Since I’m not in the Final 50: more about AUS
When I was working on my application for Island caretaker, I found all kinds of interesting info about Australia and the Great Barrier Reef some of which I worked into a series of posts in February. Since I didn’t make the Final 50 for the Best Job in the World blogging about the Great Barrier Reef, I’m not going to develop these posts any more, I’m just giving us the links. Check them out. Have fun. Read more…
Astonishing video on the progression of information technology using researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman. As this video clearly shows, our world is changing more rapidly than we can reasonably imagine wthout some effort.Help envision the new world,be a part of the change, and help create the world we want to live in!
One of the most radical changes is in the way we communicate. We no longer gossip over fences, but over the internet via blogs, YouTube, Twitter and various other forms of social media. We no longer look toward an authority for the answer–we doubt the authorities, we have been mislead by authority and so we look within our communities, we search for the answers ourselves, and we evaluate the information in sophisticated ways.
After a year of trepidation, I, Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator, recently joined the world of Twitter and Facebook, adding that to my blogs, my nings, and my groups. I am starting to understand these tools for communication, how they are similiar and different, how they serve different purposes and meet different needs. For those of you unsure about what Twitter is and what it does, I found this article useful: Read more…
Brilliant Burning Man iPhone Ap & 2008 photos
Under development: an iPhone ap for Burning Man which will show coordinates, dates and times for Playa events–on a map! Go here to see and learn more: http://www.flickr. com/photos/ 10111/3324385784 / What might you see if you go? ZsuZsu: The Crybaby Drama Queen by Mister Jellyfish, Sparks, NV (as photographed by George Post). Check out these links: GEORGE POST’S BURNING MAN 2008 PHOTO GALLERY
Burning Man: http://tinyurl.com/ce8wyy
People: http://tinyurl.com/c6r4xj
Vehicles: http://tinyurl.com/bpbasf
Art: http://tinyurl.com/cem2zw
Click “Start Slideshow” for each set of pix; the show runs
automatically, but if you mouse over the lower part of the image
you’ll see controls for back, pause, and forward so you can go at your
own pace.
The Main Street Electric Bike Parade and First Friday ArtRide Friday March 6. Join us at 5:15pm at the City of Ventura San Jon Road Maintenance Yard just off San Jon Road near Thompson and Chrisman. Park your bike for free and whheeeee down San Jon to the bike path where we’ll head toward the pier and the Artists Union Gallery. 
Folks running late can park there for a small fee and meet us at the Union–you can even grab a quick beer at Aloha–happy hour until 6pm–but we’ll be gone on the bike path by then! Map to be added to this post soon. We’ll ride along the promenade bike path for sunset (5:54pm) then up along the river to Main Street. From Main we’ll ride up the Avenue for a stop at Bell Arts where we’ll be greeted by MB Hanrahan‘s new mural outside the building.
From there, who knows? But you’ll probably find us riding along Main with a few stops along the way including the Red Brick Gallery’s grand re-opening in their new location! We’ll maybe stop at Anacapa for a beer and a bite or maybe Spencer Mackenzie’s. Be su
re to have your lights! It gets dark at 6:48pm.
Need a light? Art Predator’s got you covered! I ordered 200 blinky lights: stars, fire engines, bikes, bunny ears, red heart necklaces! Plus lighted headboppers and other fun stuff! Bring $5 and take your pick of any two pieces. California law requires a white light in front, a red light in back and reflectors. Learn more here.
Join us at the KidsArts ArtBarn Thursday night March 5from 7-10pm as we decorate and light our bikes! Choose your blinking light accessories! Bring your flat tires and tubes and lights to afix and we’ll help you out–David’s got his Makita all charged and raring to help you! We’ll be outside s dress accordingly. I’ll bring some hot drinks and cookies, too–will you?
Here’s a YouTube of the classic 1970s parade transferred from Super 8 with the original music to get you even more in the mood!
Let’s March Planet Protectors!
3/6 First Friday Art Ride: “Electric Light Parade”
Plus a light up your bike event
Friday, March 6
First Friday Art Ride
5:30 pm
Artists’ Union Gallery
330 S. California St., Ventura
This month the theme is lots o’ lights on your bike!!
