roof

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My spying continues. They are having workers replace the flat roofing in a section of the library. The other day I noticed that they had this flaming torch out there and I got excited. Unfortunately, the only shot I could really get was through this terrible foggy glass.

So here's a little bit about torch roofing from what I can gather on the internet. (I'm not completely clear on all of this stuff - feel free to comment and correct me!) When you have a flat roof, you have the option to use rolls of roofing material made of fiberglass and other material. Yesterday, I saw the workers laying down some very thick plywood with glue. They had a guy using this huge thing of glue with thick beads of the stuff coming out. Today they are laying down the rolls of fiberglass material on top. I think that the torch is used to seal the seams of the material so that it doesn't leak. At one point in the little movie above, you might catch him using the torch to heat up his trowel. That must be used to help seal the seams. I think it's about 80 degrees out there today but it was 95 last week. Hot stuff!

Roofing is best done in the summer so when you have a tool up there which is basically on fire, you've got a potentially dangerous situation. The person working the torcher has to be licensed (at least in some states) and there are regulations about having fire extinguishers and water hoses when it is being done. Last summer, the Learning Center's roof was being redone and it caught on fire. I realize now that it is probably due to torch roofing.

Incidentally, training programs are really important for safety in the skilled manufacturing occupations (which greatly overlap with the construction industries). It is also a necessity for contractors to have the proper certifications on hand for their workers in order to comply with state and Federal laws. So the question of who does training gets a little interesting because it is in high demand. If there is a strong union presence, they can require apprenticeships. This benefits the union organization's reputation, keeps their workers safe, and helps them build relationships with employers. Contractor organizations may sponsor training as well. Union apprenticeships are often much more comprehensive and, in my opinion, they are better in the long run for both contractors and the safety of the workers. Of course, some people will argue that the nature of these occupations have changed somewhat in that apprenticeships are only appropriate for people who wish to have a career in the building trades. This is not always the case.

The worksite at the library. The guy in the little movie was working in the far right hand corner which you really can't see in this photo - sorry!

breakdance

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Sorry this is so short - my batteries died. (As a side note, I'm looking into buying a real video camera so hopefully someday these will be less crappy.) I came out of the library yesterday and was unlocking my bicycle when I saw about 6 guys dancing to music. Campus is a little dead in the summer so it was a real treat to see them.

listen

Here are some of the recordings from Patty in captivity. If it doesn't play right away, try moving the indicator a bit to the right - it may need to be jump started.

I just love it when she says, "Mom? Dad? I'm OK." I guess I really like the way she talks.

smoke

My friend smoked this cigar Friday night. I think his wife said that he got it off the internet.

(I tried to get the background of this graphic to be transparent but I screwed it up somehow.)

I know that lately this blog has a fascist tone. I feel guilty about that. But whatever. I'm insane! Watch out!

Okay, so I've been kind of obsessed with Patty Hearst lately. It's really fun. She was the 19-year-old granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst when she was kidnapped by a 10-15 member, leftist radical organization in Berkeley, California in 1974. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a real product of the times but they were really hard core. They were generally Marxist, believed that all African Americans in jail were political prisoners, and felt that poverty was unacceptable. They stockpiled weapons and shot people who they thought were part of the conspiracy. An escaped Black convict led the group and the rest of the members were young White people. From many accounts, it was militaritistic in organization.

Anyway, they kidnapped Patty Hearst in February, 1974. It was a huge deal and no one really knew what to do. The SLA set the ransom to be that her father had to donate millions of dollars in food to the poor people of California! He tried to meet their demands but it got somewhat botched and there was a riot at one of the distribution centers. A lot of people think that Patty Hearst developed Stockholm Syndrome (started identifying with her kidnappers) and she robbed a bank with the SLA as a sort of Robin Hood mission 2 months later. She was on the run from the cops for about a year. The film, Patty Hearst is a guilty pleasure-type of re-enactment of her autobiography, Every Secret Thing. I sort of recommend seeing that first before you see Guerilla which is a newish documentary about the SLA. Patty Hearst seems like she was kind of fucked up by the experience. She's okay now but it was an immensely confusing time. The way she describes it, the SLA loved the idea that they had made a convert out of her - an idea that was propagated by the press after the bank robbery. But in reality, Patty Hearst was really in a spot. Isolated in a closet for several months, she started to lose her identity and felt things slip away from her. She also feared that if she didn't at least pretend to go along with goals of the SLA, she would be killed. Meanwhile, she had a fiance, family, and friends back home who only knew her as a wealthy, UC-Berkeley junior and were calling for her immediate release. So she was simultaneously a symbol for the left and for the rich. She was completely cognizant of this in the end and I think that really made her think about what it means to simply be human instead of being boxed as this thing or that. I really like the ambiguity of her situation and it's story that is hard to tell because there are so many grays.

