East Magazine

Who isn’t instantly transported back to childhood when they see a sand castle? Some of the most epic creations can be seen every summer at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett, where the Clamshell Foundation — for going on 33 years now — hosts an annual contest that pits friend against friend for beachy bragging rights in support of charitable causes.

The indie film scene here has become a vibrant playground for emerging talents pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

Eiji Shiga and Colin Lillie, best friends for 35 years and bartenders for 25 of them at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, have quite the friendship origin story.

Look down. “Geodetic Survey” markers have triangulated the coastal landscape since the Thomas Jefferson administration.

A wild-foraged seaside flavor can add Michelin-star power to a summer dinner.

Hot Girl Summer? Nah. This year calls for a hashtag that’s a little more grounded in reality. For summer 2024, our preoccupations have less to do with bikini bodies (having one or desiring someone with one) and more to do with good, stupid laughs, heart-to-heart confessions, and a hard seltzer with our bestie by our side. This is our pitch: make this your #bestfriendsummer, and tag us along the way. We wanna see the selfies.

Throughout Candace Ceslow’s work, there’s a central presence: the water. Through Candace Ceslow’s eyes, it contains multitudes — vast stretches of shifting emotion that push her to keep putting it down on canvas. The rhythm of the waves can be calming and meditative, as she notes in an artist’s statement on her website, or it can be fearsome. “The waves are ready to be worshiped. They are deities ready to crash and pull you under as sacrifice.”

The tug-of-war boys, here, didn’t come to play; they were really putting their back into it. This is the sandy strip beside the windmill, at the foot of Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf. It’s still there, 48 years later, but the wharf itself certainly looks different, doesn’t it? No mega-yachts in sight, no landscaping, no mood lighting. Would you go back and pull, if you could?

The story of John Wick dates back to the very earliest days of Bridgehampton. We gleaned what follows from later newspaper articles as well as historical documents. It is the story of a Bridgehampton gentleman of some means who, during his lifetime, was, seemingly, a fairly normal, honorable citizen, but who, after his death, was remembered as a killer, monster, and sadist.

There's no substitute for that tangy crunch — best for burgers, synonymous with sizzling long-weekend cookouts. EAST decided to throw a staff pickle party, to taste-test Long Island makers' brined best.

Steaks are the simplest thing to cook — but also, to many of us, something of a nailbiting mystery. (Will it be shoeleather?) Nina Dohanos talks to her favorite butcher to unlock the secrets of Prime.

Connecting life as a child of immigrants to her modern-day cooking practice, Kristina Felix offers an inside look at the making — and meaning — of corn tortillas.

Local makers are really delivering the goods on the current fun-in-a-can cocktail trend. Pop open a cold one, we say!

What are the most beautiful views a tourist — or staycationer — can seek out? Here's a bit of autumnal travel intelligence, with the help of ChatGPT.

Ahoy, there, electric boats! Susan Lehman sings the praises of battery-powered leisure cruising. The pace may be slower, but that's part of the pleasure.

The women of the Shinnecock Indian Nation have been helping lead for generations. We celebrate some of those, past, present, and future, who have created a better life for Indigenous people here and beyond.

The Star's expert illustrator, Durell Godfrey, who is the author of two coloring books for adults, created this fun yard sale scene to celebrate the end of summer and the arrival of what locals lovingly call Tumbleweed Tuesday. Grab some colored pencils or markers and get to work! Don’t forget to snap a picture of your masterpiece for Instagram and tag East Magazine — we're @east_mag — and have fun looking for all the East-Hampton “Easter eggs” in there.

Who hasn't fancied themselves an artiste? Laura Donnelly — known on the culinary scene for her delicious recipes and occasionally devilish restaurant reviews — was asked by EAST Magazine to try her hand at life drawing. Here's what happened.

