12.28.07 PARADOXICAL POSTING

Someone has posted these flyers on power poles along the street outside my office. Admonitions to inspire resolve for the coming new year.

12.16.07 GOOD QUESTION

Perhaps we should take this new comedy's title just a bit seriously.

12.13.07 TRUTH SPEAKS SILENTLY

Sorting through stacks of prints I came across this one by my friend Peter Gourfain. A visual puzzle with a powerful message.

12.10.07 CORN FUEL CRIME

This from the Sunday New York Time's Magazine (December 9, 2007):

“...America’s favorite biofuels come mostly from corn and from soy. But when food crops are used as fuel, difficulties may follow. The vogue for corn ethanol has driven up the price of corn around the world, putting the poor in jeopardy. (An expert affiliated with the United Nations went so far as to label the production of biofuels derived from food stock “a crime against humanity.”)”

11.24.07 BREAD AND PUPPET

Our town is blessed by a visit from the amazing Bread and Puppet Theater Troupe on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Offering us all a reminder that this miraculous life is what we all truly have to be thankful for. Thanks to all of the puppeteers and Linda in Glover, Vermont.

11.20.07 BUMPER INSIGHT

Sitting at the stoplight I notice the bumper sticker on the car ahead of me makes a profound observation. A reminder of the responsibility an empowered populace has of encouraging curiosity, creative thinking, and discussion. And the importance of respect for others and tolerance of diversity to allow a free flow of information which leads to a discovery of "truth" and the advancement of society.

11.15.07 FOLLOW THE SIGNS

Local walkers have worked hard in my town over the last fifteen years to develop a system of foot trails which encircle the town. They have completed more than 20 miles of hiking trails. Their familiar blaze, RTF, stands for the Rivanna Trails Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving the opportunity for everyone to have access to a bit of the wild.

11.12.07 MOVING MEMORIALS

Reading about different forms of street activism, especially by artists, I came across this incredible project. Old bikes painted white are locked to street posts near the location of accidents involving bicycles. According to the website ghostbike.org,

"A Ghostbike is a junker bike that has been painted stark white and afixed to the site where a cyclist has been hit or killed by a car driver. Ghostbikes are intended to be memorials for the fallen and reminders to everyone to SHARE THE ROAD with one another. Ride safe and give cyclists a break. Reckless riding and driving kills."

Thankyou to their site for the photo.

10.29.07 BEAUTIFUL SIGHT

Traveling through the tiny college town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia today we see several of these signs. While in the bookstore I find this reference:

“‘Shalom, Peace, Salaam’ hung in Hali Taylor's mother's kitchen in La Jolla, California for 22 years. Upon her mother's death in 1989, Hali brought the yellowed and brittle peace sign to Shepherdstown where it became very popular during the peace talks of 2000. Her mother had cut out a full page message in the L.A. Times in 1967, after the Six Day War in the Middle East. When the peace talks came to Shepherdstown, Hali, the assistant director of the library, hung the sign in the library window...before long the sign could be seen in every building, window, door, house, business, and even in car windows. That tradition has continued.” Dolly Nasby

10.18.07 LETS FLY!

The popularity of hot air ballooning is growing in our community. It is a magnificent experience and lifts the spirits not only of the passengers but of pedestrians as well. Would that more transportation systems had this magical effect!

10.13.07 FROM THE (HE)ART

Yesterday morning's walk discovered a new street art installation. Someone decided to distribute their favorite music on CDs by hanging them from a tree for passersby. A poster of a painting by Chagall (?) attracted my attention. Another innovative way of using new technologies to make music available to all. And this in the same week that the band Radiohead challenged the conventional music publishing industry by making their latest recording, In Rainbows, available as a digital download from their website asking for customers to just pay what they feel like.

10.08.07 SAVE SACAGAWEA

Columbus Day 2007. Our county claims itself as the birthplace of Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. We have a statue at the center of town commemorating their journey of "discovery." Hiding behind one of the explorers, almost as the sculptor's afterthought is Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian woman without whom the Corps of Discovery would have very probably disappeared to violence or starvation. This was the appropriate spot for a vigil today honoring the native american peoples of this country. The "first nations." It is good to see that many in this generation of Americans have set a goal of researching and correcting some of the historical assumptions we have so long taken for granted.

10.06.07 CHALK TALK

And the kids playing at the city market this week had a beautiful chat. The fact that the work of art has remained as long as it has, unfortunately, is witness to another week of drought in this community.

09.27.07 THROUGH THE EYES...

...and from the mouths of children the truth is revealed. The emperor has been wearing no clothes!

