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howies® Little Big Voice: Welcome

Link: howies® Little Big Voice: Welcome.

Untitled Document

Link: Untitled Document.
meeting spaces
MEET

Smash Shack's Break Rooms

Link: Smash Shack's Break Rooms.

Who is this for?  Anyone and everyone!  Our Break Rooms are perfect for couples, friends, groups of friends, singles and more.  We love to host birthday parties, college graduation celebrations, bachelor/bachelorette parties, corporate parties, anniversaries, girls' or guys' nights out...whatever you can think of.  Here are some fun things to celebrate at the Smash Shack: Celebrate that break up...good riddance! Celebrate dumping that job you hated anyway! Celebrate paying off that stinkin' credit card! Celebrate that promotion you darn well deserved! Celebrate Friday night! Celebrate new found love... Our front room easily accommodates two, and is great for adventurous couples or brave loners (Sarah always uses the front room)! Our back VIP room (Ed's party central!) accommodates up to four, and is perfect for your group events.  The VIP room also has a nice large viewing area so the whole group can enjoy the destruction! Sarah's Smash Shack loves to increase awareness in the community.  May we recommend that you bring your support group in for a session?  We'd love to know what you think of our experience, and we'd love to put your link up on our page! Reservations suggested for large groups, to better help us accommodate your smashing good time!  619-702-8488

Lilla Rogers» Blog Archive » Anonymous Collective Creativity

Link: Lilla Rogers» Blog Archive » Anonymous Collective Creativity.

Here we are in Halibut Point on the north shore of Cape Ann, near Boston. This is an amazing collection of rock sculptures that we stumbled upon. I call it anonymous collective creativity. There is no ego involved, no commercial sponsor, no costs or fees to make this art. D

Frequently Asked Questions about Minnies - Chicago IL

Link: Frequently Asked Questions about Minnies - Chicago IL.

The idea behind Minnies originated in 1975 when Jonathan Segal’s mother, Joy, prepared miniature sized cheeseburgers for him and his guests at his 6th birthday party. Jonathan wanted to eat an “adult” size cheeseburger but his mother thought these were too big for him and his guests. Jonny didn’t want the burger to be split in half either. Using her super mom powers, Joy shrunk each burger and they were the hit of the party. These minnieburgers were the signature item at Jonathan’s birthdays the following four years. Fourteen years later, Jonathan introduced the Minnie cheeseburgers to the Chicago’s P.J. Clarke’s restaurant menu. Since then, the Minnieburgers have been the signature item at both P.J. Clarke’s restaurants, Le Passage, and at the United Center. Jonathan’s vision for Minnies occurred in 1997 when he thought the time was right for a quick chic casual food and drink concept centered on the successful minnieburgers. He simply thought it be fun and more desirable to enjoy favorite sandwiches in smaller portions and with more variety. From his extensive traveling overseas, Jonathan learned to appreciate good cheap table wine with the many sandwiches he experienced at the cafes and salons. His travels convinced him of a missing element in the American fast food culture: quality and variety. Through years of preparation, the words "minnie", “minnies”, “minnieburger”, “skinny minnies”, “minnie freeze” and other minnies lexicon are now United States Trademarks.

The Kitchen

Link: The Kitchen.

We had this idea to create an innovative new food space that would make everyday cooking fun and easy. We called it The Kitchen and we opened it in Parsons Green. Be it for everyday family meals, a dinner party or a romantic rendezvous The Kitchen provides you with the space, utensils, recipes, Michelin star chef (Thierry Laborde) and all the fresh, quality ingredients to prepare delicious meals for you to then take home, cook & enjoy. It's all very simple. Book yourself a time slot on the calendar, choose your meals from the seasonal menu and come along to your session. The ingredients (all carefully sourced by Thierry, washed, peeled, chopped and measured) are presented for you at an individual workstation. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions provided to create your masterpiece and feel free to ask for advice and tips from Thierry and his team of chefs, who are on hand to help. We then package up your meals and clean down your workstation, ready for the new set of ingredients for your next selected meal. Because we’ve prepared all the ingredients and Thierry and his team are on hand to help, you are easily able to make up to a weeks worth of evening meals in under 1 ½ hours (no matter how many people you have at home). We clear up and you go home relaxed and inspired with the dishes you have created. We’ve all asked ‘what’s for dinner’, well, the answer now is, The Kitchen. Natalie Richmond and Thierry Laborde

Link@Sheraton-Global Out of Office Day

Link: Link@Sheraton-Global Out of Office Day.

About CreateAthon®

Link: About CreateAthon®.

CreateAthon is a 24-hour, work-around the clock creative blitz during which local advertising agencies generate advertising services for local nonprofits that have little or no marketing budget. Since the program’s expansion from a single market to an international effort in 2001, 42 agencies have joined the CreateAthon network, holding CreateAthon events in their cities. This effort has benefited 1,008 nonprofit organizations with 2,143 projects valued at $8.4 million.

