BRIC, the non-profit Brooklyn arts organization which produces Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT), has been doing a bi-monthly series called A Walk Around the Blog, interviews with Brooklyn bloggers talking about their neighborhoods. The latest edition features Anne Pope of Sustainable Flatbush talking about, what else, Flatbush and sustainability.
I make an appearance from 1:53 to 2:54 in the video. If you can’t see the embedded video above, or if you want to view it at a higher resolution, it’s also hosted on blip.tv.
Tonight’s Imagine Flatbush 2030 meeting will take place at 6:00 pm at the Brooklyn College Student Center, 6th Floor, at East 27th St. & Campus Road (ramp entrance near Amersfort Place).
This video, composed of images and footage from the second workshop, held at Brooklyn College back in December, provides some information on the process. If you’re curious about the man behind the blog, I make two very brief appearances, presenting issues raised in the group I was in. From 2:00-2:04, transportation is mentioned. And from 2:23-2:29, I report retail affordability as an issue: “We don’t want all of our local businesses to be replaced by chain stores.” And I think I recognize my voice as the voiceover from 3:02 to 3:13.
If you have not sent an RSVP and are interested in attending, please contact Sideya Sherman, at the Municipal Art Society (MAS) Planning Center, 212/935-3960 or via email at ssherman@mas.org.
Snacks and sandwiches will be served at tonight’s workshop.
Please be advised that there will be a supervised homework room provided for school aged children. If you need to bring a child, please contact us in advance.
… that I and my parents have lived long enough to become friends.
Parents, Front Porch, Woodfield Inn
… the home my partner and I create with each other.
The Front Porch
… friends, neighbors, and community.
The Backyard, House Opening Party, October 2005
Group Shot, Daffodil Planters, Cortelyou Road
… dogs.
Rascal, a neighbor’s dog
… abundance.
I leave you with something from my younger days, even, dare I say, from my youth. This is “Reasons to be Cheerful,” performed by Ian Dury and the Blockheads live at the Hammersmith Odeon, August 1979 (Audio only). See below for sing-along lyrics.
Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed Why don’t you get back into bed
Reasons to be cheerful part 3
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Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly Good golly Miss Molly and boats Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet Jump back in the alley and nanny goats
18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels All other mammals plus equal votes Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy Being rather silly, and porridge oats
A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it You’re welcome, we can spare it – yellow socks Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty Going on 40 – no electric shocks
The juice of the carrot, the smile of the parrot A little drop of claret – anything that rocks Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain’t spotty, Sitting on the potty – curing smallpox
Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3
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Reasons to be cheerful part 3
Health service glasses Gigolos and brasses round or skinny bottoms
Take your mum to paris lighting up the chalice wee willy harris
Bantu Stephen Biko, listening to Rico Harpo, Groucho, Chico
Cheddar cheese and pickle, the Vincent motorsickle Slap and tickle Woody Allen, Dali, Dimitri and Pasquale balabalabala and Volare
Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy Being in my nuddy Saying hokey-dokey, singalonga Smokey Coming out of chokey
John Coltrane’s soprano, Adi Celentano Bonar Colleano
Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3
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Yes yes dear dear perhaps next year or maybe even never
in which case
Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3
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Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3 Reasons to be cheerful part 3
UPDATE 2007.05.23: BCAT has the clips available on their Web site! It’s Reporter RoundtableEpisode #183. The format is WMV (Windows Media Player) and runs 27:54. The video montage from the Blogfest begins at 08:50. I make my appearance at 10:44, in the first interview.
I’m watching the Reporter RoundTable interview with Lumi Michelle Rolley/No Land Grab, Jonathan Butler/Brownstoner and Louise Crawford/OTBKB/Smartmom. They ran a brief segment of footage from the BlogFest. There I was! Larger than life, if that’s possible.
The video’s not available online yet. I’ll update this and the Blogfest Coverage post when it is.
I sure sound funny. And I have a face for radio.
Oh, and I watched through to the end. Louise Crawford mentioned that the first “Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow” will be June 24 at Vox Pop. She also announced it earlier this week. I’m helping to coordinate that event, so watch this blog for details and RSVP info as we move further along.
On Friday in Paris, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first volume, “The Physical Basis of Climate Change,” of their Fourth Assessment Report, “Climate Change 2007.” The Summary for Policymakers (aka SPM, available in PDF only) presents the synopsis of the findings. Other sections of the full report will be released later this year.
I’ve been reading the reactions and responses – angry, depressed, pessimistic, or nihilistic – to this report from my favorite garden and nature bloggers.
We are experiencing, and witnessing, grieving on a global scale. We are grieving for the world. And the world is grieving.
I’ve been processing my own feelings about all of this, and trying to formulate my own response. For now, I don’t want to respond directly to the IPCC report, nor others’ reactions to it. Here’s all I want to share right now.
[Updated 2007.02.23: Added link to the issue of Plants & Gardens News (PDF, requires membership login) which mentioned Shiota’s death in the U.S. internment camps.]
A video sparked a connection for me among three seemingly unrelated topics: a Japanese Garden built over 90 years ago, World War II, and the Department of Homeland Security.
This is a view from the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I took this photo last year, November 5, 2005. BBG has this to say about this garden on their Web site:
It is considered to be the masterpiece of its creator, Japanese landscape designer Takeo Shiota (1881-1943). Shiota was born in a small village about 40 miles from Tokyo, and in his youth spent years traversing Japan on foot to explore the natural landscape. In 1907 he came to America, driven by an ambition to create, in his words, “a garden more beautiful than all others in the world.” – Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Note the year of Shiota’s death, 1943. I learned recently, from a review of the book Defiant Gardens in the Fall 2006/Winter 2007 issue of BBG’s Plants & Gardens News (PDF, requires membership login), that Shiota died in a United States internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.
It has happened here before. It can happen again. And our government has plans to do so.
The Pearl Harbor attack intensified hostility towards Japanese Americans. As wartime hysteria mounted, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 causing over 120,000 West Coast persons of Japanese ancestry (Nikkei) to leave their homes, jobs, and lives behind to move to one of ten Relocation Camps.
The largest, so far. I am painfully aware of the parallels between Pearl Harbor and September 11. As bad as the hysteria has been, it can get worse.
On January 24 of this year, the Department of Homeland Security awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) a $385M contract [my emphasis added]:
The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.
The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. – Halliburton Press Release: KBR AWARDED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CONTINGENCY SUPPORT PROJECT FOR EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES
This has been widely reported in the press, including the New York Times. Peter Dale Scott wrote an extensive analysis for Pacific News Service.
I can add little, except to relate these current historical events to the atrocity committed against a single person over 60 years ago, and share my feelings about all of this. Takeo Shiota was responsible for one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, one which I and millions of others have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy. I will never again be able to visit that garden without wondering about him and his life, and thinking of how my government killed him. It is the least I can do.
Video: Crosby & Nash, “Immigration Man”
I haven’t thought of this song in many years, decades maybe. It was always one of my favorites, hauntingly beautiful vocals and chord progressions.
I don’t know who’s responsible for assembling the images into the video, but it’s an effective piece of work. This is what reminded me of the Halliburton contract, and led me to post this.
Additional Links:
Kenneth Helphand, author of “Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime”
