Singing for Your Stitches
By E. Holmgren, City Limits
Take a nasty gouge from a craft knife? Twist an ankle in guerilla theater gone bad? Maybe you need a feeding tube after a prolonged dearth of sellable art. Luckily for struggling artists in New York City, Bushwick’s Woodhull Medical Center is thinking creatively too. A new pilot program allows uninsured artists with more talent than money to swap their creative skills — such as painting murals or performing for patients — for health care services. — Meg Holle
http://tinyurl.com/cx5ud
‘Mom Rock’ Will Teach the Punks a Thing or Two
By Catherine Elsworth, Telegraph
Tired of the same old rock schlock? Seeking to redefine and intertwine traditional images of motherhood and musicianship, the growing ‘mom rock’ movement is sweeping America with a pick in one hand and a diaper in the other. Maternal masters of mayhem like the California band Placenta riff on everything from the parental to the political, raising their voices above a din of juvenile demands. — Brendan Themes
http://tinyurl.com/cye9o
Darfur 101
By Eric Reeves, The New Republic
Most of us are aware that some very bad things are happening in Darfur. But all of us could learn more by reading Smith College Professor Eric Reeves’ ‘weeklong crash-course’ blog on the who, what, when, where, and why of the genocide in Sudan. — Barb Jacobs
http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml
Sprout a Couch
By Greg Tate, ReadyMade
For the green thumbs out there: Check out Greg Tate’s instructions on how to build earth sofas upholstered with living grass. Using sod, fill dirt, wood stakes, and other materials, anyone so reclined can have a place to plant couch potatoes. (Thanks, Boing Boing.) — Archie Ingersoll
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_6_sodcouch.php
‘Ongoing Investigation’ Drinking Game
By Amanda Congdon, Rocketboom
Quarters is so last century. Catch up with the times with the Karl Rove ‘ongoing investigation’ drinking game. Here’s how: Grab a few cases of beer and start chugging every time Bush’s press secretary Scott McClellan says he won’t comment on Rove’s role in the CIA leak case because there’s an ‘ongoing investigation.’ Amanda Congdon demonstrates by skillfully kicking ’em back in a Rocketboom vlog segment. Warning: Alcohol poisoning could result from playing for as little as five minutes during one press briefing. (Thanks, Wonkette.) — Hannah Lobel
http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/archives/2005/07/rb_05_jul_15.html
Fallen Fruit
By Staff, Fallen Fruit
Line the streets with fruit trees. So goes the manifesto of the Fallen Fruit public art project based in Los Angeles. The group wants cities to scrap ‘frivolous and ugly landscaping’ in favor of edible greenery. And they’ve got maps to help their fellow Angelenos find their way to the fresh delectables. — Hannah Lobel
http://www.fallenfruit.org/
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