“Long Island Oddities”

John Leita and Laura Leita

History Press, $17.99

   John Leita and Laura Leita have compiled a collection of accounts, enriched by contributions to their Internet blog over the last 10 years, that share some of Long Island’s oddities. Their book, titled, appropriately enough, “Long Island Oddities: Curious Locales, Unusual Occurrences, and Unlikely Urban Adventures,” comprises six chapters: “Roadside Oddities,” “Oddly Abandoned,” “Ghosts Among Us,” “Close Encounters of the Odd Kind,” “Phantastic Legends,” and “A Grave Difference.”

    Their goal is to share the extraordinary stories of some of the ordinary things we all pass on the road every day, and the result is a curious mix of tour guide information accompanied by local ghost lore and legend.

    In their separate introductions to the book, both authors make reference to paranormal experiences as young children, experiences that fostered in each a lifelong interest in exploring the unknown — roadside attractions, abandoned buildings, cemeteries, accounts of U.F.O. conspiracies and abductions, and places haunted by spirits.

    Of course, many people today consider alleged paranormal activities, including tales of ghostly activity, to be “more of gravy than of grave,” as Dickens’s character Scrooge exclaimed to the ghost of Marley in the 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol.” In his 1904 preface to “Lady Gregory’s Complete Irish Mythology,” W.B. Yeats wrote, “As life becomes more orderly, the supernatural sinks farther away.” But for some people and for some cultures, ghosts and ghostly creatures, as well as other paranormal events, are taken for granted as real, and are part of a sense of reality defined by and sustained by cultural filters.

    Throughout recorded history, humans have been fascinated with or frightened by death, the afterlife, and the things that make our flesh crawl and the hairs on the backs of our necks rise. As the traditional Scottish prayer exclaims, “From ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!”

    Paranormal activities have become a big business in American popular culture. On television and in the movies appear ghosts, vampires, and other monsters such as Bigfoot, Mothman, and the chupacabra, the goat-blood-sucking creature reportedly the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Urban legends are still told about the murderous villain the Hook, as well as assorted ax murderers, vanishing hitchhikers, and the Old Hag who visits sleeping victims, crawling onto their chests while paralyzing them and making it difficult to breathe.

    The ancient Celtic ceremony Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween) acknowledged the thinning of the veil between the living and dead, when all manner of beings were abroad — ghosts, fairies, and demons — and has survived as our modern-day Halloween.

   Conspiracy theories, too, abound in our popular culture and often become a part of urban lore and legend. The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the rumors of secret government sites associated with alleged alien spacecraft crashes and landings, and reports of physical abductions of individuals by alien beings are all part of our modern preoccupation with the strange and bizarre.

    The authors of “Long Island Oddities” present these popular and folk culture themes in three chapters of their book. But the authors’ first two chapters avoid any mention of the paranormal and instead offer an overview of local roadside structures and artwork, followed by an introduction to abandoned buildings around Long Island.

    Chapter 1 consists of quite cursory descriptions of 15 roadside attractions, including the Big Duck in Flanders, the “Stargazer” sculpture in a farm field just north of Exit 62 of the Sunrise Highway, the two dueling cavalier statues at the Casa Basso restaurant in Westhampton, and my favorite, the Witch’s Hat in Aque­bogue (which I remember as having once housed the office of a local veterinarian, Doc Brown).

    The second chapter consists of more descriptive accounts of 11 “abandoned buildings,” among them local sites such as the Bulova watchcase factory in Sag Harbor and the Cedar Point Lighthouse in Northwest Harbor. Black-and-white photos accompany each description in both sections.

    It is not until Chapter 3 that we are introduced to what the authors suggest are “creepy and possibly haunted” buildings, 17 of them in fact, where we might find “Ghosts Among Us.” The chapter relates several narratives dealing with ghosts, spirits, mysteriously moving furniture, and unexplained noises emitting from nearby spaces. Some accounts are of the authors’ own adventures, and some have been told to them by others, all occurring within Long Island buildings such as the Montauk Manor and Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor.

