You Are Viewing Public Art

Talk about an effective appeal. Waterkeeping isn’t necessarily the “sexiest” cause out there (motto: “Bacteria Testing: Culture Yourself”), but the Milwaukee Riverkeepers manage to make the issue relevant. By hitting on the deliverable – clean water – the meat of their work becomes more interesting. Honestly, before you saw the dirty water slide how likely were you to participate in Water Quality Monitoring? Just saying…

Cheers,
Sam
“I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.”
Henry David Thoreau

[source: Wooster Collective]

Cheers,
Sam
“People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible, and childish. But that’s only if it’s done correctly.”
Banksy

Looks like Simon & Garfunkel have some philosophical competition.

This short film, called “Mankind Is No Island” was shot completely on a cellphone by Jason van Genderen, and won top prize at the world’s largest short-film festival, Tropfest. Get some tissue handy:

Cheers,
Sam
“I am a rock, I am an island /And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.”
Simon & Garfunkel

Cheers,
Sam
“Almsgiving is a duty unto you. Alms should be taken from the rich and returned to the poor.”
Muhammed

Happy Friday!

If you’re somewhere in or around Phoenix, don’t forget that tonight is another edition of the First Friday Artwalk. I’ll be checking out the new Ed Weston exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum, and then probably meandering my way through all the street vendors and ad hoc artists, towards a watering hole later in the evening.

Don’t forget the film screening tomorrow night. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Cheers,
Sam
“We’re women. We have double standards to live up to.”
Ally McBeal

These pictures have been floating around the Internet since Thursday. But with so much other stuff happening in NoLA over the weekend, I figured public art could take a back seat for public health and public awareness. More pictures from where I found them, at Wooster. He’s also traveled to Birmingham, AL. Nice reference to the Grey Ghost in the first picture…

Cheers,
Sam
“We will return, we will rebuild and NoLA will rise!”
Michael “Rex” Dingler
Founder, NoLA Rising

With the impending Worst Deja Vu In History looming on the horizon, social media has attempted to come to the rescue. Over the last year or so, I have had many conversations with people about what it means to be part of the Nonprofit Sector (also; Social, Independent, Voluntary, etc.). Overwhelmingly, one of my favorite definitions was this: “Nonprofit organizations and voluntary actions take the responsibility of filling the gaps that the government and business sectors leave wide open.” And over the last few days, I have seen this definition play out in goose bump-causing ways.

Sure, the Internet is responsible for spreading questionable “newsworthy” items at Fiber Optic Speed, but it also has some amazing potential for good. And it’s now being tapped to help the victims of Gustav in ways that FEMA could only dream of.

Andy Carvin (@acarvin) has set up a Wiki for all things Gustav. The Gustave Information Center is chock full of up-to-date weather patterns, the latest related news, a flickr photo stream, videos from the area, and most importantly, ways in which you can seek or provide help. The site and its related pieces have the Twitterverse and other social media outlets abuzz. The coolest part about this endeavor for me is that it is 100% user-generated (read: the textbook definition of Web 2.0). The Federal Government didn’t ask Andy to start this up, nor is he receiving any huge amount of grant money to undertake the project. In all likeliness, he won’t even have to spend that much more time in the creation of the content. For the record, I’m sure tons of time went into the creation of the site, my point is that thanks to social media, the real meat of this project is going to be carried out by others. Users from around the country (and the world) now have access to everything they need to know about the storm, and the ability to alter that information as needed. Please take a moment to check the site out. It is well worth the visit.

The page for “Aid & Agencies” is currently being finalized, so in the meantime consider a donation to Mercy Corps, a disaster relief organization that is able to utilize at least 89 cents of every dollar donated to the earmarked cause you are giving towards.

One last thing before I let you go and take some action. Some of you remember our conversation about NoLA Rising, the art organization that was trying to lighten up the city a bit with creativity and color despite a few grouchy neighbors. Below is a letter from Michael that he posted on his blog today. Katrina was a difficult experience, but Gustav has now become a little more personal. Please keep Micheal and his brothers and sisters of NoLA in your thoughts and prayers as the long weekend continues.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters,

It is with sad regret that I have been convinced to leave New Orleans in hopes to avoid the impending second apocolypse of New Orleans. Hopefully, we will not suffer the same Federal Levee Failures that destroyed the large majority of our city as we did last time. The Federal Government has had three years to fix their mistakes, let’s hope that along with the levees in New Orleans, they will also fix the other 125 levee concerns in 28 of their states!

Having said that, I sadly regret having to leave my home. I hope that I will have something to return to. I leave with a week’s worth of clothes, a few canvases, and about a hundred dollars to my name. I don’t know where I am going or what will happen to me once I get there. Hopefully, I will be able to return to New Orleans soon and be here as part of the positive change that the citizens of our city have been trying to make. It is the people that make New Orleans what it is and we will stay, we will return, we will rebuild and NOLA WILL RISE! Say it and spray it loud!

