What’s goin’ on

Here’s a bit of a minor update since I haven’t written anything in a while.

So it’s June, apparently… these first couple of weeks flew by. My friend Jen left yesterday to return to New Jersey. I think it’s safe to say she had a good time. Although I guess I was being overly hopeful when I thought her visit might make her want to live here… hah! Ecovillages are not for everyone, but it’s not impossible to appreciate community living, either, yah?

In less than a month, my work exchanging with Ironweed and Bobolink ends. That means I won’t be doing natural building on the kitchen or work in the garden as regularly, but I am definitely still going to help them out. I’m hoping to have more time to check out what other folks have been up to, as well.

Recently, I have been in talks with people about starting a Dancing Rabbit video blog. So expect something soon-ish. I am going to sit down within the next couple of days to do some thinking about production. A lot of work lies ahead…

On Friday, there is a Critical Mass bike ride in Kirksville which I’ll be going to. Unfortunately, I must admit that we are driving there (laame), but at least we have something of an excuse… we need to drop off recyclables and pick up honey while we are there. I have much respect for two residents who live here, both Rory and Amanda, who are biking to Kirksville. It’s a 35 mile ride. But yea… I’m not sure if I’m up for that kind of ride just yet. Although I like to think I could do it… I’ve been feeling much more in shape lately.

I suppose that’s it for now. Things are good.

Oh, and just because… here’s an art project worth looking at: Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait: This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.