Patricia Hearst Shaw is now 53 years old and lives in Connecticut.

In retrospect, the Hearst kidnapping seems somewhat remarkable to me for a couple of different reasons. First, we don't have many truly radical lefty groups anymore in the states. Even back then, the SLA was being called terrorists. Part of the reason why we don't have many radical lefty groups is that all violent means of protest are completely out of fashion which is interesting in its own right. Second, the SLA were such a small group (10-12 at any one time it appears) but they definitely got a lot of attention and went down in history. This is very attractive, I feel, for the left today which feels so unwieldy, is easily ignored, and is immensely boring.

(Just to be clear, I am not an advocate for emotionally harming people or for killing anyone.)

grade

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I'm not sure what to title this one. But that's what the bulldozer dude appears to be doing here. I like how he goes out of the shot. Good blocking, bulldozer dude!

Some new ideas, theories, and demands:
1. I'm trying to finish my dissertation. Someone recently suggested that I wasn't as stressed out as I need to be. As usual, anything is possible when it comes to my mental state. And... I HAVE been sleeping well. TOO well... I think I will try to get more stressed out somehow. I have too much malaise mixed in - that's probably fucking everything up. Caffeine might do it. I go a little bonkers on caffeine.

2. To everyone: please stop buying and drinking bottled water. It wastes plastic, is stupidly expensive, is possibly harmful as the plastic breaks down into the water itself, and commodifies a natural resource. It's driving me insane. For the love of god, people, stop the madness! Update: here's an article about the production of Fiji water.

3. In a regular day, how often do you actually see people produce things? We may come in contact with people in retail establishments but their work is consumed as soon as it is produced (a service). This hidden nature of work has consequences for the way we think of work, value, and effort. Consider the objects around you. Which of them were made by hand? (For many mass produced items, it does not require a human to touch them at all.) About two years ago, Old Navy put out a commercial which showed happy young people trouncing through a field and literally picking clothes as if they had been grown like fruit. This scared me. All stitched clothing needs to be touched by human hands. The hands of the worker may belong to someone you do not know and may never meet, but they do exist. How many other examples of this phenomenon can you think of? What else obscures the manufacturing from public view?

4. Check this out: did Goodling slip? Get to know what caging is.

5. When you watch TV, and see an ad for a show that is "next", what does that mean? Clue: it is different from "right now".

6. There's a lot of competition out there these days. Note the instances in which people work together for intrinsic motivations. Remember the good of the commons.
Examples of the commons:
a. natural resources (air, water, land, seeds)
b. things that are manufactured which we all need (food, medicine, housing, clothing)
c. information
d. human rights

What isn't "the commons" though? Urgh.

spool

Click To Play

I helped in the projection booth at Full Frame again this year. This is A. breaking down a 35mm print of.... urgh, I don't remember. At the Carolina Theatre, they have a platter system which allows for enough space for all of the reels of a film to be spliced together in one giant reel. That way, you don't have to use a two-projector system. But, after the film, you have to break it down and get all of the reels back together in their metal cases to send back to the distributor. A. was trying to avoid having to do that at the end of the festival so he did a few each day when there was a break. I love talking to A., the projectionist that was there. He's a really cool dude and I don't have to do hardly anything when he's in there doing his thing because I only do the video stuff. We watched Crazy Love (Dan Klores 2007) on the monitors in the booth and we were totally floored when story twists. We even talked about it the next day. I noticed that none of the other tech people talked about any of the films they saw unless they were totally knocked out by them. So it seemed extra surprising that A. liked Crazy Love just as much as I did.

If you attended Full Frame this year, I'd love to hear about the film(s) you saw. I saw a bunch.

