PopTech is pretty awsome and they’re hiring. An, my friend Sara, who is the Development Director at Union Settlement House, is looking for an assistant, and I heard a rumor that there’s going to be an opening real soon for a numbers crunching database using reporter at a certain radio network. Call me if you want to know where to send your resume for that one.
Posts Tagged ‘local’
Catskill Bike Tours
In events, learning, various on June 11, 2010 at 4:15 pmI’m going to need a weekend at home by the time I’m done with my whirlwind of meetings (note: Las Vegas is surreal and fascinating.) but this sounds great. A weekend of biking and bicycle repair workshops in the Catskills with my friend Chris:
As you might have heard, my friend Ryan and I are putting on a weekend long bicycle workshop in upstate NY on the weekend of June 25-27th. This is the first time we have put on this workshop and have been unable to register any participants as of yet. However, our shortfall is your gain. We would like to do this workshop in the future and we feel your participation and feedback will be great help for the workshop’s future development. Thus, we are sending you a personal invite to join us for the weekend for a greatly reduced $100 per person! This price includes: five great meals, lodging, rides, and workshops. This is all in the context of Woodbourne, NY at a house that is on 15 acres of land. You will be responsible for getting yourself and your bicycle to the location. Read the rest of this entry »
Lovely
In flaneurie on May 23, 2010 at 9:30 pmSaltie, street fairs, steel, strawberries, asparagus, green garlic. Planning for pickles and preserving. Handmade bicycles, lilacs. Pie and peonies. And an invitation to escape to the Catskills. New superadobe stories and these sandy punks swinging by their knees from geodesic domes selling screenprints and copies of Buckminster Fuller.
Sublet?
In flaneurie on May 5, 2010 at 1:42 amMs Renee Ra has a spot she’d like you to make yours. July and August, $1100 a month for a spacious one bedroom south of Prospect Park. Lovely views, elevator, AC (though you’ll have to pay the electric bill). Interested? Let me know and I’ll put you in touch.
Exhausted
In various on September 20, 2009 at 11:35 pmStreet fairs, potholes, vinyl siding, cemetery, service road, Unisphere, Queens Botanical Garden, cement factory, College Point, event bath, salty plum tea, ice sauna, custard pies, Corona, tacos, Jackson Heights, loitering, nuts, Nanking, chai, Bushwick, bed. In that order.
Something people often don’t know: you don’t have to be a 501c3 to get an EIN.
Pirates and Steamfitters
In Stating the Obvious, various on April 29, 2009 at 5:52 pmEventually: my promised report back on the Pirate Bay talk, which was great, and after which Mister Mux Tape explained that commercial software is, by its very nature, better than free and open source software and then asked me if I worked for the FSF when I called him on that bizarre and baseless assertion. I’m not even talking about Apache here. Or I am, but at the present moment, Open Office is better documented than the MS Office suite. And calc’s financial functions are just plain better. I didn’t point out that I don’t think that the Free Software Foundation really has the staff resources to travel the Eastern seaboard heckling speakers at community arts talks. I also didn’t point out that there are people in this world (no really, there are!) who hold opinions they aren’t paid to hold and expertise on subjects they are not professional lobbyists on behalf of.
Actually, I could kind of wrap that one up and repeat what we already know which is that the Bureau of Piracy is great, you should take a look at the links on the original post and (this is the part I hope you already know) that the real problem with the prosecution of the buccaneers is about free speech. Not about my right to swap music willy-nilly, copyright be damned (another thing I didn’t say to Mux Man: there is, I think, a big difference between software and music) but about whether a file sharing platform should be held accountable for the files shared over it. Particularly in a world where some musicians do want to make large files (their own) available free of charge and politically significant data sets can be a difficult thing to host on your own little server. Fundamentally, neither the laws nor the recording industry have kept up with the modern world and it is worth asking why that is really the fault of the Pirate Bureau.
That was rough. I might come back and try to make it sound a little coherent. Read the rest of this entry »
Art! (You should come)
In various on October 14, 2008 at 2:45 pmABC NO RIO GALA & BENEFIT AUCTION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 7 TO 10 PM
ANGEL ORENSANZ FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
172 NORFOLK STREET
Hungry March Band will be performing along with Aurora Boob Realis, Boobie von Trapp and Jezebel Express, all MC’d by the most excellent Reverend Jen. ABC No Rio has an excellent collection of art that will be auctioned off on the 22nd as well, see the full list of contributing artists to inspire yourself. Bring a friend. Bring your wallet. Bring a lobster!
Join us for cocktails, buffet, burlesque performances, brilliant conversation and spirited bidding!
Proceeds from the benefit will go towards the ABC No Rio Building Fund.
AUCTION
* Bullet Space, Kathe Burkhart, Michael Cataldi, Mel Chin, Maureen Connor, Martha Cooper, Linus Coraggio, Molly Crabapple, CRASH, Peggy Cyphers, Bill Daniel, Arnon Ben David, Mike Estabrook, Robert Flynt, Chitra Ganesh, Brian George, Judy Glantzman, Mike Glier, Robert Goldman (Bobby G.), Mimi Gross, Julie Hair, Jacob Hashimoto, Geoffrey Hendricks, International Graffiti Times, Vandana Jain, Fawad Khan, Barney Kulok, Lady Pink, Anne Arden McDonald, Joseph Nechvatal, Shirin Neshat, Nils Norman, Claes Oldenburg, Alice O’Malley, Tom Otterness, Trevor Paglen, Francis Palazzolo, Anton Perich, Judy Pfaff, Kembra Pfahler, James Romberger, Christy Rupp, Kelly Savage, Kristen Schiele, David Schmidlapp, Andres Serrano, Greg Sholette, Kiki Smith, Chris Stain, Swoon, Seth Tobocman, Marguerite Van Cook, Anton van Dalen, Tom Warren and Lawrence Weiner.
* AND *
Introducing an edition for ABC No Rio by Gregory Green.
BENEFIT COMMITTEE
* Stanley Aronowitz, Julie Ault, Michael Bank, Melissa Bent, Phong Bui, Garrison Buxton, Alexander Campos, Paul Castrucci, Peter Cramer, Simon Critchley, Ray Cross, Harvey Epstein & Anita Elliot, Jim Fleming & Lewanne Jones, Barry Frier & Stefani Mar, Lia Gangitano, Carl George, Jonathan Greene, Dara Greenwald, Phil Hartman, C. Sean Horton, Cheryl Kaminsky, David Kiehl, Jane Kim, Allegra LaViola, Brooke Lehman, Jonathan LeVine, Josh MacPhee, Timothy Malyk, Mirabelle Marden, Carlo McCormick & Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Barbara Moore, Rebecca Moore, Margery Newman, Wendy Olsoff, Al Orensanz, Christian Parenti, Liutauras Psibilskis, Karen Ranucci & Michael Ratner, Neil Rosenstein, Alix Sloan, Jeff Stark, Sara Valentine, Jack Waters, and Martha Wilson.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES
* Reverend Jen
PERFORMANCE
* Hungry March Band
* Aurora Boob Realis
* Boobie von Trapp
* Jezebel Express
SPONSORS
* Asahi
* ALIAS
* Two Boots
* saké2me
* Honest Beverages
* The Donut Plant
Cracker, Go Home
In various on October 12, 2008 at 4:12 pmLast night, we went with a bunch of Merry’s apprentices to see Danny Hoch’s new show in a high school auditorium in Bushwick. An auditorium decorated with murals that tell the story of the mankind on earth, in which very fair skinned naked people are blessed by a winged angel (“The Dawn of Civilization”) and then bestowed the flame (“The Gift of Fire”). And with fire the story ends.
Before I start, just so you know, I’m struggling with the fact that last year’s RAT was really inspiring and rejuvenating for me but without something to offer I can’t see myself going again.
So I saw a play finally. Some live theater. Saw it with a couple of teenagers (both named Hector) whose entire previous experience with live theater consisted of a trip to Lincoln Center to see the Nutcracker (shorter Hector) and “we saw this play once at school” (larger Hector). Read the rest of this entry »
Theater. Like, plays. And stuff.
In various on September 18, 2008 at 2:05 pmMy cousin is coming to town and she wants to go to a play. Fair enough: I live in New York City. I ought to be able to hook that up. Only, I don’t go to plays and the people I know who do fall into difficult categories. Either they love Broadway (I don’t) or they are so immersed in theater that they don’t have a good answer. They don’t know what to recommend because they don’t know what to suggest. No one knows how to say “Well, I’ve been wanting to see …” There’s no Good Reads for theater, where I can skim my friends favorites. Which is part of why I can count on one hand the number of staged performances of anything that I’ve seen in the last decade. Actually, that is totally not true. I see more live performing arts than that.
It is too easy to say “gahh, not Broadway” but what I really mean is that I don’t want sparkly musicals. When I was 10 I loved Cats. I also loved Les Miserables. I probably would have loved anything other big bang musicals at that age. It was like the circus, only better. People like what they like and there’s nothing wrong with that (she says with a snicker) but it won’t make me happy to go see Cats today.
Broadway is more complex than that. I saw Angels in America with May and Kiffy. I don’t actually know if it was the Broadway cast but it was a short run in San Francisco. It was great and I’d see it all over again. On Broadway if that is where it was playing.
I loved the Berkeley Rep production of Bright Room Called Day. I do like more than just Kushner, honest. If someone were to stage a production of The terrible but unfinished story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia I would probably faint. I would certainly go. I came across it ten (sneeze. really? yes. ten.) years ago when Jason and I tried to write a play about Cambodia that got as far as Henry Kissenger before we discovered that we weren’t very good collaborators just as our respective lives were intervening to flummox the project anyway. He went on to become a famous playwright. Me, not so much. Pipe Bomb Sonata was excellent, though I never saw it staged, just read it. If I were a more dutiful friend I would have more to say about the rest of his resume but … oh nevermind.
