Nicco has posted our first podcast from this trip on his site. I'll post it here also.
All my posts about this trip can be found here.
And if you enjoy this first of three podcasts with Ed Barnhart, consider donating to his organization, the Maya Exploration Center.
25 years ago, Lyn and I hitchhiked into the Lacandon jungle with 150 lbs of video equipment, on the back of a beer truck, to spend a week with the Lacandones in Naha. I spent most of my time in the "god house" with the men, talking with Chan K'in Viejo, the last patriarch of these people who hid in the jungle for 500 years, until they were discovered in this (20th) century by chicle gatherers.
Chan K'in Viejo, 1980 (Quicktime, 18 mb)
Lyn spent most of the time waiting in a thatched palapa, eating canned sardines, not as thrilled by it all as I was. Nevertheless, we returned from that trip richer from the experience, pregnant and broke, ready for a new adventure homesteading an abandoned building in New York City.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Naha for the first time. Of the several hours of tape I shot there in 1980, I only have one clip of Chan K'in acting out a monkey and jaguar hunt, that I intend to show the Lacandones if they are interested. I'll spend several days there with Chip Morris, who is helping their potters market their work. I wish I had more of our tapes to show, but this trip just came up. I'll be shooting and recording this time, and will post what I can when I return.
I'm behind the curve on this, but I just read the first essay on the plane flying here. One part of the reframing suggested by the authors included an example: what if Martin Luther King had given a speech that declared "I have a nightmare" instead of "I have a dream"?
The Death of Environmentalism (pdf)
An interview with the authors, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus: MSNBC - Do environmental groups have death wish?
CTV.ca | Earth has suffered irreversible damage: study
The New York Review of Books: Welcome to Doomsday by Bill Moyers, is a different take on an apocalyptic view - that held by the religious Right. Why worry about longterm survival when the Rapture is just around the corner?
Here's the latest map of the Usumacinta (at least, the part that we traveled and that we have studied the most), from Ron Canter:
Usu Map 2005 (pdf, 3 mb)
I've got wireless infrastructure on the brain.
Well I still have high hopes, but our wi-fi source here in San Cristobal is off and on. I waited until after Easter, then went in this morning and checked everything out. After 15 minutes back online, I heard a huge crash from down the hill. Didn't connect it with my internet connection until I found I'd lost it, and went back down to see what was up. Turns out a branch from one of the huge pines in the garden had fallen on power lines, blacking out the part of the old colonial house that had the dsl modem and routers. Hmmm...back to the internet cafe.
Greetings to any folks arriving here from ourmedia. Please look around and comment - I've got too many quiet lurkers.
And for those who haven't checked it out, ourmedia is here:
http://www.ourmedia.org/
Go there immediately and register. You'll be glad you did.
Thanks to JD and Marc and all the rest of the team. Arriba! Andale! Bravo!
My newly discovered wireless access here in San Cristobal is a little spotty. We're working on it. Meanwhile I have moments of adequate signal - now as I sit on my upstairs deck with my iBook propped on the wall. Risky but beautiful out here.
Someone here has the actual magazine. Think I'll read it. Meanwhile here's the online version:
Economist.com | Technology and development
As I sit in the courtyard of Na Bolom, cultural center and guest house, connected by Airport Express to their network and planning with Fabiola and Ian to beam it up the hill to Chip's and our house, I get this link from Nicco
Wi-Fi and Wi-Max: Rural Mexico's Last Train to Development
This is for the folks who thought we might have disappeared on the Usumacinta River. And those who are just curious about how it's turning out.
Sorry for losing communications for a few days. We were on the road and having too much fun to go online, which says a lot about our state of mind.
No podcasts yet. Nicco may facilitate some when he gets back. Here's an update:
On Wednesday night we ftp'd back files of our conversation in Palenque with Ed Barnhart, to Nicco's editor Ed back in D.C. Then Thursday we went to Yaxchilan and Bonampak - high point atop the Acropolis at Yaxchilan when Nicco broke out in a recitation of a stunningly apt poem that he'd memorized 10 years ago:
COULD THIS BE IT?
Transfiguration. Consider it from where you stand.
Overnight the cold, cloudy wet spell was lifted, and
you wake beneath a Byzantine blue dome of glass:
golden birds--red hearts in their musical breasts--
overflow the oak leaves with echoes, a frenzy
of possession that fractures into small squabbles as
two redbreasted nuthatches struggle for dominion
in a sapling oak -- its leaves emerald tesserae in which
sunlight glows. Suddenly, the leaves look back at you
looking up at their broad, light-lapping faces, morning
riding your shoulders like a pet monkey, and all is pause
for a cracked moment of amazement, mutuality, until
you walk on into woodshade, flapping mosquitoes away.
by Eamon Grennan
Out of our heads with the moment and our presence in it. Deep contentment on the ride in the lancha to and from Yaxchilan, and with the photos of the ancient Maya mooring stones on the river shore, at Ron Canter's request. Hey Ron - I discovered a dozen new ones in about 10 minutes!
