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Drinkable Languages Offered At LA Time-Travel Mart
An anonymous reader writes "Via the sci-fi blog io9 comes a fantastic project that not only has a great premise but backs a great cause. The San Francisco writing center called 826 Valencia works to teach kids passion for the written word. The program really works, and has expanded to other cities across the country in an effort to get more young people writing. To fund these outreach programs, the organization has opened some ... unique businesses in their new locales. The LA chapter, for example, features a Time Travel mart. The imaginative place features dozens of products like Robot Milk, Viking Oderant, and Olde Fashioned English Gunpowder. Other centers around the country offer similar themed experiences, like the NYC Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. or Seattle's Greenwood Space Travel Supply Corporation."
... who was confused by "drinkable languages" in the headline? Do I need to, like, RTFA?
All those links and the summary doesn't mention Dave Eggers, the author, and founder of 826 Valencia, as well as McSweeneys.
Also, that group once did a Pirate supply store.
They were subsequently sued by the RIAA.
They're even fun for adults to visit. We went to the Brooklyn Superhero supply store and had a blast with the invisibility powder and Hero or Villain? quiz.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
After a couple of beers, I speak any language.
I would have loved a place like that as a kid. The anti-robot fluid made me laugh.
Whoever made all those -- those people are creative geniuses and deserve applause.
Ahh but do they have Torgo's Executive Powder?
... or at least that's what I said the last time I posted this ... in the future.
With all due respect to the moderators and not withstanding above AC's lack of tact -- that article really is fucking drivel.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
anyway, this is actually a pretty good idea- the current educational system tends to destroy any interest in writing/math/the sciences so perhaps this will spark some interest where there was none before.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
the title of this summary has actually achieved 'word-salad' status.
drinkable languages at the time travel mart, eh? whatever you've been smoking, it must have been pretty damn good
That's all really cool stuff, I love articles like this on Slashdot since it really appeals to the nerdy little kid in me. Now all that out of the way, I have to admit that all the worry about kids not reading and writing these days may be a little unfounded. I really think that the opposite may be true with things such as blogs, youtube, and other venues that kids can use to express themselves to large audiences. Younger people with creative minds are really taking advantage of all this technology just look around youtube once in a while, despite all the drivel there are some outstanding videos there made by kids as low as middleschool. Some of the blogs out there are great reads and are from younger people, the internet is an amazing things since it doesn't care who you are and who you know. The internet doesn't care about anything really, the good climbs to the top and the bad sits in the bottom. We might go on about ringtone that, marketing this, damn kids that, get off my lawn, but really when we were teens was it any different? Every generation has it's great thinkers, artists, engineers, and scientists. You also have everyone else, what's great about the internet is it gives everyone a voice and if the message is good enough, strong enough, passionate enough, or interesting enough chances are that people will here it. The era is here when we don't have to rely on moguls of industry to dictate for us what is good and what is not good, anyone with a keyboard and a mouse can be heard on equal ground thanks to the net. Hell the internet is still in it's infancy, I don't think the potential of it has been realize or ever will be realized. It's one of the greatest things that mankind has ever achieved, the knowledge and experience of mankind at your fingertips. Oh, for fun sometime check out Ficlets. A good example of how the good will naturally rise to the top.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
I volunteer at the Seattle incarnation of 826. Stop by the Space Travel Supply! We stock both Certainty and Uncertainty, conveniently stored in jars (though the latter is heavier-- it does weigh on you), anti-gravity tools, 0.9% purity Argon, rocket fuel, and more. The packaging is terribly clever.
There will be a Plutonian protest and rally on the 15th where students will make arguments for the reinstatement of its planethood. If you're in our gravitational field, visit! The kids' creativity will impress.
Though 826 is a writing center primarily, we see everything at drop-in tutoring. Everything. Another tutor and I deal primarily with mathematics... we do our best with everything else.
Send your children over, Seattle. We'll make sure they do their homework (beyond the magnitude limit).
This simply cannot be allowed!
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Call me when the start selling REAL Robot Milk a.k.a. Olde Fortran Malt Liquor
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
You are going to break the hearts of the poor nerds and dweebs who think that Time Travel and Superheroes actually exist!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
I believe the original location was zoned for retail, so they needed to have some sort of retail business in there, even though it was really a tutoring center.
>Olde Fashioned English Gunpowder
Well, Fawke that!
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Okay, I appreciate the creativity, and at least it's not another box store, but WTF, how does crazy shit like this stay in business? You have to wonder if they're secretly dealing pot or something. Besides, this is not going to motivate some stupid kid to become Hemingway. That Hemingway kid doesn't need you to prod him to become Hemingway.
I drink your language. I DRINK IT UP!
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
And i'm not sure why this made slashdot, but I go in the store once a month just because all the creative work is amazing. The one in San Fran is a pirate themed store filled with stories about a pathetic pirate that wants to be feared.
I also love the informational signs about "Have you got scurvy?" Thought about putting that beside the breast cancer awareness one in my shower, but didn't think my housemates would approve.
And the encourage mopping people...ahhh hahaha.
http://www.826valencia.org/store/iambeingmopped.html
In SF, they have the Pirate Store.
As "enrichment experiences" for kids go, these don't seem so weird after seeing "Summer Camp Day" at Hillsdale Mall. About fifty local camps each had a booth. Only a few "camps" actually offered camping, hiking, or wilderness stuff. There were the expected horse camps, gymnastic camps, and such. A few sports camps (golf, tennis). And then there were the others. Computer camp. Sewing camp. Archeology camp. Kung Fu camp. Paintball camp. Lego camp. Two Lego camps, in fact.
There is no coincidene that the best beer making country in the world is Belgium. Afterall, their language is Belch right? ...Ducks
RTFA. The crap up front is just a cover. This is in fact a sinister tutoring center.
I don't want robot milk. I want milk-plus. Milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom. That sharpens you up for a bit of the old ultra-violence...
This sig is false.
Isn't that the one where Javier Barden plays the hip, worldly pregnant teenager?
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
I can't understand why this is being run down by so many people. This is the sort of thing that could be applied to any form of education, be it literature/literacy/art/sciences/computing etc.
I live in the UK and my wife teaches secondary level art; anything that can encourage pupils to enjoy exploration and help them cope with the government-mandated, institutionalised, school-ratings-based testing procedures and think outside the curriculum would be a godsend. It's inspiration that's the key - my wife does as best as she's permitted to do within the rules she's set, but some kids just seem to continually need firing up and encouraging outside of any overtime she does could possibly provide.
I say the creativity displayed here is wonderful and exciting - and it is the gateway to getting kids interested in something for its own sake rather then because they feel they are "required" to learn it and "get good grades". If it has the side effect of helping the latter then so much the better.
My wife is also of a left-leaning bent and has until recently resisted the temptation to compare state-run schools with private institutions (I am of similar political leanings but have has the benefit of private education) - but is now beginning to question what the UK "National Curriculum" and SATs (recently brought in here) really contribute to a child's mental development.
Bravo and good luck to all the people doing and supporting this. It takes a lot of guts to invest in something so quirky but so inspiring. And it looks like a riot of fun to boot!
-- Sig Sig Sputnik
If you haven't read this then you haven't seen the real creative talent of these people: I personally can recommend the bottle of Uncertainty. It comes in real handy from time to time... http://putative.typepad.com/putative/2007/01/fedex_refuses_s.html