I came across this song today on Pandora and it just completely hooked me! It sounds like a Brazilian version of The Cure. 80s-style post-punk sung in the most beautiful language on planet earth, Portuguese. I like :) Doesn't it just make you wanna kick back on a tropical beach somewhere with a few margaritas or, ahem, caipirinhas. Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
CEP Senior Project Night!
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to relive some of my academic glory days in the little hippie conservatory of ideas known as CEP, or Community, Environment, & Planning, the undergraduate urban planning program at UW.
As an academic major, I'm not aware of any program that even scratches the surface of what CEP can offer its students. It's a completely unique interdisciplinary program that allows you to customize your education around a series of core seminars that focus on, you guessed it - community, environment, and planning. But that's not all -:) it's also the only major I've ever heard of that is almost completely student-governed.
Everything from student admissions to graduation ceremonies and colloquia are 100% run by the students themselves. Nothing can really prepare you for your "admissions interview", a graded discussion with current CEP students, but that's just part of the magic of it all. At the end of the day, it's your Individual Study Plan (ISP) that's your ticket to admission. In it you articulate your vision not just for coursework, but for study abroad, volunteer opportunities, community engagement, and the course of life you envision for yourself. You are a citizen first, a student second. It's basically the academic vision of gemeinschaft. As far as I know, the only academic programs that come close are at Evergreen State and UC-Santa Cruz - but right here in the middle of the best school in the Northwest - count me as a proud alumnus!
One of the best descriptions I've heard of the program is that it's like a major in direct, participatory democracy. Every Friday we would have what we CEPsters call "governance," a several hour-long forum on the structure and content of the major, share student news, career connections, and community events, collaborate with subcommittees (and you thought I was kidding), and host guest speakers. Granted, many of us CEPsters are of the granola crowd - or perhaps the Critical Mass crowd - so we weren't exactly talking about Robert's Rules of Order, here...let's just say our dialogues sometimes got out of hand. You can only debate your own graduation requirements for so long without getting truly tedious. There were many cases, however, when the ability to truly take charge of your education in a program like CEP was without equal.
Our professors liked to say that their often hands-off approach to the direction of their seminars (as opposed to a "sage on the stage" approach), was a method of incubating organic student discussions. Often times what this meant was that the professors may only be speaking up to 10% of the class time, the rest is all student input. With a very engaged group who has done the readings, this approach can work marvelously. Otherwise, it's a recipe for disaster.
The crowning jewel of the CEP education is the Senior Project. Together with the several project-based classes and required internship, this is where the pedal meets the metal. In my experience, a program like CEP is either a very good fit for you or a very bad one, with very little in between. You either need a lot of direction in charting your uncertain academic course, or you simply need the time, space, and resources to make your plans a reality.
Senior Project Night is the final showcase for the graduating seniors' projects that many have spent thousands of hours working on. My own Senior Project is, in fact, the origin of this very blog. It's the catalytic experience that awakened so many of my interests in green fleets, electric cars, bikes, transportation planning, and so much more. So much time is spent on these projects, in such a tight-knit environment (there are 80 students in the program) that your project teams often become like family. I'm a firm believer that if you want to envision the trajectory of a CEPster, you need look no further than their Senior Project. So one year out from my own departure from the CEP universe, I was thrilled to be able to see this year's round of projects.
Here's a few of my favorites of this year's projects!
Congratulations and best of luck to this year's CEP Seniors! You guys rock my world!
As an academic major, I'm not aware of any program that even scratches the surface of what CEP can offer its students. It's a completely unique interdisciplinary program that allows you to customize your education around a series of core seminars that focus on, you guessed it - community, environment, and planning. But that's not all -:) it's also the only major I've ever heard of that is almost completely student-governed.
