America for Americans - Beau's new recording

My brother used to play in a punk band called the Trendys. Here is a recent recording of a song he wrote a long time ago as a teen.

America for Americans

Poem about my rights - June Jordan

Poem about my rights was the first time I believed it when I heard someone say that they will resist white America (or whatever you care to call it) daily and nightly and that "you" better watch out cause it may very well cost you your life - and I actually believed her too. This was 6 years ago when I was being taught about women's rights from my exgirlfriend Margaret who was a women's studies major. Before that I hadn't really heard of women's rights. Weird.

Here's the ending of the poem, but if you wanna read the whole thing first it's here:
Poem about my rights by June Jordan

but let this be unmistakable this poem
is not consent I do not consent
to my mother to my father to the teachers to
the F.B.I to South africa to Bedford-Stuy
to Park Avenue to American Airlines to the hardon
idlers on the corners to the sneaky creeps in
cars
I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can't tell you who in the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on my resistence
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
my very well cost you your life

Jay dressed up for scratch photo shoot

We did a photo shoot today to get new characters for our kids'programming language

First try at makeshift water distiller

Of course this should be solar powered but for today ill do with what i have

Hand washing clothes

Im reading "better off"and so i decided to try my first load of hand washed clothes. The water gets much dirtier than i thought. two months worth of laundry takes about 2 hours to wash by hand on your first try (if you don't have much laundry for 2 months).

Hanging to dry indoors

I think im putting most of my clothes in storage

Sprouting chick peas

Soak dried chick peas over night. Rinse daily for a few days storing in a drainable container. Light is not necessary. Sprouting can be used for cheap urban homegrown healthy food.

My first home improvement project

Read my article: How to build a folding counter.

Jay ninja turtle

Carnaval dancers

Fantastic drag queens with peacock tails

Jodi at carnaval

Crazy Backpack Man Dance Video

Watch Video in Windows		Watch Video in Mac (MP4)

Click above to watch

This is "The Crazy Backpack Man Dance" recorded in 2004 at the Cocoa Beach recreation center in Florida. Jessica and some other students from Florida Metropolitan University did the editing/camera/interviewing.

Teenage liberation - one beautiful story

Totaly radical book. There's one especially beautiful story that i recommend to anyone who likes fruit or has ever gone to school (or both)The whole story is here. Here's the first paragraph:

On a soft green planet, a smiling baby was born in an orchard resplendent with every kind of fruit in the universe. The baby's parents called her Tanika, and Tanika spent her days roaming the warm wet ground on hands and knees. Spotting a clump of gulberries off in the distance, she'd crawl after it and crush the sweet fruit in her mouth, red juice staining her brown chin and neck. A muavo would fall fatly from the high crown of the muavo tree, and she'd savor its golden tang. Each day revealed new wonders--bushapples, creamy labanas, the nutty crunch of the brown shrombart. The orchard's fruit sparkled in the dew and sun like thousands of living moist jewels against the green fragrance of cushioning leaves.
by Grace Llewellyn
First recommended to me by Orian. Thanks!!

Pee on TV - Simple but powerful

Jessy tells a story about wildabeasts and sliming trees

My lab - The Cube at Media Lab

The cube in the media lab is both cluttered and inspiring.

There are several walls full of legos and craft materials. CD disco balls and 100 random student projects like strap on ears that let u hear like an elephant

illich reclaims my soul

Or something like that. I Read some illich i read some illich i read some illich. I read deschooling society - written by him about 30 years ago. It has sunk in over the last 3 months. You can read his books for free online. Here's the first paragraph of "deschooling society." It inspires me.

Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work...... by Ivan Illich

Cheap dentistry and boston blizzards

I have been paying $150 per year for dental treatment with BU dental school. I thought it was a pretty good deal already but today i got compensated really well for coming to a sunday morning appointment through a blizzard. One more day like this and I just might come out ahead for the year. Of course student dental work requires patience from the patient. What I wonder is, how do you take care of your teeth if you become a technological minimalist? I'm guessing not eating sugar will help a lot. Well I guess I'll find out.

Urban Ninja

Contemporary Ninja Video from emcmonkeys.com

Shop owner tells oriental story

I was in this magic shop outside of Boston, and this guy was telling a story. He had on these historically stereotypically-Chinese glasses, and he started to do some impressions for the customers. I pulled out my (low quality sorry) camera phone and took this video of what he said (wmv) (mp4) right as the impression was ending. I'm posting this cause I think it's very spontaneous and real. (picture linked from google but taken by photosearch.com)

Galapagos imax film - fishies

I guess this scene is supposed to be scientifically fascinating but i was horrified. They use a big vacuum tube to suck up never before seen fish deep deep on the ocean floor. See the Claw on the top left? First they tried to grab him with that, then they tried to suck him up in the tube, but he got stuck.

Sucking up another fishy

That big blur in the tube is the fish. I was really mad watching this...

$1.50 / lb clothing in cambridge ma

Friday is half off day at the garment district. Its normally 150 but friday its only 75 per pound. A huge room knee deep full of clothes. Much cheaper than the material store for sewing

Fresh squeezed juice in boston

1)There's the other side cafe at newbury and mass ave where i recommend mint pineapple wheat grass UPDATE -- as of Feb. '07 they don't have a juicer any more, but the B4 burrito is yummy,

2) there's the cart in the harvard t stop that has nearly every fruit (shuts down in winter),

3) and there's blue shirt cafe in davis where i Recommend applicious.

Anyone know any others within bike riding distance of boston?

If you drive to Beverly, Organic Gardens Cafe will serve you fresh Thai young coconut juice in the husk among other delicious, raw, organic, treats.

Bunghole liquors

Most ridiculous lipour store name ever in salem, ma

Ice cream

Same photo my krazy ice cream man sign was based on

Fart Bomb only 25 cents

I got this in China Town in San Fran for $0.25. It's stink powder. But I bought it for the art work. That rump is just tantalizing. And at the rip in his pants, I've never seen such a wonderful crack.

Carnaval (in boston) looks like fun, I think I'll go

This was hard for me to decide. It is a really crazy party, which doesn't always feel right to me any more. But also it's an offbeat cultural phenomenon. I like dancing, but I haven't really liked to drink any more. I feel like being peaceful, but I also feel like commemorating my anniversary with Jodi, and this would be fitting, even if it is ironic. We'll see how it goes.

Set top cops

This looks interesting. Just last night i listened to marvin minsky tell me about how standardized schooling makes a society vulnerable and his kid aint in school. I was excited to hear that from a person who's more centered on technology than the others who say it. I heard theres a version of this talk at media lab too maybe on monday.

Update, here's the link to Cory Doctorow's talks

Water saving device

Brilliant! The dog bowl goes right under the water jug. Like the smallest of ecosystems. If anything misses your glass it goes "straight" into the dog's mouth (rather than to a small bacterialized reservoir).

Dissonant drinking

Drinking from a pristine never before used toilet still gives me the willies (at the exploratorium)

San Francisco and My cousin chantal

I visited san francisco last week. Chantal is like my sister cause we grew up together. Super silly girl. I saw a lot in San Fran. Really friendly people. At this nonprofit recycling center, a guy came up with two bags of cans and got $25. Then he went to the free pile and found some 30 year old beatnik magazines that are of the genre he collects. He was so happy. They had a native plant nursery there too. This is kind of how the city was.

Medicine restaurant

Traditional Japanese medicinal food. Amazing. And mostly a business crowd at lunch.

Thank goodness

Thank goodness

I was thrilled to be informed of this.