In the Greenway area where Occupy Boston camped last fall, there is now a demonstration garden. It includes raised beds of edible plants, a rain garden to capture run-off, and examples of urban composting. It’s a teaching garden.
Also in Dewey Square are food trucks, such as this Bon Me truck, which offers great Vietnamese lunches.
Around the block, in Fort Point Channel, the first of two Boston Tea Party Ships has arrived and has docked next to the new Boston Tea Party Museum.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bon me, boston, boston tea psrty, composting, demonstration garden, dewey square, edible palts, food truck, greenway, occupy boston, raised beds, rose kennedy, ship | Leave a Comment »
I know that if you find the exact right picture to capture something, it is worth a thousand words. But sometimes the right word is worth a thousand pictures. Not that I can think of an example.
A better photographer than I probably could have captured what I wanted to convey by taking a few pictures on my walk: how wonderful it is to have spring after winter, sunshine after rain, and a pleasant walk after the routine medical procedure we all love to hate.
How good everything smells, how many new bird calls, how the leaf shadows are moving. How many people are smiling.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dogwood, exercise, flowering trees, taking walks | 2 Comments »
I got an intriguing tip from a WordPress blog, The Yoga Hub, about Yale students who found a microbe that eats plastic. The discovery spells hope for breaking down plastics in landfills.
Bruce Fellman writes in the Yale Alumni Magazine, “A group of student bioprospectors from Yale has struck environmental gold in the jungles of Ecuador. The students, through the annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course taught by molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel, have discovered a fungus with a powerful appetite for polyurethane. That common plastic often winds up buried in landfills, where it can remain, largely unaltered, for generations.
“In the September issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Jonathan Russell ’11 and his colleagues describe how they isolated, from plants collected during the class’s two-week spring trips, a fungus they identified as Pestalotiopsis microspora—and then discovered its unique polyurethane-digesting talents.” More here.
Sounds promising, but I can’t help worrying about the possible unintended consequences of introducing a microbe to places where it is not native. Maybe cutting back on plastics is still the way to go.
Photograph: Yale University
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bioprospector, bruce fellman, ecology, ecuador, environment, fungus, jonathan russell, landfill, microbe, polyurethane, scott strobel, sustainability, the yoga hub, yale | Leave a Comment »
As readers know, I really believe that “one and one and 50 make a million” (a concept articulated by folksinger Pete Seeger). That’s why I can’t resist a recent story from Moscow, where a few writers decided to have a “stroll,” and 10,000 individuals individually decided to follow.
Ellen Barry writes in the NY Times: “It was only four days ago when 12 prominent authors, disturbed by the crackdown on dissent that accompanied President Vladimir V. Putin’s inauguration, announced an experiment. They called it a ‘test stroll’ …
“No one knew quite what to expect on Sunday. But when the 12 writers left Pushkin Square at lunchtime, they were trailed by a crowd that swelled to an estimated 10,000 people, stopping traffic and filling boulevards for 1.2 miles. … The police did not interfere, although the organizers had not received a permit to march.
“ ‘We see by the number of people that literature still has authority in our society because no one called these people — they came themselves,’ said Lev Rubinstein, 65, a poet and one of the organizers. ‘We thought this would be a modest stroll of several literary colleagues, and this is what happened. You can see it yourself. … I don’t know how this will all end, but I can say that no one will forget it.’ ” Read more.
I can’t help thinking that one and one and 50 have been growing for a long time in Russia and that the 10,000 who joined the march are just the tip of he iceberg.
Photograph: Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged crackdown, dissent, dmitry kostyukov, ellen barry, folksinger, freedom of the press, literature, march, moscow, one and one and 50 make a million, peaceful, pete seeger, poet, russia, writer | 2 Comments »
At the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, a group of children are learning the joy of theater.
Tammy La Gorce writes in the NY Times that the playhouse now has a class for children with disabilities.
“The class is a logical next step for Paper Mill, which last year began offering a series of sensory-friendly presentations for children with autism in its ‘Theater for Everyone’ programming. Sensory-friendly shows are scripted to be more literal, with innuendo kept to a minimum, and the theater’s lighting and volume are adjusted to help audience members feel more comfortable.
