November 2008 Archives
As you know if I you read the first article linked up left, I've long been obsessed with getting nonprofits to pay more attention to design. To see how design can help make a positive difference, check out this killer article from Science News, which examines how Florence Nightengale developed cutting-edge information graphics for applied statistical modeling.
Sean at Tactical Philanthropy recently gave a nice shout-out to my Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed, which he described as an example of my "anti-social entrepreneurship discourse."
Head on over there for my clarification as to why my critique is not, from my perspective, anti-, but part of a more up-with-people goal.
Above: My new favorite graffito in New York--happy toast on a doorway ramp leading into the Bleecker Street Theatre.
Andy Warhol's Empire consists of 8 hours and 5 minutes of continuous footage of the Empire State Building at night.
On Thanksgiving I went to the top of a local building and filmed an homage appropriate to an age of micro-chic: the ESB at night for 8:05 seconds.
Nothing profound to say about it; I just liked the title of this post. The following comment made me laugh too:
It’s very cute and clever. What it is not, and shouldn’t be called, is “eco”. It’s plastic. It will eventually go into the landfill, where it will stay cute for millenia.
This is one of the coolest charity auctions I've seen--Russian Vogue is celebrating its 10th anniversary by auctioning off matrioshka dolls created by famous fashion designers. The beneficiary: Northern Crown, which provides care to orphaned children.
A sparkling clean home without labor--the cleanser as a means to rise above the mundane.
"A cool cocktail for the entire global village"
Marshall McLuhan's grandson-in-law is uploading memorabilia from the McLuhan archives on Flickr. Amazing stuff here--above, a family scrapbook from 1964, the beginning of his emergence as an internationally famous prophet of the electronic age.
The more you buy, the more you believe--Macy's offers a mercantile symbol of metrics and meaning.
The Chicago Cultural Center has eliminated its Volunteer Department, much to the dismay of this correspondent:
The Volunteer Department has been around for 12 years, organizing a force of more than 150 people willing to give their time and energy to make public programs happen, such as weekly concerts, weddings, annual holiday events, not to mention all the office tasks and mailings that have been expedited by these helping hands. You can imagine my surprise when I went into the volunteer office recently and found out that, come the end of November, it will be no longer. The director and the department -- gone.
I was stunned. Of all things to cut -- the hub, the person who has not only built this program from the ground up, but also motivates, manages and maintains hundreds of people willing to give their time and knowledge and energy free of charge.
This cut seems like it will lead to an inevitable dissolution of many of the cultural programs that characterize this wonderful city. How disheartening.
Or perhaps just more efficient?
The phrase "negative wallet biopsy" refers to a hospital refusing to provide charitable care because the prospective patient has an available credit-card balance or too high a credit score. This recent Business Week article provides the gruesome details.
I've mentioned this before, but my favorite book on the underlying issue raised by wallet biopsies--and one of my favorite courses in law school: Guido Calabresi's Tragic Choices.
The above chart overlays the NASDAQ since 1995 on the Dow from 1924. Historical recurrence or pattern recognition run amok?
Speaking of which, if you're into order and randomness in social systems, you might want to check out the complete Grant Morrison run on Batman, especially the storyline entitled Batman RIP. It is, as is typical of his work, a compelling metaphorical play on central themes in much less entertaining but no less important research--in fact, the above reference to apophenia is a nod to the most recent issue. If I can break away from my other work for more than a few minutes, I may write up my thoughts on that elsewhere.
henry chavarria,babyboy,dollarsandsense,hip hop,art,cute,sex symbol,fashion,designer,thug life,money,clothing,, originally uploaded by babyboy_designs.
Ludacris as curator of his own hip-hop museum:
But then came "I Do It for Hip Hop," a self-consciously lo-fi celebration of precapitalist creativity that on Ludacris's new album, features his fellow millionaires Jay-Z and Nas.
"I don't do it for the money/I do it from the heart," Ludacris rapped. "The van Gogh flow/Luda do it 'cause it's art."
Then, quite unexpectedly, all those faux-naïf rhymes came true. A cavalcade of guests emerged to take the stage for a few moments each, a showcase of New York hip-hop history with a devoted fan as curator. It turned this show on its ear.
