La Blagoteque

It turns out the French are good for something other than food and wine, namely www.blogotheque.net

Given my poor French reading comprehension I can't tell you all that much about the site, who funds it, etc. What I can tell you is they have made several sets of sweet music videos with really good bands. Some are on the streets of Paris, others are on a boat and some are in a van driving around the lower east side in Manhattan. They are all done in one shot and with pretty good sound quality. My favorite is Beirut doing "Nantes" on the streets of Paris but there are several gems and others that are just neat, e.g. Arcade Fire doing "Neon Bible" in an elevator and Vampire Weekend singing two songs in Paris. I also really like the Wombats singing "Let's Dance to Joy Division" while driving a small motor boat with ridiculous sunglasses on.

I also want to share this awesome flash dance from the Aussie Powershift. Thanks Dan! It starts slow so wait a minute before you dismiss it. It's pretty freakin' rad.

Garden Update

Behold, my prize-winning zucchini! Of the Black Beauty variety, I believe she'll be pretty tasty. The garden is really coming into its own, the tomatoes and cucumbers in particular. The sunflowers are looking nice too.

My next step is to build a cold frame so I can grow food all winter. I'm skeptical that this can be achieved in the Boston climate but this guy does it in Maine, so I figure I should give it a try. I just ordered some more organic, heirloom seeds from Maine's FedCo Co-Op, mostly lettuce but also some collards and yellow beets. Its embarrassing how excited I get about the garden, as evidenced in the picture above.

Micropatronage

Many are familiar with the concept of micro-lending (a.k.a. microcredit) or giving people small loans to start local businesses. My hero Muhammad Yunus pioneered this idea with the founding of the Grameen Bank in his home country of Bangladesh. He found that many potential entrepreneurs, women in particular, lacked the start up capital needed to start small businesses. In many cases it was a matter of $20 or less, needed to buy materials to make baskets or other products that could be sold for profit. Yunus found that these small loans were effective in launching sustainable small businesses,and the recipients were very good about paying off the loans. In terms of fighting poverty, the rate of return was excellent.

In 2005, Brooklyn start up Kickstarter.com put a twist on this concept, pioneering micro-patronage: a way for anyone to financially back creative projects, in big or small way, via the internet. The projects are pretty diverse in scope and practicality. One woman wanted to raise $365 to send a homemade postcard everyday for a year. She's offered to send postcards to the people who give and its been so popular that she has raised more than her original goal. Another man is trying to raise $25,000 to complete a floating mobile clinic. A doctor and marine biologist, he's enlisted the help of 19 other doctors to sail to remote locations around the world and offer basic medical services. Artists and social entrepreneurs have struggled for centuries to find funding for their creative endeavors and it just makes sense to use the internet as a platform to do so.

I would love to use Kickstarter for my organizing film idea. Once you have a profile for your project on the site, you can e-mail blast, share and tweet the hell out of the link and anyone who likes your project can give online. It even syncs up to your Amazon account so you don't have to enter credit card info.

To get started on the organizing film, I figure we'll need upwards of $5,000 for a camera, mics and editing equipment (if I can't acquire these things otherwise). We will also need cash to buy some TV news footage. To take advantage of the Kickstarter model, I will need to figure out what I might offer people in return for their patronage of an organizing documentary. It seems the best Kickstarter projects offer patrons something in return. One musician offered givers upwards of $100 the chance to join him for some homemade gumbo and a preview of some unreleased tracks in his New Orleans home. I'm not sure I can lure people in with my shep pie so if you have ideas readers, let me know.

Neat Design Website

Lately I've been reading a lot about DIY projects as a way to stay busy and save money in my new found (f)unemployment. In researching books to get at the library I discovered SuperNaturale, an excellent website filled with both crafty and functional projects. It was started by Tsia Carson, a RISD professor and partner at the design firm FLAT. The firm's mission statement reads that "good design facilitates the smooth flow of information and enlivens all forms of social discourse." I harbor dreams of combining my secret passion for design with my intense interest in organizing.

Let me know if you have ideas.

Summer Plate

From the Franklin Park Zoo, Aug 20, 2009 3pm

Immortality on the Internet: What happens to your social networking accounts when you die?

A few years ago my old friend Michael Greenway passed away in a terrible car accident. I am reminded of him every time I hear Sublime's "Santeria" because Mike called me once in the fourth grade to tell me it was on the radio and we sang the lyrics back and forth to each other. But, even if I didn't have the music, I am often reminded of Mike because he still pops up under Friends on my Facebook page. His profile is exactly how he left it. It still says he's a Carnegie Mellon student, it still has the somewhat angsty picture of him in only an A-shirt with a shaved head, and people still write on his wall, wishing him happy birthday and stating how much they miss him.

A recent visit to Mike's page led me to ponder the vast and growing virtual graveyard of social networking accounts that will never again be updated. What happens to your accounts when you pass? Should your family be granted access to your accounts, if only to make sure people don't leave inflammatory comments about you floating in cyberspace? Should you leave usernames and passwords in your will? Ensuring that someone can un-tag any unflattering photos of you posted posthumously? And, will the World Wide Web get crowded over the years as it accrues more and more dead people's blogs, facebook pages and twitter babble until it grows cumbersome and excrutiating, like the Beltway during rush hour?