    Chapter 4, “Close Encounters of the Odd Kind,” centers around a supposed U.F.O. crash at Southaven near Brookhaven National Lab, and around secret government experiments at Camp Hero in Montauk with the assistance of reptilian aliens. It also delves into abductions and conspiracies alleged by several individuals.

    Next, the reader is led around five of Long Island’s haunted landscapes that are connected to local legends relating tales of death, betrayal, murder, and messages from beyond the grave in the form of graffiti. Chapter 6 returns to the tour guide format, visiting six cemeteries, including the Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery Memorial Park in Wantagh, where we find the grave of Checkers, former President Richard Nixon’s dog.

    All in all, the book is an interesting examination of often overlooked local history and lore. Through the use of historical records, photographs, and their own and others’ personal experiences, the authors share their fascination with Long Island oddities.

   John Eilertsen is the executive director of the Bridgehampton Museum. He lives in Southampton.

Figure Grounded

    Ille Arts in Amagansett will present “Figure and Ground” beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will feature figurative work in multiple mediums organized by Vivien Bittencourt and Vincent Katz. The artists include Ms. Bittencourt, Rudy Burckhardt, Juan Gomez, Jan Henle, and Alex Katz.

 Mckay’s New Pairing

    East Hampton’s Halsey Mckay Gallery is showing works by Rachel Foullon and Ernesto Burgos through Oct. 6.

    In a show called “Shapeners,” Ms. Foullon refashions and pairs antique tools together in an arranged marriage of sympathetic natures. She works to remove all signs of a tool’s former use and aura, sanding and refinishing the object as well as substituting abstracted forms for what once were functional pieces. She may add fabric as well, not only to imply a double life for these objects, but also to layer a human element on top. The artist earned her M.F.A. at Columbia University and has had several exhibitions and won a number of awards and commissions.

    Mr. Burgos’s “Old Habits” is a show of new sculptures continuing his “investigation of systems that reflect the shifting nature of metaphorical language, mark making, and form,” according to the gallery. His “intuitive shapes expand on recognizable formal abstraction, gently shifting and combining to simultaneously acknowledge decay and change, paralleling the current divisiveness of existing systems.” Mr. Burgos has an M.F.A. from New York University and has exhibited widely in group and solo shows.

Dennis Leri at Ashawagh

    “Dennis Leri: Convergence” will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs this weekend, beginning Saturday morning with a curator’s walk-through with Esperanza Leon at 11. A reception for the artist will be held from 4 to 8 p.m.

    The work on view will be from the last decade of the artist’s creative output. It will include several free-standing sculptures, wall pieces, models, and sketches. The artist is known for his abstracted welded-steel sculptures, which may be painted in bright colors or left with a more natural patina.

    On Sunday, Mr. Leri will have a conversation with Eric Ernst, another artist, about his work at 2 p.m.

Meola Book Signing

    Tulla Booth will host Eric Meola on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. in her Sag Harbor gallery, where he will sign his book “Streets of Fire,” which features photographs taken during the production of “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” the 1978 Bruce Springsteen album.

    The gallery will also have a new large-format book on “Born to Run” available to order. An exhibition featuring archival prints of Mr. Meola’s photo­graphy from the “Born to Run” album shoot will be on view through Sept. 29.

“Women Painting Women”

    The Richard Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor will be participating along with at least seven galleries in other states and countries to present “Women Painting Women,” a show devoted to contemporary women artists who paint the female form. The show is based on a blog of the same name that highlights underrepresented artists in this tradition. The gallery chose 30 artists out of 350 who applied to be in the show.

    Other galleries taking part include Gallery U in New Jersey, Principle Gallery in Virginia, Haynes Gallery and Townsend Atelier in Tennessee, and Art Exposure Gallery in Scotland.

