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Face Up mural tour

uses of the Xtracycle

Carrying equipment for work, hauling groceries, registering voters…

Try VoteForChange.com to check your voter registration. This is a great website, especially for those in states/counties that can’t/don’t confirm voter registration via the web. NB — Be sure to spell out your street suffix (e.g. Ave would be Avenue).

Green jobs in North Carolina

In addition to the great art festivals going on in the Triangle this weekend (Centerfest, Blues Festival, and SparkCon), Durham plays host to a conference that aims to shape the future of our state. In the B. N. Duke Auditorium on North Carolina Central University’s campus, public, private, and community groups will gather to discuss how to create “quality local jobs” that “improve our communities, all while protecting our health and our environment.”

Green Jobs in North Carolina Now is a one day conference (tomorrow, September 20th) leading up to a national call to action (the following Saturday, September 27th), coordinated in cities around the country.

Featured speakers include Majora Carter, founder and former Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx, and Rev. Dr. William J Barber II, President of North Carolina’s NAACP branch.

For more on the Durham conference visit www.bbgalliance.org or contact Veronica Butcher at (919) 857- 4699 x104.

ATT bridge planning meeting, Wednesday Sept 17

A few more meetings, and we should see a bridge.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), September 17, the City of Durham’s Department of Public Works is hosting a drop-in style information meeting on the bicycle and pedestrian bridge that will one day span I-40. Two bridge designs made the penultimate cut, with one emerging the victor. The City wants to explain in this meeting why it’s leaning toward the low-profile arch over the cable-stayed design.

currently favored design

Since no one design ever pleases everyone, expect to hear complaints from some about one or the other. Personally, I think the low-profile arch is beautiful for its simplicity. Reminds me of the Bow Bridge in (NYC’s) Central Park.

All in all, the design phase is moving along well and given that the low profile arch is the less expensive of the two options, hopefully procuring the (already earmarked) funding from the various agencies involved (city, state, and federal) will progress without a hitch.

But who knows, maybe NC DOT will step in, take over, and say we need a 6 lane bike highway.

Design photos snagged from Bull City Rising, Bow Bridge photos from the Library of Congress.

radical mapping at Golden Belt, this (the Third) Friday

Maps as art?

Opening Friday, September 19th, 6-9pm, the Triangle Cartography Convergence will occupy three rooms at Golden Belt. The east Durham exhibits are part of a larger event with exhibits at the UNC Global Education Center as well as the Friedl building at Duke.

The Triangle Cartography Convergence is a two-month experiment in radical cartography. On display will be maps that challenge you to think in new ways about the world we live in. For a reminder of what “radical/counter cartography” might mean, here’s the Independent’s article on this group and other experimental map-makers in the Triangle area: What Google Earth Doesn’t Show You.

At least two of the maps/installations will have bicycling-related themes, and as part of the Golden Belt’s LEED certification, there are bike racks galore around its campus.

If you don’t yet know where Golden Belt is, you can find directions here.

North Carolina Community Cartographies Convergence — September/October 2008
All events free and open to all

Two months of events exploring community cartography, radical map-making, spatial activism and their possibilities for the Triangle and larger NC, accompanied by a multi-site collaborative exhibition, and culminating in the convergence itself, a day of workshops, networking and collaboration.

Submit maps and artwork for exhibition, workshop proposals, and event ideas for the second NC Community Cartographies Convergence and exhibit, to be held September – October 2008. Please join us to plan and gather submissions on Sept. 6. Details below…

Events will run September through mid-October. Saturday, September 6 is an open gathering to plan and hang the exhibition, and close Saturday October 18 with the day-long convergence.  Proposals for events between those two dates are encouraged (as are autonomously organized events!). Events already planned or in the works include:

SEPTEMBER 13: Urban Farm Tour in Chapel Hill and Carrboro
When you think agriculture, food, sustenance, do you think of huge stretches of rural farm-land? Did you know there are dozens of great places within town limits that practice sustainable farming and agriculture practices, right in our own backyard?! Join us in efforts to make these practices visible and educate folks about the immense possibilities for becoming healthier and more sustainable.  For more information: http://carrborogreenspace.org/

SEPTEMBER 13: DURHAM – FACE UP PROJECT BUS/BIKE MURAL TOUR
Travel together along the Face Up mural trail from CDS to Dowtown to Southwest Central Durham to see more than 14 murals that make up the Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life project series. Experience the amazing images and quotes from legendary Durhamite Pauli Murray and NEW NEW NEW the 7 mural series of Durham Community Portraits that will be installed at 1820 James Street. A collective mapping and active tracing of Durham’s community life.

The Bike Mural tour was a success drawing 40+ participants. Thanks to the Center for Documentary Studies for organizing a great ride.