A little comic video apparently made by a young teenager in his room in front of his iMac computer came through my email recently. The young man is doing an imitation of George W. Bush giving a speech to the nation on global warming:

"...the issue of the so called global warmings ... that are happening ... For centuries the rays of the sun have warmed the surface of our earth's crust ... and ... a ... apparently those rays are intensifying ... the situation ... that is increasing lava flows, and a ..."

"Cut!"

"I'm not gonna lie to you ... I don't know what the hell I'm talking about..."

You can watch the complete video at www.StupidVideos.us.

09.24.07 "AND THE LAST...

...shall be first." Senator Hilary Clinton came to town yesterday. A fund raiser/town meeting style with John Grisham as host and moderator was held. To raise the big money, an exclusive reception was held for those who could contribute $2300 to meet the Senator. Wanting to see Senator Clinton, hear what she has to say, and maybe witness a part of history if she succeeds in becoming our country's first woman president, I volunteered my time with the catering company and served wine to the high-rolling liberals as they awaited the Senator in the private party room of the recently renovated Paramount theater/performance center downtown. The crowd of about 75 drank wine and lemonade and snacked on sweets waiting for the arrival of the Senator, her entourage, and the Secret Service. About an hour before the arrival we were "locked in" to ensure "tight security." We waited, poured more wine, and wondered what to expect. Would we be able to see the Senator from our position at the wine bar in the back of the room? Is she tall enough to see over the crowd of eager donors? Would we get to actually hear her speak? We waited and wondered. Suddenly the backdoor of the room opened next to the wine bar. In strode Senator Hillary Clinton with her group. Senator Clinton in the fore with a big smile on her face walked right up to my coworker at the bar, "Hello, I'm Hillary Clinton," and extended her hand. After asking how my coworker was doing the Senator asked for a lemonade and turned and gave me the same greeting while shaking my hand. After introducing herself to the caterer, Hillary then turned to the crowd of ticket holders and began the informal reception.

Everyone who had been crowding around the front entrance jockeying for position was caught off guard by this surprise entrance. So completely unexpected in this day of high security celebrity politics, Senator Clinton was warm and gracious with the friendly spirit of meeting new people at a church potluck. She looked folks in the eye and made them feel that she would really like to see them again.

Of course, in this super sophisticated and often jaded world of high stakes politics and sound bite media, one is quick to understand the powerful intent of Senator Clinton's "democratic" and inclusive action. And after eight years of government run by politicians with their eye on their investment accounts, with a presence scripted by professional writers and staffers, and a message of "fear" for the American people, this was a huge breath of fresh air. Senator Clinton left her glass of lemonade on the bar. My friend Emily took this tiny picture of it with her cell phone.

09.21.07 FRIENDSHIP URBAN GARDEN REVISITED

The Friendship Urban Garden is growing. Fabulously! I made a journal entry about this garden on June 15 when the ground had been tilled and compost was being delivered. It was a busy summer. Farmer Todd Niemeier and community volunteers turned this unused open space into a food producing machine. The garden is the Urban Agriculture Project of the Quality Community Council.

09.20.07 PHILSOPHY FOR KIDS

I recently came across this amazing (and award winning) children's book by D.B. Johnson, Henry Hikes to Fitchburg. In it he recounts with magnificent illustrations the anecdote Henry Thoreau wrote about walking to Fitchburg. Henry's friend remarked that he could travel to Fitchburg faster on the train, a distance of thirty miles; than Henry, who was used to walking the distance in a day. Thoreau remarked that what seems to be the obviously smart solution, to ride the train, is not necessarily the best use of one's time. While Henry's friend spends the day working hard at a number of jobs to earn the train fare, Henry is enjoying the day in a pleasant stroll through the countryside.

09.19.07 SING YOUR SONG!

Grafitti on the downtown "Freedom of Speech" Wall often makes me smile. We must be steadfast in encouraging the power of hope.

09.09.07 MY SEED OF HOPE

In the early 90s Peter Schumann and his Bread and Puppet players visited my town. They put on an eerie outdoor pageant filled with puppets, music, and stilt walkers. The venue was perfect, Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia Rotunda and Lawn on a very misty afternoon. The play addressed the plight of native peoples and wildlife in Canada who were threatened by loss of habitat by government hydroelectric projects. A score of actors were dressed in handmade puppet costumes as caribou, Inuit, and characters of good and evil. The pageant parade, begun with a huge stiltwalking character playing a mournful fiddle and coming down the Rotunda's steps, processed across the Lawn and gathered at the university's old and hitherto often ignored amphitheater. Here Schumann had built an oven from dry stacked masonry to bake bread. As audience and players sat in the decrepit outdoor amphiteater in the fog and rain we passed fresh warm bread and bowls of aioli to share.

