Knitting public art

by Jamie Rhein on

I don’t knit. I’ve tried, but even when I’ve attempted a scarf, it ends up weird shaped. Anna knits. She’s waxed poetic about it in a post about the pleasures of knitting and travel. Here’s another reason to grab some knitting needles and yarn.

While leafing through a back copy of Reader’s Digest at my in-laws this weekend, I saw a snippet on women in Houston, Texas who are turning their scraps of unfinished scarves and other knitted items into public art. They are wrapping park benches, fire hydrants, bike racks–anything that can use a bit of color and dressing up. The group is called Knitta and has been doing their thing since 2005.

They aren’t the only ones. Knitters in the Midwest are also prettying up the world with their craft. There’s a woman in Yellow Springs, Ohio, one of those incredibly artsy, literary towns that I adore, who has dressed a tree with help from others. With as gloomy as Ohio can look in the winter, what a great idea for making folks smile.

If you happen to pass by some knitted art, and you might–the women in Houston have knitted art in El Salvador, Paris and at the Great Wall of China– maybe you’ll get some inspiration to knit some art yourself.

Olympic torch: Carrying a flame of peace is not that easy

by Jamie Rhein on

Conan O’Brien called the bus that was loaded up with the Olympic torch the burning bus. I think that’s what he said. Whatever it was, it got a chuckle from last night’s audience. He was referring to the news story that the Olympic torch was loaded onto a bus outside Paris because protesters kept trying to put it out all the way from London. The protesters are upset about China’s policies in Tibet and Sudan

I first heard about the torch woes yesterday afternoon from a radio news report. From what I heard, the torch was put out and relit a couple of times. It sure didn’t sound like a movie version of a grand athletic event to me. I’m thinking of the kind of event where the music from “Chariots of Fire” plays and everyone moves in slow motion. There’s hugging and cheering, maybe some tears–that kind of thing. Instead, I have images of pushing, shoving, yelling between those who want to put the torch out and those who don’t. The great commotion between onlookers, police officers and protesters, I imagine, might be giving the people who agreed to carry it pause–as in “What was I thinking?” Think a Shakespeare crowd scene. “Put the torch out!” yells some of the crowd. “Save the torch!” yells the bulk of the crowd. “If it’s put out, what will become of us?” The practical crowd members are the ones who saw the writing on the wall and put it on the bus.

Protesters have already scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to put up Tibetan flags against the torch’s appearance in San Francisco tomorrow. Should be an exciting time to see just how this flame fares.

Considering the Olympic Torch Relay symbolizes world love or some such thing, it’s ironic that it’s the target. Actually, the flame means that people should put down their arms in a sacred truce. The arms means guns, but in this case, perhaps it should mean real arms, as in those things attached to people’s bodies. On the other hand, the protesters are making a point. It certainly makes for a twist on the tale of Olympic glory history.

US broadcasters threaten boycott of Olympics clichés

by Aaron Hotfelder on

As activists urge the US Olympic team to boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, a group of US broadcasters are threatening to send China– and the rest of the world– a message the only way they know how: by boycotting their favorite Olympics clichés.

Bob Costas, NBC’s anchor for the channel’s Olympics coverage, is demanding change in China’s controversial relationship with Tibet. Said Costas: “If China remains unwilling to grant Tibet its independence, I will boycott the use of phrases like ‘For so-and-so, making it here is a dream come true,’ and ‘This is what the Olympics are all about.'”

Other announcers at NBC have followed Costas’ lead, threatening to eliminate from their repertoire well-worn statements like, “There are no losers here today,” and “This is a David versus Goliath matchup.”

Veteran play-by-play man Dick Enberg, who will be covering tennis and basketball at the Beijing Games, believes the threatened boycott is a unique opportunity for broadcasters to make a difference on a global scale. “If I refuse to say that an athlete is an inspiration ‘on and off the court,'” said Enberg, “it’s not really the Olympics.”

Chinese president Hu Jintao was visibly shaken when he first received news of the proposed boycott yesterday afternoon. The president reportedly said through an interpreter: “I simply must hear Mr. Costas declare that a person has ‘overcome a lot of adversity’ and is ‘on top of the world.'”

The Chinese president was then reportedly overheard telling a top aide, “Set up talks with Tibet immediately.”

Starving kids in China growing tired of US leftovers

by Aaron Hotfelder on

An informal poll among China’s starving children has revealed that they’re no longer consuming American leftovers with the enthusiasm they once did.

Since 1988, poverty-stricken Chinese youths have received small servings of food from American children via the underground “Leftover Pipeline” that runs from San Francisco to Beijing. In recent times, however, the majority of Chinese kids have been unwilling to consume the half-eaten apples and week-old meat loaf that frequently spills from the pipeline.

Some experts say that globalization is to blame, at least in part, for the Chinese kids’ increasingly finicky tastes. No longer content with cartons of almost empty generic “orange drink,” the children are demanding unopened bottles of the higher-priced Sunny Delight, a drink they also prefer to the “purple stuff” they’re often given to drink.

In conversations with China’s starving kids, it’s obvious that they appreciate the generosity of American mothers, who issue near-constant reminders about them. Li Xiang, an 11-year-old girl from south Beijing, said through an interpreter, “I love very much the Americans who have fed me for my years. But I no longer wish to eat your last bite of green beans. School lunches I especially detest.”

She added: “Are you not home to the McDonald’s? Could you not send an entire Happy Meal? Cash, too, would be most welcome.”

GADLING TAKE 5: Week of 3-21-2008

by Catherine Bodry on

Did you have a happy St. Patrick’s Day? While I didn’t get in to any shenanigans (for once, it seems), I was able to have a few pints with friends up in Anchorage. Though they weren’t perfectly-poured Guinnesses, they were locally brewed and likely tasted as good as Guinness in Ireland tastes. But there’s plenty of non-St. Paddy’s Day news this week at Gadling:

And here are some more fun posts to set your weekend off right: Aaron’s post on headlines from North Korea still makes me laugh; I’m curiously following the fate of squat toilets in Beijing (because I love squat toilets and think everyone should try them — I know, I’m a freak); and an Australian put his entire life on eBay.