September 17th, 2010 @ 10:00am to 11:59pm
Park(ing) Day was started in SF in 2005, when a design studio brought their loose change down to a parking meter, rolled out some sod in the space, and created a 2-hr long park.
What does your town need more of? Parks? Art spaces? Foosball fields? Pudding wrestling? Feed the meter and make it happen. Life is fleeting, and so are these installations, but for as long as the meter lasts your neighborhood can benefit.
October 2nd, 2010 @ 6:00pm
MX02102010
Viaje al Final de la Noche: Ciudad de México - Journey to the End of the Night: Mexico City
The city spreads out before you. Rushing from point to point, lit by the slow strobe of fluorescent buses and dark streets. Stumbling into situations for a stranger's signature. Fleeing unknown pursuers, breathing hard, admiring the landscape and the multitude of worlds hidden in it.
For one night, drop your relations, your work and leisure activities, and all your usual motives for movement and action, and let yourself be drawn by the attractions of the chase and the encounters you find there.
Journey to the End of the Night is a free street game across the cityscape of Mexico City. Players sporting [color TBA] ribbons will try to make it through six checkpoints on foot or by public transportation, while avoiding being caught by chasers. Those who survive will be praised and feted at the end. Those who fall will become chasers themselves, pursing their former friends and allies. It works like a race or derive that breaks out into games of tag or hide and seek.
The game begins on Saturday, October 2nd, at 6:00 PM on Parque México (Mexico Park between Av. México & Av. Michoacán). No bicycles, no skates, no cars, no taxis, no robots, no segways. You may only travel on foot or by public transportation. Wear comfortable shoes, and bring water.
Prizes will be awarded for top finishers, and best chasers.
[This event is posted as early notification, to encourage travel plans. Updates are forthcoming.]
February 7th, 2011 @ 5:00pm
This event originated in the spell-checker of my friend's cell phone. He had entered "Super Bowl," but the phrase was auto-corrected to Superb Owl. When my friend reported this, I knew that a Superb Owl party was in my future. And now I wish to share this delight with others.
A Superb Owl party is expected to spend at least fifteen minutes in your living room, but it is permitted to continue, or to begin, in other places of your choosing. The Superb Owl, that fine-feathered object of admiration, is to be fêted in all ways that seem appropriate in the moment. Participants may practice the Silent Swoop or may learn owl calls on the Cornell Ornithology site; the Barred Owl is one of the more challenging.
The only forbidden activity is watching the television, EXCEPT for the kickoff of the Super Bowl and the five (5) minutes following. It is conventional in some households to include this as part of the party, but others feel this is an appalling breach of taste; you are expected to follow the lead of your host in this respect.
Much to the dismay of more devout practitioners, some Superb Owl celebrants actually never bring up the owl at all in their festivities, but are content to use the occasion as a random excuse for a party.
Participation in a Superb Owl party in the Era of Everyday Life fulfills the task Puns of the Navarone.
February 29th, 2012 @ 12:00am to 11:59pm
February 29th, Leap Day, is an extra day. In most years, it doesn't exist.
But this year, it does.
Let us, then, take advantage of this nonexistant day, and, in the words of a co-worker of famous Japanese novelist/copy-writer/game-designer Shigesato Itoi...
Let's pretend this day never existed and try out stuff with a freedom from what we normally do.Today is a good day to task.
Skip work! Ignore your responsibilities! Everyone reading this - skip work and enjoy it! Wander around town aimlessly and for no good reason!
Go to the movies! Eat fatty foods! Bother people! Break promises! Buy weird clothes and put it on! Throw out important stuff to you! Say stuff you shouldn't!
Let's use this extra day of Feb. 29th to do lots of stuff we never do!
