island⁹⁴

Thought I should (tardily) follow up considering my Nonprofit Technology Sandwich was featured on LOLnptech.org

Today I was helping a work-study student down the hall from my office on a film studies essay. Her assignment was to analyze what critics had to say on Woody Allen, specifically whether his films were comedies or dramas.

She had only read one of three critics (Carney) but it was interesting to map out with her what her finished assignment would look like; she was (as was typical of my undergraduate experience) unsure of what the final product would look like, other than a page count (12-15). I gave her my best idea I could of what I would expect:

Coming up with a thesis, even as simple as “Many critics disagree as to whether Woody Allen’s films are comedic or dramatic.”

Then deconstruct and explain those elements in a logical fashion:

1. Who is Woody Allen, what are his films and why do we care enough to write 12-15 pages on what other people think of him.
2. Who are the said critics, what are their backgrounds and how may that affect their opinions (which we still aren’t sure we care about)?
3. What defines a comedy or drama? Can they agree on that?(nope)
4. What are they using to apply these definitions to? (the scenes). Describe and deconstruct.
5. Restate what is now obvious (the thesis)
6. Conclude with why all this is important? —this was my response to her confusion with the teacher asking for a personal reflection

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The hard drive on my two-month-old MacBook up and kicked the bucket and the whole darn thing is at the shop. So this week’s comic is done with a borrowed Sharpie and some watercolor paints I found on trash-day.

7-10 days they say. 7-10 days…

While in New York a few weekends ago I visited the Solar Powered Arts Festival at the encouragement of a local techy and all around good guy Jacob. He and the ever smiling Diana met me at Stuyvesant Cove Park on Sunday afternoon, both of them having used pedal power to get up there from Brooklyn; I took the metro.

There was a lot of really cool artisans and builders out. From the friendly woman who paints bicycle portraits to the kooky guy setting alight aluminum and lye (the combination creates hydrogen gas) and giving away plans for sterling engines. A stage was powered entirely by solar panels where local musicians were jamming. Also, the Children’s Zoo had a couple of snakes and monarch butterflies out for people to touch and their keepers, of course, who you couldn’t.

I had a good time photographing the two “structures” the organizers had built: the first built out of cardboard tubing, the other a pile of tires. The tubing was a mish mash of concrete-piling-forms connected together with “a couple thousand bolts”; this from the guy further reinforcing it further with nails pounded in by the side of his wrench “to fill time”. It was throwing some crazy shadows. The tires were just a bunch of tires piled up with plants in them; it was a nice juxtaposition of green and black.

!(alignleft)http://static.flickr.com/52/115055650_4e87ffadf4_m.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicworkshop/115055650/ !(alignright)http://static.flickr.com/38/115054845_9f6bf03a4a_m.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicworkshop/115054845/ p{clear: both;}. I was over at my pal Dean's place in Jamaica Plain today. In addition to lots of semi-expired foodstuffs he snags from behind the Co-Op next door, he also has the screens and materials for t-shirt printing. Previously I had been helping him up in Lowell filming some promos for his "Democracy Player":http://getdemocracy.com channel, "Telemusicvision":http://telemusicvision.com; today we were putting stuff on t-shirts.

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Lately I’ve been spending more time than I should with a great free/open source software illustration program: Inkscape.

Before I get to far into an explanation of the fun and wonder I have with Inkscape let me make a little caveat. I’ve used Adobe Illustrator in the past and never liked it much; I admit though that I never really knew how to use it well.

With Inkscape–it’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux–I am very quickly and easily recreate the simple doodles I make during staff meetings. The tools ar quite simple and with a little bit of practice you’ll be making smooth shapes, clean gradients and surprisingly nice art. Seriously. …read more