Topic: Pets & Animals

First came William Merritt Chase, then Pollock and de Kooning, then Schnabel, Close, Wilson, Fischl and Bleckner. Now come the chimps. The latest artists heading to the Hamptons will be taking up residence at the Chimpanzee Artist Foundation and they'll be painting, photographing and filming.

If the news that chimps have better short term memory than college students wasn't enough to raise an eyebrow, then the news that chimps will be taking up residence in East Hampton as part of an art theraphy program for them should make you at least scratch your head.

Audra Allen is the human behind this effort and, as she explains on The Chimpanzee Artist Foundation website, the "mission is to use art as a common language to bridge human and animal worlds together. Art is a language without words and allows us to communicate with our closest living relative, the Chimpanzee. Art created by the Chimps offers us a window into how a Chimpanzee sees the world we share."

Judging by some of the works on the site, Schnabel and company might have something to worry about, and if you see Larry Gagosian wandering around inspecting the art, don't be surprised. The chimps will be enjoying a degree of celebrity more commonly experienced by the famous artists here in the Hamptons: Peter Beard photographed them for Vanity Fair, they'll be in the Arts section of the New York Times on December 9th and in an upcoming issue of Smithsonian—and that's surely only the beginning of this primate press junket.

Stay tuned to Plum as we'll be talking to Audra and her chimps in the weeks ahead and there will be a benefit to support The Chimpanzee Artist Foundation on December 19th from 5 to 8 p.m. at The Ross School art gallery with boldfacers like Jay McInerney and his wife Anne Hearst, Chuck Close, Jimmy Buffett, Dick Cavett and Peter Beard expected to be in attendance.

The Chimpanzee Artist Foundation
Chimps Have Better Memory than Adult Humans [AFP]

Just a bit more mating and we can be assured of fireworks on the Fourth of July once again. The New York Times has a story about a pair of piping plovers nesting on a Revere beach in Massachusetts. In NYC terms, that's kind of like having plovers nesting on Jones Beach. But what does this mean?

Simply that plovers are on the comeback. In 2006, scientists tracked 1,743 mating pairs of piping plovers. 2,000 is the magic number to get them off the endangered species list. So it should only be a matter of mating before the little birds that cancelled the East Hampton fireworks two out of the last three years are out of the woods and we can get back to celebrating America properly. And we're sure Jerry Della Femina will have something else to gripe about by then anyway.

In Aid of a Bird, Some Inconveniences for People [NYT]

Lanscape Designer Thomas Muse joins Mike Bottini and a student from Stony Brook's Southampton Marine Station for a close look at spotted turtles, an endangered species in the Hamptons. They discuss these turtles' habitats and the impact local gardening can have on them.

Who loves tennis balls, barn cats, other dogs, horses, and especially her owners? Annabelle of course. This 6-pound, floppy-eared yorkie showed us whose queen of her castle when Plum made its "dog"umentary on October’s Dog of the Month winner. She may be small, but she has a lot of love to give. Congratulations to Annabelle and family for winning Plum's October Dog of the Month.

The dog days of summer are long gone, but that's not stopping us from celebrtating the pooches of the East End. Plum is proud to continue it's Dog of the Month contest for October.

Enter:

Please send a picture of your dog along with helpful and fun information (i.e Name, Age, Sign, Breed, Turns Ons & Turn Offs, Favorite Food, Favorite Song, Favorite... Anything, Master's Name etc) to hamptonseditor@plumtv.com.

Vote:

Send an e-mail with "Dog of the Month" as the subject to hamptonsticker@plumtv.com and cast your vote for who you think should win. One vote per person please, and we're pretty good at figuring out who is using multiple addresses.

Forget, for a moment, how unique Sag Harbor is as a village on the East End, or in the world for that matter. Much of it's current beauty and popularity has deep roots that stem from a time when it was most known as a whaling port. From 1780 through 1850, Sag Harbor was Mecca for the whaling industry. Animal rights and humane ideals have erased that role of the village in current history, but there is a clear window into it's past.