The W Group : Strategic Design & Communications

Link: The W Group : Strategic Design & Communications.

Live Where You Work Urban loft living and no commute to work. Plus neighborhood amenities right outside your door. How cool is that? 315 Richard Terrace is a one-of-a-kind, totally renovated property with a spacious top floor loft and a first floor office/studio space. Live where you work – or earn extra income by leasing the office. At $124/sq ft, this contemporary residential loft is priced well below downtown condos, which average $230/sq ft. This professionally designed, 6,440 sq ft property offers top-of-the-line features and amenities throughout and plenty of free, on-site parking. Located in the heart of Eastown, you are steps away from some of the city’s favorite eateries like Bombay Cuisine, Wolfgang’s and Yesterdog. Plus the Kava House, galleries, bookstores, boutiques, drug store, post office, dry cleaners, grocery store and more. Only minutes away are the farmer’s market and the cultural attractions of downtown Grand Rapids.

Out of Order

Link: Out of Order.

Awesome Art Hotels - Budget Travel

Link: Awesome Art Hotels - Budget Travel.

Artists and other creative types are having their way with hotel rooms—and they're thinking way outside the box.

MiLife MiTimes : Knowledge Is Power

Link: MiLife MiTimes : Knowledge Is Power.

SPAZIO ROSSANA ORLANDI

Link: SPAZIO ROSSANA ORLANDI.

Pane e Acqua da Francesco Passalacqua (opening on February 2008) An Historic “tabaccheria” in the established Magenta neighbour has become an innovative restaurant and bar which is open from 9 in the morning to 11 in the night. The restaurant designed by the architect Paola Navone for Rossana Orlandi follow the spirits of the Spazio, just two steps behind the corner on the same street. The interior mixed of contemporary and vintage design pieces and industrial lightings and tables gives a unique charm of old and new. NEXT OPENING FEBRUARY 2008

Citizen Space » About

Link: Citizen Space » About.

Citizen Space is a coworking space in San Francisco located at 425 Second St on the third floor. It is generally open from 10am - 6pm weekdays. The idea of Citizen Space is to take the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional) and combine them to give indie workers the chance to have their own, affordable space. Citizen Space was built on coworking philosophy. Day-tripping and casual guests can visit for free and if you want to leave your stuff, we rent out desks for $350/month. We also hold various events at our space and are happy to consider making our facilities available for event hosting.

How to Make Your Library Great | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)

Link: How to Make Your Library Great | Project for Public Spaces (PPS).

Multistorey

Link: Multistorey.

Pecha Kucha Night

Link: Pecha Kucha Night.

What is Pecha Kucha Night? Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. But as we all know, give a mike to a designer (especially an architect) and you’ll be trapped for hours. The key to Pecha Kucha Night is its patented system for avoiding this fate. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation. If you are interested in starting a Pecha Kucha Night in your city, please contact : pechakucha@klein-dytham.com

Gray V - Custom Music for Business

Link: Gray V - Custom Music for Business.

Colori

Link: Colori.

You and I Productions

Link: You and I Productions.

FEATURE co-lab:ORATION by Jordan Ehrlich (photos by Felix Salzman) What? 5$ to see poetry, painting, music, a DJ… and tap dancing? Co-Lab All on the same night? Wait, you mean all at the same time? Holy Cannoli! As the modern spoken word movement reaches new heights in the American counter-culture, from the inception of the National Poetry Slam over 15 years ago to the recent arrival of Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry Jam, more and more people are drawn to this ever-emerging art form. In the wake of poetry’s rising popularity, it is this humble poet’s belief that poetry readings have slowly lost the communal vibe that captured the minds and voices of the recent generations in the first place.

Pursue the Passion: HOME

Link: Pursue the Passion: HOME.

Pursue the Passion addresses this issue by interviewing people who are propelled by a love for their work. From these interviews, our mission is to assist aspiring individuals to find work they can be passionate about by producing resources that help direct and guide their pursuit. Join the journey this summer as we embark on a three month, 14,000 mile journey to conduct 200 interviews across the country. Read about the interviews, the journey, and see where our tour is headed by clicking on the links at left.

Artists paint Detroit's derelict buildings Tiggeriffic Orange - Boing Boing

Link: Artists paint Detroit's derelict buildings Tiggeriffic Orange - Boing Boing.

An underground artist clade in Detroit is painting the city's many derelict buildings "Tiggeriffic Orange," in order to liven the landscape. They call the project "Detroit. Demolition. Disneyland."     The artistic move is simple, cover the front in Tiggeriffic Orange - a color from the Mickey Mouse series, easily purchased from Home Depot. Every board, every door, every window, is caked in Tiggeriffic Orange. We paint the facades of abandoned houses whose most striking feature are their derelict appearance.

The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy

Link: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy.

