Friday, September 4, 2015

Abandon

"When you have abandoned all past 
and future, it is as if you have come 
alive. You are here, mindful…the 
nature of all types of consciousness 
reveals itself." -Ajahn Brahm








Abandon, by Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater, is a story about two women whose time and space realities have transformed into an eternal, ephemeral state, a connection with the spirit of nature.

Discoveries were made of the space in between, where we can abandon all inhibitions and play, using our imaginations- linking us directly to the source of our powerful, creative ways.

Our histories link us together. Tapping into our collective consciousness, we sensed the characters lives and the stories that once transpired here. Improvising with our immediate surroundings, we experienced a journey into the space between time and space.

Our adventure of exploring this abandoned house led us to interior discoveries of ourselves and of this beautiful abandoned farm land. Music was sourced after the initial filming, done in silence to our internal promptings/rhythms; La Rosa Enflorence and Rosas das Rosas by Annwn. Annwn is the name of the Otherworld in Welsh mythology.





We abandon our ego in order to access the depths of our universal imagination, conscience, and an ephemeral state, using gesture to communicate the silent stories of this abandoned house, nature, and the mysteries it holds. 
Spontaneously improvised, we scouted the land and my mother costumed us from her thrift store.  We embarked on an expedition at the abandoned farmhouse which evoked experiences we will treasure forever in our hearts.  Scenes are improvised and somewhat abstract to allow for the witnesses imagination to breathe life into what had once been abandoned and create their own meaning. 
We sourced and created everything ourselves. Filming, movement, and ideas were all crafted in the moment. 
The composition transpired while editing, like a dancer- dreaming, weaving together her story as she perceives it. 
The reason we feel that this film is important is its timeless quality.  The editing takes the place of the choreography, where I was able to arrange the shots in no specific order so that the audience can create their own interpretation and meaning. 
We do not wish to impose any limits or boundaries on what this should mean.  The title is descriptive of the condition in which the property was left.  However, new, green life continues to thrive.  While improvising, our imaginations were open to the number of stories/possibilities that could have transpired here, paired with our own interpretations and experiences.
The seemingly meaninglessness is its relevance.  What's dead is but alive within us through our shared, collective memory bank.  As long as we can remember something, it will always be with us.  This is a film that honors both death and life.  It is with awe and reverence in which we remember this place and its history.
The gaelic, dark celtic music was a choice inspired by their gaiety and whimsical ways of weaving folklore and storytelling into inspiring tales, song and poetry. 

www.opalstreet.org

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Inside Abandon Documentary

Watch the story of what happened and how this film came to be!

Sunday, May 17, 2015



WRITING DIERY


The evo[love]ution of this process 
has granted me
 greater clarity 
that
 -the process-
 is. the.
 only.
every.
thing. 
that. matters.  

We. are. Al-one.
I've chosen to include other's words 
giving their credit 
for this
 in format 
-ion(s) 
-codes-atoms-words-
 is able
 two
avail to/fro 
ALLove.

..a seed has been planted for the film
  ABANDON² Remember ETERNITY 
oraz
Porzucić aby Przypomnieć Wieczność
to come to fruition..

BY BIANCA BRZEZINSKI


"History, by apprising men of the past, will enable them to judge the future - -No other sure foundation than education can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness-- If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson


the formula for creative expression= 
being free to experience a state of peace
in.every.present.moment
 from which infinite possibilities arise


the key to which this proposal is structured:

My history                                                                                                                                                                                                    Life

The history of the Lambertson farmhouse and it's last descendant, Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson                  Death

The discovery of the space between life and death as the link towards eternity                                               Resurrection 

                                                                                                Supporting materials 

                      After debating on how to make this distinction, for your eyes to find my words/theirs, I've decided to color articles which support my authentic writing. 

All articles written by others will be red, except when immediately being referred to in my own paragraphs.

Short quotes will remain neutral.

“This universe is a mass shared dream that all six-and-a-half billion of us are collaboratively dreaming up into materialization. When we realize this, we can put our lucidity together so that we can co-creatively dream a much more grace-filled universe into incarnation. This is nothing other than an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness, unimaginable until now.”  ~Paul Levy



Foreword
          
  A LETTER FROM ECHOES LAKE
 South Lake Tahoe, CA


            

August 24, 2014
(edited during September, in San Francisco, CA) 

Dear,

I'm freezing, but I'm not dead, yet.  Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson is.  I am writing this letter to you from the depths of my heart, which currently floats on Echoes Lake, in South Lake Tahoe, California.  The latest journey has brought me here to this point in space and time.  My imagination rests on this lake as a constant and I know that my entire being is reflected back to me, my self dissolving and scattering into these billowy waves.  At rest, the lake is calm.  One boat, ten people, and the changes that sweep through the water will effect everything that is.  The position I take while observing this moves the rocks out of their place upon my arrival and all is moved, and forever after, it all moves.

