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I am the Queen of Awesome. My words do not represent my employer, but I bet you already knew that.
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Fun fact: Amsterdam is ackchyhwally one of the least bike-friendly places in the Netherlands, relatively speaking
I did see someone on in-line skates holding onto a semi-truck at 96th St and Broadway the other day to catch a free ride... Didn't see their harpoon though.
New York, NY
If they're going to make people ride bikes and scooters in traffic, then it should at LEAST be legal to do the Snow Crash thing where you use a hook-shot-style harpoon to catch free rides from cars.
A D.C.-based artist recently had two of her paintings stolen during her first-ever solo exhibition. The obvious thing to do would be to report the incident to the police.
But the artist, AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez, decided against that. She’s a police abolitionist who believes there are other more effective and less lethal ways to protect the community. Instead, Velasco Sanchez posted about the incident on her social media, which garnered a lot of attention.
In the social video, Velasco Sanchez describes how an individual came to the new art gallery at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan on Sept. 14 and took two of her paintings. The 11” by 14” paintings were on display just behind a staff member, and the individual simply grabbed and put them in his bag. The theft happened in under three minutes, according to Velasco Sanchez, who reviewed surveillance footage.
Velasco Sanchez says the the individual returned a few days later to the Festival Center, presumably to take more artwork. When a staff member recognized him and approached him, the individual became defensive, according to Velasco Sanchez. Staff followed him out to his car and saw the paintings there in the backseat, she says, but he sped off.
She shared the video in the hopes that the individual (or someone connected to him) sees it and returns her paintings, which are valued at $200 each. She also wants to have a conversation with him, in order to get an apology and understand why he stole the paintings to begin with. She was especially surprised by the brazenness of his actions.
Nonetheless, Velasco Sanchez and the Festival Center agreed to respond to the incident through restorative justice. That process focuses on centering the victim’s needs and reaching a resolution between the harmed and accused without relying on incarceration. Velasco Sanchez says she believes in consequences to crime, just not aggressively punitive ones.
Festival Center executive director Bill Mefford says the organization shares Velasco Sanchez’s values. Notably, on the day the art was stolen in the gallery, Festival Center had held an event on the failures of mass incarceration.
Velasco Sanchez also sees the choice to not involve the police as living the values she often explores in her artwork: justice and liberation.
“It should be healing, joyful and holistic. And should be seeing the humanity in every individual,” Velasco Sanchez says of justice. “We all can be a perpetrator of harm and probably have been.”
The timing of the theft came at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career: her first solo exhibit. She’s been a professional artist since 2012, primarily working in acrylic paint but dabbling in mixed media. She was incredibly nervous up until the show’s opening day (Sept. 7) because of how vulnerable you have to be to put your art on display for people to react to, she says. In addition to justice and liberation, her art explores mental health and identity.
One of the paintings that was stolen was about injustice. The painting, titled Bountiful: The land of thoughts and prayers, is about police killing people of color and mass shootings. Velasco Sanchez says she processed a lot of her anger about America’s myths by making that artwork.
The other one, Equilibrium, was about processing her own mental health struggles and finding balance with the tumultuous. Someone had already purchased the work , but Velasco Sanchez had to return the money once she discovered the painting had been stolen.
It took her about ten hours to make both pieces. The Festival Center didn’t provide insurance for the art, and she didn’t think to purchase it herself either. She says she didn’t expect someone to violate the community space, which hosts grassroots organizations and other civic events in addition to art exhibitions.
Despite the violation, Velasco Sanchez is not interested in pressing charges against the individual, even though it would likely be easy to given that the Festival Center captured footage during the theft and obtained license plate information when he returned a few days later. The Festival Center did contact the police after he returned, but only to contact him, Mefford says. They hope to reach a compromise with the individual.
“I know what happens to people even, for petty crimes in the legal system,” Velasco Sanchez says. “There’s no reason for any of that to happen to a person because of some paint and some canvas.”
Velasco Sanchez, for her part, would like for the person to be barred from the center for a period of time or be under greater observation when he is in the building until trust can be rebuilt. Velasco Sanchez is also not deterred by the incident — she’s keeping her art up at the Festival Center until the end of the year.
There’s been a 20% increase in property crime in Adams Morgan compared to last year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Many Adams Morgan residents have described feeling less safe, but don’t always agree on the correct response to increased property crime. Velasco Sanchez hopes sharing her story will spark a conversation about ways other than arrest and incarnation.
The post This D.C. Artist’s Work Was Stolen From A Local Gallery. But She’s Not Calling The Cops appeared first on DCist.
Amazon has announced plans to start placing “limited advertisements” in TV shows and movies running on the company’s Prime Video streaming platform, to allow the e-commerce giant to “continue investing in compelling content.” According to Amazon’s press release, the ads will first be introduced on Prime Video content in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada on an unmentioned date in “early 2024,” with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later that year.
Amazon says it doesn’t have plans to change the current price of its Prime memberships in 2024, and Prime members will be notified of the change several weeks before the ad injections begin, along with details to sign up for the ad-free option. US-based Prime members will be able to revert back to an ad-free experience for an additional $2.99 per month on top of their existing subscription. Prime memberships in the US cost $14.99 per month, or $139 per year if paid annually. Pricing for the ad-free option for other countries will be shared “at a later date.”
The introduction of ads comes at a time when Amazon is undergoing cost-cutting across the company, and arrive as price increases and ad-supported tiers launch on competing streaming services.
Feels like it's time to cancel prime for real this time.
Overland Park, KS
Photo courtesy of Unity Temple on the Plaza
Last weekend, Unity Temple on the Plaza hosted their 75th anniversary celebration. The celebration included music, group yoga and meditation, activities for kids, but most importantly, they brought back their free weddings for a few hours on Saturday—something they haven’t done in over three years due to COVID.
