Yes my friends it is true. Wendell Berry one of my favorite authors is speaking at Stetson University in a free lecture series Monday night the 1st of February. I’m heading up to attend the lecture and I can’t even express how excited I am. Berry’s non-fiction writing has played a pivotal role in developing many of my beliefs. Through his writing I’ve come to appreciate the importance of nurturing of our local community, that the good life is more than consuming and that working with the earth, even in the middle of a modern city, is vitally important to the health and well-being of my family.
The lecture is sponsored by the university’s Values Council. His talk, “Simple Solutions and Package Deals,” is based on the council’s theme for the year, “How Shall We Live?”. Berry will be discussing the impact of economic globalization on the way we live and it’s sure to be lecture chock-full of thought provoking ideas.
According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life (via wiki).
Here are the details of the lecture: Stetson University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Lee Chapel of Elizabeth Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Volunteers are needed tomorrow Saturday January 16th from 8-10 am to help clear the area where the Spring garden will be planted behind the DePugh Center in Winter Park.
Anyone can participate and you are encouraged to bring any work tools you may have as well as bringing your own gloves and water. We may be clearing away an old chain link fence as well so please bring any tools specific to that job.
The Center is located at 550 West Morse Blvd, Winter Park.
If you have any questions about the garden or if you would like to donate a monetary contribution or donate material items for the building of the garden, please contact Denise Riccio at 407-246-2212. Any assistance is greatly appreciated! You can also get more info at Our Whole Community’s website.
We finally heard from our friends at the St. Isidore parish in Haiti. As many of you know I have been very involved with Saint Margaret Mary’s mission to Haiti this past year. I was there in August shooting video for a documentary about our work with these incredible people. Anyhow we had a team heading down Wednesday morning that were diverted due to the earthquake.
For the last few days we have been unable to get any calls through to Pere Elicio, St. Isidore’s the head priest, or Baba, the young man that runs the livestock and Peace Program. Well today, finally, Baba was able to get a short call into us and below are Ken’s notes on the call. I’ve also provided Beth’s photo-stream so you can see the faces of the wonderful people we work with down there and who we are so fervently praying for.
I received a call from Baba at 10:45 this morning. He and Elmicia, his wife. and Cecilia, his baby, are fine.
Baba reported that at 4 pm Tuesday he was at Saint Benoit in the meeting room across from the old church working with Peace Program members. They were putting final touches on a presentation they were going to make to our group. All of a sudden they felt the building shaking. They ran outside. As with reports from so many others, Baba said that the shaking seemed to go on forever though it was just a matter of seconds. None of the buildings suffered damage. He immediately walked back to Saint Isidore. There he found Pere Elico, the principal of the school and other parish staff. The rectory, clinic and school buildings were okay; no damage. Baba said, “we all got together and began praying to the Lord. We prayed for a long time to thank Jesus that we were alive”. Tuesday night we slept outside because we were afraid to stay inside any building.
Early Wednesday morning Baba and a driver set off for the airport in Port-au-Prince. At that time I do not believe they had any sense of the damage. They did not want us to be at the airport alone. As they drove down the main highway they began to see more and more devastation. Here Baba mentioned the towns through which we pass. Each town was more and more devastated as they neared Port-au-Prince. “We saw more and more broken houses dead bodies along the road”, Baba commented. When we got to Port-au-Prince “I could not believe what I see; many building broken and bodies everywhere”. When we got to the airport we could see that there were not planes.
Baba continued, “on the way back I got off at the Texaco.(the way they describe the place where the road to Jacmel meets the highway) I took a motorcycle taxi take because the road was all broken. There were places where me and the driver had to carry the motorcycle”. I remember that the highway to Jacmel was the best in Haiti. Baba arrived in Jacmel at 4 pm. “When I got to Jacmel I found the situation terrible like Port-au-Prince”. The building were “broken” and “there were many many dead people on the streets”. “I was so worry. I kept praying Jesus my family okay.” He crossed the river and went up to his home in Basin Bleu. He found his wife and baby were okay. His house suffered no damage. “All of neighbors met and we prayed God’s blessing”.