Everything from student admissions to graduation ceremonies and colloquia are 100% run by the students themselves. Nothing can really prepare you for your "admissions interview", a graded discussion with current CEP students, but that's just part of the magic of it all. At the end of the day, it's your Individual Study Plan (ISP) that's your ticket to admission. In it you articulate your vision not just for coursework, but for study abroad, volunteer opportunities, community engagement, and the course of life you envision for yourself. You are a citizen first, a student second. It's basically the academic vision of gemeinschaft. As far as I know, the only academic programs that come close are at Evergreen State and UC-Santa Cruz - but right here in the middle of the best school in the Northwest - count me as a proud alumnus!
One of the best descriptions I've heard of the program is that it's like a major in direct, participatory democracy. Every Friday we would have what we CEPsters call "governance," a several hour-long forum on the structure and content of the major, share student news, career connections, and community events, collaborate with subcommittees (and you thought I was kidding), and host guest speakers. Granted, many of us CEPsters are of the granola crowd - or perhaps the Critical Mass crowd - so we weren't exactly talking about Robert's Rules of Order, here...let's just say our dialogues sometimes got out of hand. You can only debate your own graduation requirements for so long without getting truly tedious. There were many cases, however, when the ability to truly take charge of your education in a program like CEP was without equal.
Our professors liked to say that their often hands-off approach to the direction of their seminars (as opposed to a "sage on the stage" approach), was a method of incubating organic student discussions. Often times what this meant was that the professors may only be speaking up to 10% of the class time, the rest is all student input. With a very engaged group who has done the readings, this approach can work marvelously. Otherwise, it's a recipe for disaster.
The crowning jewel of the CEP education is the Senior Project. Together with the several project-based classes and required internship, this is where the pedal meets the metal. In my experience, a program like CEP is either a very good fit for you or a very bad one, with very little in between. You either need a lot of direction in charting your uncertain academic course, or you simply need the time, space, and resources to make your plans a reality.
Senior Project Night is the final showcase for the graduating seniors' projects that many have spent thousands of hours working on. My own Senior Project is, in fact, the origin of this very blog. It's the catalytic experience that awakened so many of my interests in green fleets, electric cars, bikes, transportation planning, and so much more. So much time is spent on these projects, in such a tight-knit environment (there are 80 students in the program) that your project teams often become like family. I'm a firm believer that if you want to envision the trajectory of a CEPster, you need look no further than their Senior Project. So one year out from my own departure from the CEP universe, I was thrilled to be able to see this year's round of projects.
Here's a few of my favorites of this year's projects!
Roosevelt: A Living District
Cristina Haworth and Jenn Robinson-Jahns
With current forms of urbanism placing undue burden on environmental systems worldwide and eroding traditional community bonds, there is an urgent need for new methods and theories of citybuilding, methods that not only promote the development of functioning, healthy, and liveable cities, but also help create cities that exist in harmony with the surrounding environment and serve as ecologically restorative forces. This project explores the concepts of the International Living Building Institute’s Living Buildingsand Living Cities design contests, using a literature review and case study framework to apply the ideas to a site slated for redevelopment within the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington and envisioning it as a Living City in 2035. A contextualizing paper identifies a few of the components critical to the establishment of a Living City, including the concept of a Living Building and existing examples; the expansion of the concept to the neighborhood and city scales; and initial applications of the Living Cities concept. This work also introduces a few of the key components to Living Buildings and Living Cities: technology that can provide a decentralized and sophisticated power grid, eco-districts that create economies of scale, and systems for the on-site treatment and recycling of waste. We then use site analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Roosevelt neighborhood, including renovation and re-use opportunities, potential opportunities to use natural systems processes such as solar or water circulation patterns, and connections to the surrounding community. Within this context, we visually apply the concepts introduced to the Roosevelt site in order to envision it as a thriving Living City and provide a hypothetical representation of what is possible for the future of the area within this framework. It is our hope that this work will serve as a catalyst for conversation within the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association and challenge its members to think about urban systems and what may be possible within the urban framework in a new way.