Friday we rode the winding road up to San Cristobal de las Casas, wandered the nearly empty streets that night past the 16th century cathedrals, heard great live music in the club Latino's, and slept in my house on the hill. Saturday up to Chamula to see the pine needle-carpeted, candlelit and icon-filled church, full of chanting Maya townfolk. Then some serious shopping for weaving and amber in SCLC before we hopped back on a bus and arrived back here in Palenque at 10pm. Cut a deal with a taxi driver to come out to Panchan at 4:30am so Nicco could catch an 8am flight from Villahermosa to Houston to New York, then an evening train (this evening) back to D.C.
It's the beginning of Semana Santa here, and getting crazy with tourists, backpackers, and Mexican folks on vacation. So it was not surprising, only fitting, when a young local kid stumbled out of the jungle as we waited for the pre-dawn cab. "Is there a disco here?" he asked. No, not now. "La feria se termino?" Yes the party was over. Nicco laughed with satisfaction that this was his adios to Palenque, and rode off in his cab to Villahermosa and home. He had 2300 emails to answer on his plane flight back today. But he was definitely relaxed.
I went back to sleep on Ed's floor until 7am. Ed went off on heirophany patrol (searching for lighting effects built in to the temples for this equinox sunrise) and returned with photos of the Temple of the Sun pinspots to the back corners. I headed up to the site to see easily five times as many people as I had ever seen in the ruins. Fortunately I ran into Alfonso Morales, old friend, archaeologist and rascal. He was taking a tour group through the ruins, so I tagged along and recorded his typically entertaining and informed lecture. (Possible podcast to come).
On the way out I saw Hun Batz Men, a Maya shaman of the New Age variety, and his followers, in the shade of a ceiba tree in the plaza. Luna Joy was conducting crystal skull ceremonies, showing people how to amplify their energies by holding two of the softball sized skulls together jaw to jaw, sometimes as a bridge between their midriffs. Serious faces, no signs from the joined couples, but Luna Joy seemed confident it was working. She took a moment from her work to offer a brief explanation (another podcast moment?)
I walked out through the crowds, tour buses and sellers of water, soda, Gatorade and souvenirs, determined to catch the 2:15 bus back up to San Cristobal. I knew Semana Santa was a bad time to travel but I was still surprised to find the only available seat on the 11pm bus tonight. So I write this back at Don Mucho's restaurant at Panchan, on good wireless and listening to ranchero music over a bowl of pasta. Looks like another jungle evening with travelers, music and firedancers around the bar, under the thatched roof which strangely never catches fire. The fire extinguisher onstage is new this year.
That's today's sketch of an amazingly deep and hilarious voyage by this gringo and his now departed pal Nicco. Que le vaya bien, hombre!
More from cold country, including these long-promised podcasts and clips. Nicco may post some and I'll post some others. I'll provide the links and further adventures.
Some great podcasts in the works, after a fascinating conversation with Ed Barnhart of the Maya Exploration Center. Maya astronomy, geometry, religion, theories of the collapse - he discussed them as clearly as I've ever heard, and I've heard it many times over the years. Then a walk into the jungle to some of the unexcavated ruins that Ed and his crew surveyed over a three year period, adding over 1,000 structures to the map of the site.
We're sending the interviews back to the editors at Echoditto, which as an editor myself is a pleasure. It's tough enough living these days and recording them without cutting it all down as well. Well, tough isn't the word. It's an outright delight, but it does fill the days. That and a siesta, where's the day gone?
Actually, I digitized while Nicco napped, but now he's refreshed and blogging it all. If we can get an ftp connection on this wireless signal we can send the interviews out, and I can post a video from last year that starts in Palenque and hits the river kingdoms on the Usumacinta. That's where we are headed tomorrow, to Yaxchilan in the great oxbow of the river.
On wireless, in the jungle, at Panchan, on the edge of the archaeological zone. A sweltering day and a cool muggy evening. Up and down the pyramids, down into the tomb of Pacal. Rounds of beer with Ed Barnhart and Moises Morales. Ah, Moises. And Nicco here bringing fresh eyes and thought to the place. Perfect Palenque day.
Nicco's got energy - check the photos he's already posted - and we have a podcast on the way. But not now. Time to sleep to the frogs, insects, birds, and geckos.
Catching up on the news of the week: on Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg and Councilwoman Margarita Lopez announced a gift from the mayor's city funds of $2.5 million to help construct the new home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club. This is the kickoff of the capital campaign, the next step after 8 years of work by my wife Lyn and the staff and girls. Congratulations all around to the club and the community!
