Pangaea Archival Network (and other shenanigans)

All my trekking back and forth between California and the Pacific Northwest has begun to pay off.
Through some slight-of-internet I was able to help network together a disparate bunch of friends and friends-of-friends who now comprise the aggregated group known as the Pangaea Archival Network. We're putting together a 501c3 to fund our hit-the-road adventures assembling documentary films and archival databases about the effects of corporate globalization on indigenous peoples. And probably spin it off into a dozen other creative projects in the process. My friend who's spearheading the project is a get-things-done type of guy, which is a always a plus. I've got maps of different places on Earth all over the walls of my apartment, so clearly travel has been on my mind and I'm really exciting to have a reliable group of people putting together a funding and publicity infrastructure to support people going to lots of different locations and doing worthwhile projects in the process. Sure to be more updates on this endeavor in the future.

I attended a great potluck for the local chapter of Bill McKibben's 350 organization, "350" being the target parts-per-million of carbon in the atmosphere needed to ensure the continuation of life as we know on the planet. It's currently at 392.40, which is quite high considering that the pre- Industrial Revolution numbers are more like around 280. The local group seems to have some good momentum, they have regular monthly social/organizing mixers, and have multiple projects under way. I got networked with some folks working on community gardens, and was excited to learn about Urban Garden Share, which is using social networking web tools to facilitate collaboration around creating urban gardens. The pilot project started in my home town of Seattle, and now Santa Cruz is one of the first cities (along with Louisville, Atlanta and Boise) outside of the Pacific Northwest to give the idea a try. The website had cute fliers with tongue-in-check references to flirting with your neighbors, with is great. Some of my neighbors are really hot.

Been renting office co-working space at Cruzio, which is a great place to meet motivated professionals and the complimentary tea and high speed internet isn't half bad either. Plus it's near the library(!) and a local small business that totally rocks - Pure Pleasure, who do great work to keep Santa Cruz sex-positive with their many classes and events, also they're just a good place to buy toys. Voted best Adult Store in Santa Cruz County in this year's Good Times poll, it's quite the feisty little dildo store - be sure to read co-owner Amy's blog!

Becoming more active in Community Television, and looking forward to the upcoming Santa Cruz Film Festival, which is consistently excellent. Look for me taking your tickets. And I'm going to start making my very own Kombucha soon (thanks Andrea!). Good things brewing.

Our Hero plateaus, then launches.

The art experiment at the first apartment morphed into chaotic monster of residual neurosis. hardcore PTSD, man. That's what the streets will do to you. Then they put you in a box and at first all the basic habits of efficient box-person life seem like some enormous challenge. Then you gradually get used it. I learned plenty from it, then they moved me into a better place. Redo, with a stronger cognitive toolbox this time. I learned: There's some questionable (who isn't?) characters roaming this little beachside 'hood (but the brochure said it's a quaint little beach town....). So only allow brilliantly awesome people into one's domicile. If it smells like a crook.... Let the wall collage ideasphere evolve, not just accumulate - don't glue anything. Laser beams are lots of fun. Make the most of opportunities. Always continue striving and never give up. Be patient.... but don't let the world pass you by either. Avoid doing blatantly stupid things - there's no need to fly too close to the sun. Be disciplined and take your practice seriously. You want to keep things upscale, refined - in keeping with the higher standard of quality that defines construction the new home (it's a swank, sturdy little place). I'm Colin Campbell Clyde and this is my story: I've been to hell and back. I've been sneered at and smeared, tasted the bitterness of betrayal. That's a load of ancient history. Now things are looking up. Career opportunities. Paradigm rearrangements, man, really deep. This is my chance, starting today. The rate of change is accelerating. I've already come so far. Exciting fervent ferment. I'm starting a multimedia company - change the world. This blog is a record of the progress. I intend to accomplish remarkable things. I hope you'll join me, it will be ever so lovely to have you on board! Hop on, this rocketship is cleared for takeoff.

Further adventures in Paradise.

Geeking out on the Twitter feature that allows for tweets to be send to a cellphone via text message. Now I know what NASA is doing at any given moment. That's pretty awesome methinks.
I've been calling into KRXA talk radio periodically for a few months now, and decided to invite station owner and morning show host Hal Ginsberg to speak at the Penny University, a weekly event at the Red Church. Hal's a great talker so it should be a real treat.

My buddy Jon helped start a company, Flight of Harmony, that makes electronic music synthesizers. He says some man plays wild music on the streets of Tokyo with one of his company's boxes. I wonder if there's anything on the internet about that guy. I like the idea of a little mail order box of circuits shipping out all over the world and empowering people to make wacky noises. One guy playing music can change the entire mood of a place. Last time I visited Jon we kicked ideas around about starting a housing co-op for creative people, stay tuned to this bat-channel for further developments. And oh, Jon, I am looking in to those companies that you sent me... gradually. Also, another company to look into that houses artists is ArtSpace, they run the Tannery Art Center here in Santa Cruz and also run spaces in Seattle and Everett, WA.

Black Swan is a really good movie. Go see it.

I've been making a real effort to practice juggling, write, study languages, and draw pictures on a daily basis. There's a neurological principle that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours of practices to attain greatness at a skill. So I'm keeping a record of how much time I spend on those tasks. Here's the current tally: starting February 10 (18 days so far) 4 hours spent juggling (usually in 5 to 10 minute chunks). 2 hours 23 minutes drawing. 1 hour 30 minutes writing (probably a low estimate, lots of clever texting and whatnot that I don't count). Now that I'm forming the habit, I hope to bump up the average amount of practice time per day.

Thanks to Claire Stringer for reminding me that the point of creative work is joy. It's terrible for it to start to feel like a chore. You're a real gem, Claire.

Thoughts on trip to Seattle.

Had a great time visiting Seattle and Yakima for the holidays.

Seattle was awesome, you don't really get to enjoy and appreciate your hometown until you return after being gone for a while. I might even move back there someday, I think it's just a great town with a lot going on. (My ideal goal is to get filthy stinking rich and rent/own housing in many different cities so I can travel around and always have a place to stay, also my friends can have somewhere to crash while I'm out of town).
I was happy to see old friends doing worthwhile things with their lives and took the opportunity to strengthen my social network with entrepreneurial schemes for the future in mind. I talked to my old high school buddy Jon over delicious Italian food about his modular synthesizer business, Native American sovereignty issues, and ideas for starting a media company and housing co-ops. My buddy Thomas Hays has been quite the productive troublemaker since we last saw each other. He's now working on a retrospective book about his wartime postering campaign that got him in the newspapers in Seattle. Brooke works at Seattle Children's Theater and I got to see their impressively massive set-building room and all-around great facilities and posters for what looked like some awesome shows. Some other friends have a good scene going in Yakima with kids running around and music production whatnot.


Other misc: I learned about Artist Eye Portfolio Studio, which helps artist's put together a slick presentation of their work. I took lots of pictures of visually stimulating architecture and graffiti, and feel like some kind of boneheaded techo-idiot for not yet figuring out how to download them from my phone to a hard drive. (Otherwise I'd post for all to see. Maybe an intrepid reader has experience with these matters and can point me in the right direction?) I decided never to take the Greyhound bus ever again, ever. And I wouldn't recommend that you try it, either. Save a little extra money for Amtrak.