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Pa. museum automaton has link to Scorcese's 'Hugo'

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:19:45 UT

Pa. museum automaton has link to Scorcese's 'Hugo' Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 12:45�p.m., Wednesday, February 22, 2012 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Franklin Institute's automaton can't help you find a good sushi place, direct you out of a traffic jam or check your bank balance.But the automaton, a mechanical doll animated by a complex system of spring-driven motors and brass cams, can write three poems and draw four pictures. And what might be most interesting about this 200-year-old curiosity is its ability to amaze a high-tech culture whose homes, cars and pockets are laden with all kinds of wireless, streaming, talking, mapping gadgetry.Martin Scorcese's movie "Hugo," nominated for 11 Academy Awards this weekend, including best picture, has sparked the latest wave of interest in the automated offspring of a real-life 19th-century clockmaker.The film itself is based on Brian Selznick's award-winning "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," an illustrated novel about a Parisian boy and a broken automaton with a secret buried inside its mechanical memory. The author learned of the Philadelphia automaton while researching his book and contacted The Franklin Institute."That's when I found out it had hadn't worked for many years and was at the time in the basement and off-limits," Selznick said. Like in his story, the Philadelphia automaton was broken and once damaged in a fire.Selznick was permitted to see the automaton in its sorry state, with its head detached and its hand unable to write or draw. Charles Penniman, 83, the machine's caretaker and guardian for nearly four decades, explained its colorful past and its remarkable former abilities."They're old friends," Selznick said of the man-machine duo. After the visit, Selznick got in touch with mechanical whiz Andy Baron, a pop-up book designer and real-life Hugo working as a technical consultant for the book. He came to Philadelphia and repaired the automaton that museum officials feared was irreparable."Charles was there as Andy was fixing the machine," Selznick said. "He must be very happy that it's the center of attention again."Penniman, who vividly recalls seeing the automaton in The Franklin Institute as a boy in the 1930s, said it has fascinated children and adults for two centuries."The mystique of the machine is what it's all about," he said. "This has a glass opening now so you can see the cams inside ... originally, it would have been covered up so you couldn't see the mechanism. Either way, there's mystery about how this kid does what he does."It was made in England around 1800 and traveled throughout Europe as far as St. Petersburg for 40-odd years in touring shows of automata and other mechanical marvels.From there, things get cloudy. The popular theory is that famous American showman P.T. Barnum brought it to the U.S., possibly displaying it in his Philadelphia museum that burned to the ground in 1851. The automaton, a charred and tangled mess, somehow ended up with a wealthy Philadelphian named John Penn Brock, whose descendants donated it to The Franklin Institute in 1928.At that time, the Brocks said family lore identified the maker as German inventor Johann Maelzel. After months of work to bring the scorched automaton out of suspended animation — with no diagrams or manuals to guide him — museum mechanic Charles Roberts was in for a surprise when he wound its two cranks and flipped an internal lever.The automaton lowered its porcelain head, smoothly wrote a four-line poem in meticulous penmanship and finished with "Ecrit par L'Automate de Maillardet" — translation: "Written by Maillardet's Automaton.""In the little boy's memory, which is here," Penniman said, pointing to the elaborate brass cams seen through the glass floor under the figure's gilded writing desk, "he told us who made him. We didn't know. But the kid here — he knew."Its reperto[...]