I am waiting for the sun to warm me, waiting for the right words to use to inspire a desire in you to help me help the Lambertson farm and humanity.  Can we really help?  An effect must take place, and if it's potential is as wide and powerful as I imagine, than I will say YES.  If not, at least to do something with more positive potential than negative, since it is all relatively half truths, anyway.  I decided to write to you from here because of the state of peace that I am in.  In here, this peaceful place, I feel wide as a rivers mouth, allowing the energy of what breathes me to flow through me like the water ripples. 

I want to tell you everything.  I want to squeeze you into my heart so you can see what I see.  For now, I will use these words, the language of knowledge, to send to you my thoughts through the ether.  There is a woman in my life who was once dead, but through my imagination, I have been able to color her in, remember her thoughts, and ask her to guide me in tracing the map of her life, reviving her through my memory.  Let me tell you about who I was, how I have accessed this place in my imagination, and what I am asking your help with.  I will use general life statements and facts to fill in my history, the history of Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson, and how I have met someone who is dead.  

The sun has finally come out to play.  I feel more relaxed and will write my truth as I best know it.  The first clue that tells me this is the 'right' thing for me to be pursuing you is the old adage, "If you would have asked if I knew this is what I would be doing 'in this very moment'," I would have, at times, still answered yes.  But because I have come to a place in my life that is uninhibited, and abandoned the rules which I have learned and taught myself, I have ceased wanting to control my feelings, my expectations, or my mind. 

In this story, I have found an opportunity which is no longer a selfish mission, it includes all.  Selfish and selfless are neither of the states which I choose to exist within.  As the conduit of the natural, neutral life force, I remain constant and want to embody in this work a message of universal peace through emotion, (energy in motion) and creativity.  As the wind blows through me, I begin to wonder if you too have felt a need to create something in the same vein, the same vibration.  This story contains within it a chance to save and preserve a historical landmark, The Lambertson farmhouse, 70 acres of thriving farm crops which a local farmer cares for, and 200 acres of trees, creating opportunities for growth in all areas, including historical, agricultural, educational, and the performing arts.  This would include complete restoration of the house and having the needs of the land be met.   

My name is B(ee)ianca.  The buzz and bizness of nature has a deep residence in my heart and resonates in my spirit.  I wish not to classify myself as any one thing, but the world can call me an artist if they wish.  I believe our life is our art, and I would agree with Mr. George Eliot who says, "The happiest women, like the happiest cultures, don't have a history."  My factual history is one of a Polish-American, blood which runs from the Wisła, (Łódź, PL) to the Atlantic Ocean (Matawan, New Jersey) and currently into the Pacific Ocean, (San Francisco, CA.)  A gypsy traveler, I received my higher education at West Virginia University, Brookdale, New Jersey, The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory in New York, the Jagellonian University in Krakow, City College of San Francisco, and Mills College in Oakland, CA.  

The train of life has brought me a plethora of varied experiences: teaching in Oakland, CA, where middle school students spoke to me regularly about death, drugs and shootings, giving birth to a organic fruit farm in Pahoa, Hawaii, camping in the wilds of Alaska, being born Catholic and living with an atheist Turkish man with polar cultural differences yet open minds to explore unknown terrains of consciousness, studying altered states of consciousness in Berkeley, CA, meditation, neuroscience, psychosomatics, spending time in solitude but within nature, and most currently, communing with the dead, (also known as accessing higher states of intelligence to receive information from a felt, vibrational sense and discover, within, the imagination.)  I would conclude that my key observation throughout all of my experiences brings me back to a simple, essential feeling: the art of observation is life.  

I have been based in San Francisco, CA for the past eight years.  I have lived in several neighborhoods of the city, where Chinatown meets the Italian neighborhood of North Beach which is adjacent the Financial District which runs into the international Downtown and the low-income based Tenderlion which transforms into the Mexican Mission District that connects to 32 more official neighborhoods.   This city is a welcoming place to all ethnicities, races, genders, classes, and 'misfits.'  It is an example of an international culture that represents how all can feel welcome and call this place 'home.'  I believe I fit into many of these different categories and have tried on many different hats in my lifetime.  I am grateful to live in this acceptance.  

