Gill Tract

URBAN FARM UC Berkeley Gill Tract Occupation

Although the occupation of this space is technically illegal and lead by a group of law breakers who are trespassing on an enclosed property, I can't help but wonder if stepping over democratic processes as they currently stand might ever be worth it. The University is tasked with administering and managing the Gill Tract property in the public interest of California - it's funded in part by student tuition, tax payer dollars, and largely by private endowment. So, in terms of funding, it is a mixed bag of people financially investing in the institution. How useful is local resistance as a leveraging tool in negotiating the University's bureaucratic hierarchy and systems of operation - futile/absolutely necessary? In terms of how the institution runs, by its bureaucratic hierarchy and operational systems, whose values are reflected - students, taxpayers, private donors; how do local, state, and corporate powers fit into the idea of a cohesive community, of one's individual identity? Here's a poster with tools that have EYES:

magic

QUOTES from The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac and The Ecology of Magic by David Abram

Happen to be reading both these things. Also, in honor of the acres of grass field in the backyard that was mowed yesterday, with its season of hidden nooks and swaying in the wind:

"Magic in its perhaps most primordial sense, is the experience of existing in a world made up of multiple intelligences, the intuition that every form one perceives - from the swallow swooping overhead to the fly on a blade of grass, and indeed the blade of grass itself - is an experiencing form, an entity with its own predilections and sensations, albeit sensations that are very different from our own."  The Ecology of Magic

"... in that colyacolor wall of flowers pink and red and ivory white, among aviaries of magic transcendent birds recognizing my awakening mind with sweet weird cries (the pathless lark), in the ethereal perfume, mysteriously ancient, the bliss of the Buddha-fields, I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted."  The Dharma Bums

recycle

HAPPY May 12, 2013

soil/symphony

FILM Symphony of the Soil

soil is the soul of our society

Trailer here.

Chinatown Urban Institute

YOUTH Fellowship at the Chinatown Urban Institute

8-week professional development program in San Francisco for youth ages 18-24: urban planning case studies, hands-on research, local engagement, fun.

The Chinatown Urban Institute is a youth empowerment and professional development program offered by the Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco. Our mission is to educate and empower young leaders ages 18-24 to understand and take action on urban planning issues, using the City as a living and breathing laboratory for knowledge. Through an inquiry-based approach, Urban Fellows will learn the history, technical skills, and pragmatic applications of the planning profession as a tool for social justice and advocacy. Biweekly sessions feature seminars, walking (or bike) tours, and interactive fieldwork components to give the participants hands-on experience in grassroots community planning.

castles

ASSIGNED READING Die fröhliche Wissenschaft by Friedrich Nietzsche 

Book Four #305

Self-control. - Those moralists who command man first of all and above all to gain control of himself thus afflict him with a peculiar disease; namely, a constant irritability in the face of all natural stirrings and inclinations - as it were, a kind of itching. Whatever may henceforth push, pull, attract, or impel such an irritable person from inside or outside, it will always seem to him as if self-control were endangered. No longer may he entrust himself to any instinct or free wingbeat; he stands in a fixed position with a gesture that wards off, armed against himself, with sharp and mistrustful eyes - the eternal guardian of his castle, since he has turned himself into a castle. Of course, he can achieve greatness this way. But he has certainly become insufferable for others, difficult for himself, and impoverished and cut off from the most beautiful fortuities of his soul. Also from all further instruction. For one must be able to lose oneself occasionally if one wants to learn something from things different from oneself. 

Police Ride-Along

CITY PROGRAM Santa Cruz Police Ride-Along

For kicks, I'll be signing up to ride on a two-hour shift with the Santa Cruz Police Department as a participant of their Ride-Along program. All community members who are at least 14 years of age have the chance to participate once per year to observe and connect with police department personnel. As tax day approaches, I am motivated to understand and connect with tax dollars - to appreciate and provide critical feedback on the outcome of our collective investments. Yep.