First Amendment crusader Barney Rosset dies

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:53:03 UT

First Amendment crusader Barney Rosset dies Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 12:53�p.m., Wednesday, February 22, 2012 NEW YORK (AP) — Barney Rosset, the fiery and fearless publisher who introduced the country to countless political and avant-garde writers and risked prison and financial ruin to release such underground classics as "Tropic of Cancer" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover," has died. He was 89.Rosset died at a Manhattan hospital Tuesday night, said Kelly Bowen, publicity manager for Algonquin Books, which was to publish Rosset's autobiography. Rosset had recently had heart surgery."Barney was a great, great American publisher," said Morgan Entrekin, publisher of Grove/Atlantic Books, who called Rosset among the last of a breed of publisher powerfully motivated by social responsibility. "He was extraordinary. I would say if there's a Publishing Hall of Fame he definitely is going it."As publisher of Grove Press, Rosset was a First Amendment crusader who helped overthrow 20th century censorship laws in the United States and profoundly expanded the American reading experience. Rosset had an FBI file that lasted for decades and he would seek out fellow rebels for much of his life.Between Grove and the magazine Evergreen Review, which lasted from 1957 to 1973, Rosset published Samuel Beckett, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Jean-Paul Sartre, Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence and William Burroughs. He was equally daring as a film distributor, his credits including the groundbreaking erotic film "I Am Curious (Yellow)," and art-house releases by Jean-Luc Godard, Marguerite Duras and others.Rosset himself was the subject of a movie, "Obscene," a 2008 documentary that included commentary from John Waters, Gore Vidal and Amiri Baraka. The same year, he received honorary citations from the National Coalition Against Censorship and from the National Book Foundation, which sponsors the National Book Awards.His autobiography was tentatively titled "The Subject Was Left-Handed" and Algonquin's Publisher Elisabeth Scharlatt said she hopes to release it within the year."While working on this book, Barney took great pleasure in digging up his rebellious ancestors and his rebellious roots, from a bad-boy grandfather to his very progressive elementary school that he was sent to in Chicago," she said in an interview. "I think that in looking at how he got where he got with his own rebellious attitudes, he could see that he was maybe even pre-ordained in some way."A bon vivant who enjoyed long lunches and strong martinis, Rosset was a slightly built man with a brisk, peppery voice; and a breathless laugh, often at his own expense. His longtime editor in chief at Grove, Richard Seaver, would remember him as "often irascible, a control freak, prone to panic attacks," with a "sadistic element" that shadowed his "innate generosity." Rosset, interviewed by The Associated Press in 1998, called himself an "amoeba with a brain," ever slipping into enemy territory."I'm half-Jewish and half-Irish, and my mother and grandfather spoke Gaelic," he explained. "From an early age my feelings made the IRA look pretty conservative. I grew up hating fascism, hating racism."A Chicago native, he was the only child of a banker, a rich kid with a passion for the arts and a rage to make trouble. His hero was John Dillinger, the nation's foremost bank robber. By eighth grade he was printing a newspaper called Anti-Everything and he had joined the left-wing American Student Union."By the time I was a sophomore in college, second year at UCLA, I had reports that government agents had entered my apartment and took books and that they followed my mail and who I sent things to," he said."At the time it was not fashionable to be against Hitler. It was called 'premature anti-fascism.' Then I volunteered in the infantry and that conf[...]