From working at Google to volunteering at Burning Man, I see people in different costumes, performing different roles in the circus of life.  Everything is a pattern.  We exist to create.  Our biography becomes our biology.  Instead of escaping ourselves, we need to focus on generating feel good emotions which we can come to trust and internal compasses, exploring the depths of our consciousness and our worlds we have built here together.  Everyone has the gift of creative potency within.  Inhibited, it begins to stagnate and dies.  Alive, it can unleash our imaginations, boundaries, and unlock our borders.  

In 2010, I founded Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater, in San Francisco, CA, based on the notion that there is no standardized way to measure the full capacity of a persons being until we can create an open and more compassionate world view, where people are allowed to express who they truly are.  I believe we live in a quantum world, where everything vibrates, and as soon as it is observed it changes.  We are radically free, self expressive beings who need not live lives of fear, rather, by truly getting to know who we actually are, can begin to appreciate and love every, equal being which matters.  By providing a platform in which all individuals are honored for their creative potential, we can begin to shift the world paradigm of hate and greed, it is my intention.  

To be in a constant state of peace, remembering all the while there is no self, yet it is all relative and not at the same time, is what the matrix of life is showing me.  YOU: whY, Oh, yoU, we are here to serve the other.  It is through reflection that I begin to see and know my(cell)f.  To live a limitless and unbounded life, we must cease holding onto any learned habit of thought.  To let go into the deep, unknown caverns of our minds is where the heart of my creative thought stems from, like the cerebellum in my brain which looks like a flower waiting to bloom in any moment.  I believe in the constant, powerful state of transformation.  I'd like to approach this as an opportunity to explore this mystery of the space between life and death because it is in this place I feel the discoveries can be revealed to us, and in this peaceful state we can create abundance.  I am inspired by Laura Dekker and her film, MaidenTrip, among others. 

THE STORY

       What does it mean to exist?  If someone is dead, does it mean that they have lost their senses?  Is it not true that in order to transform, one first needs to die?  When someone changes on the inside, do other people really notice?  Are these words dead or alive to you?  Death.  A state a seemingly non-existent matter.  Many have died yet their legacy lives on in our hearts, because we hold onto the memory of them.  An echo ripples through us every time we think or imagine our someone or someplace.  

And what if our someone is dead, and we had never known them before?  Is it possible, through opening our heart up substantially, that the imagination can fill in the lines and color in the shapes of an empty space, that once held and contained another's life chapters?  I can hear the pulse of this place.  In my life, there's a place which I've discovered , a place of deep solitude and serenity, a place of peace.  I call this place home.  It is not the home in which I grew up in.  It is the place that I imagined growing up in.  It is a place that was left abandoned, and through this abandon I entered into my new life.   This is the day I met Marian Smith Lambertson.  The locals, the visible folk of my eye says she's dead.  

Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson was the last descendant of the house at 157 Lambertson Rd., Old Bridge, New Jersey. There is an urgency in which I write this story.  The link of Marian's history and my own have intersected and collided  at a most prevalent time in the history of the world.   What prompted me on these discoveries was a personal death, a transformation of being afraid, one which helped me gain a greater sense of awareness and appreciation of my own history.

Mrs. Marian's house, built in 1820, has been left abandoned since the day of her death on September 29, 2002.  She was 91 years old.  As the last remaining descendant of the Lambertson's, a pioneering family which began farming when New Jersey was still an English colony, over 200 years ago.  Mrs. Lambertson left a trail of clues behind for me to tune into, dig deeper, and connect the dots of this beautiful 200 acre farmhouse which needs to be saved from being burnt down, being neglected as so it can decompose on it's own, and being turned into a golf course, all potential and most probably circumstances at this point.  

(Unless we save the house. How and why?)  
I am especially drawn to the mystery of this house and Mrs. Lambertson for my own reasons.  The reason I had ventured and stumbled upon this property was a need for a place to retreat, a place to be at one with the way that nature breathes.  And I wasn't alone.  The house breathes, the trees sing and dance in the wind, the birds came to watch my performance withe ease.  Immediately this place sends me as far back as the ancients, and Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson's voice began to speak to me through the echoes of the wind and the trill of the cornfields. 

