Keith Haring in Philadelphia
On Sunday, Husband and I rode our bikes to Philly (27 miles and we are still alive!). I wanted to take some pictures of the collaborative mural that Keith Haring painted with local children in South Philadelphia (visit Keith Haring’s site to read more about the project and look at pictures of the event).
The mural is titled “We the Youth” and was painted in 1987 in celebration of the bicentennial of the US Constitution; it was recently restored and the tiny garden in front of the mural was redesigned.
I find Keith Haring’s painting and sculptures so moving. Perhaps it’s their irrepressible energy; perhaps the simplicity of the lines that burst with meaning and emotion (as you could still perceive the gesture that produced that line). It’s as Keith could communicate directly to my heart, bypassing my head and my defenses. And I’ve always felt that collaborative and public art—that type of creative expression that some scream is “absolutely not art”—is the best art form ever created.
I owe the discovery of the only Keith Haring’s mural in Philadelphia to Albert, who recently wrote about it in his blog. He also wrote that the building has been recently sold and there are rumors that it might be demolished. Does anybody have additional information?
If you want to visit, you can find the mural at the corner between 22nd and Ellsworth Street. You can also look at additional pictures in this slideshow at Smugmug.
Technorati Tags: Keith Haring, Haring, mural, 1987, we the youth, Philadelphia
How to Blog: 4. Blog Networking
So, now you have a blog. What do you want to do with it? You can use it as an online publishing tool to create a website and put content on the internet. But you would be missing the wonderful potential that blogs have to connect people and ideas.
Most of us use blogs as a social and networking tool. We want others to see and hear what we’ve created. We enjoy finding other people who share our passions and see the world in the same way we do—or perhaps in a completely different way. We want to find people who say interesting things and discuss topics we care about.
If you too belong to the second category, you should learn something about blog networking. Find people you like and would like to connect with; go out and let other people know that you have a blog, are interested in what they say, and would like to start a conversation with them.
Local Showcase: I’ve made a huge tiny mistake
If you follow local sports, you need to check out I’ve made a huge tiny mistake, the current Philly Future featured blog. In his blog, Chris talks about sport (Phillies, Sixers, and more), entertainment, and current events. Oh, and don’t miss his on notice/dead to me a-la-Colbert list (I had to look up Fabio Castro on Google, you judge how carefully I follow local baseball).
Chris: congratulations and happy featured blog. Everybody else, pay a visit and say hello to Chris. And many thanks to those who voted for my blog.
Technorati Tags: philly future, blogging, philadelphia, phillyfeaturedblog
How to blog is coming back
Easton Ellsworth at Business Blog Wire has blogtipped me (thank you!) and kindly reminded me that I have been neglecting the How to Blog series for too long.
I know, I’ve been bad. But new posts on how to blog are in the works, and you’ll see something soon.
The TED Conference is online
Every year, the brightest and most influential gather in Monterey for TED. The theme of this year’s TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, was The Future We Will Create….
Google Video has a set of video recordings of some amazing 2006 TED conference talks. Al Gore was there and you can feel his presence in many of the videos. If you only have time for one, watch Majora Carter, MacArthur “genius” grant winner and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, talking about environmental justice and explaining why green is the new black.
For more videos, visit the TED site and YouTube; you can also find photos from the TED conference on Flickr and visit/subscribe to the TEDblog for more information and video updates on the conference.
No, you cannot attend TED 2007. The conference is by invitation only (although anybody can apply for an invitation) and it seems to be already sold out.
Technorati Tags: TED, conference, TEDconference, 2006
If you love me, vote for my blog
AntonellaPavese.com is one of the four blogs nominated for the Philly Future Featured Blog Poll (many thanks to Karl and Albert for the nomination). The other three nominees are: Badminton Stamps, I’ve Made a Huge Tiny Mistake, and Literal Barrage. Vote for your favorite Philly blogs here until Sunday at 5:00 PM (to vote, you’ll need to register at Philly Future).
Good luck to everybody.
Technorati Tags: poll, featured, philly future, philadelphia, blogs, blogging
Katrina, one year later. Mission not accomplished
After one year, New Orleans is still wounded. This pictures of the 9th Ward was not taken last year; it’s just a few days old and was taken by photographer 1115 (via Albert; view the entire set on Flickr).
Technorati Tags: remembering, anniversary, Katrina, New Orleans
Little Miss Sunshine
Yesterday I went to see Little Miss Sunshine with Husband. I loved it. It’s a funny laugh-aloud-real-hard movie and it’s a deep and serious movie. I know, I do tend to see deep hidden meanings in movies that are flat like two-dimensional branes—take for example, most B sci-fi movies made in the 50s and 60s—so I’m not completely sure everybody would agree with me; still, I’m almost positive this movie is deep.
Links - August 26, 2006
- In Six Steps to Everyday Activism, Britt Bravo—who want us to Have Fun - Do Good—summarizes six best practices for maintaining hope and enthusiasm when trying to save the world.
- It’s been almost one year since the hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Last September, Zadi Diaz made news with her Katrina video Wake me up when September ends. One year later, it still brings back all the pain and the rage.
- More heartbreaking Katrina stories collected by NPR for StoryCorps.
- Amy Gahran talks about the Iranian blogosphere (”You may be as surprised as I was to learn that Farsi is one of the most popular languages in the blogosphere”) in Time for Blogging Diplomacy? and suggests that “perhaps blogs might represent a potentially powerful new avenue for person-to-person diplomacy.”
- Jeneane’s take on Pluto’s demotion. Web 2.0 ha-ha funny.
IT Conversations with myself: is danah boyd cool or what?