A century ago, the invention of recorded sound, radio and moving pictures transformed art and entertainment.  Americans were no longer exposed to art and culture primarily through local venues, live performances, and amateur artists and entertainers.  Instead, national markets arose along with new professional communities of artists.  The star system was born, access to art and culture expanded by leaps and bounds, and emerging divisions between elite and popular culture became more pronounced.  Today, the arts in America face similar transformative changes.  New technologies, new systems of distribution, declining prices, increasing leisure, and a rising “creative class” foretell a potential cultural renaissance where citizens actively navigate an unlimited bandwidth of new and diverse cultural possibilities.  But how exactly will this transformation play out?  Who is most likely to benefit? Engaging Art forges a new framework for understanding these momentous changes in America’s cultural life.  The book challenges old ways of thinking, raises probing questions and uncovers deep and important currents in how Americans engage with arts and culture, sounding a clarion call for new research and thinking about the arts in this country.  Contributing authors demonstrate that notions of high culture are changing; that the link between elite art and status is becoming more tenuous; that more American’s engage with art and culture through church and other religious institutions than through traditional concert and museum venues; that cultural participation may be less about individual enrichment and personal enlightenment and more about family, friends and community; that quiet, passive and polite audiences are giving rise to interactive, demanding and engaged consumers; that seemingly limitless variety and abundant cultural choice does not always lead to more satisfied consumers; and that questions about future trends in cultural participation depend less on whether or not young people are listening to classical music, and more on how kids are forging entirely new creative forms using changing technologies. The book’s editors include Bill Ivey, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Steven Tepper, a prominent cultural policy scholar and sociologist.  Together, they bridge the academy and the world of public policy, sociology and vernacular culture, research and practice.  The books contributors include such noted scholars as Robert Wuthnow and Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University; Richard Peterson and Dan Cornfield, Vanderbilt University; J. Mark Schuster and Henry Jenkins from M.I.T.; and Barry Schwartz from Swarthmore College.

Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School: New York

Link: Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School: New York.

How is Dr. Sketchy's different from a normal life drawing class? In normal life classes, silent students sit in a silent room and draw a bored, oft-uninteresting model. In Dr. Sketchy's we've got bodacious burlesque queens as models. We've got ridiculous art contests (best incorporation of a woodland animal? Best imagined costume?), good music and flashy prizes. We've got a selection of posh beverages- alcoholic and not- available to buy. At Dr. Sketchy's, we don't care if you picked up a pad yesterday or 50 years ago. Come to drink or to draw. We're happy to have you. Who are you? Who's Dr. Sketchy? I'm Molly Crabapple, and I draw saucy Victoriana for magazines. I used to work as a life model during art school. I thought they were boring and decided to take a stab at the medium. Thus, Dr. Sketchy's was born. John Leavitt is my cohost, DJ, aesthetic arbitator and graphic design god. I'm also aided by the noble helper monkies Ryan Roman, Syd Bernstien and Steve Walker. I've been running this here event since 2005. Dr. Sketchy is a literary device. What mediums can I use? All dry mediums are okay, as are dip pens and a neat watercolour sets. Oil paints, messy mediums and stinky mediums are not okay. Please don't cause a mess. We have to stay afterwords and Joi will spank us. Sharpen your pencils over the garbage can. Are there easles? Tables? Sketchpads? Lucky Cat has some tables. All seatings' available first come, first served, so if you're late you might end up sitting on the floor. If you want a guaranteed table, you can snag one for five extra dollars. Tables go fast.

inQbox - u r b a n . r e t a i l . u t i l i t y

Link: inQbox - u r b a n . r e t a i l . u t i l i t y.

inQbox™ [in-Q-box] is the first urban retail utility™ concept store of it's kind, conceptualised in 2003 and set-up in 2004 by owner and founder Danas Njoto. inQbox™ represents a collective of independant designers and entrepreneurs from your city and around the world, whom we call boxPreneurs™. If you've always wanted to develop and incubate your talents further than just a hobby, home business or side interest and are just waiting to break into the retail market, inQbox™ will give you retail space + gallery space [inQboxlets™] at low cost and low risk. As inQbox™ strongly encourages creativity & entrepreneurship, we will provide you with not only an accessible retail option but also merchandising and marketing tips for your products. We will give you a chance to create exposure for your brand and merchandise, and at the same time, reduce your retail hassles. Set in prime location, inQbox™ helps you embark on your dream of having your own shop and being your own boss while letting you continue with your busy life, be it taking care of your children, travelling or working in a corporate firm. Yes, most of our boxPreneurs™ are talented people just like you! For A Good Cause inQbox™ actively contributes to social causes by providing Charities with space at no-profit to sell their handicraft and art. We have so far worked with The Spastic Children's Association GRO Workshop among others, because the less fortunate can be creative too!

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village

Link: WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village.

orldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.