“This year, in a partnership with VSA New Jersey, a nonprofit organization that provides arts programming for children and adults with disabilities, Paper Mill joined the ranks of theaters welcoming such children who have an interest in learning to perform.
“Parents of children with developmental disabilities ‘are seeing the benefits of arts education,’ said Lisa Cooney, 46, director of education for Paper Mill. ‘And they’re a lot more proactive than they used to be.’
“Those who run the programs find them rewarding as well. The children ‘give so much to us,’ said Mickey McNany, the director of Paper Mill’s Theater School, after the recent class. In it, her 10-year-old granddaughter, Mary McNany, who has Down syndrome, identified Mozart as the composer of ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik,’ performed an improvised roller-skating scene and used sign language, as well as her voice, to sing a song.” Read more.
Below, Marnie McNany takes part with her children Finn and Mary.
Photograph: Aaron Houston for the New York Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aaron houston, abiyoyo, children, disabilities, drama, millburn, paper mill playhouse, pete seeger, play, stage, tammy la gorse, theater, theatre | 2 Comments »
I’m looking forward to the farmers market season, and I’m not the only one. More and more consumers are demanding really fresh food. Fortunately, farmers are increasingly creative about getting that fresh food to consumers.
Now farmers markets are going online. I learned about this via the Christian Science Monitor, which points to an article by Katherine Gustafson for YES! magazine.
Gustafson writes that small producers are using the Internet more.
“Smart use of the Web,” she writes, “can shift the focus of food retail away from industrial suppliers and toward those in the position to offer on-demand delivery of the freshest food around. …
“One example I found particularly inspiring was the Farmers Fresh Market program run by the Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center in Rutherfordton, N.C.
“The organization created a proprietary online system to allow individuals and businesses in nearby cities to order fresh produce from growers local to Rutherfordton. In many cases, the growers pick the food the same day the buyers receive it.”
What’s not to love? Read more.
Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/file
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged agriculture, farm, farmer, farmers market, food desert, fresh food, Katherine Gustafson, online | Leave a Comment »
A friend is helping to build a playscape, a playground for all ages and abilities that takes advantage of the natural environment‘s restorative qualities.
My husband and I went to see where the playscape is emerging with a boost from the state’s Community Preservation Act. It is located over by Gowing’s Swamp, a lovely wooded area with native plants once cataloged by Thoreau. We walked on a hilly woodland path around the swamp and took note of Canada Mayflowers like tiny bottle brushes and a starlike white flower with six long, narrow leaves growing out from the stem at the same height. (If I’d had my camera, I’d have uploaded a picture at MisterSmartyPlants.com.)
The Sudbury Valley Trustees oversee Gowing’s Swamp, and have this to say about it:
“Gowing’s Swamp, named by Thoreau for its landowner in the mid-1850’s, is an 8.9 acre acidic wetland complex located in a protected, glaciated hollow on the eastern side of a glacial kame known as Revolutionary Ridge. A kettlehole bog, at the southern end of the wetland, contains specialized plant communities that are locally rare in Southern New England. The natural area provides habitat for a diverse range of wildlife.
” ‘Unlike any other bog in New England, Gowing’s Swamp found its way into American literature by virtue of significant passages in Thoreau’s Journal,’ says botanist Ray Angelo, and has been visited and studied regularly over the last 160 years by Concord naturalists, literary and historical scholars, and has been the subject of ongoing scientific studies.” More here.
Photograph of Gowing’s Swamp: Sudbury Valley Trustees
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged access, bog, community preservation act, concord children's center, conservation, cpa, ecology, environment, glacial, gowing's swap, invasive species, kame, kettlehole, may flower, mister smarty plants, native species, nature, playscape, Sudbury Valley Trustees, swamp | 2 Comments »
I learned about an unusual artist today because I was following @FortPointArts on twitter. Her name is Heidi Kayser, and just when I no longer have an office with a view of Fort Point Channel, she has launched an art project on the water. Sigh.
Anyway, I went to her website and poked around. This blog entry from 2011 is a typically amusing one, and I think one of my readers may want to try the experiment:
“Sarah Rushford arrived today and we got right to work … The mission, as we chose to accept it, was to construct some sort of wearable platforms to hold the cameras on the back of my legs. Wonderful engineers that we are, Sarah and I ingeniously came up with [contraptions] made of CD cases, zip ties, rubber bands, twine and alligator clips. …
“Sarah filmed me tramping across the beach. I filmed my ankles tramping across the beach. It was very surprisingly difficult to walk wearing the cameras — I couldn’t extend my knees very much, so finding balance in soft sand proved challenging but oddly meditative. My attention had to be focused on every step, otherwise I’d fall and damage the cameras.