Best Practices of the BIM Modeler
Justin Jameson
A BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its lifecycle from inception onward. (National Institute of Building Sciences 2011)
One of the challenges in a design group is creating unambiguous construction documents. In order to avoid such ambiguity, designers may establish a methodology for local best practices. Unfortunately in some cases best practices are established by routine and are often not documented. With the advances in technology the best practices procedures of the past are quickly becoming obsolete, while the procedures of the best practices of the future are becoming much more complex. Therefore the need for documentation of the best practice procedures becomes imperative. In this project I confront these problems in the case of a local design group. Specifically, the challenge was to document the local standard Building Information Modeling (BIM) practice and submit a Quality Management System (QMS) report. Utilizing the information gathered from the QMS report, I created a manual of standard practice which is now available as reference for all employees. I completed this project using multiple methods in multiple phases. Phase 1: building the information foundation; I conducted online research exploring what Building Information Modeling (BIM) is. I also reviewed other districts’ best practice manuals for traditional drafting. Phase 2: analyze and compile; throughout the review process I analyzed the information which I considered to be current best practices. Analysis consisted of referencing how the suggested practice complied with the National CAD Standard and the A/E/C CAD standard. Phase 3: the committee; to ensure that the QMS report was accurate and useful to the design group I organized a multidisciplinary committee of practicing professionals. The committee reviewed my initial information, then provided input about the BIM process. Phase X: refining the process; the final phase of the project is intended to repeat. In this phase the committee will periodically review the document; as procedures become more defined the document will be updated and become more defined as well. The outcome of the project is a documented best practice manual for BIM users.
Bridging the Gap: Increasing social sustainability through a community-university farm partnershipMichelle Venetucci Harvey
The UW Student Farm membership base has grown exponentially over the past three years, and involved students have quickly exceeded the capacity of the current farm space. Furthermore, the UW Farm’s presence on the University of Washington campus has become firmly entrenched in the University identity over the past two years, and student farmers want to extend their connection to the larger community of Seattle and address issues of food justice. In order to accomplish our goals of expansion and social sustainability, I participated in a farm expansion process for the past two years. After identifying an expansion space at the Center for Urban Horticulture, we decided to partner with the existing Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW) farm in order to create a community connection and share resources. I became the liaison to SYGW and helped build a partnership through meetings, communication, and collaborative writing sessions for organizational documents. After doing background research on nonprofit partnership models and youth empowerment theory, I wrote an organizational document for future UW Farmers and participated in SYGW youth recruiting and a mentorship program in order to gain some perspective of the SYGW program itself. I also participated in the discussion and creation of a legitimate governance structure for the UW Farm, which will increase the farm's legitimacy and ability to work with partner organizations. Ideally, this project and partnership will help both the UW Farm and SYGW become more financially and socially sustainable through shared resources and workforces. The established governance structure as well as partnership document will help maintain institutional memory for this expansion project and transition leadership to future UW Farmers.
Congratulations and best of luck to this year's CEP Seniors! You guys rock my world!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Will Microsoft Be the Google of EV Charging Stations?
Cellphone apps and other corporate tech partnerships are quickly filling the void of governments to provide information to the public about where to find an EV charging station. In an industry so heavily subsidized by the feds (you can get a $7,500 rebate for buying just about any EV model on the market), you would think the associated infrastructure for cars would get attention from the public sector.
However, if you take a look at the recent budget cuts that were approved in Washington DC several weeks ago, it's becoming clear that projects dependent on federal funding for green projects - this runs the gamut from high-speed rail, electric vehicles, public transit, and other sustainable urban planning methods - are facing a grim future.
The highlights from the impending doom scenario?
Thankfully, big corporations like Microsoft and Google are seeing the tremendous opportunity that investing in EV infrastructure holds.
