-
I Think The Mayor Is Wrong. I am probably wrong too.
Tonight while laying in bed a headline came across my twitter feed from @lancasteronline. The post said ‘Mayor calls for anti-sticker ordinance.’ It immediately caught my attention.
My name is Tim Hoover. I’m a 26 year old. An owner of a design firm and gallery, and part of the, dare-I-say-it, ‘creative class.’ I am also a founder of WeAreLancaster.com. I am not a writer. I am the demographic that so many of our city leaders want to target. I’ve shaken hands with Rick Gray on several occasions, and he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. He has even cracked a joke at me outside of market, and it was funny. He wouldn’t know me, but I know him. I don’t dig too deep into politics, but I like the guy. I see him walking the streets, and I like that. He’s out there. The city is bustling, the streets are clean, and there’s a good vibe in our town. I am wiling to say Mr. Gray is doing something right.
To many, Rick Gray’s call for an anti-sticker ordinance is dismissible and unimportant. To me, it feels like the beginning of an end. I speak only from my own perspective, which is all I know. But, I am part of a generation who grew up in the suburbs, where everything is perfect, or is made to look perfect. The suburbs feel inauthentic. Cities are attractive because of their authenticity. They are honest. There is undeniable diversity: of cultures, and of thought. Not everything is perfect in cities, and not everything is perfect in life. I find the most beauty in imperfections. The old rusty fire escape, viewable in Square One’s courtyard, is my favorite object in the whole city. That fire escape has a story to tell. Good stories have conflict and imperfections. This is the authenticity I am interested in. The unpolished voices are the ones I am most eager to hear.
Many think the Lancaster Arts community is thriving. I agree to an extent. But it will die if my generation does not carry it into the future. A sticker that encourages me to ‘Embrace The Beauty’ is more meaningful to me then a watercolor painting of a barn. It is the power of those little surprises that turn my days around and make me smile. They are made not because of a market, but because the creator believed it was important. I would rather see a flyer for a poor kids band, then an ad for a rich person’s clothing store. I fear that spending time and energy curbing stickers in the city will create a bigger divide between the creators in our city, and the creators in our city who have enough money to display ’stickers’ in their shop windows. We created We Are Lancaster to be a voice for members of the creative class who didn’t have the money to share their abilities in store fronts or glossy magazines. We have failed at keeping this blog going. But we have not lost hope.
I often go to NYC, Baltimore, Philly, or DC and I look for the stickers. I check out the bulletin boards as well as the telephone poles. I want to know what is really happening in the city, not what the city wants me to think about it. I want to form my own opinion of the character of a place. I want to know the people, not the institutions. I walk on the beautiful new streetscapes everyday in Lancaster, and I am thankful that we have them. But why does this need to be an either/or scenario. Why can’t a city have beautiful brick walkways, and wonderful little stamps of personality. A sticker costs a dollar. Renting a gallery could be $1500 a month.
I think we should all make stickers (although I would never publicly encourage you to stick them to anything). I’m not encouraging disrespect or vandalism. It is completely stupid to put a sticker on top of the Lancaster City maps that are displayed around town. It feels different to see a sticker on a trashcan. I don’t think I am alone in this. But I’d like to hear your thoughts. This little headline that came across my twitter post at midnight frustrated me enough that I got out of bed to write a response. It makes me, a twenty-something artist and designer, who loves Lancaster, want to move to a place where art is for everyone. Maybe there is a reason that there aren’t similar ordinances in the rest of Pennsylvania. I hope there are 5 fines given for political propaganda, for every 1 that is given to a young artist trying to be heard.
I am growing up, and my idealism is shifting. I understand economies and I understand tourism. To me, finding beauty in imperfections has led me to a much richer life.
I applaud the organization that Lancaster Arts provides, and the creation of a Public Arts Manager is a wonderful step in the right direction. I want to see Lancaster thrive, but I think their needs to be two players: those willing to sit on boards and plan art, as well as those who are willing to express themselves wherever they can. Nowadays, everyone has a business card, but not everyone carries them in their wallets.
