May 18, 2015 by suzannesmom
At WBUR’s The Artery, Andrea Shea has a story about a composer with a penchant for unusual texts: the package blurbs practically everyone reads at breakfast when the newspaper hasn’t arrived.
“Musicians are always searching for inspiration,” writes Shea, “and sometimes they find it in some unlikely places.
“Take Brian Friedland, a prolific Boston composer and jazz pianist who’s discovered a creative goldmine in his cupboards. He takes words on packaging for products such as granola, mouthwash and tea, then sets them to some pretty sophisticated music. Friedland calls the funny-but-serious project ‘Household Items’ and he has a new CD. …
“Friedland is not a singer, but he sees amusing, absurdist potential in labels featuring characters, quests or ‘extreme’ wording. He started foraging for inspiration about eight years ago and had an epiphany when he read a can of carpet cleaner after his cat missed the litter box.
“It read, ‘Do not. Do not puncture. Do not freeze. Do not incinerate. Do not expose to heat above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not inhale.’ He made them into a percussive, vocally complex work where the singer repeats, ‘Do not! Do not! Do not puncture,’ with urgency.”
Percussionist and singer Laura Grill “performed a few songs, including one about a fragrant skin moisturizer.
“ ‘There’s one benefit of having these sort of accessible lyrics,’Grill said, ‘because people are like, “Oh right — Avon Peach Hand Lotion — I can connect with that.” ’
“Grill, also an [New England Conservatory] alum, says Friedland has found a unique solution to an age-old problem.
“ ‘As someone who enjoys composing and arranging, one of the hardest things is trying to write lyrics,’ she said, ‘so Brian finds them on his coffee packages and appliances.’ ”
Listen to Friedland’s SleepyTime tea music with lyrics taken straight from the box at WBUR, here.
Photo: Andrea Shea/WBUR
Brian Friedland, a composer who puts text from product packaging to music.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged andrea shea, artery, brian friedland, composer, granola, household products, jazz, lyrics, music, new england conservatory, package, postaday, sleepytime, song, tea | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2015 by suzannesmom
Suzanne’s Mom was asked to review Revolution, a film by the young environmentalist, biologist, diver, and Sharkwater filmmaker Rob Stewart.
Encompassing gorgeous deep-sea photography, scientific climate-change testimony, a representative of the drowning country of Seychelles, and many youth demonstrations, the documentary forces you to think about what the burning of fossil fuels is doing to the oceans and what it means for the future of the planet. It also gives you the sense that anyone can do something about it — take up a camera, make a poster, or write a letter that makes a change.
The film is infused with a sense of youth, of young people saying, “Enough!” I particularly loved the moment early on when Stewart, who had read only two books on filmmaking, is flubbing his lines in front of Darwin’s Arch. What comes across in addition to the humorous inexperience is a feeling of energy, optimism, and determination.
The film has many engaging details about sea life that Stewart can’t resist throwing in, like how the endangered pygmy seahorse, which camouflages itself to look like coral, “mates for life — and the guy gets pregnant!”
He talks about how the burning of fossil fuels creates too much carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by the ocean and is harmful to anything that needs to grow a skeleton, which is pretty much everything but nasty, poisonous creatures that flourish in the muck where corals died, like the flamboyant cuttlefish. Coral expert Charlie Veron comments that at the same rate of ocean acidification caused by too much CO2, there will be no coral reefs in 50 years.
Stewart also looks at the island nation Madagascar, sole home of lemurs, explaining that endangered tropical forests are responsible for 1/4 of the world’s species and 1/3 of our oxygen. Madagascar scientist Serge Rajaobelina says that population growth on the island and the burning of the trees for development has meant the loss of 80 percent of the forest in 40 years, more than in 55 million years.
The movie goes on to cover perhaps a few too many youth protests, including one in which an inspired, tree-planting young boy says, “We have found we have to save our own future,” and is later arrested in tears.