I would have loved to go see Tanque on stage. I don’t actually know why I didn’t. Ganso bought tickets. A whole posse went. We’ll get back to that, later, my inability to just plug in when I know I’d have a good time.
To entertain my cousin I have to look forward, not back. It doesn’t have to be straight theater. Performance art is cool. I’d gladly take Gabriela to see the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea sail down the Hudson, but the flotilla’s nearly mothballed by now. Once upon a time, I went to some spaghetti dinners at PS 122, where I first saw Coco Rosie. They made me weak in the knees. Great Small Works last updated their schedule in 2003, so I’m guessing there are no spaghetti dinners coming up. Everyone else might be over her, but I still think that Laurie Anderson is a genius. Moby Dick was genius. Actually, it wasn’t. It was just good, but I loved it.
On the other hand, family friends took us to see Love, Janis in the West Village whenever it was that it was plastered all over busses and playing in the West Village. It was painful. I might have loved to read her letters home, but seeing them staged all sugar coated was just weird. Also, no one sings like Janis Joplin. Staging a performance based entirely around covers of Janis Joplin is bound to be agonizing. I don’t think better singers or better acting would have improved it. I still think about it a lot. I have it filed away with The Cockettes in my personal history of the San Francisco my mother lived in when she was my age. Except she wasn’t my age yet. She was a lot younger. She’s going to call me up and tell me that actually her life wasn’t nearly as tragic or arty or drug addled as Janis Joplin or Sweet Pam, but I still like to imagine that San Francisco swirling around her. What I’m trying to say is that I got a lot out of Love, Janis, but I would come up with about eight excuses to avoid seeing it again.
Glengary Glen Ross, which we really did see on Broadway, was excellent. But I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have because we saw it on Broadway and I wasn’t in the mood for the neighborhood and the whole sensibility of going out for proper theater. Plus there isn’t anyplace that I’d want to eat anywhere near 42nd Street. It isn’t a scene that works for me. It wasn’t for me, though. It is N’s favorite play and the tickets were his birthday present. So I shouldn’t be whining. Plus, on account of it being his favorite play, we own the DVD and I’ve watched it a hundred times and it isn’t my favorite play so the 101th viewing was just that.
I know that atmosphere matters to me. So does location. I don’t want to be treated like royalty, I don’t want to feel like I’m dressed all wrong or everyone around me is going to drive back to Connecticut later. I’d like to be able to see the stage. I’d rather not be way the hell up town. Brooklyn would be great. Some of these things are contradictory, I realize. There’s as much society at the Soho Rep as anywhere on 42nd Street, but it is a society I feel a lot more comfortable with. Or a little more comfortable with. Walking distance from home trumps everything else. BAM or a smallish downtown theater, is what I’m saying.
Facebook reports that Jason is planning to go see Oh What War, and Tanque has tickets for A Kite Cut Loose in the Middle of the Sky which is damn useful information to have. Jason’s blog is useful, too, he posted about Blasted at the Soho Rep. Only Oh What War is an option for 9/26.
Creative Time has a whole festival in progress coming up. Some talks about art and politics, which isn’t exactly theater but it is something to do. Good luck figuring out when anything is happening, their website is to sexy for a schedule.
Eyebeam (also too avant garde to offer a usable website. Though they do have a decent calendar.) has some interesting work up but they’re art, so their openings are on Thursdays. Lucky for Gabriela, they won’t be hacking Linux onto PDAs until later in October. I’d ditch her for that. I want a mood tracking database on my Treo.
Between the Lines is back at BAM. Let me know if you want to come: Oct 16, Nov 6, Dec 18.
Other places I sometimes go but haven’t in a while, most of which don’t have anything on tap for the 26th:
Galapagos,
Free103point9, Not an Alternative (okay, NaA is different but I can’t take a cousin to Jelly. BAM
Seriously, though: back to theater. Where do you look? Are there plays or other staged performances you’ve been wanting to see? Thinking of seeing?
Need a Housesitter?
In various on July 30, 2008 at 2:48 pmTate says we have terrible luck with real estate. I suspect that we just want more than we can afford so we push the edges and wind up getting burned.
Either way, we had a contract, we had a mortgage. We had a lawyer trying to schedule a closing and some seller saying “we need to close on Monday.” And then on Tuesday, our lawyer called. They don’t want to sell after all. Or they do, but with some side shenanigans that you could call legal gray areas or you could call fraud or you could just call going out on a limb for a stranger. Whatever you call it, whenever someone says “you won’t get in trouble, no one has to know” that should be a sign. Especially when your lawyer says that it is probably a bad idea. It is a funny kind of extortion. They know we’re invested in the place and want to get this done. Maybe no one would ever find out. But beyond the fact that we want this place we don’t gain anything but anxiety and the thrill of knowing we’ve perpetrated a grand fraud. See what I mean? Bad idea.
So we have a choice. Sue them, or walk away. Walking away means starting over, hitting the streets again. A new inspector (cha-ching), a new lawyer (cha-ching), a new mortgage application (cha-ching). Another round of visiting the house ten times to figure out just how bad the mold in the basement is. But suing them means dragging this out. Paying a lot more to a lawyer (cha-cha-cha-cha-ching), tightening the screws on some people who are basically destitute already. Maybe it means that we never get the house because they pull some trump card out of their hat (maybe they aren’t bluffing about the licensed contractor they owe a bazillion dollars to who is going to put a lien on the building any day now). Or maybe it means that in six months or a year (or, as our lawyer has warned us, two years) a court will say “okay people, enough of this.” There are a lot more details (obviously) and if you want them you have to buy me a beer.
A few weeks ago, though, when this was all going swimmingly and we had every reason to believe we’d own the place by now (every reason) I told my friend P. that he could stay with us for a while. Now we don’t have space for him, especially not with my parents coming out here to help us pack. I don’t really know what they’ll be doing out here now, either.
He’s trying to get settled in New York, he isn’t working yet, not consistently enough to pay rent. And he was counting on us, so I’d really like to hook him up. So if you need someone to feed your cats for a week or two, maybe walk your dog. Or just water your plants and kind of make the place look occupied, let me know. He’s a good guy.
Also, since what I’ve learned from this whole experience is that even the nicest woman can turn out to be a conniving liar and a cheat, you could also restore a wee bit of my own faith in humanity here. I mean, there are people who will do you a favor just because they’re nice and you need a place to stay for a few weeks, right?
Meet Me At The
In various on July 16, 2008 at 1:04 pm1) We do not own it yet. We believe. We have absolute faith. But we do not own. Tomorrow a new appraisal, hopefully a closing date settled. Everything seems to hang on these threads, teeny tiny little threads. This is a damn nerve wracking time for the banking industry to be going to hell in a handbasket. Later, when we’re depending on rent to make ends meet, that will also not be a good time for the economy to go to hell in a handbasket.
2) Contrary to rumors to the contrary, we’re sticking around this weekend. Thus, I’m hoping to make it to the Radical Reference benefit to see Freaks and Geeks. And I’ll definitely be making a stop at Michelle’s stoop sale:
This SUNDAY, JULY 20th, I’m having a big STOOP SALE. I’ll be getting rid of years of stuff:
Of course, lots of BOOKS, Clothes and costumery (including some WIGS and HATS), An almost new A/C
Nearly all my CDs (now that I’ve uploaded them all…) and some LPs.>>>And much more!< <<
There will also be a sizable FREE BOX and after 2pm, you can come by and fill a shopping bag with what remains from the sale for FIVE DOLLARS.I’ll be on the stoop all day, so even if you don’t want to shop, I encourage you to come by and hang out, maybe listen to some ukulele, maybe have a beer.
Afterwards, there’s a fair chance I’ll be heading to the Golem show in Prospect Park -
123 Garfield Place, betwixt 5th and 6th Avenues, Park Slope (R to Union St., then walk 2.5 blocks south to Garfield, take a left, and up the hill 2 blocks.; 2/3 to Bergen St., then 10 short blocks south on 6th Avenue
F to 4th Avenue, then walk up to 5th Avenue and take a left, then 10 blocks north to Garfield)
I need more books so I might try to stop by early-like. Soon as I’m done with the market, say.
And you? What’s on your weekend plate?
What I learned this weekend, and other Odds and Ends.
In various on June 4, 2008 at 1:21 amFor the Escape from New York files, though we rented a car (a minivan, even) for the trip.
Sawmill Lake, in High Point State Park is a pretty good spot to retreat to if you’re game for some car camping. Dunno if we could have pulled off biking there. There’s talk of closing the park, however, so I don’t know how useful this tip is going to be in the long run. Contrary to the “already closed” captions on the Trail Conference site, I swam in Lake Marcia Saturday under the watchful eye of no less than four lifeguards. Too bad there’s no comprehensive searchable news site for New Jersey. I had a hellofa time finding any kind of data about the status of the park closures.
Finally, the real reason I’m going to go ahead and post this in all its half baked glory is that the campaign around Union Square and the Union Square Partnership is really shaping up and I want to help them up the ante on ye olde searching algorithms. You can help, too.
Forever, and other Loose Ends
In various on May 18, 2008 at 10:44 pmLouisa said that when she starts making lists she’s trying to make the best of not loving what is all around her. So then I stopped making lists, too. I’ve always been easily swayed.
But then I realized that I just want to let you know, just a thing or two. That I’m mesmerized by the things strangers wear. Muddy carrots and too many spring onions, Miranda July.
Also, after a few run-ins with rechargeable batteries that don’t, I do finally have pictures of the bodum cozy. They’re on Flickr, first, but I’m installing gallery. Flickr is cooler, for sure, but I started feeling wiggly after the Yahoo buyout, and then, this last week, the talk of Microsoft … I need to start weening myself.