    The exhibition will open Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at which many of the artists will be present. It will remain on view through Oct. 17.

Four at Peter Marcelle

    The Peter Marcelle Gallery will present “Four” beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

    The exhibition will include the work of four contemporary abstract painters: Claudia Aronow, Roisin Bateman, Rhia Hurt, and Kryn Olson.

    Ms. Bateman, a Sag Harbor resident is from Ireland and sees similarities in the west coast of Ireland and the East End of Long Island as a major influence in her work. Ms. Hunt, from New York City, also alludes to landscape and memory. Ms. Olson, who is from Sag Harbor, uses expressive color to capture the experience of  landscapes she witnesses as a traveler. Ms. Aronow, who divides her time between the city and the South Fork, transitioned from representational to non-objective painting in 2000, using curves and circles as a recurring motif.

    The exhibition will remain on view through Oct. 6.

Fishing Lures in Water Mill

    The Water Mill Museum will host Bob Jones and his collection of vintage New York saltwater fishing baits and lures beginning today and running through Saturday. Mr. Jones will exhibit and discuss his extensive collection of lures, which date back to the World War II era. Admission is $5; children ages 12 and under will be admitted free. All proceeds will benefit the ongoing restoration of the water-powered gristmill at the Water Mill Museum.

Harrison’s Juried Show

    The Southampton Cultural Center has its annual juried art show on view through Oct. 6. Artists were invited to submit entries in oil, acrylic, watercolor, drawing, prints, mixed-media, photo­graphy, and sculpture of limited size. Helen Harrison, the director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, chose a large group of artists from the entries, among them Barbara Groot, Setha Low, R.J.T. Haynes, Jerry Schwab, Leah Morgan, Kathleen Cunningham, Rain­ey Day Erwin, and Steve Gravano.

    The cultural center will receive a 50-percent share of sales to support its programs.

   The Montauk Library will host “Classical Works for Piano,” with the pianist Anne Tedesco, on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The program will feature works by Grieg, Brahms, Schumann, Ravel, Mozart, Chopin, and Chabrier. 

    Ms. Tedesco is an adjunct professor  of music at St. John’s University, where she has taught music history, theory, classical piano, and fine arts since 1982. A Long Island native, she lives part-time in Montauk with her husband, Carmine Tedesco. She has a master’s degree in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music.

   Guild Hall and the Watermill Center have teamed up to present “The Momentum,” which was developed in its early stages at the Watermill Residency Program in 2010. It went on to be presented in Boston and New York, where it won an award at the 2010 International Fringe Festival.

    CollaborationTown  is known for ensemble-driven theatrical works that seek out new ways of storytelling. It produces new plays intended to be relevant beyond traditional theater audiences. “The Momentum,” which has been praised for its smart writing and cast, takes a look at the ever-expanding world of self-help marketing and New Age-y chicanery.

    The performance will take place on the stage of the John Drew Theater on Saturday 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, $10 for students.

    On Tuesday, Guild Hall’s fall Naked Stage season begins with “Where We Are” by Kristen Lowman and led by Ms. Lowman, 7:30 p.m. Other artists will include Sam Underwood, Georgia Warner, Nick Fondulis, Claire Karpen, Jason Scott Quinn, and Rosie Macquire. The performance is free.

   The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival will present “The Loving Story” as a special event on Sunday at 4 p.m. The screening, at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, anticipates the festival’s annual event, scheduled for Dec. 6 to 8 this year.

    “The Loving Story” is a feature-length 2011 documentary by Nancy Buirski of New York City, the founder and former 10-year director of the noted Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C. It chronicles the story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, a mixed-race couple who married in Washington, D.C., in 1958 and returned to their home state of Virginia, where they were arrested and their marriage nullified.

    Their fight to overturn the edict led to the Supreme Court and a landmark decision stating that “under the Constitution, the freedom to marry or not to marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state.” That ruling made all miscegenation laws illegal.

