http://gooseberry-studio.com/index.php/project/urban-weaving/
The Vermont Sail Freight Project is a sail-powered transportation company, delivering sustainably farmed products to families and retailers along the historic Champlain-Hudson waterway. Sailing barge, Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of agriculture, ferries shelf stable foods from the Champlain Valley, Vermont and the Adirondack region down to New York City and ports between maximizing wind power over costly and polluting fossil fuels.
The goal is explicit: to advance a carbon neutral distribution model that supports the local farm economy. Our sailing barge combines traditional technologies (sail power, rigging, winches and pulleys) with the power of crowd-sourced investment, internet commerce and grange-hall cooperative kitchens.
The sailing barge carries non-persishable and preserved agricultural products such as jams, jellies, pickles and condiments, along with potatoes, garlic, and other storage crops, dry beans, rice, dried herbs, maple syrup, honey, hard cider—all sustainably produced by farmers in NY area community. Some products are fermented, some dried or preserved with vinegar or sugar, processed in state-verified 20-c facilities by farmers and co-packers.
- http://vermontsailfreightproject.wordpress.com/
The Science Barge located in Yonkers, NY is a prototype, sustainable urban farm and environmental education center. It is the only fully functioning demonstration of renewable energy supporting sustainable food production in New York City. The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff.
- http://wabc.typepad.com/science-barge-in-yonkers-all-aboard.html
This stunning film takes you on a hypnotic journey, reaching to the past to understand the origins of the catastrophic environmental transitions we now face. Over two years, director Matt Anderson traveled 16,000 miles to document firsthand our modern industrial world and the environmental destruction in its wake. In the process, he discovered exciting strategies to help humanity transcend the coming ecological and psychological crisis.
Some of today’s most progressive thinkers, from anthropologists and bio-architects to psychologists and journalists, collectively recreate a story of humanity and the history of Earth, illuminating a desperately needed new path for us to take. Fall and Winter is a survival guide for the 21st Century.
A Film Screening and Q&A with the director, Matt Anderson
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013, 7:00PM - 10:00PM, at Cooper Union - 41 Cooper Square
- http://www.cooper.edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/fall-and-winter-film-screening
- http://www.fallwintermovie.com
more →Finally!! Little Free Library installed in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (on Marlborough between Cortelyou and Dorchester) It’s beautiful!
http://brokelyn.com/a-tiny-free-library-has-popped-up-in-ditmas-park/
Rue de Meaux Housing is a low income social housing project. “Architect Renzo Piano teamed up with Desvigne and Dalnoky to design an amazing courtyard space for their project in Paris. A modular architectural design establishes a background for the small forest of birch trees. The thin birch canopy creates a diaphanous lighting condition while still obstructing views across the courtyard, thereby providing the inhabitants access to both privacy and light.” - http://ayounghare.wordpress.com
For Closure (Outdoors Providence), found local doors, 2009. By Gabriela Salazar.
Poster by Federal Art Project, W.P.A, Ohio , US 1938. (Ohio is a buckeye state) Image found in The Library of Congress Photostream
Spring flowers in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
http://www.keha3.ee/en/products/tulip-fun-fun
Finally!! Houses birds actually want to live in!
-http://www.thehighline.org/
-Birdhouses for High Line
I am happy to share this interview with Matt Anderson, an amazing filmmaker and artist. In fact, Matt has almost completed his very first feature length documentary, Fall and Winter. The film focuses on environmental issues, but interestingly enough the underlying message doesn’t stop with political action to “change the world.” Fall and Winter inspires us to take matters into our own hands, often quite literally by working with our hands. Building our own homes, growing our own food, and other such practices may require us to alter our current world views, but will ultimately help achieve a much more sustainable lifestyle.
Q: What would be a dream come true?
A: To witness an extraordinary stage of evolution in human consciousness. I think this is happening one way or another.
Q: What did you like about growing up in Vancouver?
A: When I was about 6 or 7 we moved from the city to a small, unserviced island off the coast of Vancouver. There were no cars or stores, and all water and power had to be self-contained. I commuted to school every day on our boat. No matter how big the waves were we had to jump into the dinghy and make it to the mainland. I think this gave me a deep love and respect for the forces of Nature, and set the foundation for my values today.
Q: Why/where/when did you decide to make “Fall and Winter”?
A: There really is no beginning point for this film. For years I was fascinated by conspiracies as a modern mythology - a realm of free thought where fantasy and history co-existed in pursuit of meaning and truth. I went to some conspiracy conventions and read stacks of books about the New World Order, UFO’s and ‘hidden history’. Somewhere along the way I began to migrate from asking ‘what if…?’ and towards ‘what is…?’. This lead me to a small conference in the Silicon Valley called ‘Global Catastrophic Risks’ about 3 years ago. 30 scientists were meeting to discuss the myriad of threats facing life on earth, and strategies to mitigate these threats (if possible). I began to understand that what is really happening is more fascinating and important than the realm of conspiracy. I decided that the film had to be about the massive changes occurring on our planet - and the people facing this challenge head on.
