Daily Archives: August 25, 2017

Sound Transit's Pioneer Square Station (2015) Credit: Brook Ward

Four decades living in Seattle have made this city home that, even though I was born elsewhere, I can surely claim it as my own. I can even lay claim to a family history in the Northwest that extends back to the 1890s when my great-grandparents helped establish a commune in the Skagit Valley that went by the name of Equality Colony. They and their friends and families created what we might call today a self-sufficient, intentional community; perhaps my life-long interest in communities actually had genetic roots.

My wife is one of those increasingly rare people who was actually born here. As I write this, however, it is less than 72 hours until our flight takes off for Rome and retirement in a small Italian town, a plan that has been four years in the making.

Yet, over almost exactly 40 years, I adopted Seattle as my community and stayed with it through lots of ups and downs. During that time, Ive written for a number of local publications, including The Seattle Times and, for somefive years, Crosscut. David Brewster, Crosscuts founder, gave me a boost into part-time writing years ago with the Seattle Weekly back when it was the citys bold experiment in journalism. So, I have some parting thoughts about the city.

Seattle is a great city in spite of itself. We often get in our own way, taking steps forward then retrenching. The Seattle Commons and the Monorail debacles are prime examples.

On the other hand, the region has been transformed by big bond issues that were approved by voters, some of which have been largely forgotten as the changes they brought are almost taken for granted. From Forward Thrust in the 1960s to the Pike Place Market, Farmlands Preservation, Sound Transit and repeated Seattle parks and housing levies, we have collectively constructed the framework that many other cities failed to develop.

The private sector played its own striking role. Boeing changed how we travel. Microsoft changed how we work. And Amazon changed how we shop. All were homegrown businesses that started small, literally in garages, and expanded into companies with global impact.

When I first arrived here, Seattle was still pretty much a lackluster, bush-league provincial city, seemingly at the edge of the continental frontier. So little was known about the place that, as I recall, Time Magazine once datelined an article with Seattle, Oregon.

I think we are on the map now.

What I personally found here was a place that honored individual initiative. One could champion a project and have a lot of help from others. Architect Victor Steinbrueck, who I once had the pleasure of working with, organized a grassroots citizens initiative to save Pike Place Market from a planned demolition. Jim Ellis led the cleaning up of the bay, the formation of Metro and the preservation of vast forest lands. Currently, Gene Duvernoy is one of the successors to this great legacy of activism, with the irrepressible and effective organization Forterra. All are examples of the Power of One.

Just as effective are the many non-profit housing developers who have built many thousands of places to live for low and moderate income people including El Centro de la Raza to CHHP to Bellwether. And, of course, a multitude of arts organizations large and small have added the passion, creativity, and advocacy to make this urban region what it is. Finally, Seattle and its surrounding cities are becoming a rich stew pot of races, ethnicities, cultures, and languages that did not exist only a few decades ago.

So with these great legacies and social and cultural bones, what might be in store for Seattle over the next, say 10 to 15 years?

We already know that we will see a central waterfront transformed into an elegant and accessible esplanade connecting the beloved Market to the shoreline. In this massive change, I hope there will still be a place for the scores of squid giggers who now line the edge of Piers 62/63 with their eerie lights and flashing poles. We also have to ensure locations for small, homegrown enterprises whether shops, cafes, services or sources of food.

We will see a sea change in how people travel once the Sound Transit 3 work is completed. Already, we have seen shifts to commuter rail and light rail and, in recent weeks, the very promising free-ranging bike share system. The geography of this region constrains an expansion of the highway system thankfully. The area, in all likelihood, will see the repurposing of some roads and streets into shared public spaces, with a severe limitation on the use of private vehicles.

The Seattle region will, without doubt, see another huge disruption of the economy, likely within three years. The nation and the region are already overdue for a recession. But I believe there will also be a life-altering discovery or development here that will affect millions of people very likely in the intersection of life sciences with computer technology. This will add to Seattles cachet as a progressive, global urban center.

The Citys housing stock will change, as politically painful as that will be. Large sections of the city that are now exclusively detached houses will be replaced with attached homes, alley houses and cottages. More towers will be built in and around the city center, which will extend from the Ship Canal to Safeco Field.

Lots of folks will find these changes uncomfortable or less affordable and they will likely leave, as it has been the case throughout the history of cities. They will be rapidly replaced by new people eager to find opportunity here.

And, somewhat fatalistically, I do have to think there will be one great, tragic disaster perhaps human-caused but more likely a natural one. The area is, after all, due for an earthquake. The city will recover. But it will be significantly altered, just as the great fire of 1889 resulted in a massive reinvention of Seattle.

