Lemonade Maker: Brendan Barry, RainMan

Profiles of people who are seeing opportunity in a pile of economic lemons.

Brendan Barry, Rainwater Harvester

Location: Raleigh-Durham, NC

Before recession: Excavating Contractor

Now: Owner at North Carolina Rainwater Harvesting. Barry’s company installs above/underground systems for home and business owners.

Q. When did you notice a shift in the economic climate?

A. As an excavating contractor, I saw a building slowdown in Massachusetts in 2007. Watching friends fight over any crumb that fell from the home building table became too much to bear. Coaxed by siblings and a perception of a better local economy down south, I closed my sewer, water and grading biz and moved to NC the following December.

Redux: The Self-Help Industry

Lynn Parramore looks back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.

Can we help ourselves out of the downturn?

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.
~The Beatles

Self-improvement is in the American cultural DNA. After all, the pursuit of happiness is one of our inalienable rights. From the get-go, American society was relatively fluid in its class structure compared to European counterparts. This dynamic situation encouraged people to believe that perseverance and hard work could bring the bluebird of happiness flapping to their door. Founding Father Ben Franklin was a self-improvement guru, outlining strategies for attaining moral perfection and improving body and mind. Franklin, was a pragmatist, too. He didn’t shy away from investigating the most orderly, self-disciplined path for the accumulation of wealth…

Recipe for Recession-Proof Tomato Farming

While the Recession has a lot of businesses trending down, organic farmers like Patrick Horan say their debt-driven business is riding a contrarian wave. Horan’s farm, Waldingfield, specializes in heirloom tomatoes, which he uses to produce a special heirloom sauce. His Connecticut farm has been in the family since the 18th century and is now one of the largest certified organic operations in Connecticut. Horan talks to RW about weathering the downturn and America’s shifting attitudes towards organic food.

RW: How has the Recession affected you?

PH: As a farmer, I’m used to dealing with constraints. A lot of the farming business is debt-driven. If you’re in the northeast where you have a smaller growing season, you have to plan carefully. So far, I haven’t seen a downturn in my business, but that is partly because of something called CSA (community supported agriculture). In this system, people buy a share and get a box of vegetables every week. It’s a shared risk, and the system offers protection to the grower.

Thinking Outside the White Box

In New York, Chelsea’s contemporary art galleries are feeling the pinch. Last year, the art market only declined by about 4.5 percent, but the post-war and contemporary sectors dropped by 11 percent. In recent months, notable galleries have closed their doors, but that’s not something Michael Lyons Wier plans to do. For the owner and director of the Lyons Wier Gallery, the economic crisis has become an opportunity to let his imagination run free.

For 15 years, the Lyons Wier Gallery on 7th Avenue has featured contemporary art from painters around the globe. But in the downturn, business as usual no longer fits the bill…

The Guilt of Madoff

It appears that Madoff is going to jail, and we can practically hear the shouts of joy from the rooftops of Manhattan. Madoff, with his silvery coiffure and elegant suits, looks like a man who has enjoyed exquisite pleasures and lived a life of unimaginable indulgence. He is the poster child of greed, the very portrait of the monster who smiles suavely while wreaking havoc.

The country may experience catharsis while witnessing his demise and ultimate incarceration, and that is an important thing. We may need a symbol on which to focus our profound disgust at the excesses that have been so ruinous to our economy…

Your Mane, Your Money

Can’t afford to drop a Benjamin on your lid? Don’t despair. The Empire Beauty School, located in mid-town Manhattan near the Empire State Building, has a full-service student salon where you can tame your mane for the price of a Starbucks latte…

Redux: The Shape of the Recession

Looking back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.

Will the Recession make women fat, or will we stop killing ourselves to be thin?

Body size is a moveable feast, and it changes according to cultural flux. After a long reign of fragile-looking, emaciated models, a strong, athletic form look may be making a comeback. First Lady Michelle Obama’s muscular shape recently graced the cover of Vogue, announcing a new look for the new reality. At the Academy Awards, Kate Winslett was queen of the evening, her gloriously curvaceous figure the envy of all. In interviews she announced – shocker!—that she is too busy to exercise and eats whatever she wants. Oprah Winfrey praised her “real” figure, telegraphing a message to women across American that it’s okay to sport a more natural look. The First Lady and the Academy Award Winner, substantial in both intellect and physicality, flaunt bodies that suggest strength and purpose. They look independent, normal, and accessible.

The Bull and Bear TiniMeter

Current price of one martini at the Waldorf Astoria’s Bull and Bear Bar: $18.50. That same amount will buy you these items, with change to spare:

1. 18 slices of pizza at 99cent Fresh Slice
2. 10 shares Ford Motor Company Stock
3. Round-trip ticket, NY-Boston on BoltBus
4. 3 pitchers of beer at Rudy’s Bar & Grill, + free hot dogs (before 5pm)
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Traveling Tight: Cruising the Recession

Think you can’t afford a cruise? Think again. The Recession is bringing on a boatlaod of cruise bargains. We’re talking $50 per day for a four-day trip from Miami to the Bahamas on Norwegian Cruise Lines. A seven-day Alaska cruise, usually more than $2,000 per person, for $499. Cruise bargains are so plentiful that Ken Heit of World Wide Cruises in Ft. Lauderdale recently suggested that “if you live in an expensive city like San Francisco, Chicago or New York, it might be cheaper right now to spend a week on a cruise ship than to stay at home.” Right. That’s as good excuse as any to check out of bone-chilling NYC.

Borderline Personality Disorder – Illness for Uncertain Times?

The postwar trauma of the 50s brought on widespread anxiety. The suspicion and paranoia of the ‘60s and ‘70s caused schizophrenia to capture the public imagination. In the ‘90s, patients were popping Prozac to cure what seemed to be an epidemic outbreak of chronic depression. In the 2000s recession? It might be Borderline Personality Disorder.

If the Recession era and BDP are finding each other, we Americans shouldn’t be surprised. We identify so completely with work that when we lose our jobs, we don’t know who we are. We leave little time in our busy lives for the things that can guard against emotional shocks, like maintaining social bonds, exercising, playing, and just having some downtime. We are transient and often unsure of our place in the scheme of things….