I have been reading about and following Peter Schumann's life ever since. He and his troupe are truly modern saints. You can learn more about Bread and Puppet in the many articles, books, and videos that have been produced about them. Visit their website at www.breadandpuppet.org. They gathered the troupe and traveled to Lincoln Center in New York City for a performance last month. This photo of puppet costumes in their museum is borrowed from their website gallery with apologies.

09.06.07 SWITCHFUEL?

An encouraging article was printed in the Washington Post yesterday about the potential use of a native American grass, switchgrass, as a biofuel. This perennial, native to the American prairie, produces a huge amount of biomass whose sugars could possibly be distilled into ethanol for fuel. The distillation process needs to be developed further and there is still some question about whether we could produce more units of energy than the units of energy needed to be invested in the process. But the idea of growing a plant for fuel that isn't also a foodstuff (corn, for example) is highly appealing. This photo is borrowed from the website of the Archive of Central Texas Plants with my apologies.

08.05.07 PONDERING THE PRICE

What is the "price" of the "words" we use today? We communicate more freely than ever before benefited by the ease of capture and "republication" on the World Wide Web. But our time-honored notions of copyright and the ownership of images, writings, and sounds by their creators are being turned on their head. Copyright was created by society to allow creators the opportunity to claim economic compensation for their activity, but now, through the universality of digital media (digital cameras, video and audio recorders, and just the ubiquitous keyboard we are all pounding away at) every individual has become a creator. How can we communicate using the newly created content, the "words" of our era, if their ownership is tied up and regulated?

These ideas come to mind as a group of artists come to town who have been "playing" in the world of audio sampling and collage for several decades. It is through the activity of this group, Negativland, that rethinking about communication and ownership of creative content has been stimulated and projects such as Creative Commons have been instituted.

All of these thoughts carry me back to a wonderful episode in the great comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Winsor McCay. On May 1, 1910, on the colored "funny" pages of the New York Herald, Little Nemo has arrived on Mars. But he finds that the plutocrats have gotten there first and have turned the planet into a capitalist's dream world. It is an absolute "ownership society." To breathe, to speak, require one to first purchase from the "owners" air and words!

08.02.07 PURE WATER FOR ALL

Keep clean water free. I have been blessed to live in a time and in a country where good safe water flows freely from public fountains in parks and public buildings BY LAW. Our society values the idea that all should have access to this elemental refreshment just as we have access to air to breathe and earth to stand upon. Last year I began to wonder if a capitalist society which valued water based upon its price and packaging wasn't a threat to the idea of a public water system. I created this quick linoleum cut poster. Now I am glad to see more thinking this way as well.

From the New York Times editorial page, August 1, 2007:

"In Praise of Tap Water"

"On the streets of New York or Denver or San Mateo this summer, it seems the telltale cap of a water bottle is sticking out of every other satchel. Americans are increasingly thirsty for what is billed as the healthiest, and often most expensive, water on the grocery shelf. But this country has some of the best public water supplies in the world. Instead of consuming four billion gallons of water a year in individual sized bottles, we need to start thinking about what all those bottles are doing to the planet’s health.

Here are the hard, dry facts: Yes, drinking water is a good thing, far better than buying soft drinks, or liquid candy, as nutritionists like to call it. And almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.

Next, there’s the environment. Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute in Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel 100,000 cars a year instead. And, only about 23 percent of those bottles are recycled, in part because water bottles are often not included in local redemption plans that accept beer and soda cans. Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing.

Tap water may now be the equal of bottled water, but that could change. The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America’s public water supply. That would be a serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the nation’s health.

Some local governments have begun to fight back. Earlier this summer, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom prohibited his city’s departments and agencies from buying bottled water, noting that San Francisco water is “some of the most pristine on the planet.” Salt Lake City has issued a similar decree, and New York City recently began an advertising campaign that touted its water as “clean,” “zero sugar” and even “stain free.”

The real change, though, will come when millions of ordinary consumers realize that they can save money, and save the planet, by turning in their water bottles and turning on the tap.”

