Martha Sherrill | Author

MAGICAL CLOTHING: FARRAH’S JERSEY

By Martha | Published: September 15, 2011

I have a terrible habit of borrowing clothes. (Hand-me-downs are great too.) Here’s a light-hearted essay I wrote for today’s New York Times about the best thing I ever borrowed — a roller derby jersey worn by Farrah Fawcett on Charlie’s Angels. It tells how I got it. And, painfully, how I had to give it back.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/fashion/charlies-angels-didnt-look-that-sexy-without-help.html

Posted in Charlie's Angels, Fashion writing, New York Times Styles, Personal Essay, Re-useable Life, Recycled Clothing | Tagged Carolina Ewart, Charlie's Angels, costumers of Hollywood, Farrah Fawcett, Hollywood wardrobe, magical clothes, roller derby jersey, Victoria Craze, vintage clothing | Comments closed

REIMAGINING JAPAN

By Martha | Published: July 18, 2011

Japan is on everybody’s mind these days. I was lucky to be asked to contribute an essay to a fantastic collection, Reimagining Japan, just out. It is already #1 nonfiction book in Japan and sold out in English on Amazon, but more copies will be available soon. The other contributors are artists, writers, historians, economists, CEOs and even a soccer coach and a videogame creator. Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully packaged, it has been called the most comprehensive book about Japan ever. You might have to wait a few weeks to hold it in your hands but, if it’s any consolation, so do I.

Posted in Dog Man, Japan, Japan earthquake, Japan tsunami, Japan's future, Mountain Life, Reimagining Japan, Snow Country, essays about Japan | Tagged Akita dogs, Akitas, Dog Man, essays about Japan, Japan, Japan's future, Japanese translation, Rescuing Japan's Noble Breed, Snow Country | Comments closed

Move Over, Estee Lauder

By Martha | Published: June 23, 2011

Leslie Blodgett vs. Estee Lauder

This might surprise you, but there’s nothing I love more than getting to write a fashion or beauty business profile. Fashionistas don’t take themselves too seriously (the way a U.S. senator always does.) And an individual with loads of creativity + business smarts is usually open, self-aware, colorful, intelligent, and thrilled to be interviewed. Leslie Blodgett, the visionary behind Bare Escentuals who caused a cosmetic industry revolution with her crazy mineral foundation, was – as my 13-year old son would say – da bomb. You can click on the photo above to link to the New York Times story that I wrote earlier this month, or use this permalink below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/fashion/leslie-blodgett-of-bare-escentuals-the-queen-of-beauty.html

(Photo credit: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times; Getty Images)

Posted in Business profile, General, The New York Times Styles Section, beauty business feature, fashion profile | Tagged Bare Escentuals, bareMinerals, Beauty business, cosmetic industry, Estee Lauder, fashion profile, fashionista, high priestess of mineral make up, Leslie Blodgett, make up maven, Max Factor, mineral make up revolution, Personality Profile, The New York Times | Comments closed

The Sisters of Maine

By Martha | Published: May 11, 2011

This spring, I worked on a dual-profile of the two senators from Maine — who work seamlessly together despite a decades long and rather bitter rivalry. The Washington Post gave me this terrific assignment, along with lots of support and space. The piece ran last Friday, on May 5, 2011. The photo (below) should take you to the link.

Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins

Posted in New England politics, Newspaper profiles + features, The U.S. Senate, The Washington Post | Tagged Maine Senators, moderate Republicans, Olympia Snowe, political profiles, Sec. William Cohen, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Senate rivalries, Style Section profiles, Susan Collins, The Washington Post | Comments closed

DOG MAN comes to Japan

By Martha | Published: April 29, 2011

Copies of Dog Man, translated into Japanese

Just arrived in the mail from Japan: copies of Dog Man, translated into Japanese and published by Odyssey, a small family-run press in the north of Japan. I am so happy to see this amazing life story – which the Sawataishis were courageous to share so honestly with me – making a way back to its home country. At such a difficult and dispirting time for the north of Japan, I hope this story of endurance, personal fortitude and resourcefulness won’t just amuse and entertain readers, but inspire them.