The land is thriving, being up-kept by a local farmer, Mr. John Hauser, a farmer who cares for the land and whose family has a generation of caring for the land and the peoples' education.  Mr. Hauser owns his own farm, Hauser Hill Farms and the Browntown Bus Service Inc., as well as serving the Cheesequake Volunteer Fire Co. for 31 years.  Talk about a local hero.  When I spoke to Mr. Hauser, he said the Township Director of Parks, Recreation and Social Services does not want to fund him money to put in a fence to keep the deer off the property, and John stills pays the township a fee to maintain the land while educating children about agriculture.  Where is the fairness and equality?  As the Garden State, I believe New Jersey needs to change their ways if they are to maintain a good reputation of caring for the land.
****
Old Bridge farmer one of the last of his kind
John Hauser earns state 'Grower of the Year' honor
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer


FILE PHOTO John Hauser of Old Bridge sells lettuce to Diane Rusbarsky in Freehold last summer. The town held a weekly farm market for area farmers to sell fresh produce.
OLD BRIDGE — Whether you live in the township or elsewhere in New Jersey, it is likely that you have tasted vegetables grown through the hard work of resident John Hauser.
The fourth-generation farmer's harvests won him the honor of being named "New Jersey Vegetable Grower of the Year" by the Vegetable Grower's Association.  "John is a real, honest-to-goodness, up with the-chickens, asleep-with-the-sun, farmer," Mayor Jim Phillips said. "He's just an all-around good guy."
More than that, he is an all-around good vegetable grower. To be chosen as best in the state, Hauser had to meet four criteria — producing high quality vegetables; helping and promoting farming throughout the state; using innovative practices in vegetable growing; and giving back to the community, as well as being of good character.  Hauser had a solid foundation in farming, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, all of whom toiled on the same soil as he for the past 150 years. Hauser Hill Farms, Ticetown Road, consists of about 300 acres of family-owned and rented land. Over the years, Hauser has expanded the family's fruit and vegetable operation, which now goes beyond the farm's roadside stand to bring produce to eight farmers markets per week.
"He's one of the last, if not the last, owner-operator farmers in Old Bridge," Phillips said.  Hauser employs a number of groundbreaking practices, some of which not only help produce a better harvest, but also help the environment.  "Most of the modern growers are adopting these practices," Hauser said.
By switching from overhead irrigation to trickle irrigation, which delivers water near the root of plants, more water is conserved in the process. The practice largely decreases the amount of runoff and evaporation that can come from other irrigation techniques.  Hauser also uses plastic mulch, which further reduces evaporation. The mulch consists of a 4-foot layer of plastic in the ground.  "That gives you that perfect weed barrier for the summer," Hauser said.
Thanks to help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, Hauser has been able to implement an improved drainage system on the land he farms.  High tunnel structures, which resemble greenhouses and offer the benefit of planting crops earlier and enjoying a longer growing season, are another innovative element of Hauser's farming.  "The early frost doesn't wipe you out," Hauser said. "You can extend your season. You have a little bit more of a guarantee against the elements."
Instead of inundating his crops with pesticides, Hauser takes advantage of a Rutgers University program called Integrated Pest Management. Individuals from the program monitor Hauser's land, informing him when it becomes necessary to spray.  Further helping to make his farming as green as possible, Hauser uses fertilizer that is created naturally, which he gets from local landscaping companies.
"They have this product they have a hard time getting rid of, and we have an ideal use for it," Hauser said.  In terms of community involvement, one might think there are not enough hours in the day for Hauser's many pursuits. Aside from running the farm with the help of a number of family members, and serving as president of the family's Browntown Bus Service Inc., Hauser carves out time to serve the community in a number of ways. Hauser is a member and past president of the Middlesex County Board of Agriculture; past president of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society; a member and delegate of the New Jersey Farm Bureau and a member of the board of trustees of the Middlesex County Fair Association.
He is a member of the executive board and past president of the Chamber of Commerce serving Old Bridge, Sayreville and South Amboy. The organization chose him as "Business Leader of the Year" several years back.  For 31 years, Hauser has been a member of the Cheesequake Volunteer Fire Co. He is also a member of the Holy Name Society of Most Holy Redeemer Parish in Old Bridge, as well as vice-president of the New Jersey School Bus Owners' Association. Hauser also serves on the board of directors of the Tri-County Cooperative Auction, a produce auction in Hightstown, and is the county representative to the Farm Service Agency.
When Gov. Jon Corzine proposed eliminating the state Department of Agriculture, Hauser and his wife Midge put together a resolution to oppose the move. The Township Council voted to adopt the resolution, and the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders later passed a similar one after the Hauser's' urged it to do so.  Phillips recalled awarding Hauser with the honor of "Middlesex County Farmer of the Year" a few years back.
"John impressed me with a statement," Phillips said. "He said, 'We've got to be good stewards of the land.'"  According to Phillips, when Hauser saw that the Smith and Lambertson farms in town were sitting idly, he made an appeal. Although a golf course was slated for the property, Hauser pointed out that the land should not be left to waste until the time when it was to be developed. He struck a deal with the township that allows him to farm and maintain the land while paying the township a fee, Phillips said.
"John opened my eyes to the fact that if you're going to have land, you have to take care of it," Phillips said. "John acts as a good steward of the land for us."  Hauser was awarded with a plaque from the New Jersey Vegetable Grower's Association during its annual convention in Atlantic City Jan. 14. Although he always attends the convention in order to bone up on the newest developments in farming, Hauser said he did not plan to attend the dinner at which he was to receive his award. At a colleague's urging, Hauser agreed to go.
"I had no idea I was even nominated," Hauser said.  Township officials also honored Hauser with a proclamation Jan. 26.  (Sourced from The Suburban, http://sub.gmnews.com/news/2009-02-19/front_page/007.html)
****
Mrs. Marian Lambertson, which I have come to know through peoples memories of her, her status in the community and the legacy she left behind, have all influenced me to keep writing.  She was a a teacher, hailing from a lineage of the first school teachers, the founder of the Madison (now Old Bridge) Township Historical Society, home to the Thomas Warne Museum and Library, a society  which coincides with the mission of liberty and justice for all:  "History, by apprising men of the past, will enable them to judge the future - -No other sure foundation than education can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness-- If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson  
There are supporters willing to invest in the project but so far they have had little luck in having a preservation proposal go through.  Unfortunately, Anne Miller, chairman of the Old Bridge Historical Preservation committee, says "because the state and county have abolished about 50 historical landmarks in the town, they have little say in what happens to the property and are stuck between a rock and a hard place."  With your help and support, I believe it is possible to convince the State and County to preserve this property by creating a documentary about it,  and uplifting the community to live up to it's name, New Jersey, the Garden State.  New Jersey is home to more than 9,071 farms covering 715,057 acres of farmland. The state is among the leaders in many forms of agricultural production.