Informed by that premise, we do our best to bring you links to (and analysis of) those tools, models and ideas in a timely and concise manner. We don't do negative reviews – why waste your time with what doesn't work? We don't offer critiques or exposes, except to the extent that such information may be necessary for the general reader to apprehend the usefulness of a particular tool or resource. We don't generally offer links to resources which are about problems and not solutions, unless the resource is so insightful that its very existence is a step towards a solution. We pay special attention to tools, ideas and models that may have been overlooked in the mass media. We make a point of showing ways in which seemingly unconnected resources link together to form a toolkit for changing the world.

Every link we post is informed by technology, but the new possibilities we cover aren't just high-tech. Sure, we all need to understand the uses (and dangers) of advances like biotechnology, the Internet, ubiquitous computing, artificial intelligences, "open source" software and nano-materials. But we also need to know how best to collaborate, how to build coalitions and movements, how to grow communities, how to make our businesses live up to their highest potential and how to make the promise of democracy into a reality. We need to understand techniques as well as technologies, ideas as well as innovations. How we work together is as important as the tools we use.

This is a conversation, not a sermon. We encourage not just feedback, but active participation, and, yes, challenge. Got a great idea for a resource we've missed? Let us know – better yet, write your own recommendation and send it to us. Think we're off-base with a recommendation we've made? Let us know that, too, and what resource you think we should have covered instead. Changing the world is a team sport.

 

The Not So Big House

Link: The Not So Big House.

The Not So Big House books by Sarah Susanka, bring to light a new way of thinking about what makes a place feel like home—characteristics that many people desire of their homes and their lives, but haven't known how to verbalize.

heartschallenger

Link: heartschallenger.

About Osento Bathhouse For Women

Link: About Osento Bathhouse For Women.

Essays on Literago

Link: Essays on Literago.

Chicago Lit is words inspired by doom, the story that springs eternal from the youthful sprint from the mugger on your way home at 3AM. She's my favorite THE2NDHAND story -- “The Astronaut of the Year,” by Joe Meno, or Al Burian's wishful Chi history “Zangara,” Brian Costello's “Floating to Chicago,” Literago host Gretchen Kalwinski's “Meantime” and all the gems that hit my inbox daily (dominated by the great city's scribes as they are). She's a Dollar-Store Friday night a month at the Hideout before a night of reading on the door stool at another bar, a conversation with Eric Graf about the potential of indie broadcasting never acted upon, a zine fair or BEA stopover and all the parties where the kids get a little, and the older folks a lot, too hammered. She's a crowd of 15 of three million humans in the back of Quimby's or the front of the Hungry Brain, or 100 at the Hideout, or 6 on the second floor of Myopic, or 10 at the Comix Revolution in Evanston, all gathered for tale telling, or surface-level or depth-charging wordsmithery, for the back-and-forth afterward at some nearby beer hole, all those times the event potential feels a great deal smaller than you realize later that it really is, time ceasing to be and camaraderie inserting itself as if of its very own accord into an argument about the relative merits of any number of things, the totality so ecstatic it once put me down, it did. I fell out a year and a half ago of a conversation in which I attempted to give directions to two scribes visiting from Louisville. The reading had been not so great, the night afterward nothing to write home about, but ‘twas a day full of activity -- the afternoon at a table in an art fair peddling magazines and books and by this silly end, I'd not eaten since noon. I cracked my head on the bar on the way down. We have something to talk about for life. An experiential totality, Chicago Lit's likewise that next morning, sitting at a desk with pen or keyboard, jotting the insult of it all down.

iKatun

Link: iKatun.

iKatun is an artist-run organization whose mission is to present contemporary art that fosters public engagement in the politics of information.

Grand Rapids – Rapid Growth - Innovation + Job News

Link: Grand Rapids – Rapid Growth - Innovation + Job News.

Duncan Wilson - Bute 2015

Link: Duncan Wilson - Bute 2015.

or the inhabitants of the Isle of Bute issues such as the aging population, isolation from the mainland and low employment prospects are affecting the community. Bute 2015 is a project that questions how design and objects could play a role in improving life on the island. I created a series of three objects; a wooden baton branded with ‘Isle of Bute' and the name of a fictional resident, a silver ring that is the shape of the Rothesay Castle and a homemade concrete brick that has a large shield shape protruding from its face. Each object relates to a fictional event, action or narrative involving the Isle of Bute community. These ‘myths' were inspired by research during a visit to the Isle of Bute and were created in direct response to a specific situation on the island. By presenting these ‘artefacts' and the narratives they belong to as real, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, could they become the seeds of an artificially generated, unique cultural identity that would change the perception of the island for the local people and outsiders? I aimed to give the community a sense of individuality and bonding uniqueness, improving the life of the local people by changing attitudes and general feeling on the island therefore increasing the responsibility and motivation for the community to better the lifestyle on the island for themselves. Thank you to Johnny Bute and everyone we met during our visit to the island.