But then we get to see that children and young adults are actually having an impact.
A sixth-grade class in Saipan writes letters to the Saipan government against killing sharks for shark fin soup, and the government signs a law preventing the practice. In fact, we are told, since the first Stewart film, China, the main adherent of shark-fin soup, has dropped the practice by 70 percent, and 100 countries have banned it.
The upbeat Saipan children who comment on their successful advocacy embody the truth of my favorite Pete Seeger line, “one and one and 50 make a million.” Says one, “Maybe the world might not end because of what we are doing.”
Watch the Revolution trailer here.
[We do not accept gifts here, so the DVD that the film company sends me for screening and reviewing will be forwarded to Save the Bay, RI.]
The late Rob Stewart. The filmmaker did not come up from a dive 1/31/17 near Key Largo.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged canada, carbon dioxide, coral, diver, envionment, fossil fuel, global warming, marine, ocean, reef, revolution, rob stewart, saipan, sea, seychelles, sharkwater, skeleton | 2 Comments »
May 16, 2015 by suzannesmom
According to a feature provided by the Christian Science Monitor, drip-irrigation systems are becoming a boon to regions suffering from persistent drought.
Kizito Makoye writes for Reuters, “Peter Chuwa has long flooded his paddy field using a canal that draws water from the river. These days, however, water is scarcer and growing rice this way is proving hard to sustain. A period of drought set in two years ago, and the abundant water that once helped suppress weeds in his fields and assure him of a crop regardless of rainfall has disappeared, hurting his harvests and his income. …
“Now, however, a drip irrigation system, introduced to help his village deal with worsening drought, is restoring his harvests, building his resilience to erratic weather, and saving time, he says.
” ‘You simply open the tap and leave the kit to supply water to the roots, unlike the traditional system, which takes a lot of time and energy,’ he said.
“Under pressure from drought, the 65-year-old farmer at Kikavu Chini village in Hai district in Tanzania’s northern Kilimanjaro region has switched to crops that need less water, including vegetables, maize, potatoes, and beans. A drip irrigation system, which uses far less water, supplies plenty to grow those crops, he says. …”
Nguluma Mbaga, a Kikavu Chini agricultural field officer, says the technology has come at the right time as farmers try to find ways to cope with worsening drought and other effects of climate change.
” ‘I believe farmers will be in a better position to cope with the changing weather patterns. This village is located in a dry area that does not get adequate rains, so farmers must try to use water wisely,’ he says.”
More here.
Photo: Mariana Bazo/Reuters/File
A farmer cleans prickly pear cacti irrigated with water collected by nets that trap moisture from fog on a hillside in Lima, Peru.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged drip, drought, fog, hai, irrigation, Kikavu Chini, Kilimanjaro, Kizito Makoye, Mariana Bazo, moisture, Nguluma Mbaga, peru, peter chuwa, postaday, tanzania | Leave a Comment »
May 15, 2015 by suzannesmom
I fear we may have missed the Blessing of the Bikes today. I just saw Steve Annear’s article about it in the Boston Globe.
“Helmets can help save cyclists’ lives in the event of an accident on Boston’s busy streets,” he writes, “but local clergy members are taking safety measures one step further Friday by blessing people’s bikes and headgear on the plaza in Copley Square using a special mix of holy oil and chain lube.
“ ‘It’s a spiritual decision to make the choice to take a bicycle instead of a car — something that expends more energy — so we want to affirm that healthy and holy decision for all the people in the city who do this,’ said Rev. Laura Everett, one of the organizers of the ‘Blessing of the Bicycles’ event.
“The ceremony, which will take place in front of Trinity Church, is in conjunction with Bay State Bike Week and National Bike to Work Day. Everett said Friday’s event will include special prayers for both cyclists and their bikes. …
“They will finish the ceremony by anointing each bike with a concoction of holy oil and bike chain lube. …
“Everett teamed up with the Boston Cyclists Union, the Rev. Nancy Taylor from Old South Church, the Rev. Patrick Ward from Trinity Copley Church, and Abbi Holt from Hope Central Church for the blessing.”
