You Gotta Have Art

We hope you will enjoy this week’s episode, in which two viewers shared with us their favorite works of art—public and personal. We heard from others as well, and we’d like to direct you to their special pieces.

Darrell directed us to Franz Winterhalter’s Portrait of Countess Olga Shuvalova, 1858

Linda wrote: “The Song of the Lark by Jules Breton comes to mind. I’ve always loved that painting, and had a poster of it in my room. I must have identified with her peasant look: bandana, outfit, machete. Seriously, tho’, I find the painting serene and earthy.”

Howard reported: “I am now interested in a new artist, Cheryl Warrick, who is not too well known. I saw her work at the print fair in NYC in November.

And Adar wrote: “Two images came to mind immediately, both public art. One is a mural on a house in Belfast. It promotes the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters. I saw this mural, amidst a wash of others, walking down Shankhill Road. A few days later, I saw a piece of stenciled graffiti art in Dublin. It looked similar to this.”

Nora is sitting in front of one of our favorite pieces of art. It is Issue #1 (by Miranda July) of The Thing, an object-based quarterly.

Power from the People

Hmm. I see a transportation theme developing these last few weeks. Episodes on tollway charity days and reduced-cost vehicle stickers for eco-friendly cars followed by episodes on bike lanes and, this week, a bike-powered work station. Clearly Ampolo is becoming a vehicle for social change.

Mileage Rewards

One of the rewarding things about doing Ampolo is that we get to meet with and then introduce our viewers to people devoted to making a difference in the community. In past weeks, you've seen Gabe Lyon, who along with husband Paul Sereno, is bring science to under-served high schoolers through Project Exploration. You've also seen Joan Brunwasser, who was way ahead of the curve in recognizing that we probably can't trust today's voting machines. This week we introduce you to Lali Watt, a village trustee in Wilmette, Illinois. As she explains, her novel, but remarkably simple idea to improve the environment is, at this point, largely symbolic. But she hopes, as do we, that what begins as a symbol can grow into a movement

Blogging As Art

As this week’s feature clearly demonstrates, whether it comes to fashion or fashioning blogs, Ampolo is cutting edge. You can visit Keiler’s blog directly by going to: simplewardrobe.blogspot.com.

As if further proof is needed is needed that Ampolo is au courant, we refer you to snippets from two recent articles in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune respectively.

Taxi TV, Brisk as the Traffic You’re Stuck In
By Alessandra Stanley
Where once there was only peeling vinyl, printed fare rates and the cabdriver’s ceaseless cellphone chatter, there is now a television screen.

Report: Ohio Needs New Voting Machines
By Julie Carr Smyth
Columbus, Ohio
The state’s top elections official recommended Friday that Ohio counties replace their touch-screen voting machines because the devices — in use for roughly two years — are vulnerable to manipulation.

Loyal Ampolo viewers will see the connection to two of our earlier episodes. In July, we suggested television sets be provided, not in taxis, but in subway/elevated cars. And last month, voting integrity expert Joan Brunwasser told you about the problem with the current generation of voting machines.

Finally, we have been soliciting ideas from you on particular subjects via email. Soon you’ll see episodes featuring your responses. In the meantime, here is viewer Tom’s response to our request for interesting websites. We checked it out and suggest you do, too:
“A great vocabulary game, and a socially responsible one you can do every day! Go to www.freerice.com and increase your knowledge and be a good person to boot!”

Reverse Verse

We hope this week's Ampolo idea for a children's book about things in the world that are backwards or in reverse inspires families and teachers to come up with their own investigation, or even a book. Later today or tomorrow, we'll share our book. In the meantime, feel free to post any backwards things that come to mind. And if you write a book, send it to us. We'll post it.

lights, camera, auction

Do dogs live in the present or do presents live in the dog? This week’s video, sent to us by a viewer who simply identified herself as “Crooky,” not only answers that question, it also offers a smart, fun, stress-free approach to holiday gift giving.

How does your family exchange holiday gifts? If you do something special or unique, please share it with our viewers–either through our “comment” section below or on our blog Ampolotalk (which we revive this week after a period of dormancy).

As you can see, sending us a video does not require Academy Award winning cinematography skills–a good idea and clever way to present it are more than sufficient. And, if you have an idea, but don’t want to send us a video? An emailed description will do just fine.

In the Chicago Tribune of Sunday, November 25, the excellent columnist Mary Schmich offers a more radical holiday gift giving idea. Mary is tired of accumulating and giving "stuff." So, this year she will be giving a different kid of present. Here's her link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-schmich_bd25nov25,0,5800710.column

Three years ago our family changed our holiday gift giving ways. Instead of buying presents for all family members, we are each responsible for gifting only one person. At Thanksgiving we put everyone's name into a hat and then draw our giftee. We don't reveal the results...until the opening of the gift(s). This year we have set a $75 maximum. You can do a lot for that amount of money. Everyone in our family agrees that this allows them to be much more thoughtful about choosing the right present. It has worked out very well.

We're Back, Baby

After an extended absence--for which I had a permission note--I have returned. Ampolotalk comments on each new episode will begin again the week of November 19.