shoobedoobe

Fairhaven MA - new school vote

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:55:00 +0000

photo by mslavick

I needed to know more about the process that brought us to our upcoming votes about the new Fairhaven schools. The presentations by the School Building Committee adamantly state that the facts point only to the solution they represent, however I've heard enough opposition to warrant some research.

Complaints that the School Building Committee (SBC) had their mind made up before the process began are borne out by the Mass School Building Authority (MSBA) letter (1) linked below.

I thought I could learn a lot about the process from the meeting minutes of the SBC. My wife attended some of these meetings and was frustrated by the committee's handling of public commentary and concern.

A select few of the SBC's minutes are available at the their website (2). But where meetings were contentious or public opposition was voiced, no meeting minutes are posted.

The Superintendent's office informed me that the minutes of the School Building Committee could be found at the Town Clerk's office. The clerk's office does have minutes of a few of this years' meetings not available at the SBC site (3), but only meeting agendas for meetings of February 1, 15 and 16 and nothing for the months leading up to the Town Meeting in May (March April and May). These meetings were filled with resident opposition to the Board's actions and decisions.

The clerk's office does have meeting minutes and/or agendas from June 16 through September.

The minutes from Feb. 9 mention meetings with MSBA. I've written the MSBA to try to view minutes of their meetings with the Fairhaven SBC, but have not heard from them yet.

Conclusion:
The SBC has carefully considered only one option, and their conclusion points to their one-school solution. I'm disturbed by the Fairhaven School Building Committee's continued lack of transparency and manipulation of information.

Thanks for your time

-mat coes

links

1) http://www.massschoolbuildings.org/sites/default/files/edit-contentfile/News%20And%20Events%20-%20Other/Fairhaven%20Letter%20April%2028,%202011.pdf

2) https://sites.google.com/site/fnesbuildingcommittee/home

3) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4314588/FhvnSBC%20Minutes/FhvnSBC%20Feb1-2011%20Agenda.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4314588/FhvnSBC%20Minutes/FhvnSBC%20Feb9-2011%20Minutes.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4314588/FhvnSBC%20Minutes/FhvnSBC%20Jan19-2011%20Agenda.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4314588/FhvnSBC%20Minutes/FhvnSBC%20Jan19-2011%20nimutes.pdf

VOTE New Bedford!

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:37:00 +0000

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is pitting a handful of undeserved municipalities against New Bedford, Massachusetts in a bid to become the nation's top 'Distinctive Destination'.

I've been to a number of these places and, frankly, I think N.B. has an uphill battle ahead.
HOWEVER
The power is in our hands {dastardly laugh}. You can VOTE for New Bedford each and every day (but just once a day) until March 15. You'll need to register, but they seem like a benign enough organisation to give your email address to.
I can imagine droves of seekers, exiting the highway to explore the debris by the sea, getting lost and frustrated, never finding their way out and staying in New Bedford forever. A new community of distinction, forging a new, New Bedford.
Join me, and VOTE New Bedford.

While you're at it, visit New Bedford Every Day. It hasn't been updated in forever, but really, neither has the city.
And finally, congratulations to Alma Del Mar, just approved as New Bedford's newest Charter School.

all together now

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:57:00 +0000

In Bb (B flat)
Darren Solomon has put together a block of 20 videos from submissions all playing meandering pieces (including spoken word) in the key of B flat.

it's beautiful.

via Hacker News

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:09:00 +0000

Proposal: '{' and '}' to be known as openstache, closestache.

Finale.

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:15:00 +0000

Over at The Mudshow Diaries, Valérie chronicles the day to day of a small American traveling show.
She takes a near-daily photo from her trailer window (a cross-country tour in itself), lots of her family, and occasionally a shot of backstage circus life that is so very, very perfect I don't have words.
Click on the image to see it larger (recommended).

valerieberta.com

Readability

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:29:00 +0000

Whenever I need to read something of any length on the web I use Readability. It reformats pages and gets rid of superfluous everything.

The setup instructions are fairly clear, but be sure to get the formatting to your liking first, then drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar.

The image above is from a New York Times article that looked like this.

Direct Representation

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:42:00 +0000

photo via brianslens

Since I became a voter, I've been in the habit of writing myself into uncontested offices, or positions that sounded like fun. Sheriff? Sure!
I encourage others to write me in to any seat that you think I would like.

This past winter I let the deadline for collecting signatures for nomination to one of my district's seats in Town Meeting lapse, and blew my chance for my first elected office.

Until election day.

There are 29 seats available in Precinct 2 in Town Meeting, and only about a dozen nominees.

You guessed it. I wrote myself in, bypassing all of the door knocking and ball-point mayhem, and I am now a card-carrying member of the Precinct 2 delegation to Fairhaven Town Meeting. For a 3 year term. With one vote.

Hail democracy.

Bike:normal

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:04:00 +0000

photo via Amsterdamize

"The idea that it is somehow 'dangerous' and 'irresponsible' to cycle without a helmet is a total myth. It merely puts people off cycling and contributes to the increase in the level of obesity and other inactivity-related illnesses, which kill tens of thousands of people every year. If we are to encourage people to take up cycling – with all its benefits for our health, our streets, our environment and our wallets – then we need to promote it as a safe and enjoyable way to get around for day-to-day travel, wearing normal clothes." -Roger Geffen, UK Cyclist's Touring Club

Home - Provincetown History Preservation Project

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Wow! What a treasure.
Now maybe whoever put this together should take over town government, and the school system, maybe?

Provincetown History Preservation Project

Frequency modulated Deutschlander Scrïben-fone

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:31:00 +0000

Andy Warhol, Hermann Hesse after a photo of Martin Hesse. C Suhrkamp Verlag 1985
© VBK Wien, 2007

I'm very pleased to learn that someone searching for "Hermann Hesse static listening radio" has ended up here. Dada search GO!

If you like listening to static (and more exotic sounds), give Myke a click. He travels around the world to find good reception.

ffffl*ckr... ahem.

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Flickr.com is a photo sharing site that is free, or cheap, depending on your usage, has a great community and a terrible interface. I've been looking for alternative ways to browse the amazingly rich content and have finally found it in ffffl*ckr.

While flickr has groups, contacts and favorites, ffffl*ckr just throws a big spider web out based on your favorites. Click on a photo in the interface, and a selection of that user's favorites will be added to the screen. While hovering over an image, you can go to that photo's flickr page, favorite the photo without leaving fffl*ckr, or view the photo larger. It's a great (easy) and intuitive way to explore an excellent but clunky site.

and of course, it's free.

Have a Ball!

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:27:00 +0000

A camera review with soul

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:16:00 +0000

The excellent Craigmod blog has the most in-depth, well illustrated and soulful review of a piece of equipment I've ever read. and I've read alot of them.

photo Craig Mod

Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test — 16 Days in the Himalayas

from the library of...

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:32:00 +0000

Great photoset of the NYPL

The Digital Music Experience Sucks Ass, and This is Why

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:36:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davemorris/ / CC BY 2.0

I spent the evening loading music into my computer from CDs. I was amazed at the favorites that had not yet made it into the box.
It didn't take long before I was listening to Mingus and engrossed in the liner notes detailing his career and the sessions and players that went into Mingus Ah Um.

Once the computer hissed and cried and ejected the disk, I realized that I won't be hearing this music from this CD anymore. I won't pick up this case and catch sight the studio jumble of cables and stands under the disk, or the thick fingers of Mingus fretting some freak chord on the verso.
And it's not just the written notes. Laurie Anderson's slipcase/trifold triptych with booklet, Prefuse 73's chipboard colorsplash, and a Fat Possum sampler's unreadable neon pink and forest green all have a character that supports and augments the music inside.

Now I've got "album art". A 1" x 1" square that's not event the same art as the damn disk I hold.
Some artists have made great album minisites, but the chances of these surviving internet technology's relentless forward lurch is nill. Best of luck.

I love radio, so it's not like I need ownership, in fact I listen to static. Often. Even other people's recordings of static. But if I do care to own the music, I want the full experience, and I want the security that the independent storage format offers (as limited as that may be with a CD - I do like the "buy the vinyl, download the album" that some artists are doing).

So feel your music. The future is in your hands.

