The Love Art! Gallery

May 18, 2010 by albertkaufman 1 Comment

Love Art!

I had a great time last night talking to a group of about 15 artists who are part of the Love Art! Gallery in Sellwood. The group was very receptive to information about how to use social networking to help their sales, outreach and follow-up and hopefully leave them more time to do their art. Also along for the ride was my good friend, Aaron Trotter, who is working on some great drawings of street scenes and local haunts for a greeting card series that he’s putting together. I can’t wait to see what he puts together, but he’s got a show at Enterbeing on Last Thursday on Alberta this month.

Filed Under: albertideation Tagged With: art, artists, love art, love art gallery, ruby & ted, Sellwood

Spreading Ecstatic Dance Far and Wide

May 10, 2010 by albertkaufman 2 Comments

Ecstatic Dance

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance that you’ve danced at one point or another in the PDX Ecstatic Dance world. Perhaps more than once. Most people I speak to remember their dance (even if it was just once many moons ago). And many of us return to the well as often as possible, can’t get enough. And so our community has grown – 30 people become 50 people becomes 100 people. The question that keeps coming to my mind is: how do we spread this even further?” So that 100 becomes 1,000, becomes 1 million, and on and on.

We all know this dance is good for us. Keeps us healthy, challenges us, brings up emotions, can be scary, can be illuminating, can be fun, can be a drag – all of the above and more. I think one thing that’s in the way of dance spreading is our own quietness about it. Shyness? Fear that others that we invite, might not get it? Fear that friends we invite might see a side of us that we’re afraid to show? There are probably a few fears in the way of our inviting everyone we know to dance.

Then, there is our hesitancy to recommend something so big to someone else. It might come across as a cult. It might come across as showing support for a certain group of people, and their take on this dance – I can imagine there are a few sets of emotions and blocks in this area that keep people from sharing with others.

All of that said, I think it’s time for us all to jump over our own shadows (a phrase I once learned in Germany) and help to get the word out about this beautiful thing. And here’s why.

It’s good for the people – the potential for personal growth found through dance is humongous. The health benefits are great – stamina, balance, coordination, stretching sore or hurt bones and muscles: therapeutic… I’m sure you’ve experienced some of this, and I suspect you know that it would be true for everyone you know – if they could just move like this once in a while they’d face some of those demons, get off the couch, get out of their stuff and move, both physically and emotionally.

It’s good for the community – I probably don’t have to go into this too much – it’s somewhat obvious to anyone who has danced and then shared a meal with fellow dancers – new friends, old, the mix of people who are dancing are living inspiring lives and after-dance conversation is often scintillating. We also learn new things at the dance – how to hold space, how to listen, how to observe, how to make mistakes and clean them up, and new skills, and dance moves.

It’s good for the planet. Groups of people coming together to celebrate life, practice being around each other, touching each other, and moving together to raise the vibration – if you’ve ever felt this you know what I mean, and if you haven’t, keep an eye out for it, it happens quite a lot on ballroom floors in our town frequently.

So, here’s what I recommend. If you agree that ecstatic dance is good in the ways I’ve outlined above, stop being quiet about it. Start being loud about it. Put it on your resume. Invite your 10 best friends to dance with you at your favorite dance spot. Once in a while volunteer to help set up, break down, or lead the intention – get to know the folks that put on the dances and ask how you can support their efforts and share the work.

Then there are the other 500 ways to support something: word of mouth, passing on some flyers, posting flyers, posting your intention on your FB profile, blog, website…

Being shy about this thing we love serves no one. Let’s be out and proud and see what happens.

My vision is to encourage this fire to grow big everywhere. Right now I’m trying to help the folks at OmCulture in Seattle get their dance on. My sense is that Seattle has the people, it is just waiting for the spark and the infrastructure to show up. And just like any good and worthy movement, if we play our cards right, and encourage the growth of dance in many places, we will help the world to dance ecstatically.

If you’d like to continue this discussion, please feel free to write me with your ideas. And, I’d love to hear back from anyone who takes any of the suggestions above and runs with them.

Remember the last time someone came to dance and said “this is my first time here and I feel like I’ve found my home”? Yeah, let’s spread that – like a big slathering of goodness all over this planet earth.

Till we dance again,

Albert

Here’s this writing as a short cartoon 🙂

And, if you don’t already subscribe, don’t delay. Conscious Dancer Magazine rocks!