Anto: What do you think of danah boyd? Don’t you think she’s supercool?
nella: [continuing to read Scoble's post about investing in blogging] Yeah, she is OK.
Anto: OK? Just OK? Have you read her post on superpublics?
nella: [click-hopping to Jeneane Sessum's post on the history of "small is the new big"] Yes, I did. It’s interesting.
Anto: She has all these great ideas on social networks online.
nella: [Now reading Hugh McLeod] She’s writing her dissertation on social networks; it would be surprising if she didn’t have interesting things to say.
Anto: My dissertation was not that interesting.
nella: [scanning Shelly's posts on The bbgun] Here we go again.
Anto: No, really.
nella: [makes faces while reading Stowe Boyd's /Blip of the week; wonders if Stowe and danah are related]
Anto: Stop it!
nella: You stop it.
Silence. Click. Click. Click.
Anto: OK, but she has more interesting things to say that many A-listers.
nella: [reading BoingBoing making fun of the Wall Street Journal] I would agree with that.
Silence, except for furious typing.
Anto: Are you angry at me?
nella: No, I’m not.
Anto: Are we OK then?
nella: We are golden.
Silence. Typing. More typing. Silence.
Anto: I love you.
nella: I love you, too. Now shut up. Trying to be a serious blogger here.
Technorati Tags: blogging, danah boyd, superpublics, alisters, multiplepersonalities
Local Showcase: Welcome to Phillyville
Yesterday, Karl Martino wrote a great post discussing why “the web is flat” assumption is wrong (I’m especially grateful to Karl for the link to Clay Shirky’s 2003 article Powerlaws, Weblogs, and Inequality).
Today Karl makes a concrete proposal: let’s blogstorm local blogs that are featured every two weeks on Philly Future. Karl says that his blogstorm idea came from reading my interview with Wendy Piersall on similar initiatives such as the LinkedIn Blog Boosts and her own BlogJolt.
So, here it is: please visit Ruby Legs’s blog Welcome to Phillyville. In Phillyville, Ruby discusses Philly’s sport events, proposes to use the money we spend to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal to send 250,000 kids to college, and rants against racist stooges.
What else do you need? Go!!
Technorati Tags: blogging, Philadelphia, phillyfeaturedblog, link, blogstorm, popularity
And the police arrived at the scene
It’s such a wonderful night for a walk. You could use a cigarette and you need air. Air. Close the door behind you (did you close it slowly, so nobody would hear? Or did you slam it, hoping somebody would stop you?) and just walk, one step and then another step. It’s not that hard.
And here you are, just outside the train station. Light a cigarette. Watch the breeze play with the smoke and feel it on your skin. For a moment you almost forget. But it’s just a moment then the pain is back, all of it, and it’s time.
Walk to the tracks, take another puff, breath it in fully. Step just in the middle of the tracks, sit down, slowly lower your head to the ground. It’s hard, but not that hard after all. Move just a little bit to get more comfortable, put your legs down, close your eyes. The tracks fit you nicely, like a bed where you can, finally, rest.
At 9:47PM of Friday, August 18, the R5 local to Thorndale leaves Saint David station for Wayne. Wayne is where I left my car before taking the train to Philadelphia this afternoon. Just 2 minutes and I will be there; I’ll get into the car, put my backpack in the back seat, and drive home. I’m exhausted, it has been a long hard week.
The politics of language
Clutter is the language of the Pentagon calling an invasion a “reinforced protective reaction strike” and justifying its vast budgets on the need for “counterforce deterrence.” As George Orwell pointed out in “Politics and the English Language,” an essay written in 1946 but often cited during the wars in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Iraq, “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible… Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemisms, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.” Orwell’s warning that clutter is not just a nuisance but a deadly tool has come true in the recent decades of American military adventurism. It was during George W. Bush’s Presidency that “civilian casualties” in Iraq became “collateral damage.”
No, it’s not Markos Moulitsas Zúniga at Daily Kos. It’s William Zinsser in the 30th Anniversary Edition of On writing well. And it’s just page 16. Boy, I am going to enjoy this book.
Technorati Tags: writing, politics, Orwell
Misery and delight of a virtual room of our own
A few months ago I wrote about the distinction between vision and reality of online socialization that Russell Beale made in his talk at CHI2006.
The Vision was about what’s good about the digital connected world: plenty of free information and the ability to connect with many individuals in real time. The Reality was about what’s not so good about technology: isolation, bias, and self-centeredness. “Information is selected and filtered out based on preference: we cut out what we don’t like or don’t agree with. Technology enables an ignorance society. Even when we are physically present, we are socially absent.”
A recent post by David Wong on Pointless waste (via Karl Martino) lists seven reasons why living in this wonderful networked world makes us feel miserable. David Wong describes how technology allows us to lock ourself in our own little cozy world and progressively lose the ability to deal with the annoyances and roughness of the real world. The real worlds is not as pleasant and comfortable as our virtual worlds (Second Life, anyone?) but it’s, indeed, real.
The power of numbers that measure (social) performance
In number games and social software, dana boyd observes how we sometimes get obsessed with numbers that represent our performance—think game scores or, in her example, increasing miles per gallon while driving an hybrid car. The effect on our behavior can be even more powerful when these measures are socially determined as for the popularity score on Consumating and—why not?—blog ranking on Technorati.
And then i was thinking about the people on Yahoo! Answers who spend hours every day answering questions to get high ranks … There’s no real gain from getting points but still, it’s like a mouse in a cage determined to do well just cuz they can.
The internet is giving us a sort of social nerd paradise. We can actually measure our popularity with a number that everybody can see, rather than having to rely on fuzzy and contradictory social feedback.
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