Into the Pines Kitchen contains 200 recipes from 100 contributors, including Pines notables Scott Bromley, Gilbert Parker, and Hal Rubinstein. As a nod to bygone days, the book also features a posthumous contribution from John Whyte, one of the Pines' founders. The book includes original photography of the island from Pines artists William Karam, Mark Lonsbury, and Barbara Sahlman. •More About this Book»
"Drag Queens Can Cook-Recipes to Sync Your Lips Around" is a new cookbook, being sold for a tax deductible $25, created by doctors and life partners Rick Byrd, PhD, and Patrick Fratellone, MD, as a benefit for the Elmer A. Lindsay Memorial Medical Center, the Cherry Grove Doctor's Fund. •Read More»
Robin Byrd
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Robin Byrd, host of "The Robin Byrd Show," the "adult entertainment" show on commercial use cable television since 1977, and Fire Island Pines homeowner since 1992, is one of seven people running for five open positions on the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA) Board of Directors. Former FIPPOA President Alan Brockman, Prescott Ford, and Ariadne Villarreal are running for reelection to the Board, and Robin, Jane Groveman, Dr. Lori Zeller and Roger Kluge are new candidates. The election takes place on September 26. Fire Island Q News had a conversation with Robin-whose work in New York City has benefited such organizations as ACT-UP and the People with AIDS Coalition, and who is involved with preservation of the dunes and protection of endangered bird species on Fire Island-about her candidacy a week before the election.
Fire Island Q News: What made you decide to run for a Director's position on the FIPPOA Board?
Robin Byrd: The reason why I'm running is because [at] a lot of meetings that I've been going to, over the 18 years that I've been a homeowner, I've been suggesting things about the beach and the snow fencing and various boardwalk problems and they keep on yessing me to death and I figured I would get on the board and change it, really get into their psyche about it, because yes, yes, yes doesn't mean it gets done.
Q News: There is currently only one woman, Ariadne Villarreal, on the FIPPOA Board and none at all among the higher officers. If the three women running for the Board and the one running for reelection all win, there would be four of you. How do you think more women's input would affect FIPPOA's direction?
RB: I don't really think FIPPOA has one direction, so knowing that, if there were four women on the board, it just gives another view, which is more of a woman's point of view. There's women, there's men, there's he-shes, there's a lot of people that are on the board and I think that this community reflects that, so I think the board should reflect that, so bring on the women.
Q News: Would you say that your experience managing a career as a performer and television show host has helped to prepare you to assist in directing an organization like FIPPOA and, if so, how?
RB: I'm a pretty good director, I'm a take-charge director, out-of-my-way, I'll-do-it- myself type of person. I think I'm as good as all the others and a lot of my hard work and my foresight into my future-I never think of the future, but it just happens that I'm 10 years before my time, so it couldn't hurt.
Q News: You're the only, as it were, "celebrity candidate," among the seven people running for the Board. How have reactions been to your candidacy?
RB: I've only been getting really great reactions about my candidacy. Although, you know, everybody goes, "We're voting for you, we're voting for you," whether that means that I'm going to win or not, the bottom line is if I'm going to be voted for or not. Everybody likes to make you feel good, so reality's reality and fantasy is fantasy, and reality becomes reality, then we'll know.
Q News: Please tell Fire Island Q News readers, who haven't necessarily read your candidate's statement, what you would like to do to improve the Pines.
RB: I think the Pines is a great community. It doesn't need much improvement. Everybody just needs to be more aware of us as a community and not just a place to just come and party. We want you to be part of the community and party. There's a lot of homeowners that aren't here during the year, during the season. I think it would be a good thing for the readers to understand that the Pines is almost perfect, although Cherry Grovers may not think so. (Laughter) We need to improve on a lot of things, some of them, like the boardwalks and the beaches and the garbage and just small, little things that add up to big things if they're left unattended.
Q News: In your candidate statement, you mention, "maintaining ongoing relations with Cherry Grove." Would you please elaborate on that?
