Good News on Carrall Street

The Pennsylvania Hotel finally has opened its doors – providing housing for 44 people needing homes in the DTES.

I took videos of the opening, posted them to Youtube and over to the Carrall Street Journal, so check them out.

By the way, I decided kept the Carrall Street Journal going after all. (Of course, now I have double postings – will have to sort that out soon.)

Hyper-Local on Carrall Street

This post is a duplicate of a page in my Carrall Street Journal.

I started a blog named The Carrall Street Journal in March 2006, and it has been an on and off activity for me. My original ideas for it are listed below. They were a little bit out of scope, and I began to see it simply as a vehicle for my own personal expression of life here in Gastown/DTES. As it was a very personal hyper-local blog, a place-based personal log of my observations, I’ve just now integrated all the posts from the old Carrall Street Journal here into my personal blog.

March 2006, this is what I thought the Carrall Street Journal would be:

• The Carrall Street Journal documents people, events, development and transitions along Carrall Street.

• The Journal offers reflections on the physical and social developments as the greenway plans take hold and become a reality, and is open to any comments and community suggestions.

• Descriptions and profiles feature people, businesses, events and associations located on and near the street.

• The journal is volunteer-based and is an independent voice, with no particular affiliation.

• It doesn’t take any advertising, and isn’t commercial.

• Any member of the community can contribute to the discussion, as long as you have an email address to send from and to be contacted at.

Rainy Saturday, Late November

Saturday afternoon, continuous misty rain.

This month has been a whirlwind of transformative experiences: don’t get me started. I’ll just focus on the first thoughts at hand, today, now, at this time.

Open Source Spirit.org has finally got started in earnest, with lots of interviews and posting. In this past month I’ve also got a client’s new site up and running, and helped them set up some initial social media presence, too.

Devendra Banhart is playing now as I sip French Rose tea. I’m wondering what to do about some old blogs that I had started and have now left behind. I need to bring these orphans in out of the cold. But for now, I’ll write up this moment.

The forced narcissus are starting, just, to bloom. I’m enjoying reading Malevich and Film, just finished Powe’s Mystic Trudeau.

I’m reminded that some of the Warhol Screen tests will be shown here next year (PUSH festival) Must remember to get the tix before the last minute and they’re sold out! When will these Screen Tests be put out on DVD so I can have them in my collection?

About Teatime: cup from NOOD (on sale), oakleaf teapot (made in Italy) was a gift, loose tea from Granville Island Tea Company, the cup with the tea: a few tea leaves, a little milk.

I realized this morning that the mind, my brain I mean, seeks deep image satisfaction.

I had a big dose of it this morning, making images to (maybe) use in a video to introduce OpenSourceSpirit.org. Here’s a little of what I was doing:

Signs for the Times

I had great fun playing at says-it.com, and lost track of one morning while making signs for the times. Here are a couple, and if they inspire you, let me know and I’ll share or link to yours here, too.

Finally, a Reason to get the i-Phone

Retribalization! Ocarina! blowing on the phone makes beautiful music.

Many Moons

Here’s one of James’ more recent paintings.

Many Moons by James K-M, 24" x 24", acrylic and stain on plywood

For more on his work, go to his artist site.

Mindworld Overload

Mindworld overload and altered sensory threshold!

In an intensity of activity on Twitter Monday morning, I was involved in a kind of flood or overflow of following and followers. A Twitter surge. It fried my brain, I was too electrified – all at once too many new follows. I couldn’t digest it all.

Who are these people? Why are we doing this? What’s it for? I asked myself. And for a time, wished to undo it. Just gathering people for no reason is like asking strangers to a party, or like broadcasting on the radio to unseen listeners to a call-in show. Was I an attention-seeking twitterslut?

I realized I’d wanted to decide who, or choose sympatico people in the niche, etc. But why not be open to whoever, whatever, wherever? What’s the harm in being open?

This is the whole idea in the world of social media. How the personal is social media actually, and how social is this network? It is many to many, one to one and one to many all rolled into one.

Maxed out from this bolus of people, I found myself seeking solace in the relatively private world of friendfeed. Set up an account. Maybe there I could have some control! But after sweeping through my Facebook contacts to see who’s on friendfeed, I just gave up for a time, unplugged. It was like reading a phone book. Why do that?

Oh, just one more thing, I thought, and I opened Finnegan’s Wake to find a quote to post to the Open Source Spirit twitterfeed. The book opened to me, the words all (get this!) made sense! I danced with it, mind alert and light. It was never more clear.

The poetic mind was somehow triggered into integrative activity by the factual overload. Social media pushed to its extreme yields the poetic being. At least in me! “HCE” Joyce had said, Here Comes Everybody!

Warning: don’t turn your back on the ocean. Face it so you can tell when the big waves are coming and ride with them. When your back is turned, they can slap you down. (Or you don’t have to even go to the beach, of course.)

Inadvertent National Exposure

James K-M’s art got some inadvertent national exposure during the CTV coverage of the Canadian leadership debate last week. Students from SFU were gathered in the Teck Gallery space at Harbour Centre to give their feedback. Watch as the camera swings to the left: there are his paintings adding some flash and colour to the environment. To see more, go here to his site.

Good Morning Video

Sexy lady plays brilliant key solo on the keytar!

I couldn’t resist – had to share this one.

Culture in Danger

This video is definitely worth sending around;