Gardening the new building

So, I've been scheming about the guerrilla gardening thing - we just got rid of some hideous bushes outside of our condo and put in native, drought resistant and really nifty plants that should look awesome once they take off - and I noticed there is a ton of bare dirt immediately around the new building:


View Larger Map

I'm thinking we could do a lot of neat stuff with all that space . I also know someone who might donate some plants or would at least give us a good deal. If we get stuff started right then by next summer it should be looking great! I've got gardening gloves, shears and a shovel ready to go.

Greeley AKA "Sayyid Qutb's Sodom and Gomorrah"

Me and a coworker noticed on Wikipedia that Greeley had a number of alternate nicknames, just like a good episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle. One of those names is posted in the title. Look it up if you have a minute...

Anyways, this is just too freakin unbelievable. I'll just copy and paste out of the wiki:

Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb studied at the Colorado State College of Education in 1949. In The America I Have Seen (1951), he portrays Greeley as a hotbed of debauchery, rife with "naked legs" and "animal-like" mixing of the sexes.

So, this dude apparently went to UNC (Before it was called such). He is now considered a pretty influential figure on Al-Qaeda and their ilk. And we live in a hotbed of debauchery. I must be hanging out in the wrong places. Or maybe Greeley has settled down a lot since 1949.

Restoration Debriefing

I think I speak for everyone when I say last night was basically made of pure win! I heard a lot of great feedback, and had a ton of fun doing everything. I thought it came off really well.

Anyways, Kim and I (and now Ben) talked and decided it would be kind of a bummer to just let the group dissipate, so is anyone else down for another get-together to talk about how things went and hang out and discuss where we want to go from here?

We could do a regular meeting like we have been doing, but it might could be nice to go ingurgitate some victuals at a local eatery.

Things I Ponder

"Everything I do turns into a disaster." ~Charlie Brown

There's something about Chuck Brown that makes me see a little piece of myself.

There's something about Chuck Brown that is part of the entire world.

We've been working on this project for just under 6 months now. It's stretched us, grown us, frustrated us, brought a new group of friends together that probably wouldn't have formed on its own. What an amazing microcosm of Christ's Church.

The work of restoration, of helping Jesus make things new, is a constant, trying process. It started when He came to earth as a little baby, and won't end until He comes back and wipes the earth's slate clean for one last time.

Sitting in practise last night, I looked at everyone there and realised that this night is amazing and powerful for the reason that it took labor, tears, sweat, lots of phone calls, amazing people willing to set aside time. Isn't this how restoration looks in life? We all break ourselves a little, do the work, get dirty, be willing to say what's said, taking something on ourselves to get done not relying on one person to do it, let go of the idea that I am the only person who can do it and do it right, and encourage those who fall along the side of the road.

Remember that cliff in the Sigur Ros video? This small bit we're doing for Sunday night...perhaps it will lead someone, or a group of someones, to jump.

Each of you are beautiful eagles. And perhaps on Sunday, you will remember you can fly.

May God's grace sneak up on you.

~H

Guerilla Gardening

LA Times just did an article on guerilla gardening - there's some folks that do some really amazing stuff on random unused and untended pieces of land. People do flowers, vegetables, fruit, pretty much whatever will grow in a given area.

I'm trying to think of places that would be cool to do this in Greeley, and also of plants that might do well. It's important to use plants that will thrive, and that also won't over grow and mess up other local plant life.

Do we have any gardeners in our midst? I don't know much about doing this stuff, but I would love to help someone who does.

Here's one of the coolest examples:



If you want to check it out:

Original Blog Post
LA Times Article
Guerrillagardening.org

to blog or not to blog?

The purpose of this blog is to talk restoration, and while the writer of this particular post acknowledges that, he does have one item of business that he wishes to discuss, that may or may not be relevant to restoration, but is perhaps relevant to the individuals who contribute to this blog.

That question is...

I am going to be gone in Chattanooga, Tennessee (a brief aside: Maybe it's just me, but I really enjoy typing words with double letters in them. It doesn't happen that often, but when it does it generally serves as a break from the monotony of all the other typing. That said I haven't typed "Chattanooga, Tennessee" very many times, but the length of the words and the frequency of the double letters is beginning to take its toll on me and the fun of double letter word typing is beginning to lose its nuance) this summer and I want to keep in touch with folks, especially folks in the Atlas community, and while technology has never been my gifting, I am considering creating a blog to record and relate the epic adventures that undoubtedly await me this summer. And so the question is, is this of interest to anyone? Would you guys be up for stoppin' by my blog, and reading/commenting and the like?

-Ryan

Band Question

My question is this:

Is the band rehearsing Wednesday night, and if so when?


Give me a call

Amazing stop-motion art

I've encountered this video once or twice, and when it came up in a blog again today I thought I would share - it's a little trippy, and I don't have any interpretive theories put together just yet (add some in the comments!), but if nothing else it is great for the sheer scope of the project. I can't imagine how long it must've taken.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Also, I was listening to Pandora, and Knocked Up by Kings of Leon was playing, and it matched the video beautifully. Fun coincidence.

discouragement is the name of the game

why is the beetle's landlord being such a douchebag?

Stubby Toed Shoes

My friend Makeesha who blogs here posted this poem/pic today. Thought I would share.