The database is called the Microsoft Utility Rate Service (MURS), and it will be available via subscription to government agencies, power providers, auto makers, and electric vehicle charging equipment companies. It will allow consumers to search the full range of EV charging utilities to find the best deal on charging electricity nearest them.
More info from the Inhabitat story:
Via: Inhabitat
However, if you take a look at the recent budget cuts that were approved in Washington DC several weeks ago, it's becoming clear that projects dependent on federal funding for green projects - this runs the gamut from high-speed rail, electric vehicles, public transit, and other sustainable urban planning methods - are facing a grim future.
The highlights from the impending doom scenario?
- $34 million cut from the Renewable Energy Program (Agriculture)
- $80 million gone from the Environmental Quality Incentives program (Agriculture)
- about $900 million cut from FEMA - God help us if when we see another hurricane like Katrina (Homeland Security)
- $50 million from Climate Change programs (Interior)
- $25 million from FTA Energy Efficiency Grants (Transportation) that funded much of California's EV charging infrastructure
- $2.9 billion eliminated from high-speed rail (HSR) funding, before even a single mile of it has been built in the US! The "flagship" line under construction between LA and SF might well be the only one at this rate. This comes as many of the more idiotic Red States are having the gaul to reject HSR funding and return it to the feds! No thanks, Obama :) You can take your cutting-edge infrastructure and thousands of construction jobs, because WE DON'T NEED THEM! Is it just me, or do Republicans have a near-perfect record of laying waste to the projects big cities need for their economic survival?
- $3 billion gone from highway construction - part of these cuts make sense, there is definitely a solid argument that highways encourage poorly-planned, sprawling development patterns. But do Republicans hate both trains and highways, or just hate any kind of movement in general??? I just don't get it.
- $600 million gone from public housing programs like HOPE VI and Section 8
Thankfully, big corporations like Microsoft and Google are seeing the tremendous opportunity that investing in EV infrastructure holds.
The database is called the Microsoft Utility Rate Service (MURS), and it will be available via subscription to government agencies, power providers, auto makers, and electric vehicle charging equipment companies. It will allow consumers to search the full range of EV charging utilities to find the best deal on charging electricity nearest them.
More info from the Inhabitat story:
According to Warren Dent, director of business development at Microsoft, MURS will be offered in at least 17 different markets — mostly on the East Coast and West Coast — but also including cities like Detroit, Denver, and Chicago.
To get going, Microsoft is collaborating with one-to-three utilities in each region to get access to the data, and is expecting that its partnerships with companies like Duke Energy, Xcel Energy, and Portland General Electric will provide it with more relevant information. The pricing information will then be sent from the utility companies to Microsoft, which will relay that information to MURS subscribers. MURS sends the data directly to the plug-in vehicle, eliminating the need for interaction with drivers.
Currently, Ford is utilizing on Microsoft’s service to allow its drivers to charge their cars when utility rates are lowest.Hmm....so kind of like a Craigslist for where to plug in your EV batteries? Hopefully this will level the playing field as far as EV charging networks are concerned and allow more innovative companies enter the market and offer cheaper alternatives we can take advantage of. Microsoft may be a dinosaur among the high-tech world, but here its program sounds like a winner!
Via: Inhabitat
Saturday, May 7, 2011
California Dreamin'
All right everybody, it's time I leveled with my readers for just a bit. One of the main constructive criticisms I've gotten on this blog is that it's not very personal - there's not enough David-ness about it. I will admit this is true, it's mostly not my style to actually blog about my personal life and way easier to geek out about news, culture, or current events. Guilty! I also worry about the long-term consequences of having a LOT of personal information permanent published to the web. As many folks have discovered, your Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, and many other profiles leave an indelible residue online even long after you've closed your accounts. Countless hapless people today are in lawsuits over termination from their jobs due to some of the less-than-professional behavior they've posted to the Interwebs. So let's just say I try to err on the side of caution, with some exceptions, and not reveal anything I wouldn't in a job interview or conversation with a stranger in the grocery store.
