I take a visit to the Lowenthal-Brookers house and talk with James, Mary Beth, and Melle.   James talks about the new LED lights, and geoengineering ethics, and f.lux, a program to make your computer screen less white-lighted at night.  Mary Beth talks about writing, and the Pioneer Valley Gallery of Readers and their new anthology that just came out.

Oh, and Zephry & Gull is a little piece I wrote about friendship.

Live in the studio today, Jim Mias and I talk about living the local life, biking around town, engaging with people outside and in person more than electronically.  Jim also tells the story of how he and his grandson, several years ago, started collecting driftwood and random found objects from the Mill River banks, and arranging them artfully along the rail trail in Leeds behind Jim’s house.  Many passersby admired the work, which went on for about 50 yards, but then over the fall, a couple neighbors took offense to it and tore it down.  Jim talks about conversations with those neighbors, and how he has come to peace with it.  Jim was a librarian at the VA for many years, and he and his wife Robin are involved with the Leeds Civic Association.  We met on the paths and streets of Northampton.

On January 20th,  I went with friends, housemates, co-workers to the Women’s March on Washington, which took place Jan 21st,  2017, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.  Most of today’s show is clips and interviews from the march, including a segment with Julie and Jake, two marchers who, at the end of the march, hung out and connected with Trump supporters in front of the White House.

What might it be like to leave your home country as a teenager, in search of a new life, and travel half way around the world, with the aid of smugglers?    This show is a recording of a talk that my friend/co-worker Lingeng gave to students and staff of the Ludlow area Adult Learning Center.

Towards the end of the show is a short Spanish/English conversation with one of Lingeng’s coworkers at the Pioneer Valley Workers Center.

For more about Lingeng’s life adapting in the US, and Northampton restaurant work, check out episode #77, from September 2016.

Today is winter solstice!

For the first 6 minutes or so, Dineen O’Rourke talks about a lock-in action at TD Bank in Amherst last Friday, to encourage TDBank to withdraw their funding of the Dakota Access pipeline, and to encourage TDBankers to withdraw their $ and use other banks.

Then there are stories of my winter day/week, including a legend I made up about why winter freezes everything.

Lots of songs are mixed in,  and then at minute 32 Alex Jarrett and I talk about the bike path bench and phone behind our house in Florence.

The first 8 minutes is a (true) story about travelling through the desert at night near the border: Amtrak, INS, my bike and cape, and my old friend Orion, the constellation.

The rest of the show is a repeat from Ep 067 (June 2016), “letters from a sex-offender”, with an update on “Pat’s” case at the end of the show.

The first 8 minutes are my housemate Pablo telling the story of a young man wearing a white sheet who escaped into his trailer tub as he was biking down the bike path.

The bulk of the show is me and Alex, live in the studio, talking about our relationship. We have lived together for the last 15 years, with the first 10 being as intimate partners, and the last 5 as good friends, co-workers, co-homeowners. What were some challenges in this transition, and how did we address them? And where do we see ourselves going from here? What does it mean to be “single”? and the role of community?
Alex also plays and sings a couple songs.
We also play some music of our friends Jean Rowe and Liam Robinson, who are doing a house concert at our house Fri Dec 9, 7pm, at 8 High St Florence. The very end of the show is a new “National Anthem” that Jean wrote.

Frances Crowe tells about July 14, 1988, when she and 3 others (including Dan Ogden/DO of the EnviroShow here on Valley Free Radio) participated in a national day of action to “take down the boards” of abandoned buildings so people needing housing could live there.  In Northampton, the 4 of them forced their way into an abandoned house on Hospital Hill, and started cleaning, and planting gardens.  til the State Police came.      This house, with the efforts of the UU Society, eventually became the Grove St Inn, which is the long-term shelter run by Servicenet.

I ran into Joanne Campbell, director of Valley CDC, at the Pedal Poker Run, back in October.  She talks about the work of Valley Community Development Corporation to develop affordable housing, including their plans for the development at the old Northampton Lumber site on Pleasant St.

I just got back from 4 weeks away, mostly in KY.  But I also visited my good friend Carolyn Griffeth in St Louis.  She’s involved in the Catholic Worker community there.  She shares about how their mostly white intentional community, living in a mostly Black neighborhood, began to break down barriers and integrate, and follow the Black leadership in their neighborhood that they didn’t see before.  Recommended curriculum:  “Witnessing Whiteness” (witnessing whiteness.com).

Then there’s a 10-min clip of Rev Samuel Wansley of the Mt Moriah Baptist Church in Middlesboro, KY, preaching about Jesus’ command to the rich man to sell what he has and give to the poor.

At the end of the show, Liz Budd and Sean Condon of Speed N Sprocket Cycle Works in Holyoke talk bike repair and advocacy.  Liz founded HUBS in Holyoke, and Sean is also MassBike Pioneer Valley chapter president.

Locally produced film The Answer has its US premiere Friday, November 25th, 2016, at the Academy of Music. Today’s show features interviews with Northampton-based producer and director Wade Wofford, as well as Ellen Clegg, a percussionist (and fellow Pedal Person) who made some of the sound track to the movie.