11
June
2012
| Good morning and happy 11th! Welcome to my newsletter which is one way I stay in touch with the world and share my thinking. If you'd like to unsubscribe, there's a handy button below. But please do stick around - feedback is always welcome! And....., away....., we...., go!
Lately, it's been very much a Farm My Yard world that I've been thinking and traveling in. I've had a vision of thousands of signs on thousands of lawns encouraging urban farmers to meet their home-owning neighbors and working together to turn lawns and barren yards into plentiful gardens and orchards. To that end I've built a website, held a sign design contest, gotten a little press, painted some signs and had friends help me paint more on my birthday, and been at work drafting documents that could be used by various parties. Something I've been calling in for a while is collaboration with others and that's been a bigger part of this effort than any I've spearheaded in a long while. My friend Don Bellairs showed up one day with signs, stakes and screws; Ethan Edwards has been helping with graphic design and thinking; Eecole Copen has been another ideator and supporter; Nye Walker has offered to host our website for free and installed Wordpress and many others have shown their support in various ways - through taking signs and other steps. The other day I met Portland Mayor Sam Adams and he expressed interest and I expect that with time this idea will gain legs and go for a beautiful walk.
 | | FMY Schwag by Eleanor O'Brien |
Farm My Yard can also work from another direction. I'm now developing some materials that an urban farmer or orchardist can use to locate suitable properties in his/her neighborhood through the use of a simple handbill outlining their services/abilities/interests. Imagine getting much of your veggies and fruits locally - that's what I'm talking about! If this idea moves you, please feel free to join in in some way - financially (donations will be used to buy signs and other creative materials), spiritually, by putting a sign in your yard, or by spreading the word. I'll continue to update you about Farm My Yard and I expect there will be exciting news as this continues to ramp up. I've already got one TV station chomping at the bit to do a story - and a little press goes a long way if my experience with Freecycle is any indication.
 | | John and Eecole Copen at Tony Starlight's |
It's been a very fun month around these parts - Eecole had a marvelous time entertaining us for her 40th birthday at Tony Starlight's. She came out in a sparkly gown worn by her grandmother and surprised her parents and 60 guests who were all decked out in 40's attire for the evening. She sang torch songs (Bessame, Bessame Mucho...) We also took her parents for two separate visits to the beach - one to Gretta's Netarts Bay getaway and another weekend to the Alpine Chalets in Otter Crest. The latter weekend was spent with Raku, Kristin, Leslie and Lucas and a highlight for me was tide-pooling and getting to see a large group of seals sunning on the rocks. Cheers to Eecole who pulled off a major accomplishment of singing torch songs to friends and surprising everyone!
In business news I've been continuing to work part-time 3 days a week in an office supporting a small software development team with my quality assurance work. The rest of the time is devoted to activism, Farm My Yard, working in The Birthday Garden and teaching clients how to use social networking and email marketing to best effect. I continue to hold classes in my house for people to learn how to create captivating Facebook fan pages and then what to do with them - these are also starting to take me out of the house - I taught a class to naturopaths @ Dr. Lisa Shaver's house and have another class scheduled for 7/2/12 in Hood River, Oregon. If you think you can gather some people together in your neck of the woods, perhaps I'll make a visit and do a presentation! I'm also teaching email marketing to folks - mostly one-on-one, but I'm open to groups, as well and think that a webinar is not that far off.
Here are a few of the projects where I'm developing social media that you might find interesting:
Email Marketing Guru: this the main page where I pimp myself out as someone who knows something about email marketing!
Farm My Yard: https://www.facebook.com/farmmyyard
Free the Billboards: a fun new project being led by local activist Nina Montenegro which I'm very happy to support! Check out the before and after photos and submit your own at http://freethebillboards.tumblr.com/submit
The Birthday Garden: Our new community garden started last year around my birthday. A place to come share and learn gardening skills and techniques and celebrate your birthday!
The People Problem: Are There Too Many of Us? This is the page for a new film that will take 4 years to shoot and create - by Jane Turville, filmmaker who did the film, The Greenest Building for PBS. Jane is paying me monthly to take care of her social media for the project:
Wileyware: Our favorite glassware. Works of art created in Seattle by my good friend, Marcia Wiley, also known as Miss Direction
Ideation: My first fan page, and the one with the most "likes" - it's where I share tidbits about social networking and socially interesting material.
Social Media Support: If you have questions about FB or other social media, please ask them here :) Thanks.
Neighbors for Clean Air: We have a great new effort underway to improve our air quality in Oregon. We have some of the highest asthma rates in the country.
The Black Rock City Post Office: One of my favorite places to be on the planet. The best one-on-one improvisational theater piece I know of.
Summer Lake Hot Springs: One of my favorite places to go on the way to and from my time at Burning Man for the past 12 years. They have a fun music festival coming up next weekend called The Coyote Festival.
After the Phone Book: Leading the way to the elimination of one of the most wasteful things I know of: The Yellow Pages. Feel free to join the effort: https://www.facebook.com/afterthephonebook
Northwest Broadway Businesses in Portland: the businesses in my neighborhood - I got this started as a way to help out our local cafes, restaurants and dry cleaners.
And, you might not believe this, there are about 15 more! Some of them are businesses that I help out with social media and some are causes I've been working on but haven't put a lot of time into yet. Some of them are bookmarks, I guess, waiting for fellow collaborators to come along and join me. Anyone want to help out with the car-horn disengagement society, for instance?
 | | Summer Lake Hot Springs, Paisley, OR |
And finally, it looks like Summer might be tentatively visiting our fair City of Portlandia (have you seen season 2, btw? - very fun!) Yes, sunshine for 2 days in a row, makes one hopeful there is more to come. It has been one of the rainiest Springs on record here - which means that everything is very green - esp. the moss on my bike seat! And, if Summer is here, then it's time for Summer Solstice Healing Retreat, Oregon Country Fair, Beloved (maybe) and Burning Man (13th year!) I hope to see you at one of these events or hear of some fun that you're having in your neck of the woods.
Politics: I'm still smarting over what just went down in Wisconsin. I'm reading a lot about it. I'm learning some. I do think that if the billionaires were taken out of the equation the result would be different and that Citizen United is having a harsh impact on the political landscape as it is allowing billionaires airtime and the opportunity to buy the outcomes they want. I'm hopeful that people will eventually see through the bullshit and find truth. I believe that social media is helping create that scenario as we are more and more becoming each others' source of media.
May this day bring you lots of joy, peace, excitement, health, wealth, happiness and great food. May you plant a seed today. Breath in. Breath out. Peace.
Albert
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