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Welcome to Quarry Hill's Blog!

Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, VT, founded 1946 by Barbara and Irving Fiske, is Vermont's oldest alternative community and at one time was probably also its largest. In the 60s -80s, as many as 90 people lived here.
It was and is visited each year, often in summer (but in every season, really) by visitors from all over the world.
We welcome interesting and creative people who are peaceful, bring no weapons, don't believe in hitting children or killing animals, and enjoy the beauty of Vermont and of themselves.

Most of us do not adhere to any particular dogma or religion, though many do find Eastern philosophy closest to our own thought (some of us are also members of the Quakers/Society of Friends).
We value the individual, particularly people who are energetic and have a sense of humor.
Visitors are welcome-- and prospective residents, too. There are some places for rent, others for sale. If interested, get in touch!
And, please follow the Blog and comment whenever you like!

"The symbol is the enemy of the reality, and the reality is ever one's true guide, true friend, true companion, and true self." Irving Fiske, 1908-1990

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

To learn more about Quarry Hill and its influences...

http://quarryhillvt.livejournal.com/95321.html

Please check out the entries on our Live Journal site. I hope to keep updating and posting more information about our odd lives. But there is quite a wealth to be found on Live Journal.

Also these authors, books, and artists who have influenced Quarry Hill and its denizens over the years:

A. S. Neill of Summerhill School in England

Dianetics before it became (in our opinion) corrupted: it was then a kind of compilation of Eastern meditative techniques, but it has changed.

Sigmund Freud 
C. G. Jung
A. Adler
Wilhelm Reich
and others


Aldous Huxley: Island, (some of our child-raising techniques came from this book), The Perennial Philosophy, Music at Night, and other books.
George Bernard Shaw: most of his plays, especially Back to Methuselah
Krishnamurti
The Buddha: particularly The Diamond Sutra, The Heart Sutra, Zen and Mahayana writings of the ages
The Gnostic Gospels
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and much else
The King James Bible
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps
Alan Watts
Thomas Merton (Irving loved Watts, Reps, and Merton).
Dillard K. Henderson, Poet Laureate of Quarry Hill
At Times: Anais Nin, Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writings especially Diaries and Letters
Amelia Earhart (Irving had a photo of her on his inner cabin door)

The Dalai Lama
Osho (formerly known as Sri something or other)
The I Ching
The Tibetan Book of the Dead and its other forms (The Psych. Experience)
The writings of Garma C. C. Chang (The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa)
The writings of W.Y. Evans-Wentz

W. Somerset Maugham: The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Irving didn't like it, but the kids did)

William Shakespeare, especially The Tempest and Hamlet
The Greek playwrights: Euripides, particularly (Irv's favorite)




Leonardo Da Vinci
Sandro Botticelli
Fra Angelico (and others)
Michelangelo
Van Gogh
Cezanne
Monet
Tolouse-Lautrec
El Greco

(and others)

Bach
Vivaldi
Mozart
Telemann
Corelli
J. Pachelbel
Laurence Fingerhut's Auguries, from a suggestion by Ladybelle Fiske
(and others)

The Underground Cartoonists of the Sixties, especially Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb
Binghamton University (Harpur College)
Cornell University (Irving's Alma Mater)
Vermont College/The Union Institute (Ladybelle and Barb's Alma Mater)
University of Vermont (Andrew and William's Alma Mater)

Still Lake/Shoesole Lake, The Ocala National Forest, Central Florida... Irving's favorite spot on earth, I think.
Maple Corner, Curtis Pond, Calais, Vermont (one of Ladybelle's favorites, and her lost home)
Italy... especially Florence and Venice
Scotland, Ireland, England, France, and many other countries around the world
New York City: The West and East Villages

Films and TV:  The Godfather Trilogy, especially Godfather pt. II; Reds; Brother Sun, Sister Moon; Amadeus,
Films of George B. Shaw's plays; Monty Python, Hugh Laurie in all his many guises; House, M.D. particularly
The West Wing and most work by Aaron Sorkin


The Marx Brothers
Sherlock Holmes

 Steve Ellman:
Philip K. Dick, 
The Clash, Timothy Leary,
 Allen Ginsberg, 
J.R. "Bob" Dobbs,
 Augustus Owsley Stanley III, 
Albert Hofmann

Rick Skogsberg Ken Kesey, R. Crumb, Prof. Ben d'Eezy in any guise. Farmer John from Ann Arbor... 

(Yes--  loving memories to Professor Bendeasy-- Steve Slepack, our wonderful hippie clown friend who died here in 1996 of melanoma, and his niece, Maya Slepack, who lived here and then died a little after her uncle in Paris, France; to the memory of Cara Roskens, to the memory of many whom we loved and who are no longer present in earthly form.)

The many, many visitors who came from all parts of the earth to stay or to visit again or to be gone forever, for so many years. Thank you for coming here!

1 comment:

  1. I appreciate this update very much. I have to say that I have never listened to the Clash, but I imagine others have.

    ReplyDelete