L L Cool J's "Rock the Bells" was invigorating, and Jadakiss's "We Gon Make It" sounded like rolling thunder. When Jim Jones and Juelz Santana emerged to perform "Pop Champagne," the flamboyant hip-hop anthem of the moment, Ludacris felt comfortable enough to put art back aside for a second: "I made the Forbes list, yeah, I know you seen it/Eight figures so if I say it, you know I mean it."
For more about Dollars & Scholars, check out BabyBoy's Myspace.
This panel from Grant Morrison's Batman 679 illustrates the relation between the city and individuals that so fascinated Aristotle in The Politics--literally "Of the city." For an explanation, check out my explanation of what Aristotle described as "the partnership of the city"--what we now call "civil society"-as well as Rem Koolhaas' classic meditation on the generative dynamic of the city grid in Delirious New York.
My last couple points illustrated how charity can be subverted through the mindless repetition of pervasive memes. However, that doesn't mean that viral dissemination of ideas is inherently bad.
Consider the corporation. As I explain in my most recent article--especially in these sections on emergence--corporate form propagates a ratio of difference between whole and parts that provides the key to subverting the soulless conformity all too often associated with corporate life.
"Sustainopreneurship" is unsustainable, just another example of how do-gooders lacking self-awareness ride semantic waves.
Because that's what people want--monetized justice. As for bazaar-style negotiation, you do realize that there are imbalances in power, resources and knowledge that create systemic bias in the outcomes, right?
Cripes, people. Think about what you're saying.
Kenketsu-chan--"blood donation girl"--is the Japan's blood donation mascot, one of a stable of public mascots throughout the country. Pink Tentacle (via Animal) has more, including a link to the official Kenketsu-chan site:
From the site, we know that Kenketsu-chan’s ears shrink when she runs low on blood, but return to their original size when people donate. We also know that she comes from Tasuke Island (Help Island), which features a heart-shaped spring at its center. The spring shoots forth rainbows that carry Kenketsu-chan to wherever people need blood.
Below: "Cross Kid," a local Red Cross superhero.
"Duplex est hominis vita"--or at least that's what Thomas Aquinas says when discussing the organic link between charity and friendship. One aspect of our double life is corporeal, anchoring us to the mundane; the other, spiritual, that enables us to commune with angels. Charity, like friendship and the spiritual life, takes us beyond the limits of our natural existence into a higher realm.
Protesting the fur industry during Russian winter is a losing proposition. Stripping in the cold never fails to get attention, but if these activists really want to make a difference, they might want to spend their time developing synthetic materials that could provide the same amount of warmth for a lower price--in Russia, where fur coats are primarily functional as opposed to a status good, fur is a relatively cheap way to keep from freezing.
Also not helping the cause--the fact that these women are foreigners from the U.S. and Australia. Russians have had their fill of clueless Westerners telling them what to do.
It's on the social enterprise bubble, and you can read it here.
The above ad, in which a bunch of supporters say "Thank you, Sarah Palin!", has been making the political rounds.
Naturally, my first thought on seeing it went to tax law. Y'see, a political action committee is exempt from taxation to the extent that receives contributions and makes expenditures for exempt functions. An exempt function, sayeth Section 527(e)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, means
the function of influencing or attempting to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of any individual to any Federal, State, or local public office or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential or Vice-Presidential electors, whether or not such individual or electors are selected, nominated, elected, or appointed.
All of which is to say, this ad isn't about thanking Sarah Palin at all. It's looking forward, not backward. You've just seen the first candidate campaign ad for the 2012 presidential election.
So I'm sitting here writing about how social enterprise is a means by which people fashion an identity defined by their own virtue, when what should pop on my TV background noise but an episode of Amazing Wedding Cakes.
A challenge this week: an anniversary cake to meet the client's brief for a "Green Cake" with the theme "love and renewable energy."
Above: a partial image of the resulting do-gooder cake wreck, featuring organic hearts, white chocolate windmills, green icing plants and the sugary inscription, "LOVE is the most Renewable ENERGY source of all!"
Blech.