For those of you staying, I will see you soon and I hope for the best. For all of us spread out across the country right now, may we meet on the other side of this hell and have ourselves a carnival of food, music and art…

I love this city of mine!

Michael “ReX” Dingler

Cheers,
Sam
“He that gives quickly gives twice.”

This marks my one hundredth (100th) post. That’s a lot of rambling. To celebrate, I’m going to throw myself a party. Just kidding. Why would I do that? Someone else is going to do all the work. Or I’m not really going to celebrate it. Haven’t decided yet.

One thing I have decided though, is that I’m going to catch up. My friend Adam says he’s about four (4) days ahead in posts. I’m about eight (8) days behind that. I haven’t even finished up writing about my DC trip, I have a really cool idea brewing about Doctors Without Borders, and then there’s all these current events. One way bloggers catch-up a bit is to do something called a “link dump.” This is where, instead of lengthy post of stuff they came up with themselves, they will just post a conglomeration of links they have stumbled across and are collecting dust on their bookmark bookshelf. Some of you might argue that most of my posts integrate this technique with my gratuitous linking. To you, I say, “::silence::.”

I have some dumping to do. And it’s Wednesday, also known as (aka) “hump day”, so I concocted a clever title.

The Hump Dump

Animated street art by Blu. It’s about a seven (7) minute video, but worth every second. Sent to me by my cousin Matt. Pretty fun stuff.

The big-cactus-bloom-in-the-sky has already won awards. Boston area artist Janet Echelman designed the thirty-eight (38) foot tall sculpture that will be part of the new Downtown Civic Space, which is part of the Downtown Phoenix Campus of Arizona State University. Authorities are already on the lookout for David Ortiz jerseys…

The Phoenix Suns Charity gave over $1 million last year to the community, including a $100,000 grant to Valley of the Sun YMCA to continue a $4.3 million renovation of its Chris-Town facility. Oh yeah, and we have a new coach, too.

Last year, the IRS received over 85,000 applications for new nonprofit organizations. I’m a big fan of minimalizing duplication, so that wasn’t a very exciting number for me. The good news, however, is that the ASU Lodestar Center is partnering with the Lodestar Foundation to offer a $250,000 Collaboration Prize. If you know of any two organization like have like-minded interests and could serve their communities better by joining forces, here is a great opportunity to fund that conversation.

The Morrison Institute will be holding another edition of Forum 411: Engaging Arizona’s Leaders today. The topic is Immigration: From Global to Local to Kids, and is produced in collaboration with Community Outreach & Advocacy for Refugees (COAR). The event is today at 4PM.

I’ve talked about it before, but I am a big fan of the responsible use of technology in the Nonprofit Sector. Things like embracing Web 2.0, using New Media to be more effective message-bearers, and exploring Open Source programs and operating systems to cut down on administrative costs and increase efficiency. Well, check this out. Oxford Archeology has recently switched all of its servers over to Ubuntu, and transitioned into using the Open Office software package. The effect? A 20% decrease in IT costs over the last two years…

Cheers,
Sam
“I am who I am because of who we all are.”
Meaning of the Zulu word, Ubuntu

I’m taking summer school starting in July, but I’m calling it quits for the next two months. An educational vacation that I’m very much excited about. Looking forward to getting Phoenix Copper Bikes off the ground, and spending some time horizontal and dreaming.

A few posts ago, I posed a question about volunteerism, and what happens when different groups of volunteers are at cross purposes. Well, it turns out that this might be a hot topic. Michael from NoLA Rising (the guy in the video) caught wind of our little discussion, and posted a reply. I’ll repost a portion of it here, but please go check out the other comments. People put a lot of heart and soul into their responses. It’ll be worth it. I promise.

Can’t wait to get back into the [typers'] seat!

Cheers,
Sam
“Just for the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation.”
The Eagles

From Michael:

The video was done by a local news station, wdsu.com, and the buffer mentioned in the story was given the opportunity to respond but refused to do an interview because it included NoLA Rising. It was not out of shyness because he has called this exact news stations for stories to his benefit many times and tightly controls the nature of the interviews when they occur. So, it certainly not that the news was biased or one-sided…amazingly, this news story finally made the story balanced.

Of the more trivial, he has said that I was not a former Marine and that I was someone who moved to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina to do what we New Orleanians are calling disaster-profiteering. To counter, I produced both my Honorable Discharge from the USMC and my birth certificate without another word of it.

Of the more scandalous, he has told members of the press that i was a loser, a degenerate and the biggest pain in the ass he’s ever met. In addition, he said I associate with criminals and likened me to a member of the church of satan. And, on point to some of y’alls inquiries…I have never met this man other than when he arrived at an art festival with a police officer to have me cited for the fines in question presented in the news story.

Even then, he did not stay to meet me. He pointed me out to the police and scurried away. Early on, I called him after finding his number online to try and discuss these issues with him. He has never returned my call. In a news story to print media here in New Orleans, he HAS made the statement that he considers my artwork vertical litter that leads to “other crime”.

Cheers,
Sam
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery /None but ourselves can free our minds.”
Bob Marley, Redemption Song