Now for a change of pace! Time to get fucking personal for a second. I've been gearing up for a move to California this August for several months now. Part of my motivation for doing so is career-related - I'll just leave it at that :).
I started looking fiendishly for jobs last year in the run-up to my graduation from UW for two reasons: 1) I wanted to gain a year or two of solid career experience before going back to grad school; 2) I simply didn't know how else to support myself independently. I wasn't comfortable with doing some of the things many of my friends had done post-graduation. Travel the world for a year? Sure, who wouldn't love to do that? I had just studied abroad for six months of '09 in Spain and I honestly didn't want to leave :D But after graduation, when the premise of "academics" (using the term loosely) is gone? How would I justify that to my parents, or to my depleted bank account? In some respects, I regretting rushing into the career world with such intensity and wish I had been more thoughtful about the choice I ended up making. Just because a company wants recent college grads and sounds good in its offer letter doesn't mean it's the right fit. This doesn't mean that my company is a bad company, just perhaps not the right fit at this point in my life. Bottom line: I'm starting to realize I want a bit more excitement and, frankly, danger, in my life than any 9-5 career-oriented job can give me.
At 23, I have already accomplished a full-time, salaried, managerial position at a major facilities corporation. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that I'm still young and have many more years of working drudgery ahead of me. Many of the people I meet in a professional context are flabbergasted when they realize my age, as if stunned to see that I've made it to the level of being their perceived equal so quickly. "How did you become a Safety Manager?" (at 23) is one of my favorite questions I could be asked, and there is a long and juicy story behind it for those who are interested. My point is that I've already achieved a lot of what I had intended to when I first entered the career world after graduation last year. So there is no real rush to that next promotion, or even a "lateral move" to another company. Many people who are in their late 20s or even 30s are still waiting tables, temping, "interning", or otherwise indulging in the life stage that's coming to be known as "adultolescence".
Which brings me to California...Ah, yes - magical, sunny, clusterfuck California! Matt and I are looking at California not just because of its weather and for a change of pace - it's the chance to have the freedom and yes, perhaps just a bit of "edginess" that life in Seattle seems to have exhausted itself of. Our friends are intimate and well-established, we have good jobs and a great apartment in a great neighborhood. Everything is pretty much as it should be for we future members of the bourgeoisie :) Perhaps we are already there!
We now have our sights set on San Francisco...wow, let's take a second to let that sink in. SAN FRANCISCO!!! First, San Francisco is almost impossible not to love. It's an intimidatingly gorgeous place filled with exciting, walkable, unique neighborhoods. I want nothing more than to simply be a part of it in this time and place in the world. It is also very expensive, but not nearly as bad as I first thought. A decent two-bedroom apartment in a good area can be had for about $2,000. With Matt and our future roommate (shoutout to my favorite Jewbaby, Rachael Mammen!), this is very do-able even if I were to get a temp/admin job or work as a server. Hell, I could work at a Trader Joes and still afford $700/month! Part of my motivation is to establish in-state residency for when I begin grad school in fall of 2012. My hope is to get into a Masters of Urban Planning program at either UC Berkeley, UCLA, or USC, though I'll also be applying to Hunter College, Columbia, Harvard, UTexas at Austin, and several programs in Europe. I've already taken the GRE's and am working on letters of rec, and I'll be finishing up applications this fall. California is probably the place cursed with some of the worst urban planning systems in the world, yet also some of its most innovative centers of knowledge. The upscale foodie-industrial complex of San Francisco/Berkeley and the decayed suburbia of the Inland Empire might as well be on different planets. Both have something to offer in terms of unique planning challenges. Fingers crossed! But grad school won't start until a year from when we move in August. So the way I see it, I have a year to establish residency, work, and make connections. Matt is just returning from interviews this weekend, so he could conceivably move within the next few weeks, in which case I would hold out in Seattle until our lease is up in August. I already have contacts at several very good temp agencies who will be getting my call soon :) And then the next chapter begins!