RB: I live in west Pines, east Cherry Grove, depending on who I talk to. I think the relationship between Cherry Grove and the Pines is narrowing down, because it's not easy to go and be at one party here in the Pines, and then go to the Ice Palace or Cherry's and do events, but the ongoing relationship: we're all human, we all have the same interests, we just have different communities. The Pines has huger houses, but Cherry Grove is very quaint. My left foot is in the Pines, and my right foot is in Cherry Grove, so the relationship should be there. We're all we have. I don't see Ocean Beach standing up for the Pines or the Grove. So we're the east end of Fire Island, so we should be more united in that way. We see your [Arts Project] President coming over during the Invasions all the time and I like that, that's good that we have that relationship. It should be ongoing: bottom line, when there's a fire, Cherry Grove comes to our rescue and the Pines comes to your rescue in Cherry Grove. We must all learn to get along. (Laughter) "Can't we all live together?"
Q News: Since the death of Grove Post Mistress Jeanne Skinner at the beginning of July-
RB: Please, a moment of silence for her.
Q News: Requiescat. FIPPOA has been a big help to the Grove by maintaining its postal service, and has served as a model for the Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc., as it prepares to assume responsibility for running the Grove Post Office. Would you say that that typifies the sort of cooperation between the communities that you would like to encourage?
RB: That would be great. I hope that other people that do the postal service there for you-I know that George [Bolender], our Post Master, he was thinking of retiring, and he's doing a great service to us here in the Pines as well. The mail must go through and us queens, we must get our mail. Fan mail is greatly appreciated. I'm glad that you think that we're the role models for the postal service. I think the post office actually has a standard and you have to live up to the standard. It's a shame that Jeanne is not with us anymore, 'cause she was a fixture for you guys, and for me personally, because I lived in Cherry Grove as well. I think that everybody should have a postal service, especially because of the fact that we are out here all year round. I don't know about you, but I come out here out here during the winter and I know a lot of people here in the Pines come out. I know a lot of people in the Grove go out all winter long, so we need the mail. Otherwise they'll turn all the electricity off, if we don't get the bills.
Q News: Although I don't see it explicitly in your candidate statement, I've heard that you support construction of a path over the sand, between the beach and the woods, connecting the Pines and the Grove, for foot traffic as well as Fire Department and other emergency vehicles' use. Robert Moses' plan to pave over our whole island in the 1960s, fortunately thwarted, passed, briefly, through my mind when I first heard about this plan, though I realize that it's on a much smaller and more reasonable scale. Is it true that you support this particular connecting construction and, if so, how much other support do you think there is for it?
RB: I do believe that we need an easier way to put out fires in the Carrington Estate [on the west end of the Pines]. That building has been abandoned, and, if you haven't noticed, there was a fire in the Pines, which was right outside the Carrington Estate and I feel that it's easier for the vehicles-only fire and emergency-to get through. I already see trucks driving though on the sandy path, going back and forth. I have no problem walking. I remember when I was younger, back in the day, my girlfriend and my present partner, we used to ride our bicycles through and I remember a small, little wooden path. I'm not talking about a road here. I'm just talking about making it easier for some of the vehicles that can't go on the sand, so that they can get onto [it], in case, God forbid, there's a fire in the woods, which there has been, [for] safety purposes, primarily. I know that during the night, I don't want to be walking in the mud. And who's going to fix that little wooden path that breaks down? So maybe not necessarily a big road, we're not talking road, we're talking something that makes it easier for the safety of the fire[fighters], police, you and me.
Q News: So you are talking about something wooden-rather than something concrete-or synthetic board?
RB: Somebody suggested that. I don't care the way it is, I just want it to be an easy way to fight fires and get emergency vehicles back and forth, from one community to the next. If you happen to walk on it or ride bicycles on it, it's okay.
Q News: In your statement, you mention your involvement with protecting the tern and the piping plover. My concern about a paved path over the sand is that the snapping turtles that live in the swamp at the west end of the Pines come up out of the swamp, after the rain, and walk along that sand path to find places to lay their eggs. So, if it interfered with the turtles' ability to do that, or endangered them or their eggs, would that be something to take into consideration, in constructing this path?