More here.
Photo: Rev. Laura Everett
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abbi holt, blessing of the bikes, boston cyclists union, hope central church, nancy taylor, national bike to work day, old south church, patrick ward, postaday, rev laura everett, steve annear, trinity copley church | 2 Comments »
May 14, 2015 by suzannesmom
The other day, after taking grandchildren to the park, my husband remarked on how most flowering shrubs, other than yellow forsythia, seem to be pink. I wanted to see if that was so. I went for a walk. There was pink, it’s true — one rhododendron a very dark pink. And some white (apple blossoms and white lilacs). But I ended up seeing a lot of purple, in both shrubs (lilac, wisteria) and early flowers (phlox, vinca, iris, and violets). Here are a few pictures.
In addition to my purples, I am posting two other recent photos: the sunlit new bike path and seed pods on a tree.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged iris, lilac, phlox, photo, postaday, vinca, violet, wisteria | Leave a Comment »
May 13, 2015 by suzannesmom
The blogger at A Musical Life on Planet Earth — who has been healing from an injury suffered when he nearly tripped on an eager toddler in a music class — doesn’t need to be told that music is healing.
But for the rest of us, a new study from Greece on music and heart health might be enlightening. Tom Jacobs writes at Pacific Standard, “There are many ways of reducing your risk of a heart attack. A healthy diet. Regular exercise. And don’t forget your daily dose of Dylan or Debussy.
“A newly published, small-scale study from Greece finds listening to either classical or rock music positively impacts two important predictors of cardiovascular risk. The effects are particularly pronounced for classical music fans, who, in the study, had a more robust physiological response to music of either genre.
“ ‘These findings may have important implications, extending the spectrum of lifestyle modifications that can ameliorate arterial function,’ a research team led by cardiologist Charalambos Vlachopoulos of Athens Medical School writes in the journal Atherosclerosis. ‘Listening to music should be encouraged in everyday activities.’
“The pulse waves of one’s circulatory system and the rigidity of one’s arteries are related but independent predictors of morbidity and mortality. Essentially, the stiffer one’s blood vessel walls become, the greater the pulse pressure, and the harder the heart has to work to pump blood into the arteries. This can lead to higher blood pressure and an increased strain on the heart. …
“The participants, described as ’20 healthy individuals,’ visited the lab three times. On each occasion, baseline measurements of aortic stiffness and pulse wave reflections were taken following a half-hour rest period.
“They then either listened to a half-hour of classical music (primarily excerpts from J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suites); a half-hour of rock (including tracks by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Green Day); or a similar period of silence. …
“The key result: both indicators were lower after participants listened to either genre of music. … More at Pacific Standard here.
And you can listen to to Will McMillan’s healing singing at A Musical Life on Planet Earth, here.
Will McMillan
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged athens medical school, cardiovascular, Charalambos Vlachopoulos, classical, greece, healing, heart, music, postaday, study, tom jacobs, will mcmillan | Leave a Comment »
May 12, 2015 by suzannesmom
In March, ecoRI posted an article about a Rockefeller Foundation proposal for protection of four sensitive coastal areas.
The website reports, “Leading climate scientists, engineers, designers and scholars recently collaborated to create comprehensive resiliency design proposals for vulnerable coasts along the North Atlantic, such as Rhode Island’s.
“Structures of Coastal Resilience (SCR), a Rockefeller Foundation-supported project dedicated to providing resilient design proposals for urban coastal environments, focuses on four vulnerable coasts: Narragansett Bay; Jamaica Bay in New York; Atlantic City in New Jersey; and Norfolk, Va.
