Roaming By Design

Hank Darlington rode from Fishkill to Suffern, NY, on this day of his four-week ride-a-thon.

If there's ever been a "Roaming by Design" post, this is it! Hank Darlington, one of the founders of the Decorative Plumbing Hardware Association, is bicycling from Maine to Florida for a good cause, the goal of raising $20,000 for scholarships being helped along by the sponsorship of Mr. Steam. The 76-year-young athlete will be averaging 70 miles a day for four weeks to benefit the DPHA Scholarship fund, which awards two $3,000 scholarships each year to deserving students working at or children of any individual working at a DPHA-member business.

Alexandra and Kymberly of Fun and Fit fame have conducted an audio interview posted here which not only illustrates Darlington's commitment to the cause but brings his jovial nature to the airwaves (of course with Alexandra behind the opposite microphone, would wouldn't be chuckling non-stop)!

Darlington claims moist heat, as in this Steamtherapy shower, is the best treatment for a day's worth of riding strain.

To follow his progress, visit Hank's blog, Cross Country Rider. You can donate to the cause at DPHA Scholarship Donations, and visit the sponsor, Mr. Steam, to see why Darlington is hoping to find one of their Steamtherapy showers or baths at the end of the road each day (and don't we get that)! To catch up with Alexandra and Kimberly at Fun and Fit for some serious fitness and lighthearted amusement, click here. 

"To see our country from a bicycle seat is just incredible!" remarks Darlington, who logged 76 miles yesterday, noting in his latest blog post that he had made it to Virginia Beach, Virginia. Now that's some adroyt riding! 

The Stein Salons courtesy of SFMOMA

If you are a frequenter of Roaming by Design, you may have noticed I haven’t been posting as much lately as I have in the past. That’s because I’m putting all of my efforts behind my new social media consultancy, adroyt, and its blog. We’re delving deeper into subjects relating to SoMe and hoping to encourage some great exchanges through our new initiative, the adroyt salon. Inspired by the fervor with which Gertrude and Leo Stein discussed and dissected the subjects they surveyed with A-list visionaries in Paris, we will be posting new questions each Thursday, which we hope will be bandied about at length during the following seven days.

Our first salon post speaks to Gertrude Stein’s influence in my life, and in case you’re not familiar with her, one of the interesting things about the author is that she thought of her writing as a literary form of cubism. A peek into her book Tender Buttons is proof that she was working toward a unique melodic quality that had never been accomplished before: “A closet, a closet does not connect under the bed. The band if it is white and black, the band has a green string. A sight a whole sight and a little groan grinding makes a trimming such a sweet singing trimming and a red thing not a round thing but a white thing, a red thing and a white thing.” 

The sound is not extant but this is a home movie of the living, breathing legend (it's worth sticking around for the great smile at the end)!

Another book Stein penned is The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. In it she described the Saturday evenings on the rue de Fleurus as “a kaleidoscope slowly turning” (writing as Toklas, of course). These salons hosted two of cubism’s founders—Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris. About them Stein wrote, “…cubism is a purely spanish [sic] conception and only spaniards can be cubists…Americans…are like spaniards, they are abstract and cruel. They are not brutal they are cruel…” 

It’s interesting to me that she took the stance that Americans express cruelty because the Spaniards are known for one of the world’s most barbaric sports, bullfighting. “I always remember Picasso saying disgustedly apropos of some germans who said they liked bull-fights, they would, he said angrily, they like bloodshed. To a spaniard it is not bloodshed, it is ritual.” We hope one of your new Thursday rituals will be to join us on adroyt where we will discuss myriad topics and maybe even kick up a skirmish or two!

To follow along with the salon discussions, here are links to the adroyt salon posts, from the first to the most recent:

It's the Adroyt Salon: Belly Up to the Bar!

Original Thinking

The Social Media Megaphone

Exploring the Salon as a Social Conversation

Approaching a Big City and Our Social Media Selves

I Wish I'd Thought of That! (Our Social Media Salon)

The Adroyt Salon: Take 7

So we're saying goodbye to May, marvelous month that it was, and stepping into June with our eyes on tweetups and junkets that will serve as great roaming opportunities, and we'll definitely be reporting back (be sure to check out our sister site adroyt for some of the fun--okay, so she's the smarter sister but we're still cute here at RBD!).

We had a blast at Alessi and once again Marcel was on the scene, um, actually, he was the scene! A group of bloggers gathered to tweet what the Maestro of Moooi had to say about his designing mind. 

A fab time was had by all at the Museum of Art and Design as we hosted a Tweetup during the opening party of MAD's exhibition "Are You A Hybrid," curated by Stephen Burks. 

GD Cucine was hopping with a hip vibe as design devotees feasted on freshly prepared Italian fare and on Cleto Munari's vision, which was sprinkled around the showroom in the form of the "Il Magnifici 7," a colorful collection of furnishings that popped within the serene backdrop of sleek kitchen charisma.

Our Tweetup during Moss Gallery's Fraternal Twins event was packed!

Soho was one rocking nabe during much of the week, our Moss tweetup being a highlight. We hit so many showrooms on Monday night that we stumbled around in sensory overload, ending the evening at Scavolini's showroom with its lively atmosphere, fantabulous food and hip crowd.

There were so many events, so little time, which is about how we always describe ICFF week in New York City; that said, we did our stellar best to make it to some of the hottest parties and unearth the best in design offerings. Oh yes; there was the show itself! Here's one of our favorite offerings: James DeWulf's Ping Pong table, in concrete, which can also serve as a dining room table.