BOOCOO: be the change

Link: BOOCOO: be the change.

Boocoo hopes to foster critical consciousness and willing participation by facilitating information in an interesting manner. Boocoo’s Community Dialogue is an event of constructive exchange in a safe community space. Community Dialogue events can range from seminars to workshops as well as movie nights for movie viewing and discussion. Boocoo invites local leaders, movers and shakers, teachers and professionals, artists and healers, as well as other organizations and businesses, to engage the community in a lively dialogue. Let us connect. Your time at Boocoo is an investment in the community. Boocoo has live sound capacity, a performance space, a video projector and screen, an outdoor café patio and meeting room. If you, or someone you know, would like to suggest a Community Dialogue series or single event, no matter how big or small – please contact us at: community@boocoo.org

Boutique Camping - Campsites

Link: Boutique Camping - Campsites.

Campsites On these pages we will be showcasing exciting and interesting campsites from the UK and beyond which feature alternative, or boutique camping provision. Whether that's a 'White Pod' on an alpine mountainside, or tipis set in beautiful secluded nature reserves of Cornwall, if it's boutique, it will be here ... NEW for 2007, we are working directly with Eweleaze Farm on the cliff top of Weymouth Bay, Dorset, UK to present a tipi village available for short and long stays during the month of August. Details TBC soon. Watch this space.

April 2007 | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)

Link: April 2007 | Project for Public Spaces (PPS). Why libraries matter now more than ever

The creation of the "information superhighway" threatened to make libraries obsolete, but today they are as prominent as ever. Libraries are taking on a larger civic role, redefining themselves as community centers for the 21st Century. The old model of the library was the inward-focused "reading room," the new one is more like a community "front porch."

ThinkeringSpaces, IIT Institute of Design

Link: ThinkeringSpaces, IIT Institute of Design.

ohn Seeley Brown, a MacArthur Foundation board member, has presented tinkering as an important learning mode and exploratory learning experience for kids where systems thinking, career trajectories, multiple ways of knowing, judgment, social entrepreneurialism and communication skills are key, emerging needs. Further, he identifies the atelier as a powerful learning and social environment where work in progress is made public and critiqued in the context of process. Learning is enculturated and the pedagogy moves seamlessly between lecture, experiment and discussion. He also describes the co-existence of explicit and tacit knowledge and the importance of learning to connect through doing. Libraries, along with museums, have tended to focus on collections that represent existing knowledge. However, both have evolved from being concerned with gathering formal knowledge useful to scholars to opening their collections to the public. Libraries have also recognized other ways of learning characterized by productive inquiry. Some libraries have implemented activity centers, reading groups, craft rooms and a range of other community-based programs. ThinkeringSpace presents a new alternative for building productive inquiry programs inside libraries. Spaces for tinkering with materials, objects, messages and images will allow children to explore their interests in a self-directed way.

ThinkeringSpaces, IIT Institute of Design

Link: ThinkeringSpaces, IIT Institute of Design.

This project is based on the notion that, as Gary Stager puts it, “a child comfortable tinkering with familiar items and playing with ideas will gain the confidence and self-awareness required to solve a wide variety of problems.” No Child Left Behind, in its aim to improve basic skills, is narrowing what many schools teach. Annual testing requirements in math and reading have absorbed much time and energy at the expense of other aspects of curricula, and performance improvements in the lower grades are often not reflected later. There appears to be a "complexity gap" when kids are confronted with more conceptual thinking in higher grades (Toppo, 2007). Concurrently, the new digital landscape is radically changing how and where kids learn, play, interact and experience the physical environment. As physical activities are increasingly exchanged for play in the virtual world, the opportunity for learning from the physical world is diminished. Digital tools are changing how kids socialize and how they experience each other. New modes of interaction enabled by technology, such as multi-tasking, communicating on the fly (anywhere, anytime, remote, synchronous, asynchronous access), and co-located editing and authoring are already pervasive. While these behaviors link this digital generation, their knowledge of digital media and tools often separate them from teachers and other adults who have become accustomed to more traditional technologies. Technology, in addition, is creating new experiential opportunities for exploring, learning and interacting, both inside and outside of homes, schools and other institutions. Importantly, these opportunities for open-ended, self-directed discovery are valued for the process of discovery, not the product of discovery that is important. Kids actively engaged in the process of making, experiencing and reflecting on their work is a viable outcome in itself. Tinkering for the sake of one's own discovery promotes more than just learning about the topic of inquiry. Tinkering further promotes the development of critical thinking skills that will prepare kids as they encounter future, more-complex scenarios. The trends resulting from the digital revolution indicate a demand for all kids to develop more progressive skills for future success. In particular, the following list of competencies, formerly seen as niche skills sets, is forecast to be of major importance for today's kids in their adult futures:

Leader - Feargal Quinn

Link: Leader - Feargal Quinn.

