If you have ever spent time with the TTT you may have noticed that we have this strange obsession with the phrase “baby animal dance party.” Here’s why:
Category: Just for Fun
Rachel, Alix, Corinne, and Micky went out to check out our dumpster and a couple others for what we expected might be a pretty good night, we underestimated — big time.
At our first stop we met a bunch of skaters, one of which hopped into the bin with us, wondering what we were doing. He was down with the whole thing, but when we said he could have some of the stuff we found he wasn’t so sure.
We ended up bringing home a ridiculous number of treats from mango sorbet to mac&cheese balls to chocolate muffins, mango salsa, yogurt, lots of bell peppers, loaves of bread, 15 apple pies/lemon tarts/other pastry stuff, eggs again, bok choy, more salads, 3 boxes of cereal, gallon of milk, two crates of water, gorgeous flowers, bagels, more meat…when we rolled back to the house around 2:30am we were pleasantly surprised to find most people up and we all had a loud binge eating session while sorting through our bounty. We might have to do a free pie day tomorrow or something, our storage space is at capacity.
The most surprising item of all, however, we found inside a bagel dumpster we randomly went to while waiting for the TJs to close. Having passed a Bank of America we joked about perhaps dumpstering some money. Well, turns out in the bagel dumpster we found a whole wallet with $270! Also in the wallet, this girls ID, her SS card, everything. Despite our desperate need for a vacuum, we decided the best course of action was to find her and Jeanne ended figuring out her number and we’re hoping the wallet will be back in it’s owners hands shortly:)
Love, TTT
“No word yet on whether protesters will topple Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, but the rhetoric against Walker portrays him as a petty tyrant in need of a Cairo-styled comeuppance.
“Mini-Mubarak” is the latest label being thrown at Walker, who has infuriated labor unions with a proposal to end collective bargaining for state employees. Protesters in the state capitol are vehemently opposing Walker’s effort. Walker has said that he will not negotiate with unions because the state is “broke” and has nothing to offer.
Walker told the Associated Press last week that state National Guard “is prepared to respond if there is any unrest among state employees.” The statement has caused an outcry by union supporters, who claim it as a threat of physical violence to stop protests.
Michael Moore writes, via his website, “Justice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere” and quotes a Wisconsin protester’s sign proclaiming, “Down with dictators!”
Will Los Angeles be the next Cairo? We can only hope…
ALSO, some clowns kick the KKK’s ass:
more here: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/09/03/clowns-kicked-kkk-asses/
Time for the Co-op to get back out there and do some stenciling…came across these in the Mt. Victoria tunnel and thought they were cool. 
Don’t know where the fabric stuff was, just some random street walking around Wellington. Seems like there would be a lot of potential to get out around Los Angeles and do this type of stuff.
Also I think the little Pac Man guys are by some famous graffiti artist.
Here at last is the TTT interactive world map:
World in TechNiCoLoR
You can also get there via the link near the top of the blog titled “World in Technicolor.” I’ve been working on this project for a few weeks. In a sentence, it’s a custom Google Map to help TTT members and alumni keep abreast of our many and varied travels/adventures. Please give it a look. Feel free to put up markers for your current location, places you’ve lived before, or any geographical locale of significance to you. Include a few explanatory words, and a photo URL if you have one handy. Just click the map to add a marker.
For those who care about such things, here are the significant changes since I last emailed the link:
- added an instructions page
- new edit button allows you to update content without having to delete and create a new marker every time
- new zoom button centers and zooms in on markers (can be clicked more than once for different levels of zoom)
- can zoom to a specific address using the input box in the upper-right corner
- a list of the most recent markers and edits, with links
Steez and vinegar,
Jacob
So we were just checking out google maps looking for bike routes and we were on satellite view and decided to look where the house was…you can see some very interesting things:
1. This picture was clearly taken the morning after one of our parties and you can see our entire living room out on the front lawn:)
