The Secret Museum

Branding and Social Change...Wha?

This Saturday, April 3, New York University is holding its annual, free, All University Dialogue, this year called Toward Securing the Global Village.

OK, I'm unclear on what "securing the global village" means, but the particular panel I plan to attend is "Media: A Conduit for Social Progress," at 3 p.m. Panelists include Fred Fields of the Taproot Foundation and Sandi Abadinsky of the Enterprise Foundation, two right-on foundations supporting community-based nonprofits, and I hear that dk holland, a guru on branding for nonprofits, may attend.

Local folks wondering just what the heck a successful bid for the 2012 Olympics might mean to the area will want to check out the 11 a.m. panel on "NYC 2012 Cultural and Economic Implications." Olympics are economic and cultural drivers worldwide--wouldn't it be interesting if they could be Worldchanging events instead of resource pits? In NYC, two huge, neighborhood-leveling stadium bids are currently in play, important subway extensions may hinge on related funding, and let's not even talk about the "security" issues.

Next Bronx loft art event

Mitsu has put out his new call for participation for his next loft art event in May. I recently wrote about showing my work at the February event. Look for the entry titled "Art reportback."

What's in the air

We take this opportunity to suspend the usual art reports, half-thought-out political observations, and expressions of angst to note that the season really has shifted—it is spring. It is the best part of spring, where the air is still a little cold, and the light is warmer, but not really thick yet, and the trees are still bare, so you get to appreciate their minimalist beauty without suffering in an icy wind.

We have opened our windows to allow a fresh mixture of car exhaust, microparticles of asphalt, lint (from the dryers in the laundromat next door), early pollen, and regular old air to equalize the indoor and outdoor atmospheres.

Breakfast today consists of a perfect blood orange—tart, firm, ideal mixture of orange-and-red flecks in the flesh, organic—two slices of dill havarti, two slices of whole grain toast of some sort with butter (yes, butter! organic!), and french mocha coffee. We would have taken a picture of the orange but we ate it instead.

So, here is a cat's eye view of Brooklyn, in early spring, from the sill of the kitchen window, on the fourth floor, looking south towards Coney Island (maybe there is a molecule or two of Atlantic Ocean in the air this morning, too).

Art and Intelligence

Sorting papers preparatory to doing taxes, I have come across a clipping I took from the New York Times last last spring. The feature was a compilation of excerpts from 2003 graduation speeches. Here are the two I saved:

Renée Fleming
Opera singer
The Juilliard School, New York City

  While you're standing in the grocery line holding Spam instead of foie gras for a few years ponder the following: Those of you who perform — musicians and dancers — will have by now practiced perhaps 3,000 hours a year, times 15 years, which equals 45,000 hours. Which means colletively that you as a group will have practiced 11 million hours. Challenge the idea that the arts are for a select few — teach make more people love what you love, and help them to understand why you dedicated those 11 million hours in the first place.

George J. Tenet
C.I.A. director
University of Oklahoma, Norman

  Today, the United States is the lone superpower, with global interests and worldwide reach — part of everyone's problem and everyone's solution. And by this I mean more than Afghanistan and Iraq, where crises called forth from us a military response. There is another, underlying story that must be told: the story of societies and peoples who are left behind, excluded from the benefits of an expanding global economy, whose lives of hunger, disease, and displacement may become wellsprings of disaffection and extremism.

(Note: Credit where credit it due to writer Sam Dillon, who excerpted and juxtaposed these speeches.)

Joining Worldchanging

I'm joining the ranks of regular contributors to Worldchanging. Very pleased to become the NYC representative for this great info blog. Thanks, Jamais and Alex.

My essay today is on the book (and idea) Pet Architecture Guidebook.

Freecycling goes mainstream

Today's local edition of the New York Times, Metro section, features an article on freecycling: One Sock, With Holes? I'll Take It. I recently signed up for the freecycling list myself, after reading about it on Worldchanging.

Now, what to cast off?

Several NYT stories today touch on facets of urban development, sustainability, alternative electrics, nature, laced with a heady whiff of corporate crime:

Jets Campaign for a Manhattan Stadium: NYC's Olympics 2012 bid, in part, fuels this idea to erect a major sports arena on Manhattan's west side. To counter community opposition, the Jets have partnered with local unions, agreeing to unionized staffing at high-end restaurants within the proposed complex.

The neighborhood that would be obliterated to make way for this project is a delicate, worn-down lattice of old brick buildings, warehouses, and parking lots. Some of the buildings have been renovated for new businesses and residences in recent years. They are human scale, elegant bridges between New York's past and present.

The Garbage and the Governor: Enron in Impeachment Inquiry: "Billed in 2001 as an energy trade by the trash authority, because it involved electricity generated by burning trash, the deal has since been characterized by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as an illegal, unsecured loan to a company desperate for cash. Residents in 70 towns and cities served by the authority, representing 30 percent of the state's population, are now paying higher bills to make up for the loss."

Plus: Before a Fuel-Cell Deal, Enron Lobbyists Met With Rowland

Bitter Division for Sierra Club on Immigration: Land has carrying capacity. But ignoring the social context of an environmental issue is, well, wrong-headed.

A hopeful article in the Science section: Wolves Come Back (on Their Terms)

My favorite article of the day didn't make it online: Yesterday afternoon, police confiscated a caiman and a python from a man out for a stroll with these, his pets, in Central Park (he was allowed to keep his cockatoo). Exotic illegal pet stories are becoming a staple of NYC news, what with last fall's spectacular tiger recovery in Harlem, and six monkeys being found in Washington Heights last week.

