LEE, Mass. — Now that we are in the throes of winter, and now that our seventh or eighth storm is moving in for Wednesday, we can no longer live in denial. It is winter in New England and there's nothing you can do about it. 

But there are a few ways to make the rest of this endless snowpile tolerable. Perhaps the most important is to break down and invest in some proper winter gear. I mean hardcore Arctic stuff. This past weekend, I came to the realization that we might be buried until April and that I had suffered enough. By suffer, I mean cold feet, cold hands, cold body, just cold, cold, cold. All of this has been cured thanks to a trip to Ben's on Main Street.

Let me begin by saying that the ladies at Ben's know why you're there. They know that you've swallowed your pride and that you're ready to take the plunge, literally, along with the temperature. In fact, when I walked into the place (with a little cajoling from my boyfriend who has been purchasing various warm accessories for me since December) the sales clerk took one look at me and shook her head.

"You need some warmer boots," she said.
 
I looked down at my unlined, treadless-bottomed Muck boots and grinned sheepishly.

"I need a lot of things," I said.

"Well, at least you have that nice Minus 33 pullover. At least somebody knows how to keep you warm, even if you don't."

My boyfriend nudged me and nodded. I wanted to punch the cocky smile right off his face.

Somehow this was beginning to feel like a makeover episode of Oprah.

I strolled over to the boots, where I found an impressive selection of winter wear for all shapes and sizes. Of course, I had my heart set on Sorels because that's what I always wore before I began unsuccessfully boycotting winter. Unfortunately, they did not have my size in the women's boots (my feet are gunboats compared to my relatively small frame). Before I could even feign a look of disappointment, the sales clerk set a rugged pair of brown and black Kamiks in front of me.

"They're a men's 7, they should fit," she said.

I slipped into the impressive boots and almost immediately my cold toes, which had already suffered from mild frostbite twice this winter, were toasty. I laced up the boots and walked to the counter.

"I'm not taking these off," I said.

"I know, honey. I wouldn't take them off either."

I didn't stop at the boots, either. Tooling around the store, I noticed a rack of SmartWool socks. I was tempted to get the girly striped ones but pride prevented me and I purchased a pair of brown knee-highs. Again, one of the best investments I've ever made. Right up there with the boots, the Minus 33 pullover, and my cowboy hat with ear flaps.

It has been three days since the purchase of the boots. So far, I've only taken them off to shower and sleep. Even when my mother demanded that I take them off to go in her house I blatantly refused.

"No way, not until April," I said.

I am making another trip to Ben's this week, in anticipation of the "big storm." This time I will be purchasing a Stormy Kromer, red and black plaid, and maybe, just maybe, one more pair of SmartWools, the girly kind. Who knows, I may even get myself some snowpants.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — "Celebrating Pittsfield," a photography show including the works of nearly two dozen local artists, opened Friday night at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts.

The photographs represented the many people, places, events and landscapes which come together to make up what is, and has been for the last 250 years, the city of Pittsfield.

The juried contemporary show kicks off the city's yearlong birthday celebration — thus the name.

While the title of the show is perfectly adequate, I would venture to say a subtitle or postscript should be added: "Pittsfield: One City, Many Lenses." Not only is the show representative of the many photographic talents we have hidden in our community, but it also illuminates the diversity of landscape, people and events that, combined, have come to call themselves Pittsfield.

One of the most obvious (yet silent) points made through viewing the photographs is that Pittsfield is urban and rural, stark and beautiful. A photograph of Onota Lake covered by autumn mist sits in stark contrast next to its neighbor, a shot of a young man sleeping on a couch that is sitting on the sidewalk; a heavily graffitied wall behind him acts as the backdrop. The symmetrical lines of trees that create architectural structure within a framed shot of the trees lining North Street are juxtaposed with the brightly painted faces of children sitting curbside during a Third Thursday celebration.

Is this Pittsfield? Or is it Alaska? Paris? Rio?

The city's true (and vibrant colors) shine through in these photographs. Even a haphazard stack of red restaurant chairs in the middle of the street somehow gives meaning to everyday life in an everyday city. Suddenly, because of a great eye, commonalities like street lights and a baseball game and a barber shop are cause for pride. This IS who we are. Clearly these photographers take pride in that.

"Celebrating Pittsfield" runs through Feb. 26. For more information call 413-499-9348 or visit www.culturalpittsfield.com.
 

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The town is looking at more than just parades, festivals and car shows for its 250th anniversary celebration, which officially kicked off last month. 

It's sponsoring a good old-fashioned Beard Growing Contest in honor of entertainment of times past. Any "gentleman wanting to grow a beard" is encouraged to go to the Snap Shop on Railroad Street and have his picture taken. This, of course, will be the "before" photo. The judging for the contest will take place on July 10 at Sim’s Barber Shop on Main Street.

Unlike the application for queen and court, which is also part of the 250th celebration, the beard-growing competition does not require a written essay, a statement of good academic standing or proof of community service. Instead, the categories include Longest, Bushiest, Most Naturally Colorful and Most Creative.

One can only imagine … I guess you just make your own fun out here in rural Massachusetts.

