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Sept 4, 2008

JEFF ROGERS welcomes visitors at the door of his newly renovated house, atop a sandy ridge on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. From outside the two-storey building seems unremarkable: its neat white trim, pale-yellow clapboard siding and shingle roof have been the local style for centuries.

But the house that Mr Rogers finished last year is anything but traditional. It uses no fossil fuel and generates its own electricity. It contains few toxic materials—adhesives, paints and insulation are all free of formaldehyde and contain low levels of volatile organic compounds, and nothing in the house produces carbon monoxide. (more…)

Posted in Magazines, The Economist

Cape Cod, in Edward Hopper’s Light

Aug 10, 2008

THIS time of year Corn Hill Beach in Truro, Mass., on the outer arm of Cape Cod, is a joyful, teeming playground. At low tide, the warm water of Cape Cod Bay recedes to expose banks of smooth sand, which swarm with kids, dogs and blissfully vacationing parents. As the sun sinks toward Provincetown, it cuts through a hazy summer sky, shimmering off the quicksilver bay. It picks out Corn Hill, at the north side of the beach, and daubs the tiny cottages at its crest in sure, vibrant strokes. (more…)

Posted in New York Times, Newspapers

Hipster Hunting Ground

July 13, 2008

SOME 15 years ago, Valencia Street was a forbidding mix of auto body shops, papered-over storefronts and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Despite a smattering of Victorian houses and lesbian bars, few outsiders were drawn to this grungy edge of San Francisco’s Mission District.

Then came the dot-com money. Trendy coffeehouses arrived. Hip boutiques opened next to cool bars. And now the wide, low-slung street has become a gathering spot for the city’s latest breed of cool-hunting hipsters.

Read it on the NYT site…

Posted in New York Times, Newspapers