Thursday night – Pecha Kucha

Tonight was really fun !. Our freindr Duane was giving a Pecha Kucha talk on Burnong man . Pecha Kucha  is a  form of story telling where each speaker presents 20 slides with 20 seconds to talk for each slide.  We’d never been to one.. so we were pretty excited. 

A bunch of our burning man freinds met uo at Zero Gravity for a pre gane beer.. (NA for me) .. 

  The total length of each talk is 6 minutes and 40 seconds .. 

Then on to the Flynn space for the event. THere were 10 speake rs tonight and Duane qwas the last. It was going to be fun,.  We heard talks on visiting wolves in th e wild, growing up in the inner city, repaiting antique windows, creating little free art galleries , the wonder of boobs,  the creation of exotic music machines , , black matriarchy,  and of course, burning man !

 

Many freinds in the audience too !

 

Really all the talks were wonderful in their own way. I knew several of the speakers (art gallery, boobs, music intrument and burning man.. and each one delivered a good story.. some were funny, some were inspiring.. all were interesting.

Duanes talk was great !> He talked about the 10 principles of Biurning Man .(Included here :

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on their inner resources.

Join the conversation in the 10 Principles blog series.
Join the conversation in the 10 Principles blog series.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

after the talk all the speakers gathered 

 

then out for a quick post game dinner and after party

 

Great night !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night morning hike

Diane and I have been trying to get out for a hike at least twice.. hopefully 3 times a week. I usually block of Wednesday mornings for a short hike. We hiked up the bamforth trail.  most of the snow was gone and the streams were running full force with the melt.  i

t definitely felt like spring might actually come !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – the smell of democracy

Today is the day that almost all towns in vermont hold their Town Meeting Day. It’s when the official business of the town is reported, discussed and voted on.

I waled in to the middle school gym and remembered.. as always it smeeled like floor polish and sweat.. this is the smell of democracy !

I’m been coming to Richmond’s towm meeting for 42 year.. with only a few days missed. It is really a wonderful display of what Democracy is (and should be ) about..   I remember being a young man (24 ? ) and wondering who all the old people n the room were.. now I was one of them 🙂   

 

I walked in to register my name (DIane and I had already sent in our ballots). as always.. I didn’t even need to give my name.. we all know each other here

 

As always I looked through the booklet that comes with themeeting. I  smilled when I saw Max and Becky’s wedding reported in there 

 

So many freinds to see and catch up with. I sat with our frewind the Bressors for the first part of the meeting.

 

Part of the budget brought up  some emotional interactions. One of the townspeople l called for a paper ballet on an amendment. It was seconded so we all lined up and voted on the yes/no question. The line  was out the door.  .It took over a half hour.. but no one complained.. Thats how things work here !

 

I went to work feeling good about our twon.. and how we can agree and dissagree and still all remain civil and freindly.. I wish the rest of the world worked that way !

Tonight was yoga and a wonderful dinner..   DIane gavew a great class !

 

 

 

I love our life here !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – March fourth !

It’s Mar 4.. or “March Fourth” one of the few days on the calander that are a complete sentence unto themselves !

An interesting thing happened today.. In early February I was working late…;. and decided to go out and get chinese food . It was about 8:30PM   so I went to a place just around the corner from work. The guy workign there notcied my BETA badge and asked about the place. His name was Kevin and he told me that he’d been wating the building of the production facility since it broke ground.. You can actually see it from the back of the resturarnt. I offered to show him around the place.. and gave him one of my cards. 

Kevin  actually took me up on the offer, called me and we set up a time for a tour. I was crazy busy.. but I never turn down a chance to show people what we’re doing here.. I gave Kevin a complete tour of our Production building.. It is always fun to see the place through other people’s eyes.. Its so amazing. 

Thanks for coming by Kevin !

nite all, nite Sam

-me