The general public isn’t yet awake to energy saving possibilities for the home. When the public does wake up, the government subsidies will cut its whoppingly big subsidies. That was the message of Princeton Air’s Scott Needham at the Princeton Chamber breakfast on September 23 at the Nassau Club. “They are trying to compel people to take action and change the market. The current subsidies are approved only through December 31. So decide whether you are going to do something and do it soon – or decide to do nothing.”

One of his case studies: Homeowners added 50 percent more space but were able to reduce the heating plant by 60 percent and reduce their bill by 60 percent.

Here’s how it works: Get a Building Performance Institute certified contractor to do a $125 Comprehensive Home Assessment, refundable when the work is done. If your projects effect at least a 25 percent heat energy savings, you will get 50 percent of the cost back as a rebate check, up to $10,000. That’s in addition to $1,500 in federal tax credits and $1,000 in free air sealing paid for by the NJ Clean Energy Program.

Needham’s test used to cost much more than $125 but he reduced the cost to meet state requirements. His upscale test both an infrared tester and a blower door to create a vacuum and chart the leaks more accurately than the infrared equipment alone.

Among his favorite remedies: replacing fiberglass with cellulose (newspapers shredded and infused with fire-retardant boric acid), which is also excellent for noise reduction. And sealing the basement where the sill plate hits the rim joist to prevent cold air from infiltrating and moving through the house, which also helps in the summer to keep the cold air in. Plus, of course, sealing those leaky ducts.

Get the low tech stuff done first, he advises. Of course if you decide to replace your furnace or hot water heater with a more efficient model, he won’t object and that’s where you might qualify for the subsidies. You might even choose to install solar panels to heat your water.

Other ways to get on the sustainable energy bandwagon: Attend one of the two conferences in October. On Friday, October 16, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School is a Policy Research Institute conference: Where Are We Growing? Planning for New Jersey’s Next 20 Years” featuring a host of eminent speakers. Register

The very next day Sustainable Princeton partners with We Are BOOST (Building Open Opportunity Structures Together) on a conference “Filtering the Green Noise: A Symposium, Part 1: on Saturday, October 17, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Suzanne Patterson Center at 45 North Stockton Street Princeton. Though admission is free, RSVPs are encouraged. Call 206-202-2883 or E-mail localwisdom@weareboost.org.

“It’s a hoot,” says my friend about this Sunday’s fundraiser at Katmandu. On September 20, the nightclub on the Delaware River in Trenton hosts a benefit for Gift for Life, the organ donation organization in Philadelphia that helps to match and support donor families and organ and tissue recipient. The organization serves a wide area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, and this event, named after a liver recipient and run by a Ewing-based group, is called Papa Carl’s Jam for Life.

In particular, this shindig’s take will go toward building the Gift of Life Family House, to provide a place to stay for distraught families when their loved ones are under the knife. The fifth annual event is open bar, and open menu, $20 at the door, total amount tax deductible. Papa Carl is a musician himself, and though Lisa Bouchelle is the headliner for the day, at least two dozen other bands are turning out to support him.

Out back, behind where Win and Hildegard Straube have their offices in their eponymous office center, is a monumental statue of a woman by Carole Feuerman. This sculpture of a woman bathing was chosen for the Beijing Olympics and is one of the outdoor and indoor works in the Straube Foundation’s new sculpture garden.

Art isn’t the only topic on display here. An exhibit named “Poets, Playwrights and Pen-Persons” is on display through October, starting Friday, September 18th, from 4 to 7 p.m. at 108 and 112 West Franklin Avenue, with a reception for published authors. Curated by John A. Tredrea, of the Hopewell Valley News, the exhibit includes works by Albert M. Stark, Barbara Anne Sher, Janet Purcell, Leonore Obed, Robert W. Adler, Sierra Adler, Vivian E. Greenberg, Win Straube and others. Call 609-737-3322 for info.

In this intriguing art-rich environment, the Straubes had hosted a “meet and greet” wine and cheese reception for officials from Capital Health System and the Pennington community on Monday, September 14. Capital Health’s CEO Al Maghazehe (pronounced MAG a see) told how the hospital expects to complete its new building on 195 acres in Hopewell by 2011.

The Straube Foundation hosts the art in the garden for free, and 100 percent of the sales receipts go to the artist. Some is on permanent display, including this copy of Feuerman’s “Olympic Swimmer,” which is on tour with the Olympic Fine Art Exhibition before permanent installation in Beijing. Another copy of this statue, this one in lifelike color, is now in a New York gallery (Jim Kempner Fine Art Gallery, 501 W 23rd St)

With works in bronze, wood, metal, marble, and other stone carvings by both local and globally well known artists, it’s a delightful walk through, a family destination. Sculptures by some of the same artists are on display at Grounds for Sculpture – but this sculpture garden requires no tickets. Just visit and enjoy.