RB: No cement. Because I [even] get pissed off at people when they throw the mulch onto the Burma Road area, because the turtles can't go over the mulch, but the mulch, what happens is it rains, the mulch floats to the top and goes away, but [the turtles still] have a hard time. I don't like it when [people] do that. No, no, no roads, no cement, that doesn't pertain. I like to leave it natural. We don't want the turtles not nesting. How would you like to lay your eggs in mulch? My eggs don't get laid in mulch. (Laughter)
Q News: Sounds messy. Last August, I went to a show at the Pavillion and was surprised that the windows were closed promptly at midnight. It was stifling inside, but I recognized that an effort was being made to control the noise. Would it be safe to say that this demonstrates the power that FIPPOA wields?
RB: I'm not so sure it was that reason that they did that. They have air conditioning in the Pavillion. Maybe it was a hot, humid night and they wanted to put the air conditioning on, so they closed the windows
Q News: I'm sure they told us it was a noise thing.
RB: Oh, really, they told you it was a noise thing? I don't know. I stayed with Johnny Pool many a year when he lived next to Cherry's and the thumping of the music put me to sleep. To each their own. It seems like white noise to me.
Q News: Different factions in the Grove are currently wrestling, sometimes acrimoniously, with the issue of the volume of the sound coming from the downtown bars. One organization has urged its members to call 911, and to urge their neighbors also to call 911, whenever they have a complaint. The result has been that the police have shown up at almost every show and, since the businesses' managements do not responsibly come forward, have taken the matter up with performers and DJs, disrupting the shows, making the performers feel victimized, and incurring audience and performers' wrath against an organization that is increasingly coming off as out-of-touch and stodgy. What advice would you give to the various factions concerned?
RB: I remember when I used to have shows at [the] Ice Palace, when I used to do shows for AIDS a long time ago, in the late '80s and early '90s, I used to invite them. Maybe they should be inviting the police to come and attend them, to see them, as opposed to come and close them down. I don't know what organizations you have in the Grove, as far as who's standing over and saying, "You can't do these shows." I've heard a lot of pool shows [from the Ice Palace] at 3 in the afternoon, my way, when the wind's in the right direction-
Q News: The broadcast.
RB: Yes. It doesn't bother me. And at night, if I hear noise from my neighbors, I close my windows. We all need to be more considerate of each other, not necessarily have to call the police for non-emergency issues. We have a very small amount of police to begin with here, the marine police, and I think they should be here for very important issues, rather than noise control.
Q News: Not for telling Porsche to pipe down.
RB: Oh, I love Porsche's pipes! Don't you tell her to pipe down!
Q News: I certainly don't.
RB: I think that's silly. Summer only happens once a year. And if you don't like what you're hearing, close the windows, get an air conditioner, go to sleep, put earplugs in. I mean, there's so many ways around it. Make more noise than-
Q News: Stop ruining it for everybody.
RB: Exactly. Well, the masses, you know. It's some against many. Maybe. I don't know what goes on in the Grove. But I know even though we have our own drama here in Pines, your drama's drama, too. It's just drama with a smile-and a dress.
Q News: With a smile-and a knife in your back.
RB: I would like to see more consideration of the beach. You guys have a really good thing going about the garbage at the beach. Do you hire them in the Grove to pick up-
Q News: There's someone hired, but there are also volunteers. We clean the woods.
RB: Nice, thank you, thank you. Well, I do wherever I see there's garbage. I pick it up when I take the dog for a walk. But it's consideration. That's what we all need to do. We don't need to have these rules so you that can't enforce them. We need to just have consideration for one another. That's what it's all about. And maybe that's my message also, [for] why I'm running for the Board. Besides that, I want to see that we have beach to come home to next winter and the winter after that and the summer after this.
Q News: Is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to add?
RB: Oh, no, you covered everything, I'm sure. (Laughter) You even covered your mouth because you have a cold. Feel much better.
Q News: Thank you.
RB: I purposely sat you in the sun so you'd get your Vitamin D.
Q News: Thank you.
RB: And thanks for the sanitary wipes [Lysol Disinfecting Wipes]. Very much needed and used, very much consideration.
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