“Each of the project locations feature ongoing projects by the Army Corps of Engineers, and each location is highly prone to flooding and socioeconomic vulnerability, according to project officials. The goal of SCR is provide actionable project recommendations for hurricane protection and climate adaptation. …
“As Rhode Island was spared the worst of the devastation associated with Hurricane Sandy [in 2012], it’s an ideal location for developing structures of coastal resilience that can be advanced gradually and through systematic evaluation and adaptation, according to project officials. …
“As increased urban runoff and higher saltwater levels merge on the coastal zone, some species are threatened while others adapt. Marsh and dunes recede while weedy forest cover creeps closer to the beachfront. Plants with high salt tolerance that are capable of rapid establishment have begun to colonize areas with accommodating soil. Designers can capitalize on this process, deploying plants to prevent erosion and build resilient coasts.” More here.
Folks, a woman involved with a movie about saving the oceans (Revolution) e-mailed to ask if I would review it, and I said sure. So watch this space.
Photo: CityData.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged army corps of engineers, city data, coastal, erosion, hurricane sandy, narragansett bay, ocean, postaday, resilience, revolution, rhode island, rob stewart, rockefeller foundation, Structures of Coastal Resilience | Leave a Comment »
May 12, 2015 by suzannesmom
An extra post for my tree-planting readers. From the WordPress site Hortographical.
hortographical
In 2013 I was given three cork oak (Quercus suber) acorns to try growing.
The first cork oak seedling after one year’s growth
At the time, I was in the middle of bulb planting and I popped the three acorns into individual 9cm pots without much thought. That was at the start of December.
I was amazed when about a month later the compost in the pots started to heave, indicating that things were stirring underneath. I was more amazed when I went out one morning and found a hole where one of the acorns had disappeared completely from the pot. I don’t know who stole it – possibly a magpie. My lesson learnt, I covered the two remaining pots with pea netting to stop further thefts.
I then started reading about how to grow cork oaks from acorns: obviously, I should have done the reading first:) I learnt that…
View original post 444 more words
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May 11, 2015 by suzannesmom
In a move that will benefit the environment, farmers are placing increased emphasis on the quality of their soil and cutting back on ploughing. It took a kind of soil evangelist to create the revolution.
Erica Goode has the story at the NY Times.
“Gabe Brown is in such demand as a speaker that for every invitation he accepts, he turns down 10 more. …
“Mr. Brown, a balding North Dakota farmer who favors baseball caps and red-striped polo shirts, is not talking about disruptive technology start-ups, political causes, or the latest self-help fad.
“He is talking about farming, specifically soil-conservation farming, a movement that promotes leaving fields untilled, ‘green manures’ and other soil-enhancing methods with an almost evangelistic fervor.
“Such farming methods, which mimic the biology of virgin land, can revive degenerated earth, minimize erosion, encourage plant growth and increase farmers’ profits, their proponents say. And by using them, Mr. Brown told more than 250 farmers and ranchers who gathered at the hotel for the first Southern Soil Health Conference, he has produced crops that thrive on his 5,000-acre farm outside of Bismarck, N.D., even during droughts or flooding.
“He no longer needs to use nitrogen fertilizer or fungicide, he said, and he produces yields that are above the county average with less labor and lower costs. ‘Nature can heal if we give her the chance,’ Mr. Brown said.” More here.
Sounds like wisdom that even a backyard farmer could embrace.
Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times
“My goal is to improve my soil so I can grow a better crop so I can make more money,” [says Texas farmer Terry] McAlister, who farms 6,000 acres of drought-stricken cropland.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged agriculture, bismarck, Brandon Thibodeaux, conservation, disruptive technology, drought, environment, erica goode, farmer, farmland, fertilizer, fungicide, gabe brown, green manure, nature, north dakota, plough, postaday, soil, Southern Soil Health Conference, terry mcalister, texas, tilling | Leave a Comment »
May 10, 2015 by suzannesmom
Nineteen years ago, about 500 people, many of whom had lost loved ones to urban tragedy, marched for peace on Mothers Day in Boston.
