LAKEVILLE — Flesh-eating bacteria, vampire bats, hallucinogenic brews served up by shamans. Sounds like an exploitation movie.These were just a few of the gaudier elements of a talk by ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin Friday night, Sept. 16, at The Hotchkiss School, as part of the Salisbury Forum series.Plotkin, who co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team with Liliana Madrigal, and is the organization’s president, argued in a passionate, amusing and rapid-fire style for preservation of the Amazonian rain forest and its potential for developing medicines.That’s where the horror film stuff comes in.It turns out that the saliva of the vampire bat is very effective in keeping blood from clotting. “When bitten you bleed like a stuck pig,” said Plotkin, adding that the trade name for the drug, which could be used to treat stroke victims, is “Draculine.”Venturing into Carlos Castaneda territory, Plotkin said that when the shaman offers the mystical brew, the anthropologist declines, wishing to retain objectivity.The ethnobotanist, on the other hand, “Says Yee-Haw!”But beta blockers, commonly prescribed for patients with heart problems, were the result of research on hallucinogenic (or “magic”) mushrooms in Mexico.Plotkin said that curare, a poison obtained from the aptly named poison dart frog and applied by indigenous peoples on, you guessed it, poison darts, is also the source of a surgical muscle relaxant and has potential as a non-opiate pain killer.And consider the giant Amazon green monkey frog. “These are the ones you lick,” Plotkin said.He described one Westerner’s experience: After licking the frog, his blood pressure soared, and “he woke up in a hammock six hours later, and felt like God for two days.”But what about the blood pressure rise? That’s what interested researchers.Plotkin’s bottom line: The Amazon rain forest is the potential source of an incredible variety and amount of medicines, and it needs to be protected.The Amazon Conservation team’s approach relies on indigienous people acting as stewards of land protected from development, noting that officially protected park areas in Brazil, regions the size of Belgium, are patrolled by a force of three guards who live a hundred miles away.“Why would they want to live in the park? No showers, refrigerators, television. The people are naked, painted, they have poison — and they’re pissed off.”By contrast, the areas of similar size that are reserved for the indigenous tribes have several thousand inhabitants, who carry in their heads the location and use of hundreds of potential medicines.Plotkin showed how a map of one reserve was created after interviewing the locals. The map is covered with hundreds of symbols indicating the location of a plant or animal the Indians have a specific use for. Creating this kind of database means striking a balance between cultures — not the easiest task.“We know there is an essential role for Western science and technology,” Plotkin said. “We try to empower the Indians to take control of their destinies.”Plotkin claims 10 million acres of rain forest have been saved as the result of this approach, dubbed “Map-Manage-Protect.”But the rain forest continues to be developed — for timber, to open up land for ranching. Plotkin finds this short-sighted and unacceptable.The Amazon “is the greatest expression of life on Earth, and it’s being trashed and burned, taking with it the incredible potential for medicines.But, he noted, “Conservation is first a spiritual exercise. We all sleep better knowing there are wild lands.”
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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