Patty Limerick, head honcho at the Center for the American West, spoke in the CEJ seminar today. Let me start with saying: she’s my new superhero! I wish I could be her for Halloween, except that she’s already kind of going to be a parodied version of herself.
She’s going to be a cultural studies professor, “problematizing and systematizing “ the heck out of all the disparate costumes she sees until they make some sort of logical – or at least farcical – sense. Brilliant!
Patty’s strength is finding patterns that stretch across disciplines. It’s something that, if you know me you already know this without me having to say it, resonates with me a million times over But she doesn’t just stop there – she also admits that her predisposition for seeking out patterns (she called it a “symptom”, though I’m not sure of what) means that she often sees patterns when they aren’t there, just because she wants so badly for the world to make some sort of sense. She’s always making hypotheses that then get totally obliterated – and thinks this is what keeps her healthy as she gets up in years.
Patty, you had me at hello!
She has a way of talking that sounds like rambling and tangents yet ultimately makes sense and unfolds into a bigger picture – kind of like a Dickens novel. Here are some of the things she talked about at the seminar:
The “Aspenisation effect”: this happens in Western communities where beautiful landscapes exist alongside extractive industries. When the extractive industries (mining, etc.) run out, recreation moves in. Hence, Aspen, where “opportunity has presented itself, and then everything has gotten all screwed up.” You’ve got the invasion of the rich, whose excesses can only be facilitated by lower classes (who are often illegal immigrants). You’ve got people who maintain residency in other states for tax reasons. You’ve got “affordable housing”, which ironically makes it harder for property owners to sell. You’ve got the flier Patty handed around that says “← Aspen, 3 miles. Real world, ?? miles →”…but you’ve also got the ability to actually talk about subjects like social and economic class that have become taboo in other parts of the country. And…I could go on forever, but I need to get on to the next topic…
Patty has kind of a crush on water engineers. It’s totally endearing, because of infatuated I was with the idea of engineering once upon a time. She talked about the amazing feat that is the Denver Water Board, and their engineering achievements. “It’s unnerving if you’ve been put in the school of contempt for engineers and technological fixes” she said of the beautiful waterfalls that emerged from the Cheesman Dam on the South Platte– “you can’t look at it and keep that mindset.”
She talked about how the more she studies these things, the less she sees about the West that is unique. A lot of the water issues that the West struggles with are repeated (or preceded) by the East, in highly urbanized places like New York and Boston.
The West’s prior appropriation philosophy (“First in time, first in right”), which is applied legally to water issues, also subconsciously plays out in issues of immigration, land ownership, and class.
According to Patty, historians are totally whack when they try to cut everything into compartments. Life just isn’t like that, and neither are people.
The West is known for its hauntedness, but the East is really haunted too – it’s just covered in foliage so you can’t tell as much!
She also talked about overpopulation and Al Bartlett and “acts of providence”, but I have to confess I missed that part a little bit because I was busy looking up when the class she’s teaching next semester is held.
I could go on and on about Patty, but I think I’ll just try to sit in on her class somehow. ENVS 4100, M 3 – 5:30 !!!
I have tons more cute Patty Limerick quotes, but I think I’ll save those for a separate (less gushy!) post.
I'm writing a feature article for my newsgathering glass on waste-to-art. Yesterday I drove to Lyons, Colorado -- about 15 miles north of Boulder -- to interview an artist who makes sculpture from recycled materials, found objects, and waste.
Her name is Kristine Smock, and she's a fascinating, energetic woman who bounced around from topic to topic and room to room in her tie-dyed thermal top and spandex pants -- workout gear -- showing me her workshop and her home.
When she gave me directions, she said that hers was the two-story beige house: she didn't say anything about the front yard packed with bowling bowls on metal posts, larger-than-life figures welded from silverware, and rusted clocks.
Here is a slide show of some of the pictures I took of Kristine's art:
She has done a lot of community projects, including some murals and installations in Boulder that I'm planning on checking out later in the week. She also worked on the Lyons Sculpture Trail for several years, a project that unfortunately isn't up this year.
Garbage is one of her favorite mediums because she likes the idea of transforming something ugly and unwanted into something beautiful. She's also been a lifelong recycler ever since her mother instilled the value of it when she was growing up in New Jersey.
I'm not sure exactly how the story will turn out. I'm planning on driving to Fort Collins to speak to a woman who makes cards from used tea bags on Friday (yes, I know it's Halloween...maybe there are some cool events going on in Fort Collins?).
I also have the names of some other Colorado artists who use recycled materials, and some art critics who and education experts who study the intersection of recycling and art. I'll be posting updates on my progress here.
As a side note, Lyons was a great little town. Just hanging out in one of its local coffee shops, I like the atmosphere a lot better than Boulder. I'll have to go back to check out the cinnamon rolls.
Just when I thought this weekend couldn't get any better (clear, crisp fall weather; parents visiting so great restaurants and outings; first Avery Brewing Company experience), I found a running route that is as close to ideal as I can imagine.
Why?
It has a mix of surfaces (wide dirt roads for low-impact pounding, narrow rocky trails for billy-goat practice, a tiny stretch of pavement for good measure)
It has great views of the Flatirons and Eldorado Canyon
It's literally right out my front door
It has a healthy dose of climbs and descents, but neither are knee-breaking or quad-busting because they are on mesas, not mountains
It links together several trails, so it goes past four (!!!) trailheads, which means four chances for a mid-run bathroom break (if needed)
There are lots of people around so I don't feel like I'm going to get eaten by a mountain lion
It's just a hair under 7 miles, which is a versatile distance for medium training days--it's also very easy to add on mileage to this loop
Just in case anyone reading this lives in Boulder (or is planning on visiting Boulder), I'll give a brief description of it:
Start at the Marshall Mesa Trailhead (on Eldorado Springs Drive east of Hwy 93) and head west on the Coal Seam Trail and climb up the mesa
When you hit Hwy 93, cross over and continue onto the Community Ditch Trail and ease into a long, gradual descent on a wide dirt road
Turn right onto the Doudy Daw (I think?) Trail when you drop into a creek bed (if you miss it, just take any of the surrounding trails down to the Eldorado Springs Drive, where there is a parking lot and another trailhead)
Cross Eldorado Springs Drive to the Mesa Trailhead (South). Start climbing the Mesa Trail
Turn left onto the South Boulder Creek Trail after about 3/4 of a mile. Here it gets a little rocky, but it's downhill
Follow the South Boulder Creek Trail all the way to the trailhead on Hwy 93. Cross over and run back to the Marshall Mesa Trailhead
That's how I ran it today, but there is ONE thing I think would have made it more perfect (yes, I know you can't improve on perfection--but I'm gonna try):
Starting at either the Doudy Daw (I really just wanted to type that name again because it cracks me up--what is the origin of it? I wish it was spelled Dowdy Daw...) or Mesa Trailhead (South), do the loop in the same direction (clockwise) but run the Mesa Trail segment first. That way, the rocky, slow-ish descent is part of the warm up (unless you have injury prone ankles, in which case you might want to be warm when you run the South Boulder Creek section), and you get to finish ripping down the Community Ditch Trail with some speed.
I've become a big fan of slipping some speed at the end of workouts (even if just 5-10 minutes), so this would be an ideal way to do that. Plus, you get to look at Eldorado Canyon as you stride to the finish.
A lot of people have kind of a "been there, done that" attitude about Nader -- but then again, a lot of people are still hardcore "we must fight back against the two-party system" disciples.
I didn't fit into either of those categories last night. I fit into the "none-of-the-above/attempted objectivism" category: the (proto) press. I was there covering the speech for my Newsgathering class.
(I'll post my story at the bottom of this post -- which no one is likely to make it to!)
***If you'd like to listen to Nader's CU-ified stump speech...you'll just have to hold your horses! (I tried for about an hour to convert the audio file from a WMA to an mp3 so I could edit it into bite size pieces, but that didn't work out...seriously, if anyone knows how on Mac OS...the EasyWMA Demo was a complete bust.)
Here are some of the observations that I couldn't exactly include in my news story:
Eight years ago when I saw Nader at a "super rally" in Portland (Jello Biafra, Danny Glover, and Eddie Vedder in tow) the atmosphere was electric. There was chanting, protesting, marching, hugging...a completely different mood than last night, which just seemed...stale? Maybe it's because I was looking at it all with the bright eyes of a high schooler, but somehow I think it goes beyond that
Nader was supposed to deliver a press conference before the scheduled rally. He was over an hour late, so I decided to ditch the tiny room upstairs (filled with local media and other students from my class--but gee the chairs were really posh) and head down to see how the crowd was responding to the delay. What would a full-fledged journalist have done?
Nader choked up a few times during his speech. I'm not sure if he was legitimately getting emotional, has some health problems (he's 74), or what...
There was this really awkward moment after Nader finished speaking where a local campaigner went up on stage and begged -- literally -- for donations in a "reverse auction" starting at $2300. This went on for a few minutes with the crowd awkwardly (and not silenty, I might add) balking at the request before he lowered the starting value to $1000. I left before sticking around to see what happened. I wonder how that turned out.
Bob Kinsey, running as a Green Party candidate for Colorado's US Senate seat, is quite the character. I'm going to leave it at that.
Nader and friends got some digs in at the media as one of the root causes of the two-party problem. I actually really enjoyed those parts of the speech, and sort of agreed with them, oddly enough. Do many journalists would readily acknowledge that there are plenty of problems with the mainstream media?