Filed Under: ecstatic dance Tagged With: ecstatic dance, Momentum, OmCulture, Oregon, Portland, Sacred Circle Dance, SomaSpace, Sundance, Village Dance

Happy Earth Day Invention: How to retree our planet quickly

April 21, 2010 by albertkaufman 2 Comments

Retree the Planet

If you had to plant 1,000 trees in a matter of minutes, how would you do it? Due to global warming and deforestation our planet Earth can use as many new trees as it can get – here’s a way we could plant millions of trees quickly.

Think lawn darts. A sharp tip, a somewhat mature sapling in something test-tube shaped – packed with a lunch of nutrients and water – add to that a few feather quivers and you’ll have a short arrow, that is meant to be dropped from heights, and penetrate “plant” the sapling and give it a chance at life as a tree.

Now, pour these out of planes or helicopters, especially at hard to reach elevations. Drop 1,000 – not all will live, and I haven’t figured out exactly how to disperse them in the most efficient manner, but the delivery device – tree-filled lawn dart.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from folks who like my idea and would like to help me implement it

Happy Earth Day 2010!

Albert Kaufman
https://albertideation.com

Your feedback welcome!

Filed Under: tree planting device Tagged With: deforestation, earth day 2010, invention, lawn darts, planeting trees

The world might feel like it’s unraveling… hold yourself, friends and family tight

March 29, 2010 by albertkaufman 1 Comment

In doing some interesting reading and then noting what I’m seeing in our world – It feels that our world is unraveling a bit. There are a multitude of things going on at the same time, some of them tragic, some of them unseen in the past and thus a little hard to wrap our heads around. The natural world also seems to be going through changes – for anyone who is paying any attention at all to various scientific papers to recent conferences on the climate and just plain looking out your window (if it’s not frozen shut as the East Coast of USA experienced a bunch this year) – the climate is changing. Then, there’s the political/media circus of giving the Tea Party movement a lot of time and attention = cacophony in the political and social sphere.

All that said, and more. So, what to do when overloaded with stimuli – there are many reactions that people have. Some clam up, hide. Some pretend that nothing different is going on. Then there are some who are speaking about the change – and many who have been speaking about it for a while – Bill McKibbon comes to mind. But other authors, like James Kunstler, Richard Heinberg – these folks are tracking the change and writing about it.

But what I might suggest is for us not to forget ourselves. Our strengths. What we each bring to the world – and not let the strong winds of change push us around too much, make us lost. That would be unfair. It’s unfair to you because this is your life, and it should be as sweet, powerful and wonderful as you wish it to be. And, it’s not fair to the rest of us and future generations – for a large group of us to sleepwalk through this next period of time – the next chapter in our lives.

So, learn to dance with the change – learn to see the signs of something changing and instead of “holy shit!” your mantra could be “how interesting?” or “hmm, how will I dance with this in my life?”

This is also a good time to remember to take the best care of yourself that you can – physically and emotionally. Take your vitamins, get plenty of sleep, move that body, and make sure to stay connected to people. Your friends. Your Neighbors. Your Family. and new friends. If I’ve learned one thing at Burning Man lo these past 10 years, it’s that friends and close connection is key in life. Also, the ability to make new friends quickly is an art and can be learned. Start by introducing yourself.

Albert Kaufman
3/29/10
Portland, Oregon

And, Ben Bochner’s song – Hold on Strong!

Filed Under: community Tagged With: building community, community, holding strong, neighbors, pep talk, stormy seas