I think the real story here is how marvelously prepared and sympathetic New York police and animal control seem to be towards these creatures. Writer Sabrina Tavernise quotes Michael Pastore of NYC Animal Care and Control in today's article: "There's a myriad of problems with these animals. They don't make great pets. A caiman belongs in a swamp in Central America and the python should be clinging to a tree somewhere."

What kind of threat to the Bush administration are you?

Found on The Creepy Turtle Pages, the "What threat to the Bush administration are you?" quiz.

Ah ha ha. It pegged me but good (the question about demontrating against the destruction of habitat was a dead giveaway):

Threat rating: Low. You are annoying, but too much
of a softy tree hugger to pose any threat to
the mighty machine of Republican progress. And
the FBI know where you live.

Illegal content violation

...or so reads the subject line of a couple spams that have appeared in my email.

One is Message 9885, the other, Message 4235.

Oh, a new one just appeared: Extreme Content Violation Message 13014.

Although spam is not intrinsically interesting, I do find myself kind of interested in how these subject lines appropriate the language and syntax of trouble tickets (when a problem is reported to a tech support department, it gets logged in the tracking database as a "trouble ticket"), complete with the number meant to signify some sort of unique identity within the system.

When in fact, gajillions of identical messages have probably just clogged gajillions of inboxes like mine.

Given what is commonly considered acceptable content in mainstream America, I aspire to extreme content violations.

Art making and world events

How do we make art in the face of overwhelming world events? Since 9/11, at least three ideas for photo-based installations have come and gone while I sat and did nothing to realize them. Thinking too long brought on doubt.

In a recent issue of Orion Magazine, composer John Luther Adams wrote,

What is the value of art in a world on the verge of melting? An Orkney Island fiddler once observed: "Art must be of use." By counterpoint, John Cage said: "Only what one person understands helps all of us." Can they both be right?

Three decades ago I came to Alaska to help save the wilderness, and I was an environmental activist for years. When I left that work, I did so with the feeling that someone else could carry on my part in it, but that no one else could make my music. In recent years I'm wondering again about the meaning of my life's work...[H]ow can I make art that doesn't speak directly to world events?

I am able to decode how to respond to world events as an activist. Finding myself in direct, desperate opposition to the Bush administration, I write my articles, I register voters.

But as an artist, I am mute on the big issues. I can only observe small things: individual lives and deaths, the map of human nostalgia, loss, sadness, regret and depression. Perhaps a bittersweetness over the mixed blessing of memory.

I made this bowl (and burned the candle) the day after Spalding Gray's body was identified:

home insecurity 3

Two days ago I left my apartment to go to DC. As I walked to the subway, I was suddenly overcome with the fear that I'd left the coffee pot on. But I was going to miss my connection to DC if I turned around, and what were the chances that I'd done that, really? So I kept going.

Riding the F train to Manhattan, the thought would not leave me. I imagined the building catching on fire. What would happen to my cats? Would anyone get them out? Would anyone from the building, or the management company, know how to reach me? But of course I could not have left the coffee pot on. I've only done that once in as long as I can remember.

Maybe the building would not burn, but my cats would be overcome by the toxic fumes as the plastic melted down around the hot plate.

Well into Manhattan, I decided to take the train to DC instead of the bus, and caught the 12:05 Metroliner south. At some point these thoughts left me.

Tonight, as I emerged from the subway, I sniffed the air. No smell of smoke, just the slight cold edge of New York in early spring. I walked up the street. I turned the corner. It was quiet. I entered my building, got my mail, and climbed the stairs.

The cats ran to the door and made happy noises as I came in.

Report from a mad cyclist

My friend Lenny recently updated me on his doings as an Auckland, New Zealand bicycle activist (not his day job). I, in turn, have written it up as my first contribution to WorldChanging: New Zealand Commuting Challenge.

Thanks, Jamais.

My emergency kit

• Black Maglight flashlight--works
• Transistor radio
• Assorted batteries
• Two (2) 2 (two)-litre seltzer bottles filled with tap water
• Old dried apricots
• Salted almonds
• Small zippered bag containing toothbrush, toothpaste, one tampon, lip balm, eyeshadow (dual shade), hand lotion, antibacterial gel
• About a pound and a half of cat kibbles
• One (1) can of cat food (...for the cats)
• Bicycle, i.e. human-powered transport #1 (it's locked to a rack in the basement and I lost key. Note to self: get super to liberate my bike before next disaster.)
• Folding kayak, i.e. human-powered transport #2 (way far off near Jamaica Bay, and where would I put the cats?)
• (and, where exactly would I paddle to?)
• Proven capacity to cope in case of disaster
• Experience walking several miles to get home during a blackout

Insecure

It's an interesting time to be in New York City. I returned in 2000 on the dot-boom tidal wave, and have been riding out the backwash of destruction. Apparently, according to today's New York Times, this guy took two years to get another job. I've had the inverse experience, with three jobs and three layoffs behind me since coming back here, and almost a year of staying afloat freelancing.

Would I have moved back here if I'd known I'd be living on my own wits in this way? Probably not. But it is kind of engergizing at the same time.

Home Insecurity: On today's broadcast of The Next Big Thing, Jesse Green examines the contents of a disaster emergency kit. The note that came with it explained that it was thoughtfully provided in the wake of last summer's blackout. Green notes that we've had blackouts in New York City before. We all know what disaster that kit is really meant for.