EXCO: Experimental Community Education of the Twin Cities blogs

Class Begins on June 06th, 2012 at 7:00 PM

hubbe002 — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:42:18 +0000

Hello everyone! I am pleased to state that class will begin on the evening of June 6, 2012. We will start our first discussion from 7:00-8:30 at Macalester College (Old Main, room 009). Enjoy!

Reverence: Being Alive in the Sacred and Accountable to the All?

End all Military Dictatorships

parkx032 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:13:09 +0000

Here is our essay for March 2012.
Responses are welcome on our Facebook Page of the same name:
CREATING A WORLD PEACE FORCE

This essay might be easier to read on the Internet:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-M-DIC.html

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WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?

End all Military Dictatorships

SYNOPSIS:

The simple fact that the planet Earth
would no longer have any national military forces
means that all countries previously governed by the force of arms
to keep the people in line and the leader in power
would have to create some new forms of government.

In the various phases of emergence,
the World Peace Force would have different impacts.

OUTLINE:

1. MARKS OF MILITARY DICTATORSHIP.

2. DEALING WITH MILITARY DICTATORS BEFORE THE EMERGENCE OF THE WORLD PEACE FORCE.

3. THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DURING THE PROCESS OF DISARMAMENT.

4. NEW FORMS OF NATIONAL ORDER AFTER THE LOSS OF MILITARY FORCES.

5. THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WILL BE NEEDED TO MAINTAIN PEACE FOREVER.

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WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?

End all Military Dictatorships

by James Leonard Park

1. MARKS OF MILITARY DICTATORSHIP.

How can we tell if a particular country is governed by a military dictator?
Was the present leader put into power as the result of military action?
Do the armed forces keep the leader in power indefinitely?
Would it be impossible for an 'election' to remove the dictator?
Does the dictator rule by decree?
Have the military forces ever been used against the people of that country?
Does the military have a large role in the economy?

Historically speaking, military dictators usually have come into their power
as the result of a military coup d'etat that was successful against
whatever form of government existed before.

Creating a World Peace Force

Earth Oven #1 Building Kickoff

josh.tolkan — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:22:41 +0000

Earth Plasters!

We are going to build 2 ovens this Spring and Summer. I am so excited and I hope you will be able to join us!

The first oven will be built at Excoer's Nancy Morris's House at 2201 16th Avenue South.

-
To start things off we will have a Potluck Dinner at Nancy's House, probably the weekend of March 31/April 1st (exact time tbd)
-

We have 5 build days scheduled already. Put them on your calender!
April 14th, 15th, 22nd, 28th, 29th
We will probably be building full days.

You are welcome to participate in as many or as few of the days as we can, We'd love to have your join us.

Later this summer another earth oven is being planner for U of M st. paul campus.

Josh

Building an Earth Oven

So many people signed up

parkx032 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:32:15 +0000

As of today there are 166 people interested in Becoming More Authentic.
This is far too many for any class, of course.
So we need to do some creative thinking.
There used to be an e-mail function,
which permitted EXCO facilitators to write to all interested persons.
This could have been a way of discovering the depth of commitment.
If 10% are serious enough to show up for a class,
then it will work.
But if 20% appear, we will have too many.

Please send suggestions.

Yours,
James Park, EXCO facilitator

Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism

Disarm the Planet Earth---One Nation at a Time

parkx032 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:02:32 +0000

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-DISARM.html
This is the complete URL for the January 2012 essay
for Creating a World Peace Force.

A typing error prevented it from being posted before.
And here is the complete essay,
in case the complete blog-entry diseappeared:

WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?

DISARM THE PLANET EARTH
—ONE NATION AT A TIME

SYNOPSIS:

Warfare has been a fact of life on the planet Earth
ever since tribes of human beings were able to identify themselves
and define other groups as their enemies.