Above: In 1976, legendary Soviet-era folk singer Vladimir Vysotsky travels to New York & is interviewed for 60 Minutes. Note Vysotsky's subtlety--he used the system to beat the system. His music did more to undermine Soviet authority than any number of protests, and it will continue to exert substantial influence whoever exerts political control.
The mobile MRI van was parked a few blocks up from Coney Island, so afterward I decided to take a walk around Brighton Beach, where I purchased this copy of Soviet Russia--"an independent national newspaper"--commemorating the 91st anniversary of the October Revolution.
The classic Norman Mailer article on the nomination of JFK for president is now online at Esquire.com.
"'The investment-banking industry is fucked,' Eisman told me a few weeks earlier. 'These guys are only beginning to understand how fucked they are. It's like being a Scholastic, prior to Newton. Newton comes along, and one morning you wake up: 'Holy shit, I'm wrong.''"
--from Michael Lewis, The End
If social entrepreneurs had that level of self-awareness, they might actually resemble the business world they claim to emulate.
. . . about nonprofits and charities that use Flickr. Archiving pictures of designs, projects, art, documents, events that convey a sense of fun and engagement--I get that. They're all extensions of the mediated self.
By why so many photos of people at meetings?
No, really, I want to know.
Today's Wall Street Journal casts a critical eye at an issue faced by several nonprofits recently: attempts to landmark a structure they want to replace.
In the WSJ story about the landmarking of the above church, described as an icon of Brutalism, this identity conflict stood out:
J. Darrow Kirkpatrick, the congregation's first lay reader, acknowledges that "what we have in this building is inwardness, brutalism, roughness," but he sees this as inimical to Christian Science. "Ours is not an inward-looking, secretive religion," he says. "This building does not represent our theology or our beliefs." As church member and George Washington University historian David Alan Grier says, "The building's bunker look suggests a congregation not trying to reach the outside."
Today I took a moment to get a free brain scan at the Bobby Murcer Mobile MRI. Being in the machine is sublime--I could have spent the whole afternoon immersed in the sounds. For anyone who has ever wanted to get inside my head, I've placed the complete four series on Youtube.
A couple days ago I saw a van with a Make-a-Wish Foundation superhero ad on the back doors. Didn't snap a photo in time, but here's the original commercial, the story behind it and an update from the real-life kid whose wish inspired the PSA. Folks interested in nonprofits & intellectual property might noticed that the recreation in the ad does not include Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, who were part of the original granted wish.
The past few days have been network hell, as my old modem & Verizon Bluetooth connection both went south on me, and the cable company took days to register my new modem. I've been working mostly from home, so that meant occasional jaunts to Starbucks to get on the web. Still, some of what needed to be done got done, and now that I'm back online I'm really looking forward to immersion in what's up for the next couple weeks.
To see why the above XKCD map reminded me of a critical moment in my youth when I learned that plans aft gang agley, check out my comment in this Scarlett Lion post.
Trash cans branded with the GoRedForWomen.org campaign are out in full force at Grand Central Station.
I was going to offer a Freudian analysis of this campaign but thought better of it.
Social Finance Forum - Hybrid Structures: Lessons Learned, originally uploaded by mars_discovery_district.
Sure, it's not the most popular photo on Flickr, but it's interesting to me. For more on the Social Finance Forum in Toronto, click through or check out the conference site.
And for more Canadian goodness, What is the (Next) Message offers informative write-ups from the recent SustainabilityCamp.
Above: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. Music would never be the same . . .
I'm focused on writing & class prep, but as usual my breaks have been equally rich with fascinating stuff. First, on my way back from the events yesterday morning I came across the autobiography of Grandmaster Flash at ye olde NYPL. Music, business, the public good and the higher self--his story brings 'em all together in a poignant and compelling mix.
Do-gooders who ridicule rap and hip hop really should pay more attention, because these communities have done more for social improvement than fifty social enterprise bakeries put together. Don't get me wrong--bakeries and such have their place, but to make such ventures the limit of social enterprise is just another way of saying "Let them eat cookies."