Along the walls of the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum are scrimshaws, ship models, navigational tools, log books, captains' portraits, and many other items that bring the once internationally illustrious Whaling Era to life. While inside you can learn why whale hunting fostered trade and industry, how it affected the local culture, and get in depth information on anything from pirates to the Revolutionary War. For a true cultural experience in the Hamptons, we highly suggest you pay a visit to the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.

200 Main Street
Sag Harbor, NY
631-725-0770

Sophie dominated August Dog's of the Month competition thanks to her classic canine flair and some smart marketing by her owner Ryan.

In no particular order, here comes the video...

All anyone could talk about at the beginning of the summer was the Social Concert Series and the tickets that cost $15,000 for five concerts. Bryan Boyhan went to the first concert—Prince, no less—and...he actually had a good time.

Chris got totally tongue tied by supermodel Selita Ebanks while Olivia got giggly with model/polo player Nacho Figureas.

We likes to party—and so does Russell Simmons. The man must have thrown, hosted or been at 217 parties this summer. Checkout his annual Art for Life benefit where Olivia chatted up Forrest Whitaker. Olivia also talked to Russell about his new book. Basically, Olivia and Russell hung out all summer.

While all about you are losing their heads, try a little fishing. There's something calming about waiting for the bite.

Just a couple miles away is this little island called Block Island. They used to send criminals there. So we sent Plum's John Birdsong. To be nice, we gave him a video camera. Which he used to shoot a lot of video of sailboats during Block Island Race Week. It was good stuff so we let him come back to the Hamptons.

You know what's cool? Opening a bottle of champagne with a giant knife.

Chris got all the good assignments. Especially when he got to hang out with the Beatles in India. (Full disclosure: that's a total lie. He didn't get to hang out with the Beatles in India. But he did interview a guy who hung out with the Beatles in India.)

Who knew socialites could surf? We had no idea and even after we were told they can surf we didn't believe it. Then we watched this video. And we learned that Fabiola Beracasa can wakeboard too. Will wonders never cease?

It wasn't all fun and games. Every once in awhile we tackled a few weighty matters. Like when former Editor in Chief of Time Inc., Norman Pearlstine came on to talk about the current state of journalism. Serious stuff. And just for the record, Carl Bernstein is no lightweight either.

Those crazy kids, what will they think of next? Not content to lay on a surfboard and paddle with their hands, now they want to stand on a surfboard and use a canoe paddle. Next thing you know, they'll be riding surfboards attached to kites.

Against all odds, Drew found poetry in pastry. The Gentle Donut, his tribute to the artery clogging magic of the fresh donut brought tears to our eyes and the comfort of assured future business to cardiac specialists everywhere.

Who will win? Artists? Writers? Neither? Both? Like a night at the opera, this year's Artists Writers Game was too much drama. But it was all for a good cause so try and suffer through Mort Zuckerman's pitching and Christie Brinkley's batting and place your bets.

Judith Miller did not start the War in Iraq.

Plum went to the dogs this summer—literally. Dog of the Month was the contest to win and we had two very deserving winners complemented by two hilarious "Dogumentaries." We're still trying to figure out if Amber is a dog or a diva and we know that Sophie proves the maxim that a dog is a man's best friend.

Say it with me girls, Super Saturday 10! Shop til you drop. Olivia talked to everyone from the Giulianis to Beth Ostrosky. Then she bought presents for all of her coworkers at Plum...or she should have.

Formula for TV magic: 1 Intern + 1 Camera + 1 Microphone + Hundreds of Odd Questions= Man on the Street. That's all it takes. And we were able to answer tough questions like, If you were a firework, what kind would you be? And, What is Fashion? Or, Do you wish you knew magic like Harry Potter?

Just give Michael Moore a mic and he'll give you an interview.

Sometimes in the Hamptons there are too many houses. If you're rich enough, you just give the extra houses on your property away. That's what happened here.

Interns: sometimes they talk to horses.

Alice & Ellie Mae entered themselves in the Dog of the Month contest for September with an appearance on the MorningNoon&Night Show.