Here is more about what I did this past weekend, in case you are interested. They have two of us in the Fletcher auditorium booth handling video stuff in addition to any projectionist that may need to be there. Everything is already set up physically and mentally by the tech crew, so for volunteers like me, I do very simple things like putting in the tape for the little trailer before the movie, getting the screen to black, playing the movie on tape, and opening the projector shutter again to let the film show on the screen. We do sound tests before the show, too. I guess it helps to know a bit about the engineering of the set up, but that was much easier this year than last because the switcher was programmed to do everything - even setting the ratios for the high definition formats. I had fun because I felt more confident than last year, my first year doing tech. The best part was when I got to tell the venue manager on the walkie-talkie that they could "open the house". That's a pretty big power trip, quite honestly. If I got a chance to do it more than once this weekend, my head would be very big right now.

review

When I walk into Bodies: The Exhibition, I am transported to another place and time. Organs wait anxiously behind glass to be viewed by curious strangers. Entire plastinated bodies are frozen, holding tennis rackets and kicking new, shiny soccer balls as if I just walked into the middle of a really good game. In another room, red lights make calcium-dyes shimmer as if they are from another planet, or in a hip bar where they sell overpriced cocktails with adventurous names. It’s one big party in here. The staff don white lab coats. I order a metacarpus on the rocks.

But it’s not a party. Perhaps I am reminded of this by the exhibit of the alienated nervous system, its strands divorced from all other bodily elements except a brain and eyeballs, looking absolutely stunned. It sort of looks like a freaked out tadpole.

“Where am I?”

It can’t hear the answer which I learned from one of its attendants but I whisper it anyway: “You used to live in China. Do you remember?”

“What?” its eyes say. “What the hell happened?”

Maybe I need a drink after all. My friend the nervous system and everyone else here didn’t always have the Latin names they do now. When you die and are unclaimed in China, the government does not require consent before you are placed on the market to be sold to others. Cadavers aren’t cheap and private companies don’t have an easy time of acquiring them. But, if a plastination company buys you, Dr. Gunther von Hagens or one of his proteges will soak you in acetone and then, in a vacuum, liquid polymer will replace the acetone. You will feel like a pencil eraser and smell like one, too. You are posed, cured, and shipped. Now you are here, in a mall next to Urban Outfitters and a short walk from Cinnabon and the Gap. You are a specimen, a learning tool, a scientific marvel. You have been transformed into something valuable now and the Premier Exhibition company of Atlanta, Georgia knows it. They are the owners of the Bodies: The Exhibition and they take in $24 a head. Leisurely scientific inquiry isn’t cheap these days.

More people enter the exhibit so I move into the next room. I contemplate another skinless plastic body. It is beautiful. It might even be art. The polymer shows off the muscles best, sinewy and textured. As my eyes move toward the face, I see that the eyes are glass but the teeth are real. Finally, an artifact of this person’s (former) life to inspect. Excitedly, I get close as there is no barrier to prevent it. The teeth that remain in the mouth appear to be original, dark and chipped. Where were the doctors and dentists when this person was alive? I smooth my tongue over my own white, shiny, immaculate set. Welcome to global stratification.

I head for the exit.

collide

Durham, NC. Corner of Morgan and Morris- My first car crash occurred last night. I am in the car with the dotted lines. The blue car was stolen and being chased by a cop. As I was attempting to pull into the RBC Centura lot, I got side swiped and did a 180. It was a "drive by" type of thing.

Some notes:
1. Thank you Christa, DATA bus driver who was in the parked car by Centura bank. She saw everything, got out of her car, called 911 immediately on her cell, and hugged me because I was freaked out and upset. I hit my head on my window and the car got smooshed in pretty good on the drivers side. I wouldn't have known what to do AT ALL if she had not been there as I don't have a cell phone and I was facing the opposite way all of a sudden for no apparent reason.

2. This is not the best drawing of the accident (Morgan is three lanes, I think, etc. etc.).

3. For once, something besides grad school caused me to freak out! Hooray. After everything got reported to the police, I drove home and danced around with the cat. My priorities? Realigned, yo. Not world shifting or anything but it really helps to get out of my little bubble.

4. Cars suck. We shouldn't have set things up this way. I crashed into a pedestrian on my bicycle once and aside from the embarrassment, we were completely unscathed. Transportation is key to meeting the needs of large populations but the car option is too expensive and unhealthy. The use of automobiles promotes individualism to the detriment of community bonds, generates false symbols of wealth that help to separate and stratify people, and reinforces a culture of spontaneity which, although not inherently problematic, hurts our ability to think in the long term about how our actions affect others despite good intentions.

