Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Tremont Art Walk

Tremont Art Walk
Friday, October 12, 2007

Once again, it is time for the Tremont art thing.

good times
here too

... and the weather should be nice and cool and actually quite perfect for wandering around, maybe having some delicious beverages and trying to find some out of the way places to enjoy your wonderful evening.

eh?

Living by where you work - may be good for the environment after all

On the heels of my 4 page diatribe response to Breugmann's lecture at Case a couple of weeks ago (regarding sprawl, I am sure you can find it, it is rather long) comes an article from Smart Growth America regarding how creating a society less dependent on the auto could actually be good for the climate.

Yeah, that is nice. Me, I prefer not having to spend over an hour each day getting to work or coming home from. I sort of consider that wasted time. Not totally wasted because I get to read a book on the train and the walk through downtown isn't that bad. I know I would rather spend that hour each day doing something else. Like talking to friends (yes, strangers on the train are just friends you haven't met, etc, etc) or building or doing something. I suppose I am just a little bitter that I can't ride my bike to work still.

Regardless, emissions control is a nice way to argue against long commute times, but I wonder is it always economically viable to live near where you work (or healthy if you work in a manufacturing plant of sorts)? And are long commutes times and sprawl necessarily intertwined?

Lots of generalizations to work out there. Until then read up on some (albeit slanted) October reading about global warming (was it really upper 80's today?!) and ponder how our culture has evolved and if we are really better off.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

LAUN-CHair event wrap party

Well, we did it. We proved that if someone were to throw an event in this city and spend all of 4 to 5 hours trying to advertise it then people would show up. We got around a dozen particpants, students from CIA and UDC and of course the typical LAUNCH-y crew with some guy (Jason) which I am not sure what he did. I should have asked. I am a poor stenographer.

Regardless, I was actually quite happy with the turn out. I fear my MC skills were lacking and to be fair I suppose I am not a very exciting person to organize this stuff, especially when so overwhelmed that I sort of space out for most of it. Anyway we had some actual really nice submissions. Nothing show room fancy, but hey, we had 2 hours. I was exceptionally happy that everyone immediately started by sketching an idea. No one came prepared, it was all very spontaneous which I think added quite a bit to the event. I suppose next time we will have to mix it up, I think people are a little shy, which is fine, we can get over that.

Also, everyone pitched in and helped clean up, which was really awesome, and everyone brought supplies, which means that I didn't have to go get all that cardboard, which is fine that I did, because now I know the top secret place to get a ton of good cardboard for the next events. Don't fret, we recycled what we didn't use.

You can check out the Web Album which does a pretty good job of documenting the whole thing from start to middle to finish. Special thanks to Scott and Jason (and the other folks who's names I don't know yet) at the Buckeye Beer Engine for putting up with our shenanigans.

As a sidenote, I would say that over 60% of the chairs functioned as planned. The really little triangle one is mine. I squooshed the big one.