Cheap Crashes (edited)
In various on May 14, 2008 at 2:18 pmA colleague recently asked for cheap places to stay in NYC and then circulated the list he’d aggregated. This is a question I’ve tried to answer before, for all kinds of people, from punk to professional to downright prissy. I know that not everyone can dig a youth hostel — if I’m coming to town for work I’m not sure I can stay in a dorm. So use your judgement. There’s something for everyone. If you’re looking for a place to stay that isn’t crazy expensive, take a look at:
Gross. Gross. Gross.
In various on May 8, 2008 at 8:22 pmOkay, not to go all bug paranoid on you all, dear readers, but having learned that Hoyt-Schermerhorn is teeming with bedbugs (yeah, you read that right, and yes I am exaggerating a little) I am totally revolted. I am also reminded that when I was a child my mother would not let me put my book bag on the kitchen table (she knew exactly where else it had been) and was very adamant that I should never set it down on the ground or on the floor of the bus. In more recent years I’ve grown lax about the latter. The former, not so much: I still think that bags you might ever possibly consider setting on the ground do not go on eating or food prep surfaces anymore than shoes do. I think it is about time for me to be a lot more conscious about where I set my bags down.
Wondering what Cherry Crush is doing underground? Well. Since I was experiencing chronic vertigo for a while … a lot of yoga and going to bed early seems to have mostly cleared it up, thank spaghetti monster; and since the vertigo more recently gave way to outrageous hay fever (and I seem to be constitutionally unable to digest antihistamines — I end up in the clouds. Way, way, way up in the clouds, not just a little bit up in the clouds.) … I have been riding the train a lot lately. Waiting for the Golly G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, which you know can take a lifetime.
Yuck.
PS, everybody, be sure to visit New York soon!
PPS, no really: nothing is better for your immune system than a good rush of germs, right? Keep everything in good working order.
PPPS, I finally came up with an excuse to actually get in touch with Miss Heather who swears that she can to reign in her fucking language when it fucking suits her. Needless to say, I think her blog is hilarious, though I know that some of my dear readers won’t fully appreciate her richly layered vocabulary. I have been thinking about starting my own take on her original mission. Myself, I’d like to better document human fecal deposits in subway stair cases.
A Wee Run Down
In Stating the Obvious on March 24, 2008 at 4:48 amI was telling some lovely people, just this afternoon, about how my original purpose here was to keep track of just how many times scientists can possibly re-discover that red wine and chocolate are good for you in moderation. I was telling them this because I just read two articles (both in Harpers) that speak to a piece of the thesis.
- Tasmanian devils afflicted with a contagious cancer. Moral of the story: lack of biodiversity can really fuck with your immune system. Or, rather, your immune system can only function if you are a little bit different from the people you share germs (or viruses or cancerous cells) with. Industrial agriculture might be damn efficient when it works, but we’re inviting famine by basing a nation’s diet on a corn monocrop. Meanwhile, most news outlets seem to miss the point altogether. The story they tell is that there is new evidence that cancer could be contagious. They skip the whole part about the tiny gene pool among Tasmanian devils. Biodiversity.
- Also in Harper’s this month, a story about raw milk, pasteurization and replacing health with sterilization. About how healthy cows fed on grass aren’t nearly as prodigious as cows fed on protein slurry and shot full of antibiotics, and about how people who live antibacterial worlds have higher incidence of auto immune disorders. About how on a small scale, the sort of scale where dairy farming is truly sustainable, raw milk isn’t really so risky. About how on commercial dairy scales, we rely entirely on pasteurization to clean milk that is foul when it leaves the cow. Foul. Morals of the story: biodiversity is good for our guts, too. And a healthy immune system is one that is in balance, not one that has been scrubbed clean. We’re complicated ecosystems. One thing engineering won’t cut it.
- We rode out to Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies yesterday. Highly recommended, even if the limes do kind of fail the food shed test. Cooked up a fantasy that we could stop for a drink at LaNell’s. You can’t. You can buy a whole bottle of rye and take it with you to a quiet alley (we didn’t) but LaNell’s is a shop. I think we even knew that, and yet we persuaded ourselves.
I’m looking forward to Edible Manhattan. Will it hold the keys to midtown?
Also, I love that I know a secret handshake. When you meet a librarian, you can say things like “oh? you are a librarian? Why, Jenna Freedman is a friend of mine.” Try it. Jenna is more famous than I’d realized. Today I met someone who wrote a thesis on Jessamyn West. Thinking back, I wish I’d gotten more details. We did have a good conversation about my latest big question, which is something fascinating about how to do substantive things with data and databases instead of laying a bunch of shiny baubles out for the magpies.
Hey Teacher … free photography classes
In various on March 20, 2008 at 1:48 pmIf you work with teenagers, you probably know at least one that would love to be taking a black and white photography class, right?
Intro to Photography & Darkroom Technique
Ten Saturday Sessions
April 19 — June 21
11:00am — 2:00pm
This class will introduce the basic techniques of black and white photography: composition, exposure, film development, and printing, while exploring the documentary and creative potential of photography as a medium.
AGES: 14 to 17
FREE — Space is limited
For more information please contact Kate DeWitt at 212.254.3697 ext. 25
Registration form available at:
http://www.abcnorio.org/arts_ed/photo_registration.pdf
Civic Mashups
In various on March 12, 2008 at 5:21 pmThe People’s Production House is looking for programming help with a very cool project:
People’s Production House has been conducting interviews with people from across New York City to document their experience of the digital divide. This mash up will put these stories in context. It will locate 1) the location-specific audio recordings on a map of the city, overlaid with 2) data on Internet access (as gathered by the FCC, BroadbandCensus.com, and through our own research), 3) Internet infrastructure (as gathered by the NYC Economic Development Corporation), and 4) poverty levels (from the US Census) or other factors associated with lack of access to information technology. Over time, we would add in 5) other redlined resources, such as banks or healthy food. This will provide a clear representation of the digital divide — who it affects and how –– and tie it to other social issues. While this proposal is specific to New York City, I foresee it being used in many other cities, perhaps even internationally. It could be a great method of cultural exchange for people at any of the multiple edges of the growing network.
Looking for Dinner in Midtown
In various on March 12, 2008 at 2:16 amThis is a puzzle that I have wished I’d solved before, one I know I’ll have to solve it again, so I’m looking for suggestions.
It goes about like this: our family is coming to town, and we’re to join them for dinner someplace not too terribly far from their Broadway matinée. Or, a variation on that theme, they’re staying someplace in the 30s on the East Side.
Since this is our town, we’re supposed to know where to eat, even if I can go weeks without traveling north of no Rio. My repertoire doesn’t include much north of 14th street.
I am hoping you can help. Here I am in a city famous for food. This shouldn’t be anywhere near as hard as it seems to be.
Local produce is great. Menus where the sole vegetarian option is not cheese+starch or fish. Because, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but fishes, they are not like carrots.
And, if you know more than I about this sort of thing … what time does a proper matinée let out? Is it fair to say I’ll be waiting for them in the line outside Grimaldi’s?
Also, actually, I do eat fish. And beef and lamb and pork and pretty much anything once in a while when it is local and sustainably raised. Most fish, however, is neither. Most fish are either loaded with mercury or farmed, which can be profoundly damaging to the environment.
Escape from New York
In various on February 18, 2008 at 4:15 amThe Ashram was a little funky, and I’m not sure I’d go there without Ana and Foca to back me up … I can’t say that and then link to them, can I? … especially since my efforts to find any details about the rumored eucalyptus sauna came to naught. I’d link to the part on their website where the same was promised, but then I’d have to link to them and they’d catch me saying bad things about how no one seemed really happy. I’m used to blissed out yogis. I’m not used to whole dining rooms full of people who seem kind of put out to be sharing the room with you. And that was before we stayed up all night dancing and building human pyramids so it can’t be that they already knew we were going to keep them up all night. (Hold up: I was trying to sleep, too.) However, it was less than 5 miles from Harriman Station on the Port Jervis line, which qualifies it for bicycle escape status, even if I took a cab from the train on Friday, myself.
I’m still looking for low key places to stay that are with in reach of both trees and the train.
I’m also (new this week) looking for ways to get our asses to Martha’s Vineyard this summer. Sumner (of the gorgeous rings–funny how you can forget a thing you wear every day until someone complements it and you remember that it is beautiful) invited us to visit but last summer we were through planning anything. So this summer we want to go see him and chill and ride our bikes and people keep telling me that we’d have to fly to the vineyard, which is crazy talk. Or drive (also. crazy talk.) I know (from Robert Moses, who knew) that if you don’t want the masses to descend, en masse, upon your idyllic retreat, you shouldn’t allow mass transit to approach, but there has to be a way for two hardy cyclists to make the journey with neither an auto nor a security line with no bag of peanuts at the other side. Right?
Seems like there are ferries from North Kingstown (RI), New Bedford (where they read Moby Dick aloud, so maybe we could stop there?), Hyannis, Woods Hole and sometimes Montauk. I’ve heard stories of the Montauk ferry, they all seem to revolve around retching overboard, a thing I’ve never done and could live without, truth be told. The Rhode Island ferry purports to be just 15 miles from Amtrak, which is a trek, but not impossible. Can we do better?
old bones (jared needs a subletter)
In various on December 11, 2007 at 2:45 amLooking for a way to spend the winter in Brooklyn?