5. My car still drives quite well. I will file an insurance claim and everything but body work is the only thing that is needed. Last night J. declared that I would "drive my car into the ground". And to think that I used to be a bit proud of my Toyota. When I first got it, I gave it baths and attempted to wax it and stuff. If the insurance won't cover the body work (quite possible) I'm going to be tempted to enter demo derbys. Seriously. If you're going to drive a beater, go all the way.

list

1. I recently discovered that with the aid of a plush animal or puppet as a prop campanion, that I would be theoretically willing to do a routine on stage. This realization came about after a discussion of some of the extended scenes of For Your Consideration in which Nina Conti does her routine with a monkey puppet. For the record, I'm really against monkeys but Nina Conti is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I think her little monkey is actually very cute. Please note: I would not do ventriloquism because I don't have the skills or "skilz" if you will. I could probably come up with a character and then I would try to interact with them though. If you haven't figured this out already, it would be pretty lame but the point is that even though I am a shy person, I think this sounds like a funny thing to do. I would rather do stand up than some stinky routine with a puppet but I think my skills (and lack there of) are probably better suited for ridiculous interactions rather than monologues and the like.

2. I am totally freaked out by the following photograph:

The photo is a still from the new film version (2007) of the Broadway version (2002) of Hairspray (which is a version of the original film from 1988, mind you). It depicts John Travolta as Edna Turnblad and Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. It makes me want to stab myself.

3. I can't hold it in any longer: I am totally against Evite. I don't necessarily fault anyone for using this service. And I certainly like being invited to events. But, like many things in society, it's the system that sucks. If I was visiting Earth from outer space and I figured out how Evite works and what it is for, I would get the impression that everyone who uses it is a total control freak jerk that needs to know every little detail anonymously about my guests. The reason why Evite gives us this impression, I suspect, is that SOME people would like to know the number of attendees and WHY the HELL they aren't coming and everything. But most people probably do not feel this way and they just like Evite because it streamlines the whole process. It just sucks, I tell you. Not all online interaction is substitutive of real interaction (and lord knows that there's enough hysteria about this already) but I think that this is a fairly good example of it, actually. I think it plays a substitutive role in social interaction in that it replaces formerly totally fun, soulful aspects of party inviting with excrutiatingly boring typing, browser refreshing, and logging in as one's self. I'm nostalgic. Sue me.

4. Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is coming up. Please consider attending. It's one of my favorite things in the whole world.

That is all.

clean

Watch the Video

This may be my strangest post. The other day I had this odd histamine situation where I was sneezing, had a runny nose, and my eyes watered for no apparent reason. I took some Benadril and then used a neti cleansing pot. I was cured! Anyway, I thought this a good time to finally come through on my promise to include something with the neti. I blocked myself out the best I could.

drink

Here is Blueberry, one of the neighborhood cats. I realize that there are many social risks that I take when I admit to you that I really like this cat. I don't live alone and I don't own any cats. But, like most cats, she's not just some random animal that I have chosen to like. There are varying characteristics that I find particularly "cute" about her, if you will. But I will not go into them here. Because I AM NOT A CRAZY PERSON. She's not even that special. But, let it be known that she does have a white spot at the end of her tail, she has blue eyes, and she responds to her name. I think these are objectively good traits that just about anyone would think attractive in a cat. Thus, this still makes me 100% sane. And she also has a white belly. And she rolls around in the dirt sometimes. Okay, see? That's it.

Another topic I would like to address is Asia Cafe on Franklin Street. I visit this establishment at least once a month for lunch. Sometimes once a week. I find it is particularly fascinating for a few different reasons. First, the food is not very good. I think they have specials, sometimes, on the weekend which must be good because, otherwise, I have no idea why anyone would frequent this establishment. However, despite the poor food quality, I go. Secondly, I've noticed that I have never gone with anyone to this establishment. Like, I never, ever would suggest that a friend or acquaintance join me on any visits to Asia Cafe. I mean, that would be embarrassing because of the first reason alone but also because people tend eat alone there. It's just this thing that you DON'T DO at Asia Cafe. I've noticed that companionship is frowned upon there. Not by the administration, necessarily, but by other clientele. And by "noticing" I mean, "I have noticed other people frowning when people bring friends there."

