Waterfront: May 2008

Boys Will Be Boys

ThermoSpas featured on DIY Network's "Man Caves"

What do you get with you take Baltimore Ravens football great Tony "The Goose" Siragusa, Jason Cameron of DIY Network's Man Caves and a ThermoSpa Concord Deluxe, and put them all together on a dreary afternoon in New Jersey? The perfect opportunity for boys to be boys, that's what.

Man Caves is dedicated to "male-izing" rooms across the country that are in desperate need of a testosterone boost. Siragusa and Cameron recently came to the rescue of a former Miami resident now residing in New Jersey who missed the Latin inspiration. The goal: transform a Jersey seasonal room into a year-round South Beach bungalow.

Siragusa and Cameron installed ThermoSpas Concord Deluxe, which features 99 stainless-steel jets, bubbling system, surround-sound stereo system and LED lighting to recreate the Miami heat.

"We were really excited when Man Caves called and said they wanted a ThermoSpa for their next makeover," said Andrew Tournas, president of Thermo Spas. "But we were thrilled when we saw that The Goose got in the ThermoSpa for some R&R. It is the perfect way to kick back, relax and whisk yourself off to a white sandy beach."

Monkeying Around

The Japanese macaque - aka the snow monkey - has a diverse range of habitats, including some where winter temperatures barely reach 5 degrees Fahrenheit. But did you know that snow monkeys love to relax in naturally heated volcanic hot springs? In the late 1990s, the Detroit Zoo built a hot tub into the snow monkey enclosure to imitate the hot springs present in their natural habitat.

Green And Goal

Global Surroundings takes part in eco-friendly Super Bowl celebration

Sports super agent Leigh Steinberg knows how to throw a party. For the last 22 years, Steinberg's Super Bowl soirées have included a who's who of sports, Hollywood and politics in the event's host town, and the only thing different this year was the obvious emphasis on the eco-friendly movement. This year's celebration benefited the Arizona Environmental Fund.

"Steinberg has now figured out that stars and famous people find it chic to conserve the planet," says JL Jackson, co-owner of Global Surroundings, a Phoenix-based high-end casual furniture manufacturer that produces collections made only of rediscovered wood.

Global Surroundings displayed its eco-friendly furniture in a spot where the 2,000 VIP guests were sure to notice it, where the "green carpet" ended - think Oscars Red Carpet - and the celebration began.

"It was kind of a place to be seen," says Jackson. "It was set at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix because that whole park is eco-friendly. So it was the perfect venue."

Jackson says Global Surroundings was asked to be there to showcase its luxurious and eco-friendly outdoor furniture line, a casual furniture trend that is rapidly gaining in popularity across the nation.

Splash For CF

BioGuard kicks off national campaign to fight cystic fibrosis

After Emily Schreiber was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 9, she made the decision to raise money and awareness for the genetic disease through one of her greatest passions: swimming. To date, Emily has raised more than $1 million through a nonprofit organization she founded called the Laps for CF Foundation.

Emily initially raised money by having individuals pledge dollar amounts for each lap she could swim in a small community pool in Birmingham, Ala. As the years passed, interest in the project grew, as did donations. With Laps for CF now in its sixth year, Emily and BioGuard are teaming up to promote Splash for CF, a national campaign encouraging everyone to get into the pool and raise money for a good cause, with the goal of getting at least one million people in the pool.

BioGuard will donate a portion of the sales of its Silk Tabs, Silk Sticks, Smart Sticks and Pool Pods to Laps for CF. BioGuard is also encouraging its dealers to host pool-party fundraisers and swim-a-thons where 60 percent of the money will go to a local CF care center/hospital of their choice and 40 percent will go to Laps for CF. For more information, visit www.splashforcf.org.

Avant-Garde At Its Best

Defying tradition just swimmingly

Cutting-edge artistic style usually starts in New York City and seeps into other U.S. locales months later, so it comes as no surprise that the Daryl Roth Theater on Union Square East is home to Fuerzabruta, a 360-degree theatergoing experience that translates to "brute force."

The play features aerial, acrobatic and dance components that include a 6-foot-high treadmill and 20-foot flying curtain. Most notable, though, are its aquatic features, especially since the actors splash and frolic in a 45-foot-long, clear-bottom pool suspended from the ceiling mere inches from the audience's grasp - which, by the way, is welcomed throughout the performance. The standing-room-only audience is encouraged to touch the pool and feel the performers move about in small puddles of water.

As one can imagine, engineering the set was quite a feat, and it required dedication, coordination and a lot of help. "It's definitely the most challenging project I've worked on," Bradley Thompson, the show's technical director, told The New York Times.

It took nearly 60 workers to build and install the set over a period of three months. But like most challenging projects, it couldn't go off without a hitch. The theater's roof was not strong enough to support a pool hanging from it, so the crew propped up the roof with steel beams.

Giving theatergoers an experience to remember is what it's all about. Watching a show from comfortable velvet-lined theater seats is one thing, but getting wet, touching the actors, experiencing the panorama of the show is something else.

"The audience knows they are a part of this celebration," Diqui James, the show's director, told The Times. "That's what makes it so different from the theater that is on the stage. There, you're outside watching it, and here you are inside, making it happen."