Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back

Sorry folks for the long hiatus from the blog. I got caught up in *studying* and work and life. I also probably went out too hard - posting every day. I'm going to start posting again, but probably once or twice a week. Or whenever I have something interesting to say. Keeping up a blog took much more time than I had expected and suddenly it was taking too much time, but instead of scaling back I just stopped.


Moderation - that's one of my words for 2011. 


Now, on to my post for today:


I've decided that one of my 2011 (re)solutions is to give more of my money away. I like fancying myself a benefactor of the arts and supporter of the cause. Obviously, my work is devoted to my causes, but I want to put some of my money where my mouth is. And, since I am a poor poor non-profit worker bee, it's more of a sacrifice and thus I want to examine how wealth, money and the pursuit of it factor into my life during 2011. 


The first thing I want to draw your attention to is Kickstarter - a relatively new website where artists look for funders for their projects. 

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.

We believe that:

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide. 

• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

And, my first funding project is: Shakedown - a documentary about the lesbian strip club scene in L.A. Seems like a cool concept, plus I'll get me a DVD if the funding ends up going through.

I think all too often people still believe donating money is only for wealthy people. With the advent of microfinancing and other microfunding opportunities, I think the general sentiment is beginning to change. But, I think its an interesting way for me to begin to contemplate what money means to me.

Technology and Education

Just a small post on something that I came across today.

I'm a fan of Raw Toast Design - one of the prints hangs prominently in my bedroom! When I received an email from the artist, Jessie, asking for his blog readers to vote for East Side Community High, a school in grave need of an educational grant (and threw in a free print!), I could not refuse. He writes back:

Unfortunately this Kohl's Cares challenge looks like it will largely (maybe entirely) go to the schools that already have substantial budgets in place and were able to market themselves the best (via free iPad incentives, helicopter rides, and paid advertising) with those budget dollars and not the schools that really really need this money. This school can’t even afford new computers for themselves let alone give them away in exchange for votes like many of the leading schools are doing. May the most deserving schools win... and hopefully not only the ones with the biggest advertising budgets. 

This was the first thing I noticed when I went on the Kohl's facebook site.  All the top schools were Jewish private schools who had the technology and spread to create a campaign to win this challenge. Kohl's relies on the larger community to vote for the schools that are most deserving. However, the "larger community" is not the larger community when it doesn't take into consideration the substantial barriers to technology that schools face when they are underfunded and in poor communities (largely of color) who do not have the same access, networking capacity and time to launch large scale campaigns such as the one Jesse describes above.

Who's idea was it to start a campaign that could ostensibly give money to schools who are already well-funded, or at least much more funded than other schools? Did anyone consider the logistically issues that would pop up in such a funding contest. It's just so frustrating when campaigns that are supposed to do good are not thought out. Social media networking is not necessarily the be all end all answer to social issues and problems and how to solve them and how to choose worthiness. What happens is all the underserved students remain underserved.

So, please fellow readers, vote for East Side Community High (and get a print, too!). Check it out here: http://rawtoastdesign.blogspot.com/2010/08/giving-away-my-work-for-free.html

why you so obsessed with me?

It seems like every time I navigate to the NYT, there is some article on how "20-somethings" have no direction or live at home or are in some sort of limbo because they are too irresponsible and self-indulgent to be an adult. But, the narrative leaves out a specific subset: the sort of people who aren't married with children and a 9-5 but who aren't living with their parents and working at the local video store. What about all the 20-somethings who are independent, responsible, and pursuing things they actually enjoy? What about me, and all most of my friends?

The latest article is entitled "What Is It About 20-Somethings?"  written by Robin Marantz Henig, which explores the "emerging" stage of life called "emerging adulthood" -- a term coined because it was cooler and catchier than "youth." ... (blank stare) ...

As mentioned, the article creates a dichotomy between the "traditional cycle" of "orderly progression" - "finish school, grow up, start careers, make a family and on and on" - and the cycle gone awry - "remain(ing) untethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life." And, while, I do not profess to co-sign to those who live an extended childhood by living off their parents, I think that my generation is being demonized for not following the trajectory of the previous generation - a trajectory that many do not wish to follow. This either/or dichotomy ignores a huge subset of people in their 20s: those living independently but non-traditionally.

much, much more after the jump...