07.30.07 DESIGN FOR THE OTHER 90%

Imagine using the incredible design skills and technological developments of this generation for a purpose other than selling or making more "stuff." That is exactly what is on display at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum this summer. This bicycle, developed by Worldbike, provides transportation in third world countries for families and small businesses. From the Worldbike website (www.worldbike.org):

"Worldbike is an international network of bicycle designers and industry leaders, and international development professionals, working together to provide transportation solutions and create income-generating opportunities for the world’s poor. All across the developing world, people use bicycles the way we use pickup trucks and school busses. However, the bicycles sold in developing countries are those designed for recreation and are ill-suited to carrying loads. Worldbike designs higher-strength, longer-wheelbase bicycles with integrated cargo capacity. We conduct trial markets to determine the ideal price levels, work with the bike industry to get the best quality parts and frames at the lowest cost, and partner with international development organizations like Kickstart International to sell and distribute the bicycles."

07.29.07 KABUKI COOL

Last week we had the remarkable experience of seeing Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII and the Heisei Nakamura-za perform Kanjincho, a famous Japanese Kabuki play. All of this was COMPLETELY NEW TO ME. We sat transfixed by the magnificent costumes, the bold movements, and the dramatic facial expressions. Entirely in Japanese, we understood only what had been described in a brief synopsis of the play given beforehand by a host. Kanjincho was followed by the play Migawari Zazen, full of humor and stylized slapstick. Miraculously accessible to us westerners who laughed along with those who actually understood fragments of the centuries-old Japanese. Nakamura Kanzaburo made the entire experience all the more memorable by breaking into English during the last scene and adding a traditional Kabuki-style aside to the audience. This print is by the Ukiyo-e master Yoshitoshi of the main character of Kanjincho, Benkei. Art, again, thrives transcendent.

07.28.07 "SWARM" THEORY

I find much hope in learning that collective intelligence can guide a leaderless group successfully.

Bits and pieces from an article by Peter Miller in the July 2007 National Geographic:

"With as many as 50,000 workers in a single hive, honeybees have evolved ways to work through individual differences of opinion to do what’s best for the colony...The bees' rules for decision-making — seek a diversity of options, encourage a free competition among ideas, and use an effective mechanism to narrow choices..."
...

"'I've applied what I've learned from the bees to run faculty meetings, ' (says Thomas Seeley of Cornell University) to avoid going into a meeting with his mind made up, hearing only what he wants to hear, and presssuring people to conform, Seeley asks his group to identify all the possibilities, kick their ideas around for a while, then vote by secret ballot. 'It's exactly what the swarm bees do, which gives a group time to let the best ideas emerge and win.'"
...

"In fact, almost any group that follows the bees' rules will make itself smarter, says James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds...'the bees are predicting which nest site will be best, and humans can do the same thing, even in the face of exceptionally complex decisions.' Investors in the stock market, scientists on a research project even kids at a county fair guessing the number of beans in a jar can be smart groups, he says, if their members are diverse, independent minded, and use a mechanism such as voting, auctioning, or averaging to reach a collective decision."
...

"'No single person knows everything that's needed to deal with problems we face as a society, such as health care or climate change, but collectively we know far more than we've been able to tap so far.' (Thomas Malone, MIT Center of Collective Intelligence.)"
...

"...an important truth about collective intelligence: Crowds tend to be wise only if individual members act responsibly and make their own decisions. A group won't be smart if its members imitate one another, slavishly follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do. When a group is being intelligent...it relies on its members to do their own part."

The hope in this article is profound. Humans in groups have the CAPACITY to act intelligently in groups (although we often don't exercise it). The key is to create and encourage social structures which facilitate the growth of positive decision-making processes as well as educational systems which emphasize indivdual thinking and a respect for diversity.

My lessons?

Do the "right" thing as YOU know it.

Resist advertising and other modes of media group manipulation.

Resist blind obedience.

Encourage acquisition of knowledge.

Encourage independent thinking.

Facilitate communication.

07.25.07 HOW LIFE IS "SPENT"

I noticed this editorial strip in a so-called "underground publication." I believe it had been "appropriated" for reprinting, and I, with apologies and compliments to the author, do the same thing here. (Although I have not included the entire strip.)

A poignant lesson on the value of the everyday activities of our lives. I was reminded of this again when I read Annie Dillard quoted, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." in a more main stream publication.

07.23.07 KEEP WAGGING

This bumper sticker on the back of a friend's car has certainly got the right idea!

07.14.07 MUSIC MAN

My nephew, Robbie, discovered the genuine party spirit at our "celebration celebration."

06.29.07 SAGE ADVICE

Posted anonymously on a wall downtown, this advice reminds me of Disney's Pooh tearing off in a new direction mumbling, "Think, think, think..."

