nature on the march

Stopfuckingwithnature.org

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I was riding on a stretch of the Salt Creek Trail, when I saw a couple people pulling up plants.

I asked them what they were doing. They were pulling up garlic mustard. I talked to them a bit. One of the guys said that the plant was brought over from Europe a while back, and then sort of went all crazy and stuff (my words, not his).

They mentioned they were volunteering under the auspices of the Cook County Forest Preserve, and also mentioned a website Restoringnature.org — it’s part of the Des Plaines River Valley Restoration Project.

You can volunteer to help at the website. As I continued to ride, I saw TONS and TONS of garlic mustard plants.

It made me think of kudzu, and other species introduced by people into natural environments, often resulting in unexpected consequences.

I don’t know, it seems that nature does what nature does, and when people are dumb enough to introduce something into an ecosphere, maybe they’re doing the same thing as a bird dropping seeds into an unfamiliar forest. Nature is all about species waxing and waning, landscapes changing, etc.

Part of the mission of this organization is to keep biodiversity, but also to restore wildflowers that have lived in the area. Is it worthwhile? Is it a losing battle? A compelling case for volunteering is made here.

So, should I volunteer? Should you?

Hey, I like garlic and I like mustard.

drinking

I Need Your Help!

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********** UPDATE! **********

I had a look-see at SamuraiFrog’s lovely Godzilla Haiku Tumblr and noticed he has the ability to accept submissions.

So, I copied him and now have my own submission page. Thank you, SF!

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I have started another Tumblr, Sidewalk Liquor.

It will consist of pictures taken of liquor bottles sitting/laying/shattered on the sidewalk.

No wine bottles, no beer bottles. Liquor only.

This is may by strangest and pointless idea ever. WON’T YOU PLEASE JOIN ME?

twitter

Art, Impermanence, Peace, Love, God, Universe, Twitter, Etc.

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I was thinking about my movie on the train today.

I started posting to Twitter about it. I loved the idea of hashing out my half-baked thoughts on a site that:

1) Enforces a 140 character limit per post
2) As a result of this limit discourages anything but non-sequiturs, or thoughts that can be reduced to a bite-sized nugget
3) Is a forum that exudes impermanence

Oh, the Library of Congress is supposedly going to archive posts from Twitter, but who wants to look at that? Wouldn’t it be like going through your grocery lists from 2006?

I love the idea of collecting my train of thought from Twitter and posting it on a blog, which has its own issues with impermanence (see The Blogger’s Hyperbola).

Anyway, here you go. The links below lead to the respective Twitter post that contains them. Or something like that. Go read a book.

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Art is too easily consumed these days, but it’s also easily disseminated. There’s a causal relation, I imagine.

Art that resists easy consumption is something that requires you to move through significant time with it..

What is significant time? Hm, an hour?

Art that resists easy consumption: books, feature films.

There are spaces that encourage contemplation of art, of course. (galleries)

What is easy consumption? I don’t know exactly. Maybe it’s art that just pings off the surface of you.

I love that art is easily disseminated. That is a pretty awesome thing.

I saw that Pixels movie a few times. Inventive, funny, well-made. But I did not carry anything back from it.

Maybe part of the reason was the film itself, but also perhaps because I ate it like a cheeseburger.

I posted a link to my movie on a thread on a comedy forum I frequent.

A guy posted a video after mine that was him talking straight to the camera.

It bothers me that a consumer of those two videos might not recognize the effort I put forth.

Ah well. It’s not the effort, it’s the final “product” I guess. I am being a little pissy.

Either I need to learn how to do things easier, or gladly accept the effort required to accomplish something.

Probably both. Okay, done now.

P.S. All the effort was worth it. And fun.

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adventures in amateur filmmaking

Shy

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My movie is done! Finished! Completed!

There’s a film festival happening later this month that I’m going to try and get it screened at. My friend is dropping it off for me tonight. If it ends up getting accepted, I’ll give you the info.

I’m sure I’ll be putting it online somewhere, too.

Here’s a song (really, more of a snippet of a song) that I wrote for the end credits of my movie. Unfortunately, my piano is a little out-of-tune. And I just had the damn thing tuned, too!

Anyways, here it is.

Shy

jung vf fcybgpul?