Childhood comic collection expected to fetch $2M

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:44:53 UT

Childhood comic collection expected to fetch $2M Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 12:32�p.m., Wednesday, February 22, 2012 DALLAS (AP) — A comic collection that includes a staggering array of some of the most prized issues ever published was headed for auction Wednesday in New York City, where it was expected to fetch more than $2 million.Among the 345 well-preserved comics bought decades ago by a Virginia boy with a remarkable knack for picking winners are 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's top 100 issues from comics' golden age."This is just one of those collections that all the guys in the business think don't exist anymore," said Lon Allen, the managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale.The collection includes an Action Comics No. 1, from 1938, which features the first appearance of Superman and is expected to sell for about $325,000. A Detective Comics No. 27, from 1939, features the first appearance of Batman and is expected to get about $475,000. A Captain America No. 2, from 1941, in which the hero bursts in on Adolf Hitler is expected to bring in about $100,000."The scope of this collection is, from a historian's perspective, dizzying," said J.C. Vaughn, associate publisher of Overstreet.Most comics from the golden age — the late 1930s into the 1950s — fell victim to wartime paper drives, normal wear and tear and mothers throwing them out, said Vaughn. Of the 200,000 copies of Action Comics No. 1 produced, about 130,000 were sold and the about 70,000 that didn't sell were pulped. Today, experts believe only about 100 copies are left in the world, he said.The collection up for auction was discovered last year by a man cleaning out his late great aunt's house in Martinsville, Va., following her death. When Michael Rorrer opened up a basement closet, he found the neatly stacked comics that had belonged to his late great uncle Billy Wright, who died in 1994 at age 66.Experts say the comics are significant not only for the number of rare books, but also because they were kept in such good condition and because they were kept for all of these years by a man who bought them as a boy."There were some really hard to find books that were in really, really great condition," said Paul Litch, the primary grader at Certified Guaranty Company, an independent certification service for comic books."You can see it was a real collection," Litch said. "Someone really cared about these and kept them in good shape."Rorrer, 31, of Oxnard, Calif., took half the comics home with him and his mother took the other half to give to his brother Jonathan in Houston. He said he didn't realize their value until months later, when he mentioned the Captain America No. 2 to a co-worker who mused that it would be something if he had Action Comics No. 1."I went home and was looking through some of them, and there it was," said Rorrer, who then began researching the collection's value in earnest.Once Rorrer realized how important the comics were, he called his mother, Lisa Hernandez, of League City, Texas, who still had the box for his brother at her house. The two then went through their boxes, checking comic after comic off the list.Hernandez said it really hit her how valuable the comics were when she saw the look on Allen's face after he came to her house to look through the comics she had there."It was kind of hard to wrap my head around it," Allen said.Rorrer said he remembers his aunt making only a fleeting reference to the comics when she learned that he and his brother liked comic books. He said his great uncle never mentioned his collection.Allen, who called the collection "jaw-dropping," noted that Wright "seemed to have a knack" for picking up the ones that would be the most valuable. The core of his colle[...]

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Obama joins Jagger, B.B. King, to belt out blues

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:27:54 UT

Obama joins Jagger, B.B. King, to belt out blues Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 10:09�a.m., Wednesday, February 22, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) — The president just couldn't say no: Mick Jagger held out a mic almost by way of command, and soon Barack Obama was belting out the blues with the best of them.The East Room of the White House was transformed into an intimate blues club on Tuesday night for a concert featuring blues all-stars of the past, present and future — and the president himself.The surprise performance by Obama came at the end of the playlist when the blues ensemble was singing "Sweet Home Chicago," the blues anthem of Obama's home town.Buddy Guy prodded the president, saying he'd heard that the president sang part of an Al Green tune recently, and adding, "You gotta keep it up."Then Jagger handed over the mic, and Obama seemed compelled to comply."Come on, baby don't you want to go," the president sang out twice, handing off the mic to B.B. King momentarily, and then taking it back to tack on "Sweet Home Chicago" at the end.That was how Obama ended the night.This was how he began it: Obama said sometimes there are downsides to being the president. You can't just go for a walk, for example.And then there are the times that more than make up for all those frustrations, he said, like Tuesday night, when Jagger, King, Jeff Beck and other musical giants came by the house to sing the blues."I guess things even out a little bit," Obama joked at the start of a rollicking East Room concert that was electrified by Jagger and the rest."This music speaks to something universal," Obama declared. "No one goes through life without both joy and pain, triumph and sorrow. The blues gets all of that, sometimes with just one lyric or one note. "King, 86, arrived in a wheelchair but rose tall to kick off the night with a raucous "Let the Good Times Roll," quickly joined by other members of the ensemble. And he followed with "The Thrill is Gone."From there, Obama and his wife, Michelle, were swaying in their seats and singing along to an all-hits playlist including "St. James Infirmary" and "Let Me Love You."Beck slowed things down with an instrumental "Brush With the Blues," as anticipation built for the arrival of Jagger, who did not disappoint.The longtime Rolling Stones frontman delivered on "I Can't Turn You Loose" and then teamed up with Beck on "Commit a Crime." Jagger got the president and his wife up out of their seats, swaying and clapping to the music, and picked up the pace with "Miss You," performed with Shemekia Copeland and Susan Tedeschi.Obama was clearly savoring the moment, closing his eyes at times and nodding his head as he lip-synced the words.The president rose at the end to introduce the ensemble as the "White House Blues All-Stars" for the final song of the night, "Sweet Home Chicago.""For Michelle and me," the president said, "there's no blues like the song our artists have chosen to close with — the blues from our hometown."With that, the ensemble wrapped up the evening with "Sweet Home Chicago." And then Jagger handed off the mic to Obama for his presidential coda.In advance of the concert, Grammy-winner Keb Mo had joked during a rehearsal break that Obama himself would perform, and there could even be a record in the works. He joked that Obama's record would be called, "After the second term, now I can finally get my groove on."Maybe he wasn't joking after all.The lineup for Tuesday's concert spanned multiple generations, from legends like King and Guy to young faces such as 26-year-old Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and Gary Clark Jr., whose style blends hip hop, contemporary soul and indie rock. Also performing were Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, with actr[...]