My old bones don’t seem to care so much for the cold weather any longer; so, in typical fashion, I am trying to avoid the winter. I would like to sublet my room from January 15 through the end of February. Most of you know the place, it is a large room in a quite building, high ceilings, wood floors, a bed, a dresser, a small couch, a much smaller television. I am looking for $550 per month, $825 total, which includes all bills as well as cable and internet, there is even a home phone. The place will be shared with a go to sleep early, wake up early kind of guy. We would like someone who is a clean and respectful localtarian. Please pass this on as you see fit.
Thanks,
Jared
Ask Cherry Crush (get me out of here)
In various on December 7, 2007 at 7:43 pmThis query didn’t come straight to Ask Cherry Crush, but I believe that our friend would have asked Cherry Crush if only she’d known how:
I am writing to see if any of youse can suggest cheap places my beloved and I might spend New Years’ Eve or perhaps a week in mid-January.
We are broke. As in one of us deep in debt and the other one barely treading water.
Still, we needs to get away and spend some quiet time. Was there a lovely cabin you rented once? A great funky b&b you stayed at? We can drive there, anywhere within a 6-hour drive of the city is fine. We can’t spend hundreds of dollars a night and we need to be able to cook.
Any suggestions you’ve got are great. If not, well, never hurts to ask!
This happens to be my favorite question, so funny someone should ask. The best part of this question? I do not know the answer! They have a car, which does make it all a little easier than my even more favorite question, “Can I do this by bike?” but still.
Desperately Seeking a Hide-a-way
In various on November 26, 2007 at 3:45 pmWe just returned from Hudson Valley no-type-of-car vacation number two and my co-workers are telling me I should write a book. They might be onto something, since I’ve been looking for that book for three years and as far as I can tell it isn’t out there.
Route One took us to Beacon (art, picnic) over the bridge to Newburgh to stay at a very weird B&B (chain smoking proprietor, single beds, plastic mattress and pillowcase covers), dinner at a mini mall BBQ place (good, but not so much for vegetarians). Another ride to Storm King for more art and more picnic and then to Cornwall-on-Hudson where the Painters Inn was a much more accommodating place, if weird in its own quirky way. On further by bicycle to Metro North and then home. That was a few years ago.
This weekend, we took Metro North to Garrison and rode the six miles to the Bear Mountain Inn, cabins at which sure smelled a lot better when I located the battery operated room freshening device and disabled it. Since when do you actually want your living room to smell like a gas station bathroom? In Garrison there’s a nice little market with good coffee and all kinds of cookies and trail mix, in case you failed to requisition hiking treats before you left. Wishing I’d packed our insulated mugs and granola, we enjoyed a lovely continental breakfast of paper cups, tea with a hint of rancid coffee, fruit cocktail and sugar smacks at the Lodge. We hiked up Bear Mountain and then down along the Appalachian Trail to the very eerie ruins of old Doodletown. The key question (what happened?) is never actually explained as you pass through the remains of the mining town that was inhabited as recently as 1967. The hike itself was great, and I recommend it even if you can’t find someplace better than the Bear Mountain Inn to stay at. The view from the porch (where you have to eat if you don’t want the scary room deodorizer flavoring your every bite) is gorgeous and the fall leaves still have another week or two before they’re all gone.
Yesterday we rode back to the market in Garrison for coffee and suburban wife watching (so many SUVs. gaah.) and then onto Cold Springs just to get some riding in.
So we’re working on it, our escape from New York. And getting someplace, I think. I’m not really complaining. I’ve suffered worse than institutional motels, but I remain convinced that better options are out there.
On the advice of the same colleague who thinks I ought to write a book, I’m looking into Canoe Clubs (like this one) that apparently have more modest and rustic accommodations.
Any other tips for me?
Maybe you know a guy?
In various on October 16, 2007 at 1:18 pmhey bike friends-
As some of you know, my trusty old pal the green bike dodged its last pothole a couple of weeks ago. We had some good times, me and that bike, but I guess it was time to ride off into that great stretch of fresh pavement in the sky.
So I’m looking for a new pair of wheels, and would love it if you could keep your eyes open. Something with some street sense, in a three- or a ten-speed. Must be a hardy soul who can live outside at night, likes long rambles around Brooklyn, and isn’t scared of some amateur bike repair. If you hear of any leads, secret stoop sales, or know a guy, please let me know.
thanks,
Alice
You know how to find me if you’ve got just the thing for Miss Hartley.
Moreia (and you want the dresser)
In various on October 3, 2007 at 1:20 amC’mon? I know, it is a great hulking piece of sturdy furniture and craftsmanship be damned, you don’t want it either. Bah and pheh.
I finally have a name, and it isn’t stupid, which makes me really happy. Moreia, because apparently I play like an eel. Shy and deaf with bacteria on their teeth.
Dresser (you want?); and a thing to do on the 13th.
In various on October 1, 2007 at 1:20 pmBought a new dresser from Eddie this weekend, which means the old one is up for grabs. Posted it on craigs list, but if you want it the price is negotiable for friends. Just say the word.
Also, to file under upcoming, another batizado, October 13 at 5:30, PS 77 Auditorium, 62 Park Place between 5th and 6th Ave. In Brooklyn. You should come. It is just $10, and I’m graduating.
exactly what oliver promised I wouldn’t do
In various on September 12, 2007 at 12:53 pmI’m working on the whole “not that sort of blog” thing. I don’t want to whine. Or, I do want to whine, but I won’t. So no “ten things I hate about you, oh world.” Still, yesterday, I took the train and sat below a woman with deep bags under her eyes reading Andrew Weil. The title was something like Spontaneous Healing and I was sitting there, looking at her puffy eyes and tiredness and I wanted to say, “honey. Dear. Andrew Weil can’t help you if you don’t get enough sleep. Vitamins won’t make up for a decent night’s sleep.” She looked so earnest.
I’m still learning to mind my own business. I kept my mouth shut.
out of context
In various on August 31, 2007 at 2:00 pmIn better days, he said, “you could sit out on your lawn chair until 4 a.m. drinking espresso, and no one would bother you.”
N has accused me (not unfairly) of thinking everything is bad. Luisa keeps list of things that are making her happy, and coincidently, she doesn’t complain that much. I used to think it was because she led a charmed life that was without suffering or want, but like so many things that you think without thinking about them, I know that isn’t really true. So my own midsummer resolution is to dwell on what I enjoy, at least for a little while, until the curmudgeon needs to come up for air.
A man reminiscent for the days when he could sit in a lawn chair until 4 a.m. drinking espresso is a beautiful thing, even if it is coming out of a kind of thin AM-NY article about how Bushwick used to be different.
The young dissident naturally wanted to play tricks.
In various on August 25, 2007 at 6:52 pmDubin insisted the other night that she does read my blog even though it never makes any sense. I used to offer at least a few more updates about my life as a whole, I think.
The more time I spend with writers, the more I think about writing again. Really writing, not writing about how to use code. Not that it gets me anywhere, but I do think about it. I spent the weekend bouncing around the Hudson Valley with Lex and Tarikh, eating pie and corn and letting the immense quiet settle around me. 
I’m re-learning how to enjoy this world, missing stumbling upon things like this. Also, I lost my toothbrush. Dang.
I had a longish debate the other night about the One Laptop Per Child project, which everyone seems to assume I’ll love (computers! amanda likes computers!) nevermind that they’re semi-useless hunks of manufactured plastics, or that it is a classic story of international aid that we’re always building schools and never hiring teachers.
Today, I’m working. This is part of the puzzle, that I took on a full time job and it is a code-y job and I think it might have been a terrible mistake but I’m going to stick it out for now and see if I can challenge myself to make something of it without someone else whisking me off to make something of it for me. For now, I’m a little bored, which is scary and not the sort of thing you’re supposed to blog about.
I’ve been finishing things. The BaseBox has been done for a while, and Mayfirst’s Organic Internet book is out. And yet, the list of things to do is still longish and rote. How’d I end up with so many chores? Type minutes. Upgrade operating system. Repot carnivorous plants in something attractive (buy things. Meh.) Frame prints — more buying things, and last time I tried the clerk at the frame shop was so bizarrely rude to me that I was deeply demoralized and walked out without buying anything. Taliah says to go to Soho Art Materials instead.
Is that what you were looking for, or was it something different? I’m never sure.
no Rio Building Fund Appeal
In various on August 13, 2007 at 2:13 pmIt is a scary thing when a bunch of DIY punks start trying to find a million dollars, but here we are, looking for exactly that. Scary like daunting, like an uphill climb, like where on earth are we going to get money like that.
The older I get (yeah, yeah) the more I realize the importance of no Rio not just as an arts space for the likes of me, but as an all ages punk venue. That doesn’t exist in New York City anymore (did it ever? dunno.) — a place were 16 year olds can get together and make music, see shows, be both safe and unsupervised. I think that is immeasurably important and it is a tiny slice of what happens at ABC no Rio.
So I think everyone should join me in supporting the building fund. Read the rest of this entry »
Art Radio
In various on August 8, 2007 at 5:21 pmFor the first time in a decade, the FCC is opening up an application window to distribute much of the remaining Full Power FM spectrum to non-profit groups, but Free 103 is thinking about applying for a license, which is truly exciting stuff:
In October, the Federal Communications Commission will allow applications for full-power educational radio stations. free103point9 has been working with a few national non-profit groups to see if there is room on the dial in upstate New York for such a station.
We recently got back a preliminary engineering study that shows that there is room for such a station covering almost all of Greene County, and about half of Columbia County, and the very south part of Albany County. The signal reaches very close to Ulster County, especially near I-87 and the Hudson River. The cities of Cairo, Hudson, Catskill and Coxsackie are all well-covered, and the area extends all the way to Chatham and the Taconic Parkway.
That’s all the good news. The bad news is we have very little time, and need to raise a good deal of money quickly to apply for the frequency. To apply, you need to have a full-fledged engineering report done, and you need a broadcast lawyer to fill out the application (the FCC throws out applications if even one line is filled out incorrectly). This costs between $5000 and $8000.