Thinking about this has got me considering my social networking legacy. No photo or comment can be taken lightly. Call me vain, but I don't, for example, want to pass unexpectedly with a photo of me humping a fiberglass dolphin as my profile picture. Similarly, I don't wish to be caught cringing in the afterlife because my final tweet read, "Woke up bloated and hungover. Think I'll catch the Project Runway marathon and order lo mein...or maybe pork fried rice."

Tweet, post, friend and share with caution people because you never know when your plug will get pulled.

Fun times in the District

Michele Janka in front of Monekana by Deborah Butterfield. "Monekana" is Hawaiian for Montana.

Today my mom and I went to the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery in D.C. The museums exist together in the same building, hence the backslash. Since the building was closed for many years and only reopened in 2006, I had never seen it, but I think it may be the best thing the Smithsonian has to offer. There is SO much in there. Maybe it is just me, but given that there is a short bio next to each portrait, I found the exhibits more interesting than those most I've seen in the National Gallery, Renwick or Hirshorn. The Corcoran is one of my favorites, especially for interesting photography exhibits, but it isn't free and it is probably 1/4th the size of the Portrait Gallery. (The Corcoran does have a sweet William Eggleston exhibit now that I saw in one of the seven cities I was in last year. I know his name is written in one of my tiny notebooks somewhere. If you're in the D.C. area and you have $10 to spare, you should totally go. Eggleston hails from Memphis and his images are striking and very American, without being overly sentimental, patriotic or accusatory. It's just a solid show.)

Out of fear of expensive parking tickets, my mom and I only spent two hours in the Portrait Gallery. However, I'm pretty sure it has two full days worth of exhibitions between the permanent collection and the special exhibitions. I think Shepard Fairey's Obama is the most recent acquisition but there is a solid contemporary collection, including a beautiful portrait of the recently deceased Eunice Kennedy Shriver, on the beach with some Special Olympians.
I've included it here:

It is an incredible work of photo-realism. Looking at it, you just want to stroke her wild white hair. There was a great Henry Kissinger painting that I wish I'd stolen a picture of and I can't seem to find it online. Really, there are tons of gems in there.

Here is Thelonious Monk, looking like the badass he was:And an unfinished G Dubs:


After narrowly avoiding a parking ticket, we drove to Capitol Hill and visited Eastern Market. I hadn't seen it since it caught fire and was renovated. It is pretty much the same as I remember it but the counters are now especially tall, which leads to strained and sometimes hilarious interactions between the merchants and customers. My mother, being Belgian, felt the need to comment on the inconvenience as we purchased a quarter pound of serrano (Spanish mountain ham). According to butcher, a guy is going to come lower them next week. It was a strange Alice in Wonderland-type situation where the people and the environment just didn't match in size.
(After seeing this photo of Helena Bonham Carter in full costume as the Queen of Hearts, I'm very excited to see the new Tim Burton fashioning of the Lewis Carroll classic. I cannot decide if I am more excited for Alice in Wonderland or Where the Wild Things Are. Apparently, appealing to people's childhood memories is a way to make them spend money during economic crisis. I'd like to think Tim Burton and Spike Jonze aren't that capitalist but maybe they are. P.S. Spike's real name is Adam Spiegel. I would have changed it too.)

Some highlights from Eastern Market. Yes, that sign does say "Lobster and Crawfish Ravioli."



In other news, I started a personal twitter account. I had a lot of fun tweeting and following organizations via the Green Corps account and I figure it can be an extension of this blog. I look forward to using the twittersphere to both examine the culture around it and write creative short fiction in blocks of 140 characters or less. You can follow at twitter.com/jankstarr

A lesson in theme parties

A week ago today we held an epic classy/trashy themed party at 34 Robeson St. Its seven hours of fun included lots of photo shoots, a couple games of croquet, booty-shaking, a stupendous potluck spread and lots of hand drawn fake tattoos. Highlights included Emily's Guinness bacon chocolate cupcakes and the multiple photo shoots that happened in front of the Chevy Nova in our backyard. The former first floor tenant conveniently left it behind when he moved out in May. Here is a group shot with most of the attendees. Thank you Dave Samuels for coming up with such a swell theme.





Two days after our party, I left my job at Green Corps and joined the ranks of the (f)unemployed. While admittedly nerve-wracking, my new found free time allowed me to visit the Rehoboth Agricultural Fair. The four-day event has been happening for more than 60 years, in a town so tiny Ben and I almost drove through it without noticing. After missing the turn for the fair, we passed the sign for the next town called- no joke- Seekonk.

My favorite part was the poultry show. I've been reading a lot about raising fowl in The Urban Homesteader (I also recommend the blog here) so it was neat checking out different breeds and knowing the difference between a pullet and cockerel vs. a hen and a rooster.

We also saw a bunnies, sheep, cows, a horse show and a pig race. Granny's Racing Pigs put on quite the event. Four piglets ran in two races, with numbered place mats duct-taped to their backs, motivated by a bowl of cream-filled cookies at the end of their short loop. Pig number 3, Elvis Pigsly, won both heats.

I'll leave you with a portrait of my favorite cock in the poultry show: