radicaljoy
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Posts posted by radicaljoy
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honey
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I'm hoping to pull out my dj equipment and bring some trance out to the streets this summer. Only problem is I'll likely need different, smaller audio equipment. I'm not about to bring a 40lb amp and two 15" speakers on a bus.
This calls for a Frankentrike:
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.......ArtPrize, eh? OK then. Sounds interesting. Could be fun. I like the feel of a citywide event that gets people out and about and visiting different parts of town. It could become the midwestern, small town, family values version of Burning Man. I'm looking forward to it. Rock on.
Burning Man passed through my mind while listening to the announcement too. I like the de-professionalization of the judging process. Encourages active participation by all.
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While I highly doubt that's what will be anounced, I am quite intrigued by this vision of the future. In many ways it seems a mix of Rousseau, Marx, Bakunin etc...
The strong association with one name/company dashes my hopes that it'll be a Transition Town official unleashing. I hope that official Transition Town status is in Grand Rapids [not distant] future though.
My guess -- and it's a stab in the dark, is some green space and/or recreation facility and/or entertaiment/mixed use development that uses the river to greater advantage. That keeps it pretty broad, eh?
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Reminding you all that if you can make it down to Lyon Square for the 9 am announcement I'm sure it will prove interesting...and a nice turnout of people no doubt on a beautiful morning.
I'm not sure if cookies will be served...but if there are I'd suggest you get there early because I'll be able to find that table pretty quickly
Here's my plan, I'll bring ice cream in case there are cookies. I'll toss the ice cream in the other direction, then run for the cookies. I know you'll go for the ice cream.
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Go for it.
Okay, with official permission, here's some URLs to make it a little easier to check this out if you're interested:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/watch-...tion-initiative
www.transitionculture.org
www.transitiontowns.org
There are 2 of the 12 Transition steps where Detroit is ahead of GR or in a better position:
Detroit just announced community currency and they have a lot of vacant land that can be used to grow food. We'll have to go micro-local and everyone give their yards over to food not lawn production.
Not that this is a competition. The more cities that adopt the model, the better for everyone, everywhere.
Zenstyle, thanks for that post. I hadn't (and haven't) tried to find out if there are any U.S. cities that are "official" Transition Towns (if there is such a credential). While it might be an ego boost or PR generator to say one is the first, having others as models is useful. I find the categories mentioned in the video 'WATCH: Rob Hopkins Explains the Transition Initiative' (first URL) amusing: about 200 UK town are "mulling", 12 are "fully endorsed".
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Here's my fantasy of what this is going to be . . .
It's going to be Grand Rapids "official unleashing" as a Transition Town. The unleashing (announcement) drives momentum and engages people.
In a nutshell, a transition town positively builds local resilience to be able to proactively adapt to change. Very exciting stuff and would impact the city for a long time to come.
I've had my hands slapped for posting links in the past, so I'm not going to post any here, unless GRDadof3 gives permission. Using 'Chelsea Green Rob Hopkins Explains the Transition Initiative' or 'transitionculture' or 'transition towns' in a search engine will get you to sites that explain what I'm getting at.
I'm struck by how many pieces of the 12 steps Grand Rapids already has in place. Seeing the pieces as part of a roadmap to somewhere and something that we collectively want to get to is a very important part - starting with the "official unleashing". Unleashing is the 4th step of 12 in the Transition Town strategy.
To take this fantasy farther out - the old Davenport campus could be used as GRCC's Schumacher College division, which would be focused on the Great Reskilling needed for the transition and beyond.
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I was there too. Crowded but fun. Saw many familiar faces, not all of whom I could place. Glad for all involved that it was so successful, especially WSBA. Organizers can try to learn from it, but unexpected things will always arise. Sounds like the biggest surprise was the huge turnout. Not all bad.
Rhino, have you frozen any of your leftover soup? Or you could invite us all over to help you finish it off.
It was a great time! I saw you too Starfish--hopefully you got to try our vegetarian chowder. I was surprised at the number of people who asked us if it was vegetarian. I never thought the number would be that high. The bills are still coming in, but I think Jackson is right on the proceeds. I think some people sneaked in without making a donation, but you'll always get some of that. All in all, it was a great event. I can honestly say that I would PAY for any of the soups there in a restaurant. Rumor has it that they're compiling a recipe book of all the soups there. Ok, back to my leftovers (I'll be eating it for weeks...) -
Well, that's what I get for not checking in here for almost a week. Looks like I missed my chance at this one. (Concerts are my favorite part of this season.) I've already got a full day planned for tomorrow, including attending Tuba Christmas.
Almost daily I remember that early on when I moved here some people couldn't fathom that I'd want to live in Grand Rapids after living in the Chicago area, suggesting that there isn't enough to do here. I find myself very often torn between multiple options. Tomorrow has been one of the most difficult since I've been here -- multiple things I REALLY wanted to do.
Since we're posting Christmas shows...I better put in a plug for my last five shows. Festival of Lights - "A Christmas Carol" at Calvary Church. We're basically doing a full musical this year (it's been more variety show in past years) with a great cast, 200 member choir, 50 piece orchestra (who are wonderful - despite their conductor ) and all the fog, ghosts and Tiny Tim that you'd expect. I may be biased, but I think it's a wonderful show, a great group of volunteers star in it and it's great way to kick off the holiday season! Plus it's a cheap date - what other Broadway-type show can you see for $6 or $7! You won't be disappointed (unless you're Scrooge!).Tonight (Friday) at 7pm
Saturday at 3pm and 7pm
Sunday at 3pm and 7pm
Star Tickets Plus
http://www.calvary-church.net/festival/
Here's my spoiler: Scrooge turns out to be a good, generous guy at the end!
