Here's one for Rowan-since six foodbanks have been robbed a couple days ago, cleaned out, actually, by some low group, maybe a can drive, headed up by The creaking planks, and a few other bands, might be in order. Price of entry is a can (or two or three) of food. Ramen noodles and other non-perishables also welcomed.

On the subject of living life, had this possibly silly idea for making a building work, and keeping rent low. This would be an "If I had the money" kind of thing, and ignoring probable gov't hoops. Hey, I'm theorising here, so hey. It would be a new type of condo, where yes, obviously one would buy into-although, for the homeless, there would hopefully be a subsidized kind of thing (someone poor or homeless would have to prove themselves as worthy, though). The idea of the building is that it would be turned into a working building-say, rooftop garden, for veggies to sell at farmer's markets. A few stores below, on the street, selling items, crafts, that sort of thing. Profits go back into rent, of course, yeah yeah, management, accountants, time and lot's of effort, etc. people in building would put in flex hours, and that goes towards rent. The building would be greened-using available technology, homes have been converted over to an astonishing amount of self-reliance, power-wise. One could reduce one's power bills to a fairly reasonable level. Many other green things could be considered, even converting human waste to methane. I'm dreaming, and ignoring buraeaucratic hoops. so, while I'm dreaming-the basement could be studio space-rented out, all kinds of cultural activities-in fact, the building could have a commons space, where theatre, spoken word events, art shows, dance, movies, craft fairs and makezine style making things workshops could happen. probably have to throw at least a bikeshop and a cafe in there, why not. Tap into not the young, although they have lot's of energy, but the older-who have a lot of time on their hands, and are used to using said hands, have lot's of experience, and want to do something. Invaluable resource. Gov't subsidies could further help with rent, and wifi for the building-people need computers? Free geek, of course.

The idea is that a building is re-purposed, almost every square inch, and that space is maximized for bringing finance in, and lowering rent. while I'm dreaming, I can imagine enough money being brought in, that rent is scandalously low-perhaps a few hundred, or less, a month. And that's only a partial list of ideas. Remember, I'm ignoring naysaying, and focussing on dreaming about it. Throughout the city, spaces could be changed over. Perhaps one building becomes so successful, that they buy another building, and do the same. There could be different themes-one could choose a green style building, or that one over there, is tech oriented-and one doesn't have to have a degree of any kind-people have incredible, untapped potential, and it's easy to open up that potential-"Hey, I have this project, and I need help." I say that, because as an artist, I've discovered that science and tech are hilariously easy, to the point of being retarded-you disagree? Pshaw, I say. Science, and tech, are all about basic facts, and two things the human brain is very good at-one is called 'mechanical reasoning'-which is the process of figuring out how a fulcrum works, by, well, looking at, thinking about it, figuring it out, and fiddling with it. The fiddling part is important. fiddling is one of the main things that tech does very very well. "What happens if I do this to this, and put this together with this? and hope it doesn't blow up or something."

The other mental element is memory, which is pretty much, well, remembering stuff. Uh, yeah, little redundant there. which, of course, is what we have memory devices for. what, you say? Isn't it a bit more arcane than that? No, it aint. anyone can do it. That's why there's lot's of eningeers and scientists-the really hard part is the language, specialized to make it look way more important and complex and arcane than it really is. all this is by way of saying that typical avenues do not necessarily have to be explored. The idea of the community is to better a place, and to maximize a buildings potential, which is vastly under-utilized. Also, groups can achieve more-100 people, with 30,000 each-that's 3,000,000$. Probably not enough for a smallish building, but possibly enough for collateral. and the thing is, a selfsame committed group has many many other avenues for financing. that, and once a human, or group of people get a focus and an idea, and want to do it, they usually bull ahead until they achieve it. Oh, and trade and barter would of course, be encouraged. for instance, Free geek could, with a group of people, create a fairly self-reliant building. Oh yeah, stores of water, and dry food, medical supplies, for emergencies like when sotrms and quakes hit, would be a dandy thing. Learned that from when GX lived in the SRL warehouse in San Francisco, they apparently had full medical supplies, and some food, for just such a thing.

As technology finds new solutions, even more self-reliance can occur-recently, a new catalyst was found, that quickly seperates hydrogen and oxygen out of water-very good news for hydro cell technology-and in a place where one doesn't expect it, in a simple chemical reaction that was thought to be pretty much tapped (nothing ever is). There's a new solar cell technology, which increases the amount of power generated, and so on and so forth. I can envision such a building being one day nearly totally self-reliant, maybe even selling power back to hydro.

Hey, let me know what you think.