LIGHTS: To help you light up your bike for join us at the ArtBarn Thursday March 5, 7-10pm. Bring lights and reflectors to be installed; some lights will be available for purchase. California law requires night riders to have a white light in front, a red light in back, and reflectors on the sides.
THE RIDE: Modeled after the Disneyland Electric Light Parade, but on bikes, this Friday dress up as a Disney character and with fun light accessories for you and your bike–or just join the ride: the more the merrier! Meet at 515pm and park for free at the City of Ventura San Jon Road Maintenance Yard lot or meet at 530pm at the Artists Union. From there, ride follows the promenade to Main, then downtown visiting the open First Friday galleries including Bell Arts Factory. This ride is not sponsored by any organization, so ride often, ride safely, ride at your own risk.
Do you want more public transportation, better bike routes, alternatives to the private auto? Then this is your chance to be heard!!
The Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) is deciding how to spend this years’ transit dollars. Thanks to ASERT, VCTC has extended the public comment deadline to March 20th.
The only way we’ll wean ourselves from cars is if lots of Ventura County residents let VCTC know that we want the funding to go to bike routes, buses, racks on buses, trains. We’ve got some great ways for you to submit comments.
3/7 Ventura Farmer’s Market – Multi Media Event- Starring YOU!
Saturday, March 7th
8:30 a.m. to Noon
Ventura Farmer’s Market
Santa Clara and Palm, Ventura
flyer
The VCCool Bicycle Pod invites you to come give your testimony on video or just on audio. You get 3 minutes to tell VCTC what your transit needs are. Be specific, be thrifty (budget cuts and all). We’ll also have form letters to sign.
3/14 Screening – “Who Killed the Electric Car?” – Then Filming You! Read more…
Tourism Queensland announced the 50 candidates for the short list. And since I am not shortlisted for the Island Reef caretaker blogging job, I wonder: can I get the City of Ventura or the State of California to hire me as Toilet Laureate?
That’s right: To save the earth and protect the planet I am now running for Poet of the Toilet!
Huh? Why? How?
A week or so ago, I read a blog post by Edward over at Pen Me A Poem where he says a recent Japanese study suggests that poetry in public toilets can cut down the amount of paper used by 20%. The Japan Toilet Labo says that a stanza or two of interesting conservation-themed verse could go a long way to saving the environment.
“We asked ourselves what we could do for the environment in the toilet?” said Ryusuke Nagahara of the Japan Toilet Labo. “The answer is to save toilet paper and save water.”
People use more toilet paper in public bathrooms than they do in their own home because they don’t have to worry about the cost. An increase in the number of public toilets has increased the amount of TP used.
To encourage conservation, the Japanese program uses humour Read more…
Not Just the Ojai Poetry Fest: the Dodge cancels plus news on other nat’l arts cutbacks
Last November, the Southern California poetry scene learned the Ojai Poetry Festival with headliner Robert Bly would not arrive as scheduled in May 2009. We’re not alone in losing arts programming. Arts organizations around the country (and the globe) are cutting down and cutting back. According to an article in USA Today,
The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America, drawing as many as 20,000 people to its four-day event, will not be held in 2010 and may not return in its previous form, said David Grant, president and CEO of the Morristown, N.J.-based Dodge Foundation. Read more…
Problem with Poetry: Not appetite but delivery
Is technology helping or hurting poetry? An article in the UK’s Telegraph reports that,
Rather then killing it off, modern technologies like email, social networking sites such as Facebook and online media players are helping poets reach new audiences. The grassroots scene is now growing, with live poetry readings becoming more popular and more poets getting their own pamphlets published. Competitions are also booming: the number of entries for the Foyle Young Poets Award more than doubling from 2003 to 2008 to almost 12,000.