Leader - Feargal Quinn Ireland's "Pope of Customer Service" dominates his market -- and continues to beat bigger rivals -- with a leadership philosophy that is at once folksy and radical. Behind all his success is one big question: How do we convince our customers to come back? From: Issue 52 | October 2001 | Page 88 | By: Polly LaBarre | Photographs By: Graham Macindoe Feargal Quinn is in no rush to get to the point. It's Monday, the only day of the week that he spends in the nondescript suite of offices on the outskirts of Dublin that constitutes the "support office" of Superquinn, the supermarket chain he founded 40 years ago. Quinn has leadership lessons to teach, but right now he has stories to tell. Which is most welcome, because to hear a story told by Quinn, a compact Irishman with silver hair and dancing blue eyes, is to settle into the front row of a performance that has been given many times, but that still imparts valuable secrets. "If you've got the chance to be born again," he says with a wink, "do your best to be born into a family that runs a holiday camp. It's a smashing way to grow up -- and a smashing business education." That's how Quinn grew up, of course. He spent school breaks at his father's Red Island holiday camp just outside Skerries on the coast of northern County Dublin, working as a waiter, page boy, bingo caller -- whatever the day called for. What he was really doing was soaking up insights and experiences that formed the core of a leadership philosophy that is at once folksy and radical. The most vivid takeaway for the young Quinn was his father's policy of charging guests up front for their entire holiday. "It was set up so that no matter how hard we worked to give our guests a great experience, we wouldn't increase our profit from their stay," says Quinn. "The only way we could judge our success was if the guests came up to my father and said, 'Mr. Quinn, I had a great holiday. I'm rebooking for next year.' Every single thing we did was centered on one overriding aim: to get people to come back. I learned that if you look after getting repeat business, profit will largely take care of itself. When faced with any business decision, any call on your time or resources, you need to ask, What will this do to help bring the customer back?

... (con't)

Harmen de Hoop

Link: Harmen de Hoop.

ADELAIDE 8 TRICYCLES (proposal for a permanent outdoor sculpture) 1997 Eight yellow tricycles placed randomly on the streets and sidewalks of Paynehamroad. A struggle for space between cars and tricycles.

FOOTNOTES TO PUBLIC SPACE
The site-specific art of Harmen de Hoop 

Half a basketball court on a new housing estate, ending abruptly at a footpath, a phone booth rather optimistically labelled 'HOTEL', a fire extinguisher affixed to a pillarbox, and a row of coat hooks on a sign welcoming tourists to the French Alps. Maker unknown. And who is likely to wonder about the maker of such casual additions to the 'public' furniture? Yet there is an artist behind these often absurd footnotes to our public space: Harmen de Hoop. An artist who refuses to sign his work.

He works without a client, installing his 'landscape adjuncts' illegally and anonymously. He does not publicize their installation, nor does he force the passer-by to pay attention. As an example, he decorated an entrance to a Rotterdam metro station with the word 'HOTEL' in huge letters, as if inviting all vagrants and junkies to spend the night there. Where an asphalted path through the woods crossed a sandy track he painted markings for cyclists to get in lane; puzzling because of their pointlessness, but not unfamiliar either. And it is entirely in keeping with De Hoop's adage that his work must merge imperceptibly with the surroundings.

De Hoop prefers not to use the word intervention, but 'contextual displacement'. The modernistic idea of a work of art as a limited and total object is in his view redundant. The monumental presence of the single unique object is implausible in this period of societal fragmentation. And so De Hoop opts for the modest gesture.

Anonymity is an essential aspect of his work, since it has consequences for the way in which it is experienced. He retreats from his creation, thereby denying the spectator the frame of reference of the 'art' concept.

One of the consequences of anonymity is the reaction to De Hoop's BASKETBALLCOURT (Amsterdam). He painted the lines of a basketball court in a yard though these were abruptly halted halfway by a footpath. After a few weeks the local council set up the 'missing' basket. Later, when it proved not to be what it seemed, the lines were removed but the basket stayed where it was.

BASKETBALL COURT (1996) AMSTERDAM

 

Citycouncil (?) placed basket

 

De Hoop's objects function within the linguistic codes of the setting, say a city, in which they have been placed. A city, which suggests that it is an organic unit, is often no more than a combination of happenstances, a web of holes. De Hoop uses his work to accentuate the loose ends, the incongruities and the failures which make up a city. And in that sense too, he wants to reflect fragmentation, to provide a picture that is more realistic than the suggestion of unity.

His objects are suggestions included in a context of varying opinions on the surroundings, without resulting in a final judgement. Instead of coming up with the absolute, liberating work of art, Harmen de Hoop weaves his network of footnotes, quotation and question marks through the urban structure. There are no exclamation marks in this vocabulary.