Michael Moore’s top 20 picks for 2010

March 19, 2010 by albertkaufman Leave a Comment

Michael Moore’s pick for top 20 movies in 2010

1. “Troubled Water” is from Norway and it is a work of art and great storytelling from the opening frame to its final fade to black. It tells the story of a young man who is paroled after spending time in prison and gets a job as a church organist. He claims to be innocent in the drowning of a child, but the boy’s mother won’t let it go.
2. “Everlasting Moments” – A wife in the early 20th century wins a camera and it changes her life (from Sweden).
3. “Captain Abu Raed” – This first feature from Jordan tells the story of an airport janitor who the neighborhood kids believe is a pilot.
4. “Che” – A brilliant, unexpected mega-film about Che Guevara by Steven Soderbergh.
5. “Dead Snow” – The scariest film I’ve seen in a while about zombie Nazis abandoned after World War II in desolate Norway.
6. “The Great Buck Howard” – A tender look at the life of an illusionist, based on the life of The Amazing Kreskin starring John Malkovich.
7. “In the Loop” – A rare hilarious satire, this one about the collusion between the Brits and the Americans and their illegal war pursuits.
8. “My One and Only” – Who woulda thought that a biopic based on one year in the life of George Hamilton when he was a teenager would turn out to be one of the year’s most engaging films.
9. “Whatever Works” – This was a VERY good Woody Allen film starring the great Larry David and it was completely overlooked.
10. “Big Fan” – A funny, dark film about an obsessive fan of the New York Giants with a great performance by the comedian Patton Oswalt.
11. “Eden Is West” – The legendary Costa-Gavras’ latest gem, ignored like his last brilliant film 4 years ago, “The Axe”.
12. “Entre Nos” – An mother and child are left to fend for themselves in New York City in this powerful drama.
13. “The Girlfriend Experience” – Steven Soderbergh’s second genius film of the year, this one set in the the post-Wall Street Crash era, a call girl services the men who brought the country down.
14. “Humpday” – Two straight guys dare each other to enter a gay porn contest — but will they go through with it?
15. “Lemon Tree” – A Palestinian woman has her lemon trees cut down by the Israeli army, but she decides that’s the final straw.
16. “Mary and Max” – An Australian girl and and elderly Jewish man in New York become pen pals in this very moving animated film.
17. “O’Horten” – Another Norwegian winner, this one about the final trip made by a retiring train conductor.
18. “Salt of This Sea” – A Palestinian-American returns to her family’s home in the West Bank, only to find herself caught up in the struggles between the two cultures.
19. “Sugar” – A Dominican baseball player gets his one chance to come to America and make it in the big leagues.
20. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” – A smart, adult animated film from Wes Anderson that at least got two nominations from the Academy.

Filed Under: Caring Society Tagged With: Michael Moore, oscars

Message from John Seager, President of Population Connection

February 26, 2010 by albertkaufman Leave a Comment

Population Growth

I just read this letter from the President, John Seager, from Population Connection’s Reporter, and thought I’d share it with you. The magazine (pdf) can be downloaded at

https://www.populationconnection.org/site/DocServer/Reporter.pdf?docID=1221

Species evolve as their world
changes. So do organizations.
Founded in 1968 as ZPG, our
mission has evolved from “stop at two”
children to its present form:

Overpopulation threatens the quality of
life for people everywhere. Population
Connection is the national grassroots population
organization that educates young
people and advocates progressive action
to stabilize world population at a level
that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

As for the still-relevant goal of “zero
population growth,” will the earth be
sustainable if population stabilizes at
nine or ten billion? I think not.
ZPG played that early role urging
Americans to “stop at two” children. It
worked. Currently, our two biggest
challenges are unplanned births and net

migration.
Global population growth is different.
Unless one believes that extraterrestrials
walk among us, no one is migrating
to—or from—Planet Earth. Addressing
the unmet need for contraception of
200 million women worldwide is the
top priority these days.
How can we move toward population
stabilization? One part seems easy, in
theory. Just get 218 members of the
House and 60 members of the Senate
to pass bills addressing various aspects
of the issue with funding and programs.
President Obama signs them into law.
Mission accomplished.
Watching the Senate debate health
care provided a sense of just how excruciating
that process is these days. As
Teddy Roosevelt said, politics is “the art
of the possible.” Alas, it demands compromise
that’s often hard to swallow.
At Population Connection we work
on solutions. We reach three million
students each year. We painstakingly
correlate our curricula with thousands
of state and national standards.
We work with Congress, which is
besieged on all fronts by groups, each
convinced that its own issue—from
farms to schools, from energy to cities
—is most important.We work with prochoice
legislators who carry the banner.
We also work with legislators who
oppose abortion, but support family
planning.
All things considered, 2009 was a
very good year for our cause with the
rescission of the Global Gag Rule,
restoration of UN family planning
funds, and a remarkable 40% increase
in congressionally-appropriated international
family planning funding.
I have a certain fondness for those
early “glory days” of ZPG. Times
change, though. Today, we measure
success in terms of training 11,000
teachers annually on hundreds of campuses
and elsewhere.
We also measure it in terms of getting
legislation through the labyrinthine corridors
of Congress, where awkward
compromise lurks around every corner.
Thanks to your support, we can tell legislators
that people “back home”
expect them to take action. That matters
a great deal.
Population Connection will continue
to evolve as circumstances change and
new opportunities present themselves.
Evolution is essential.

John Seager
john@popconnect.org

—
Albert Kaufman
Portland, Oregon

Population growth affects the quality of life for everyone. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

Click the link below to make a donation:
https://donation.populationconnection.org/form/donate.php