Yesterday I was biking home after videotaping a yoga class for a client (and friend), and I noticed a couple dozen people, many who I knew from my neighborhood, digging holes in a vacant lot a couple blocks from my house. There was a huge hand-painted sign ready to be installed that said "Ramona-Magon Memorial Garden and Autonomous Community Park". Wow, I thought, that is so cool. You see, this vacant lot was city property, and it was about to be in the path of a huge new road project that has been a hot battle for years.

Greta and I came back a little later and grabbed some shovels to help out. I took some photos. People were putting in benches, planting native plants, digging water basins. The idea was to put something else valuable to the community there, obstructing the construction project.

My arms are still tired from chopping up caliche (the hardened desert earth that is so common around here) and shovelling dirt, but it felt good to be part of the project. This was a perfect example direct action that I would wholeheartedly embrace. Even if it gets destroyed and doesn't stop the highway, I feel like it is still effective, because planting plants and generating the kind of constructive, barnraising kind of positive feeling is a great thing for the community, even if it is only temporary.

Anyway, I wrote an article on Arizona Indymedia about it. Read more. Look at more photos.

author: George Orwell

name: Steev

average rating: 4.01

book published: 1949

rating: 5

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date added: 2008/03/30

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author: William Golding

name: Steev

average rating: 3.58

book published: 1954

rating: 3

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date added: 2008/03/30

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author: George Orwell

name: Steev

average rating: 3.71

book published: 1945

rating: 4

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date added: 2008/03/30

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author: Thomas Pynchon

name: Steev

average rating: 4.02

book published: 1963

rating: 3

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date added: 2008/03/30

shelves: novels

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author: Denis Boyles

name: Steev

average rating: 3.20

book published: 2008

rating: 4

read at: 2008/03/01

date added: 2008/03/26

shelves: politics

author: George Saunders

name: Steev

average rating: 4.25

book published: 1996

rating: 4

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date added: 2008/03/26

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I've been away from home for the last 9 days and today I'm finanlly returning. It seems like much longer. I'm so glad it's over. It's been fun, and also very productive, and I was able to see several friends and acquaintances I haven't seen for quite awhile, but none of that has counteracted the ache of missing my partner, and her dog.

Not to mention that I've had quite enough of the New York City transportation experience. The subway system is amazing considering its challenge: providing a way for a few million people to move around without all needing to drive cars. But I can't really wrap my mind around the need to budget an hour to get anywhere. I'm accustomed to hopping on my bike and being anywhere I routinely need to be within 10 minutes, maybe 15 tops. So waiting for these big metal worms to laboriously drag me through this concrete anthill is not cool.

Oh and speaking of cool its still damn cold in NYC. Sonoran Desert here I come!

author: Umberto Eco

name: Steev

average rating: 4.04

book published: 1980

rating: 5

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date added: 2008/03/21

shelves: novels

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author: Umberto Eco

name: Steev

average rating: 3.83

book published: 1988

rating: 5

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date added: 2008/03/21

shelves: novels

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