Many are familiar with the Syracuse Cultural Workers’ poster “How to Build Community.” [Scroll down a bit to see it; you can click a link to see it enlarged.] I’ve long harbored a scheme to get a bunch of their laminated posters and guerrilla-post them around my neighborhood. I’m just saving up for a bunch of them at $18 a whack.

Here are a few of their tips:

  • Turn off your TV
  • Leave your house
  • Know your neighbors
  • Sit on your stoop
  • Share what you have
  • Dance in the sreet
  • Play together
  • Have pot lucks
  • Turn up the music
  • Barter for your goods
  • Bake extra and share it
  • Organize a block party
  • As it happens, this weekend some of our neighbors did just that: organized a block party. All of the above activities transpired in the street, which was a cinch to block off for the day. We’re all tempted to do it every single Saturday until we find out the city has a limit.

    The biggest hit, for the 12-and-under set: the Jumpie Thingy. I’ve mostly seen them privately installed in back yards, though also in public parks for family reunions and the like. When they’re in a blocked-off street, they function as a neighborhood kid magnet, and the impact is blocks-wide. The Syracuse Cultural Workers might consider adding this to their list of community builders.

    In other list news: To the long There Are Two Kinds of People… list should be added, Those Who Delight in the Jumpie Thingy, and Those Who Find it a Sweltering Bag of Chaos. Alas, while once I may have been in the former camp, I am now in the latter, and could only imagine our darling two-year-old suffering permanent damage from some limb akimbo.

    Fortunately there was a big ole double-dutch game going on nearby, and I could cast my thoughts forward to a time when the lil’ monkey might engage herself that-a-way. Plenty of fun and excersize to be found betwixt those ropes. If you’ve forgotten, just check out Double Dutchess, the madcap SF-based jump rope crew (be boggled/inspired by this three minute video here). I might just take up a neighborhood collection and hire them for our next block party.


    3 Responses to “If you inflate it, they will come”

    1. 1 cedirkly

      I don’t know what they call them in the US, but here in the UK the ‘jumpie thingy’ is called a bouncy castle. I like your blog, BTW.

    2. 2 LesbianDad

      Thank you! And welcome. If it’s a bouncey castle then to my eye it’s a bit less Camelot and a bit more Amityville Horror. But to each their own. There’s always Parcheesi for the faint of heart.

    1. 1 At the Halloween Block Party at LesbianDad

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      LD's No on California Prop 8 fundraising

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      The time to step up is now.



      See that cute kid there on the right? My son. The day, this July, that my partner and I got hitched. It was our fourteenth anniversary. Help.



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      Featured election news/analysis:

      From "Gay marriages in California surpass those in Massachusetts,", Jessica Garrison, on 7 Oct., 2008, at the Los Angeles Times.



      Data released Monday (6 Oct 08) by UCLA's Williams Institute found that an estimated 11, 000 same-sex couples were married in CA since June 17, when the court began to allow them. (Since May 2004, over 10,000 have married in Massachusetts.)



      Pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa, who has been rallying voters to pass the constitutional amendment, said: "The fact that there are big numbers doesn't change the reality that it is still bad for the country."



      Garlow, who along with hundreds of other Christians, is observing a fast until election day as a way to show his support for the proposed amendment, added: "There are enormous numbers of people doing cocaine right now. . . . Simply because large numbers of people are doing something does not make it right."
      "Foes of gay-marriage ban say poll shows Prop. 8 leading," by Jessica Garrison, 8 Oct., 2008, in the Los Angeles Times:
      The opposition has enjoyed a healthy lead in several surveys taken by polling organizations that do not have a stake in the campaign. But officials with the No on 8 campaign held a conference call with reporters Tuesday to announce that their own poll showed the measure would pass by four points. Opponents attributed the result to fewer television ads, which is, in turn, a result of the No on 8 campaign falling behind in fundraising.
      From Geoff Kors, Equality California, in an email to EQCA and No on 8 supporters, 7 Oct., 2008:
      Our worst nightmares are coming true.



      Today we learned of the massive $25.4 million our opponents have raised so far. They are using this war chest to broadcast lies: 24/7 and up and down the state of California.



      And the polls show the lies are working. We need your donation now.



      Yesterday’s CBS 51 poll shows that:



      “…likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent. Ironically, a CBS 5 poll eleven days prior found a five-point margin in favor of the measure's opponents.”



      People change their minds about Proposition 8 when they hear the lie that churches will lose their tax-free status if they won’t marry same-sex couples – EVEN THOUGH THIS IS NOT TRUE!



      So this is crunch time. With less than a month before the election, we must get on the air now to answer these lies and swing votes back to our side.



      And the ONLY way to do that it to raise more money. The generous $15.8 million that our supporters have given isn’t enough. Not when the other side has nearly $10 million more than we do and the fundraising gap is growing.


      Earlier:



      Ellen DeGeneres: "My Political Point... And I Do Have One," on 24 Sept., 2008 at her site.



      Previous election news/analysis links can be found at this here Election news links page.

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