Darby Strong

Playing point. Delivering the rock.

Green is the New Black

My first visit to Palmetto Bluff served up amazing views and good food, but it was mostly the opportunity to get behind those gates and see what the hell was going on behind them that enticed me. The extremely subtle signage and rumor that last year’s Oscar attendees received a weekend visit in their luxurious gift bags added even more interest. Finding out that Auberge Resorts was behind this Lowcountry treasure was icing on the cake. But the piece de resistance is this: Palmetto Bluff is a leader in sustainable and green building practices, as evidenced by their work with Southface and gracious hosting of the Lowcountry’s first Earth Craft House training seminar, which I had the pleasure of attending last Wednesday.

Let us start at the beginning. Palmetto Bluff is owned and developed by Crescent Resources, a division of Duke Energy. From the Palmetto Bluff website comes the vision of Crescent Resources’ philosophy:

By allowing the land to guide us rather then imposing a “developer template”, we have crafted a plan that respects its physical form — the topography, the wetlands, the diverse maritime forest and the miles of undulating marsh and river edge. This vision of Palmetto Bluff as a place, rather than a project, is a more challenging path. It requires that we remain authentic. That we un-learn much of what the last thirty-five years of development in this region has taught.

Palmetto Bluff is working to qualify each home in its community as an Earth Craft House. The philosophy behind the Earth Craft House is simple and feasible. The concept deals mostly with the process and materials used to build a home, creating a process that is efficient and smart, with the environment as its guide. Points are given within each major category in order to certify each home as an Earth Craft Home. The program is completely felxible and works with each builder to develop their “sustainibility quotient,” with Southface acting as a consultant with each build.

Common sense strategies are part of the point system, like having a central cutting site, which enables the builders to recycle perfectly useable wood throughout the project. More technical aspects, like the building envelope and correct and adequate ventilation, add not only to the homeowner’s improved indoor air quality, but a more efficient, and therefore more affordable, home.

One needn’t be purchasing in the exclusive enclaves of Palmetto Bluff to enjoy what is now the luxury of well-built, healthy homes, but it seems it takes these artisans of the building industry to take this painfully obvious next step within our built environment. Working against this natural progression towards a better and more profitable building process will force the cut and paste schlock of unconscious production builders to their inevitable extinction.

The Faux Interview

I have been on the Daily Show’s teat, so to speak, for 11 years now. Yeah, I feel special because I have been watching it for a long time. I admit it. It is one of the few things that helps reinforce the reality that millions of people “get it,” which is hard to come by in small town South Carolina. But what intrigues me the most; not even intrigues, but rather, mystifies me, are the interviews.

How in the hell do they get the interviews?

Tonight, Steven Colbair, formerly of The Daily Show, interviewed this robust white guy. In the midst of the interview, he says: “So, you’re a member of the NAACP and of NOW. So, are you an African American, or are you an African American woman?”

The guy is befuddled. HOW do they get past these people. Seriously. How do they schedule the interviews without the gatekeeper figuring out that the interview is full satire? Are the interviewees along for the ride? It doesn’t ever seem to me that they are, but the joke is SOOO good, that I wonder. Once the reveal is made, how does one sustain the masquerade?

We should ask the woman who perfected the Faux Interview, Beth Littleford. Let’s give props where props are due. The first time I ever saw her on The Daily Show, I fell in love with her. This woman is fricking hilarious. Ms. Littleford, if you are reading, how do you get the interview? How?

And The Winner Is…

Now that I live in the stix, I wait for films that I NEED to see. And I wait. Longer. Longer than that, even. My eyes have been on Capote since October, and I have been rather obsessed with witnessing Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance. Two weeks ago, it happened. And the man transfixed me and transformed me while he morphed into Truman Capote. I have been saying it for years, and I will say it again…Philip Seymour Hoffman is the absolute best working actor today.

Please allow me to highlight my favorite P.S.H. transformations, in no particular order.

-Brian Mahoney, in the dark and incredible depiction of a gambler’s fall from grace in Owning Mahoney.
– Spike Lee’s 25th Hour…that song in the club towards the end is hittin’ hard, too
– Love Liza – just see it. Huffing. And model planes. Scarring. Mentally. Awesome.
– Punch Drunk Love. Something about this film…
– Lester Bangs. Come on. He ROCKS Almost Famous. What a great film.
– Mamet’s State and Main. Superb.
– Talented Mr. Ripley, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, as Phil Parma, the house nurse with depth, FLAWLESS, The Big Lebowski…and on, and on, and on.

I haven’t seen all of his roles, but the sprinkle of some of the most enjoyable and hand crafted films over the past decade above will be worth revisiting. In fact, I am going to add all of these to my Netflix account now, in celebration of Hoffman’s upcoming Oscar win.