this is catie. i was trying new things and i took the pic through a glass of juice. it looks really cool i think.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Trying New Things
Hey everyone.Just put pictures of us having fun on recording day.Hope you enjoy bye.
Passing It On
Evelyn Wilson is a Native American that helps teach a language class to get the younger generation involved in their heritage. She started in 2006 and has been doing it ever since. Evelyn was born and raised in Calaveras County. She is seventy four years old. She graduated in 95 and has been marred for 54 years and has two children. The positives about the area for her is that it's peaceful, quiet and has a medical clinic and stores close by. But the most important thing is lots of family near by. The negative thing about the area is the logging and all the bare spots. The good thing about her project is that anyone can join if they want to learn. It benefits the community by welcoming anyone who wants to learn the language.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Story Day A Big Success!
Up from the UnderStory's Community Story Day was
a whopping success!
It all started around 9:00, when UC Davis graduate students Whitney Wilcox, Melissa Chordas, and I rolled up at the West Point Elementary School in my tiny VW Golf packed to the hilt with computers, scanners, recording gear, and food! School teacher (and UnderStory Project Advisor!) Linda Toren welcomed us, unlocked the doors to the multipurpose room and helped us begin unloading heaps of gear.
Around 9:30, youth involved in the project arrived to help plug in equipment, arrange the room, and review what we'd be doing that day: working in our "story teams" (the youth/adult pairs) to scan or import images, record narration for their stories, and share ideas on what images and music might go with which parts of the script.
Here are some of the teams who are working together to produce stories of community revitalization in the Blue Mountain area...
And in addition to the story teams, some other community members came down to participate in an interview and share pictures for the blog, including Dee Middleton, Alan Willard, Velma Whitebear, Evelyn Wilson, and Chris Wright.
We are always accepting info about community revitalization projects and pictures for the blog. So if you have any or know of any and want to contribute them just let me know by making a comment below (and sign it and give me your email so i can get back to you!)
Besides all the image and sound collection work, the youth finalized the logo for their T shirt (and their tag line: "seeing our community through a lens"), drafted their project presentation program notes (a three fold brochure!), and worked up changes for the project presentation flyer. Their focus, output, and sense of style was impressive!
In fact, we had to practically rip the equipment out of a few of their hands and shut their computers because they were procrastinating at having us leave!
Stay tuned for more images and anecdotes from Story Day!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Meet Mike Ziser!
Hi everyone, this is Mike Ziser (rhymes with “riser”). I teach English at UC Davis, with a special focus on the different ways that people’s experiences with the natural world come through in their writing and art. Of course I love all the traditional nature writers and artists—Henry Thoreau and John Muir and Ansel Adams, for example—but I’m particularly interested in the kinds of things that happen when people are not just passively enjoying nature but rather are working in it and with it (and often against it). In my professional work I try to think about the way that the environment comes through in farmers’ almanacs, recipe books, logging camp songs, and the everyday musings of everyday folks as they walk through their everyday fields and woods. Unfortunately and ironically, there aren’t too many literary records of these kinds of “everyday” environmental experiences, and I am hoping that my meetings with you will give me some small taste of the way your specific home-place comes through in your artistic expressions.
I was born in Texas while my dad was in the Navy, and then I lived in Oakland and Sacramento for during my school years. I’m married and have two kids (Anna, almost 6, and Eli, almost 4), two dogs, three chickens, 2 goldfish, and about 40,000 honeybees. Besides taking care of all of these beasts, I spend my free time repairing old bicycles and exploring my own Putah-Cache bioregion by foot, bicycle, and kayak. I’m really looking forward to meeting you and seeing what is going on up in your neck of the woods. 
Meet Julie Wyman
I am Julie Wyman: a documentary filmmaker, an artist, a performer, and an assistant professor in the Technocultural Studies Program at UC Davis.
Technocultural Studies is a program that teaches students to think about the way that technology and science shape our everyday lives and our culture. We also study media technology as a tool that allows us to engage in, and actively shape culture: a perfect example is the way that "Up from the Understory" participants are making short video pieces about their community!
My own filmmaking and performance work have to do with gender and the body: I make films about the people whose bodies make us rethink our assumptions about power, strength, beauty, health, and the way that we, as a culture, define and stereotype people based on their body size and gender. I'm also interested in the way that location and landscape effect our sense of identity. Right now, I'm working on a film about Savannah, Georgia-based super-heavyweight Cheryl Haworth, America's top Olympic weightlifter since she was age 14.