    A post-film panel discussion will include the co-producer Patti Romeu and the film consultant and New York University history professor Dr. Martha Hodes.

The Choral Society of the Hamptons will hold auditions for its Dec. 3 concert beginning Monday evening. Those with modest sight-reading ability and choral experience can make appointments by calling 631-902-9402.

   A new roster of people you may or not know from the neighborhood will present a six-minute précis about their lives and work at the Parrish Art Museum tomorrow at 6 p.m. Each presenter will have 20 slides and 20 seconds to describe themselves in a rapid-fire presentation that waits for no one.

    Participants this time include the poet Max Blagg, the artists Michael Combs, April Gornik, Grant Haffner, and Virva Hinnemo, and a number of other creative people from the worlds of finance, design, radio, and meditation.

    Admission is $10, free for members. Reservations have been recommended.

There is something spectral about the abandoned structure parked in the middle of Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton. Once erected in the woods in the no-man’s-land between Noyac and Bridgehampton, it was the temporary home of Adam Stennett in a self-created artist’s residency executed commando-style. Now, it is the centerpiece of an exhibition devoted to the work he produced there and the time he spent there called “Survival, Evasion and Escape (The Artist’s Studio).”

Solar-powered and self-composting, with worms that still feed on his waste products today, the structure gave him a place to devote himself entirely to his artwork where he could afford the rent and utilities and which freed him from taking another job to support himself. Of course, the day-to-day of survivalist living leads to its own tasks and chores, but certainly nothing as banal as a typical 9-to-5 day.

Packed with equipment, supplies, art, and art-making materials, the 6 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot portable greenhouse structure was organized with maximum efficiency for off-the-grid living and an artist’s eye for self-referential installation. On any given day, one could visit the shack and find the bed neatly made, the garden well tended, the easel and paints ever at the ready, and a number of battery packs feeding off the solar panel. On the precisely made bed, a potato gun with ammunition was laid out along with a gas mask, a Japanese bow, and a convex mirror capable of using sunlight to ignite everything in its path.

The shack and its contents had a certain “everything I’ve ever made” quality about them and neatly set out themes and ideas the artist has been exploring for much of his career. Always fascinated by what could be procured just by trawling the Web, he made the potato gun himself years ago after finding the directions for it in a search result. The Everclear grain alcohol he has featured in paintings can be used in extracting an LSD-type essence from morning glory seeds.

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who has been alluded to in other works and series by the artist, is present here in the typewriter Mr. Stennett has chosen to place at his desk, the same model Mr. Kaczynski used to type his notes and that was found by investigators in his own woodside cabin.

There was more and more, everywhere you looked, references accreting until everything seemed to circle back on itself, destroying any linear relationship among intention, creation, and meaning.

The way Mr. Stennett previously painted objects related to self-created legal drug highs led him to paint portraits of the objects he included in his shack. A visitor to the shack may have seen a work in progress. On the easel one day was a portrait of sorts of a Civil Defense manual on handling blackouts (presumably the electrical kind), but the double entendre was stressed with the inclusion of a flask. The objects had been photographed and Mr. Stennett was painting them from the two-dimensional image in acrylic on paper. The original manual and flask could also be found in the shack.

On the wall at Glenn Horowitz is a collection of such works, portraits of his toilet, the gas mask, an Army surplus water can, and then more survival objects from the Web, vintage fallout fruitcake and canned water, and more.

This trebling of ideas from real objects to depictions of them once and then twice removed contributes a jumpy, obsessive feeling to the place. On site, Mr. Stennett’s overcaffeinated hyper-articulateness about the project and his aims for it added a real feeling of authenticity to the performance. It felt as if he were spending time in the head of someone who might actually be truly paranoid and radically disengaged from society.