Needless to say, California and its opportunities, its culture, its problems have been on my mind a lot lately. I came across this documentary via GOOD magazine. GOOD has been an invaluable resource to me on California because the whole magazine is pretty much like a place-based Bible circumscribed to fit my interests. They have sections on urban planning, politics, culture, the environment, and economy that seem to predict my interests before I even think of them! They also have great resources on up-and-coming non-profits, movements, and the sorts of under-the-radar issues that end up defining the mainstream news media agenda when it finally pulls its head out of its ass.
I found this short documentary on California's economic woes and opportunities via the GOOD website. It's a Dutch-produced short film tracking people of varying economic and social backgrounds and how they are tackling life's challenges post-recession in the city of Los Angeles. Subjects include homeless (formerly lower-middle class) families living out of their RV's, ex-gang members, immigrants, and new bohemians in Silver Lake and Los Feliz. Some of the hipsters / bohemians featured around the 39:00 mark really struck a chord with me. The subject is an architect who starts an urban communal farm in the middle of the city. She has much to say about "the way forward" out of California's mess, even giving a shout-out to bike infrastructure, food systems, and other topics my fellow CEPsters would find intriguing. Very interesting stuff, the video is about 40 mins long, I highly recommend you check it out and post your thoughts!
Here's the intro:
Via: GOOD
Now for a change of pace! Time to get fucking personal for a second. I've been gearing up for a move to California this August for several months now. Part of my motivation for doing so is career-related - I'll just leave it at that :).
I started looking fiendishly for jobs last year in the run-up to my graduation from UW for two reasons: 1) I wanted to gain a year or two of solid career experience before going back to grad school; 2) I simply didn't know how else to support myself independently. I wasn't comfortable with doing some of the things many of my friends had done post-graduation. Travel the world for a year? Sure, who wouldn't love to do that? I had just studied abroad for six months of '09 in Spain and I honestly didn't want to leave :D But after graduation, when the premise of "academics" (using the term loosely) is gone? How would I justify that to my parents, or to my depleted bank account? In some respects, I regretting rushing into the career world with such intensity and wish I had been more thoughtful about the choice I ended up making. Just because a company wants recent college grads and sounds good in its offer letter doesn't mean it's the right fit. This doesn't mean that my company is a bad company, just perhaps not the right fit at this point in my life. Bottom line: I'm starting to realize I want a bit more excitement and, frankly, danger, in my life than any 9-5 career-oriented job can give me.
At 23, I have already accomplished a full-time, salaried, managerial position at a major facilities corporation. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that I'm still young and have many more years of working drudgery ahead of me. Many of the people I meet in a professional context are flabbergasted when they realize my age, as if stunned to see that I've made it to the level of being their perceived equal so quickly. "How did you become a Safety Manager?" (at 23) is one of my favorite questions I could be asked, and there is a long and juicy story behind it for those who are interested. My point is that I've already achieved a lot of what I had intended to when I first entered the career world after graduation last year. So there is no real rush to that next promotion, or even a "lateral move" to another company. Many people who are in their late 20s or even 30s are still waiting tables, temping, "interning", or otherwise indulging in the life stage that's coming to be known as "adultolescence".
Which brings me to California...Ah, yes - magical, sunny, clusterfuck California! Matt and I are looking at California not just because of its weather and for a change of pace - it's the chance to have the freedom and yes, perhaps just a bit of "edginess" that life in Seattle seems to have exhausted itself of. Our friends are intimate and well-established, we have good jobs and a great apartment in a great neighborhood. Everything is pretty much as it should be for we future members of the bourgeoisie :) Perhaps we are already there!