SEPTEMBER 19: DURHAM
Mapping Art Opening and Latino/a Studies Reception at Friedl Building Gallery at Duke University (5:00pm-6:30pm) …and later same day…
Opening Reception for Mapping Exhibits and 3rd Friday at Golden Belt (7:00pm-10pm)

SEPTEMBER 23, 7pm: CHAPEL HILL
A hugely successful international exhibition and book tour continues as An Atlas of Radical Cartography comes to North Carolina, opening at the Global Education Center, UNC-CH campus. Reception and brief welcoming speeches. For more information: http://www.an-atlas.com/

OCTOBER 2: DURHAM (6:30pm-8:00pm)
Epics of Black and Brown: A Public Panel on the Representation, Culture and Experience of African American and Latino/a Migrations, in conjunction with the Jacob Lawrence exhibition, at Golden Belt
Panelists: Harry Harrison (Director, YMICC, Asheville), James H. Johnson (Director, Urban Investment Strategies Center, Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise; William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship), Pedro Lasch (Visual Artist & Duke Professor), and Claudia Milian (Cultural Theorist & Duke Professor).

OCTOBER 16: DURHAM, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Talk by Berkeley-based radical cartographer Trevor Paglen at the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University in conjunction with the Visiting Artists Series of Duke’s Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, and the 2008 Conference ‘Scenes of Secrecy’

OCTOBER 17: DURHAM, 7pm-10pm
Evening refreshments at Golden Belt for open studios and mapping exhibitions on Durham’s traditional ‘3rd Friday of the month’ celebration.

OCTOBER 18: DURHAM
North Carolina Counter Cartographies Convergence Main Event and closing. All day at the Golden Belts Arts studio building (building 3), east of downtown Durham
Also late afternoon reception in conjunction with the 2008 Conference ‘Scenes of Secrecy: Interdisciplinary Inquiries on Suspicion, Intelligence, and Security’

For more information on any of the above, or to send proposals: email countercartographies@unc.edu or visit www.countercartographies.org For any Spanish inquiries or proposals contact / para preguntas o proyectos en español contacte a: Pedro Lasch – plasch@duke.edu

Images courtesy of Golden Belt Arts.

transcontinental timelapse

I work in a place that hosts academics for a fellowship year, so each summer the residential fellows have to return home (sometimes to their dismay at having to leave the Center). Paul Werth, one of last year’s Fellows, and I talked a lot about video while he was here. We discovered a shared love of time lapse videography, and I showed him some of the new digial tools available for making those beautiful paroxysms of cinema. He decided to use the drive home, from North Carolina to Nevada, as a test.

I’d say it went well; he emailed me this video yesterday.

Transcontinental Trip: Carolina to Vegas from Paul Werth on Vimeo.

Goog knocks Chrome from its ranks

The big G announced a new browser this week, earlier than expected by the search engine/software giant’s own admission. Chrome is what a browser could be if it were designed from the ground up to handle all of today’s micro-applications that float around the web. That make the Internets such much fun.

Cool idea, but I won’t be able to check it out til they release a Mac client.

But the real problem is that they named it Chrome. And given the Goog’s dominance over web traffic (not the least of which is search engine-generated traffic), the messenger bag manufacturer with the seatbelt buckled shoulder strap, which also happens to be named Chrome, is losing its well-earned top spot in search engine rankings. A high ranking in search engine returns is a coveted spot, especially if your livelihood depends on sales.

I’m not even a Chrome bag user (I love my Cocotte), but I hate to see a small business owner get knocked around by a corporate giant. I hate it even more when it’s a bike business. And in just a matter of days since the big G’s announcement, Chrome messenger bags is losing hold of its ranking. September 2, it was still the first return when you search chrome. By this weekend, Mountain View was toppling San Francisco.

So, bike bloggers, I encourage you to strike back. Generate new links to Chrome, and links only to Chrome. Don’t link to the big G’s new Chrome, and let’s see if we can move Chrome back up in the rankings. Linking from your site (or any new links) further entrenches the relationship between the word chrome and messenger bags.

bike parking, Tokyo style

September Mass, one year behind us

This month, Durham Critical Mass turns one. At least, its modern incarnation turns one.*

To get you revved up for Thursday’s September Mass, enjoy these bike-filled scenes shot around Durham –  from August’s Critical Mass ride to beautiful weekends on two wheels.

Durham Velophilia from Phillip Barron on Vimeo.

Durham Velophilia is set to the music of the Seattle-based hip-hop duo Common Market. “Tobacco Road” is the title track on Common Market’s forthcoming album (set to be released September 11th). For many years, Durham was home to John D. Loudermilk, the songwriter who penned the popular 1960s tune by the same name. Like Loudermilk’s Trans-Atlantic hit, Common Market’s “Tobacco Road” is a bittersweet reflection on youth in an impoverished South that was full of promise and low on delivery. Although Common Market’s Ryan Abeo (RA Scion) is originally from Kentucky, the powerful lyrics (see below) will resonate in the city that tobacco built.

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