Third, I find that my visits to Asia Cafe have an urgent air to them. I never "choose" to go to Asia Cafe, for example. I just find myself bending over the same styrofoam slop and then later notice that I am no longer hungry. This is not to say that I don't NOT enjoy going to Asia Cafe. I do, actually, enjoy Asia Cafe. But it is definitely not for any of the normal reasons to like an eating establishment. Usually people like particular restaurants because they serve good food, have good service, and have a reasonable sense of ambiance. Asia Cafe has none of these characteristics. None whatsoever. In fact, if it is wintertime, you will often find yourself quite cold in Asia Cafe. They don't seem to have any heat. And the trays, should you decide to use one, are incredibly sticky. So I guess you can't even say that it is comfortable eating in Asia Cafe. It is, in fact, kind of a chore. Still, I go. I must go to Asia Cafe.

generate

Reporting from Palm Springs, California, my sister took this movie.

I love that you can see the windmills up close in the movie. There are several hundred windmills at this site in Palm Springs as shown by this photo which I can't figure out how to display here. (I think it may be because Flickr does not allow All Rights Reserved photos to be embedded though I'm not sure.)

As you may have guessed, these windmills exist to generate electricity. The first time I saw a windmill like this was in Western Massachusetts and it took my breath away because it was so beautiful. Some people feel that the windmills pollute the views of the area. I've never been to Palm Springs and I don't know what this area looked like before the windmill farm, but I'm hesitant to diss their existence. Not only do they have a zen-like, synchronous magic to them, but they were erected in the hopes of a minimalist, peaceful form of energy.

(As a side note, one of my students called me a "non-drug hippie" recently. To another faculty member. I guess I can't blame her.)

In other news, it has come to my attention that "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood may be about god loving. You know, about "worship" or whatever, in a Christian sense. And it's freaking me out. I received the Talking Back to the Night cassette as a gift in junior high from a girlfriend. Although I enjoyed listening to the radio and knew the words to many songs back then (I was in full 1980s pop mode) I was sort of behind in the whole music-ownership thing. The Hooters' One Way Home was my own first purchase, made after an incredible amount of internal debate. But then Bonnie Huggins gave me Talking Back to the Night and Invisible Touch by Genesis for my birthday. I enjoyed both albums a lot and was very grateful for the gift because I really liked both of them and plus, she tripled my collection. Anyway, I got into Higher Love, like a lot of people did. I liked the percussion solo part, I liked the horns, and, even now, I think it's a decent song. I really do. But J and I were listening to the lyrics today while eating tacos and I grew horrified.

Here are the lyrics - I'll take out the refrain:
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me [note that this is left ambiguous]
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along
Bring it...Oh bring it...

I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me [!!!]
Let me feel how strong it could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Dude, it's totally about god and shit. Don't you think? Ugh. I am notoriously bad about actually thinking about the lyrics I sing, when I know them (I hardly ever do) and this serves me right. I can just see all of the Christians standing together with their arms high and palms spread, swaying and crying now. Maybe Steve's "someone" is a real person. Maybe. But probably not.

Okay, I'm over it.

parade

Watch the Video

Wow - thanks for checking in. I know it's been a while. (Stay tuned for some experimentation with a nasal cleansing pot.)

I just came from our town's holiday parade. Actually, it may officially be called the Christmas parade. Yeah, I'm one of those pinko commies who likes a nice multi-religious/secular parade actually.

This year, the chicken man and Shriners were absent. I never thought I'd get into parades as much as this but, like, what's up with that? Seriously, did the chicken man have something better to do this morning? I guess so. Hm.

This year, kids dressed as presents was my favorite. They looked really quite pleasantly goofy. J's favorite was the 3-legged dog. Watch for it as it is the SECOND dog that goes by. I have to say that that is pretty good and I'm glad he pointed it out.

Parades are really nice footage for weird movie mashups so PLEASE steal this and make something out of it. My camera is sucking more than ever though so I won't harass anyone to do it.

All right, I hope to be back soon.

admit

Actress Adrienne Shelly was found dead on November 1st in Manhattan. Initially it appeared to be a suicide but Diego Pillco just confessed to her murder.

Shelly co-starred in Trust (1990), a film by Hal Hartley, which is one of my favorite movies. It's a very tender, sometimes awkward story about a relationship and is, admittedly, "artsy".

I'm sad that she is gone.

edit

I've been a fan of the Prelinger archive for a long time. They have oodles of public domain films, mostly of the 16mm educational variety. This one was made in 1941 and is called the Door to Heaven. This is my special creepy edit.

