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TakePart | Social Action Network

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:28:27 -0500

Today is the birthday of someone very special whom I love very...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:36:43 -0500

Today is the birthday of someone very special whom I love very much.

Someone who celebrates life every day.

Today, I celebrate your life!

I have so many warm thoughts for you I wish to share on this day…I hope this next year brings you joy, new knowledge, new challenges, inspiration, excitement, new skills, and if possible, even more love and rigor then you bring to the world. I think this will be a wonderful year.

Happy Birthday

Artist Jean-Claude dies at 74. She met her partner Christo in...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:29:17 -0500

Artist Jean-Claude dies at 74.

She met her partner Christo in Paris in 1958. They have been collaborating for 51 years.

The family statement said Christo was deeply saddened by his wife’s death but was “committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: that the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude would continue.” That includes completing their current installation, “Over The River”, a series of fabric panels to be suspended over the Arkansas River in Colorado, and “The Mastaba,” a stack of 410,000 oil barrels configured as a mastaba, or rectangle with outward-sloping sides, envisioned for the United Arab Emirates.

Like all their projects, these are intended to be temporary, a quality at the heart of the artistic enterprise. Whether executed in oil drum or brightly colored fabric, the art of her and her husband, Jeanne-Claude said, expressed “ the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”

NYT (via kateoplis: thegooglymoogly:)

(constantwanderlust:justbesplendid:onourway:myidentity:section9:h...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:57:30 -0500

(constantwanderlust:justbesplendid:onourway:myidentity:section9:hennypotter)

Very clever Bio-Diversity visual piece from the NYtimes.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0500

Very clever Bio-Diversity visual piece from the NYtimes.

Francisco Martins, “We Are The Same” (via Sarah’s gchat...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:45:09 -0500

Francisco Martins, “We Are The Same” (via Sarah’s gchat status;turnlizer)

This image reminded me of my entire freshman year of figure drawing class at art school. I had an Italian professor who had us learn to draw the figure by spending hours studying trees and drift wood. For the whole first half of the year we never even used a human model. We would be challenged to recreate master’s paintings at an enormous life size scale, “as if a group of drift wood just washed on shore.” (This was quite a difficult venture to complete in a dorm room and for someone who grew up in a landlocked state and hadn’t really seen a lot of “driftwood”) At the time I thought he was a little crazy, but I have since really appreciated the awareness he helped me discover in the connection between all organic things and this artist, Martins, must also understand this.

This weekend included the exciting purchase of the entire Planet...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:58:58 -0500

This weekend included the exciting purchase of the entire Planet Earth and The Blue Sea dvd set. After diving into a few episodes I can’t stop thinking about it. What a beautiful, amazing treasure. The approaching winter months just got a little less foreboding, now that I’m happy about the idea of siting at home and watching hour after hour.

India’s Gulabi Gang Fed up with abusive husbands and corrupt...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:45:44 -0500

India’s Gulabi Gang

Fed up with abusive husbands and corrupt officials, India’s poorest women are banding together, taking up arms, and fighting back. Even more shocking than the pink saris they wear: Their quest for justice is actually working. In one of the most backward regions of India, the badlands of Central India, village women dressed in pink saris are getting togther to fight corruption and injustice and to raise their voices against the system.”Pink Gang” fights for the rights of women and other marginalized people in rural India.

G.M.B. Akash [portfolio](laeticia:findout)

Waste Less! (for the super ambitious)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:35:44 -0500

Waste Less! (for the super ambitious):

lowbrowbrilliant:

NY-ers, this is a searchable database (by location, and type of stuff) of Where You Can Discard/Donate Your Unwanted Stuff Instead of Chucking It Out On The Street.

Cirkus Cirkor This weekend I attended Cirkus Cirkor, the...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:32:23 -0500

Cirkus Cirkor

This weekend I attended Cirkus Cirkor, the Swedish physical spectacle about life (a truly stunning performance work). Sadly, the cirkus has moved on from New York’s BAM. Try to catch it next year if you can!

(via:jonathansadlowe)

Here is a collection of world’s best microscope photography from...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:07:14 -0500

Here is a collection of world’s best microscope photography from the last 35 years in Wired. (owlonholiday)

Shareable.net

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:33:00 -0500

Shareable.net:

Check out the awesome folks over @ shareable.net!

