Tag Archives: jamaica-plain

Boston Skillshare 2012 – A Review

24 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Learnin', Skillshare

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I consider the annual Boston Skillshare a quiet revolution. Each year, hundreds of people gather to share, teach, connect, celebrate, and practice the art of learning outside the context of conventional learning practices. The one Boston-area event that I will hard-sell to pretty much anyone willing to listen (all ages, all genders, you’ve got a pulse? Come to the Skillshare!), this year’s bundle of workshops was held in a new location, JP’s Spontaneous Celebrations.

Boston Skillshare - considering the workshops

Although one day of skillsharing really wasn’t enough for me (usually it occurs over a weekend), I appreciated, as always, the homemade vegetarian breakfast and lunch (included in the $3-$10 sliding scale entrance fee) and the opportunity to unabashedly get my learn on.

This year, I enjoyed:
Basic Tree Identification (my partner and I pretend-compete to identify trees, birds, and dogs)
The Science and Art of Making Your Own Household Products (so far I’ve used these recipes to successfully make glass cleaner and deodorant)
Freeing Your Natural Voice (theory about how we vocalize sounds, and exercises)

Next year I hope to get back into teaching -perhaps a reprise of my Crochet 101 and Crochet 102: Granny Squares workshops, or something new. We’ll see!

Ajay compares leaves

What Is It: Cradle Bench

17 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in What Is It

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I appreciate clever guerilla art, whether it’s yarn bombing, handmade additions to street signs, or a bench that, on second glance, is no ordinary bench.

Lauren models how to use the bench

My lovely friend Lauren models proper bench-sitting

This What Is It might be better categorized as a Friday Favorite, because it’s cheating a bit. (Shh!) The internet, turns out, has lots to say about the mysterious cradle bench bolted into place very near the normal benches on Jamaica Pond.

cradle bench

Dancing and Enthusiasm – Considerations

02 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Boston Moments, With Friends

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Dancing at the pond

Those who know me well know that I like to dance. Amazingly, going to dance parties around the city has led to my making a good many friends. Which in turn has led to more free dancing opportunities.

I’m not the best dancer -the most skilled, rhythmic, or adventurous but I’ve got enthusiasm. I’ve got laughing. I’ve got style. Leaping and skipping and posturing; all manner of silliness.

Recently, a friend hosted an impromptu dance party at the gazebo on Jamaica Pond. Undeniable beats poured from her impressively loud ipod speaker system, and we were dancing like it wasn’t illegal (park doesn’t close until 11 PM, I hear.) What do we see suddenly but a gaggle of preteen girls swooping in?! The song we had been listening to at the time was a bit chill, a little complicated, so our host made quick dj decision. Beyonce shouts GIRLS! GIRLS RUN THE WORLD. And the girl gaggle before us stops short.

They’re unsure. A group of adult women and a few men dancing on the street at 10 PM. Is it safe, is it scary? To our disappointment, the girls retreat.

Oops, I thought. Was our response too enthusiastic? Enthusiasm and vulnerability, walking hand-in-hand. It was too much, I think, for these young people who have probably been drilled on the importance of safety -physical, emotional, and otherwise.

My theory is, if they’d been just a little younger, or a year or two older, the girls would have embraced our cheerful enthusiasm for what it was: an invitation to dance their hearts out, safely, among friends.

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90 Degree Ramble

21 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Green Life

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On Thursdays, I work at home. Most weeks, I stay “Boston-side,” instead of making the trek over to Cambridge, where I work the other four days.  This means, I take my laptop over to the Boston Public Library or, if I really don’t feel like leaving the neighborhood, to sit (somewhat guiltily) for hours at Ula Cafe.

Today was hot, hot, hot, but everyone seemed to be out-of-doors, regardless. My pilgrimage to and fro led me to some gorgeous sights.

Some of us obviously love the heat.

Spiky flower

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Yellow and red flowers

Purple flower and raspberries

Some of us hide out.

