Moat Mountain’s Gotta Go Fast!
Moat Mountain is up to no good as usual! The kings of family friendly-dining and brewing haven’t been skiing in nearby White Mountain State Forest for obvious reasons, so they’re venting all those pent up Kangaroo Flips on the race track!
Introducing number 42, Moat Mountain’s sweet new race car! To be honest, we have no idea what kind of car this is but it is pretty flippin sweet if you ask us!
Catch Moat Mountain on the track at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Michael Roud’s First Short Film
Friend of Skytemple Michael Roud is at it again!
Having premiered his first short film at various film festivals, he’s quickly becoming one of those few to successfully migrate from photography to directing and producing film. We’re rooting for you Michael!
Shared Backyard Design Presentation: An Example of Fresh Design Ideas In Northampton
The Whoo Space on Market St, has been host to a variety of community events, from an art exhibit of handmade books to campaign headquarters for Arnold Levinson in this years past Ward 3 Special Election. This past Tuesday was no different when University of Massachusetts’s Permaculture Program, in conjunction with Creative Community Collective, and a number of local residents hosted a presentation on shared community space.
According to C3′s website, “three Northampton neighbors decided to take their fences down and combine their yards to create a larger space for shared recreation and food production.” The goal was to create a Permaculture site, which C3 defines as:
…a vision, design system, and global network that draws on patterns and principles found in nature to meet human needs, while regenerating the natural world and creating abundance we can share.
The students redesigned the shared backyards into a sustainable open space, taking down the barriers of the three neighboring backyards and integrating them into one cohesive shared area for recreation and sustainable gardens. The goal is to inspire others in the community to open to the idea of turning neighboring land into shared space for the community to gather around.
The presentation consisted of a number of design possibilities. The various options which the team of UMass students had assembled ranged from the more conservative rearrangement of bushes and minor terraforming to the highly progressive, with much of the shared backyards transformed into a super efficient organic farm powered by animals complete with rice paddies and greenhouses heated by chickens. Owen Freeman-Daniels, newly elected Ward 3 City Councilman, owns a condo on part of the property used for this project. He told our Director of Marketing that he hoped his neighbors were interested in pursuing the concept. 
The turnout was exceptional, with more people in attendance than the space could accommodate. Many passersby were poking in to see what the gathering was about. Each mini-presentation was followed by a short Q&A session where members of the community could gain further insight in each proposal. The group was then invited to stay and take a closer look at the various proposals drawn up by the students, as well as ask any further questions to the presenters. Check out our gallery of photos to see the audience and designs. It was a great success, with a lot of interesting new ideas about utilizing the ever-decreasing open spaces that we have here in Northampton’s Ward 3.
Facebook: see what pages like your page
If you are smart, and we both know you are, you will eventually wonder which other Facebook Pages like your Facebook Page so you can develop your community and network successfully with other businesses and their fans. Developing these relationships is what any social media marketing strategy worth it’s salt is all about.
Since you’re so smart, you already know the first step is to click Account, then Use Facebook as Page
After that, select the page in question:
Now that you are on your Fan Page, click the Likes panel, then See All
Now just click on People and navigate to Pages:
And you’re all set! We recommend reaching out to your new friends by liking their posts, commenting, and developing that network of referrals.
Now go follow us on Facebook!
It Gets Better
We are proud to have some really talented authors as clients, and Phil Bildner has been an inspiration to us with his active campaigning to get the message out to kids that it gets better. Kids and especially teenagers have it rough in the modern era where school and prison are virtually identical.
Education is not so much a process of developing the mind as it is hammering it into shape with standardized testing; the constant feedback of the grading system can be very discouraging to those with different learning styles, sometimes permanently stunting their potential, and that’s all before we even get into the bullying, hazing, and teasing that comes with the territory.
The good news is that it does get better. The behavior of groups of people in school is an anomaly, seen elsewhere only in prisons (and some offices). It’s unfortunate that the time kids could be spending learning about the real world and developing their identities and discovering their passions is wasted taking tests and eating bad food, but people like Phil are doing a lot to change that.
Phil recently organized various authors and illustrators into “It Gets Better: Authors and Illustrators Unite“. The group has made a video getting the message across to kids that it does get better, and we wanted to share it with you!