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Inherited comic collection expected to fetch $2M

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:07:51 UT

Inherited comic collection expected to fetch $2M Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 08:42�p.m., Tuesday, February 21, 2012 DALLAS (AP) — Michael Rorrer said his great aunt once mentioned having comic books she would one day give him and his brother, but it was a passing remark made when they were boys and still into superheroes.Ruby Wright gave no indication at the time — and she died last February, leaving it unclear — that her late husband's comic collection contained some of the most prized issues ever published. The 345 comics were slated to sell at auction in New York on Wednesday, and were expected to fetch more than $2 million.Rorrer, 31, of Oxnard, Calif., discovered his great uncle Billy Wright's comics neatly stacked in a basement closet while helping clear out his great aunt's Martinsville, Va., home a few months after her death. He said he thought they were cool but didn't realize until months later how valuable they were.Rorrer, who works as an operator at a plant where oil is separated from water, said he was telling a co-worker about Captain America No. 2, a 1941 issue in which the hero bursts in on Adolf Hitler, when the co-worker mused that it would be something if he had Action Comics No. 1, in which Superman makes his first appearance."I went home and was looking through some of them and there it was," said Rorrer, who then began researching the collection's value in earnest.He found out that his great uncle had managed as a boy to buy a staggering array of what became the most valuable comic books ever published."This is just one of those collections that all the guys in the business think don't exist anymore," said Lon Allen, the managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale.The collection includes 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's list of top 100 issues from comics' golden age."The scope of this collection is, from a historian's perspective, dizzying," said J.C. Vaughn, associate publisher of Overstreet.Once Rorrer realized how important the comics were, he called his mother, Lisa Hernandez, 54, of League City, Texas, who had divided them into two boxes. She sent one to him and kept the other one at her house for his brother. Rorrer and his mother then went through their boxes, checking comic after comic off the list."I couldn't believe what I had sitting there upstairs at my house," Rorrer said.Hernandez, who works as an operator in a chemical plant, said it really hit her how valuable the comics were when she saw the look on Allen's face after he came to her house to look through the comics she had there."It was kind of hard to wrap my head around it," Allen said.Rorrer said he only remembers his aunt making the fleeting reference to the comics when she learned that he and his brother, Jonathan Rorrer, now 29 of Houston, liked comic books. He said his great uncle, who died in 1994 at age 66, never mentioned his collection.The Action Comics No. 1 — which Wright bought when he was about 11 — is expected to sell for about $325,000. A Detective Comics No. 27, the 1939 issue that features the first appearance of Batman, is expected to get about $475,000. And the Captain America No. 2 with Hitler on the cover that had caught Rorrer's eye? That's expected to bring in about $100,000.Allen, who called the collection "jaw-dropping," noted that Wright "seemed to have a knack" for picking up the ones that would be the most valuable and managed to keep them in good condition. The core of his collection is from 1938 to 1941.Hernandez said it makes sense that her uncle — even as a boy — [...]