Baba has not been able to contact Pere Elicio. I asked him to keep trying. Here is some general information Baba reported. He said that he will attempt to call tomorrow about this time. I tried to call him back immediately as a test but could not get through to him.
*The big problem for everybody is food. Food is expensive.
*”Big trucks on road can’t go”.
*He said that money coming in for all projects will “push things going”.
*He said a few times that we can get to Saint Isidore and “no problem”. I got the feeling that they would like to see the group that had planned to go this week. Maybe it is a morale issue; they may not feel alone.
*The trip from Saint Isidore by car is five hours. While the highway is bad, you can get through. Indecently, that is about the amount of time it took to travel that distance about 10 years ago.
*Baba said there is no trouble for them to get us at the airport. The roads around Saint Isidore are about the same as usual.
I will send you an update when or if I get another call from Baba or talk to Pere Elico.
I am a proud member of the MacGregor clan and an avid attendee of Central Florida’s Scottish Highland Games (CFSHG) festival each year. If you have never been to a highland games you are missing quite a spectacle. Great food, Excellent brew, superb music, top notch athletic competition, high stepping highland dancing and medieval weaponry demonstrations – I ask you – Who could ask for more?
We’re heading out to the festival this weekend to partake in our annual Scottish pilgrimage. If you were following our Twitter feed this summer you would have noticed that we were up in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the longest running North American Scottish Highland games. It is only fair to say that as “authentic” as that Antigonish festival is the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games is far more enjoyable. It is hard to peg exactly why but we love that CFSHG serves meat pies, has instruments and clan gear for sale, brings in world class Celtic rock bands like Enter the Haggis to rock the center stage and with Dunedin Brewing in house pouring the best ales it is just hard to compete with no matter how un-authentic a “highland games” may seem amidst the flatland of Florida.
Click here for details and hope to see you there. I’ll be in my McGregor kilt with a baby girl strapped to my chest.
Having been born and raised in Florida and being married to a 5th generation Floridian I’ve always been fascinated with Cracker Culture. I’m not talking about the pejorative term Cracker, but the nickname given to the pioneering families that settled Central Florida. On Sunday the Sentinel published a story titled ”Central Florida’s Towns that Time Forgot” full of images and short narratives about Central Florida’s unique history.
The stories and images reminded me of the growing up years I spent on the Deseret Ranch hunting and fishing along the Econlockhatchee river in east Orange Country with my Father. Walking through the pastures and wetlands of this area I often saw the remnants and traces of the bygone Cracker era. Dilapidated turpentine stills and Cypress mills with their rusted artifacts proved an imagination stirring site for me.
With these haunting memories still a stir I had the good fortune of discovering the Florida Historical Society’s website and their weekly radio magazine Florida Frontiers. A visit to their show’s website offered an archive of truly fascinating Florida history. The show airs on our local public radio station 90.7 WMFE on Thursday’s at 6:30 and you can subscribe to their podcast as well.
I’m seriously excited about exploring their archive and catching the show each week. I hope it continues to stoke my desire to explore Central Florida’s unique history. I’m sure you’ll be seeing other posts about Cracker Culture here in the future. I never thought about A Local Folkus might also showcase the folks of Florida’s past but heck they’re pretty interesting too!
Eating locally is more than just buying food that is at the peak of freshness and not shipped cross country from California, more importantly it is about supporting our local food economy, its community and its unique culture. By doing so it becomes normal to know your producers, to build relationship with the local farmers who supply your free-range eggs and organically grown produce and to know that you are getting the highest quality food for your food dollar. By supporting the “local” farmer’s markets like Audubon Park Community Market you are strengthening the bonds that connect each of us to the land from which our food comes and to the caring hands that provided these food stuffs for our consumption.
Slow Food in an effort to champion this vital connection is sponsoring an Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st. Below is an excerpt from their promotional materials for this event. You can be sure Kamrin and I will be fully supporting this week long event and you can expect to see a few write ups and videos on our site about it. So take a look at the excerpt below and let us know in the comments what you are doing to participate in Eat Local Week. Following an excerpt is a video of the mother of America’s Slow Food movement Alice Waters to give you a bit more insight into what Slow Food is all about.