“When we were nearly finished, the curious beach-goers who had been pretending to ignore me as I walked steadily and weirdly by them, came up to us and asked what we were doing.” Read more.
Photograph: Sarah Rushford
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, artist, boston, camera, experimental, fort point arts, fort point channel, heidi kayser, innovator, mass college of art, media, multimedia, photography, sarah rushford, smith college | 2 Comments »
Pamela Boykoff at CNN has a nice story about a ballet school in the Philippines and the hope it offers children from very poor families.
“Jessa Balote is 14-years-old and training to be a professional ballerina in Manila,” writes Boykoff.
“It is a task that takes enormous amounts of dedication for even the most determined of young women, but Balote’s challenge is nothing compared to life outside the dance studio where she has to support her entire family.
” ‘I’m the only one they expect to bring the family out of poverty,’ she says.
“Balote is one of 54 students enrolled in ‘Project Ballet Futures,’ a program run by Ballet Manila to provide free ballet training to children from some of the city’s most deprived neighborhoods.
“Balote lives in Tondo, a slum built next to a major waste dump in Manila. Her parents make what little money they have by selling trash. If Balote was not involved in the dance program, she says she wouldn’t be able to eat everyday.
” ‘They want to earn money to be able to survive,’ says Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, founder of the program and the Philippines’ first prima ballerina. She believes in her students, personally paying for their lessons and uniforms.
“Macuja-Elizalde’s goal is to help these children become professional members of the company with incomes to match. They are among her most focused students, she says, not afraid to work hard and to push themselves and their bodies.”
Photograph: CNN
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged arts, ballerina, ballet, cnn, good works, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, manila, opportunity, Pamela Boykoff, philippines, poor, poverty | Leave a Comment »
Gareth Harris of the Financial Times writes that foundations set up by successful artists or their estates are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the art world.
“ ‘Artist-endowed foundations are the sleeping giants of philanthropy,’ says András Szántó, a New York-based analyst and cultural consultant. Indeed, these charitable foundations, endowed by an artist with assets (archives, property and art among them) used for the public good, are quietly but dramatically changing the US art landscape through their grant-making programmes, scholarship, research activities and contributions to museum collections. …
“The greatest challenge, for a start-up private operating foundation, [according to Christy MacLear, the Rauschenberg Foundation’s executive director], is making the transition from an unregulated art industry player to a highly regulated non-profit entity.
“Such sticky issues aside,” Harris continues, “artists’ foundations could, one day, match or even top government funding for the visual arts in America.
“Szántó stresses that their full impact is yet to be felt. ‘With an unprecedented cohort of well-to-do painters and sculptors among the older generation,’ he says, ‘the golden age of artist foundations may yet be ahead.'”
The Andy Warhol Foundation’s Joel “Wachs, meanwhile, is evangelical, declaring: ‘Successful artists have a unique opportunity to support those artists that come after them.’ ”
Read more in the Financial Times.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged András Szántó, art, artist, calder, Christy MacLear, endowment, foundation, gareth harris, joel wachs, miro, rauschenberg, warhol | Leave a Comment »
I remember trying some years ago to persuade a certain lobster fisherman I know that fiction has value. A recent Boston Sunday Globe article has left me feeling validated.
Washington & Jefferson College’s Jonathan Gottschall writes, “Fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape. But perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds.”
Read more here.
As Dickens said in Hard Times, it’s important to make room for Queen Mab among all the hard facts.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged books, fiction, Jonathan Gottschall, libraries, literature, nonfiction, storytelling, Washington & Jefferson College | 4 Comments »
Here’s another nice lead from the Christian Science Monitor, which highlights a cool story by Rachel Signer of Dowser.org (a media organization that reports on social innovation).
The article is about Ethikus, which “provides vouchers for small businesses whose practices embody principles of sustainability.”
