Re-post from joaochao.com

The two events I attended at Charlotte Fashion Week were interesting. Here are a collection of photos of mine from the Finale, held Saturday evening and the Hilton uptown. One of the more anticipated parts of Charlotte Fashion Week was the recyclable designs contest.

Re-posted from joaochao.com

As part of the Charlotte Film Society, the Back Alley Film Series hosts the screening of recent obscure and extraordinary art house films.  I saw Berberian Sound Studio, Manic, and V/H/S 2, shown at Carolina Cinemas’ Crownpoint 12, an independently owned movie theater in Charlotte.  Noteworthy features to debut at either Sundance or Cannes, in that order they are of the more grotesque and disturbing (bloody) films I’ve seen. Suggesting these movies films are not to be missed – all very well made and remarkably distinct – the current post offers a description of my expectations for, and general response to each. Continue reading “3 Scary Films / Back Alley Film Series”

Re-post from joaochao.com

A large collection of rubber ducks appeared in Charlotte at Freedom Park on Saturday. Roughly nine hundred of these bath-toys, numbered on the underside and corresponding with raffle tickets – doing a float on the river! The NC Catawba Riverkeeper hosted their main annual fundraiser, gathering support from local businesses that donated prizes for raffle winners of the duck race. The Riverkeeper held their annual meeting at Freedom Park, after the raffle.

The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation harbors against the destruction of natural resources and is an advocate of protecting local waterways from pollution. The Waterkeeper Alliance, together with Earthjustice, Clean Water Action, The Sierra Club and The Environmental Integrity Project, recently published “Closing The Floodgates: How The Coal Industry Is Poisoning Our Water And How We Can Stop It” — a review of 386 coal-fired power plants that are endangering the United States’ water supply.

The report identifies toxins such as arsenic, cadmium, selenium, mercury and lead, pollution that traces back to ponds of improperly disposed coal ash, discussing how many power plants have not held to guidelines set by the EPA, together grossly exceeding 5.5 billion pounds of water pollution every year. The Catawba River is at-risk, ranking in the top ten on American River’s 2013 Most Endangered Rivers List. Consider looking into Riverkeeper foundations in your state similar to others in North Carolina taking part in the riverwatch, including Cape Fear Riverkeeper, Haw Riverkeeper, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper, French Broad Riverkeeper, Yadkin RK, and the Lower/Upper Neuse.

Also going on that day in Charlotte was another race-themed fundraiser. In its second year, the 24-Hours of Booty Marathon of Cycling is partnered with the Livestrong Foundation and is know for being one of the very few 24-hour cycling marathons nationwide.

Re-post from joaochao.com

Here in North Carolina, the Chamber of Commerce is working together with regional organizations such as the Queen City Forward to stimulate the growth of entrepreneurial business. On Monday, in a presentation room adjoining the Queen City Forward office in Uptown Charlotte, the executive director explained to a group of small-business owners their chance to win a small fortune in seed funding and great marketing and publicity services, all with which to take their “innovative idea, or service” to the next level. The Charlotte Metro Area chapter is one of seven in North Carolina, from which finalists will be selected to give presentations in the final round. Continue reading “Opportunity for Start-ups in North Carolina”

Re-post from joaochao.com

Up in the hills of Western Iowa, farmers are seeing signs of another drought year. Wintertime temperatures in Monona County, home to a small town called Soldier, have been warmer than average this season. Last week, on a short trip to Soldier and a farm nearby, along the way I saw a small billboard offering a definition, reading “Organic Farmer: One who pulls weeds.” I spoke with a farmer in Soldier who is one of the very few in the area whose land and operation is licensed certified-organic by the USDA. As we drove to a place belonging to a friend of his, the farmer described to me how the creation of dirt roads and fence lines was a landscape change that lead to topsoil quality downturns, interruption to regenerative cycles of wildfire encouraging natural erosion. The farmer was able to show me more of the territory and introduce me to a good friend of his down the road, an auto mechanic and the owner of a hundred-acre tract of land the type they refer to as mostly good forest, pasture (for grazing) and creek. Take a look at some pictures of the trip here

