An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Wixárika/Huichol People: Protecting Sacred Lands of Mexico
Posted on December 10, 2019 | No Comments -
Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
Posted on December 5, 2019 | No Comments -
“Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
Posted on December 3, 2019 | No Comments -
Jesse Marquez: Public Preparedness for Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways
Posted on November 27, 2019 | No Comments -
Urban Oil Drilling and the Intersection Between Faith and Environmentalism
Posted on November 20, 2019 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal releases ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ this June, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
New York City Archive
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Poverty and Power, Scrawled on Walls
Posted on July 11, 2017 | 1 CommentLiving and dying close to the edge in the 1980s Manhattan world of art and culture, Jean-Michel Basquiat moved from guerrilla street artist to producing innumerable works worth millions, until his drug-induced end in 1988.
A Marked Beast: Trump’s Son-In-Law’s 666 Fifth Avenue
Posted on March 27, 2017 | 1 CommentFrom a failed attempt to peddle influence to save an upside-down real estate venture, to a spectacularly autocratic design, Zaha Hadid's 666 Fifth Avenue captures the Trumpian moment, in all it's bejeweled phallic grandeur that the Bible's Revelations warned us about.
Improvised Beat Generation Dreams of John Cassavetes
Posted on August 17, 2016 | No CommentsCassavetes' Shadows "improvises" Beat Generation Manhattan, where two brothers and a sister, black but inexplicably played by two white actors, careening off track to scaled-back sketches of Charles Mingus' saxophone jazz yearnings. Black and white neon signs blink and the old Times Square looms like the otherworld, naturalistic cordial racism separating the chosen from the downtrodden, both dreaming of making it, of creating something.
Millions of Wild Hybrid Coywolves Roam Eastern US
Posted on January 1, 2016 | 1 CommentA new animal species has emerged in front of scientists’ eyes in eastern North America. With the emergence of coyote-wolf hybrids, called the coywolf, millions of these wily predators now roam at the edge of cities like Chicago and New York.
On Labor and Inequality: Reign of the One Percenters
Posted on September 9, 2015 | No CommentsIn honor of Labor Day and the continuing inequality in the U.S. economic system, Christopher Ketcham's essay was published a Occupy Wall Street was taking off in 2011. The problem continues: money given out in Wall Street bonuses in 2014 was twice the amount all minimum-wage workers earned combined.
People’s Climate Los Angeles – Sept 20 Demonstration
Posted on August 25, 2014 | 5 CommentsAs world leaders gather in New York City in September to confront climate change, Los Angeles will join the tens of thousands of people demanding they take action before it's too late. People's Climate Los Angeles -- Building Blocks Against Climate Change will happen on LA's Wilshire Boulevard on September 20th, 1 pm to 5 pm.
Green Urbanism: Balancing Environmental Justice with Gentrification
Posted on August 9, 2014 | 2 CommentsIs it possible for urban planners to make places more attractive and healthy, without then making them more expensive? Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow investigates recent research into the ongoing debate about environmental gentrification.
Paul Gauguin: Nature and Primitivism as Mythical Notions
Posted on April 14, 2014 | 4 CommentsPaul Gauguin, the bourgeois-turned-bohemian artist who left France for Tahiti, reveals a darker, almost menacing mythological vision, in contrast to his exploitative picture-postcard fantasy-native Polynesian paintings for which he is known. The exhibition continues at MoMA in New York until June.
Banksy: Satirical Outlaw, Graffiti Bomber, Mockumentarian
Posted on February 10, 2014 | 2 CommentsHiding in the back alleys and behind a hoodie, he stencils freehand Gorillas in Pink Masks. An international art sensation makes a film about making a film about a guy who wants to become an international art sensation. The pseudonymous street artist Banksy has turned his well-marketed cultural irreverence into a boom time in the discontent industry.
