Author: BrianR

Experimental Architecture to Save the Planet

Another informative blog post from Tree Hugger. This one about the movie Garbage Warrior. WATCH this trailer.

What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you’re renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of “Earthship Biotecture” by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony. However, these experimental structures that defy state standards create conflict between Reynolds and the authorities, who are backed by big business. Frustrated by antiquated legislation, Reynolds lobbies for the right to create a sustainable living test site. While politicians hum and ha, Mother Nature strikes, leaving communities devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes. Reynolds and his crew seize the opportunity to lend their pioneering skills to those who need it most. Shot over three years and in four countries, Garbage Warrior is a timely portrait of a determined visionary, a hero of the 21st century.

Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.

Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.

A Song featuring my Hometown

Just saw Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers perform this song on the Tee Vee. Wondering why I’ve never heard of it. I figure some people in Virginia didn’t take kindly to it. 🙂

Blue Virginia Blues

Have you ever been to Richmond in November
When the cold Virginia rain is coming down
Friends I’m here to tell you it’s no pleasure
When you’re all alone and a stranger to this town.

Don’t take me wrong I do like East Virginia
And Richmond’s full of hospitality
Except for one Virginia girl I know of
Who made a perfect love wreck out of me.

Blue blue Virginia blue
There’s no blue like blue Virginia blue
No other girls in the whole wide world
Will break your heart like Virginia girls
There’s no blue like blue Virginia blue

She called me up in St Paul Minnesota
Said I need you here in Richmond right away
Take the bus I’ll meet you at the station
Bring your clothes ’cause I want you to stay.

My bus pulled in the station late this evening
And there’s no one around this place but me
She must have changed her mind or she’s forgotten
And her name’s not in the phone directory.

I wish I had the money for a taxi
And a warm and cozy place to go lie down
Instead of standin’ all alone in Richmond
While the cold Virginia rain is comin’ down.

Community Funded Reporting

This week Ruby and I went to two conferences in Minneapolis. The first one done in Open Space / Unconference style was New Pamphleteers/New Reporters:Convening Entrepreneurs Who Combine Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs at the University of Minnesota. (What a long name huh?)

One of the best ideas I heard this week was Spot.us.

“Spot Us” is a nonprofit that allows an individual or group to take control of news in their community by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists to write important, or uncovered news stories.

Dave Cohn is behind this idea and he explained it to us via Skype. I was amazed at how few people where in this mini-session. Because it feels like a real innovation that could answer the burning question on every corporate journalist and CEOs mind, “How do we make money making journalism so we can get it done?”.

But the big difference between this idea, as I see it, and how media CEOs do is that this is about direct funding to individual journalist not organizations or corporations. Yet another middle man removed from the process of making media and protecting our democracy. But I don’t think the corporate media folks at this conference had thought about this that much. There were just too many competing sessions. Their loss.

I’ll be paying close attention to how Spot.us progresses. Dave plans to roll this service out to the Bay Area first then other communities one at a time. Sounds like a good plan. It worked for Graig’s List.

For Sale 2001 VW New Beetle Turbo

For Sale 2001 VW New Beetle Turbo
$8,300

Very Good Condition
2001 VW New Beetle GLS Turbo Hatchback 2 door
Black with Grey Leather seats
Sunroof
4 Cyl. 1.8L Turbo
5 Speed Manual Transmission
89k miles

Air Conditioning
Heated seats
Power Steering
Power Remote Locks
6 Speaker Monsoon AM/FM Tape w/ CD Changer

Find more pictures in much greater detail on my Flickr set. You can also see this add on a Craigslist listing. Please contact me for an appointment to view the Beetle.

My Citizen News on Youtube

YouTube just announced their Citizen News “channel”. Its supposed to demo some of the best citizen journalism on their site. In this intro video they featured The “Bad Ass” Uptake! with a small amount of my video! Go 1 minute and 26 seconds into the vid and you’ll see Kirk Ross of The Carrboro Citizen. Its part of my video of the Obama/Super Chunk/Arcade Fire rally I shot and edited for The Uptake!

