My friend Andrea is again organizing the amazing SPARK Circus project in Thailand. This February a group of 15-20 flow-arts volunteers will bring the awesomeness of flow arts and circus to disadvantaged children in Northern Thailand (especially to the refugees from Burma). This is an opportunity to make the world a happier place while spending time with a group of skilled and loving spinners. To learn more, visit the SPARK Circus website. Note that if you like the project, but can't go to Thailand, you can send them toys or a donation through paypal.

Have you heard of TED? It's an annual convention on Technology, Education, and Design, with a focus on making the world healthier and happier. Amazing speakers from many fields are given 18 minutes to make the speech of a lifetime, and they put the videos online.

Elizabeth Gilbert is author of Eat Pray Love, a book about a woman exactly my current age on a spiritual pilgrimage to Italy, India, and Bali. A copy was left in my cabin in Costa Rica, so I finally read it. Last week I watched her talk on TED, and I was touched. Much of my life has been directed by the whims of the creative muse she speaks of, and I found inspiration and refuge in her words.

So, here it is: All ye artists take note!

Jaguary Mary was my video accomplice for a whole year. She is back in the USA, working on an inspiring project surrounding the new presidency and the era of change she believes it will catalyze.

I found this video on ministryofmanipulation.com and had to share it. If a mouse can make it through such hurdles, maybe we can make it through all our hurdles too? Somehow inspiring!

This isn't poi, but I think you'll like it. Put on good speakers or headphones if you've got them. It's a beautiful song, and quite the inspiration if you're looking for courage at the moment.

As I've mentioned before, I'm very interested in the internet and how it relates to community produced/distributed art and information. Thus it has been a great pleasure to watch my brilliant little brother Ben take interest in the same things. To make things better, he's doing his masters in Criminology and is generally more educated and possibly straight-up smarter than me. He often blogs about issues related to the internet, community media, and law.

He recently posted about the Save the Internet Campaign, which is worth reading about if you're at all interested in how the internet is developing. Tune in next week for more poi :)

On Sunday night I went to "En," a poi event organized by Yuta, Nao, and other members of the Tokyo spinning community.

When I first heard about the "poi event," I didn't know what to think. A fire festival, sure. A pagan dance party in the desert, of course! But an indoor, no-fire-allowed, cover-charge-to-get-in, "poi event?"...

How does 100 signs of stupidity = a sign of intelligence? The answer is Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his photo display, "The Earth from Above: An Arial Portrait of our Planet Towards a Sustainable Development." It is the most impressive photo exhibit I have ever seen. It was on display along the waterfront in downtown Wellington the whole time I was there...