12.10.2001

Soon to be windowed lofts, out of price, out of reach    9:42:02 PM

12.6.2001

Burnside Skatepark's about a mile from where I live. It's one of (if not the) first DIY skateparks, i.e. the skateboarders took it upon themselves to build the park, and only later did they get the city's permission. Anyways, while messing around on Google Groups' page, I came across this interesting account of how different parts of Burnside were created.    6:22:44 PM

"The winnowing proved easy. Several nominees bit the dust because they are proximate to someplace immeasurably better. Gary, Ind., and Camden, N.J., two of the nation's least appealing locales, won reprieves because of their nearness to Chicago and Philadelphia. The armpit must smother. It can permit no escape."

Why Not the Worst?, Gene Weingarten sets out to find the town that is truly the Armpit of America.    12:58:53 PM

12.5.2001

Today, I saw an unknown link in my referrer log, then realized that finally, Computer Bits (an Oregon-based geeky computer mag) had published "Creating Net Communities: Portland Stories", an article focusing on my City Stories site, as well as reprinting my first Portland Story, We Begin Again.

That, and a new job taking environmental pictures for a local non-profit makes today a very good day.     3:47:00 PM

Just finished this site (no comments please about lifting the background off of this site) but I think it turned out well. Furthermore, the ReBuilding Center is an incredible place, with all kinds of amazing building materials (using that term loosely) like huge stained glass windows from a church, fancy carved stone pillars from an old hotel, massive old refrigerators and anything else you could ever need to build a house/building/castle.    11:40:27 AM

12.4.2001

Discovered today: Getting excited about a collaborative project means not just working behind the scenes. In order to avoid getting burnt out (which I have been), it's important to be doing something creative, and contributing, that's where the satisfaction and inspiration of a project is.    5:41:53 PM

12.2.2001

NPR
A little searching turned up an amazing amount of good stuff on NPR.org.

Interview with Jonathan Kozol - I've just finished Death at an Early Age, and previously, Amazing Grace, both books are his accounts of experiences both teaching and visiting different schools and neighborhoods in Boston and New York City that show the horrible conditions and the truly amazing people who endure them from day to day. I first came across his name from a Broadways song called Jonathan Kozol was Right.

Touring the Meadowlands with Robert Sullivan - About three years ago, Robert Sullivan (now a Portland resident), wrote a book called The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures on the Edge of a City which is an amazing account of this swampy marsh across the water from New York City. The book makes me nostalgic for even the dirtiest parts of New Jersey, and his stories of this area's history, and his own search for treasure and Hoffa's body are fun and wonderful adventure stories.

Profile of Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang - Another book I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed was Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, an amazing fictional story of a group of environmental activists whose actions (and Abbey's visions) were way ahead of their time. The story had my heart racing in parts (cliche, but true), and is an amazing story of direct action environmental action that wouldn't seem unfamiliar when compared to the Black Bloc actions of today.    12:31:49 PM

Winners of the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar contest. Some truly amazing images, and very powerful despite me looking at them while I hear Garrison Keillor sing Here Comes the Sun on NPR .     12:16:50 PM