Sonia Heiser said Marian loved trees.  Because the proposition fell through in it's final stages, I have reason to believe this happened for a reason.  In essence, I know Marian would not have wanted this because once a property is put into the farmland preservation trust, it is eternally granted farm rights and can only be sold at it's core value.  For this, Mrs. Marian Smith Lambertson is a quiet, fair, powerful hero, which lives on in my memory and in the house.  This is why I feel she should be remembered by all and have her dreams come true.  

Marian was a member of thirteen clubs and organizations including "Daughters of the American Revolution."  A friend of hers, Sonia Heiser, recalls her as Smitty, the fearless chap, who lived alone since her husbands passing in 1985.  Her neighbors, Dale and Betty Green, who live in a house on an acre of land which Marian sold to them, told me the day that Marian's land was to be put into the farmland preservation trust, which maintains that the property can only be sold as a farm with neither higher or lesser value, she broke her hip and soon after was put into a nursing home.  She was 89 years old.  Instead, the state and county now own the rights to the land, marking it as open space.  
This open space can be reconciled as useful for the community but thus far the major development plans, in particular the golf course, would clear 200 acres of trees and use the house as a halfway house for elite golfers.  My initial interactions at the house are improvised. I used my imagination to improvise spontaneously.   I am beginning to see mysterious connections between the stories we were channeling and the stories that once lived here, echoing through our movement and our initial interpretation of the spatial environment. 
I am continuing to film and include spoken word narration, which is also improvised.  The stories I am unearthing are inspiring.  I am breaking through the space/time continuum and allowing myself to openly receive the history of this place.  I am drawing a map and the clues reveal the new landscapes to be discovered, in my mind and in the physical realm. 

Once I felt there may be a reason to look into the past, much of this information has been revealed to me upon further research and interviews with the townspeople.  Another major clue as to why I believe Marian needs my help in resurrecting the house was revealed to me when I met Kate Philbrick, curator of the Thomas Warne Historical Museum.  As the founder of Echoes Past, I found a being who knew Marian well and has already dedicated her life to saving this house.  

This house, this place, is a symbol of eternity.  It is a portal into the depths of our spirits.  The boundaries which exist are all in our minds.  The science of consciousness rests on one principal, to allow it to be free.  A death is a change of (moral) frequency, more extreme than humanity is used to.   The connection  in which I have made with Marian allows me to see the infinite potential in each of us.  I must admit this discovery is a a chance in which communing with the spirit world is not only possible, it is necessary in attaining personal and global peace efforts. 