She stands on the edge
the stubby toes of her sneakers touching the horizon
the great beyond reaches into her soul
pulling into the abyss
while she, working hard to be strong,
pulls backarms flailing, reaching for balance
heels digging in
stubby toed shoes creeping forward over the edge
the great beyond calling
fingers stuck in ears, trying not to hear
fearing to let go
fearing to remain
but a girl cannot be separated from her soul
so over the edge she goes
stubby toed shoes and all

In my last post, all I was trying to say, and from reading it again, I don't think it was very clear, is that we should compile a list of groups/organizations that are working to bring healing and restoration in our world.

It's one thing to talk about restoration, but what if in addition to our evening, we could empower people to go and help folks. That is all.

We could encourage people to get involved with various organizations, or be creative and find a new way to help folks.

Surely all of this wouldn't be explicitly in our evening, but would be in the program, or in the journal, the 'Restoration Project' is a lot of things, but it's not an info-mercial. That's all I'm trying to say.

My pitch for Habitat, has nothing to do with the 'Restoration Project,' I just thought some of you guys might be intersted.

Restoration Cont'd...

On Sunday night, Heather and I were talking about the pro-life demonstrators that come to UNC every year, and we had discussed our feelings about it, and it came up, that while they are protesting, they didn't make a big point to show the alternatives.

I don't bring up this story to bring up an incredibly polar issue, but rather to say that we, as the 'Restoartion Project,' a group of people who believe that God is bringing heaven and earth together, should not allow ourselves to suffer the same fate, and we should include, somewhere in our program, maybe in the journals, some spring board of ways to get involved.

Certainly we're drawing attention to the kind of work that God is doing, but perhaps we could give people something tangible that they can grab on to and get involved in the transformation of our world.

I'm pretty sure, that we did something like that when we did the 'Revolution' series, and I think that that would be a good addition to our evening, in whatever capacity it eventually manifests itself...

Just throwing it out...maybe it's not a good idea, maybe we've talked about it before, and I just forgot, if that's the case, please don't tell me, on account of I don't want to feel foolish.

Also...

Would anyone be interested in going to Habitat for Humanity on Saturday?

St. Augustine...Florida?

"When a cure takes place, they [evils] are not transferred elsewhere but, since they are no longer present in the state of health, they no longer exist at all." -St. Augustine

I don't know if this quote will fit in any way, but in light of what Jeff talked about on Sunday, I think this quote is talking about what will be in the new age, when everything has been transformed, and everything that's broken, wicked and evil will not exist.

Hey kids... for those of you who were at Atlas tonight you heard my little shpeel... but for those who weren't, umm this is a t-shirt design I made in a class and now I'm making and selling the shirts to raise money for International Justice Mission (check them out here).

If you're interested let me know. Woot.

Oh, and it's not in this image for some reason... but below and to the right of the tree roots it says "held."

Some image ideas

I'm trying to dig around for some ideas along the lines of a logo-thing to use for the stencil and restoration project in general.

I like the imagery of eggs, plants, trees, leaves, doves, feathers, wings, water drops... the recycle logo is cool too in the symmetry of it and everything.

I've looked at deviantart.com and had a fair amount of luck just finding related pictures, you might try flickr and google image search too.

Here's some of my finds - if anybody has any drawings to put up, that would be great too - not personally my strongsuit.

Young at Heart Chorus

The 'old-folks' chorus I was I was talking about at our meeting tonight is called the Young at Heart Chorus (www.youngatheartchorus.com).

From what I gather, they're a group who started in 1982 in an elderly housing project, and they just started combining their talents to put on an evening of entertainment for folks. Some of their memebers have lived and performed into their 90's.

Here are a couple of youtube links to see their version of 'Fix You' by Coldplay, the first one is longer, and provides a bit of the story of the man singing it, while the other one is shorter, but a better video...

Here you go...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ygWGcHVKv2s

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2u6k-99qcCE&feature=related

-

Plan for April 16th

Just in case you missed email and check this more religiously:

Here's what will be doing Wednesday at THE BEETLE:
*Plussing (40 minutes)- it's going through the plan and coming up with ideas to make it better. Please read the plan below before Wednesday to get a feel for it.

*Breaking up into groups to talk about how we're going to do the evening (90 minutes) ---Music (Ryan, Justin, Eric R., Tim) ---Visuals/ Atmosphere (Bet Brianne, Kim, Justin) ---Graphics/ Journal (Melissa, Bet, Heather) ---Tech (Aaron- who else could work with Aaron for tech??)

Remember, again, it's at THE BEETLE at 6 pm. Please don't be late!!

And no dinner, so grab something before you come!

Looks like we made it!!!

Finally!

question

are we meeting this wednesday?

separating the men from the boys...

my schedule for tomorrow:

noon - 2: wake up, shower, pack up drum stuff, go to margies and relax.

2 - 3: load stuff in car, drive to ft. collins, set up for what about pluto? rehearsal.

3 - 430: rehearse, tear down, load stuff in cars, drive to venue.

5 - 7: load in at everyday joes, soundcheck, set up merch, chill with the locals.

7 730: playing drums for man the moon [filling in for zack].

730-10: chillax with more locals.

10 - 10:45: playing drums for what about pluto? [filling in for nobody].

11ish - 1230ish - tear down, sell merch, schmooze everyday joes people, load stuff in car, drive home.

1ish: party at my friend jeds house!

what a day, friends... what a day.