Gota say I’m jazzed to be small time Internet famous if only for a few seconds. To me this is MUCH bigger than being on TV. (thanks to @podcastmama for sharing this news with me via Twitter.)

I remain skeptical about the future of citizen journalism. Now that its mainstream like ReadWriteWeb is blogging about… when will it be co-opted? Has it already? Remember underground music called Indy Rock? When it was co-opted by record labels they destroyed its cool in record time.

Much more is at stake here than cool. The past seven years have told us what happens when journalistic integrity and good values get bought by war mongers more interested in profit than human life.

Sorry to harsh yer mellow. I’m still excited that creative people like me can share our labor of love with the world. All without the expense that broadcast corporations shoulder. Citizen content is king! 🙂

RIP Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82 source: NY Times

This man is an important influence on my creative work. Such an amazing innovator. (Thanks for the link to that one @10ch)

Fearless Experimentation

It’s no secret that experimentation (and the failure that goes along with it) is at the core of innovation. While we’ve all probably absorbed the maxims—”fail faster to succeed sooner” or “let 1000 flowers bloom”—few of us have cultivated the insatiable appetite for experimentation that Rauschenberg considered his true work (the art itself, he said, was more like “souvenirs of creation”). Dig a little bit into his story and it’s hard not to be infected and inspired by his adventurous avidity for trying new things—from kinetic sculptures to composing (he was both artistic director of Merce Cunningham’s dance company for years and a collaborator with John Cage).

But it seems Rauschenberg wasn’t just fueled by some inner light—he was propelled by diverse and deep collaborations with everyone from stage performers to engineers. At one point, he founded a collective called E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) to match up artists, scientists and engineers. Most of all, he had the ability to look upon mistakes and failures as a gift: “Screwing up is a virtue,” he said. “Being correct is never the point. . . Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.” And that’s a lesson for all of us: productivity and genuine good-humor toward our inevitable stumbles, rather than a particular talent, puts us on the path toward success (and may in fact be the definition of success itself).

One of my favorite Art professors said to me in college, “Spectacularly failures are better than to mediocre successes.”

Lincoln's Prognostication

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country… corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

quote source

Local governments withhold public access TV funds

Local governments withhold public access TV funds. Get the story from this Independent Weekly blog post by Fiona Morgan called Legislature to consider future of public TV channels.

Both Chapel Hill and Orange County received money for Chapel Hill channel 8, on which The People’s Channel broadcasts.

Yet neither government has passed that money on to The People’s Channel. The law says local governments must spend the supplemental money on PEG channels, but it doesn’t specify which channels.

Chapel Hill spokesperson Catherine Lazorko says the town manager and town council have yet to decide how to distribute PEG funding. Chapel Hill operates its own government channel, 18, which broadcasts public meetings.

Orange County, which certified a total of three PEG channels, decided to spend all $29,400 of its supplemental PEG funding on its own government channel, 265, which broadcasts county commissioners meetings. The annual budget for Channel 265 is approximately $40,000.

There is also some discussion going on about it on Orange Politics. You’ll find my passionate comments there. Here is one.

I am very disappointed in the position Town of Chapel Hill Staff and Orange County Staff have taken in this situation. As Fiona’s article pointed out the law governing the funds distributed by the state is up to interpretation. But for the County Assistant Manager and Manager to hide behind a legal opinion that they support to retain funds purposely earmarked by the State for a local non-profit is disgusting!

I wish this were a case of unemotional bean counting in a disconnected bureaucracy. But it just doesn’t seem so. I look forward to more information coming to light on the attitude our public servants have had when dealing with our fellow citizens. If they treated other nonprofits with more loud public voices this way I think Council, Commissioners, and citizens would be publicly outraged.

Please consider donating to The Peoples’ Channel, taking a course to learn how to shoot and edit your own video at TPC, and asking your local representatives WHY our Staff members act this way.

To get a bit more background on the situation here is a PDF that describes PEG (Public Access Television) Funding.