EAT LOCAL WEEK - January 25th – 31st
Participate in a week-long celebration promoting connection, community, culture and cuisine in Central Florida. Grab your family, friends and neighbors and head to participating dining establishments during the last week of January, 2010
Goals of Eat Local Week:
Emphasize that eating local in Central Florida is not only possible, it’s delicious – ?The Eat Local Week definition of “local” is anything within 200 miles of Orlando’s city center. Featured farmers and artisans for Eat Local week come from as far away as Clewiston.
Help local restaurants, farmers and artisans to develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships – ?Slow Food Orlando wants to see locally owned and operated farms and restaurants succeed. By facilitating relationship building between Central Florida dining establishments, farmers, ranchers, and artisans we hope to help businesses grow and become more profitable.
Build consumer awareness of local food and farmers, and promote reconnection with family and friends around the dinner table – ?Slow Food is all about taking the time to savor the food we eat and the people we share it with. When our food is produced in a sustainable, responsible and consciences manner it is healthier for the environment and healthier for us.
Raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy and keeping money in our community – ?Purchasing food direct from producers or dining out at restaurants that feature locally grown ingredients cuts out the middle man and puts your money directly in the pocket of the people who produce your food. When you, the consumer, spend your money with local businesses those businesses reinvest your dollars in the community, thus contributing to a more sustainable future for Central Florida’s food system.
Click here to see a list of the 18 or so participating restaurants.
How many wonderful and tasty things get cooked up in a kitchen. Well quite a lot when I’m at the stove, but sometimes the things getting cooked up are ideas. A little over three years ago, Ryan Price and I were sitting at his kitchen table hatching some community building schemes. Lo and behold, 3 years later, Florida Creatives is a fixture of Central Flroidas creative community and we are set to celebrate that fact tonight at 6 pm at the Brooked Bayou downtown.
Florida Creatives happy hours are an incredible melting pot of talent. I’ve always come away with fresh inspiration, a few more creative contacts and with a full belly of gumbo and good beer. Particularly if you are a freelancer or a work-from-home creative, this happy hour is a great way to meet other creative-shut-ins and make inroads to establishing your personal brand in Orlando’s creative community.
As an appetizer of the kind of crazy talent you can find in the Florida Creative members check out the amazing work of Plinio Pinto of GrapeSodaStudio,Inc. I just discovered his work though the Florida Creatives and I his illustrations are seriously “Legend”.
I hope to see you there tonight. Please stop by and introduce yourself to me. Check the About page if you need a picture to know who the heck I am. Cheers.
How to meet, greet, and get along with members of the opposite sex is an eternal conundrum for so many otherwise well-meaning and intelligent people who seem to have no clue as to how to behave and what to talk about on a first date; dealing with the pitfalls of ‘love triangle’ relationships; ending a relationship with grace, style and dignity; and all the other elements that can sabotage a romance in this day and age. That’s why Katharine Miller’s The Curable Romantic: Advice For The Romance-Impaired, an impressive, practical, and ‘user friendly’ compilation of informed and informative essays on love and relationships is such a welcome instructional for anyone seeking help in figuring out who they should date, how they should conduct a proper (and effective) courtship, and everything else from the use of pet names to dealing with keepsakes after a breakup. Thoughtful, thought-provoking, and written with a distinctly humorous flair, The Curable Romantic is very highly recommended reading for the ‘romance challenged’.
We’re all a little romance-impaired in some way. Otherwise we’d have fewer self-help books and sappy love songs. The road to love is bumpy. Hell, the road within love is bumpy, steep, and has several sharp curves.
The Curable Romantic is a short collection full of humorous essays and illustrations focused on the challenges one encounters in matters of the heart. Each of the 25 essays explores a different aspect of relationships, from falling in love to calling it quits.
Katharine Miller, the author of the collection, is not a sex expert, doctor of human behavior, or famous advice columnist. Drawing on inspiration from real life dating experiences, Miller provides new insight into romantic behavior and shares some possible solutions and tips for successful relationships.
When you need a fresh perspective on relationships and have grown tired of the Men are from Mars and Just Not that into You self-help selections, pick up The Curable Romantic.