So we are asking you to pledge whatever you can to help bring an art radio station to upstate New York. Anyone pledging money will be in on the first decisions that will shape the station. You want to do a show? No problem. You want to help decide what shows are on, and what direction the station takes, then donate now.
free103point9 will make our new Study Center in Acra, New York the studio for the station, and we want to make sure it is an important voice for local artists of all types, as well as meeting educational, journalistic and musical needs in the community.
Please e-mail Tom Roe at tr @ free103point9.org to make a pledge for whatever amount you can promise. We will only collect on the pledges if we raise enough money to pay for the engineering study and the broadcast lawyer. There’s no guarantee we will get the station just by applying — a church group or a public radio giant could be stiff competition — but we think we have a good chance and the payoff is worth the risk.
We will hold an organizational meeting for anyone interested, this Thursday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m. at free103point9′s Wave Farm, in the Study Center, for anyone interested in helping organize these efforts. We will stream the meeting on the internet if you cannot attend in person, at www.free103point9.org.
Basically, by Aug. 15 we need to have the money raised, and get the engineers and lawyers working to meet the October deadline.
Really Big Yard Sale
In events on July 26, 2007 at 8:00 pmThey’re calling it The Greatest Yardsale Fundraiser which might be an exaggeration, but they have a great selection of clothes, books, cds, videos, a sewing machine, boxing gloves, skiing goggles, a brand new ski bag, a couch, a small-framed woman’s mountain bike, bamboo window shades, bags, purses, jewellery, fresh baked vegan and non-vegan goodies, smoothies….the list goes on.
This is a fund-raiser for Capoeira Brooklyn’s 2007 Batizado. Stop by if you’re in the area, I’ll be around for an early shift probably.
Afropunk
In various on July 1, 2007 at 7:01 pmAfro-Punk Festival
June 28-July 7
This Independence Day, celebrate some true revolutionaries during the third annual Afro-Punk Festival at BAM, featuring film, music, and art united under the banner of black rebellion. This year’s festival is focused on the Black Panther party, including a discussion with Black
Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, two programs on July 4 featuring documentaries about them, and an exhibit of archival photographs by the Black Panthers party photographer Stephen Shames. For the full line-up, visit BAM.org/afropunk.
OPENING NIGHT: On Thu, June 28, legendary Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale discusses the history of the movement: where it’s been and where it’s going. Tickets are $15.
FILM: Music docs, cult classics, documentaries about the Black Panthers, and more. Highlights include a new print of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (with clear parallels to the civil rights movement), Samuel Fuller’s White Dog (about a dog programmed to attack black people), The Final Comedown, Eyes of the Rainbow (a documentary about Black Panther leader Assata Shakur), and more.
ART: Selections from the book The Black Panthers: Making Sense of History. This exhibition looks at the history of the movement through the lens of official party photographer Stephen Shames. In partnership with Aperture Foundation.
MUSIC: The Afro-Punk Festival features live concerts and DJ sets by bands from the Afro-Punk scene, including Cutlery, The Objex, Bear in Wolf Fur, No Surrender, CX Kidtronik, and much more.
AFROPUNK BLOCK PARTY: Celebrate Brooklyn’s DIY spirit at the first-ever Afro-Punk Block Party, featuring live music, artists, vendors, crafts, food, and more.
For full information and to buy tickets: BAM.org/afropunk
Read the Fine Print, Sucker (or just rent local)
In various on June 16, 2007 at 11:43 pmIt is 7:30, and N just called me from Dollar, where he was supposed to be picking up our rental car so we can drive off into the sunset. “They’re saying that because we live in Brooklyn, there is some kind of $55/day fee? Does that sound right?”
So I go to their website and sure enough the fee is clearly stated in their general policies–their site actually says the fee is $77/day for Brooklynites. Apparently this isn’t even news. So, hang on to that Michigan drivers license or don’t rent from Dollar.
Jerks.
New York Rent-a-Car is friendly and obliging:
New York Rent A Car Inc
(718) 275-9155
333 Adams St
Brooklyn, NY
And plenty of our friends swear by Speedy’s on Union:
Speedy Rent-A-Car
(718) 783-0800 800 Union St
Brooklyn, NY
Back that *** up (and a plug for Mikey’s Hookup)
In linux on June 15, 2007 at 1:31 amN’s got a super-sketch-spyware-adware-trojan beast on his computer (that is what you get for browsing with IE, says I) — the kind of thing that you get from clicking the wrong button and launching some kind of ActiveX installer. It won’t go away. No amount of Spybot Search and Destroy or Spyware Doctor will make it go away (speaking of Spyware Doctor, later we can talk about how I feel that the Google Pack is all or nothing. What if I don’t want Google to take over my screen saver? Sure, I can uninstall it later, but why not let me choose in the beginning?).
We’ve given up trying to eradicate it, so I took a field trip to Mikey’s Hook Up where knowledgeable people took a break from their ping-pong game to ask me a few questions and point me towards a reasonably priced external hard drive so we can back up our home drives from his computer and start over. Got that? Knowledgeable people, enjoying their workday. I can’t tell J&R and Best Buy apart, but I am pretty sure that no one really tries to help you at either one. They sure don’t at Radio Shack. And you don’t get to play ping pong on your breaks at Best Buy. It is okay to shop someplace where the staff aren’t being forcibly crushed into a homogeneous model of “Perfect Customer Service” that involves no service whatsoever.
Back to the hard drive, though. I know that we could bring the malware with us, but, having evaluated the risk, we’re not that stressed out about it. Moreover, since the option is to just erase everything, we may as well try.
Since our fancy new LaCie (designed by Porsche, ooh la lah) drive has a gazillion gigs available, I get to back Brahms up, too.
Here’s what I did. I’d love to know if you’ve got a better idea:
[0 amanda@brahms ~]$ cd /media/LACIE/Brahms/
[0 amanda@brahms Brahms]$ sudo tar cvpfz backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/dev --exclude=/media --exclude=.Trash /
Note that Ubuntu mounted the drive of its own accord. It is not inconcievable that a person could have to mount a drive themselves if it doesn’t just automagically appear. If you don’t like my only relevant archive, you could try searching the internets.
I made up the “.Trash” part because I couldn’t find any documentation of how the tar --exclude option handles regular expressions. If I backed up the trash, okay, I backed up the trash. Worse things have happened.
Still, I’m wondering. Did I do the right thing? I created separate (duplicate) backups of a couple of directories where I store working documents (my home directory and /var/www/html but those were a little more straightforward.
PS, can i just tell you how much it warms my heart that Princess Oh-my-god-she-saw-me-without-makeup Melissa also is totally over ga-ga weddings. It isn’t just because I’m a difficult and belligerent punk, it is because people go out of their heads and they need to just not.
Seatbelt? You didn’t wear a seatbelt?
In various on May 2, 2007 at 12:18 pmI don’t usually just go on and on about how I feel about the news of the day, but this one is giving me a headache. When I heard that Corzine was going to apologize for something. I assumed, naive little me, that he was going to wheel himself out of the hospital and say something like … “I was going more than 90 miles an hour, and I’m grateful that I didn’t maim anyone but myself. Being late for a press conference is never an emergency worthy of a siren. This was a gross abuse of my power as governor and it doesn’t matter that as a technical point it was legal for my driver to race the roads like a drunk teenager. It doesn’t matter that my driver felt this was a safe speed, it wasn’t a legal speed and we set legal speed limits because individual drivers aren’t a good judge of what is a safe speed. It wasn’t a safe speed, as we learned when it turned out we were going too fast to respond to an erratic driver on the road.”
He didn’t say that, though. He said he was sorry he’d not worn a seatbelt.
[tags]traffic, politics, local[/tags]
C.O.B.R.A. cometh
In various on January 3, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have a friend who said once “oh, yeah, we do that in Ann Arbor, too” and I am here to tell you that nobody does this in Ann Arbor. Fire breathing dragons? Surgery on the run? Menacing giant squid? I don’t think so.
27th of January in the year of aught seven
It isn’t even last minute yet (or, now is a great time to buy!)
In various on December 13, 2006 at 1:58 pmThe Clothesline Show, Darkroom Folio Project, Cycle Craft: you can get your shopping done and cover most birthdays through March to boot.
The City Reliquary gift shop, which carries the Cycle Craft line of jewelery, also has very cool trinkets like actual schists of Manhattan Island and Statue of Liberty Sponges.
The Clothesline Show
a benefit art sale for ABC No Rio
Thursday December 14 and Friday December 15
7:00 – 10:00pm
Works on paper, 11×17, proceeds support the no Rio building renovation fund. Read the rest of this entry »
the folio project
In various on December 13, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Crank through your holiday shopping list in one fell swoop. Seriously. Sixteen prints, on gelatin silver fiber based paper and signed on the back by each artist. The edition is limited to a total of 10. Total price? $250, but no one will stop you, should you decide to pay a bit more to support a vibrant volunteer run community arts center.
Worms ate my apple
In various on December 6, 2006 at 6:50 pmOn Saturday, December 9, the debut of the Composting Green Map of Manhattan will be celebrated at the Union Square Greenmarket from noon until 2pm. Get your free copy there!
Created by Green Map System and Lower East Side Ecology Center, this pocket-size map shows you where to take your kitchen scraps and organic waste so it can be composted and naturally recycled into rich soil, along with resources so you can start your own composting project at home. A complete list of compostable items is included, too!
Details, a downloadable version, press release and more!
Start composting this holiday season for a really green year ahead!