Prosecutors oppose Jackson doctor's bail bid.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:07:36 UT

Prosecutors oppose Jackson doctor's bail bid. Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 07:12�p.m., Tuesday, February 21, 2012 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson's doctor was properly sentenced to four years behind bars in the star's death and should not be released on bail, prosecutors argued Tuesday in a response to his bid for release while his case is appealed.Dr. Conrad Murray would be a danger to the community and a flight risk if he was released on bail or on his own recognizance with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, Deputy District Attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil said.Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a trial focusing on use of the anesthetic propofol as a sleeping medication for the superstar. Jackson died of an overdose of the drug in June 2009.Murray's four-year jail sentence is the highest term that could be imposed for that crime.Prosecutors said the sentence was appropriate under the circumstances and noted it was unlikely Murray would serve more than half that time."Michael Jackson died because of a totality of circumstances directly attributable to the defendant," the motion said. Murray had practiced "a form of highly dangerous and experimental medicine that directly resulted in Mr. Jackson's death," it added."Based on his failure to accept responsibility for the decisions he made, his complete lack of remorse and lack of insight into the danger of his criminally negligent conduct, he remains a danger to the community," the motion stated.It noted that he has many contacts outside the state and out of the country and could flee if released.The motion also said Murray has not established the existence of any substantial legal question that might result in reversal of his conviction.His lawyer, J. Michael Flanagan, said in a motion last month that Murray knows he cannot work as a doctor but would find other employment. He suggested the sentence and Murray's mode of confinement is extremely severe for a man with no prior criminal record.Murray is being held in solitary confinement and is chained to a table when he meets with his lawyers, according to Flanagan, who said Murray is extremely sorrowful about Jackson's death.Flanagan conceded that Murray made some medical misjudgments but said he never intended harm to Jackson.With Murray's appeal expected to take more than a year to move through the courts, the attorney said it would be unfair to keep him jailed in the interim. His appeal has not yet been filed. Conceivably, he could serve his entire sentence before the appeal is decided.A hearing on the motion was set for Friday. [...]

'Safe House' wins holiday weekend with $27.5M

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:48:29 UT

'Safe House' wins holiday weekend with $27.5M LOS ANGELES (AP) — Denzel Washington's action thriller "Safe House" held the No. 1 spot at the box office with $27.5 million over the long President's Day weekend.The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by Hollywood.com are:1. "Safe House," Universal, $27,542,825, 3,121 locations, $8,825 average, $81,812,440, two weeks.2. "The Vow," Sony Screen Gems, $26,640,786, 2,958 locations, $9,006 average, $88,567,623, two weeks.3. "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," Warner Bros., $25,934,109, 3,500 locations, $7,410 average, $59,050,451, two weeks.4. "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," Sony, $25,470,773, 3,174 locations, $8,025 average, $25,470,773, one week.5. "This Means War," Fox, $20,006,912, 3,189 locations, $6,274 average, $21,616,717, one week.6. "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace," Fox, $9,920,675, 2,655 locations, $3,737 average, $35,793,910, two weeks.7. "Chronicle," Fox, $9,164,061, 2,556 locations, $3,585 average, $52,643,487, three weeks.8. "The Secret World of Arrietty," Disney, $8,684,864, 1,522 locations, $5,706 average, $8,684,864, one week.9. "The Woman in Black," CBS, $7,794,176, 2,559 locations, $3,046 average, $46,404,794, three weeks.10. "The Grey," Open Road, $3,717,234, 2,107 locations, $1,764 average, $48,610,293, four weeks.11. "The Descendants," Fox Searchlight, $3,489,672, 1,243 locations, $2,807 average, $75,572,442, 14 weeks.12. "Big Miracle," Universal, $3,162,190, 1,634 locations, $1,935 average, $17,605,685, three weeks.13. "The Artist," Weinstein Co., $2,971,453, 808 locations, $3,678 average, $28,070,412, 13 weeks.14. "Hugo," Paramount, $2,201,239, 558 locations, $3,945 average, $67,287,363, 13 weeks.15. "Red Tails," Fox, $1,769,318, 1,009 locations, $1,754 average, $47,885,854, five weeks.16. "Underworld Awakening," Sony Screen Gems, $1,350,106, 826 locations, $1,635 average, $61,593,907, five weeks.17. "The Iron Lady," Weinstein Co., $1,296,474, 623 locations, $2,081 average, $24,656,260, eight weeks.18. "One For the Money," Lionsgate, $929,511, 933 locations, $996 average, $25,605,720, four weeks.19. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," Warner Bros., $771,146, 577 locations, $1,336 average, $30,774,123, nine weeks.20. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," Fox, $684,115, 400 locations, $1,710 average, $129,872,610, 10 weeks.___Online:http://www.hollywood.com___Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC. [...]