Posted in Dog Man, Hachiko: A Dog's Tale, Japan, Japan earthquake, Mountain Life, nature writing | Tagged Akita dogs, Akitas, Dog Man, Japan, Japanese translation, Morie Sawataishi, Snow Country | Comments closed

The Sawataishi Family is Safe

By Martha | Published: March 18, 2011

I know how much the Sawataishi family would appreciate all the calls and emails of concern I’ve gotten about them since the earthquake and tsunami hit the north of Japan last week.

So many readers of Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain came to feel close to this wonderful, resourceful family, whose lives were chronicled in the book. Their family home is in Kurikoma, not too far from Sendai, which is where so much of the damage has taken place.

Good news. All members of the extended Sawataishi clan are safe. Atsuko Fukushima, the oldest daughter of Morie and Kitako, evacuated her house in Fukushima (like her last name) — very near the epicenter of the quake – just in time, and was able to travel with her husband Noritsugu and their dog Bobby to a country house owned by their daughter Yukari near Nasu Kogen.

Atsuko’s house in Fukushima was severely damaged — and now, due to the meltdown of the nearby nuclear plant, it is unclear whether she will be able to return.

Some of you may remember that this is the second time Atsuko has been dislocated in recent years. In 2008, when a strong earthquake devastated the Sawaitashi family house in the mountains of Kurikoma, she and Noritsugu had to move in with her sister in Oyama City and, a few months later, set up a new life in Fukushima, where they were living when I last them in March 2009. (Pictured above.)

The condition of the Kurikoma house, which had just been restored from the 2008 quake, remains unknown at this point. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I know you will all join me in wishing Atsuko and Noritsugu, and the country of Japan, much strength and energy and good fortune in the years ahead.

Posted in Dog Man, General, Japan, Japan tsunami, Mountain Life, Sawataishi family, Snow Country | Comments closed

My Life in Salvage

By Martha | Published: February 15, 2011

Sadly, I am not a do-gooder or chronic volunteer type. I won’t go into various excuses for this, except to say that my idea of making the world better is to not lie or cheat or steal, and take good care of my family. I also believe in the virtues of cleanliness.

Three years ago, though, I signed up to work at the swap shop on the grounds of our town dump on Cape Cod. It is a salvage shack, basically. Everything is free there. This creates an unusual, almost wildly blissful environment — a browser’s utopia. It is also a town hang-out and listening post.

Yes, it is located at the dump. And there are bad smells that sometimes go with that. But mostly, the Orleans Gift House is a spectacular, transformative place to spend a few hours. A chronicle of some of the stuff that has come in, and gone, can be seen on a blog that I created for the town, where locals can browse the highlights of the salvage without actually driving down there.

The book that I’m working on, which sometimes I call, The Gift House, and other times I call, My Life in Salvage, describes in lurid detail what it is like to live year-round on the Outer Cape and what I’ve learned at the dump. I should be finished writing by summer.

Posted in Cape Cod memoir, Free Stuff, Free-cycle, General, Salvage, Salvage Shack, The Gift House | Comments closed

Remembering Morie Sawataishi

By Martha | Published: October 4, 2010

Morie Sawataishi at an Akita dog show, Odate, November 2005

This is the time of year to remember Morie Sawataishi, the man who saved the Akita dog from extinction. The anniversary of his death, October 22, is less than three weeks away. Morie did more than just devote his life to rescuing and restoring the Akita dog in Japan after World War II. He devoted himself to Japan’s snow country – the isolated and forgotten north. He devoted himself to loyalty, inconvenience, hard work. He devoted himself to the forests and woods of Japan, and to a rugged mountain life where he could raise and train his champion dogs. Post your comments of appreciation, photos of your dogs — Akita or otherwise – and your good wishes to the Sawataishi family on the Facebook page, “Dog Man: One Man Saves Japan’s Akita Dogs.” There you will find hundreds of Akita lovers, nature lovers and dog lovers on a page created by Scribe, the Australian publisher of my book, Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain. The Sawataishi family will be looking in . . .

Posted in Dog Man, General, Hachiko: A Dog's Tale, Japan, Mountain Life, Slow Life, Snow Country, nature writing | Comments closed

DO YOU HAVE A DIGITAL PHILOSOPHY YET?

By Martha | Published: July 23, 2010

I’m so excited about my husband’s new book! Reviews have been fantastic. Life is short and if you are worried that you are squandering your days with surfing and tweeting, your eyes always fixed on a screen– and desperately hoping to find happiness there — this book will inspire you.