Snails under the leaves

Occupy The Lilacs

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Boston Moments, Learnin'

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Since my days organizing for the National Organization for Women, I’ve learned that I am not an activist (by the stricter definitions.) Although I’m a daughter of the Civil Rights, Black Power, and flower child/hippie movements, my skill and interests lie in building community: connecting people, listening, assessing, and building empathy. I’m drawn towards the methodologies of Non-Violent Communication, mediation, Co-counseling, and dialogue.

I enjoy spending time with activists, spinning the energy from those connections into an adjacent creativity and passion (with a dash of impishness) that comes more naturally to me. However: invite me to mini-fy it and I’ll jump right on your bandwagon.

Occupy the lilacs

Cutest little Occupy tent ever!

Occupy the Arbs

Under the dandelions

Whole Heart 100 Giveaway Winner

01 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by in Bloggin Noggin

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A hearty THANKYOU to everyone who entered the Whole Heart 100 – JP Beautiful Giveaway contest.   Chosen by random, Sage Radachowsky is the lucky winner!  He will receive via post, a lovely assortment of Jamaica Plain-inspired gifts.

How exciting to welcome so many visitors here at Whole Heart Local!  Stay tuned for the next giveaway this September, when the blog turns 1 year old.

Prize

Wake Up The Earth 2012

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Boston Moments, Home

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I love my Canon Rebel EOS automatic film camera, but it tends to make me tardy.  What with having to use up all the exposures before I can get a roll developed, and having to schlep all the way to CVS (which doesn’t do that great a job), and then with the sometimes coming out funky and off-color -like what happened with my shots from Wake Up the Earth, a parade and festival organized by Spontaneous Celebrations.

If you can forgive the blue tint . . .

Legalize chickens

This year’s Wake Up the Earth was my first time at the festival full day. I even brought my mom.

My companions

Hi, Mom!

It’s the most amazing festival: color and passion and humor and generosity and music and heartfelt dancing and ginger beer. I invited my mother because, as far as I can see, Wake Up the Earth is a big bite of what makes JP, JP.

Float

Chorus

Young dancers

99%

And who doesn’t love that?

Yarn bombed

Hipster Bike Path

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in Bike Life

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Like many people, I’m of multiple minds about graffiti.

Mind #1: I don’t like it: if it’s not your property, you shouldn’t alter it. If it’s public property, it’s even LESS cool to lay your mark. (Do unto others: I’m almost 100% sure the average graffiti artist would frown the frown to end all frowns if, heading into his/her bathroom in the morning to brush his/her teeth, discovered a pink hippo riding a tricycle spray-painted on the shower door.)

Mind #2: Show me a book on graffiti art world-round, and I’ll spend at least half an hour flipping through.  I won’t deny that there’s something intrinsically attractive about in-your-face art.  And sometimes the graffiti is truly beautiful; the skill of the artist enviable.

Mind #3: Place and context: is the graffiti just tagging (hi! I’m here!  Lookatme!  Lookatme!) or is it social commentary?  Was it skillfully applied or slap-dash?  Is it marring the side window of some little neighborhood coffee shop (you know the owner’s going to have to go out there with gray paint), or interrupting the monotony of a train ride down the Northeast Corridor?

I think it was last year that the Southwest Corridor multi-use path was repaved, making many cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, and rowdy high school students happy to enjoy smoother travel.  Not long after, someone trailed red paint in a erratic line from one end to the other, inciting in me a surprisingly possessive and self-righteous sort of anger (you kids!  get out of my back yard!)  Not long after that, somebody else stenciled the word Bold between Green Street and Stonybrook Stations.  Recently, the erratic line and Bold have been joined by a cyclist wearing a hat.

My first thought: does this mean the bike path has been claimed by hipsters?  How connected is the man in a hat to the JP Music Fest mascot, or perhaps walk signs in East Germany?

My second thought was more a resigned sigh.

What do you think?

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