being eligible for priority seating. You know the signs corroding off the back of the plastic seats telling the youth and able-bodied of America to get off their padded behinds and give up their seat to elderly and disabled. I wasn't about to suffer this ageism lightly, at least not in my head.
I know, I know I'm being over dramatic. I'm way too sensitive. She was only being polite but the fact that I'm now apparently wearing my age like a tattered suit has the power of turning my day from happy to mad. I'm sure that there are many people who are more gracious than I am and more able to embrace their badge of old age than I am.
Then just as I was about willing to succumb to my fate of senior citizenry I did a quick scan of the rest of the car. Standing next to me was a pregnant woman with a baby and holding on to the center pole with both hands was a lady in opaque stockings standing about four feet ten with more facial wrinkles than a Shar Pei.
I should be thankful that I've been given as many days as I have. I've circumvented having to serve in a war I didn't believe in. I've dodged an epidemic that swallowed up so many of my gay community. I've survived a financial beating that would have driven others to put a gun to their heads. I'm lucky and blessed in so many ways. For all of this I feel I deserve the right to stand without assistance and feel a little indignant at the thought that some guilty millennial thought I'm too old and feeble to tote my bag of, might I say, stylish Clarks drivers three more stops on the A train.

THE GALLERY

Golden Years: Wrestling no.2, 2014
Dean Bradshaw, photographer
Represented by Weiss Katz Gallery