His absence, the survivalist cut loose from his self-made haven, makes the structure seem lacking in its essentialism. Video showing him shooting the potato gun and an LP playing on a vintage record player, with needle popping and a warm, calm voice advising the best way to prepare “if the bomb falls,” provide a human presence, but the gallery can’t help seeming sterile, as if one were viewing it in a laboratory setting, the pristine vitrines only adding to the feeling. It is to the shack’s credit that it can adopt new environments and adapt to them, taking on new meanings depending on the site.

Once again through the assistance of the Internet, Mr. Stennett amassed a collection of golf balls emblazoned with insignias and trademarks of the private and public organizations that have caused most of the paranoia, both legitimate and imagined, over the past century. These include the F.B.I., C.I.A., and N.S.A., to name a few government entities known to lurk in the consciousness of every conspiracy theorist, but also Exxon, Siemens, Halliburton, and others.

Golf and racing are new to the artist’s themes and directly related to the Bridgehampton site he stayed on. It inspired stenciled flags with the word “utopia” printed on them as well as the golf ball collections, including one with a racing motif featuring automobile manufacturing companies and attendant concerns such as Champion spark plugs and Chevron gasoline.

You have to admire the way the guy thinks, finding connections between this work and place and his prior creations vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. It is tempting to take apart each work and examine its various references and meanings, but viewers can perform that task more efficiently on their own. One just needs to get started.

Sometimes it feels as if all the other themes are just an elaborate ruse to distract everyone from arriving at the fact that Mr. Stennett just loves to paint and is great at it. But even if that were true, what a great way to get there.

The show will be on view through Oct 28. The artist will be in residence in the gallery over the Columbus Day weekend, once again living and working in the shack for a 48-hour period.

Printmaking Workshop

    Guild Hall is offering an open studio workshop with Dan Welden, with sessions on Friday, Sept. 20, from 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 5 p.m. and on Sept. 21 at the same times.

    Participants will make an etching using the solar plate technique, which Mr. Welden has adopted and adapted to make greener and safer etchings without dangerous chemicals, according to his Web site. Images are set on a plate sensitized to light and developed using tap water.

    Each session is $35 or $25 for members. Registration is available through Michelle Klein at michelle@guildhall. org.

Freeman at Tripoli

    A solo exhibition by Eric Freeman titled “New Paintings” is next up at the Tripoli Gallery in Southampton. The gallery has included the artist in a number of group shows, but this is the first time it has devoted its entire space to him.

     The gallery describes the paintings as ephemeral: “While we understand that these works are fastened to the canvas, that the paint is permanent once dried, there is an ever-evolving quality to their surface.”

    Using oils, the artist experiments with the combination of elements in the buildup of paint. “Freeman applies layer upon layer, thinning them out intermittently — a process through which he creates different surfaces for light refraction to occur at various speeds, allowing the light to actually bounce between each layer resulting in a backlit quality,” the gallery said.

    The artist, who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Tufts University, has shown at many international galleries and museums. He lives and works in Sagaponack.

Coming Up at Ashawagh

    The off-season is hopping at Asha­wagh Hall this year, with two shows this week.

    “Of Mees and Mim” will open Saturday morning with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. The show will feature the work of Marcie Honerkamp and Adrienne Mim and will remain on view through  Sunday.

    Beginning Monday, Stephanie Whiston’s striking underwater photography will be on view in a show titled “Oceans Matter.” The show will have an educational and philanthropic aspect with Ms. Whiston leading discussions on Monday and Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. A reception on Tuesday will benefit the Marine Education Foundation. The show will be up through next Thursday.

Gruen’s “Young

In the Hamptons”

    “Young in the Hamptons: Photographs of the 1950s and 1960s by John Jonas Gruen” will be on view at Susan Ely Fine Art in New York City beginning Wednesday. A reception will be held Wednesday night from 6 to 8 p.m.    Mr. Gruen captured his friends and colleagues at an apparently carefree and quieter time on the South Fork where paint and booze flowed freely. His collection of images, shown in parts in exhibitions in galleries and as part of the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection, documents moments in the lives of key artistic personalities be they painters, poets, musicians, composers, conductors, dancers, or actors.