Without a good title
In various on December 4, 2006 at 3:26 pmA 22 year-old, friend of friends, was killed on the West Side greenway on Friday night. I didn’t know him, and I don’t have a lot of deep thoughts to share about him, but I am fuming about a few things about his death, and thinking a lot about the general deadliness of cars and what it would take to reduce their menace. Read the rest of this entry »
Free Parking (the stolen credit card remix)
In various on December 1, 2006 at 2:37 pmI can’t find the entry just now, but I know I moaned and groaned not long ago about the bizarre and unbelievable revelation that the Parking Violations Bureau has no mechanism for reversing parking tickets that were paid with stolen credit card numbers.[1] It seems they’ve finally caught one culprit, a lone dude who was paying people’s tickets at a discount to them. It doesn’t sound like they’ve done much to improve their system, though.
[1] In case you need a refresher, my credit card number was used to pay for, among a great many other things over the course of about a week, a handful of NYC parking tickets. Summer of ’05 or so, this happened, and it was a pain in my butt because once they’d established the abuse, my card was cut off, never mind that I had (foolishly) called them back from a payphone in a park in the woods and was going to need my credit card to get home. Not long after that incident, I got a call from some city office–they were trying to track down the parking tickets that had been paid because of course Visa took their money back and since the city had cleared all these tickets, they were wanting their money. I spoke with the woman for a while and agreed to provide various records that would help them track down any patterns in their effort to identify the source of what sounded like a rash of stolen card numbers at the Parking Violations Bureau.
But when I got off the phone, I started thinking about a fairly obvious question: why not go back to their records and see which tickets were tied to those payments that had just been retracted. Because they can’t! Because they have no audit trail linking parking tickets to instances of payment. Which is how some 23 year old could swindle the Parking Violations Bureau. Because the folks who used his service never had their particular payment questioned, so they never got caught. Even when this was enough of a problem to put an investigation unit on the case, they still couldn’t figure out how to start tracking payments more closely.
Some Classifieds
In various on November 27, 2006 at 10:28 pmBeka is looking for a co-worker; Maggie nees a roommate; Elizabeth needs a tenant and Pit needs neighbors. Let me know if any of these appeal to you. Read the rest of this entry »
They shoot the blonde one.
In various on October 30, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Once upon a time, I went through a phase of making up names for people. Omri, who no one ever seemed to notice, was “Ahm Here” (it was bizarre, he went through an invisible stage, Omri did). Brad was “Hide Your Food” because he was pretty much guaranteed to help himself to whatever you were eating, whether or not you meant to share it. He always said thanks, but sometimes that isn’t enough–I know a few people were actively angry with him, sometimes he presumed his way into potlucks where he had no place (and had brought no food), or just ate shit that wasn’t for him (snacks, say, set out for folks who were helping get a mailing together, were totally fair game even if he had no intention of helping with the mailing).
Somehow, he managed to be everywhere (whether or not there was food). In garden struggles and the fight to save no Rio, he’d always turn out and put in a lot of himself. You knew you could count on him, and he rarely got sucked into interpersonal bs. After the verdict in the Amadou Diallo trial, the day I famously talked Taliah and Ellen into riding past the protests with me (since all hope of us winning anything but DFL in that year’s monster track was pretty much moot), I heard someone yell my name as I was being arrested and looked up to see Brad, a half a block away, raising his fist and smiling at me. I was confused as hell and really upset in that moment (and Brad would tease me about it for years, how upset I looked, even from a half block away) but also really amused because Brad obviously thought I was being arrested for taking some kind of stand, for laying my body down in front of the machine. Actually, Ellen and I were arrested (and held overnight, Ellen for almost 36 hours) for riding the wrong way on Fifth avenue. We hadn’t done anything especially brave, and I hadn’t even been properly at the protest.
I don’t know whether or not I’m relieved that I never did figure out how to get sound out of Flash and Skype at the same time on my Ubuntu Thinkpad (anyone? anyone? Sound cards are infuriating) so that I can’t watch the Telemundo Coverage. The last footage that he shot is inaccessible for different reasons, nothing seems to want open the .mov file. I watched it on YouTube last night, his last footage. I don’t know if it just isn’t public or what, but I can’t seem to find it right now.
The thing that is eating me, the thing I was going to try to write this morning, wasn’t about Brad breathing fire in the middle of Times Square or hiding his seed collection in the back of my closet after I left him in my apartment for a week. I don’t even remember if I ever grew the squash he left, I probably did. Brad told me a great story about pirate gardens, that stuck with me until I went out trying to find anyone (anyone) besides Brad who’d ever heard of such a thing. But it wasn’t about that either.
It was about Oaxaca and politics and organizing and the fact that I still don’t understand what is going on in Oaxaca. The Times writes of a besieged tourist city, as though the city belonged to the tourists, and not the citizens of the state of Oaxaca who have been massing on the Zócalo for months. I’ve been putting together a story in my own head, about how the barricades were built in Oaxaca, how a teachers’ strike — something that by all accounts has been for years a standard stage in the biannual contract negotiations — turned into the revolutionary moment that Brad saw. Saturday, I wasn’t sure I knew that demanding federal intervention in Oaxaca made any sense at all. Do we expect that the federales are going to swoop in and offer the protesters shields? Oust the governor themselves? C’mon. We expected what did happen Sunday: that they’d bash through barricades and push back activists (or was that pummel activists to a pulp? push sounds so gentle), the Mexican army would cut the power to the Zocalo and the APPO radio station, and clear the streets of protesters? By some accounts another Mexican is already dead in Oaxaca, though the PFP says it isn’t so (you want the original spanish?, okay).
PS, this title is from the transcript of Brad’s last video. The translations vary as much as the transcriptions.
The Bird Man House!
In various on October 14, 2006 at 4:16 pmOne of the most amazing structures in Brooklyn caught fire this week (days ago, I totally missed it) and the city wants the whole thing gone. Read the rest of this entry »
Some water stuff
In various on August 22, 2006 at 2:25 pmI said I was going to blog it and then I got lost commenting about expats and now I need to leave my study until the damn noise truck stops whatever the hell noisy nonsense it is up to.
Here is the thing. We have a rainwater catchement system in our garden, built in part thanks to the efforts of a network or consortium of NYC greening groups and the DEP called the Water Resources Group. I made their website, I’m quite proud of it. It’s a blog. Not proud of it because it is such a spectacular site, but proud of it because it was easy and it works and whenever I have to train someone on it, they look at the admin interface and say “oh. so is this, like, a blog?” and I say “yeah” and they say “oh. I guess I don’t really need a training. I can figure this out.” and then I am done.
The tank in our garden, though, is a bit contentious. Some people think it is ugly, and when a water sample turned up fairly high levels of lead (I was confused about this until I did some math about how many diesel trucks there are around here. Not sure about lead per se but diesel is pretty nasty stuff) in our tank, there was a move to get rid of it altogether. I was having a hard time convincing my fellow gardeners that the 1100 gallon tank was having any impact what so ever on the combined sewer overflow. The point of participating in a pilot program, of course, is not the impact that your little tank has, but the impact that many, many tanks could have, if it were feasible to put tanks in all over the city. And so I am committed to keeping our tank going and finding ways to use the water even if it is polluted. It would be good to figure out why it is polluted, certainly better than scrapping the project altogether.
What I’m trying to find is some figures on the impact of impermiable cities. When you pave the whole city, there is noplace for the rain to go except the sewers. And when a city’s sewers were designed for some other population and were never meant to absorb every drop of rain that falls (the ground is supposed to help with that) you wind up with flotillas of poo in the Gowanus every time it rains. Which is bad, but I’m looking for figures on how bad. According to The Ecologist an area equivilant to 22 Hyde Parks has been lost to paving of front yards in London. That is drastic and all, and it matters for more reasons than just rainwater, but what is the impact then? For every inch of rain, how much more water is diverted into the storm drains? I think I can actually do that math myself. Stay tuned. Maybe I don’t need anything from Megan.
For unrelated bonus points, a rant for you, dear reader. I want to make a little book called “how to convince your roommate that he is wrong.” So that when your roommate (or a relative or neighbor or a friend;s roommate’s relative’s neighbor) declares that paper plates are ecologically adventagous because washing dishes wastes water, you can lay down some facts about the ecological impact of paper plates, from clear cutting to water intensive manufacture to disposal. I’d have some parallel arguements about wasting water, bottled water, not bothering to compost, using toxic cleansers. I might even come up with a less antagonistic name for the book, but first I have to win a particular argument (no, not with Noah. Sheesh.) about paper plates.
Feed Me
In various on August 16, 2006 at 8:04 pmI started this blog thinking I was going to write a lot more about food and diet and the basic theory that groundbreaking study upon earthshattering discovery seems to consistently confirm: that a balanced diet and some decadences in moderation are good for you. This shocking study has found that unsaturated fat is better for you than saturated fat. Whoah! Okay, so the big discovery is that small amounts of saturated fat have an impact quickly, but the big picture remains. Don’t eat processed food. Got it. It turns out that MSNBC is rife with this stuff. Another study has revealed that people who eat more vegetables get more vitamins, and that (I’m paraphrasing here) if you don’t eat a lot of rich food, but rather eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, you can eat more with out getting fat. Whoah again! Vegetables have vitamins? Rich food is more filling? I’m shocked.
Meanwhile, I think I have Tracie McMillan to thank for the recent appearance of 2% milk at the New Millenium Grocery and Deli. She’ll say she only writes about it, but the truth is that without reporters who actually follow nutrition access nothing will ever change. Bodegas will continue to stock only whole milk. Now that she’s got a bit of a blog herself, on the Huffington Post, I am hoping that lettuce is just around the corner. Okay, that might take a while. but I’m ready.