I live in Berkeley, and spend a lot of my spare time wandering the trails and dog-parks of the Bay Area with my dachshund-basset hound, Seymour. I also kayak in the bay, make elaborate meals, and watch a lot of TV on DVD.
My graduate students and I are currently working on a short video that will serve as an introduction to the nine student storyteller profile videos. Our video uses community members' expertise to tell the history of the region and to introduce viewers to the look, feel, and sound of the area.
It's a great challenge to translate someone else's story to the screen, especially when you're talking about an "Understory:" a story that hasn't been told so often. My students and I are honored and thrilled at the opportunity to work with you on this challenge and hope to continue learning about your community, the geography of your area, and the task of video storytelling as we proceed. 
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
whoa!
Last Saturday my family and i were outside and noticed some movement by our fountain and came upon this creature who has made a home in a hole by our house. I thought that this creature would be a cool model for a photo and he did! good thing i didnt touch him; i sure didnt want to get warts!
this photo was also taken working wit lighting nd u can tell that the flash was on nd it shows in our faces. how there are no showds ,nd our faces look pale.
this is danielle we sere working with the flash. we had to try some different things out with it.
this is danielle and like i said we were working with the flash.
this is danielle again and working with the flash again.
we were working wit lighting when i took this picture. it looks a little faded nd washed out but i love the three people in it. theres a little bit too much wall that i could crop thought.
wisdome
This is a pitcher of my aunt joice telling me the history of the round house. She said that every year indeans come frome all over to the round house to sing and dance in ther regelia. They have lots of food and dreanks for every wone. They have dream catchers,beed work if any wone wonts to buy them. We all injoy every thing about it and just bean able to be around famaly and elders.
flashing lights
so today we learned about flash and how to use it.it was pretty exciting if you ask me. tee hee. Grant and i were a team, hes a strange but entertaining kid. ha!
=P
i also learned that grant has hekka pretty eyes. oh beside the eyes thing. ha
uhm yeah so the flash on our dinky little cameras is super duper weak! it only really works with short distances around 2 to 6 feet, and if youre too close to the subject the flash makes it look super duper pastey.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Understory by Marica Adams
Here's a poem from Dee Middleton written by Marcia Adams, who lived in or near the Wilseyville lumber camp when the mill was running. I think everyone will particularly enjoy the title.
Understory
By
Marcia Adams
The area below the forest canopy. . .
Due to little light, some learn to live, others fall.
Walk with me into a Mokelumne wilderness
Where I can show you how to love even
The surprising scent of mountain misery.
We will explore a natural Calaveras stand
Of dry snags and sawtimber, learn to decipher
Heartwood rings, the understory of old skulls.
Listen close for the ghosts of long gone lumberjacks,
Soft shift whistles from Wilseyville’s mill,
As snow thaw water rushes down the Licking Fork.
Imagine Blue Mountain’s base all ablaze in buttercups,
A wizened coyote shape shifter full of strange old stories
about all those upper story women who fell for him.
CHIPS
Here is a little about Railroad Flat resident Ernie La Carra-Babor and her involvement with the community project called CHIPS.
The CHIPS Project which had their first official meeting March 5, 2005 has come a great distance. The purpose of the project looked at addressing the different factors affected by the economic displacement of workers with the closure of all eight local lumber mills within the last 20 years. Even though community members face many economic and social challenges, they possess an indomitable spirit of community and determination to revitalize their area and themselves. The CHIPS Project has secured a number of grants on behalf of the many visions and goals that are a part of CHIPS Project mission.
I have been involved in the CHIPS Project since it's inception on March 5, 2005 and have had the pleasure of working with many community members, agency partners and organizations in our quest to project best-case example of "New Forest Economy”.
I have participated in this project not just as an agency partner, but as a community member who is passionate about my neighbors, their families and how we can empower individuals with hope and opportunities in order to move forward.