But hey, you dont have to take my word for any of it. Im outta here.

Excerpt from:

Seattle: the city of never-ending change - Crosscut

The Daily Guide has been looking for fascinating people in our community to talk to, learn about, and tell their stories. The McGinnity family is about as fascinating as people get, especially with their latest project of creating a tiny home.

Raven McGinnity, a traveling herbalist and mother of four, contacted the Daily Guide with news about her and her familys recent renovation plans. Married duo Oaken and Raven McGinnity are turning a school bus into a tiny home according to Raven.

The soon-to-be tiny home is a work-in-progress. According to Raven, we started the project in March and it is almost complete (the wood stove won't be added until September). We travel to speak on local plant medicine, plant medicine making, minimalism with children, and renovating a skoolie. The McGinnitys nicknamed the school bus Viggo.

We plan on traveling a lot for our business, Raven & Oak, because we teach workshops and speak at festivals, Raven said.

It started as the place we were going to live when we visited Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in northern Missouri, according to R. McGinnity. We are interested in Intentional Communities and this program gives us a chance to see and learn about one that has been around for 20 years. Then as we thought about it, what better way to teach our children than on the road where they can see the places we talk about, meet such a diverse population, and enjoy the years they are little while we can.

Raven said, on the couples website, I am an herbalist, medicine woman, and doula. I make and sell remedies and blog about herbal medicine, natural living, minimalism, and life as a hippie.

I am a tree hugger, Oaken said on their website. I believe people can take back their overall health through the healing properties of plants and fungi; and their vitality by learning and utilizing sustainable traditional skills inside and out. I teach classes on traditional folk skills.

It definitely would be considered a tiny home, Raven said, with the caveat of no shower (camp shower only but plan on using campgrounds). The skoolie is mobile already. We have a sink, kitchen cabinets, composting toilet, beds for 6 (4 twins and a queen) plus ample storage. We are upgrading a few things this month to have a fridge as well.

Raven said she feels the best way to teach her kids is driving a school bus across the country. She said, In November, we drive up to Florida for a tiny house festival to give tours on all the same things [workshops on plant medicine, tours through Viggo] all over again. We get to do this work promoting our business a little bit, but, also, because I only drive 3 hours at a time in a school bus, we now get to see all the little parts of the country that we never would have seen if we were in a car. When youre in a car, youre like, Lets just get there! I dont want to stay in this car any longer than I have to. But in a skoolie you get to go slower anyway, youre just like, Well take our time to get down there. What better way to learn U.S. history and geography than driving?

Go here to read the rest:

Pulaski County's most fascinating people: Family of six renovates school bus into tiny home - Waynesville Daily Guide

TISKILWA Plow Creek Fellowship, an intentional Christian community established in 1971, a mile southeast of Tiskilwa, is announcing the close of its operations at the end of 2017. At its peak, the community had up to 100 participants in worship and common meals.

Plow Creek Fellowship has been widely known for its u-pick strawberries and its sales of garden-fresh produce at area farmers markets.

Plow Creek Fellowship members shared in a common treasury. It was closely affiliated with Plow Creek Mennonite Church, a member of the Mennonite Church USA. The fellowship was guided by a commitment to share life, needs and resources, according to the teachings of Jesus and the practice of the early church as told in Acts 2-4.

Peace-making and solidarity with refugees gained the community both respect and criticism. Over the years, many weary city-dwellers took retreats at Plow Creek, appreciating the natural beauty of its woodland trails, starry nights, campfires and good potluck food. Plow Creek Fellowship was the site of several summer camp meetings for Shalom Mission Communities of which Plow Creek Fellowship was a member. One camp meeting in 2008 hosted a music festival with inspiring teachings for more than 700 campers.

One of Plow Creek Fellowships most well-known members was writer and pastor, Rich Foss, who for a decade, wrote a weekly column in the Bureau Valley Chief until his death in January 2017. Richs passing, plus the deaths of David Gale and Jim Harnish in late 2016, left only a dozen members who concluded it was time to close up community operations and pass the property on to another non-profit ministry. This turned out to be Hungry World Farm, an offshoot of Willow Springs Mennonite Church.

Hungry World Farm is a new organization applying for not-for-profit status. It will receive the Plow Creek Farm and transition it into a new ministry utilizing the facilities and farmland.

The idea of Hungry World Farm began through local conversations and a review of other farm-based ministries that teach about growing and consuming healthy food. Dennis Zehr of Coneflower Farm, Tiskilwa, and Calvin Zehr, pastor of Willow Springs Mennonite Church, Tiskilwa, created a proposal which Plow Creek Fellowship accepted.