    The gallery will show a selection made by Mr. Gruen and his assistant and co-editor Sam Swasey of 35 images through Oct. 31.

Ooh La La in Sag

    The Monika Olka Gallery in Sag Harbor will show paintings by Philippe Heurtaux beginning Saturday with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The French artist works in acrylic on canvas with resin, adding gloss and depth to the surface of visible brushstrokes. The colorful compositions are abstract and stunning.

    The exhibition will be on view through Oct. 14.

Catch Sciulli

On Governor’s Island

    Christine Sciulli, an artist living in Amagansett with her family, will have a work on view at the Governor’s Island Art Fair through September.

    “Languid,” a 60-by-30-inch site-specific HD video projection, is installed in the attic space at 404A Colonels Row. Viewing hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Ned Smyth in New York

    Ned Smyth, who has a studio on Shelter Island, will show work at Salomon Contemporary in West Chelsea beginning today.

    “Those Who Remember” will have an opening reception tonight from 6 to 8 and will remain on view through Nov. 2. The sculptor works in various materials including bronze, stone, and cast concrete in abstracted organic and geometric forms.

Chinese Culture in Montauk

    On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., the Montauk Library will present “Chinese Culture, A Treasure the World Can Share,” a free talk by George Wei. The slide lecture will cover the artistic, literary, and philosophical legacy of China’s past. 

    Dr. Wei is an engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Sustainable Energy Technologies Department, where his research focuses on ways to make oil and gas equipment more efficient while reducing pollution. His talk will examine the foundations of China’s culture and explore dance and musical instruments, among other topics.

Film Series

At Pollock-Krasner House

    The South Fork’s fall art season has arrived and with it familiar friends such as the Pollock-Krasner House’s annual fall film series have returned. This year the series will look at connections artists here make to each other, their environment, and their audience. Marion Wolberg Weiss has organized the series and will lead discussions about the films after they are screened. Each film is $5 at the door and will be screened on Friday evenings at 7 p.m.

    On Friday, Sept. 20, “Jackson Pollock: Portrait,” a film from 1984, will examine the artist’s relationships to Lee Krasner, his wife, and other artists. His connections to the places where he lived, such as the West and in Springs, will also be explored. The film was originally made as part of the PBS “Stroke of Genius” series.

    “Eames: The Architect and the Painter,” from 2011, will look at Charles and Ray Eames as a couple famous for design, but who also touched on architecture, photography, and science in their creative pursuits. They were friends of Pollock and Krasner.

    The last film in the series will screen on Oct. 4, “The Visual Language of Herbert Matter.” Also from 2011, the documentary reveals Matter’s influence on graphic design and his work in photography and film. Matter, who was also a painter, was friendly with both the Pollocks and the Eameses.

    The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will once again host the OLA Film Festival, presented by the Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island this weekend.

    The festival, now 10 years old, will open tomorrow at 5 p.m. with “Inocente,” a 40-minute film that won an Academy Award this year for best documentary. It is about a young homeless woman who wants to be an artist. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine directed. After the screening, Mambo Loco will perform Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican music.

    On Saturday, “Tanta Agua,” a narrative film from Uruguay, will be screened at 3 p.m. It follows a father determined to have quality time with his children on an ill-fated and rainy resort vacation. The film was directed by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge.

    Then on Sunday, the festival will conclude at 3 p.m. with the Chilean documentary “Salvador Allende.” Patricio Guzman’s film focuses on the U.S.-backed military overthrow of the socialist Chilean government. Allende was elected president in 1970 and deposed three years later by Augusto Pinochet. He committed suicide before being taken prisoner. In the dictatorship that followed, his followers were targets of repression, left in exile, or executed.

    Tickets for each film cost $10 and are free for members, students, and children. The Mambo Loco performance is free with museum admission.