Wilseyville Library By Dee Middleton
In the old days, pioneer women identified three essential components for a thriving community: churches, schools and libraries. In fact, the early pioneers in our neighboring township of Volcano boasted the establishment of California's very first library. In that same tradition, the township of Wilseyville now has its own library as part of its community renewal and development process and it's called the Wilseyville Library and Community Museum (WeLCoMe). Its motto, fashioned after that of the National Mortar Board Society for college and university honor students, is "Reading is Leading.".....
WLCM has its non-profit status through the Blue Mountain Community Renewal Council. The library is housed in a little cottage located in the historic Wilseyville lumber camp, #1 on the right. It is unique in that it is primarily a children and adult classics library; however, its shelves also contain many books on poetry, biographies, geography, and history. The library provides a warm and cozy atmosphere for its patrons ages 3 to 103. The library is a learning center for our community; and as it becomes more established, will offer many activities, including lectures, workshops, daytime retreats, weekly reading sessions for children and seniors, genealogy research, help with resumes and letter writing, and other community services.
The museum component of WLCM is still in the planning stages; however, we have assembled numerous relics from our gold mining and lumber milling history. As that phase of WLCM grows, student docents will be needed to teach visitors about the history of the Wilseyville township and it's surrounding areas.
Currently, the Wilseyville Library and Community Museum is looking for young adults to assist in the sorting, cataloging and shelving of approximately 3,000 books, mostly classics. Additionally, we are looking for volunteer students to keep the library open weekday afternoons, evenings and on weekends. At the moment, these activities are strictly volunteer and library hours are restricted to Saturdays only, as there are few volunteers at this time and no funds to support student wages. However, students who are interested in researching potential grants are invited to participate with Library founder, Dee Middleton, in this effort. Saturday work sessions will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m., lunch provided. As grant monies are found, wages will be provided.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Mokolumne Watershed Project
This is Carol Oz. She volunteers for the mokolumne watershed project. She checks the PH of the middle fork seasonally, and cleans up trash along the river. I feel that the river is a very important part of the community, and that we should do all we can to preserve it and keep it healthy.
Introducing Ryan & Julie
Up from the UnderStory is a collaboration between UC Davis and the communities in the Blue Mountain area. As part of this partnership, a handful of UCD scholars have joined the project to learn more about Blue Mountain, support the community during the project, and share their own thoughts and experiences with community revitalization. Here are two of the scholars who have joined us: Ryan Galt and Julie Sze. Feel free to leave them thoughts or comments!
My name is Ryan Galt. I’m an assistant professor of community development and geography. My main teaching and research interests involve rural areas. I’m especially fascinated in agricultural systems and the environmental and social effects on them, and on food systems. I also like to investigate the economic links between different places and mapping. I received my first degree from Modesto Junior College, before transferring to UC Berkeley. Then I went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In my free time, I like to bike, run, hike, garden, read, play board games like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan, and bake and cook with my wife. And I also enjoy photography and photo book publishing.
Every year I look forward to going on a hike in California with my family and friends. Some recent trips include Mount Whitney, White Mountain Peak, and the Lost Coast.
If you would like to some pictures from my hiking trips check out my web page:
http://web.mac.com/r_galt/Ryan_Galts_Site/Welcome.html
I’m excited to be involved in the Up From the UnderStory project, because it connects with my teaching and research interests. I’m very interested in finding ways and making the University of California more reachable to students from the Sierra and Central Valley area. Also, I’m very interested in how citizen production of media can tell stories about places.
My name is Julie Sze. I'm an Assistant professor of American Studies. Mymain teaching and research interests involve culture and the environment,
and environmental activism. I wrote a book called Noxious New York that
looks at activism in New York City around health and environmental issues. I
teach classes on topics like consumption and Nature and Culture. I'm really
interested in how people and communities respond to environmental and social change. I was an English major at UC Berkeley, and went to graduate school at New York University.
I grew up in Chinatown in New York City and my parents are Chinese immigrants. I was the second person in my family to go to college (after my older sister) .In my free time, I like to read, watch T.V., garden and travel. I have two children, a girl named Sofia (4 and a half) and Leo (14 months). We just started a vegetable and herb garden. Growing up in New York City, I never gardened or knew very much about trees.
I'm excited to be involved in the Up From the UnderStory project, because it connects with my teaching and research interests. I'm very excited about meeting you and learning more about you and your community. I hope that you can come to talk to my class about your work. Read More......
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
this is a couple of groups working together for the project. lets hope every thing went well and their having a good time.
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