Hungry World Farm will focus on the following activities: Educating people about food production, distribution, and consumption; addressing spiritual hunger in peoples lives; training local and international interns in farming techniques; and providing retreats for holistic growth and health. The transition will officially take place at the end of 2017. If you would like to explore ways to partner in this new organization, or for more information, contact Cal Zehr, 815-646-4819, hungryworldfarm@gmail.com.

Here is the original post:

Plow Creek Fellowship to close - Bureau County Republican

[Editors note: This is the first in a Q&A series conceived and named by Rodney Blu, creator of AlreadyDTX.Hell sit down with a visiting artist of note long enough for them to drink two beers. We have David Redmon and Ashley Sabin of Carnivalesque Films to thank for this pilot, as David happened to be following Harris around for a forthcoming documentary on Sunday and offered us the footage.]

New York City writer and filmmaker Brandon Harris removes the political correctness, the new artisanal cupcake shop, and the glitz and glamour from the g-word gentrification in his new memoir Making Rent In Bed-Stuy: A Memoir Of Trying To Make It In New York City. Of course, images from Spike Lees Do the Right Thing move right alongside Harris story, and he introduced a screening at the Texas Theatre on Sunday. The landmark buildings in the center of a reimagining by developers thats sent home prices soaring.

I noticed Harris walk out of the theatre soon after the film started and followed him to the bar.

[Do The Right Thing] is, I think, more meaningful today than it was when it was made, Harris said. Were coming to a crisis point concerning the ways in which the police treat African-American men, the way in which African-American communities can or cannot grow depending on the desires of others who are from outside of those communities to control them economically, socially, and politically.

Your book tour has landed in the gentrification capitol of Dallas, pretty much, I offered.

Thats intentional, brother. That was intentional, man, and trust me, I adore this cinema, I adore the men that run it. I think they have nothing but good intentions, Harris said. Obviously its restoration and the type of individuals that normally come here are a harbinger of, in our current climate, in our current societal groundwork or framework, the harbinger of a change that will push people out of this neighborhood, that have called it home or made it their home.

Where is each of our culpability, and how do we change that? I think a lot of people are looking for answers to those questions. Certainly we can say that from the state, help has not been coming. One in four Americans that qualify for housing assistance get it. The majority of housing subsidies in this country go to people who make over $100,000 a year, through tax incentives and tax purposes and the benefits of home ownership in general.

Our hourlong conversation grew from that question Buggin Out asks Sal about the Wall of Fame in his pizza shop: Why are there no brothers on the wall? You can watch an excerpt of our talk in the video below.

Later, we looked on the Texas Theatres own Wall of Fame, and Harris had a lot to say about the different ways Black filmmakers make their mark.

Blu: As a culture, you know, we are concerned with creating things that hopefully open the eyes of those who are either intentionally or unintentionally a part of the system of oppression, we create things that hopefully have meaning and move someone to change as opposed to creating capital we want to inspire change in the hearts and minds of people

Harris: Have you read any Ishmael Reed? Do you know who he is?

Blu: No.

Harris: I think hes like the greatest black avant-garde novelist of his generation. Mumbo Jumbo is his most well known book, nominated for a National Book Award. Hes a guy who always fought against the cultural nationalists, who felt like they had to make art that was like, woke, or somehow important, somehow meaningful. Ive sympathized with that. I dont, as an artist who identifies as African-American, feel like I have to indulge in any sort of work thats like, trying to change anybody. I just want to make stuff thats meaningful to me, and to people who both identify as black and not, and naturally that work will speak to my experience

Blu: And our shared experience

Harris: I mean, look at Lemon over there. Motions to movie poster. I dont know if you know about that sister [Janicza Bravo], or her work. But its just a remarkable film, thats about, you know, that dude, that Jewish dude whos a bad guy thats not a film that if you looked at Janicza youd think, oh, shed make that movie. Looking at this wall over here. Motions to Wall of Fame, scans the photographs. Id want to make movies like Melvin [Van Peebles]. Thats a great picture of Melvin.

I once interviewed him and he was wearing white jeans and pink suspenders with no shirt smoking a cigar in his home. He has this paper mache hot dog in his living room, which is like massive, that Mario, his son, made when he was in high school. Hes got, like, the ass-end of a VW van and it opens and inside is a bed. It, like, juts into the wall.