Senior Minister Reverend Duke Tufty started doing free weddings for couples on Valentine’s Day back in 2000. When he was providing counseling to couples, he noticed how much stress wedding planning put on relationships.
The only requirements are a quick registration process, a meeting with a priest, and a marriage license. Each wedding takes 15 minutes, and couples are allowed to include their personal touches, such as choosing readings, vows, music, their own minister, and inviting their families and friends.
Unity Temple also offered holy unions for same-sex couples before marriage was legalized, and the temple has long been inclusive. Since legalization, Unity Temple has been a popular spot for LGBTQ+ couples to get hitched.
“We’re not a church, and we’re not religious because I had such a resistance to that,” says Tufty. “So I changed it to a center for well-being, which is all-encompassing and body, mind, and spirit. And I also at that time decided we’re going to be spiritual and not religious, and the big difference is religion impacts you with do’s and don’t’s, doctors and creeds, dogmas, and they also judge you and they determine your worth for you, your value based on what you do.”
Unity Temple has had a Buddhist program, the Temple Buddhist Center, since 1992 and many of its teachings are Buddhist-inspired, but it does not specifically identify as a Buddhist temple, and it is closer to being a community center. They welcome those from all religions, or no religion at all.
Though the Plaza location is celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Unity movement began back in 1886, with its previous brick-and-mortar location being at 9th and Tracy. Its founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, initially started Unity to bring all religions together, hence its name.
Jazz concert at Unity 75th anniversary celebration // photo by Emily Jacobs
Tufty has been with Unity for 34 of those years, and interestingly, is also celebrating his own 75th birthday. Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Tufty grew up in a family that owned a car dealership. When he was 23, his father passed away, and he moved to Kansas City to purchase a dealership. He became addicted to cocaine and was inspired to turn his life around after he overdosed.
“After I’d gone to ministerial school, I cleaned up my act and got involved in Unity,” says Tufty. “And I was really impassioned with it because, for the first time, it made me feel like I was a whole person, like I wasn’t defective, like I didn’t have to change to meet all these other expectations and requirements of me. I could just be who I was, and that was such a relief that I decided I wanted to be a minister and help other people that I knew they were in the same spot. And so I did. Everything has just been fabulous. I love my job. I love everything about it.”
Tufty speaks one Sunday per month and spends 25 hours preparing each speech. He does a significant amount of behind-the-scenes work to keep Unity Temple running. Aside from free weddings, Tufty also enjoys doing funerals.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s wonderfully fulfilling for me to be with people at this point,” Tufty says. “That is really going to make this experience that they’re going through less laborious.”
Unity Temple is also known for its counseling programs, specifically for AA, with group meetings and individual counseling. They allow people to fulfill community service hours with them by having them do work around the temple, and they help out the homeless population by giving out backpacks with essentials such as aspirin, ibuprofen, nonperishable foods, water bottles, and warm clothing.
In terms of its Buddhist aspects, Unity Temple offers group meditations and Buddhist 12-step recovery classes—which are designed for drug, alcohol, or behavioral addictions.
The temple has hosted many concerts and speakers over the years, including Chessy Prout and Stephen King.
As for future plans, Unity Temple is trying to get back on its feet after COVID. Many programs went away with COVID and have not yet returned, including kids’ programs and a preschool. They’re working on an event space in the basement that will have a movie theater. But they’re not stopping there.
“Now that we’re moving into our 75th anniversary, it’s time to determine where we’re going for the next 75 years,” says Tufty.
For more information about Unity Temple on the Plaza, visit their website.
Overland Park, KS
X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers. The company said in a “PSA” on Thursday that Circles will be disabled by October 31st.
“After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle,” X wrote in a post on its help center. “You will, however, be able to remove people from your Circle,” and the company gave instructions on how to do that.
Twitter (not X) officially launched Circles (which it called “Circle”) in August 2022; Elon Musk wasn’t yet the official owner of the company. (At that time, he was trying to get out of his deal to buy it.) But in April, some posts intended for Circles starting appearing on the platform’s For You timeline, which obviously wasn’t ideal if you wanted a post to only be seen by your handpicked Circle audience.
Confirmed someone I'm not even following was able to see a private Twitter Circle tweet (thank you @TheSahilDev)
— Theo - t3.gg (@t3dotgg) April 8, 2023
This hurts trust in the platform a lot. Should be top priority @TwitterEng pic.twitter.com/BCYPkikJ2p
X didn’t give a reason as to why it’s shutting down the feature. But the company has recently been making more of a push around its Facebook Groups-like Communities feature — perhaps it viewed Circles and Communities as too similar to keep both around.
Overland Park, KS
The US government will again offer free at-home covid tests starting September 25th, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday. The kits are intended for use through the end of 2023; as with previous versions of the free test program, the kits will include four tests along with instructions for verifying extended expiration dates.
The government ended its most recent free test kit program on May 31st as cases and hospitalizations dwindled, but hospitalizations have been steadily rising since July, according to The New York Times’ covid tracker.
According to the HHS release, the White House has invested $600 million for the new round of free kits, which it will purchase from 12 US manufacturers. The department writes that this is enough to cover 200 million over-the-counter tests.
The Times reports that if demand pushes high enough, manufacturers could sell those tests straight to retailers before the government. The article notes that despite their rise, hospitalizations are still low compared to previous phases of the covid pandemic when weekly covid-related deaths numbered in the tens of thousands.
New monovalent formulations of both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are now available following the FDA’s approval earlier this month. The new boosters were made based on omicron variants of the virus instead of the original strain. The CDC currently recommends the shot for anyone over the age of six months who has received as many as three mRNA shots previously.
Overland Park, KS
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