The mechanic was busy taking a look at a pickup and talking with the owner about the issue with his truck. Together I sat with the farmer and the mechanic for awhile in the office of his shop. A small television was playing in the corner above the desk opposite where the farmer had found his seat (auto salvage). Beside him, a cat was dozing on the next, near where the farmer’s dog had settled in on the floor in the middle of the small room. They shared some of the details about what they pay now for taxes on the land they own. We discussed the farmer’s engagement with the country board addressing amendments to agricultural property taxes last year that have made it a challenge more than ever for these folks to make a good modest living. The pasture the mechanic owns is for grazing cattle only. He now pays more than twice as much property taxes than before last year. In 2012, the state of Iowa rolled out an updated version of its Corn Suitability Rating (CSR2), a rating system that serves a wide diversity of agricultural landscapes to define number values describing the aptitude of the land to be grown with row-crops. The tax looks at what was found to be the Corn Suitability Rating of the land, and the property is taxed based on figured value, regardless of whether it is planted with corn or soybean row-crops, or otherwise. Agridatainc.com, here, says that The CSR Rating “is intended to measure one soil’s yield potential against another over time. All soils start at 100 and points are deducted for land conditions such as slope, water and climate.” The farmer I spoke with pointed at tall hills rising up from a road and explained that even though nobody plants rows of anything up there, in addition to other reasons doing so would cause the hill (mountainous deposits of silt) to erode into the valley, such land still gets the CSR, regardless of slope, and that means money out of someone’s pocket.
Chemical fertilizers have been made to answer to the increasingly demanding implications that agricultural land should be made to turn a considerable profit, and is widely used. This picture shows an armory of chemical fertilizer, used to promote both growth rate and a high-yield. Last year, Sun Magazine (literary journal) ran a memorable article written from the child’s perspective about their family after their father was near a tank of anhydrous ammonia when it sprang a leak and nearly was killed. What I remember best from the story is the narrator’s point of relief knowing that their father would eventually get better after all, together with the child’s siblings finding humor in watching their father making a fuss with dishes in the sink, when his eyes were swollen shut, and noises instead of talk as they were all he could. In Soldier, there’s a story about someone who went unnoticed for seventeen years driving with an annulled license, until seventeen years later he finally decides to pay the hundred dollar fine he has against his legal privilege to drive. We talked about how in the future, cars will drive themselves, that they already have that now and about what, if cars could drive themselves, the state might do instead without all the money they’re getting ticketing drunk drivers. Talking, we went from one thing to next, finding plenty of different things to remark about relating to the division of things in town and life out in the country.
Here’s a look at the first page of what the farmer intends to plant soon and harvest this year. Numbers on the right tell what year the seeds are from. I would especially like to try heirloom snap beans (ca. 1837), and also some Mortgage Lifter tomatoes.

Re-posted from joaochao.com

Presented by the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Forward: Conversations About The Future & Future of The Arts in Chicago event, March 13th, 2013. At an auditorium in the underground of Chase Bank in Chicago, vice president and associate editor Joycelyn Winnecke spoke of supporting conversations to serve and promote the viability and wellness of the cultural scene in Chicago.  I bought a ticket and was eager to join the crowd at this event after reading in the paper on Monday, “What does it mean to be a creative professional in Chicago?” Continue reading “Future Of The Arts In Chicago”

Re-posted from joaochao.com

From 10am to 2pm one Saturday each month, The Poetry Foundation library located in downtown Chicago opens and is welcome to the public. Open hours Monday through Friday are 11am to 4pm; the library home to over thirty-thousand collected poetry and children’s’ books. From an initiating pilgrimage to the Poetry Foundation Saturday, February 16th, 2013, here are some photos of the entryway showing the library, in part.  The painting in the lobby was made by Joan Mitchell, whose poems are featured by Poetry magazine, in February.  In the library, there is quaint display of artifacts from her life, such as typewritten letters and other keepsakes.

Returning to the Poetry Foundation the evening of Wednesday, February the 27th, I was able to attend an event interrelating poetry (spoken-word) with music performances and multimedia.  Arranged by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in association with Poetry Foundation, the event was called Fulcrum Point Goes Ivy League: Princeton, the second annual concert in a three-year series celebrating music and poetry from artists with affiliations to Ivy League universities.

Featuring musicians, that were including Gil Alexander, Jeff Handley, Richard Janicki, Tina Laughlin, Brandon Podjasek, and Rika Seko.

Special guest Elliot cole, mid a 5-part hip-hop lecture (operatic) on the physics of history, that began the show.  Upcoming events at the Poetry Foundation including, Poetry on Stage: Poetry as Comedy — March 24th at 3pm, and March 25th, at 7pm