TED: Majora Carter

I'll be featuring videos from TED (Technology Entertainment Design) every once in a while on this blog. The post immediately before this explains in detail.

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Shout Out: TED*

What I love about the internet is that it still has the ability to delight me with random discoveries. What's funny is that this particular discovery happened gradually. I first stumbled onto TED (Technology Entertainment Design) a few months ago when a friend sent me the link to Aubrey de Grey's lecture on beating death at the 2005 TED conference.

I stumbled onto it again earlier this month, but never really explored the site until today. When I did actually begin to explore the TED site, I found an absolute treasure trove of great minds. The site has videos that span three years of TED history and the many great speakers and prize winners who have been featured there.

The idea of TED is something that really excites me. A meeting of minds in science, art, culture, entertainment, design and much much more. Time to end the compartmentalization of life and let all these disciplines merge and meld in one beautiful, crazy mess. A mess that just happens to produce beautiful shiny things ever once in a while. Alright, enough of that metaphor...

I haven't been able to explore the site much yet, but from my limited exploration,

I'd like to recommend a few of the videos featured there.

- Anna Deavere Smith is an artist who collects the lives of people she meets in her journeys. Here, she presents four of these poignant, heartbreaking, and sometimes humorous sketches. The third sketch, of a Korean woman expressing her emotions about the 1992 LA riots really grabbed me.

- Eve Ensler may not need that much of an introduction. She's one of my personal heroes, the mind behind The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day movement to end violence against women. She performs the opening monologue from The Monologues and talks about the experiences that led her to write the play. She also discuss happiness in mind and soul. Warning, this is not necessarily for those easily offended.

- Gregory Colbert, the nomad photographer and filmmaker, has been one of my biggest inspirations. His collection, Ashes and Snow, still awes me after repeated viewings. In what the TED website describes as a "rare public appearance," Colbert presents some of his ideas and ten minutes from his ethereal and gorgeous films.

- James Nachtwey, another photographer who greatly inspires me, is known to many because of the documentary "War Photography" about the man and his work. He was a child of the 60s and that era infused him with a passion for service and action. He feels that his photography, which shows the realities of war and suffering, can lead people towards peace and empathy.

- Majora Carter gives an intense presentation about her work to end "environmental racism" in South Bronx. Carter's initiative "Green the Ghetto" has already brought change to her neighborhood.

Other featured artists and speakers are: dance company Pilobolus, the avant-garde classical quartet Ethel, organic designer Ross Lovegrove (Captain Organic), Ideo (coolest design/solutions firm around) founder David Kelley, and Pastor Rick Warren.

Just this content alone will give you hours of viewing pleasure. In this case that you're interested, but just too lazy to travel over to the TED page, I'll be embedding these videos and future discoveries every so often here at The Nomad Chronicles.

This week I'll be featuring Majora Carter's fantastic speech.

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The Almighty Evan?

Head over to The Alex and Ben Show to see my thoughts on the "Almighty" film franchise.

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A Little British Humor

My personal disclaimer: I always did have a soft spot for Tony Blair, always will probably. Alright, enough with the sentiment, on with the mockery!

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This Mini-Rant is Sponsored in Part by GrapeNuts®

There are a few things that seriously frustrate me. Jumping to a conclusion about me is one of those things. Before I go on, I will admit I've done the same to others to my chagrin...I'm working on it. That doesn't stop it from bothering me. It's so easy to take a piece of information about a person and create an entire characterization. I'm fairly tired of having an entire personality created for me because of my skin color or my occupation or my age.
Yes I'm an artist but that doesn't mean that I'm bad at math or scatterbrained or messy. Yes I'm just 22 and yes I have much to learn about life. That doesn't mean I'm naive or or dependent on my parents or unprofessional.
This is an invitation to come get to know me, learn my story, my history, and if you have to make an educated assumption, alright, but not before.

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Your Turn: Teenage Affluenza

Here's a short video passed on to me by Sarah A. What do you think about it? How well do you think it does with what it set out to do?

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The Little Dutchman

Brother Andrew continues to amaze me. He has continued his career as God's Smuggler in the Middle East. Here is a Christian who does not see Muslims, even the most extreme of them, as enemies but as fellow travelers. Christianity Today gets his views on the current conflict in Palestine.

A big thanks to Will C. for the tip on the article.

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The New Facism

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Your Footprint

What's your ecological footprint? If everyone on earth shared your lifestyle, how many earths would be needed to sustain that lifestyle? Find out here.

A quiz presented by The Earthday Network and Redefining Progress.
I come in at 1.5 earths...not bad, but still have a lot of work to do.

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Never Again...Please

I don't want to start celebrating too early, but I think this is cause for some premature rejoicing. And it's a great post for this blogs 100th post.
CNN reports that Guantanamo Bay detention center for supposed terrorists (many of whom are innocent of those charges) is close to being shut down.