If you are still subscribed to this RSS feed, this is a very late notification that these posts will all be migrated over to FloridaCreatives.com shortly. Florida Creatives takes the same creative spirit behind this podcast and incorporates a tangible element: at this time, a group of 50 or so people is meeting each third Monday of the month at the Crooked Bayou in Downtown Orlando.
Please change your subscription, as Liberatr::Art::meta() will be dissolving sometime this year. Thank you for your support, comments, suggestions and your listenership, and thanks to Ashley, Carlos and Phil, as well as Vlad and Wendy for doing these initial interviews. Your permalinks will still be good and the downloads for the mp3s will still work for a little while, but make sure you check Florida Creatives if you ever lose them.
I’d especially love for all of our past guests to attend the meetup in March on the 19th or April on the 16th.
If you are too lazy to email (liberatr [at] gmail dot com), but you use a service that supports tagging (Vox, LiveJournal, YouTube, Flickr, del.icio.us, WordPress, Technorati, Blogger, etc.) you can simply tag your posts “orlandovideo” and I will hopefully be able to find them that way. I am going to set up a subscription to these tags in any services I use and monitor them regularly to see what’s coming in. The neat thing about this tag: we might get some happy accidents in the way of typos that lead us to Orlando Videos anyway.
It won’t take but an extra 2 seconds to click down to the “tags”, “labels” or “categories” area of your favorite application and type orlandovideo, all one word, no underscores or spaces. Do it, you’ll be happy you did.
I created this blog to showcase great web video content from around Orlando and Florida in general. There is so much video on the web now, but what is local to us? How can we meet the people singing in to their hairbrush, or microphone, and why can’t we start a discussion with someone local instead of in San Fransisco or New York? There is nothing wrong with NYC and SF, but they aren’t my hometown.
Consider this an open invitation for submissions of any kind of video posted anywhere on the web that were created in, about, or in conjunction with Orlando and surrounding climes. I want to show this city what it’s made of, and the best way to do that is for people to share with one another.
You can send files and links to liberatr [at] gmail dot com along with any information you have about who created it and why, how to get in touch with the creator (or yourself), and any other fun facts you think people might want to hear.
If it is not already in Flash video format (if you don’t know what this is, don’t worry) I will do my damnedest to make it so and easily viewable for all the kids on the interweb. In addition to this site the video will also get re-posted to Liberatr.net, and, if I can get it in a portable-player-friendly format, iTunes Podcast directory as well. If you would like any copyright messages to be displayed along with your video, please try to include them in the body of the video, but also send me any text you would like posted along side your piece.
You are free to set your own terms, as well. Example:
I would like you to link to my video, but not post it in a player on your blog or other sites.
I would like you to make my video available in a player, but not for download.
Or my own special conditions. This is really about sharing your video with your neighbors.
The Orlando Weekly and the Sentinel don’t provide these services. Hell, even everyone’s favorite basement radio, WPRK, and the best TV station in town, Vision TV, aren’t really doing exactly what I am. You send a video or link, it gets posted. Period. The product is just what we make it. Done deal.
Our good friend and fellow podcaster Mark Baratelli has luanched a video version of his audio podcast "How Do You Feel?" On top of that, he has branded all of his podcasts as "Mark Baratelli Presents" (or so it would seem from his MySpace page). Now let's watch the insanity as it rolls by...
Liberatr is here to give you some music, culture, laughter, film, theatre and lifestyle perspective. We have some blogs and some podcasts, but we hope your'e here for the community. Some are serious, interview-style, others are conversational and open-ended. Take a look at the tabs labeled "Podcasts" and "Blogs" for more information. Not Liberator, Liberatr!
Yes my friends it is true. Wendell Berry one of my favorite authors is speaking at Stetson University in a free lecture series Monday night the 1st of February. I’m heading up to attend the lecture and I can’t even express how excited I am. Berry’s non-fiction writing has played a pivotal role in developing many of my beliefs. Through his writing I’ve come to appreciate the importance of nurturing of our local community, that the good life is more than consuming and that working with the earth, even in the middle of a modern city, is vitally important to the health and well-being of my family.
For those of you who didn’t know, the 
Having been born and raised in Florida and being married to a 5th generation Floridian I’ve always been fascinated with 
With these haunting memories still a stir I had the good fortune of discovering the 