For those who missed it the first ten times I told this story (I’m not even sure it isn’t lurking on the blog someplace), one of the most shocking awakenings I’ve every had in NYC came one day in the laundromat, where a young boy, not more than six, was sobbing hysterically and getting snot all over himself. I don’t remember what set it off. I was having a hard time ignoring the scene, and it was clear that he wasn’t stopping anytime soon so I sat down next to him and asked how he was doing. He looked at me bewildered and hiccuped. I asked if he was into pokemon (it was on his shirt) and he said no. I asked what he had for lunch today, since he seemed to be easily distracted from crying, I figured I’d just keep asking him questions until he calmed down. For lunch today, he told me that he’d had a cookie and a chocolate milk. And his friend? Fritos. For lunch. Granted I’m sure the caloric intake was more than adequate, but WTF? No wonder he couldn’t stop crying. He was having a big ole sugar crash. This is why nutrition access is a problem.
The Ecologist ran a great story a few months back about the role of sugar and nutritional deficits in violent crime. One study they looked at, from 1983(!) found that when incarcerated teens were given healthier snacks (primary feature: less refined sugar), there was a 75% reduction in the use of restraints and a 100% reduction in suicides; another study found a 77% drop in assaults among incarcerated teens put on a better diet. This stuff isn’t even news. 1983?
I don’t have a good solution for you. In prisons, okay. I do: feed prisoners healthier food. But beyond prisons? I’m not so sure. You’ll have to look to Tracie for the answers.
nobody’s that busy
In various on June 6, 2006 at 1:21 pmI started this blog thinking I’d use it to gather my thoughts about food, nutrition, open space, urban health. You may have noticed that I write about none of those things. I think about them, a lot. I stumble upon articles that state the obvious (eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes …) in new and different ways. Juvenile detention centers in the UK saw remarkable drops in assaults on staff, fights, escape attempts and suicide attempts when they variously experimented with giving each inmate a multi vitamin every day or taking the refined sugar out of the kids diets. The article isn’t online, but it is a good read (much of the ecologist is) and if I were a more devoted blogger I’d pull out some facts.
A more recent article observed that the recent outbreaks of Avian Flu in S.E. Asia are all tied to giant factory farms: if the birds weren’t on factory farms they’d come from them recently. Confirming, once again, that the push to destroy small scale poultry farming is really just industry opportunism, and that factory farming is grossly unsafe and our increasing reliance on monoculture is eventually going to lead to a massive ecological disaster that Monsanto can’t hope to resolve. Nature is smarter than us, biodiversity is more efficient than all the agrochemical labs money can buy. These aren’t footnoted facts, and I apologize for that. They aren’t even very well formed thoughts, and I apologize for that, too. The problem is that I still think this is all altogether obvious. “All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten” obvious. And I can’t quite get my head around making sense of these issues, of nutrition and biodiversity and their impact on urban life for people who haven’t already made sense of them.
In case you were wondering, I’m really not going anywhere at all with this, and I’m going to post it without going anywhere in particular with it. I set out this morning to introduce the Harmony Farms CSA, announcement of which was accompanied to my inbox by a clip from Michael Pollan’s blog on the NY Times Website (which you need a premium paid account to read, but which you can find cached on Google if you are sneaky). Michael Pollan does a much better job of arranging food and sustainability questions on the table, though he doesn’t every quite connect them to cars and noise and children who can’t focus. Grist, and Tom Philpott (formerly of Brooklyn, briefly of my acquaintance via the notorious ABW) also does a much better job of talking about rural sustainability. Read those things, yes, and if you want vegetables, talk to Hubert:
the real reason i am writing all of you is to ask if you
would like to join the CSA
(Community Supported Agriculture)
I work on in upstate ny
(60 miles from brooklyn)…
(you should come for a visit)[*]
(really)
here’s the deal:
every friday i will deliver to your house
(or any other predetermined destination)
a box of fresh,
morning picked produce.
it will consist of whatever is available that very
morning
maybe some arugala,
perhaps some beets,
probably a bunch of really cool heirloom tomatoes that
you will find only in a friend’s back yard…
we use no chemicals at all,
though we are not certified organic
(cost).
we grow a bagillion types of stuff
and
of the bagillion types of stuff we grow
we grow a bagillion different varieties of that stuff
(technically speaking)
so
what does this cost…?
600$ for a full share for the year
this breaks down to 37.50 per week…
(if you only count july-october though we go well into december and June is covered to…)
chump change once you taste these tomatoes…
(and beets, garlic scapes, a bunch of different
lettuces and my money is on sugar peas inside of a
week)
so what do you think?
if you think its a little high, or confusing, or
complex
read the blog…
nobody’s that busy.
[*] if you want to visit, and help (they ask guests to put in three hours a day, which goes by fast if you start in the cool morning hours) get in touch and I’ll see what I can do. It is easy by bike from the Metro North. Seven miles.
[**] Yeah, yeah, I noticed the error. I’m not fixing it right now because I don’t have time. I upgraded WordPress and that broke the tagging plugin.
in praise of record keeping
In various on May 22, 2006 at 7:31 pmOnce or twice a month, I receive a renewal notice for Women’s Day or Ladies Home Journal or Newsweek or some other magazine to which I have never subscribed. I throw them away. I know that some people don’t, because for the last two years, Harper’s Magazine has been carrying a warning about false renewal notices. I sometimes read that warning and think smug thoughts.
If you don’t know by know where I am going with this, you are dumber than me. That’s right. I was clearing up my receipts from last year and the Harper’s renewal notice, marked “Paid, 5/18/05″ looked oddly familiar. Right on the notice it says, in very small print, “Miss Hickman, you have been suckered.” (I’m paraphrasing here. I could fish the notice out, but I won’t. It says something about how they may or may not have a formal relationship with Harper’s Magazine, Inc.) I checked Harpers.org, and sure enough, my subscription was renewed for three years in 2003. It expires in October of this year. They haven’t gotten any payments from me since 2003 and the 866 number on the renewal notice has been disconnected. They certainly haven’t gotten any two year renewal.
I tell you this story, because I’ve also been subpoenaed to appear in person (I’m sure my father is going to tell me that this statement is somehow redundant) before the County Clerk because I didn’t turn in my Jury Questionaire. Lucky for me, usually a terrible keeper of records, I got my First Jury Eligibility Questionaire right after I discovered the renewal notice caper. In a very un-Amanda-like act, I carefully noted the confirmation number I was given when I responded to the Jury Questionaire online and filed the notice away. So I have something to wave self righteously at them when I appear. So at least I can be indignant when they yell at me. (And they do yell. Last time I had jury duty they were downright nasty to most of us.)
Feast of St Joey
In various on May 12, 2006 at 8:32 pmA day- and night-long Celebration of St Joey. Joey Ramone, without whom there would have been no Rockaway Beach, no End of the Century, no salvation for thin-chinned, slightly homely guys with a fierce sense of romance to rock for — thatSt Joey!
At noon on Joey Ramone’s birthday, a bunch of punk pilgrims will meet up at the Forest Hills Rock and Roll High School, at 67-01 110th Street in Queens (subway to 67th Ave), and, well, make a pilgrimage. Ten miles isn’t too far to walk for a saint, and it’s just about that far from Forest Hills to Tompkins Square Park, where we’ll finish. Strong feet welcome, and contact Joe Tuba if you’d like to join up. You’ll just have to tap me on the shoulder if you want to know how to reach Joe Tuba.
At 7pm, from Tompkins Square, a proper high-style religious processional will depart from East 9th St and Ave A, complete with a St Joey statue on a platform carried by brawny disciples (Giglio style), hopefully some punk martyrs and heretics, and of course a brass band playing songs appropriate to the situation. The procession will snake around the Ramones shrines of the East Village, including The Continental and Coney Island High, winding up at CBGB via Joey Ramone Place. At CBs Gallery, then, we’ll be throwing a proper feast with a potluck dinner, a DIY Ramones cover band open mike, and music from DEVA, THE RAMOONES, FUR CUPS FOR TEA, and the Hungry March Band! That part starts at 8 or so, and costs $10 ($5 if you bring something for the potluck), and a portion of the door is going to the Lymphoma Research Fund.
It’s gonna be legendary.
A bit of a round up.
In various on May 4, 2006 at 2:05 pmMy father helpfully pointed out that I haven’t posted a blog entry since April 17. I just haven’t had much to say (or much time for writing) I have written several irate letters to the mayor about car alarms and overplanted my garden plot. I already forgot what I planted even. Greens of some sort. Carrots. Beets. Basil. The tomatoes plant themselves. Mostly, though, I’ve been working on the Recycle-A-Bicycle newsletter (which you should subscribe to, because it is great) and trying to pretend to get my act together for Bike Month (which is now).
In other excitement, I bought a computer, a ThinkPad x40 on ebay. It isn’t your business what I paid, but I’ll be picking it up this week and you’re sure to hear whether it turns out to be boring or exciting.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cops in the Bike Lane
In various on April 17, 2006 at 12:53 pmMore on the local civic activism front. A year or so ago, I started a moblog that I never publicized, I think it was called “double parked cops” or something. The idea was that you could send in photos of cops abusing parking passes and we could somehow persuade Mayor Bloomberg that despite his blustery inauguration week promises, absolutely zero has been done about cops parking pretty much anywhere they please.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0615,ferguson,72804,5.html
Chinatown is up in arms about the problem, but it is a city-wide issue. Throughout Brooklyn, the first sign that you are approaching a station house is a sidewalk clogged with private cars. A cursory inspection would suggest that half of them (or some. That is a rough number, half) are using xeroxed parking permits. You don’t really need a permit to park on the sidewalk or in the bike lane or in a turn lane or anywhere you happen to feel like leaving your car, as long as you have some kind of sign on the dash, a little signal that you are a cop and thus above the law.
If you happen to feel like taking some pictures of police permit abuse or just cars all over the place on the approach to a station, you can send them to “double.parked.cops@gmail.com” with the date, time and location. Just don’t get arrested.