There is a video diary of the improvisations I've created and some further details of this mystery of the infinite.  

I poured all of me into it's creation and I am left with little resources of time, money and space to continue.  In order to expound on this project to document the resurrection of the house and create a fine film, I need to create a collaborative effort.  As I reached out into the community of Old Bridge, New Jersey, I found willing agents who would like to contribute to the cause once a project is under way.  The county and state, which are pro golf course, have turned a smile at the idea of preserving the house as a filmed collective, communal project. There is an open doorway to pursue this possibility of a documentary to saving the house if all factors align.   I imagine she has transformed into the house and does not want to leave behind a legacy so strong and true.    

The people of the community and our resources:  

Mr. John Hauser teaches students about agriculture on the land and could assume the role of restoring the fields to their proper needs as well as maintain an education program on site in the years to come.  Crew members could be provided with fresh fruits and vegetables.

OBTV15, the local news channel, has agreed, thanks to Ms. Simone Flanagan, to broadcast ABANDON to gain local interest in preserving this historical landmark.  She has also recommended that I contact Mr. Dimeza, my former principal, who runs a broadcast class in the local high school with excellent equipment and student internship positions at the station, which could allow student filmmakers the opportunity to work together and learn through hands on experience.

Anne Leiser, an environmental sciences graduate, can help in establishing the ways in which this property is preserved.

Jerzy and Bolesław Brzezinski, my father and his brother, have practically built and designed the house in which I grew up in from the ground up.  Their experience is strong and they have often restored life to projects which others wouldn't dare.  They can restore proper maintenance to the house and are wizards at adaptability.  Since the house has been abandoned for 12 years this September, it needs a lot of attention and heavy duty repairs.  

Rachel McCray, original co-founder of Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater in 2010, could help manage administration for Opal Street DIT.  She also has a background in technology and performance.  Rachel moved to the East Coast shortly after to support her husband's career in Washington, DC.  They have both returned to the Bay Area and Rachel is back on board. 

Ilona Brzezinski, my mother, who owned a thrift store for over 15 years, has a keen, vintage sense of style and could wardrobe the entire cast.  Mr. and Mrs. Ilona Brzezinski house an excellent, Polish kitchen, which could nurture our film crew.

Ms. Kate Philbrick, the curator of the Thomas Warne Museum, is readily equipped with preservationists and historians who could remold the interior design of the house to exactly as Marian would see fit.  

Anne Miller, chairman of the Old Bridge Historical Preservation Committee, could help in delivering our proposal with the OBHPC's approval, to the State and County.  Anne is 90 years old and a powerful presence.

Ms. Sonia Heiser, a friend; younger than Marian, she adopted her as a mother after her parents passed away, could connect us with more of Marian's personal history, friends and relatives.

Adele Thurston, the other dancer in ABANDON  and recently my co-artistic director of Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater, is a writer and also a poet; she lives her life as a truly theatrical experience, a true observer.  She is a singer with a powerful voice which could narrate the story.  

Connor Thurston, digital art and design graduate, could co-ordinate the students from Old Bridge High School.

Yalcin Temel is an incredible painter and photographer, who could document the project and teach students about photography.  

Alex Milan Tracy, a Photojournalist and Documentary Photographer.

Krista Itzhak, dear roommate, a fun comedian, is also an accountant for Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing, able to create the budgets around this project.

David Cotton is an analyst at Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing and could deliver the costs of the budget. 

Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing Company: the potential to use a helicopter for ariel shots of the property, if necessary.

Dusty Coyote, a senior flight master who could pilot our helicopters.  (This name has been given to him at Burning Man.) 

Hyker LaRiviere, founder of Never Nominated Pictures, is a 3D filmmaker who I met and shot with at the Burning Man Festival.  He is eager, helpful, hardworking, and a naturalist. 

Phillip Price- Geologist and environmentalist, "I’ve always felt that my best role is to open people up to the presence of the natural world, to bring greater awareness of the “Now” & beauty of it all."

Scott McNeil of McNeil's Wheels, makes bicycles, the preferred method of transportation of the Lambertson family and at Burning Man.  

Brett Randell, musician/writer/traveller, fellow artist from Burning Man.  One of the contributing quotes in this proposal.  

This film could potentially include interviews about the Burning Man experience, where we establish a call for video submissions from around the world.  

Ariel, Drama teacher, could director student participants.

Joe Dahlquist, software engineer, could create website for the film.  

Maria Sosina, website design and maintenance.

