Signs of life in the sidewalk cracks

July 16, 2006 6:25 PM

The Urban Pantheistis the livejournal of Jef Taylor, where he works out articles for his two zines: The Urban Pantheist: Loving Nature while Living in the City and Urban Nature Walk. The LJ became a bit more as he embarked on a project called 365 Urban Species, where he'll post a current photo and short article about a different living thing found in the city each day.
posted by FunkyHelix (10 comments total)

I never quite know what to think when someone has an intelligent, useful, contentful, relevant collection of writing on a livejournal. I know it happens, but I had one when I was sixteen, so that's all I can think of.

I had the same problem with the French language, having learned it throughout my school years. For a very long time I could never take anything seriously if it was written in French, it all felt like it couldn't be any more sophisticated than un petit poisson dans le mer, or whatever.

Not to detract from the post. This is pretty neat.
posted by blacklite at 6:54 PM on July 16, 2006

I didn't know about Dog Vomit until now. neat post, thanks.
posted by hortense at 7:37 PM on July 16, 2006

This is brilliant. I would never have found it on my own, and just reading the first few entries I've learned things I always wanted to know. Thanks for posting it.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:19 PM on July 16, 2006

I never quite know what to think when someone has an intelligent, useful, contentful, relevant collection of writing on a livejournal. I know it happens, but I had one when I was sixteen, so that's all I can think of.

*shrugs* It's very, very interesting not to have this bias and, in fact, to be so radically differentiated from someone who had a LiveJournal account at 16. I started mine when I was 36, and I've been using it daily ever since. (I'm 41 now.)

Just because people think it's one thing, doesn't mean it can't be another like communicating with your real friends.

Oh, and in regard to the post... love it. He's totally on my LiveJournal friends list now. :) I love urban naturalists. I love cities and I love our natural world, and I love that there are great people who understand cities are a big huge part of the natural world. I saw beautiful blue herons on my trip to Chicago, and I've seen amazing hawks, falcons and king fishers in San Francisco.
posted by smallerdemon at 10:05 PM on July 16, 2006

Hah! I knew Jef's wife ages and ages ago and remember when they started putting this out. It's really cool to see how much it's grown since then. They're very cool people.
posted by verb at 5:47 AM on July 17, 2006

Hey, I'm a pantheist, and I live in a city, and people who know me only by my screen name often mistake my name for Jef, but most importantly ... this is really cool.
posted by jefgodesky at 5:59 AM on July 17, 2006

But what about the panentheists, where's our city naturalist LJ?

Why are you persecuting us?
posted by sonofsamiam at 6:20 AM on July 17, 2006

Wow, I used to volunteer for Jef at a wildlife rehabilitation center and had copies of his first few print editions. I always wondered what happened to this... thanks!
posted by one_bean at 6:51 AM on July 17, 2006

This is an excellent site. The writing is good, and the photographs are perfect for what they're trying to show. I can't wait to read more of it.

Great post, and flagged as such.
posted by OmieWise at 7:42 AM on July 17, 2006

Reminds me of a project a friend of mine is trying to start up in New York called Nature Calendar.
posted by footnote at 9:15 AM on July 17, 2006