That’s right–access to an audience is HELPing poets and poetry grow and thrive! For example, here are two thriving sites where poets post and participate in on-line poetry communities: Monday Poetry Train and Read Write Poem. Richard Smith, published poet and head of modern collections at the British Library, argues “It’s very like Read more…
February Wrap-up :: March What’s Up
Here at Art Predator, I posted 41 times in February with nearly 500 total posts, had over 8,000 page views during the month, and over all I’m on the final approach to 60,000 total page views since November 2007. I didn’t read all those books like I’d planned to, I’m afraid to admit, because I became obsessed with the Great Barrier Reef and getting that Island Caretaker Job, and participated like crazy on the Island Caretaker ning here. One last time, here’s my video:
We had the first First Friday ArtRide and we’re planning the second for this coming Friday March 6 which will light up your life and your bike! The small boy and I have been spending lots of time looking at blinky lights to buy to sell to folks at the ride!
Modeled after the Disneyland Electric Light Parade, but on bikes, this Friday dress up as a Disney character and with fun light accessories for you and your bike–or just join the ride: the more the merrier! Meet at 515pm and park for free at the City of Ventura San Jon Road Maintenance Yard lot or meet at 530pm at the Artists Union. From there, ride follows the promenade to Main, then downtown visiting the open First Friday galleries including Bell Arts Factory.
To help you light up your bike for the First Fridays ArtRide and Electric Light Parade Friday March 6, join us at the ArtBarn Thursday from 7-10pm. Bring lights and reflectors to be installed; some lights will be available for purchase. California law requires night riders to have a white light in front, a red light in back, and reflectors on the sides.
Astronomically, we start the month with a smiley moon and the last few weeks of bright Venus sunsets. My TideLog tells me that at the end of the month, Venus will be at its closest in three years–and then it disappears in the glare of the sun to return a few days later at dawn with Mars and Jupiter. Photo by Ronnie Pittman from here. The moon is full Tues March 10 at 738pm Pacific Time and new again Th. March 26.
We can all feel the days getting longer here in the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox arrives Fri. March 20; spring is heralded with the daylight savings time change in most of the US Sat. March 7. In the Southern Hemisphere of course, the days are getting shorter as summer becomes fall.
What do we have to watch for astrologically? Read more…
Welcome to the Great Burial Reef! That’s right–if I don’t get the Island Reef Job, I can get eventually get a job AS the reef! One eco-friendly burial method does just that–uses your remains to rebuild damaged natural coral reefs! This would have been so perfect for my grandpa, the deep sea diver, who instead had his cremains scattered at sea by the Neptune Society. The pay’s not great, but the benefits are awesome. Just not for you.
According to CNN, “Death is becoming less of a dark matter than a green one. Dying is arguably the most natural phenomenon in the world, but modern death rituals — embalming with formaldehyde-based solutions and traditional burial in concrete vaults — are not nature-friendly, according to environmentalists.”
Along with its dead, the United States buries 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, 827,060 tons of toxic embalming fluid, 90,000 tons of steel (from caskets), and 30 million tons of hardwood board each year, according to the Green Burial Council, an independent nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“We can rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge with that amount of metal,” said Joe Sehee, the council’s executive director. “The amount of concrete is enough to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.”
In order to reduce carbon emissions, waste and toxins in the death care industry, people are utilizing burial to steward natural areas in the U.S. according to Joe Sehee.
“We’re the surf and turf of natural burial,” said George Frankel, CEO of Eternal Reefs. The company takes the green movement to sea level by offering a living legacy in the form of underwater reefs used to create new marine habitats for fish and other sea life. The artificial reefs are cast from a mixture of environmentally safe cement and cremated remains.
A brass plaque helps identify remains on the reef which can be visited by scuba diving.
“These reefs will be covered up with sea life in a very short period of time, so they make a significant contribution,” Frankel said. The reefs last about 500 years, and so far about 300 have been dropped off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.
An eco-friendly funeral can also help conserve land and protect it from development. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is working with the Green Burial Council to become the first state-park agency to offer cremation-based green burials. The funds raised from the services will be used to acquire new state park lands.
Hype or no hype, the decision is a personal one that ultimately rests with an individual or family. Sehee emphasizes that the Green Burial Council is careful not to diminish anyone’s choices or make recommendations about the greenest way to go. “There are shades of green and people can distinguish one shade from another,” he said.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/17/dying.green/index.html
More eco problem solving: In Depth: Solutions
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