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What were they all wearing?
You can check out 115 photos posted on their Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=34523891447
(you might have to have Facebook to see it)
These were posted before the opening, so I assume that the people are friends and family.
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I believe Kelly Butler, a local football standout and player in the NFL, is a partner in this project. From what I've heard and through someone who walked away from this project (2nd hand), it's not going to be a place you'll find many UPers.
The Dragon Room
48 W. Fulton
Grand Opening this Saturday, Nov. 22.
Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=34523891447
Interesting: "Smart Dress Essential"
Is that why plee30 thinks UPer's won't be there?
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Here is the information for the 2008 Uptown Holiday Shop Hop. This is the first year all four business districts in Uptown are hosting this event on the same night.
Local businesses in the four shopping districts of East Fulton , East Hills, Eastown, and Wealthy Street will offer
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With all the photo folk here, thought this might be of interest to some:
NYT Polling Place Photo Project
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In addition to the post above, there will be a block party celebrating the new mural done by Grand Valley students this past summer. The mural, done in conjuction with the African Community Center, honors recent African Immigrants to West Michigan. There will be free pumpkin carving, face painting, and fun games. There will also food from the Brick Road Pizza Company and the Electric Cheetah Bistro. A DJ will be there playing African and Carribean music. The block party will be in the parking lot behind 1019 Wealthy St. S.E.
FYI - They need volunteers to help with the kids games.
Here's the note:
Subject: we need some more volunteers!
Hey gang,
This is a last minute effort to get some more volunteers! If you're not doing anything, we could use a hand in pulling this event off. (Thursday, 10/16, 4PM-8PM) We've scored a bunch of penny carnival-type games and we simply need some more people to run them... THAT, and you have to talk nice and smile to children. EASY, RIGHT? yeah, that's what I thought. See you there.
~Dennis (616)990-4011
African Community Center
1019 Wealthy Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI
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Zombie Walk???
Does this mean everyone will practice the choreography (!!) from "Thriller"?
or better yet, a Bollywood version of "Thriller"
The FB page says:
Zombie Walk: A Massive mob of people dressed as Zombies walking together as a massive horde in downtown Grand Rapids on October 30th at 9PM starting at Rosa Parks Circle in grand celebration of Halloween. "Zombie" Outfits are as basic as you want, white t shirts with some ketchup = perfect.The organizer is hoping to break a world record of 1098 set in Pittsburgh, where they'll be trying to break that record again.
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CNN.com has the pillowfight as one of their highlight videos on their main page...have to be quite a few hits on that one!
Word is that the next Rob Bliss event (Zombie Walk), will be filmed by an outfit out of LA, True Entertainment. The note (got this via Facebook) says "after talks they want to film the Zombie Walk for a
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Rizzo posted something back in April that said they were working on it.
See here: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...st&p=991641
It's been a long time since April. I wonder how many other cities have been added since then.
For Chicago, you can actually see when the next bus is going to come, based on where that bus is located via the GPS tracker on the bus. Something like this would be great for my wife, because her bus going home always seems to be late. It would be nice in the winter if she could judge when she actually needed to go out to the bus stop, based on looking at its location on a google map.
Thanks fotoman.
That would be tremendously useful.
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Anyone know what it would take to get Grand Rapids included in http://www.google.com/transit ?
I don't see a feedback option.
. . . and, sorry if this has already been addressed here -- I don't keep up with everything that is posted.
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August 29 BusinessWeek
Piece on most affordable housing markets. Grand Rapids ranks fifth.
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This invite came via Facebook. If you're on Facebook, it would probably help them if you'd RSVP there (it's an open event).
Host: PATE Interactive LLC, Eastern Floral, DeVries Properties
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: Kindel Furniture Factory (The new home of Eastern Floral)
818 Butterworth Ave. SW, Grand Rapids, MI
Email: [email protected]
What is ACTIVESITE?
ACTIVESITE is an exhibition of sculpture, with the objective of providing a catalyst for collaboration between the Art, Business, and Development communities of Grand Rapids; as a way of creating unique exhibition and promotional opportunities.
By utilizing facilities that are not fully developed, an opportunity exists to exhibit artwork in a more raw environment; as the Artists get a legitimate opportunity to exhibit their sculpture, and the Developer gets a great opportunity to showcase their facility.
So in short, that is the essence of ACTIVESITE
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The attachment is a pdf flyer. Please post if you've a place to do so.
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Save Your Ash! Free Public Forum
Tuesday, April, 15, 2008
To educate area residents about the battle to control the Emerald Ash Borer.
Yummy Marie Catrib
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Just got this in my email . . .
Subject: Habitat project
Greetings All,
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http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/opinion..._treasures.html
Michigan has untold treasures for writers, says Flint Journal columnist David Graham
posted by David V. Graham {sodEmoji.|} The Flint Journal March 27, 2008 20:44PM
snips:
In June 2009, at least 800 members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America are expected to visit Grand Rapids for the annual OWAA conference
and
OWAA officials say that convention organizers in previous host cities estimate they received several million dollars worth of free publicity in the year after OWAA came to their cities. For years afterward, there usually is a parade of magazine articles about host cities and their surrounding areas, worth upward of $52 million, officials claim.
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<snip>And the owner of Brownstone Limited and/or City Market also is the Tibet Michigan organizer?<snip>
I'm pretty certain it is not. I believe that is primarily a residence and that the persons that live there "do" Tibet Michigan as a personal mission and have other employment. ('nuff said for privacy sake)
Grand Rapids Restaurant Rumor Mill
in Grand Rapids
Posted
Has anything gone in where Naya was on East Paris?