I’d love to hear thoughts. I am probably wrong, but I’m interested in dialogue. Feel free to leave a comment below…
Here is the link to the article: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/253214
With love for the imperfections of this beautiful little city,
Tim Hoover
-
Let’s be honest – Grandpa doesn’t need any more ties this year. This year, lets curb the commercial side of the season and use gift giving to help Lancaster flourish. Come to Lancaster’s 2nd Annual Alternative Gift Fair to shop for meaningful gifts that bring lasting joy to the giver, the receiver, and the third-party beneficiary.
Through local organizations, you can provide a bus pass for a newly-arrived refugee looking for employment or help a working single mother get her car fixed so she can get to work. With $15, you can buy a weeks worth of diapers for a resident of Milagro House or stock an arts and crafts room with a weeks worth of supplies at the local YMCA. More than 100 gift items range from $8 to $250 to support over 40 nonprofits doing good work internationally, nationally, and right here in Lancaster City. Last year the fair raised more than $30,000. Cool.
Admission is free, and the day also includes great food, fun kids activities, music, and live speakers, incredible food, festive music, enlightening speakers, children’s activities and more. The fair will be running from 10am-4pm this Saturday, November 21 at the Farm and Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Road. http://www.giftsthatgivehope.org/lancaster/
-
As part of the Energy Harvest Grant program, Lancaster County is looking to disburse nearly half a million dollars in grants for green roof installation, and time is running out.
Green roofs are beautiful rooftop gardens that pack considerable benefits for your budget and your environment. Their highest impact is in run-off reduction. Lancaster City’s sewage system was built for a Civil War-era population, and will take millions to repair. Green roofs are one alternative. Because they can absorb 70% of rainfall annually, they prevent storm-water runoff from carrying engine drippings and other nasty pollutants into local waterways. Green roofs also significantly reduce heating and cooling expenses, decreasing energy costs by as much as 25%. While a typical black roof can reach temperatures as high as 180 degrees, green roofs don’t get much hotter than 85 degrees. Because they last twice as long as conventional roofs, green roofs mean resource conservation and minimized maintenance expenses. The tiny, hardy sedum plants that make up most roofs require no watering and little upkeep, and they’re surprisingly pretty.
Rick Seavey, CEO of National Novelty Brush Company (505 E. Fulton St.) and initiator of Lancaster City’s first and only green roof, received a huge check for his 17,000 sq. ft. roof. As far as the project’s advantages go, he couldn’t be happier. His facility’s roof is saving him money (keeping his warehouse 10 degrees cooler), remediating the city’s sewage problems, and giving him an excuse to trade the office for sunshine and a lovely cityscape view. He typically visits his factory’s roof on a daily basis to tend his basil and tomato plants and pull weeds growing between the sedums. “I’m a gardener, so this is kind of like my big roof-top garden.”
The Lancaster County Planning Commission (LCPC) recently upped its grant size from $5 to $10 per sq. ft.,* and is seeking projects between 3,000 and 40,000 sq. ft. While costs vary, this support can cover the lion’s share of a roof’s expense (economies of scale make larger roofs more cost-effective). Although residential green roofs are great, larger buildings maximize run-off benefits, so the current grant targets businesses only. If you’re interested in greening your home’s roof, check out this video to see a Lancaster County homeowner installing one himself.Unfortunately, the downturn has prompted most early business partners to back out of the grant opportunity. Out of seven original grant participants, all but one couldn’t justify the costs at this time. But the School District of Lancaster recently signed up for installations on three school buildings in the city. The LCPC is looking to give grants to more local businesses. Convince your business-owner friends to take advantage of free money before it’s too late – roofs need to be on track for completion by March 2010 to access grant funding. Visit www.lancasterroofgreening.org or contact Mary Gattis-Schell at 717.299.8333 for more info.
*For materials costs only – does not cover the wage costs of installation. -
A Grape Stomping, Endless Souping, & Chocolate Walking kind of Saturday
10.10.09 // Posted in Food & Drink, Lancaster, We Care
I’m currently in a struggle to decide which Saturday night event I will end up at this weekend. Even though I can’t go to all, maybe you can!