Q: What are some things that inspire you?
A: To me, it’s important to be inspired both by positive and negative forces. I am driven by the beauty of Nature, the things that my dear friends create and also by the destructive practices rampant around the globe. I think it’s important to be full of love and also mad as hell!
“Fall & Winter is a documentary that explores the origins and present-day realities of our global crisis to better understand the catastrophic transition we have now entered. Over the past year we’ve traveled 15,000 miles around the country, documenting various aspects of both the collapse and rebirth happening all around us. The film highlights a variety of ways in which individuals are creating innovative, sustainable methods of living in adaptation to their environment, and fostering in their communities a vital transformation in the way we live on this planet.”
WatchFall and Winter previewand remember to donate at their website!
-http://fallwintermovie.com/
-http://fallwintermovie.com/donate.html
Laneways of Oak Bay and Fairfield, Summer 2010.
(Laneways are narrow alleys behind buildings common in British Columbia, Canada.)
Photographs by Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) artist Ali Bosworth.
-http://www.alibosworth.com/
Above: Rhododendrons blooming everywhere.
Above: Blueberries. Not yet ripened
Carless days. Catching a train from New York City, Penn Station to Sloatsburg then hiking to Harriman State Park(Upstate New York)
more →Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities usually held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media…Rainbow Gatherings are an expression of a Utopian impulse, combined with bohemianism, hipster and hippie culture, with roots clearly traceable to the 1960’s counterculture. Mainstream society is commonly referred to and viewed as “Babylon”, connoting the participants’ widely held belief that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, exploitative and out of harmony with the natural systems of the planet….The first Rainbow Gathering, a four-day event in Colorado in July 1972, was organized by youth counterculture “tribes” based in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. - wiki
- Rainbow Gathering album on flickr by photographer Benoit Paillé
Great blog from Vancouver, BC - http://www.old-chum.com/
Floral Map of the United States. It would be nice to ride through it on this bike:
Wild fields, abandoned fields, nobody’s fields, everybody’s fields….{Does anyone know a large to medium size field near New York City area anyone
can walk on? )
Green streets in my neighborhood Moscow, Russia(Москва, район Ленинского проспекта и ул. Обручева). One thing I miss about growing up during Communism - the overgrowth. Photograph by Dmitriy Chistoprudov.
http://chistoprudov.ru/portfolio/
Autumn Workshop is a design and fabrication studio started by Brooklyn based designer Daniel Goers. The workshop designs products and furniture inspired by natural and found materials, often integrating plant and animal habitats. Autumn workshop lamps are now on display until May 11 at Saffron* flower shop(31 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY)
-http://www.autumn-workshop.com
*Saffron is a boutique flower, vintage and handcrafted goods shop in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. They regularly present work by local artists amongst an exciting assortment of exotic plants and handmade items.
Jerko is an environmental cleanup movement with head-quarters in Gowanus Canal DIY slavaged, solar powered, rainwater harvesting house boat. Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum house boat floats up and down the Gowanus Canal, cleaning water through biological filtration. (Gowanus Canal is one of the most polluted waterways in New York City, if not the world)
Read about Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum on Half Nomad:
Photographs of Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum were discovered on beautiful blog by photographer Elizabeth Weinberg:
http://www.elizabethweinberg.com
Golden leaves and trees full of house sparrows in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
The Shepherds Way - photography series by Dima Gomberg
I found these beautiful greenhouses made from upcycled old windows on HAUTE NATURE. I recently have seen a bunch of gorgeous old windows in the garbage. ...
Pigeons need houses too?
Few decades back in Russia, almost every building courtyard had a pigeon house(pigeon loft / dovecote). There were two near where I used to live in Moscow near Molodezhnaya street. Why? Pigeons symbolize peace? The need to care for environment and others (bird and non-bird friends)? To be used as messengers during war (haha)? White doves, brown, black and regular gray pigeons were trained to fly around the neighborhood in perfect circles. I loved watching them flying or sitting in their pigeon lofts. Today most of pigeon houses in Russia are abandoned or demolished. Reasons: pigeons spread disease but most importantly care for pigeons asks for money and time. Maybe it’s not cool anymore to have pigeon keeping as a hobby..
“The hobby of pigeon keeping is gaining in popularity in the United States, after having waned within the last 50 years. Both the hobby and commercial aspects of keeping pigeons are thriving in other parts of the world” -Wiki
Read about John Neilko’s flock of 250 pigeons that lives on the roof of the Polonia Democratic Club in Williamsburg, New York - NYMag
Bikes on Driggs Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York