Noreen Leahey, graphic designer.

Artists from Burning Man willing to share their artwork, all have a very giving attitude and I feel confident in their sharing abilities.

Speakers of Universal Consciousness and Peace Studies willing to contribute their ideas.

Dancers and Performance Artists from Old Bridge High School and Middle School.

Cheesequake State Park has a sincere interest in preserving the trees and it's wildlife.

Cheesequake Farms, Cottrell Farm, Hauser Hill Farms, local farmers willing to support the cause.

California Farmers, I believe could also take an interest in preserving this land.

Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian musician, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes, could contribute to  the soundtrack for the film due to it's educational and inspiring nature.

Mr. Peter Ruocco, a 'transmission spe(a)c(e)ialist,' producer, editor and director who I have most recently begun to work with in San Francisco, CA.   Mr. Ruocco and I have joint efforts in bringing the life back into an abandoned missile/battery site of Hill 88, where we blur the lines of peoples initial assumptions and judgements of the history and what is, what was, and what is possible.   We share the same passion for the spirit world, education and justice for all.  He is the director of the Immersive Speak Easy performance experience in SF, CA.  (http://thespeakeasysf.com)  
He could also help co-direct the immersive theatrical performances held inside of the house once restored. 

Examples of his film work:

Hill 88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXQyAdpK44
(The actual language we are using to title each section are the 5 stages of recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
Emergency-numbing-intrusive-transition-integration)

Moby Dick Rehearsed Short Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l_nePrA958
Stanford Repertory Theater's 2014 Orson Welles Festival features a production of Moby Dick -- Rehearsed, Welles' extraordinary blank-verse adaptation of Melville's masterpiece.

Sławomir Idziak, my dream Cinematographer/Director in a mentor/mentee relationship.  I could truly use your vision and experience in transforming this abandoned house into a space that breathes of life, love, peace, and community.  I have a sincere feeling that our shared histories of being Polish American filmmakers has a chance to touch and create a film of the utmost surreal yet magically realized reality, one that could affect humanity in a most uplifting and positive way.

Zbigniew Preisner, another composer, because I'm allowed to dream.    
Others: Ms. Kate PhilBrick has listed many resources from her end, the connections she has through Echoes Past, a non-profit organization in the township.  There are at least a dozen other people I can think of who would be great contributors to the film.  I am willing to do whatever it takes to get the community involved.  I truly feel that everyone I've met along this path of the project has expanded my knowledge and compassion of human nature and would be willing and able to contribute in some way.

In my Process, I imagine allowing individuals to speak and move from their hearts, while voicing my clear and direct intention for what is required; their utmost sincere presence.  Their choices, when inspired from this place, always seem to be earnest and truthful.  I have yet to be let down in this way.  The hearts intelligence knows no bounds.  Your help could impact the lives of several dedicated and passionate sprites pursuing their creative passions. On a larger scale, I do hope this project finds its life so it can affect humanity during one of its most potent and vulnerable times of abandoning itself as a species.

There is a force that has a a truth that speaks when it is listened to.   Like us, it has a face, it has a history, and it has a body which reflects to us what we give of ourselves, freely.  I was raised with a fine family who is now also threatened with the idea of abandoning this beautiful land, a place they've inhabited for 28 years, just minutes  away from the Lambertson property, due to our demanding taxes and diminishing love of nature.  I believe we all yearn for the deep peace and calm I experience while at this house.   It is time to dispel the illusion that we are separate from each other and from the Earth.  Why are we alive at this moment in history?  Is it to continue feeding the corporate machinery of patriarchy, or is it to dive deep within our humanness and remember our responsibility to Life?

There exists the potential, if granted permission for this project, to enter the inside and film in the abandoned state.  Once we felt completion with the interior, we could move on towards the restoration period, and the finale of the project would extend an open invitation to all who visit- a timeless, immersive art experience that includes historical, agricultural, educational, ecological, and performing arts opportunities.  
(Please refer to the proposal from Echoes Past by Kate Philbrick, curator of the Thomas Warne Museum, below, for specific programs, and a detailed description of the psycho-physical nature of the filming process, in the 'Synapses') 

My ultimate goal is to weave a film combining these three series, ABANDON, REMEMBER, and ETERNITY to compose the first part of the entire film; ABANDON, a magically real journey of my personal, creative process.  This would pre-face REMEMBER, a meta-documentary about the connection with the 'other.'  With the help of a production crew, we can capture new footage of the inside of the abandoned house and document the entire process of the preservation, marking it as the house of eternity, and pro-longing the Lambertson legacy.  Documentation would include the transformation and revival of the house, the spirit of the community working towards a common goal, the land and the trees.