1. Moon Dancer Winery Festival
Blues, Wine, Pig Roast, Grape Stomping here:
OR
Donate $20, pick a bowl, eat all the delicious soup you would like, enjoy live music, take the bowl home with you and help feed hungry people
Foods donated by local restaurants:A Loaf of Bread, Bear Cork Catering, Carr’s Restaurant, Dosie Dough, Food Not Bombs, John J Jeffries, Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op, Prince Street Café, Senorita Burrita, This Little Piggy For tickets call Kevin at 717-509-7547 or email at kevin@klpottery.com From KLPottery
OR
Whatever the pleasure, the Lititz Chocolate Walk has attracted more than 9,000 chocolate lovers to Lititz since it’s inception in 2001. A “Chocolate for Charity” event, the Lititz Chocolate Walk brings together some of the regions most talented chefs and candy makers for a fun and unique way of raising money for local charities. From website
Good luck deciding.
-
I do love to wear beanies, or tuques, as our Canadian neighbors say it. These hats may or may not be in my top ten reasons to be smitten with fall.
I also love non-profits. So this was a good find: krochet kids
Three crocheting surfers from Spokane, Washington started this organization after a trip to Uganda. Now, working alongside ten Ugandan nationals, they are helping provide these women with economic developement and hope by giving them the tools to crochet beanies themselves and sell them in the U.S.! (paraphrased from krochetkids.org)
I’m feeling a slight pull to the Waldo hat…so see if you can find me in the crowd this fall.
-
Time meanders through this town at it own stubborn pace. Nowhere is this more true than at P.J. Bar (240 West King Street), a glorious time capsule of a tavern that is probably downtown’s oldest and most overlooked drinking establishment. Pete is the owner, lone bartender, and acid-tongued wit who inherited the place in 1980 from his father, who operated it as Johnny’s Tavern since the 1950s. As Pete freely admits, things haven’t changed much since then. Except for the small t.v. and the erratically updated jukebox (Hank Williams, Aaron Neville, Avril Lavigne, Shakira, and a whole column of unidentified “Greek Music”), you’d be hard-pressed to prove that you’re in the twenty-first century as you down your $1.05 glass of PBR amongst a motley smattering of regulars who mutter things like “Whenever it rains, my body starts telling me the story of my life.” Endearingly odd landscape scenes line the side wall, painted in 1953 by an itinerant muralist for thirty-five dollars and all he could drink. According to Pete, the guy took two hours to finish all three. I haven’t asked him about the deer heads and porcelain clowns along the other wall yet.
1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|buffy the vampire slayer sexy
mp4 porn net
gay skin porn
irouch porn videos
fuck step mom videos
sasha grey porn videos
wife boss fired fuck video
xxx video on demand internal explosions
mexican gay tube
sex videos jerking off
girl skater hair
mother and son fucking movies
watch gossip girl online season 2 episode 16
daddys friend sex video clips
how to seduce a girl video
xxx video on demand slumber party
-
We are happy to announce that Ben Leech will be contributing to our blog on occasion. Ben runs two incredibly interesting blogs about Lancaster. He is the founding director of the Lancaster Building Conservancy (where he does beautiful drawings and speaks about Lancaster’s architecture). Old Weird Lancaster is Ben’s other site, about amazing vintage images of Lancastrians. Below are two of Ben’s renderings from the Lancaster Building Conservancy site.
-
There are only a few places in the city selling annuals, perennials, and houseplants, so Vicente’s wonderful operation immediately caught my eye when I drove past his colorful open-air shop at 49 West Strawberry Street. I was delighted to find that the man behind the flowers is compassionate, hospitable, and determined to make this world a better place for his neighbors – both for those in Lancaster City and others around the globe.
Vicente moved to Lancaster County from Honduras in 1973, and he’s lived in the city for several years now. His small garden center actually exists to support Careforce, a nonprofit that supplies materials for humanitarian relief projects. Vicente himself is a Primerica Financial representative and completely volunteers his time. Since 1998, Careforce has sent 55 shipping containers of supplies like food, clothing, toys, and construction materials to war- and disaster-torn communities in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Kosovo and Ghana. The organization responded to 9-11 by sending much-needed drinking water, Power bars, and sanitizer wipes to aid workers as they searched for survivors at the Pentagon. Careforce has also helped build 49 homes for Honduran victims of Hurricane Mitch. In fact, it was this 1998 hurricane that first sparked Vicente’s call to action.