06.28.07 MUSTANG TERRY

My son Jasper, an avid horse lover, stopped in at Maupin's country store where he met an amazing couple. Theresa Fassett and Herman Spencer are traveling across the country with their rescued mustang Keresan. Theresa rides Keresan where ever possible, introducing him to children, families, church groups, and anyone interested. Their goal is to raise consciousness of the plight of America's magnficent herds of wild mustangs whose management many claim is causing unnecessary suffering and the gradual decline of their numbers. You can read more about Theresa and Keresan at www.wildhorsepreservation.com/keresan.html

06.27.07 FIELD AT ANATHOTH

"I think of Anathoth as a garden created during war and thus a defiant garden. The violence isn’t only in Iraq. [It's in our communities.] It’s inside us. Turning the compost pile with Adele and Taisuke, transplanting a bed of sweet potatoes with Joe and Anthony from Volunteers for Youth -- these are small acts of protest...against the violence within our souls.”

“On its own, gardening will by no means change the world...it’s exactly the uselessness of the gesture, the smallness of it, the discomfort of doing work that is physically demanding, in which the garden finds its strength. Gardening is a “complete action” according to Wendell Berry, because it is an act that is more than symbolic. Gardening is protest but it goes beyond protest and proposes an answer.”

Fred Bahnson, manager of the community garden, “The Field at Anathoth,” in Cedar Grove, North Carolina. Writing in the July-August issue of Orion magazine.

06.25.07 SIZE MATTERS

This photograph came across my desk twice this week. Once in a magazine and then again sent in a completely unrelated email. It is a view of a TINY black bit of the night sky taken by the Hubble space telescope. It is titled "the Hubble Ultra Deep Field." Each blob of light is a galaxy, some whose interesting shapes and orientations can be easily distinguished. OUR GALAXY, the Milky Way, is home to more than 100 billion stars. And the sky is just filled with millions MORE galaxies stretching beyond our ability to see or count them. Looking away from our claybound shoes is definitely a humbling experience!

06.17.07 FOUND IT!

Never thought I could find such an easy "sign of hope." This homemade sign was bolted to a traffic sign in Richmond, Virginia.

06.15.07 FRIENDSHIP URBAN GARDEN

Farmer and community activist Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and the Rainbow Farmers Cooperative in Milwaukee, Wisconson recently visited our town. Two communities of low-income families supported by grants from local non-profit organizations are starting an urban agriculture project just two blocks from downtown. A local business which "grows" compost was delivering the rich garden fertilizer and soil amendment to the site this morning. It will be wonderful to watch the neighborhood turn this former empty lot into a source of good food and additional cash.

06.10.2007 CONVENIENT MEMORIAL

The matriarch of the family owning our local convenience store, Queen Della Maupin, just passed on from this life. We will all miss her pleasant smile and warm greeting. Neighbors turned the entrance to the store into a memorial overnight.

06.09.2007 SPONTANEOUS EXHIBITION

The photo festival this weekend prompted one photographer to stage his own exhibition on the side of the building across from the window of my studio. Hopeful words from Jimmy Carter and beautiful photos from Africa.

06.08.07 ROUND TWO

The bluebird house in our garden just became the host of a second clutch of eggs! The last families’ fledglings moved out weeks ago.

06.05.07 EVIDENT HUMANISM

On a visit to Washington, DC, I am reassured to find artwork both inside the Library of the United States Congress as well as on statuary throughout the city, which glorifies the magnificent human body. John Ashcroft and his zealous cronies hoping to protect the “moral integrity” of our country have not prevailed!

06.03.07 LOOK UP!

The photographers of my town have organized a huge festival of photography for this weekend. The downtown is filled with photo exhibits both inside AND outside.

05.29.07 PROUD PAINT JOB

Some folks aren't afraid to express themselves if the paint job that comes with their automobile from the factory doesn't satisfy!

05.28.07 POSIE PROOF

An evening posie set aside on the nightstand has withered to a limp collection of weeds by morning. Placed in the night’s water glass, enduring life returns by the next bedtime.

05.27.07 MARKET DAY!

Every Saturday around 6am a festival grows from the dusty asphalt of a downtown parking lot. Dozens of local farmers and hobby merchants set up stalls in the millenias-old tradition of market day to sell produce and crafts, all work of their own hands. Musicians play, children tug on hands, parents enjoy coffee and muffins, and commerce shows its positive face.

05.25.07 FRANS GARDEN

In the center of the city a backyard garden becomes a place of peace, beauty, and contemplation thanks to the nurturing spirit of my friend Fran. I believe a bit of the Greek goddess of the garden, Demeter, must inhabit her soul and live in this place.