Today there must have been thousands. After the pre-walk warm-up exercises and the children’s choir, the prayers from all the major faith communities, the announcements by media personalities and the words of encouragement from Mayor Walsh and the police commissioner, we set out at a snail’s pace, crowding onto a Dorchester street that was expecting us.
A lot of organizations had banners, and many marchers wore T-shirts that pictured a loved-one. The spirit was upbeat and celebratory of lives. Politicians handed out water bottles, churches provided bathrooms, photographers recorded the event for free. The temperature was in the 80s, so by the end of the 3.5 mile walk, we older folks were ready for a nap.
The funds from the various team and individual contributors go to the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a local nonprofit that bases its actions on the belief that “Peace is Possible.” I like that slogan and also their “Seven Principles of Peace”: love, unity, faith, hope, courage, justice, forgiveness.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boston, dorchester, Louis d Brown Peace Institute, march, mayor walsh, mother's day, postaday, social justice, walk for peace | 2 Comments »
May 9, 2015 by suzannesmom
Ajay Singh writes about the good work of a library in Haiti that manages to do everything libraries do … except hand out books.
“When Rebecca McDonald was helping rebuild Haiti in the aftermath of its 2010 earthquake, the former construction manager witnessed … noticed that children had little or no access to books. …
” ‘I asked myself how children were supposed to get any education without books, especially given that they’d catch up with their teachers really fast,” McDonald said. An avid reader herself, the 36-year-old often shopped for books online, which led to her epiphany about the medium.
“ ‘It hit me that Haiti’s kids could use digital books,’ she said. …
“In spring 2012, McDonald met Tanyella Evans, then the Scottish executive director of Artists for Peace and Justice in charge of building a school in Haiti. Evans, 27, immediately liked McDonald’s idea, and together they set out to achieve a lofty goal: Launch a cloud-based digital library that would make books accessible to 250 million schoolchildren in developing countries around the world.
“With $110,000 raised on Kickstarter in July 2013, the duo officially established their nonprofit, Library for All. By the end of that year—thanks to Open Educational Resources, free digital titles provided by major US publishers, and partnerships with local governments and NGOs to purchase electronic devices—Evans and McDonald started their pilot program at Respire Haiti, a K–12 school on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. …
“Today, Library for All uses an Android app for low-cost tablets, PCs, and feature phones to make available a selection of 1,200 cloud-based e-books in Haitian Creole, French, English, and Spanish; many of the students had never even seen books in their native language of Haitian Creole before.” More here.
The story comes from TakePart, by way of the Christian Science Monitor feature “People Making a Difference.”
Swoan Parker/Reuters/File
Students at Julie Siskind School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, identify alphabet letters on a wall.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ajay singh, Artists for Peace and Justice, haiti, julies siskind school, library, Library for All, no books, Open Educational Resources, port au prince, postaday, Rebecca McDonald, Respire Haiti, swoan parker, Tanyella Evans | Leave a Comment »
May 8, 2015 by suzannesmom
I had such a nice walk on the bike path before work this morning! The sense of it kept coming back to me during the day.
The flowering cherry photo is from that walk, as are the sculptures on flagpoles that I never noticed before. I am also sharing an amble down a Boston alley near the Oyster House, a cod racing an owl on the carousel, and two rabbits pursued by an owl, a butterfly, and some kind of sea serpent that can never catch up.
I have a new Greenway photo I’ll call Heat Rising: from every new angle, the Echelman sculpture surprises.
Finally, I can tell you that the wonderfully artsy pipe resting against my neighbor’s fence is now buried under the street.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carousel, echelman, greenway, oyster house, photo, photograoh, postaday, sculpture, walking | 10 Comments »
May 7, 2015 by suzannesmom
My husband is into all things Iceland and Frozen North, which led to his mentioning the other day that an island much farther north than Iceland was “where the seed bank is.”