Copehangen’s Sustainability Vision: Carbon Neutral, Climate-Adapted
Posted on October 10, 2013 | 1 CommentGlobal warming poses a real threat to cities but planners in the Danish capital are taking visionary steps to ensure its resilience – and success – as far ahead as 2100. The city approved a plan for carbon neutrality, while a 10-person team focuses on how the city will adapt to a changing climate.
Nuclear: Vermont Yankee to Close, 22 Fukushimas Still Threaten US
Posted on August 30, 2013 | No CommentsThe Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, one of the oldest nuclear plants in the country and the subject of heated battles over the decades, will close late next year. This would leave the US with 99 operating reactors. Four reactors in Georgia and South Carolina are under construction, and the Tennessee Valley Authority is finishing a fifth in Tennessee. But the industry is in a period of rapid decline.
Urban Farming: Nature, Art, and Society Converge
Posted on June 30, 2013 | 5 CommentsUrban farmers and gardeners around the world transform abandoned lots into edible landscapes, improving human and ecological health as well as creating beautiful places. Richard Ingersoll surveys a myriad of concepts and projects from around Europe and the United States.
What Every SoCal Beach Town Suffers: Parking
Posted on May 23, 2013 | 2 Comments"San Fran has Coit Tower. Paris its Eiffel Tower. DC the Washington Monument. New York City, the Statue of liberty, and us, we got some downtown parking."
Henry Miller’s Free Association into the Surreal
Posted on May 19, 2013 | 2 CommentsIn 1934, Henry Miller, then aged forty-two and living in Paris, published his first book. In 1961, finally distributed in his native land the book promptly became a best-seller and a cause célèbre. By now, the "controversies" dominate his legacy, including issues of censorship, obscenity, misogyny and anti-Semitism, clouding the import of Henry Miller's words. "Tropic of Cancer" broke literary ground, mixing novelistic forms with autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, and surrealist free association.
Agricultural Urbanism: Designing Cities as Edible Ecosystems
Posted on December 8, 2012 | 4 CommentsThe world’s population is expected to rise to 10 billion by 2050. Yet with 80 per cent of the planet’s usable farmland already cultivated, the effects of climate change wreaking havoc across large areas of existing farmland, and more than 10 per cent of humanity going to bed hungry every night, growing enough sustenance for three billion new mouths is not going to be easy.
Urban Ecology: Promoting Life in the Concrete Jungle
Posted on November 30, 2012 | 2 CommentsIn the growing field of urban ecology, scientists study cities as if they were ecosystems. With cities launching efforts to slash carbon emissions, reduce water use and improve habitats, scientists are beginning to evaluate how such policies affect the overall health of the urban environment.
Frank Gehry: Toronto’s Trio of Living Sculptures
Posted on October 23, 2012 | 2 CommentsDeveloper David Mirvish hopes his string of sculptural towers in Toronto arts district will provide an antidote for the banality of the traditional glass box condo tower. “I am not building condominiums,” he said at the announcement. “I am building three sculptures for people to live in.”
How to Build a Greener City – By Michael Totty
Posted on February 21, 2012 | No CommentsWe must re-create cities greener and more sustainable from the ground up. The goal: compact living environments requiring less resources that maximize utilization of land, water and energy. Here are some suggestions.
Manhattan’s Lower East Side: Underground Trolley Reclamation for Park
Posted on September 25, 2011 | 1 CommentMuch as The High Line transformed an old freight line into an urban greenway, the proposed conversion of the six-decades-disused trolley terminal on the Lower East Side into a park called Delancey Underground, will inevitably be known as the Low Line.
Composer John Adams: September 11th Souls Eternally Transmigrating
Posted on August 24, 2011 | No CommentsYears after the World Trade Center attacks of September 11th, 2001, John Adams's "On the Transmigration of Souls" is more poignant than ever.
Permaculture: Land-Based System of Human Rewilding
Posted on May 21, 2011 | 9 CommentsPermaculture is an integrative approach to re-creating sustainable cities, towns and villages, emulating ecologic relationships from wild nature. The practice encompasses architecture, horticulture, energy, waste management, and urban planning.