In his speech, Nader made the point that Obama started out with much more liberal policies and views than he has now. Well, I'm not sure how true that is, but Nader's argument was that while the conservative Christian right (Limbaugh and cronies) demanded for McCain to come closer to their camp if he wanted their votes and support. According to Nader, liberals missed an opportunity to do the same because they are so frightened of losing another election. Instead, Obama got pulled more towards the center because of corporate contributions and interests. Hmmmm...
I kind of thought of it more as Obama figured out that in order to change the system, he has to be a part of the system. And that's why Nader, at this point, seems stale. I've even go as far to say that many of the people who feel so inspired by Obama now used to feel that way about Nader. Thoughts?
No matter whether you think Nader should be thrown out of an airplane or think he's the most influential American EVER, he's still a great speaker to see. He has a smart, organized rhetorical style, and if anything, he's good at raising the political temperature in a room. (And he has a great profile: see pic above.)
And now, for comparison, here's my newsy-style story:
At the University of Colorado’s Glenn Miller Ballroom Wednesday night, Ralph Nader urged voters to demand more from the two-party system by playing hard to get.
He demonstrated this tactic by showing up an hour late for his own rally.
The delay didn’t faze the hundreds who turned out with signs, fliers and t-shirts to see the independent presidential candidate. Hitting the stage at 8:30 p.m., Nader spent over an hour speaking about the dangers of corporate politics, the flaws of the two-party system, and the importance of activism. He spoke harshly about the four Colorado state amendments dealing with labor—which he called the best he’s seen on any state’s ballot—that were pulled from the ballot at the last minute.
“We’re the new serfs. They control our money,” Nader said of the banks and corporations he thinks have a stranglehold on American politics.
Bob Kinsey, Green Party candidate for Colorado’s Senate seat, hammered this home as he warmed up the crowd: “Unregulated growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.”
According to Nader, Americans have allowed this to happen by setting low expectations. But now we’ve reached our breaking point.
Nader reminded the crowed that although politicians are courted by corporate funding, “You have the one thing they want: the votes.”
As students, alumni, community members, and even children trickled in, a jazz duo serenaded the crown. Signs and banners lined the walls of the ballroom.
“Wall Street: Use Your Bootstraps,” said one. “Beware the Kool-Aid,” said another.
A poster of Kinsey’s face – with the same sage-colored cap he wore at the rally – was taped to a wall overlooking tables advocating some of Nader’s key issues: energy policy, universal health care and corporate crime.
“A lot of the things Nader says most people believe in, but mainstream candidates can’t support because other interests get in the way,” said David Iseli, standing behind a table covered with Nader/Gonzalez signs and stickers.
Nader called the exclusion of third-party candidates “political bigotry.”
“Small starts don’t have a chance to have a chance,” he said.
In Colorado, where more voters are registered as independents than as Democrats or Republicans, Nader says most people don’t even know they have another choice.
“It seems so foolish that we only have two parties,” said Peggy Sholette, who is visting from Plattsburgh, New York with her husband. “Like children in a sandbox.”
“In our literature, in our movies, in everything, we seem to prize individualism,” said Patricia McGuire of Denver. “But when it comes down to reality, we don’t want anything to do with it.”
McGuire brought her sister Kathleen Ballard, who hasn’t decided yet who she’ll vote for, to the rally.
“He’s a very bright, intelligent man,” said Ballard. “But I think he’s really tired. He has a hard job. He’s the only alternative.”
Nader spoke in Missoula, Mont. earlier today and will be heading to Massachusetts later in the week.
Using the web as a journalistic tool is about capturing the "Google juice" and participating in multi-media converations, but most importantly, it's about harnessing a tool we already (most of us anyway) are experts at using: your brain.
Amy Gahran -- blogger, new media consultant, online maven, kickboxer, and many other things -- gave an eclectic, lively, sometimes irreverent("I'll keep talking until someone shoves a sandwich in my mouth") intro to new media for the Ted Scripps Fellows at the CEJ today.
I know, I know, you're thinking, "Duh, I've already heard of Tiwtter, blogging, Flickr, YouTube, etc." Well, Amy had some great tidbits of information that really hit home, even for someone who already uses all of the above:
Filtering out noise is a key social skill, and it's one that is key to working with new media
The most important skills future journalists need to learn are business and team-building
Look to join a conversation instead of starting one
"Search engines, like it or not, are the arbiters of your future career."
The power of new media is in its ability to document the creative process behind projects (books, longer for articles, music albums, films, etc.)
This last point really struck me, especially since I've been reading a lot about the writingprocess lately.
So, hopefully I'll be implementing some of Amy's tips on this blog. Perhaps those of you still hanging on (one? two? holla?) will notice...
Today I went to Eco-Cycle's Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM) in Boulder. The story is forthcoming (uuuuuuhhhh, ideally by 4 am or so...we'll see).
But, just to show you guys that I'm still alive, here's the video that I've made for it:
See you again when I'm not quite as stressed. Or, when my computer returns from the laptop infirmary -- that great Apple repair station in the sky. Not sure which will come first...