Hes 80 years old, too, and hes got this massive apartment near Lincoln Center thats all paid for by Wall Street speculation money. People dont know this but he was one of the first black traders in the early 80s on the New York Stock Exchange while he was a film director he has this fascinating career, you know. He made movies in France because he couldnt make movies in the United states, no one would finance the movies in the United States, right.

So he made these shorts, and Amos Vogel, who [co-]founded the New York Film Festival, took Melvin to a festival in France, and then Melvin just stayed there. He just moved to France and stayed there for five years. These are, like, the prime years of the Civil Rights movement, mid-sixties, Melvin was in France. And he realized he could get financing from the state for movies if he just wrote French novels. So he wrote for like these French comedic magazines. He taught himself French, became a writer, published five novels in France, and if you published a certain amount of novels, you could get a card.

You had to get a card in the French system. The New Wave people were often working against that, they thought, like, the whole system of French filmmaking was too credentialist. And so Melvin got the card that also enabled him to get state financing for his movies by writing books. And then he made his first feature, The Story of a Three-Day Pass, which is the story of this black GI and his affairs with this white woman over a weekend, and how the U.S. military looks down on this, and what have you. Its a good movie, it might actually be his best movie.

By the time he got back to the states, there was this expectation that he should make black movies why should you feel obliged to make [blaxploitation precursor]Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Songand not The Story of a Three-Day Pass?I would hope to have the freedom as a filmmaker and would hope filmmakers of my generation would feel the freedom to engage in any number of stories.

Link:

Two Brews With Rodney Blu: Brandon Harris On Spike Lee And 'Making Rent' - D Magazine

News Release 17-082

A deeper, more intentional approach to accelerating discovery

August 24, 2017

Throughout its history, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has focused on addressing grand challenges within science and engineering. These challenges represent our greatest opportunity to strengthen the nation through scientific discovery, and meeting them will require sustained and deep collaborations across scientific disciplines.

Through its Growing Convergent Research at NSF portfolio, the foundation seeks to highlight the value of Convergence, the deep integration of multiple disciplines in order to advance scientific discovery and innovation. The Foundation has issued the first set of Convergence awards, supporting workshops, summer institutes, and Research Coordination Networks (RCNs).

"NSF has supported cross-disciplinary collaboration for decades," said NSF Director France Crdova. "Convergence is a deeper, more intentional approach to the integration of knowledge, techniques, and expertise from multiple disciplines in order to address the most compelling scientific and societal challenges."

The 23 newly awarded projects will foster Convergence to address grand challenges in the context of five of NSF's "10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments," a set of cutting-edge research agendas uniquely suited for NSF's broad portfolio of investments. Those five ideas are: Harnessing the Data Revolution; Navigating the New Arctic; The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution; Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Shaping the Future; and Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype.

The new Convergence awards include support for a Quantum Science Summer School that will bring together students from materials research, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, chemistry and the social sciences. These summer schools will prepare transdisciplinary students to meet the challenges of the quantum revolution.

Among the newly funded RCNs are projects that will:

The Convergence portfolio co-funds projects with other NSF programs, such as Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS). The 2017 TRIPODS awards bring together the statistics, mathematics and theoretical computer science communities to develop the foundations of data science. TRIPODS is NSF's first major investment in Harnessing the Data Revolution.

The awards in the 2017 Convergence portfolio, arranged according to their associated Big Ideas:

Harnessing the Data Revolution

Work at the Human Technology Frontier

Navigating the New Arctic

The Quantum Leap

Understanding the Rules of Life

-NSF-

Media Contacts Rob Margetta, NSF, (703) 292-2663, rmargett@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.

Get News Updates by Email

Useful NSF Web Sites: NSF Home Page: https://www.nsf.gov NSF News: https://www.nsf.gov/news/ For the News Media: https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp Science and Engineering Statistics: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ Awards Searches: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

Researcher Jeffrey Hickman leads a project focusing on how autonomous trucks will affect workers. Credit and Larger Version

University of Michigan principal investigator Silvia Lindtner at the workshop "Hacked Matter." Credit and Larger Version

Brown University mathematics professor Jeff Brock teaches topological methods in data analysis. Credit and Larger Version

Pennsylvania State University's Heng Xu will lead a Convergence workshop on crowdsourcing research. Credit and Larger Version

The University of Colorado's Colleen Strawhacker, leads a project on co-production in data science. Credit and Larger Version

Pennsylvania State's Ming Xiao's project will focus on networking Arctic coastal erosion research. Credit and Larger Version

Continue reading here:

NSF issues first Convergence awards, addressing societal ... - National Science Foundation (press release)