Shareable tells the story of sharing. We cover the people, places, and projects that are bringing a shareable world to life. And share tools and tips to help you make a shareable world real in your life.

In a shareable world, things like clothing swaps, childcare coops, potlucks, carsharing, community gardening, and cohousing bring us together, make life more fun, and free up time and money for the important things in life. When we share, not only is a better life possible, but so is a better world. (via:brooklynskillshare)

jonathansadlowe: waysiveavoidedstudyingforfinals: If you’ve...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:07:53 -0500

jonathansadlowe:

waysiveavoidedstudyingforfinals:

If you’ve never seen this video, in which Mr. Rogers defends the use of public money for PBS, you really owe it to yourself to watch this.

A very beautiful video. I have watched it three times now.

Not-to-be-missed bird photos by Andrew Zuckerman....

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:08:58 -0500

Not-to-be-missed bird photos by Andrew Zuckerman. (newyorkfornow)

This weekend in Vermont I collected some amazing...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:34:52 -0500

This weekend in Vermont I collected some amazing moss…which inspired me to finally make my own terrarium!!! There are a ton of great sites available for inspiration and info to help you build your own. Here is one to check out so you can make one also!!!

Michael & Lenka are currently writing a hand-written letter...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:31:22 -0500

Michael & Lenka are currently writing a hand-written letter to every household in the world. Here is their letter to you explaining the project and asking for support for this ambitious and absolutely lovely idea:

“We plan to write a letter to everyone on the planet. Including you. And all the people who look a bit like you. And all the people who look absolutely nothing like you. Everyone. Given the gargantuan scale of the task we’ve already begun, with one (whole) town in Ireland. The letters arrived en masse one morning, bringing widespread smiling and frisky curious shiver. (please see video)

www.mysteriousletters.blogspot.com

The next town is planned, we want to go further, swifter. We’ve self funded the Mysterious Letters so far via medical testing on ourselves (violins please) and other such horrors. But now there’s this lovely website. The funding will be spent on little stamps, large envelopes, etc. everything we need to research and write to the next entire town. We’re continuing Mysterious Letters in a new mysterious location the minute this is over. All of the hundreds of new letters written will be posted on our blog by the end of November.

Thank-you!

Love from,
Michael + Lenka

Sonic Fabric is woven from 50% recorded audiocassette tape &...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:28:26 -0500

Sonic Fabric is woven from 50% recorded audiocassette tape & 50% polyester thread. (via muxtape;thegooglymoogly)

This weekend I stumbled upon a beautiful book about the amazing...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:23:26 -0500

This weekend I stumbled upon a beautiful book about the amazing Women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama and the Quilts made by them- I am excited to do more research on their unique techniques.

“The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present.

The women consider the process of “piecing” the quilt “top” to be highly personal. In Gee’s Bend, the top—the side that faces up on the bed—is always pieced by a quilter working alone and reflects a singular artistic vision. The subsequent process of “quilting” the quilt—sewing together the completed top, the batting (stuffing), and the back—is sometimes then performed communally, among small groups of women.”

A few days ago I was flying through Atlanta, Georgia on my way...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:53:00 -0500

A few days ago I was flying through Atlanta, Georgia on my way back to Brooklyn. On the descent we flew by downtown Atlanta. Looking out my window I noticed that the shape of the city skyline resembled the shape of a mountain range.

For me, this was enough information to see a connection between city building and mountain building. I’m currently studying geology and urban planning to learn more.

* The image is Atlanta, Georgia over Mt. McKinley (in Alaska).Via:(jonathansadlowe)

This is a wonderful observation! I can’t wait to hear more….jonathansadlowe

By way of Kirlian photogrphy, my friend Jav, took these...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:40:28 -0500

By way of Kirlian photogrphy, my friend Jav, took these beautiful photographs. Kirlian photography is a technique that allows the photographer to capture the energy field of an object (it is sensitive to the light coming from the object itself, as opposed to the light that is bouncing off the surface).

One of the images is arugula, one is a macadamia, and the other is a piece of watermelon. Can you tell which is which? (jonathansadlowe:)

Beautiful JAV!