start spreadin' the news...

...and I went to NY. I finally had the opportunity to stop in instead of pass through and was graciously housed, fed and shepherded around the city by a good friend.

I had to go to DC for the Annual Association of Geographers Meeting and I thought a side trip to Brooklyn would not be amiss.I had the most amazing time.
Highlights include: MOMA, West Side Story, bagels, singing, the imagine circle, the public library and making fun of the NY beer selection.

Rockefeller, where they were ice skating in 70 degree weather:
In Central Park, at the Alice in Wonderland Statue...I would have taken a picture of the whole thing, but just then a class full of giggly teenagers came through to climb on it...

In the recording studio (shhh this is my "art shot"):
Rays shining on to the statue of Liberty, as seen from Brooklyn:
The Museum of Modern Art: Tim Burton exhibit! and much much more....

Mapping the internet:

Flight paths...much cooler in person:

Ducks on the UO campus

...which I suppose isn't that rare, if you think about it : )

Chick! Chick! Chick!

The brewery is now the proud parent of 8 little chicks! Fuzzy, chirpy goodness, these girls will (eventually) provide eggs to the greater brewery family. It is quite a fabulous treat to be a part of this...what is really step 1 in a larger urban farm that is being established at Oakshire (hurrah!)

As I'm sure other chicken owners will acknowledge, they're fun and they grow fast, it's absolutely amazing.
We all get to name one, and true to form the first thing that popped into my head was a book character, so meet Bokonon (from Cat's Cradle) I think I'm funny, because for short we can call her "Bok" ...bok bok bok (heh heh heh).

Further evidence of nerds

Not staged...I swear.

Seen in downtown

Yet another reason to hate grass.

for a little inspiration...

During the course of my MA studies there were a handful of activists and scholars that I can now point to and say that they were incredibly influential in my thinking and further study. Tonight I had opportunity to see Frances Moore Lappé speak. My attention was captured by her books "Diet for a Small Planet," "Hope's Edge," and "The Quickening of America," to name a few; as well as her activist work and the work of the organization she co-founded--Food First.

Although she did not explicitly discuss food issues tonight, I feel that old familiar excitement that came from reading her books. So much so that I have to get it all out right now or I feel that I'll lose it to another day of sitting in my office reading. Lappé is on tour for the new edition of her book "Getting a Grip" and is, in my opinion, spreading the enthusiasm for a different kind of social, economic and political future. Just to highlight some of the sticking points from her talk tonight where she identified three major issues that cause such unevenness and disparity in a world of plenty and then turned them on their heads.

Problems:

1. The concentration of power in the hands of the few (and with that I would add wealth)
2. The lack of transparency (at multiple scales) in politics, economics and social welfare
3. The increased propensity to "other" (or play the blame game)

Solutions for what Lappé refers to as 'living democracy':

1. The dispersion of power
2. Transparency and community cooperation
3. Recognition of accountability

We are living in a time of a facade of democracy in which we have what Lappé calls the biggest oxymoron ever..."privately held government." What a contrast it would be if we scale-jumped to allow for community interaction and citizen voice. I get a sparkle in my eye with this kind of talk and then slowly and quietly doubt and cynicism creep up on me and I become angry with the reality of life, the universe and everything. She must have been prepared for my train of thought because she started giving examples of where this is happening. I certainly didn't write them all down, but several caught my pencil and I will be exploring them in days to come. I will highlight briefly that she spoke specifically to Bellingham which warmed my heart. Apparently, Bellingham has been extremely successful at convincing citizens that buying local is the way to go, to the tune of 60% I think....

...more on this...
some things to look into:

• timebanks.org (could it be?! a social wage?!)
  
• Apprentice citizenship in Maine (youth activism and education)
• The Fair Elections Now Act (what if we were able to exercise our free speech rights as well/much as corporations?!)
• Brazil, food as a right
  

and a thought to chew on....in our super individualist society we have great difficulty, it seems, breaking away from social norms, how is it that as individuals were operate in a way that will not let us leave the dominant group and choose differently?

Spring Break'ish

Last year Spring Break was completely dominated by the Annual AAG Meeting in Vegas, which is really not my ideal locale for time away from school, although I did get to break away from the city and the conference to glimpse Red Rocks.

