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
Sunday Breakfast: old fashioned bran banana muffins
I grew up going to the swap meet and auctions on many many Sundays (after church of course!) At the swap meet, my dad sold stuff that he bought at auction; some Sundays he was the auctioneer.
My dad specialized in American antiques and Americana; our home was filled with a rotating assemblage of antiques and various items: carnival glass, anniversary clocks, as many as seven sideboards and dressers at times lined our tract house hallway.
At an auction, you never quite know what you’re getting in any particular box. You think you know, of course, you think whatever it is is going to be worth much more than you paid for it, that you’ll actually find a buyer for whatever it is you picked up.
If it had worked out that way, where you find a treasure and make a fortune reselling it, where my dad scored a number of these items, I wouldn’t have had to pay my own way through college; for awhile I even worked for my dad and learned how to buy and sell furniture and refinish it.
Instead, over the years I have scored a hodgepodge of oddball items.
One of my most used is a copy of the Joy of Cooking from 1946. Read more…
Kids Arts Yogathon Schedule: Support your health & the ArtBarn’s too!
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To be in the running for the Island caretaker job, applicants had to produce a 60 second or less video highlighting their qualifications, including why they want the job, and sharing a little about the Great Barrier Reef.
In addition to years writing the Art Predator column and now this blog, plus other journalism and creative writing experiences, I had my own TV news show in high school, I’ve written scripts for PSAs and produced 7 spoken word videos.
So as soon as I heard about the job, I got right to writing a script. And rewriting. And revising. And writing completely different scripts. I won’t tell you how many.
And I enlisted the help of a friend, Imre Juhasz, the father of my son’s best friend Shimon. Imre works on films all over the world, most recently for the Discovery channel. He knows his way around a video camera AND is skilled with final cut pro.
Once we meshed our schedules, we had to work around the weather (rain, rain and more rain). My family being under the weather meant I had to revise the script so that it required very little of the man of my life who was down with the flu, and the small boy wasn’t well either.
So there went the funny script with both of them or even including them in much of the way of anything, certainly not anything athletic or adventurous!
We started at the beach down the street Read more…
Okay I had to take a break from all this serious Great Barrier Reef promoting and environmental activism promoting for some good old Burning Man FUN! So here for you viewing pleasure: BURNING MAN 2008 PHOTOS FROM WALDEMAR HORWATT who says “I finally finished my Burning Man 2008 photo gallery, posted, along with photos from 2003-2007, at: http://naturalturn.fotki.com/bm/2008/ -Waldemar.”
Maybe these will inspire you to put a little Burning Man in your life by joining us on a little artistic bike ride next Friday March 6!
And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging program: Tourism 101 and more about the Great Barrier Reef and my application for the Island Caretaker job!
CA Tourism Symposium, Dave Norton & Island Dreams
When I heard about the Best Job in the World as Island Caretaker on the Great Barrier Reef, I was attending the 5th Annual California Cultural Tourism Symposium at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura which just happens to be around the block from my house, has views of the Channel Islands, and is a staging area for whale watching boat tours and scuba trips.
I thought at the time that the Best Job in The World has got to be the best tourism marketing campaign EVER, and I wondered what all I would learn about viral marketing, social media and myself as I went through the process of creating a video and applying for the job.
Well, here I am, just a few days away from hearing whether my application video scored me a spot in the Top 50, hanging around a ning with a bunch of travel writers, adventure buffs, and the tech savvy all clamoring “Pick me! Pick me!” in whatever ways they can figure out from blogs to websites to ads to twitter to facebook. Look, even I am on facebook and twitter now!
So I thought I’d reflect a little on what I learned from the Tourism Symposium and see how it applies to my experience with the Island Reef Job, and tourism in general with the hope that this will be of value to others as well.
I took the most notes from Dave Norton‘s insightful talk (gostonemantel.com) and will post those first, then a second post with info from other sessions. Read more…
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