Once nation-states emerged, they often found themselves at war with one another.
But warfare is not the inevitable fate of the our species.
It should be possible to settle disputes between groups of people
without resorting to violence.
The United States of America offers a long-lasting example of
several states that have been able to live at peace with one another for 150 years.
The 50 states of the USA do not commit war against one another
because we have courts of law that settle all disputes as they arise.

The whole planet could follow this pattern:
Instead of going to war as a way of settling disputes,
the parties could submit each dispute to neutral judges,
who would give equal time to each side of the dispute
and then create a ruling that might not be liked by either
but which would be a just settlement of their differences.

As courts of law emerge for setting international disputes,
the need for national military forces diminishes.
And eventually, as our planet becomes more completely civilized,
there will be no need for national military forces at all.

The change to a disarmed world will take place one nation at a time,
beginning with those nations that have misused their military forces most obviously.

OUTLINE:

1. THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD REPLACE ALL NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.

2. NATIONS OF THE EARTH THAT ARE ALREADY DISARMED.

Creating a World Peace Force

S-10/20/100 about three what is actually your big difference relating to the about three Sino earbuds

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:48:51 +0000

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Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:10:37 +0000

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Creative Synthesis No. 1

Peter.Truax — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:37:29 +0000

Creative Synthesis Opportunity No. 1

To round out the first unit, "That's No Moon, That's A Space Station!", I would like us all to take the opportunity to do a creative synthesis, which will undergo a peer critique next week, on July 7th.

The opportunity (it's not an assignment, but I would appreciate it if everyone gave it a shot) is to synthesize a landscape or image-scene in a science fictional scenario. Given that the genre is broad, the opportunity is broad. The criteria are brief. First, it can be in any medium you desire - written, drawn, painted, spoken, photographed, danced, telepathed, etc. Second, it can be any length or size you want, though if you're preparing a written work, I would say to aim for between 4-10 pages, for the sake of the reviewers' time. Third, while exercizing creative freedom, you should try as best as possible to communicate your intended work concisely and clearly.

Since this is our first synthesis, I imagine there will be questions about what to do, so feel free to talk amongst yourselves and to me about ideas, or concerns. The synthesis is meant to be fun, and it's meant to be a rough draft only.

The peer critique will take place on July 7th, but I would like everyone to have their works ready for review by no later than the evening of the 5th. Does this seem fair? I imagine this being necessary more for a written work, but for other media, would a review and critique all in one night sound good? In other words, we won't see what you've made until the 7th, and then give feedback in class? Yes, let's plan on that.

So, to reiterate:
Come up with a landscape or image-scene in any media, of whatever reasonable length/size, and be clear in your expression. We'll critique on the 7th.

Following the critique, if you'd like to revisit your work immediately, then we'll look at it again on the 14th, otherwise, whenever you'd like to show it again. Remember, it's all for fun's sake!

Adventures in Science Fiction

Articles and Lists

fluffysingler — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:38:12 +0000

These are three links from Newspaper Blackout Poems (2), which we will be using for this week, and Bernadette Meyer's and Charles Bernstein's Experiments List, from which I drew for some of the exercises. This list is widely available in various forms on the internet. I will also update my own list of experiments and post them on here as well, but that will probably be after the class.

Playing with Words: An Experimental Poetry Workshop

Play with words -- last class and exquisite corpse

fluffysingler — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:29:43 +0000

Hey everyone! This week is our last class. I would love to see 12 bright shiny faces at class -- so even if you haven't come to one before, come to this one! Also we'll be doing evaluations for the class, so come and fill out an evaluation and just meet people!

Here's our group poem from this week:

The last tie I went to a funeral, I couldn't believe what I saw.
Three clowns were marching up and down the aisle
whisper under tehir breaths about whose nose what reddest and whose shoes loudest.
Tapp shoes are loud, loud and tappy. Tappy -- is that even a word?
My mind often diverges in such a way
twisting and turning, my thoughts
began to manifest in the expression of my neighbors eyebrows, as my fingers --
eyebrows are odd things. They're there for what?
To catch things before they fall into your eyes?

Playing with Words: An Experimental Poetry Workshop