The Snow is Following Me...

This is a video of how snow affects Portland, Oregon, where there are no snow plows and nobody owns shovels or snow blowers, so the smallest amounts of snow (by New England standards) simply brings the city to a screeching halt.

I've been out of work for the entire week and yesterday was the first day with over an inch of snow! Most days this week the roads were actually pretty much bare, but still nobody was out and the ones who were all had chains on their tires. It's a completely different mentality, and I find it quite amusing...





Click here for Quicktime movie (in a new window)

Runtime is just under 2 minutes

Technorati Tags: snow winter portland oregon ice snowboard west coast headsoff

Is "goddess" a bad word?

Philosophically speaking, who are we? Who am I? Who are you? Who and/or what affects who we are; as individuals, as communities, as cultures, societies, races....

Obviously there is a lot to say about this and a lot of energy to be generated through the discussion - both positive and negative. Some people would claim that we have full control over our destinies, while others would insist that we have none. And while this debate rages in one corner of our existence, still others struggle to extract definitions as to what they all mean, and what is "destiny".

Using the English language as a paramount reference point, we bind ourselves into devastating paths that lead to absolute miscommunication. We land solidly in our anger and disagreement and manage to completely miss the fact that when it comes down to it, whether our dogma allows us to admit or forces us to deny it, we all just want to believe that there is something important enough to live for.

I've heard a lot of people who say they do not believe in concepts such as "luck", "love", "fate"... The problem is language.

I do believe in all of these things, especially love and fate -- in my own way. To quote an earlier fridge "haiku", "who says language is never purple?". Must we all agree on a definition for such universally personal things in order for them to be true? Isn't there room to simply accept that sometimes things work out in ways we would not have expected and then realize that "truth" can mean something different to each of us linguistically but still, without exception, hold the same weight and merit?

I do think that every person who enters our lives enters in order to teach us something. I also think that the lessons they bring have little to do with them, and everything to do with us, and that it can be immediately apparent or take years or decades to understand them.

I don't think that all of this is necessarily true from the perspectives of those passers-by, but it's the perspective through which I choose to view them all, and this life. I do think that every situation, every accomplishment, every challenge, is something to learn from. I do think that every word I say, every move I make, every decision I support will effect everything around me in the same way that I am affected by the movement of others. I do believe that our lives are in continual motion and that the motion is inevitably shared, no matter how much we try to separate or individualize.

I do think we're all connected, and we need to be careful and loving in our actions in order for the world to return to a more naturally positive balance.















Technorati Tags: headsoff, philosophy, goddess, who am i?

Worshipping Repulsive Fluff

I've been studying philosophy for a while now, which puts me in a place to really notice things. One thing I've noticed frequently is the incredible attachments that people have to all sorts of things. I am by no means claiming that I'm exempt myself. Just an obervation...




Technorati Tags: magnetic poetry, refrigerator, words, poetry, headsoff

VeggieOil Pickup

Still thinking about converting to SVO, and Chad just put a deposit down on a VW Rabbit that has been converted already. So I called up the Green Grease Monkey guys and asked if they'd let me tag along while they collect waste veggie oil and show me the ropes.

The restaraunt we will be collecting from for our car(s) will be considerably more straightforward than the footage you are about to see. Since it's a smaller restaraunt, they won't have the huge drums and all we will have to do is walk in and carry out already-filled cubes of oil!

Next lesson will have to be setting up a filtration system at home...


Click here for Quicktime movie (in a new window)

Runtime is 4 minutes

Technorati Tags: veggie oil, bio fuel, red bones, waste veggie oil, oil collection, headsoff

Driving In The Book Store

We spent a few minutes trying to figure out how this could have come to be. Please share your own theories.


Click here for Quicktime movie (in a new window)

Runtime is 1:45

Technorati Tags: Techhonrati tags: SUV Porter Square Cambridge car accident

The ReBuilding Center

We are back now from a great vacation in Washington! During our time there, we found out that a good friend of mine had gotten into a car accident, so we went to Portland, Oregon to see her. Since she was in kinda rough shape, we did a lot of expeditioning on our own. This is one of the places we came across. I couldn't get enough of this place!!!
-serra


Click here for Quicktime movie (in a new window)

Links in the movie are:
Our United Villages
The cob builder's handbook
What is cob?

Runtime is about 4 1/2 minutes

Technorati Tags: cob, rebuilding, recycling, building, portland

Farmer's Market II

I really appriciated all your comments on the first cut of this mini-doc. We decided that although we loved it, there was some basically inaudible audio in the middle and the story was a bit scattered, so we re-cut it and here is the second cut. Any of you who watched the first, let me know what you think about the changes. I'd love it. Thanks again everyone! enjoy..


Click here for Quicktime movie (in a new window)

Runtime is 2:39

PS: The first cut is here.

Technorati Tags: farmer's market, farm, harvard square, cambridge, headsoff

Planned Parenthood Demonstration

Mike went down to a demonstration outside Planned Parenthood on Saturday morning. He spoke with a lot of people demonstrating for a lot of reasons, and the resulting video is a mini-documentary of those reasons. This video is mostly about conversation rather than politics or crowd shots. People from many perspectives speak to us, sharing the difficult and emotional issues surrounding abortion rights and legality. The conversation does not end here.



The runtime is about 10.5 minutes

Davis Square Escalators

I'm pretty sure I have NEVER been in the Davis Square T Stop and seen every escalator working at once. One to all of them are ALWAYS under construction. Always. This, however, is a bit more dramatic than the typical halted escalator with yellow barriers.....



The runtime on this one is about 96 seconds.
-serra

A Boston 4th

This is my first year in Boston for the summer - who knew July 4th was such an event??
-serra

Public Art: Cambridge River Festival

Cambridge is pretty cool. We met this guy at the Cambridge River festival. He's a high school art teacher at Cambridge Rindge & Latin, and working artist.
-serra

Mike's First Edit: Politics are So Gay

If you vote in Boston and support gay rights, here are some candidates who showed up to the Pride parade last week that you may want to think about.

Boston Pride

There's just something about Boston that makes for a fantastic pride parade!

Street Performers

I love street performers. On Tuesday, I was early to meet a friend in Harvard Square so I wandered aimlessly looking at all the stores, and people, until I heard this girl singing.. When I got there, it was beautiful and sunny outside, and I just melted. She was so calming and beautiful that I just sat there for at least half an hour while the rest of the world walked by. It made me think, there are so many people out there who hardly notice the beauty around them. There was a girl sitting at a table just out of my frame wearing huge headphones, just sitting there isolated next to this amazing live performance. Every day, I watch 80% of the people I see walking down the street, or riding the train, who have their ipods on or their portable CD players, or whatever. I can't help but think, they are missing so much...
-serra

Old Time Music

Check out the Can Kickers online