Writes Signer, “From May 3-10, hundreds of New Yorkers will participate in the first Shop Your Values Week, a project of the New York City-based startup Ethikus. The aim of Ethikus is to generate more business for small enterprises whose practices embody certain principles of sustainability in the realms of product-sourcing, employee relations, community engagement, and environmental impact or mitigation efforts. By looking at those four criteria, Ethikus identifies businesses they want to invite into their network, which functions as a sort of ethics-focused Groupon by providing consumers with vouchers to use in those businesses.” Read more.
Even though small businesses have all they can do to keep their heads above water right now, I think this idea has legs. Should be a great way for those already incorporating the Ethikus ideals to get visibility with the customers they want to reach. I’m spreading the word.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birthstone, dowser.org, entrepreneur, ethikus, groupon, jewelry, lunandstella, rachel signer, shop your values, startup, sustainability | Leave a Comment »
Connecticut seems to be doing quite a lot for entrepreneurs — even rather young ones. So thanks to an annual competition for young inventors in the state, Mallory Kievman is getting her hiccup-suppressing lollipop patented and marketed by experts.
Writing for the NY Times, Jessica Bruder quotes one of Mallory’s benefactors.
“ ‘It’s very rare, when you’re evaluating businesses, that you can envision a company or product being around 100 years from now,’ said Danny Briere, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Startup Connecticut, which nurtures new companies, including Hiccupops, and is a regional affiliate of the Startup America Partnership. ‘Hiccupops is one of those things. It solves a very simple, basic need.’
“Mallory met Mr. Briere last spring at the Connecticut Invention Convention, an annual competition for kids. ‘I went there, and I knew it would either be a hit or a miss project,’ she said. ‘People would either like it, or they would think I was crazy.’ ” Read more.
I love reading about simple but valuable solutions to everyday challenges. Think paper clip. Think Post-it note. It takes a special kind of imagination. Nowadays, given the valuation of apps, you would think solving everyday challenges was too uncool for the inventive mind. But Hiccupops will likely bring Mallory checks in the mail long after Instagram is forgotten.
Photograph: Andrew Sullivan for the NY Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged andrew sullivan, connecticut, Danny Briere, entrepreneur, hiccupop, innovation, invention, inventor, jessica bruder, Mallory Kievman, small business, startup | Leave a Comment »
The Christian Science Monitor has a regular feature on people doing good works.
Here Jennifer C. Kerr writes that some baby boomers are solving the problems facing their communities by becoming volunteers. But, she says, more are needed.
“Local charities and nonprofits are looking for a few good baby boomers – well, lots of them, actually – to roll up their sleeves to help local schools, soup kitchens, and others in need.
“Boomers are attractive volunteers, and it’s not just the sheer strength of their numbers – 77 million. They are living longer. They are more educated than previous generations. And, especially appealing: They bring well-honed skills and years of real-world work and life experience.
” ‘This generation, this cohort of Americans, is the healthiest, best-educated generation of Americans across this traditional age of retirement,’ says Dr. Erwin Tan, who heads the Senior Corps program at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency in Washington. ‘The question for us is how can we as a country not afford to mobilize this huge source of human capital to meet the vital needs of our communities.’ ” Lots more to read.
Photographer: Erik
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby boom, boomer, charity, Christian Science Monitor, cncs, corporationn for national and community service, Erwin Tan, good works, jennifer kerr, nonprofit, senior corps, volunteer | 8 Comments »
As long as health insurance is out of reach for so many, creative approaches to coverage are likely to keep sprouting up.
I knew a doctor 30 years ago who took care of elderly single people for life — and inherited their houses. He ended up with a lot of houses.
More recently, CBSNewYork/AP reported that “a new program lets uninsured New York City artists exchange their art for medical services.
“Tony-Award winning actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and rapper and radio personality Roxanne Shante helped launch the ‘Lincoln Art Exchange’ at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx” early this year.
“Under the program, artists will earn ‘health credits’ for every creative service they perform. In exchange they’ll be able to obtain doctor’s visits, laboratory tests, hospitalization, emergency care, dental care and prescriptions at Lincoln.” Read more at CBS Local.
I would be interested in other unusual examples of how people are accessing care today.
Photograph: nyc.gov
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, artist, barter, bronx, doctor, exchange, health care, insurance, lincoln hospital, medical care | 2 Comments »
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