Since Fergie’s story was really about cameras and who is (and isn’t) subject to surveillance (geez guys, if you aren’t doing anything wrong, why hide?), I should also note that the NYPD is placing surveillance cameras all over Bushwick–500 of them just for a start–to “combat terrorism.” Bushwick being the hotbed of terrorist activity that it is, we should all rest a bit easier. Meanwhile, efforts to add a handful of new red light cameras in New York City have been consistently quashed in Albany. Pop quiz: what will keep you safe from harm more efficiently? 500 surveillance cameras or 500 red light cameras?
If you feel like raising a stink, go for it. Tell Ray Kelly that you worry much more about being hit by a car (while you are at it, ask if maybe they could use some of those cameras to identify NYPD scoflaws, since the public hasn’t been allowed to document their rampant parking abuse), or find your state senator and ask them when we can have 500 traffic enforcement cameras.
Xenophobia is for the Birds
In various on April 7, 2006 at 2:22 pmI tend to be suspicious of the native plant movement: it smacks of horticultural xenophobia, and as much as I hate scotch broom and kudzu, I’m not convinced that native plantings are actually more appropriate to an urban habitat than other plantings. I’ve had a hard time getting an explanation of why it matters, just exactly the sort of thing that makes me nuts. Folks come round our garden all the time, full of advice and ideas and vision and I have a hard time filtering the wisdom from the BS. I know that dismissing native plants is blasphemy, especially for a commited organic gardener and permaculture dabbler, but no one was ever really able to tell me why.
This Christmas, however, I actually got an explanation that made some sense to me. My mother’s friend Billie has been active in a native habitat restoration project in the San Francisco Bay Area (I’m hoping my mother will read this and email me some specific names …) where recent restoration of a variety of native berry bushes, not popular in modern, manicured gardens, has led to the return of a warbler not seen nesting in San Francisco in fifty years. That makes sense to me, because birds are important and creating bird habitats is important, else you’ll be overrun with starlings, chasing any other birds off.
Fundamentally, you have a choice. Spray with pesticides and create a hostile and toxic environment; kill off all insects, predator and prey alike. The prey, the aphids and mites, long ago adapted to short life cycles and to flourish against all odds, will come back. Their predators, the ladybugs and lacewings and countless others that never get talked about, never had a chance. Their life cycles are much longer, and if you kill off a generation, it will take them a long time to return. Meanwhile, you’ll have to spray again if you want to keep the aphids in check, and spraying will keep the ladybugs from ever returning.
Or? You let nature work. You rinse off the aphids and plant things that will attract beneficial insects, along with flowers that will lure the aphids away from your tomatoes. You go out of your way to make room for birds, and you teach kids about why spiders are good for a garden. You won’t have a bug free garden, but last time I checked, you could make the whole neighborhood sick with chemicals and still not kill off every last mite and thrip. It isn’t perfect (nature is still nature) but it isn’t toxic.
One thing I know is that green roofs can make a big difference in bird habitats–more fragile urban birds need places to rest between trees, and mile upon mile of tar roofing does not provide much relief. Birds, in turn, do their part to keep the mosquitoes down (as do bats but we’ve been too spooked by the prospect of introducing rabies to put up our bat house) and spread seeds. We are hoping to introduce a kestrel to the garden this spring, perhaps she (he?)’ll keep our wee mouse population in check. Kestrels being raptors, you know I have a special affinity for them.
What I am trying to put together is some nice, succinct explanations of why greenroofs, native plants and organic gardening matter to the urban environment. And why the urban environment matters to folks who think they don’t care about it. That was one of the issues I wanted to start to tease out with this blog, that and why nutrition matters (in the meantime, see a great article in The Ecologist about the connection between sugar, vitamins and anti-social behavior (it is a British magazine, they talk alot about anti-social behavior in Britain))
Another little tidbit on the urban ecology front, file under “Nature Works Best Left to Her Own Devices”– the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is offering a lecture by Thomas Ogren on the impact that male-only landscaping has on pollen counts. In dioecious species, male trees don’t drop seeds all over the place, they don’t fruit or flower. A landscapers dream. Only problem is that what male trees do produce is pollen. Lots of it, and if there aren’t female trees around holding out their flowers, waiting expectantly for pollen to arrive, that pollen just floats. So between no female trees and no female trees, we’ve got twice as many pollen producers as we ought and no place for the pollen to go. BBG has no info on the lecture on their website but it is April 18 (a tuesday) from 4-5, and it is free.
PS, speaking of invasive species, I’m still waiting for someone to just harvest the ailanthus that grows wild in New York City. Enough trees are brought down every day in this city that at least some of them must have some value as rustic lumber, non?
Collectors Night at the City Reliquary
In various on April 6, 2006 at 12:40 pmThe City Reliquary is hosting their second ever (annual, perhaps?) “collectors night” at which people who collect things spread out the things they’ve collected and then stand back and watch the masses admire their collections.
It is open to all ages–at least one child exhibitor is on the roster already. The Classic Riders Bicycle Club will be there, and last year someone brought a collection of black umbrellas found in the street, each labeled with the intersection they were found at. Also there was a collection of cans of mackeral, as well as a collection of core samples from all over NYC and a funny looking seed pods collection.
More to the point, I will be there.
If you are not on bicycle, you’ll want to take the L train to Lorimer St or the G to Metropolitan Ave, then walk NE toward the BQE on Union Av to the corner of Meeker St. under the BQE.
The details are a bit buried on their website. If you want to display, you’ll want to read this: Collectors Form 2006, a PDF
Timeline of Events
- Collectors’ display set-up: 4:00 to 5:00 PM
- Doors Open: 5:00 PM
- Viewing of the Collections: 5:00 to 6:00 PM
- “Collecting” Multi-media Presentation: 6:00 to 8:00 PM
- Continued Viewing of the Collections: 8:00 to 9:00 PM
- Breakdown of displays: 9:00 to 10:00 PM
Suggested Donation:
There will be a minimum donation of $10 for non-members to cover the cost of set-up and table rental. City Reliquary members will be admitted at half-price for $5. This donation helps to support the non-profit City
Reliquary Museum and Civic Organization. The CR organizes this evening and many other popular civic events in the New York City community.
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm
Loud Frog Pond
In various on February 23, 2006 at 5:55 pmLast summer I spent a week camping in a field in Goshen New York and helping out at “The Community Supported Garden at the Empowerment Center” — the garden/farm is a project of the Highbridge Community Life Center. I spent a few days shoveling manure with two teenage interns, a few days dodging wooden arrows and a few days blissfully alone on the farm. Except for the guy with the mullet who was out shooting gophers for the nuns. I told him Hubert just pees down their holes but he didn’t think that would go over so well.
Hubert, the farm manager, is looking for a new and better name. I can’t think why he is tired of The Community Supported Garden at the Empowerment Center but he is. I have a few ideas but I wonder if you, dear readers (er, that would be Noel and Scott) have anything to add?
It is a biodynamic, organic farm with many meadows, vast vistas, a bee box and fifty varieties of tomatoes. A fairly small vegetable garden amid vast meadows. Downhill from some very nice nuns who have a fantastic swimming hole with inner tubes and nibbling fish. It is seven miles by bicycle from the nearest Metro North station.
Shiny Penny Farm is, I believe, a contending title.
It’s a contest. I get nothing, you get nothing, but still, I declare it a contest.
Name that Farm.
Party Girl
In various on February 11, 2006 at 9:07 amFor just $5 you get music, cheap beer, zine readings and a screening of Party Girl, the glamorous library movie in which Parker Posey, who has not yet mastered the dewey decimal system, implores a friend to provide her with a hallucinogen powerful enough to make her unborn children grow gills.
Zine readings by:
Dave Roche (On Subbing, his hilariousand horrid tales of being a punk rock assistant special ed teacher in Portland, Oregon.) Cristy Road (Greenzine, which is one of the most beautifully written and illustrated zines EVER) Sean Stewart (Thoughtworm, a LIBRARIAN zine).
Reliquary Radio: Live from the Basement
In various on November 25, 2005 at 3:52 pmIf you aren’t down with the City Reliquary, you should be. They want radio from you:
Radio Pieces Wanted: We would like everyone to consider doing interviews, spoken word and/or music to the tune of: Outrageous Moving Stories, Luggage Tales, Art Moving Experiences, Driving Related Anecdotes, Gentrification Woes, A Few Words About Boxes, A List of Your Favorite Packing Materials, Interviews with people Moving in, Moving out, Moving on, Urban Myths about Craigslist for our upcoming broadcast of the WCRM Radio Show. Live from the Basement of the Reliquary, on http://www.cityreliquary.org. I’d like to have your raw audio files by next Thursday, November 24th. If you are producing your own tracks and doing your own mixing, you have a little more time and can get it to me by that weekend. Nov. 26-27th.
Please drop off CDs at the City Reliquary or email to make special arrangements. Contact Jesse James Arnold, wcrm@cityreliquary.org.
Listen: http://cityreliquary.org/wcrm
Maybe one day they’ll get on the ball about telling me this stuff before the Nonsense List comes out. Noah’s on their board, you’d think I’d get an inside track, but no.
Eco Metropolis
In events, various on November 7, 2005 at 9:56 amEco-Metropolis 2005 Schedule as of 11/1/05
Karlis’ Talk
In various on October 24, 2005 at 9:27 amARTIST’S/PANEL DISCUSSION
including curator & writer, Karen Wilkin, critic & writer, Eric Gelber, and the artist KARLIS REKEVICS
Place & Placement, Wooster Art Space
show curated by Karen Wilkin
gallery hours Tues-Sat 11am-6pm show runs through Sat, Oct 29
