IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD

The welcome wagon

Posted Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 12:29:46 PM EST
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD SOMEONE IS ALWAYS THERE TO WELCOME YOU HOME

It’s tough to say if it’s more of a pain to depart from an airport or arrive back all alone schlepping your bags, wondering why your regular life isn’t more like your vacation. And nothing makes it worse than seeing someone else get a proper welcome. They have a big sign that says WELCOME HOME JANE with family (or for more salt in the wound, a friendly dog wagging its tail like mad) awaiting them, and you, if you’re lucky, have a driver with your name misspelled on a sign. Well Improv Everywhere, a prank collective from NYC, decided to make the re-entry to New York City a lot nicer for five lucky folks at JFK this past July. Gathering a group of 20 agents, the prank collective welcomed these weary travelers to the Big Apple. Once these unsuspecting arriving passengers got through the “Am-I-on-Candid Camera moment?”, they were thrilled with the warm reception. See for yourself HERE.
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Urban farms: coming to a city near you

Posted Friday, November 14, 2008, 12:50:39 PM EST
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD CITIES FARM

When you think of the inner city, farming may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But if chef and artist Jim Denevan has his way, that will change. While community gardens are growing in many metropolises across the globe, Denevan envisions a world where all cities have small farms—and where the carbon footprint caused by food production is nonexistent; where the air you breathe is cleaner; where you get to know your neighbours when you plant your crop next to theirs in a community garden; cities that are healthier because their citizens are eating fruits and veggies they’ve grown themselves.

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Flower power

Posted Friday, October 03, 2008, 1:43:05 PM EST
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD FLOWERS EVERYWHERE!

For those of you lucky enough to grow flowers you can cut and bring into your home, you know what a pick-me-up they provide. And besides the pleasure you get from looking at (or smelling!) your homegrown bouquet, you also had a fulfilling experience gardening, and you can rest easy knowing that by planting your own garden you’ve helped cool our warming planet a little bit. So while we’re not sure if Visionary Sng-Ju is making a call to action for people to plant more flowers, we will assume that’s the idea and second that notion. If you need more incentive to become a green thumb, check out Michael Pollan’s convincing argument from earlier this year http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1 Read more

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Boredom buster

Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 11:44:05 AM EST
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD I WOULD DO EVERYTHING DIFFERENT

Where to start with this broad sweeping vision from Visionary Joachim-Levin? At first glance it seems like this visionary may have some serious regrets in life but when you read on, you learn that he’s just looking to make things better and freer. He wants to “ break free from all the habits that control our everyday life and experience something new.” Well, here-here Hear! Hear! brother Joachim-Levin. We’re all for new beginnings, better futures, and abandoning conventions that no longer work in the modern world. Read more

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A clean getaway

Posted Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 9:43:37 AM EST
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD CRASH TEST DUMMIES ESCAPE TO FREEDOM

We love sincere ideas from visionaries who want to make a difference in the world, but we’re also smitten with absurdist ideas like the one from Visionary MR-H. He’s planning “a short film about a family of crash test dummies who are tired of repeatedly hitting the wall.” These downtrodden dummies “devise a plan to hijack one of the cars and escape to freedom.” Do the dummies symbolize all of us crashing into the same walls over and over again? Or is it just a film about those poor human-like mannequins (for more on them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_test_dummy)? Either way it sounds like a short we’d like to see.
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