This year however, the meeting is later and I had the opportunity to take a week off (as such) and garden, read in bed, paint, travel near (wineries!) and far (Ashland!), and get a modicum of research done on my local project. School starts again tomorrow and I'm almost certain that tonight will find me burning the midnight oil, trying to make this week last just a little bit longer.

I went and picked out 50 rocks to try to separate the growing ground cover from the flower garden area...the bulbs are coming into their own, and I cannot wait to see what the transition is like. I'm trying to make it so there is color spring, summer, fall...winter'ish. I think I need some more bulbs, but it's our first try, so I'm going to watch and wait this year (and take pictures so I remember where we planted....)I started and finished Jasper Fforde's newest offering, Shades of Grey, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys reading dystopian themes and has a sense of humor.

And we painted. Finally. The back wall of the bedroom is now a beautiful chocolate brown and the bathroom has gone from a cream and taupe (read: yellow and brown...who does that!?) to white and purple. The bulk of the work is done, now I can just take the next 10 weeks doing the little things. We decided to hang the new tp holder funky to try and discourage Pocket from using it as a toy, despite the adventure that using claw shredded tp can provide.
Joe and I took last Friday afternoon out at King Estate, playing the industry game. The world changes when you bring bottles to trade and we were treated to quite the tasting. The following day we headed south to check out the Cheese Guild tasting at Rogue Creamery and then onward to Ashland where we sampled some brews from the local coffee shop, Standing Stone, and then"checked out" the canning line at Caldera.
Portland was also in the mix and we spent good time with good friends, traded up our film SLR for a digi, had a few research meetings and enjoyed excellent beer and food.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part III

Play with dirt and rocks......well depending on the class I was in, there was some of this too, but in this case, it was in my own yard.
The front yard will always be a work in progress, which--even given my ultra uber planning mentality--is okay with me.
So for this moment, it appears that I was interested in changing the aesthetic of the front = bulbs, weeding, more sedum, Mexican red pebbles (not pictured here) and a tree stump too large to chop down for the fireplace.
Joe has also been working on a water capture system...

Intermission...

This appeared one week...I seem to remember buying the materials and making an attempt at planning, but I had nothing to do with the construction.
It's not quite done yet, but Joe turned our dustbowl into a nice pad.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part II

Snowshoeing in the Giant Sequoia National Forest...

We hiked into a cabin (generally for summer use) and pretty much had the forest to ourselves for three days. Being completely surrounded by snow--and the enormity of the silent forest--was absolutely incredible. And at night, we bundled up again and sat with a nightcap enjoying the bliss that comes with seeing more stars than we have seen in a looooooooong time.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part I

Make Butter:

I would never have attempted this without a kitchenaid...so when I say butter making is easy, I'm not being obnoxious...I really had very little to do with it.
Starting with cream...
The point of no return, whipped cream to milk fat and buttermilk:
Washed and unsalted butter:Results:
1 pint organic heavy cream = 1 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup butter
Salted fresh butter:1 cup buttermilk = just enough for a modest amount of soda bread

1 modest loaf of soda bread = desire for braised cabbage, carrots and potatoes

.....mmmmmmmm

It takes a Madonna....

I'll need to look into this more (in all my spare time), but with climate change, earthquakes and economic issues all causing whole villages of people to relocate, do we really need to add Madonna to that list?

Malawians move for Madonna school

Some 200 villagers in Malawi have ended their protests and agreed to leave their land to make way for a school being built by pop star Madonna.

The villagers have finally accepted compensation of $105,000 (£67,000) after their protests had delayed the start of the building work.

A local chief reportedly told the villagers to "accept reality" after the government ordered them to move.

Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi, where she has an orphanage.

Work is now expected to start soon on the Raising Malawi Girls Academy outside the capital, Lilongwe.

The AFP news agency says it is expected to be finished in two years' time.

As well as the compensation, the villagers have also been given new land elsewhere.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8513052.stm
Published: 2010/02/12 15:44:38 GMT

the wiki is down

The wikipedia is down and somewhere undergraduate students are crying.