More recently Harmen de Hoop gets people to participate in his work. Sometimes as 'Proposals for permanent outdoor sculptures' or as protagonists in a staged event. As with his anonymous sculptures in public space the working method remained the same; he visits and photographs an unlimited number of locations in the chosen city. Until he finds the right site for his intervention. Due to the temporary nature of the work, these actions are documented and presented in the form of publications.

texts: Robert-Jan Muller, Jason Coburn, Harmen de Hoop.

How to Do What You Love

Link: How to Do What You Love. How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham

The 5W's of Hear, Hear | Hear, Hear

Link: The 5W's of Hear, Hear | Hear, Hear.

What is this all about? Hear, Hear is an online publication for small business owners, freelancers, and other like-minded people. We publish new findings on the web (articles, tools, how-tos), we interview interesting people and businesses, and compile useful references for our readers to help them succeed in running their own businesses. When? Early summer of 2006 – till all the glaciers melt. The idea behind Hear, Hear was conceived in the Spring of 2006, and what you see before you is just the beginning. Going forward, fresh links relevant to the small business world are provided daily, and we’ll try to publish new features about every other week (good things take time, and we’re limited in staff). Our interviews are extensive, interesting and packed with useful information; and our features will be authored by those who are tried and true business survivors, offering wisdom in their own way. Where is this thing from? Here – http://www.hearhear.us. And we’re based in expensive New York City. Who is behind all this? Yours truly, Iridesco, Inc. A small business building products and offering design & technology consulting services. Why does Hear, Hear exist? Because ever since we started our business (Iridesco) in 2003, we wanted a good and honest publication where we can find stories about other businesses, useful tips and how-to’s, and new tools that might help our studio. We believe that like us, there’s a lot of you out there, you with a new, fantastic idea, incredible skills, or a passion for something that you would like to make a living from, who would love to read a magazine like Hear, Hear. BONUS - What else? Hear, Hear will publish a variety of things. But there are two words we stress at this publication – morality and creativity. We believe in running a good business but keeping the morals in check (instead of just blind pursuit of profit); and we believe all of us small people without a large budgeting muscle must use our creativity to survive and thrive. And we like humor. Hear, Hear is about sharing knowledge and giving voice to small businesses and the like-minded. We interview the people you don’t hear about, people who don’t have the big flashy names and connections, who are working to make their ideas more than just a vision. Hear, Hear will seek out those people – the business owners, the freelances, and other interesting men and women — and tell their stories. We welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions. We will review all submissions fairly, and try to write reviews as objectively as possible. No rips, no negativity on Hear, Hear We will try to offer constructive criticism when reviewing, and we will only publish products that are accessible to the public. Hear, Hear is for our readers, the small business owners, the busy multi-talented individuals, the entrepreneur. Time is precious, get all the info you need now.

Happen, Inc. - About Us

Link: Happen, Inc. - About Us.

From sketches to skits, movie stars to junkmen, both children and adults are enjoying what's Happen-ing in the wide world of creativity! Happen, Inc. is a non-profit organization that allows adults and children the opportunity to grow and explore the ways of art together! Based on the most fundamental principles, Happen's classes and projects use the silly, the crazy and the most lively means to build art awareness, sharpen basic art skills and ignite the creative energy between you and a special child! No other program will make you think, learn and create in quite the same way. Who knew art could be so fun?

designverb

Link: designverb.

“These pay-as-you-can cafes have missions that are unapologetically altruistic—call it serving up fare Robin Hood style. “Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity,” explains Brad Birky, who opened SAME with his wife, Libby, in October. Customers who have no money are encouraged to exchange an hour of service — sweep, wash the dishes, weed the organic garden — for a meal. Likewise, guests who have money are encouraged to leave a little extra to offset the meals of those who have less to give. “We’re a hand up, not a hand out,” says One World owner Denise Cerreta, who prides herself on the fact that everyone can afford a meal at her café. The cafés’ business models have won fans among the city’s well-to-do residents, many of whom regularly dine there. At One World, patrons have given Cerreta a car, bought new dishes, arranged to professionally clean her carpets, supplied new tile for the restaurant bathrooms, and donated property for an organic garden and funded a new irrigation system for it. Last week, a gentleman left a $50 bill next to an empty bowl of soup at SAME. Since opening, one man has regularly come in and left money on the counter without eating, stating “I was blessed today so I though I’d pass it on.” He’s homeless.” via TIME.

About Us - American Profile

Link: About Us - American Profile.

American Profile is a weekly, four-color magazine that celebrates hometown American life. It's a heartfelt reminder of what's good about who we are and the places many of us still call home. American Profile is about places where drive-in movies, county fairs, and simple acts of neighborly kindness are more than fond memories. They are woven into the fabric of everyday life. It's about Sunday afternoon picnics, 4th of July parades where people aren't ashamed to shed a tear when the flag passes, and about doing what's right-just because it's right. American Profile is about this country's roots, and the people and places that still make America great.

