World Water Day

 Photo: Wende Valentine

 Photo: Charity:Water

It's World Water Day today, and so I'm sharing some photos and short films from quality organizations such as Charity: Water, Water for People, and WaterAid.  It's easy to glamorize and simplify the results of water projects, but there's no doubt that a little improvement in water and sanitation can go a long way and have life-changing impacts.  One of the challenges is to make sure these impacts are long-lasting and community-led.  What happens if the well breaks?  What if there's clean water but no toilets?  These organizations, among many others, are working with communities to help develop solutions that are sustainable and replicable.  Thanks for watching and listening...   

The First Day of Spring

 coastal Ecuador

Hey everyone, happy first day of spring!  Here on the island things are starting to get quite green, but the best part of all of this (and the showers) are the astonishingly beautiful flowers that we're seeing everywhere.  The world is a gallery...

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –         

   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         

   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush         

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring         

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush         

   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush         

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy?         

   A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,         

   Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,         

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,         

   Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.  

  coastal Ecuador

 coastal Ecuador

 highlands Ecuador

highlands Ecuador

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Now play a jig, my friend...

And another...

 Credit Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

 Photo by TurnerNYC

 Photographer unknown

Music Wednesday: Aloe Blacc

Photo by Katerina Plevkova

 Aloe Blacc has got soul.  And he was born with a sweet name: Ebgert Nathaniel Dawkins III.  Aloe Blacc is a cool name too, but even cooler is his music.  I've been really digging the new soul movement coming out of the UK and US lately.  Check out his myspace for some samples.  Turn it up loud and sing along!

 Photo by Christopher Hahn

Thank you for praying

This video and message is from Goomichi:

"Thank you for praying.
My place was not much damaged.
But, the disaster is still coming to other areas, especially in the Tohoku area.

The concept of this video is to tell you that we are alive, have smile and want to say thank you.
People in this video tried to collect contributions on the street for the Tohoku area.

We are under the anxiety, but I think that we can help each other with smiles even in such matter.

We are also praying and we are doing what we can do for Japan.
So please, we need your help."

We Drive Tractors...Even at Protests

Classy Archery, Island Style

Photo by imaxtree

This is a typical sight this time of year (and in fall, to be sure) when we islanders often make exercise and do archery after hibernating through winter.  Sometimes we even hunt for small game and birds.  We keep it a sustainable and humane hunt of course--environmental management at its classiest.  A bow and arrow can also be used to send messages and light Olympic flames, mind you.  Keep it up Christophe Lemaire!

~from the Hermes Fall 2011/2012 Ready-to-Wear collection.

Photo by The Sartorialist

Music Tuesday: The Hundred in the Hands

The Hundred in the Hands are Jason Friedman and Eleanore Everdell.  I heard their song Young Aren't Young on the radio a few weeks back while at work, and I'm pretty sure my co-workers wondered about the commotion coming from my cubical.  The truth is I was dancing.  With my noise-canceling headphones on.  That's right.  Check out some great vids below, including their groovy street performance in Paris via La Blogotheque.

The VCA Bike Race - Cerro Abajo

 

Our island's (or rather, Chile's) biggest and most insane bike race is known as the Valparaiso Cerro Abajo, or VCA.  Picture ginormous jumps, slender streets, colored walls, crazy cobblestone, screaming spectators, staggeringly steep stairs, perros locos, and utterly distracting street art... see the video below via Saturdays for all of this and more (and note the rider's outfit--classy).  Perro perro!

Photo by Fraser Britton

Photo by Fraser Britton

Our Neighbor Iceland

 photo by gunnisal

Well, I've returned from the land of the Birkebeiners and even though I nearly froze to death (should have gone with the birchbark leggings over the racing suit), I've still got wanderlust to venture to Iceland.  I started looking at tickets, and am finding pretty reasonable fares... apparently Miles Island isn't too far away.  These photos are all by gunnisal on flickr, which I found via Kris Atomic's fantastic Iceland post.  Have you been?  Should I go in spring, summer, fall?  I think maybe this is the year...

 photo by gunnisal

 

photo by gunnisal

photo by gunnisal

photo by gunnisal

photo by gunnisal

photo by gunnisal

photo by gunnisal