I know which category I will be sure to photograph.

For you bushy, burly Berkshire men, the last day for pictures and applications is Tuesday. Stop in to the Snap Shop (bring your application with you, you can download it from the GB 250 website) and have your picture taken.

For those of you who will most likely be absolutely sick of your new pelt by summertime, fear not, the folks at Sim’s will be offering shaves right after the judging. For more information call 413-528-4725.

May the best beard win.

OTIS, Mass. – As a general rule, I never, ever, ever order seafood if I’m not sitting right on the pier/dock watching the gulls snatch up dinner. In fact, I have a dark fear of any seafood that can be found “inland.” And yet, as the snow flies and my mind turns desperately to summer and sunshine and the promise of Vitamin D, I found myself craving something, anything, with a bit of sand and salt and brine.

Driving up and down the harrowing, unplowed back roads of creation, watching giant dollops of snow slip heavily off of branches, I wondered if this morning adventure was a good idea. The jeep slipped and slid and fishtailed. But, finally, I arrived at my destination on route 8; The Other Brother Darryl’s.

I know what you’re thinking. But, it’s not what you think. This modest little shop just beyond the center of town (notice Otis is right!) is chock full of sophisticated culinary treasures, including, of course, fresh seafood. The coolers are lined with sweet scallops, oysters, rock crab meat, roe, crawfish tails, lobster, you name it. Alongside the coolers are the “accompaniments” to any respectable seafood dinner; specialty pastas and grains (among them quinoa, polenta and orzo), a variety of fine import oils (including olive and hazelnut) and chocolates of all persuasions.

For nearly 25 years, Laurie and Darryl Sawin have elbow deep in seafood, providing fresh catch to area restaurants as well as foodie places as far as Pine Plains and Hudson. According to Laurie they are a “stand-alone fish market” in a literal sea of local beef, lamb and pork. This lone-wolf status also comes with some acclaim, especially given The Other Brother Darryl’s added role as a catering business and take-out venue.

“We have people who come here from the city take our stuff back with them,” Sawin said. “It’s very flattering. It’s because our prices are fair and we take pride in what we’re selling. We also get a lot of people who are travelling for work; they stop here on the way up and on the way back and they’ve been doing it for years.”

Without a doubt, Sawin will see the same folks for the next 25 years. Clearly, even out in the “borderlands” of the Berkshires they’ve got a good thing going.

After indulging in some delicious caramel chocolates and debating the purchase of several hundred pounds of oysters, I found what I had originally come for; chowder. Good old-fashioned clam chowder, straight up with potatoes, sandy bits of clam and the scent of the ocean breeze.
Of course, they had it. I could barely wait to get home and chow(der) down.

It was an unforgettable bowl of nostalgia; a classic, creamy mixture of salt, cream, clams, pepper, potatoes and my signature hunk of rosemary bread settled in the middle for good measure.

Delicious and a little bit sad when my spoon clinked against the bowl.
 

The Other Brother Darryl’s is located on Rte 8 in Otis. For more info visit their website or call 1-800-6FLOPIN. 
 

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Paul Strand, the modernist American who put photography on the 20th century art map, said the "artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep."

 While Strand himself found inspiration in the rooftops and streets of Manhattan, Norman Rockwell, the Berkshires' own "adopted son," found inspiration in the people in his community and the concepts of his time.

Now, thanks to some $2 million in grants over the past seven years from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Henry Luce Foundation and the town of Stockbridge (to name a few), 4,400 of Rockwell's drawings and paintings as well as 20,000 photographs, correspondence and art and ephemera from other American illustrators are available for online viewing and research.

 This week the Norman Rockwell Museum officially launched ProjectNORMAN, an online art and archive network dedicated to all things Rockwell.

According to a press release issued by the museum, the project is the result of a decadelong collection, cataloguing and digitization project. The result is a gorgeous, in-depth, visually rich archive that sheds a different light on the man with the wooden pipe.

Of course, the website contains images of the famous paintings we all visit the museum to see, but there is more, much more including fan letters to the artist, pictures of all of the objects that were found in his last studio and images of original sketches. Yet, to me, what is most striking about the ProjectNORMAN collection are the scores of black and white negatives of the models he used for his paintings. These images, many of which were taken by Stockbridge resident Bill Scovill (1914-1997), are works of art themselves, and capture the very human, in some cases melancholy expressions on the faces of Rockwell’s models.

These "reference" photographs are holding their own at the Brooklyn Museum in a traveling exhibit titled "Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera." In fact, in a recent review of the exhibition, New York Times art critic Ken Johnson called it a "revelation" into Rockwell's work as a "naturalist" illustrator.

The heartfelt photographs compliment the many letters Rockwell received from his admiring fans, including a 1961 letter from Songma Tenzing Lama, a Buddhist lama who wrote in praise of "The Golden Rule," which appeared on the April cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

"… I especially appreciate this picture which does speak from the heart to the heart better than all the political Summit Meetings."

ProjectNORMAN is an honest display of not only an artist's work but also his inspiration; his life behind the painting. To visit the archival collections go to collections.nrm.org/highlights.jsp.