Bar Veloce Menu

Link: Bar Veloce Menu.

In spirit of being a “fast bar,” food and wine at Veloce is delivered with precision at the original communal table – the bar – giving customers the freedom to set their own pace to their experience. Prices are reasonable in an effort to both encourage the enjoyable union of wine and food, and to enable customers to make multiple visits a week, all the while promoting a healthier sense of alcohol.  The wines are more unique, more sought after than at your average bar and represent the diverse spectrum of Italy's terroir.  The food, though not hyper gourmet, is made from the finest Italian products and is barely manipulated in order to bring forth the freshest of flavor.  Enjoy...

Creative Think: Speed-Reducing Art

Link: Creative Think: Speed-Reducing Art.

Speed-Reducing Art

The Incredible Shrinking City | Metropolis Magazine

Link: The Incredible Shrinking City | Metropolis Magazine.

The Incredible Shrinking City Facing steep population decline, Youngstown, Ohio, is repositioning itself. By Belinda Lanks Posted April 17, 2006 When the mills shut down in the 1970s and ’80s, the smokestacks and foundries that symbolized steel belt manufacturing cities gave way to factory shells and rust. First unemployed, workers then began to move away for good. Unlike former steel powerhouses, such as Pittsburgh and Allentown, that have tried to attract new industry and grow their way back to prosperity, Youngstown, Ohio, is hitching its future to a strategy of creative shrinkage. Last year Youngstown 2010—a partnership between the city’s planning department and Youngstown State University—unveiled a comprehensive plan to reduce nonessential infrastructure, attract new businesses, and rehab deteriorated and abandoned spaces. In fact Youngstown is the first city in the United States to adopt this disarming approach to the problems of population decline. “It’s politically and professionally uncomfortable to face the shrinkage of a city or region, even though it may be staring you in the face,” says Frank Popper, an urban-planning professor at Rutgers and Princeton universities. “I think it’s enormously brave and creative and innovative of Youngstown to be taking on this task.” Brave? Maybe. But Youngstown has little choice: once a city of more than 170,000, it counts roughly 80,000 residents today. The town had to recast itself as a smaller place. “You had all of this excess infrastructure and a declining tax base,” says Oliver Jerschow of Urban Strategies, which developed the basis for Youngstown 2010’s plan. “But on the positive side, Youngstown had these legacies that a typical city of eighty thousand would never have.” Those legacies include assorted cultural venues, a 140-acre university campus, and the five-mile-long Mill Creek Park.

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A Story of Community Redevelopment in Ohio by Frances Moore Lappe

Link: A Story of Community Redevelopment in Ohio by Frances Moore Lappe.

Just five years ago Nelsonville looked pretty sad. In this southern Ohio town of just over 5,000, crumbling sidewalks bordered empty storefronts. Only two stores were still doing business around the once-charming town square. “But this place had an amazing history,” June Holley told us during a recent workshop of the UpliftAcademy held in Wellesley, Massachusetts. “The area around Nelsonville was the birthplace of the CIO.” But when coal mining left this Appalachian community in the late 1900s, so did the community’s life. Or so it seemed. Then, in 2003, Miki Brooks opened FullBrooks Coffee Shop on the Square. Brooks thought she was satisfying a desire for good coffee, but it turned out she was quenching another, deeper thirst as well. Within a few months, FullBrooks had become a conversation hub, a new town square in which folks – from the local community college to local foundations and local businesses – began to talk…and to dream. They realized the area was rich in artisans, from painters and weavers to woodworkers and potters.

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The Shire of Bend, Oregon

Link: The Shire of Bend, Oregon.

he Shire is more than a different community. It is the ultimate destination: HOME. The Shire is a development that borrows its basic design concept, styling and features from an era where the sense of community, the beauty of the land and the interaction of the residents with the land had high value. The Shire brings the spirit of a great age to daily living. The Shire has many flavors of eighteenth century English architecture and landscaping chosen because the style of the period was enchanting, evoking good feelings of a simpler lifestyle than the present. The Shire is a place where just the beauty and charm of the grounds and the structures make you relax, smile and be happier. We set out to create a lifestyle rather than a subdivision. In The Shire you will find good, sturdy homes with personality and character and great neighbors who share common values and a desire for the sanctuary of home. The Shire is conceived to be a retro community in its exterior appearance. Inside The Shire dwellings you'll find a blend of quaint and charming styling cues melded throughout completely modern floor plans, conveniences and appliances. To achieve the character and feeling of English cottages and village townhomes, The Shire designers have specified only high quality fixtures and materials. Some materials, seldom seen in residential construction for a hundred years, have been resurrected and manufactured from contemporary compositions. The Shire is unique, fearlessly created to the vision of developer Ron Meyers and a team of designers to help implement his vision. The Shire's homeowners will share this unique vision to have their community and primary residence beyond the ordinary incorporated with the values and charms of a different age.