If Wölffer Estate hadn’t claimed the name “Summer in a Bottle” for its iconic rosé, the cherry-lime rickey would surely be the first-place contender for that title. That’s why we were pleased to learn that Sip ’n Soda has begun selling its cherry-lime rickey mix in a bottle — year round, to boot.

As September approaches, we should be heaving a wistful sigh and shopping for pencil sharpeners and argyle socks, but . . . this isn’t what happens to most of us out here, is it? Things are different when you live in a beachside resort town. We are overcome with a curious but unmistakable fillip of extra buoyancy. This issue we are celebrating that feeling of being unbound.

Summer is winding down, and it is the perfect time to reflect on those things that are truly important. . . . like our staff-member nostalgia for nineties teen magazines! Here is a little throwback to a more fun (and cheesy) time. Whip out your Hello Kitty pen and discover which East End locale matches your personality. Which hamlet is so totally you?

In this age, when luxury commerce seems to be the very definition of life in the Hamptons, it's easy to forget that the South Fork once was a picturesque, if obscure, haven for artists, writers, and other bohemians. Sag Harbor, in particular, has seen more than its share of notable writers over the centuries, and we revel in remembering when its bars and sidewalks were peopled by Steinbeck, et al. Here, then, is a literary-centric walking tour of the little whaling village that launched a thousand novels.

Incrementally over the past few years, Scott Bluedorn has — somehow, by silent mutual agreement among the gallery-going public — become acknowledged as the artist who is able to distill the quintessence of East Hampton and echo it back in watercolor, graphite drawing, etching, and sculpture.

It used to be called Liar's Saloon. Now it's called Marlena's Pack Out, and nothing’s really changed, except last call’s a lot earlier now. 

The Star photo archive is an anachronistic system, a holdover, unchanged since the days when images were not digital collections of pixels traveling on ether, but material things printed on paper in a basement darkroom. And, to the delight of any reporter or editor who finds an excuse to wade, hip-deep, into the archive, there are — wedged in among the many mundane black-and-white photographs (too many mildly “arty” snapshots of ducks and decoys, wood fences and weathered barns) and among the treasures (rare glass-plate negatives of Amagansett whalers and candid shots of major literary lions) — lots of truly wacky souvenirs of days gone by.

Jeff Aubry talks to EAST about his pro hoops career, the Next Gen Basketball Players Union, and life in Sag Harbor.

Trapeze lessons at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton have become something of a tradition (dating, if you want to go all the way back, to the 1970s when small students at Hayground’s hippie-dippie precursor, the Hampton Day School, flew through the air in phys-ed class). This year, the trapeze season wraps up in mid-September.

For more than 30 summers in East Hampton, starting in 1936, girls from 3 or 4 all the way to 18 could be found in a studio property on Lily Pond Lane — out on the grass, capering, leaping, skipping, and reaching for the halcyon skies — as they learned the art of dance in a lineage that descended directly from Isadora Duncan, the legendary choreographer and pioneer of contemporary dance. This was Anita Zahn’s Summer School of the Arts, which lives on in spirit today in the Rainbowdance program in Boston, established by Dicki Johnson Macy, a former student of Zahn.

It's time for the Hampton Classic once again, where Ava Lynch, an up-and-coming teen equestrian from Wainscott, will saddle up with passion in her heart and ribbons in her sights. She gave EAST magazine a close-up look into the world of competitive riding. There’s a myth, Ava says, that competitive riding “is easy, that anyone can do it, or that it isn’t a sport. That’s just not true.”

Time for some relaxing high-summer fun: Grab some markers and celebrate all things July with East Magazine’s first-ever coloring page for grownups. We can’t promise it’ll cure a hangover, but there’s a reason why adult coloring books have been surging in popularity: Research has shown it can relieve stress and anxiety and boost your mood and motor skills. We think it makes a great rainy-day activity or a way to wind down after a long day battling the traffic and crowds. Don’t forget to snap a picture of your masterpiece for Instagram and tag East Magazine — we're @east_mag — and have fun looking for all the East-Hampton “Easter eggs” in there.