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Balki's back! Bronson Pinchot has Pa.-based show

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:45:41 UT

Balki's back! Bronson Pinchot has Pa.-based show Associated Press (image) Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 04:58�p.m., Tuesday, February 21, 2012 HARFORD, Pa. (AP) — For more than a decade, Bronson Pinchot has spent much of his downtime in the picture-book Pennsylvania hamlet where he found a dream home far from the stressful clamor of New York or L.A.Pinchot likely remains best known as the endearingly naive, quasi-Mediterranean immigrant Balki Bartokomous from the TV sitcom "Perfect Strangers." But unlike Balki, Pinchot is by his own admission "fiercely private" and an "introvert that does a pretty convincing performance as an extrovert."Still, he has decided to open his doors to America via "The Bronson Pinchot Project," which premiered Feb. 11 on the DIY Network. In all, eight episodes were shot over 13 weeks at the end of last year in Harford, a village founded in 1790 and nestled in the Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County near the New York state line.His filmography includes 1980s hits like "Risky Business" and "Beverly Hills Cop," but since "Perfect Strangers" ended in 1993 after eight seasons, Pinchot has performed on and off-Broadway, appeared in touring theatrical productions and done voiceovers and audiobooks.His new show, though, is altogether different.First, the designs are his own. "I get a kick out of it because I sit there with a sketchbook and say, 'This is what it should look like when it's done' and in the end it either looks like that or it's better," he said. "My theater training helps; in theater, it doesn't matter where you're at with your performance, opening night is opening night."Home base is Pinchot's circa 1840 mansion in the center of Harford, a town of about 1,300 people. It was the home of state Sen. Edward Jones in the early 1900s and had more recently served as office space. Pinchot bought the place in 2000."I wanted a Greek Revival house within five driving hours of New York City," Pinchot said. When he first walked in, he said, he knew he would buy it.When he arrived, the scene couldn't have been better staged by a Hollywood set designer: The house smelled of cinnamon toast, the air outside smelled of fresh manure, a woman pushing a baby carriage paused to admire a neighbor's fuchsia roses across the street."I was already sold, but that was like God was hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer," he said. "OK, I get it, I get it!"He now owns six historic properties in Harford, including what was a burned-out vacant home also from around 1840 and a sweet blue-shingled building that houses the town's post office. Eventually, he hopes many of the properties will be places for visiting friends to stay.The first season's architectural stars are his Ionic-columned mansion and Decker House, a smaller home rehabbed with salvaged wood from demolished old buildings, windows from an abandoned farmhouse and floors from a property formerly part of late heiress Doris Duke's estate.Not only is "The Bronson Pinchot Project" a show about historic restoration, it's a love letter to his adopted hometown."Harford is to be seen through my lens, which is that that it's heaven on earth," he said. "None of this 'big fish in a little pond.' No. We're not doing 'Green Acres.'"Pinchot, 52, an antiques collector and enthusiast of classical art and architecture since childhood, is a hands-on renovator who employs local carpenters and craftspeople; many are slated to appear in the show.Years of trial and error have culminated into the current style viewers will see taking shap[...]

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