Bloomberg kicks in $2.5 million more for Girls Club
Yes, it's true. On Monday Nicco and I head down to Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico and other jungle destinations, on what I'm calling the Gringo Collapse tour. We'll be sending back bits of news on our travels, recording some podcasts, pondering a civilization that disappeared under the jungle over a thousand years ago, and joining the mashup of cultures that we see in the region today - living Maya, modern Mexicans, Zapatista rebels, international tourists, archaeologists, expatriates and fugitives.
We'll be traveling on the Usumacinta River to the Maya site of Yaxchilan, a small part of the rafting and mapping trip I took with Ron Canter last spring. I'll be posting Ron's map here in the next couple of days.
To cool off, we'll take a bus up the winding road to San Cristobal de las Casas, one of the oldest towns in the hemisphere (1528), now a bustling colonial tourist center surrounded by Maya villages.
And we may drink some beer and ask ourselves "Is it just me or is it collapsing around here?"
Moves to mend relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
The New York Times > International > Americas > Rice and Mexican Official Hint at Thaw in Relations
"Last fall Ms. Rice's predecessor, Colin L. Powell, said in Mexico that President Bush would make a new effort in 2005 to revise the immigration laws, but on Thursday Ms. Rice did not offer any timetable."
Thanks to Dave for the link.
HOW-TO: Make your own annotated multimedia Google map - Engadget - www.engadget.com
Via Ben Hammersley, a guide to public radio podcasts.
PublicRadioFan.com - Podcast directory
As Boing Boing says, this is iTunes for worldmusic. Yes, I'll pay for these cuts! Smart.
Another success for the Lower Eastside Girls Club! Great story in the New York Times about the whole crew and especially the plans for the new building. There will be more news this week. For now, cheers for the girls, the women and my wife Lyn whose vision and determination have brought it to this point.
The New York Times > Real Estate > Square Feet: A Club for Hundreds of Girls Finds a Permanent Home
SWEET THINGS: In the cafe at the Lower Eastside Girls Club, from left, Erica Santiago, Destiny Negron and Tamara Oliveras prepare to make cupcakes, as Miladys Ramirez, the manager, looks on. (photo by Frances Roberts)
(click More for the whole story)
A Club for Hundreds of Girls Finds a Permanent Home
By LISA CHAMBERLAIN
Published: March 6, 2005
IN 1998, when the Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York was barely two years old, one of the many unpleasant spaces that the struggling nonprofit organization occupied was a basement on Avenue D. Because sewage frequently backed up after it rained, the girls sometimes had to conduct their activities in rubber boots.
And this less-than-desirable site was not the worst. At one point, the entire Girls Club - tap dance shoes, art supplies, enrollment forms - was pushed around in a shopping cart.
For the Girls Club - which provides after-school, weekend and summer programs for neighborhood preteen and teenage girls - survival has hinged on obtaining affordable real estate, and that has been all but impossible. Just as the Girls Club was taking off, so were real estate prices on the Lower East Side. Consequently, the organization's beginnings were not auspicious.
The Girls Club was formed in 1996, 120 years after the Boys' Club of New York, by a group of neighborhood women who lamented the fact that their sons had a place to go after school for sports and other activities, but their daughters had no similar organization.
The founders, who knew one another from a group called Children's Liberation Day Care, had very little money at their disposal. Getting the Girls Club off the ground was a labor of love that has been at times more labor than love, as the organization has bounced from place to place all over the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In all, the Girls Club has had seven office sites in nine years (including the back room of a 99 cent store, right behind the underwear and socks), and it has held program activities, from drumming to fencing to photography, at more than 20 different locations.
"When we launched the Girls Club, we had a virtual ribbon cutting because we had no place to call home," said Lyn Pentecost, the executive director. "We cut a ribbon on an idea."
Since then, the idea has become very ambitious, indeed. From an all-volunteer staff working with approximately 20 girls to a budget of nearly $1 million for programs serving up to 500 girls a year, the Girls Club is now in the middle of a $12 million capital campaign to build its own facilities on Avenue D between East Seventh and Eighth Streets - just a stone's throw away from where program leaders once mopped up sewage. The capital campaign will get a major boost next week from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg when he announces what is expected to be a sizable contribution from the city.
The new facilities, for which ground is expected to be broken by the spring of 2006, are to be built on what are now six contiguous lots owned by the city. With the help of City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, the Girls Club was awarded conditional control of the site, which is T-shaped and covers more than 15,000 square feet, by the New York Economic Development Corporation in January 2002.