“What seed bank?” said I, running to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia answered, “The Svalbard Global Seed Vault … is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen … 810 mi from the North Pole. Conservationist Cary Fowler, in association with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), started the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or ‘spare’ copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to insure against the loss of seeds in other gene banks during large-scale regional or global crises. …
“The Norwegian government entirely funded the vault’s approximately … $9 million construction. Storing seeds in the vault is free to end users, with Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust paying for operational costs. …
“Running the length of the facility’s roof and down the front face to the entryway is an illuminated work of art that marks the location of the vault from a distance. In Norway, government-funded construction projects exceeding a certain cost must include artwork. KORO, the Norwegian State agency overseeing art in public spaces, engaged the artist Dyveke Sanne to install lighting that highlights the importance and qualities of Arctic light. The roof and vault entrance are filled with highly reflective stainless steel, mirrors, and prisms. The installation reflects polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a network of 200 fibre-optic cables gives the piece a muted greenish-turquoise and white light.”
(You’ll forgive me for taking out all the hyperlinks for terms like “Norwegian,” “global crises,” “fibre-optic cables,” and “North Pole.” Wikipedia gets carries away with hyperlinks, but you can read the whole thing here.)
May 19, 2017 update: Uh-oh. The permafrost is melting and the safe house for seeds is starting to flood: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts.
Photo: NordGen/Dag Terje Filip Endresen
Entrance to Svalbard Global Seed Vault in 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, Cary Fowler, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Dyveke Sanne, frozen north, Global Crop Diversity Trust, illumination, koro, norwegian, postaday, seed bank, spitsbergen, Svalbard Global Seed Vault | Leave a Comment »
May 6, 2015 by suzannesmom
The Providence-based Capital Good Fund, which helps low-income folks get on their feet financially, has been testing an interesting fund-raising idea. Participating artists donate to the Capital Good Fund half the proceeds of a work that they sell through the fund’s platform. The art offerings change every few weeks. I include one example below, and there are more at https://squareup.com/market/cgfund. The selections feature a range of styles. Some works are representational, others impressionistic or abstract.
The organization’s website explains its mission: “Capital Good Fund is a nonprofit, certified Community Development Financial Institution that takes a holistic approach to fighting poverty. We offer small loans and one-on-one Financial & Health Coaching to hard-working families in America. Our mission is to provide equitable financial services that create pathways out of poverty.” More here and here.
The Rhode Island Foundation posts at its own blog about its latest partnership with the Capital Good Fund, an initiative designed to overcome the incentives that drive people to costly payday lenders. Read about that here.
Art: Carol C. Young
Barn on Robin Hill, 11″ x 11″ Giclée, limited edition signed print
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, borrower, capital good fund, carol c young, cgfund, community development, financial, foundation, institution, loan, low-income, nonprofit, payday lender, poor, rhode island, ri, robin hill | Leave a Comment »
May 5, 2015 by suzannesmom
I wrote about the early stages of the Playscape at the Ripley School three years ago, here. The idea of the playscape was to incorporate nature activities into a playground. An open house was held last Sunday, and I saw lots of children, parents, and grandparents checking it out.
Perhaps because it was early in the season, perhaps because an open house seems to call for planned activities, it was hard to see if there were enough attractions available for exploring nature on quieter days. Of course, I grew up on the edge of an orchard, a forest, and a mountain, and no one told us kids how to have fun there. Anything less in nature play seems sparse.
One thing I liked was not really an interaction with nature except that you had to walk through a field to engage. It was the story walk for Lynne Cherry’s picture book on a groundhog who learns to make his own garden rather than help himself to other people’s. The laminated page spreads on posts around the field were charming and had lots of useful details about plants and seeds.
A gardening friend on my commuter train was very glad to hear the groundhog learned to grow his own food and leave hers alone.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged concord, garden, groundhog, lynne cherry, nature, plants, playground, playscape, postaday, ripley school, seeds, story walk | Leave a Comment »
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