Books completed 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:06:00 +0000

photo by Ember Rilleau

1. Learned Optimism-Martin Seligman
2. Everything is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Song Man-Will Hodgkinson
4. The Optimistic Child- Martin Seligman
5. The Art of Possibility- Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander
6. Getting things done (reread)- David Allen
7. So long, See you tomorrow (reread)-William Maxwell
8. Down at the Docks-Rory Gallagher
9. Not Just Anywhere-Marsha McCabe
10. Happiness-Mathieu Ricard
11. Wind, sand and stars-St. Exupery
12. Peace is Every Step-Thich Nhat Hanh
13. Finding Flow-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
14. The money book for the Young Fabulous and Broke-Suze Orman
15. The Sweet LIfe in Paris-David Lebovitz
16. Siddhartha-Herman Hesse
17. Never eat alone-Keith Ferrazzi
18. 4 Hour Work Week (reread)-Tim Ferriss

My reviews in brief:
completely worth your time: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16
eh: 3, 4, 15
nah: 13, 17
grain of salt/open mind+eyes: 5, 18

There were 3 or 4 books I started and did not finish. A couple sucked and a couple I recognize as good, but not currently appropriate.

Fiction/Literature-5
NonFiction-13
Ratio 2.6/1

2010 is the year of Fiction.

Fairhaven Mills Exhibit, Oct 3-4, New Bedford

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:29:00 +0000

As part of New Bedford Open Studios, October 3-4, EM lettepress is showing photos by 4 artists on the final days of Fairhaven Mills An historic building recently demolished. I am one of those artists.

The Health Care "Debate"

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:54:00 +0000

Thanks to Toby Everett, who is not so much against it, as bemused by it.

Showtime

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:12:00 +0000

Nice.
but jugglers hate that guy.
So they do things like this:

Kodachrome

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000

William (Buckles) Woodcock has a circus history blog with tons of images. He's an old-time circus man with a long history (at least his Dad was an elephant man, maybe further back, I don't know).

With the demise of Kodachrome, and my recent circus visiting binge, I thought these images would be nice to look at.

...if you have the time

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:13:00 +0000

then you can look at this.

If you don't, you'd better make the time.

Circus School

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:10:00 +0000

PBS documentary on Chinese Circus Schools.

whoa.

I cried

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:12:00 +0000

FUNNY
In the butt

FUNNIER
Fuck
you've got to click the 'this way>' button on that site.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0000

OK. If you want to see where I'm going with this, skip to the last video. It starts a little slow, (with the kid balancing his bike across the top of an iron fence, and falling, twice) but will quickly blow your mind.

If you'd like to travel my thought process for a bit, save that for last.

Skateboarding and trick bicycling have followed similar arcs since the early 70's. Skateboarding went from sedate sidewalk surfing to slashing ballets in empty pools in just a few years.

70's Skate Footage from Cavin Brothers on Vimeo.

In the 80's, skating split into separate sects. Pool (and purpose built ramps, together called 'vert') skating evolved while a small group started 'freestyling' on flat ground. Somewhere in there, the term 'street skating' was introduced so that the stuff that most people did most of the time had a name.

Funny that the bicycle had been around for over a hundred years by this time. But it seemed a little behind the times in terms of the level of craft in stunting.

If we flat ignore cycling in circus and fairgrounds, we can say that bike trickery began to approach the level of the skaters by the mid 80's. BMX had grown from the 70's into organized racing and freestyle. Freestylers both rode vert and did circus tricks on the flat, combining the split disciplines of skating.

Sometime in 1984, a skate magazine ran a piece on 15 year old Mark Gonzales.
I'm going to call this a milestone. A full spread photo sequence showed his adaptation of a vert trick, the Ollie, to the street.

Boom.
Vert skating essentially died in just a few years, BMX mostly disappeared and by the early 90's there was just one skateboard shape and every single trick was based on the Ollie.

This one trick made the world a skatepark.
With the Ollie, freestyle tricks became airborne and took over.

There is a weird guy spazzing out to Merillion over in the corner.
Bicycle trials, or trialsin. European, completely unrelated to any of this stuff and totally weird.

Somewhere between Motorcycle race sideshow and now, trials riders started, basically, street skating. With the dual influence of 60mph downhill mountain bikers and skaters, BMXers returned and started street skating too.

Skateboarding is enjoying a comfortable popularity, but it's bicyclists now pushing the edges upward...

and outward

This kid has everything. Skateboarding's urban appropriation, trialsin's obnoxious skill, and the BMXer's hollow-boned flight together.
Something new is coming.

Come ride your bike in New Bedford.
Friday May 1. 6pm
Ring the Bell!

OH! Lord, why don't we...

noreply@blogger.com (Mat Coes) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:41:00 +0000