I never want to see my country support this kind of madness again. And this is only the beginning. Close down the secret CIA prisons, stop the kidnapping of brown people under false premises, and let us write into law that this must not happen ever ever again.
Today, for just a bit, I am going to quash my pessimism and allow myself to be cautiously optimistic.

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Africa and Civilization

As a follow-up to the post "What's Normal?" Here's a short clip from a documentary talking about black society and its role in early civilization as well as more recent contributions to the industrial revolution and technology. The doc features people like Tony Campolo, Bill Cosby, and Ben Carson. Ben Carson is actually featured in the clip below.

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Nomadism 101: Windsor*

Mickey and I got a chance to head to Windsor early Sunday morning with a friend who was volunteering at the Windsor Triathalon, the biggest such event in England I believe. I'll be linking to Mickey's pictures as soon as he puts the finishing touches on his blog.













("Castles, They Don't Impress Me" courtesy of Mickey S.)

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Nomadism 101: Siam Memories*

Buddha Curls



Andy and the Dirty Word


My Father's Hands


Chiang Mai Beads


Urban Aesthete


Lomography Fun

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What is Normal?

I'm a guest on The Alex and Ben Show's latest episode, "The Search For The Regula Black Man." Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the episode.
If you want additional info about the topics we discussed, here's the blog post corresponding with the first part and here's the one for the second part of the podcast.

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*X-posted at The Alex and Ben Show*

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Playing with Food: Midnight Snack

Mickey tried his hand at a marinara sauce with fresh mushrooms to go over our fusilli while I fried up baby potatoes coated with lemon grass, fresh garlic, fresh onion, lemon pepper, and a little sea salt to taste.

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Arrogance and the West

At the bottom of this post is a video of what I believe has been one of the more effective anti-war demonstrations in the last few years. Veterans from the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) simulate combat in the middle of Times Square, bringing the war to urban America. They have performed similar demonstrations in Washington D.C. and other American cities.

Before you watch it though, I'd like to say something. It's easy to blame the United States for this and it's easy to blame the American government for the atrocities of the last few years. It's easy because it's true; this government has done things many consider unforgivable. It's even easier if you're not an American. It's easy to shake your head at the destructive arrogance of Americans.

I'd like to challenge you to remember that this isn't just Iraq, this is Afghanistan, Chechnya, and The Falklands. This isn't just Americans, this is British, Australians, Canadians, and Italians to name a few. Based on Western attitudes and given the right conditions, the conditions that reached critical mass on 9/11 (and it wouldn't take much to get those conditions in any other Western nation),every nation I've listed would react in a similar way.

We shouldn't be asking how to stop Washington DC and the Americans from doing this again. We should be asking how we can stop the officials in their Washington DC, London, Sydney, Rome, and Ottawa palaces (to name a few) from doing this again. This current war does not only reflect an American arrogance, it reflects a darker Western arrogance that was carefully nurtured by the British hegemony for hundreds of years. When you watch this video, don't see American soldiers, see the soldiers of your own nation, in your own cities, and then ask what must be done.

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Fun Poll For the Whole Family

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A Day in London-town*

Mickey and I spent most of the day in London today shooting interviews for a project of ours. In between chasing people down, we had way too much fun modeling for each other and being voyeurs along the Thames.

Here's some of Mickey's work:















And just a bit of mine:

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Hi Future, How're You Doing? Nice to See You...Where's My Jet Pack?

I know this has been wandering around the internet, so many of you may have seen, but I'm going to post it anyway. Can you imagine what this could do for film editors? Editing this way...wow...the intuitiveness of Final Cut on a whole 'nother level. And no, today I am not going to ponder the dystopian scenarios of this technology.



*X-posted at The Alex and Ben Show*

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Playing with Food: Food Therapy

Sometimes, after a stressful, uncreative morning, the best thing to do is just cook. Here's today's recipe for unwinding:

I sauteed fresh onions, garlic, and mushrooms, added lemon pepper and three chopped up vegetarian tomato basil sausages. I then added about a 3 teaspoons worth of smoked paprika. Once this was sizzling nicely, I gradually added a can of mushroom soup and diluted it a bit with water. Just before it finished cooking I added a dash of Tandoori Masala for a slight kick. The result? A nice thick sauce that goes great over rice.
I served it over basmati rice and if I may say so myself, it hit the spot. Once I figure out how to plate it well, I might put some pictures up.

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The Worship Industry

Here's Brian McLaren, speaking with the wisdom I've come to expect from him.


*X-posted at The Alex and Ben Show*

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Wondering What to Do With That Dress After the Wedding?

Here's an idea...from the sweet folks at the New York Times.

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Photo Romp*

Dragana's Work:









And a bit from Me:

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