FTB35 - archaeological artifacts (updated 3-16-15)

from Wealth and Physical Stamina:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015

PAST TENSE PRESENT TENSE

Between 2008-2013 WNPS documented short-lived bands worthy of replay.  Many of these tapes were never released to the public as members went on to other projects.  As these 4-track master tapes resurface, we will digitize + compile them here with downloadable links.  You can also listen via Youtube, with tracks listed.  

family treasure trove:
Sparrowhawk
Nervous Juvenile
Firebrand (download here, see below for stream
Heat Rash (download here, see below for stream)
Brothers (download here, see below for stream)
Relax Band

Here are some old WNPS cassette releases to listen to:
WNPS01: Skin Shit - Prom Teeth
WNPS02: Gas Explode - Shrivel, Squirt, Implode
WNPS05: Necro Hippies - Sore Throat
WNPS06: Fisher Cat - Apocalypse
WNPS07: Fisher Cat

FTB34 - Paths to Land

The old dusty "Freedom to Build" thought that the processes for legally accessing vacant property around town were quite hard to interpret.  This veil has contributed to a skewed sense of who can access vacant property to enliven neighborhoods, and should be lifted!   We pored over documents, visited sites, and interviewed folks until all of our brains' water evaporated.  The outcome was the tri-fold "Paths to Land Use" pamphlet. 

Download it here.  It's a tri-fold, so it looks wacky until it's folded.  

Labyrinthine processes created + intertwined consciously, worded in a foreign tongue... "Post-Kelo Era"?

FTB33 - "Water on Display" from 1968

explanation of environmental processes with mid-1900's graphic design

In 1968 the United States was waking up to industrialized population growth's adverse effects on natural systems that we rely upon, and the US Geological Survey compiled 100+ graphics from public presentations explaining complicated hydrologic + geologic processes.  "Water on Display" documents posters by USGS's Water Resources, Conservation, Computer, Geologic, Topographic, Marine Research, and Recruiting Divisions.  

Take a look! You can download it HERE (28MB medium resolution) and HERE (9MB low res).  I've reduced the resolution to create a manageable filesize. Hopefully this hard-to-find document can be of interest to others working with public environmental education and have renewed relevance as water management issues continue to shape the future of our existence.  See the Data Center (formerly Greater New Orleans Community Data Center) report: The Water Workers: Workforce Opportunities in Water Management in Southeast Louisiana

The USGS still has reports available on all sorts of detailed topics via their maps + publications, lending programs with their library, and localized project sites such as Water Resources of Louisiana.  This is from San Diego's brand-new 9-story Central Library, which houses a high school, art gallery, event space, and more.  

connection

Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila clavipes) web successfully cornered this wasp nest at an abandoned camp east of Bayou Boeuf's mouth along Lac Des Allemands.  Wasps not using nest anymore.  "Check mate."  Perhaps some wasps survived.  The Orb Weaver's web spread across a wide opening adjacent to this corner.  The spider was dead and dried on the web, testifying to their silk's strength.  Curious of the timeline of these events.

Landscape Ecologist Richard Forman talks about a web of urban growth patterns, culture, natural systems, and our world's future through a bioregional perspective on human development.    See Max Cafard

New Orleans' Adventure Playground

 Black Cat Moving supports Parisite Skatepark.  "Affordable, experienced, and reliable. (504) 302 8598."

Parisite Skatepark has grown from a DIY Bring-Your-Own-Ramp park to an official New Orleans Recreation Development Commission recreation space. Interspersed throughout the permanent concrete ramps, Parisite sretains elements of an adventure playground, with loose parts all around - movable and available for interpretative use by park participants. 

loose parts at Parisite, large and small.

By Lady Allen of Hurtwood's standards*, there are two official "adventure playgrounds" that I know of in the US -- many more if you count informal spaces.  This lack of much-needed exploratory learning environments for youth  is connected to the liability insurance required for public play spaces: widely-recognized codes and standards (ASTM International) guarantee safety and longevity of play structures by describing approved construction materials, designs, and methods.  What are acceptable safe "best practices" for playground elements that are impermanent and open to interpretation, with risk as an essential park of play? 

Charlie Thomas in New Orleans, from the first Preservation Skateboards ad.  When static forms are a part of a playground, the flexibility of how we interface with these forms determines the possiblities for play.  Variation in form + imagination + flexible tools = infinite possibilities of interaction.

Enter skateboarding: a relatively brand-new form of recreation, it is the 3rd most popular teenage sport in the United States and sorely underrepresented in most parks systems.  Based in free-form creativity and exploration of our environment, some cities have even developed skatepark master plans (Seattle Citywide Skatepark Plan is a great example of this).  ASTM F2334-09 - "Standard Guide for Above-Ground Public Use Skatepark Facilities" specifies methods for safe skateable space, which can be moveable and open to interpretation.  By creating specifications for accepted replicability, these ASTM standards allow for municipalities to accept + insure skateparks instead of pulling out bulldozers in fear of someone hurting themselves.  By paying attention to ASTM Standards, Parisite Skatepark's DIY features were not demolished by the forces that be, and instead have been accepted by a recreation department looking for relevant ways to provide for local youth. 

Is it best to take something as organic, spontaneous, and alive as adventure play and codify it for acceptance?  How far can a "best practice" be stretched to balance invigorating, innovative, efficient usage of our world with safety?  I can't answer that. But if it is a means towards folks of all ages accessing otherwise-nonexistant physical, unprescribed, and interactive environments, I'm for it. 

Will free play keep humans from becoming cyborgs?  Not by itself, but it's a start!

*"There was a wealth of waste material on it and no man-made fixtures. The children could dig, build houses, experiment with sand, water or fire and play games of adventure and make believe." via Play and Playground Encyclopedia

moving water elsewhere.

best buds in the rain.

canal waters froze time. 

wetland flux

On a recent job we replicated flotants in open cisterns used to manage stormwater, primarily using driftwood to create a substrate for soil + plants to hold onto.  Dr. Thomas' mention of the change from floating marsh to swamp forest as woody plants root and take over reminds me of a recent trip to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, in South Carolina just above Savannah, GA.  Shown in the photo below, cattails are involved in transforming this freshwater pond into a maritime forest -- as cattails fall, they fill in the swamp's depression and build soil as they break down. 

White Ibis rookery.  Scarlet Ibis are in the area as well but are more easily found around the Savannah Wildlife Refuge to the southwest.

mama gator, about 11' long.  We counted 12 young gators in the area, each about 30" long - swimming, basking, and resting in the shade. Note Typha (cattail) colonizing exposed mud.

About 2/3 of the Pinckney refuge is comprised of salt marsh and tidal creeks, where Ibis can be found eating.