Ever since watching last week's Saturday Night Live, I've also been paying more attention to Beyonce's creation of an alter ego, Sasha Fierce. It's the latest in a long line of pop other selves, winding back through Prince, David Bowie and James Brown to--as this wonderful new bio notes--the pathbreaking professional wrestler Gorgeous George.
As with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five--along with a host of other noted rap, hip hop and pop artists--Beyonce's Sasha Fierce blends synchronized action with an ethical sense. Consider "Single Ladies," the video below, and how it links marriage and enlightened transformation. There's little sense of marriage as servitude evident in this nineteenth century folk song.
The scene above: Marianne Lydon, Patient Coordinator, at the opening of the Brain Tumor Foundation's new mobile MRI.
UPDATE: My brain scans from the mobile MRI.
Marianne, Jason Dolger of Alliance Imaging and the Foundation's Dmitry Shimelfarb were nice enough to include me in the press event this morning outside City Hall. They offered a number of interesting details about the Foundation and this new project, which provides free MRIs at various places throughout New York City.
A couple things particularly stand out. Providing the service costs about 1.5 million dollars a year, and while there are some major donors most of the amount is covered by small individual donors. With regard to legal issues, it turns out that providing MRI services is a relative piece of cake. What's really difficult: getting permits to park the truck!
If you're in NYC and are eager to get your free scan, you might want to register now--based on response to the word-of-mouth so far, folks were predicting that a flood of calls will follow an upcoming feature on The Today Show.
Above: the mechanization of the human spirit in the service of giving away free underwear. More about the event at Racked; here's my Flickr set of the box and what's inside, as well as the full thermal body scan revealing the coldest parts of my body:
In France, an annual charity auction serves as a leading indicator of the market price for the latest Burgundy vintage. Prices are down & the beneficiary hospital is not happy with the result, inasmuch as it is in the midst of an expensive expansion project. Read the whole Wine Spectator article for a fascinating look at a historic link between philanthropy and commerce.
I missed the fair trade tea tasting, but maybe if I'm not too swamped I can make it to the exploitive soul-crushing tea event next Monday night!
I'm immersed in another intense pre-Thanksgiving week, and this odd bit o' corporate culture from Weird Universe provided welcome comic relief.
Cascadian Farm sells frozen vegetables. As a way of maintaining good spirits within the company, the package design department has hidden in the veggie pics the faces of "friends and family" associated with the firm.
Apparently the notion of noshing on heads is garnering some unwanted attention, so the practice is about to be discontinued. Which I guess makes Cascadian Farm frozen foods just another cold-hearted corporation . . .
If you were unfortunate enough to hear me give a talk over the past couple years, chances are at some point you heard me predict that when--not if--the latest market bubble collapsed, it would have serious implications for the social enterprise movement. Two things in particular: a resurgence of resistance to nonprofit business and a tightening of viable low-margin ventures.
Ta daaaaaaah!
A couple news stories that came across my virtual transom today illustrate the problems:
The first one is truly sad, as a jobs & socialization program for the mentally challenged loses its employment contract with a local warehouse, which decided to cut costs by taking the work in-house. If a replacement isn't found, the rehabilitation services charity may have to shut down. When social enterprise rah-rah types exult in how the economic crisis will lead to a boom in socially responsible business, remember this, will you?
And from the Pottstown, PA Mercury (Berks County represent!), an op-ed on why nonprofit hospitals aren't really nonprofit. Its point: that nonprofits use high salaries and expensive projects as an accounting trick to net out expenses and revenues. Lawyer types will say the writer gets the law wrong, but that misses the article's potential effect, particularly on legislators--critiques like this are what gets the law changed in ways that make it harder for nonprofits to survive.
I don't know if the words "social enterprise" or "charity" are mentioned in the series, but this Food Network show--in which six at-risk individuals work for scholarships to culinary school--is not only full of do-goodery goodness, but it highlights how the creative transformation of the mundane is central to human identity.
The New York Stock Exchange tries to cheer up trading by having clowns from the Big Apple Circus ring the bell.
The most telling response:
"It's like they're trying to be the Make-A-Wish Foundation, cheering up a terminally ill child," said Bill King, chief market strategist of M. Ramsey King Securities in Chicago. "It's a great metaphor for a financial system that has become a joke.