We now have our sights set on San Francisco...wow, let's take a second to let that sink in. SAN FRANCISCO!!! First, San Francisco is almost impossible not to love. It's an intimidatingly gorgeous place filled with exciting, walkable, unique neighborhoods. I want nothing more than to simply be a part of it in this time and place in the world. It is also very expensive, but not nearly as bad as I first thought. A decent two-bedroom apartment in a good area can be had for about $2,000. With Matt and our future roommate (shoutout to my favorite Jewbaby, Rachael Mammen!), this is very do-able even if I were to get a temp/admin job or work as a server. Hell, I could work at a Trader Joes and still afford $700/month! Part of my motivation is to establish in-state residency for when I begin grad school in fall of 2012. My hope is to get into a Masters of Urban Planning program at either UC Berkeley, UCLA, or USC, though I'll also be applying to Hunter College, Columbia, Harvard, UTexas at Austin, and several programs in Europe. I've already taken the GRE's and am working on letters of rec, and I'll be finishing up applications this fall. California is probably the place cursed with some of the worst urban planning systems in the world, yet also some of its most innovative centers of knowledge. The upscale foodie-industrial complex of San Francisco/Berkeley and the decayed suburbia of the Inland Empire might as well be on different planets. Both have something to offer in terms of unique planning challenges. Fingers crossed! But grad school won't start until a year from when we move in August. So the way I see it, I have a year to establish residency, work, and make connections. Matt is just returning from interviews this weekend, so he could conceivably move within the next few weeks, in which case I would hold out in Seattle until our lease is up in August. I already have contacts at several very good temp agencies who will be getting my call soon :) And then the next chapter begins!
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| Looking East from Castro towards the Mission |
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| View from Buena Vista Park in the Haight |
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| Alcatraz - view from Telegraph Hill |
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| Sunset on the Golden Gate |
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| North Beach sunset |
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| Coit Tower |
Needless to say, California and its opportunities, its culture, its problems have been on my mind a lot lately. I came across this documentary via GOOD magazine. GOOD has been an invaluable resource to me on California because the whole magazine is pretty much like a place-based Bible circumscribed to fit my interests. They have sections on urban planning, politics, culture, the environment, and economy that seem to predict my interests before I even think of them! They also have great resources on up-and-coming non-profits, movements, and the sorts of under-the-radar issues that end up defining the mainstream news media agenda when it finally pulls its head out of its ass.
I found this short documentary on California's economic woes and opportunities via the GOOD website. It's a Dutch-produced short film tracking people of varying economic and social backgrounds and how they are tackling life's challenges post-recession in the city of Los Angeles. Subjects include homeless (formerly lower-middle class) families living out of their RV's, ex-gang members, immigrants, and new bohemians in Silver Lake and Los Feliz. Some of the hipsters / bohemians featured around the 39:00 mark really struck a chord with me. The subject is an architect who starts an urban communal farm in the middle of the city. She has much to say about "the way forward" out of California's mess, even giving a shout-out to bike infrastructure, food systems, and other topics my fellow CEPsters would find intriguing. Very interesting stuff, the video is about 40 mins long, I highly recommend you check it out and post your thoughts!
Here's the intro:
"California is a strong brand, the state of new beginnings, dreams and movie stars, of surfers and a wonderful climate. But the Golden State is bankrupt and the city of Los Angeles is running out of cash. Public services are being cut and unemployment keeps rising. At the same time, optimism, entrepreneurship and the belief in the power of America are stronger than ever.
In Los Angeles, we meet five people who are going through a transformation in their lives during this crisis. Justin and Christine lost their jobs and are now living in a van with their two young sons. Charles has gotten out of prison after fourteen years. Mizuko prepares her children for the future by making them at ease in virtual reality. Laura has taken advantage of the crisis by buying land cheaply and starting an urban farm and artists collective Fallen Fruit maps the abundant free 'public fruit' available in the city. Who are the pioneers who are reinventing the new America and how do they see the future?"
Via: GOOD
Ode to the Metropolis
Timelapse - The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo.