2. Rachel’s van is in the backyard still…
3. Our garden is actually blooming very nicely in this picture…come on guys let’s get on that
4. The outdoor common room can with all the car seats is easy to see.
5. You can see the fire pit.
6. Diskovery is in the driveway I believe.
Even before I moved into it, the Coop was affecting the way I saw things. It is the people that make the space, and when we are all together, I think something special happens. Maybe it’s as simple as friendship. I’d like to think it is friendship mixed in with the political, with passion, drive and consciousness. I don’t know how much of that is a fantasy and how much a reality. I do know though that there are very few places in my life that have been as thoughtful and lovingly critical as the Co-op has been. Throughout this year, though the personal transformation I have undergone has been less radical than I’d thought and hoped it would be, the coop has framed the kind of personal and political growth that will stay with me and continue to shape me forever. And I realize now that it is a change that has to come from myself, from personal research, and awareness.
This space has been from the get go, a place of music and art. Living with so many other artists has inspired my own art. The following are two poems that I have written about, or have been directly inspired by the co-op. Feel free to use one or both or parts of them!
You are the sonata to my ear ache.
You are the Picasso to my blind spot.
You are the wheel throwing to my insensitivity.
You are the Galileo to my apathy.
You are the nonsensical to my dictionary.
You are the cooperative to my prison bars.
You are the minnow to my cornucopia.
You are the encyclopedia to my pile of tattered rags.
You are the percussion symphony to my fish patties.
You are the electricity to my quivering desires.
You are the fruit medley to my guitar solo.
You bond the fanciful to my questionnaire.
The first of many houses
Music travels easily through these walls; the
Rising xylophone of Rachel’s laugher, and
The thud of bodies jumping up the
Stairs. Conversations come and go
Like speeding cars on a highway:
They are a distant hum at the porch,
They build force in the hallway,
They crescendo at the living room door.
Visions travel quickly down these halls. The
silhouettes of blackbirds soar across the walls,
wings beating like drums. Witches, and quetzals
have kept watch over my bedside, have
visited me in my dreams.
In the garden, an old ghost woman stands like a tree,
feeding tears into the soil. On warm nights,
she comes alive and whispers stories
into the wind. She dances between
the carrots and the tomato plant,
in little rhythmic, trembling steps
pressing seeds into the soil as she goes.
Laila
alright. here are a few things the co-op taught me.
* community is more important than cleanliness and chores (but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your chores)
* give
* support people in their endeavors outside of the house as much as possible
* learning to listen instead of waiting for your turn to speak
* learning to speak in a way that is adding something new to the conversation
* learning that i always have something to learn
* communal cooking (in mass quantities) is the only way to live
Something that I noticed during the summer after I moved out of the house made me realize just how valuable the community/space of the house really is. This might sound kind of contrived, but it really did get me thinking about what is important to me in life – the things that I value without realizing it. When I lived in the house, I very, very rarely used stuff like Facebook, except to advertise events on campus (so it goes with student organizing…). I definitely never updated my status, rarely posted things about myself, or even wrote on other peoples’ walls. When I moved back home for the summer, though, (before moving to NY in August), I found myself on Facebook, actively using it, much more frequently. Part of this may have been a result of just having more free time, but I realized that one of the biggest reasons I started doing this was because I just wanted to share things that were going on in my life. When I lived in the house, if something exciting happened, I could come home and there would be at least five people around whom I could tell about whatever happened. I had a very real community of people with whom I could share my life and the things that I cared about. During the summer, though, with significantly fewer people around in my parents’ house, I had to find another way to share with people – so I wound up trying to use internet communities as a surrogate. Let me tell you… it’s significantly less satisfying, and nowhere near as meaningful as having real interactions with people. I know this sounds obvious, but it was a very real experience of not knowing what I had until it was gone.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is, there are probably things about the house, or your life, or the world, that you love and appreciate without noticing that they are there. Just think of them as wonderful surprises that are waiting for you as you move on in life.