These facilities will consist of a one-story 2,000-square-foot community center on East Eighth Street; a four-story building on Avenue D that will be leased to the Federation of East Village Artists, a nonprofit group that will provide work space for artists; and the main Girls Club building on East Seventh Street, all connected by a courtyard.
The five-story Girls Club will have a commercial kitchen, a cafe, a screening room that will seat 75, a gallery space, artist studios, a career center, a technology room, a two-story library and a science and environmental center - all topped off with a roof garden.
What the buildings will not be are cinder-block eyesores of the sort that so often house community centers in low-income areas. Ms. Pentecost and the Girls Club board members believe in the inspirational power of good architecture, and to that end have relied on the generosity of the architect Craig Tooman of Cutsogeorge, Tooman & Allen and the developer Eric Anderson of Urban Green Equities. Both have, until very recently, worked almost entirely pro bono, not just on the Avenue D site, but also on two previous ones that fell through.
In fact, the space that the Girls Club currently calls home, 56 First Street, between First and Second Avenues, is a new four-story building that was designed by Mr. Tooman. And it is Mr. Anderson's residence. (The two met as undergraduates at Columbia University.)
The Girls Club leases the ground floor and basement from Mr. Anderson at below-market rates - $5,000 a month for about 3,000 square feet. At $20 a square foot annually, that is considerably less than new construction could command in the area.
Not only is the current space affordable for the Girls Club, it's downright fabulous. The all-glass front lets sunlight into Sweet Things, a gallery and cafe that sells baked goods made by girls. In back are the Girls Club offices, and downstairs are computers and television production equipment, purchased with a grant from Manhattan Neighborhood Network, that the girls use to film, edit and produce their own public access show called Girl TV.
"I call this our practice building," Ms. Pentecost said. Like their current home, the buildings to be erected on Avenue D will feature clean modern architecture, use a good deal of recycled and locally produced material, and employ environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems. The Girls Club is hoping the new facilities will be designated the first "green" youth center in the country by the United States Green Building Council, a Washington-based association that promotes eco-friendly building technology.
"As a firm, we try to be involved in some sort of architecture of conscience," Mr. Tooman said. "We do a lot of work for wealthy individuals who don't need what the Girls Club needs. And that allows us to do some pro bono work." Mr. Tooman estimated that the firm had donated $200,000 worth of work over the years to the Girls Club.
The heavy lifting of raising millions of dollars for a new home has not been easy, Ms. Pentecost said, particularly when the Girls Club has to raise basic operating funds at the same time. But she believes the fate of the Girls Club depends on securing its own real estate.
"I've been in community arts and the nonprofit world my entire life," Ms. Pentecost said. "Programs come and go. But buildings are like diamonds. It's the only way to become a permanent fixture in the neighborhood." And diamonds are, after all, a girl's best friend.
Here's another company that designs progressive websites using civicspace. Their site (like EchoDitto's) is a beautiful adaptation of the platform.
Development Seed | Technical Solutions for Progressive Organizations
Both organizations are featured in a report tonight on NBC in Washington, D.C. Tim Jones of EchoDitto interviewed the NBC producer, I.J. Hudson, and created this podcast:
Episode Thirteen: Digital Edge | EchoRadio
Charles Golden brought this to my attention - it may make his work this spring more difficult.
Last spring we hiked through the Sierra del Lacandon to Piedras Negras and spent the night with Stephen Houston's team there. Now it may be too dangerous to visit.
Guess Nicco and I won't be going there this month.
Reuters AlertNet - Drug traffickers invade Mayan city in Guatemala
Aldon has helped me several times in the last couple of months as I learned my way around civicspace. He's a great source of information regarding the nuts and bolts of online politics.
Setting up a Paypal account to receive donations online.
Another indication that these guys get it. And another vote towards using them to provide backhaul on the Ave. D building.
Daily Wireless - Towerstream offers Free VoIP
Here's a great selection of links and comments on the essay that's making the rounds and stirring up debate. Saw the post too late to hear the NPR show in question but it will be in the archives for streaming, as Emily Gertz notes here.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Nordhaus/NRDC Face Off--Live
From the always useful EchoDitto site, a post by Terrance Heath on keeping folks coming back to your website. I certainly need advice in that department.
EchoDitto Blog | EchoDitto - Keep 'Em Coming Back, Part I
Good page of information and links, collected by a member of the Yahoo! Groups : Information_Systems_Forum
Robert L. Weiner Consulting: Technology Resources
This is the first I've seen a newspaper story promoting tourism in Lacanjá. I wonder how many people going to stay there overnight actually make it to the main part of the site. When I went some years ago, most tourists were walked around in circles, visited the falls, and then saw one temple on the outskirts and were told that the main ruins were another hour's hike. I suppose it is a good way to reduce tourist traffic in the site.
El Universal Online - Intérnate en la selva Lacandona