Dominic Boudreault: "a motion photographer, recorded five cities in over a year to create a time-lapse video showing the bustling nightlife of metropolitan areas. From late 2010 to early 2011, the artist documented the cityscapes in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Manhattan and Chicago. The video is a series of images from a high vantage point gathered to display the duality of city and nature."
Music: Hans Zimmer
Watch the HD version on full-screen with the volume full-blast for the full experience!
Via: The City Fix
Friday, May 6, 2011
Blog Spotlight - Street Art Utopia
I've written recently about how graffiti - excuse me, hipsters - "street art" has inspired me in my travels around the world. I really think there's no other artistic medium as innovative, fresh, and in-tune with the spirit of the moment, the zeitgeist, that can really capture a sense of place. I'm dedicating this week's post to the blog Street Art Utopia for having introduced me to some of the most fantastic graffiti scenes I've ever witnessed. Here's just a few they've featured from the month of April. I'm sorry these murals did not have location info - otherwise, I would've uploaded them into Google StreetArt View :)
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| Graffiti as imagined by five-year-olds! |
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| Medussa oblongata.... |
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| The priests at this cathedral might wanna ask for their money back! |
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| WOW! |
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| Garden-themed mural |
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| I love the 3-dimensionality of this one - reminds me of an Escher painting |
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| Hard to tell where the painting ends and reality begins! |
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The New Seattle Manifesto
In earlier posts I've talked about the infamous "Seattle freeze" that every transplant to the area seems to experience and then starts bitching about to anyone who'll listen. You've heard the mantra before: Seattleites are tirelessly "polite" and "nice" to new people on the surface level, but instantly shut down and reject social advances the second you try to actually "befriend" one of us. We're a collection of people who move here to escape wherever it is that we're from, so we isolate ourselves from genuine social interaction as much as possible. Seattle is a place full of awkward only-children, who don't quite get how to branch out and meet new people in non-ironic ways. We're a city of the mind, a city of nerdy blogger-types who sit in Starbucks silently plugging away because we're just...that....edgy, man :)
Well, in celebration of our city's reputation for bitchy cold-shoulderness, I dedicate this post to a very funny, very spot-on op-ed from Crosscut. I think this manifesto just about covers it!
Via: Crosscut
Well, in celebration of our city's reputation for bitchy cold-shoulderness, I dedicate this post to a very funny, very spot-on op-ed from Crosscut. I think this manifesto just about covers it!
Since I believe one good manifesto deserves another, I hereby offer my own:
David Guterson and other figures on Bainbridge Island like to talk about the countryside as being the only real place to live. We know better. These are our values:
- We value diverse workplaces and gatherings. Upscale white men alongside upscale white women — and even upscale white gays.
- Yet we also admire African-Americans, preferably if they are both musical and dead.
- We champion the institution of public education, as long as our own kids can get into a private school.
- We celebrate people's expressions of sexuality, provided they're not too, you know, sexual.
- We strive toward progressive, inclusive laws and policies except when they would inconvenience business.
- We take pride in our urban identity, as we build more huge edifices and monuments to desperately prove how world class we are.
- We support the arts, particularly when that support doesn't stick us in the same room with unkempt artists.
- We value regional planning and cooperation, even with those mouth-breathing hicks out there.
- We protect and enhance the environment, particularly those environments we drive 40 miles or more to hike in.
- We love a strong, vital music scene that's in someone else's neighborhood.
- We appreciate our heritage. We moan about how everything in this town sucks; then, years later, we claim it was great back then but all sucks now.
- We value a strong, independent news media, regularly alerting us to the city's 103 Best Podiatrists.
- We admire innovation and original ideas, especially if they're just like something from New York or San Francisco.
President Barack Obama has advocated "the fierce urgency of now." Mr. President, the people of Seattle will get around to it once they've finished playing "Halo: Reach."
- We support locally based businesses, until they get too big.
Via: Crosscut
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