In his excellent book “Game. Set. Life. Peak Performance for Sports and Life,” motivational speaker and tennis pro Ed Tseng offers tips on such topics as performing under pressure, focus, relaxation, increasing energy, having confidence, setting and attaining goals, and having more fun. In a chapter on overcoming fear and taking risks he tells of Barbara Hillary, an African-American woman who, after beating lung cancer at the age of 75, decided she wanted to walk across the North Pole. “Barbara Hillary took a risk, and guess what? Now she’s planning to trek to the South Pole!”

The U.S. Open is underway and Tseng – who has just finished a speaking gig there – will share his “peak performance and mental fitness” tips at Mrs. G’s TV & Appliance Store on Thursday, September 3, 6 to 8 p.m., followed by an opportunity to watch the U.S. Open on the store’s new 82-inch Mitsubishi Home Theater. It’s free but please RSVP to 609-882-1444 (mention this bog) or rich@mrsgs.com.

Tseng laces his advice with sports celebrity anecdotes. On the following Thursday (September 10) at a Princeton Chamber lunch, four-time Emmy winner and Broadway star Bill Boggs relates entertainment celebrity anecdotes as he shares success strategies from his book at a Princeton Chamber lunch. His talk: “Got What It Takes? Successful People Reveal How They Made it To the Top” is another good chance to “reset your life.” Call 609-924-1775 or info@princetonchamber.org

Everybody gets nervous, whether before a presentation or a tennis match. Tseng quotes Georgia O’Keefe: “I have been terrified every day of my life, but that has never stopped me from doing everything I wanted to do.”

Quoting Tseng: “Taking risks can be compared to working out. When you work out, you need to do the right exercises and do it consistently. Your mind is the same; you have to train your mind to practice taking risks.

“During a talk I gave for Disney employees, I walked on broken glass to prove a point. At first, I was nervous, but I did it anyway. The glass walk is a metaphor for taking risks and getting out of your comfort zone.

“Fear keeps us where we are. Fear keeps us from reaching our potential. If you carefully live your life, then the people that take risks will quickly surpass you.

“Are you willing to give up what you want now for what you want MOST?

“Even if you don’t win, you can still learn. You actually learn MORE from a loss than a win. It’s great if you can treat your pursuit of a goal as a game.

Tseng quotes Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

O’Keefe Image from Wikipedia: Georgia O’Keeffe, Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills,1935, The Brooklyn Museum

Somehow I missed knowing about the Renee Weiss/ Peter Westergaard opera, staged here in Princeton for one night only, tonight, Saturday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m. at 185 Nassau Street.

So I’m hurrying to tell about it, Tweeting and Blogging. This is an “acid test” of social media. If you hear about it from me for the first time and are as eager to attend as I am, let me know andlook for me tonight. I’ll be with my houseguest from Dallas.

From the Princeton University website:

A collaboration between two longtime members of the Princeton community has produced a chamber opera based on a true story of love and courtship featuring singing, poetry and dance.

The Center City Opera Theater of Philadelphia will present the first fully staged production of “The Always Present Present” by librettist Renée Weiss and composer Peter Westergaard at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, in the Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau St. The show then will move to Philadelphia, where it will be performed Sept. 8, 10 and 12, as part of Philly Fringe.

The opera is an extension of a book of poetry and letters by the same title published in 2006 and written by Weiss and her husband, Princeton professor Ted Weiss, an award-winning poet, editor and literary critic who died in 2003. The story draws from correspondence the two exchanged 70 years ago when they were falling in love, separated by the distance between her home in Allentown, Pa., and his graduate school in New York City. The book was the last volume of the Quarterly Review of Literature, which the Weisses edited together for nearly 60 years and which was nationally acclaimed as one of the most influential and cutting-edge literary publications of its time. More here

To get a whiff of why I am excited about this, how Renee and Ted Weiss led quiet lives but with global influence, here is Carolyn Foote Edelmann’s story in U.S. 1

And for another whiff of the sweet sweet book of loveletters that Renee published after Ted’s death, a book review by Stuart Mitchner.

Some tickets are still available because I just bought two online. But you could try your luck at the door, and repeat performances are in Philly.

Did I mention the production features two dancers?

Twittering, it turns out is not popular with teens, according to the New York Times today, and I can see why. If teens are texting, they don’t need to Twitter. And if they are Twittering, they may lose control over who sees their Tweets.