This is a wholesome project which could help people realize a universal agreement in which one gives freely of themselves without fear of loosing their place in society.  Why people fear one another and respond sympathetically in times of disaster is not a sign of weakness but a sign of unequal rights and freedoms.  When people are given the proper means to an end, they will most always succeed and help another because they have sensed that what is in them is also in the other, and feel the connection through their heart. 

Monday, December 22, 2014

Monday, December 8, 2014


ABANDONED FILM SET-
Films and abandoned places

Guess it was love at first sight!

Abandoned Farmhouse
BY TED KOOSER

Poet Ted Kooser and I connected over abandoned spaces.  His poem, 'Abandoned Farmhouse,' conveys subtle clues about the film 'Abandon.'  On watching 'Abandon,' Ted Kooser commented, "I enjoyed this immensely! Congratulations! What a wonderful way in which to reintroduce life into a setting like that." 
-Thank you Ted!




http://tedkooser.net


Saturday, August 23, 2014

A2RE
A docuMEnTAry to help save the farmhouse is in the works to save the house from decomposing to preserve the Lambertson Legacy, a family of farmers that built this house in 1820. 
  
Marion Smith Lambertson, the last descendant of the family, founded the Historical Society and wanted the house to be preserved as a park and a community center.
For more information about how you can help save this house and the Lambertson farm, contact Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater, www.opalstreet.org, at Opalstreetdit@mail.com, in collaboration with Echoes Past, where more information can be found at: Help Create a Non Profit to Save the Smith Farm | Indiegogo

Thank you for reading and your willingness to contribute to a project that will bring together a community of student film makers, local farmers, historians and preservationists to save 200 acres of trees and farmland.

The film will be a message for universal peace, saving this historical landmark, nature, and the spirit of consciousness.  

Together, we can co-create a message of universal collaboration and artistic effort in honor of our infinite potential as an imagine-nation.  

Agriculture, education and justice for all.


Thursday, July 24, 2014

"When you have abandoned all past 
and future, it is as if you have come 
alive. You are here, mindful…the 
nature of all types of consciousness 
reveals itself." -Ajahn Brahm







Abandon, by Opal Street Dance Improvisation Theater, is a story about two women whose time and space realities have transformed into an eternal, ephemeral state, a connection with the spirit of nature.

Discoveries were made of the space in between, where we can abandon all inhibitions and play, using our imaginations- linking us directly to the source of our powerful, creative ways.

Our histories link us together. Tapping into our collective consciousness, we sensed the characters lives and the stories that once transpired here. Improvising with our immediate surroundings, we experienced a journey into the space between time and space.

Our adventure of exploring this abandoned house led us to interior discoveries of ourselves and of this beautiful abandoned farm land. Music was sourced after the initial filming, done in silence to our internal promptings/rhythms; La Rosa Enflorence and Rosas das Rosas by Annwn. Annwn is the name of the Otherworld in Welsh mythology.





We abandon our ego in order to access the depths of our universal imagination, conscience, and an ephemeral state, using gesture to communicate the silent stories of this abandoned house, nature, and the mysteries it holds.
Spontaneously improvised, we scouted the land and my mother costumed us from her thrift store.  We embarked on an expedition at the abandoned farmhouse which evoked experiences we will treasure forever in our hearts.  Scenes are improvised and somewhat abstract to allow for the witnesses imagination to breathe life into what had once been abandoned and create their own meaning.
We sourced and created everything ourselves. Filming, movement, and ideas were all crafted in the moment.
The composition transpired while editing, like a dancer- dreaming, weaving together her story as she perceives it.
The reason we feel that this film is important is its timeless quality.  The editing takes the place of the choreography, where I was able to arrange the shots in no specific order so that the audience can create their own interpretation and meaning.
We do not wish to impose any limits or boundaries on what this should mean.  The title is descriptive of the condition in which the property was left.  However, new, green life continues to thrive.  While improvising, our imaginations were open to the number of stories/possibilities that could have transpired here, paired with our own interpretations and experiences.
The seemingly meaninglessness is its relevance.  What's dead is but alive within us through our shared, collective memory bank.  As long as we can remember something, it will always be with us.  This is a film that honors both death and life.  It is with awe and reverence in which we remember this place and its history.
The gaelic, dark celtic music was a choice inspired by their gaiety and whimsical ways of weaving folklore and storytelling into inspiring tales, song and poetry. 

www.opalstreet.org