help still needed : sandy recovery efforts

It’s hard to blog about anything but the situation at hand.

InterOccupy.net has a great site with links and info on all the donation sites, volunteer hubs, etc for each neighborhood in New York. Also for New Jersey.

I volunteered in Staten Island this weekend and the situation there is quite grim. I was stunned. There is so much work to be done so if you have time, there are lots of ways to be useful. Oasis Church in Staten Island has volunteer assignments for any length of time every weekday, 9-5. Just show up and there is plenty of work to do! 539 Greeley Avenue.

(Image via The Big Picture)

join me : in contributing to sandy relief efforts

As I write this, I am submitting small donations to the following two organizations.

There are many ways to contribute to the effort, but even just a small donation can really help.
Please join me and encourage your friends to donate too!

MASBIA – Their soup kitchen network is trying to feed 600 seniors who were just relocated to the Park Slope Armory (pictured above in preparation on Tuesday). The gov’t-issued ration packs are very high in sodium (a health issue for most of these people), not to mention squeezed from gel packs. Masbia is providing nutritious, low-sodium meals for all of the folks there. Just $6 pays for one meal.

AMERICAN RED CROSS – They are helping thousands of people. Since Saturday, the Red Cross has provided more than 23,000 overnight shelter stays. Over 2,300 Red Cross disaster workers have served more than 100,800 meals and they’ve activated nearly 200 emergency response vehicles going into communities to distribute food and water. $10 minimum donation online.

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P.S. Watch this riveting time lapse video shot from the 51st floor of the NY Times building throughout the entire hurricane, starting on Sunday, ending Wednesday.

bryn listens : radiolab

Most of my pals know I’m a podcast junkie. One of my all-time favorites is Radiolab, which many of you are probably familiar with. If not, you should definitely check it out. It’s on public radio stations across the country or available as a podcast through iTunes or streaming from the Radiolab site. It will provide you with an endless supply of some of the most fascinating information in the realm of science, philosophy, and human experience, while keeping your attention rapt the entire way through. It makes me happy, laugh, contemplate, shudder and zing. And then I go off and talk incessantly about it.

Here’s a recent episode that — oh how typical — blew my mind.

paperfinger : in-house calligraphy studio at summit series

It’s been a whirlwind so far at Summit Basecamp, this year’s Summit Series conference, a meeting of the minds of some of the world’s greatest business people, philanthropists, innovators and creators.

Paperfinger is here as resident calligrapher — creating signage, artwork, custom badges as well as my favorite, a custom telegram service for sending a hand-calligraphed note to another attendee. The emphasis here is off-grid and all about personal connections so the telegram seemed like a great way to capture it.

I’m having a blast and meeting tons of great folks. Hope to have more to share when I’m back in Brooklyn next week.

headed to summit series : squaw valley

I’m en route to Squaw Valley / Lake Tahoe today and will be there for the week, as the event calligrapher for this year’s Summit Series. Pumped! Never been out there so I’m excited for the adventure, and looking forward to meeting a bunch of interesting folks, and of course to put some Paperfinger all over the place. Now can I write on snow…

(Images via here and here)

finish every day : and be done with it

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Image and quote via the great Quote Vadis blog, check it out.)

stockings with care : scenes from the drop-off

So these images aren’t exactly delicious but the concept is heart-burstingly good. I already mentioned Stockings With Care a few weeks ago, but I wanted to follow up with some pictures of the stacks of presents and rows of bikes, all lined up at the drop-off site just last week. It was so moving to deliver my wrapped gifts and to see a giant basement organized by neighborhood, with hundreds of presents designated for families all over the city.

Stockings With Care (in their 20th year now) matches donors with a family and kids in need and provides the donor with a wish list from each child they sponsor. You sign up as a “santa”, pick out the gifts on their list, wrap them up and then leave them unlabeled so that the parents can give the gift to the child themselves. It’s such a beautiful concept and one of the most inspiring organizations I’ve ever supported. 1500 children have just what they asked for under the tree this year.

I strongly encourage you to sign up for next year.

www.stockingswithcare.org/be-a-santa

wonderful holiday non-profit : stockings with care

I’m so excited to have signed up for this and I think it’s a brilliant concept.

Stockings with Care pairs you with a family in need (often homeless or at risk of being homeless) and for every child you choose to support, you receive a wish list of that child’s most desired Christmas gifts. You purchase the items, but the best part is that the gift comes from their parents. Feels like a gift for both the parents, as well as the child.

I get to pick out a remote control car and some family board games. Kinda pumped for this shopping expedition!

It’s a simple registration, takes two seconds. But you definitely need to sign up this week since items need to be delivered by late next. Please do!

blades natural beauty’s new online shop : featured in T magazine

My good bud Jessa and her impressive biz, Blades Natural Beauty, were featured last month in the New York Times’ T Magazine article, “Locavores.” Blades’ new online shop was featured as well where you can order her original formulas and creations along with her hand-picked selections from the world of all natural beauty products. Definitely check it out!

www.BladesNaturalBeauty.com

anonymous hugging wall : by keetra dean dixon

This is the Anonymous Hugging Wall, designed by Keetra Dean Dixon, as a part of the Methods & Apparati for Social Facilitation and Mood Elevation.

(*via Toxel)