Cloning Redwoods to Fight Climate Change

The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a group of environmentalists in California, is seeking to reverse climate change by cloning and reforesting the land. What a novel, beautiful idea.
Read the NYTimes Article. 

Radiohead - Lotus Flower

one more reason to love Thom Yorke.

quotes that are on my mind...

"If you're going to be passionate about something, be passionate about learning. If you're going to fight something, fight for those in need. If you're going to question something, question authority. If you're going to lose something, lose your inhibitions. If you're going to gain something, gain respect and confidence. And if you're going to hate something, hate the false idea that you are not capable of your dreams".
--Daniel Golston

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
--Jack Kerouac

Sir Ken Robinson on Education and Creativity

Deerhunter on Letterman

Deerhunter, hailing from Atlanta. Bradford Cox is a genius, and he's so fantastically strange, too. This band is one of my favorites.

Mmmmm multigrain pancakes!!!

These look irresistible. I can't wait to try these recipes while huddled up in Maine.
The Minimalist does it again.

Click the photo to see the article:

Imagining a car-free NYC

All in jest, but the idea isn't half-bad. 

Click on the pic below to read the NYTimes Op-Ed.

The complete works of my favorite artist, Robert Rauschenberg, at the Gagosian

"He was fantastic, a thriller, one who inspired generations of other artists ...to be promiscuous in their approach to art and life but also to be formally exacting, to be cool-eyed in their thinking but morally tender"  


Click HERE to see the NYTimes article about the Gagosian exhibit, on display until 12/18/10.

a quote that's been on my mind...

Stop thinking that this is all there is...Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraqi attack plan, there are a thousand counterbalancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral...Resist the temptation to drown in fatalism, to shake your head and sigh and just throw in the karmic towel...Realize that this is the perfect moment to change the energy of the world, to step right up and crank your personal volume; right when it all seems dark and bitter and offensive and acrimonious and conflicted and bilious...there's your opening. Remember magic. And, finally, believe you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very, very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable.

--Mark Morford

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

I know its not quite Thanksgiving yet, but I couldn't resist--how delish do these recipes look?!

Jackson Hotel by Lynda Hull : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

this poem just broke my heart a little bit!

Jackson Hotel

BY LYNDA HULL

Sometimes after hours of wine I can almost see

the night gliding in low off the harbor

down the long avenues of shop windows

past mannequins, perfect in their gestures.

I leave some water steaming on the gas ring

and sometimes I can slip from my body,

almost find the single word to prevent evenings

that absolve nothing, a winter lived alone

and cold. Rooms where you somehow marry

the losses of strangers that tremble

on the walls like the hands

of the dancer next door, luminous

with Methedrine, she taps walls for hours

murmuring about the silver she swears

lines the building, the hallways

where each night drunks stammer their

usual rosary until they come to rest

beneath the tarnished numbers, the bulbs

that star each ceiling.

I must tell you I am afraid to sit here

losing myself to the hour’s slow erasure

until I know myself only by this cold weight,

this hand on my lap, palm up.

I want to still the dancer’s hands

in mine, to talk about forgiveness

and what we leave behind—faces

and cities, the small emergencies

of nights. I say nothing, but

leaning on the sill, I watch her leave

at that moment

when the first taxis start rolling

to the lights of Chinatown, powered

by sad and human desire. I watch her fade

down the street until she’s a smudge,

violent in the circle of my breath. A figure

so small I could cup her in my hands.

"Publics and Counterpublic" by Michael Warner (1958)

very interesting essay on the meaning of "the public," a term that is constantly reinterpreted during our internet/media age.

seems pretty relevant, considering that i'm writing this blog, and you're reading it...

http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/journals/public_culture/v014/14.1warner.html

A feast with one goat, one table and one oven

This sort of gastronomic event is on my bucket list. What a beautiful concept.

LUMENHAUS: Virginia Tech's creation that won the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe

AWESOME house. Click on this picture of the Lumenhaus to be taken to an interactive link and tour of the home:

Graveside Oration

Our late friend hated blue skies,
Bible-quoting preachers,
Politicians kissing babies,
Women who are all sweetness.

He liked drunks in church,
Nudists playing volleyball,
Stray dogs making friends,
Birds singing of fair weather as they crap.

--Charles Simic (as seen in The Paris Review, Spring 2010)

I haven't posted a poem in a while...

Restlessness

Walking side-by-side,

the travelers shine,

moonlit and new at the start

of their journey

through the barren expanse.

Like two pearls

glinting in the light,

yellow-white.

The bright of their craniums

contrasting the slate-

gray and black patches

that paint the desert floor

blotchy during the small hours.

Only the sands and cacti

feel the throbbing

in their chests, the beating

that hovers above their hearts

like a flock of buzzards hunting.

Never will the beasts land.


--Me.

lovely short film: Words By Everynone

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

An Article About Today's 20-Somethings

What Is It About 20-Somethings?
Robert Marant Henig for the NYTimes

We are purpose-driven more than financially driven!

Click HERE to watch this video

A map of religiosity

This Gallup Poll MAP brings many, many questions to mind, such as the correlation between religion and fundamentalism, conservatism, government corruption, poverty, etc...