“This all started while I was sitting in front of the TV,” he explains. While watching images of Hurricane Mitch’s impact on his home country, he was devastated to realize that the infrastructural damage would put Honduras 30 years behind in terms of development. Vicente says, “When I saw this disaster happen, I realized that all material things can be destroyed in an instant…My whole perception of life changed. I thought, ‘I have been blessed immensely in my life. Now it’s time for me to give something back.’”
Careforce serves as a connector between individuals with goods to donate and local doctors, missionaries and community leaders who distribute donations in-country to those with the greatest need. In 11 years, Vicente and his volunteers have seen some pretty incredible things happen. “For the first 8 years, we operated without a checking account. If we needed money, somebody would provide it, just in time, right before a shipping deadline…We operate pretty much on faith.” And it looks like faith has been enough.
So why an urban garden center? “It’s such a weird thing,” he says, “…I love plants!” Most of the shop’s plants are generously donated by Esbenshade’s Nursery in Ephrata. “It’s fascinating, what’s been happening. We never even asked them for it. They just heard about what we were doing and wanted to help.” All proceeds go toward covering the cost of shipping donations.
The Careforce shop has also become a bright spot for the community. Many of Vicente’s customers are women from the city who don’t have cars to travel to nurseries for flowers for their gardens. People even stop to thank him for making his home – and thus, the neighborhood – more attractive. “If people do their part to keep their places beautiful and clean, others will follow their example, and we’ll have a beautiful city,” he promises.
This fall, stop by mums, foliage plants, and pumpkins donated from local farmers. Vicente also does flower arrangements, landscaping, and window boxes for local businesses, and he’s always happy to visit your backyard to give you ideas. You still have time to get perennials in before the frost. The shop will close in late October when Vicente heads to Guatemala for a medical mission project. Ring the house bell if no one’s in the shop.
Careforce Needs: Volunteers to develop a website or sort and package donations, and in-kind and cash donations for relief shipments. Stop by the shop or call Vicente at 717.330.4503.
-
This afternoon, a few friends and I had the privilege of meeting an amazing man named Chris. Chris is the owner/operator of ‘Chris’ Buy and Sell,’ at 201 W. King Street, on the corner of Water and King. His humor and gentle manners instantly drew us in. He shared stories, taught us a little Greek and lectured us on the importance of communication as a key in good marriages.
Chris came to Lancaster from Greece when he was in his mid-twenties. He met his wife, “did the eye blink thing,” and fell in love. After a wedding in Greece they returned to Lancaster where he has been ever since. During a quick language lesson we were reminded that we all speak Greek, we just don’t know it. We learned the true meanings of ’school’ and ‘idiot.’ I whole-heartedly agree with his brilliant view on education.
Be sure to stop by ‘Chris’ Buy and Sell,’ check out the unique furniture, find some treasures, and allow Chris to impart some wisdom. His dream is to retire and teach Greek to anyone who is willing to learn. What an honor it was to spend a half hour in his store. Thank you fine sir. You are Lancaster.
-
“The Sitting Machine” is a charming documentary that follows eight public school children and their teacher as they venture beyond standardized tests into a world of learning by doing. The project: to imagine, design and construct a full-size functional chair (a sitting machine) using only cardboard and glue. The film was produced by local filmmakers Paul Hunt, Julie Kauffman, and Jerry Greiner. The local premiere is Sunday September 13th, at Penn Cinema, at 2pm and 7pm. The filmmakers, students and teacher in the film will hold a Q&A session at both screenings on Sunday Sept. 13th.
Please contact producer Jerry Greiner at jerrygreiner@paonline.com, for more information.
Additional showtimes are Monday, September 14th through Thursday, September 17th at 2pm and 7pm each day. There are 200 seats available for each show — tickets are first-come, first-serve. “The Sitting Machine” was awarded 9th Best of 200 Films at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Reserve a seat at PennCinema.com.
To learn more about the sitting machine check out the facebook page and become a fan. You can also contact producer Jerry Greiner, or visit www.thesittingmachinemovie.com.
You can view a high quality trailer at the movie’s facebook page.
