See Monster

Five buildings comprised this year’s East Hampton Historical Society house tour, all in East Hampton Village. An ambitious person, or one with a new Fitbit, could have walked it.

With a house and guest cottage on Buell Lane, two houses on Hither Lane, and one on Further Lane it was a real snapshot of how the style of people lived in earlier days could brought up to contemporary needs and preferences.

The tour happens every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving and features new houses each year.

While the actual Art Basel Miami Beach fair won’t open to the public until Thursday, many of the satellite fairs sprouting up all over Miami this week will open their doors to patrons today and tomorrow.

Untitled, one of the fairs on the beach and the home of Eric Firestone Gallery and Halsey Mckay Gallery for the week, had its vernissage last night and will hold a VIP preview today before opening to the public tomorrow.

Art Miami will hold its VIP preview tonight and open to the public tomorrow.

Artists associated with the East End helped Christie’s auction house take in a record-breaking $853 million on Wednesday night, with Andy Warhol leading the way with two works, “Triple Elvis” and “Four Marlons,” achieving $81.9 million and $69.6 million, respectively. Out of 80 lots, there were 30 by artists who have lived and worked here over the past century.

Warhol, who had a place in Montauk for many years before his death in 1987, had nine other works in the auction that sold in a range of $2 million up to those higher figures.

A colorful and artistic crowd gathered at Guild Hall  on Saturday night to celebrate the opening of two new exhibitions: "Mary Ellen Bartley: Leaning Above the Page" and "New Additions and Works From the Permanent Collection."

Ms. Bartley, who recently had a solo show at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City, was awarded top honors by Lilly Wei in the 2012 Artists Members Exhbition.

The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons celebrated the 10th edition of its calendar on Saturday night at the Water Mill home of Sandra Powers, who is this year's pet calendar chairwoman.

Previous artists such as Paul Davis, Carol Saxe, and Billy Sullivan joined Eric Fischl, who conceived this year's cover. 

Calendars are on sale now through ARF. Those interested can call Kathy at 537-0400,extension 214.

The Water Mill Museum is holding its annual quilt show through Sept. 14. A tradition spanning almost three decades, the show features dozens of quilts hung and draped over every available surface, making a riot of color and patterns throughout the old mill space.

Each is hand-crafted and reasonably priced for both new and vintage pieces. There are traditional quilts, baby quilts, and crazy quilts.

A special queen-sized quilt up for raffle features shades of blue and yellow and will be awarded to a winning ticket on Oct. 11 at the museum’s Bowls of Plenty event.

There are only three more performances of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” at Mulford Farm, presented by the Hamptons Independent Theater Festival, known more familiarly as HITFest. If you can, see all three.

The two-hour production is a delight from start to finish, harnessing a bit of Ariel’s magic to make the spare set and staging as engaging as the acting is polished and professional, rivaling Public Theater productions in Central Park I’ve seen over the years.

This is a production that could.

The Watermill Center held its benefit “One Thousand Nights and One Night/Sleepless Nights of Sheherazade” on Saturday night with Jim Jarmusch playing guitar in the Zen room and guests such as Philip Glass and Isabelle Huppert milling about the grounds. The party raised $2.2 million for the center’s International Summer Program and its year-round artists residencies and education programs.

This summer’s artists in residence once again did up the grounds with a series of live performance and video work. As per usual, clothing was optional.

Although Southampton Town police officers did their best to keep traffic moving on County Road 39, drivers heading to the fair mixing with the regular summer evening traffic made for a messy commute on Thursday night.

Those attending the very, very important person preview at 6 p.m. still had their choice of parking.

“White Hot + Blue” was the theme of this year’s LongHouse Reserve’s benefit in East Hampton on Saturday and the grounds and guests were done up just right.

Blue drinks, blue tables, blue and white feathers, blue glassware, blue and white dresses, and blue suits on the synchronized swimmers, if not the men, made the evening festive and sporty, even for the mostly arty crowd, who walked down a blue carpet into the party.

Susan and Stanley Reifer will open their Bridgehampton garden on Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. through the Garden Conservency.

The garden was designed by Jian Guo Xu, Chinese artist who has incorporate Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism on the garden's five acres. The garden includes pavilions, bridges, and water features accessed by winding paths.

The garden is at 5 Paumanok Road, Bridgehampton and  admission is $5.

The Parrish Art Museum’s sold-out Midsummer Party on Saturday night raised $1.25 million and attracted some 1,000 guests.

The event honored Inga Maren Otto, a philanthropist, and Katharina Otto-Bernstein, a filmmaker and author.

The party took place in the museum’s galleries and on the terrace and porches of the building.