This has sound!

bradyfy

I've wanted to do some tiling for a long time but iMovie wouldn't let me do it. Yay for Final Cut Pro and the library's lab. I was afraid that I was going to stumble around the software when I went to do this but it went fine. I remembered, for the most part.

P.S. I sped up the donut production line for some reason. It just looked better. It's going twice the rate that the line usually goes. It takes time to fry that dough.

P.P.S. The pumpkin spice donuts are out AND they sell KK on campus now.

position

Georges Rousse is a French artist who installs perspective art in buildings that are in transition. Ellen Cassilly and Frank Konhaus of Durham raised the money to bring him to Durham and install art in some of the unused buildings around town. This blue square is in the Chesterfield building on the corner of Duke Street and Main. The art itself is minimalist, in my view, but the significance is great due to its placement. On the way to the installation, we all discovered a long-abandoned work environment. Linoleum floors, long, narrow hallways, gigantic metal desks, fluorescent lights, and frozen, oversized industrial clocks told us that it used to be a floor of administrative offices. I love that a photocopier was incorporated. (I *think* it is a photocopier...)

The circle one was my favorite. It was as if it appeared overnight, leaving scraps of another era intact:


The Chesterfield will be demolished someday soon because it is cheaper to use its foundation than to renovate the existing floor plans, electrical capacity, and plumbing. Durham is growing and its population doesn't desire a building like this. I would prefer that this be preserved in some way and I think it's more than nostalgia. We should remember our old work environments because they tell us where we used to be and where we are going.

The Independent's David Fellerath had an excellent article about it this week. The official site for the project can be found here.

convey

Well, I finally did it. I managed to make it over to Krispy Kreme when they were actually making donuts. In case you're not in the know, this particular branch is special because they supply all of the supermarkets, gas stations, and what have you, PLUS any other Krispy Kreme locations in the area. So they're making a lot of donuts. If you see a Krispy Kreme truck somewhere in the Triangle, in all likelihood it is carrying donuts that originated in this one production line.

These particular donuts were of the jelly variety. I spied some sort of red goo being squirted in by assistants. (They were too far away for my poor camera.)

This movie looks particularly crappy because it is shot through glass. (I've heard that they don't want people taking pictures so I went incognito.) The first part is the worst quality, but it's the most important: when the donuts, happily floating and cooking in hot oil, are flipped so that their other side can be fried as well. For some reason, seeing raw, limp dough puff into a beautiful treat is incredibly satisfying.

P.S. I am eagerly awaiting their pumpkin spice donut. It comes out sometime in the Fall and is very, very good.

P.P.S. Jeez - I sound like such a donut freak in this post. I'm not really.

roast

Ever since Montreal, my new thing is to eat a soft boiled egg in the morning. I have a new hi-tech egg timer and it works really well so I can get it just right. But you have to eat it with good bread or else it's not worth it. You gotta dip, man.

We didn't have any bread at all so I biked over to the local farmers market which is still going strong this time of year. There were a lot of tomatoes, herbs, eggplant and some squash is starting to come in now. And peppers. Here's Alex from Peregrine Farm roasting some peppers. Buy 2 pounds and the roasting is free(!) Then you put them in a paper bag, wait for them to cool down, and peel off the skins. Not pictured: butane tank.

recycle

The ReCYCLEry started back in 2000 with the help of Rich Giorgi, Andrea Richards, and Seth Elliott. The idea was to encourage donations of old/used/broken bicycles and get knowledgable volunteers to fix them up and teach others, especially kids, to do the same. In exchange for putting in some hours at the ReCYCLEry, even if it was fixing up another person's bike, you could earn a bike of your own. The ReCYCLEry has since moved twice from its original location on North Greensboro Street and changed leaders several times, but it's still basically the same idea. A gang of sleepy-eyed but enthusiastic bike mechanics of varying skills, some of quite a lot of expertise, show up on weekend mornings, greet others with coffee, work on the donated bikes, and help anyone that wheels in for repairs. I have volunteered there off and on myself. I love the low-key, amorphous group and I especially like the opportunity to show off my ratchet and wrench set from Sears.

The ReCYCLEry still works the same way but now they are starting a new lending program. You pay $10 to become a member and then they set you up with a key that accesses any one of their blue bicycles at various hubs around town. I think the town of Carrboro is helping them out as well as a way to encourage green transport. Anyway, here is some video of some public sprucing up that was going on this morning as a way of publicizing the new program.