Catching up on some recent writing: for Shareable, I wrapped up my series on socially-curated news by taking a look at the conservatives-gaming-Digg controversy and what happens when social news services fail. I also blogged about citizen scientists discovering a new pulsar and the distributed computer services that allow amateurs to contribute to scientific research efforts in their free time.

And for the SF Weekly, a bunch of new blurbs on writers Taylor Plimpton and Angela S. Choi, comedy by Alex Koll and The Denial Show, and the Gallery Hijinks Inaugural Exhibition.

A quick roundup of writing for the SF Weekly and Shareable.net, where I blog about social media, green tech, government 2.0, and guerrilla community building.

I’ve been previewing a lot of literary and arts events for the SF Weekly, including authors David Mitchell and Tony O’Neill, and street artist David Choe. Over at Shareable, I’m working on a series of posts about social news sites, and have posts up about the iPad app Flipboard and Google Reader’s new social features. I’ve also written recently about the intersections between crypto-forestry and guerrilla gardening.

A couple new previews for the SF Weekly: a reading by novelist T Cooper and the art opening for So Many Products, So Little Time: The Junk Mail Show.

Makeshift Lending Libraries: Building a more shareable urban community doesn’t necessarily require years of planning and grand initiatives. It can be as simple as turning defunct newspaper boxes or pay phone booths into community lending libraries.

Significant Objects: The Secret History of Products: Can an unwanted, discarded item of consumer kitsch be imbued with new value by the simple act of telling its story? And what if that story was completely fabricated? This is the question that Significant Objects poses.

Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: As oil continues to pour into the gulf, many of us feel overwhelmed, unable to respond usefully in the face of such devastation. Much has been made of the power of social media and mobile phones to organize people and spur fundraising efforts during times of crisis, but SMS donations only go so far.

Community Solutions to Food Deserts: One of the most confounding issues confronting urban planners, activists, and health food advocates in recent years is the Food Desert phenomenon: low-income urban areas in a city where fresh food is difficult to obtain.

My friends in San Francisco, I am now telling you what events you should attend, for the SF Weekly. My first calendar preview runs in this week’s issue, for a discussion featuring novelist Ben Greenman at City Lights Books. Should be a good event; check out the details and the preview here.

Some new posts over at Shareable, where I’m blogging once a week:

Gadget Lust vs. Good Enough: When last year’s blazing tech becomes today’s e-waste, rendered obsolete by an ever-shortening hype cycle, when will we ever have enough?

Open Cities, Open Data: How do we get closer to a more shareable future? One promising route is the Open Data movement, initiatives to leverage the sheer bulk of data collected from city institutions and services and make them available to citizens who will leverage that data in innovative ways.

Is American Exceptionalism A Myth? Conventional wisdom states that individualism is coded within the very DNA of the American people. Since Ralph Waldo Emerson’s exceptionalism manifesto "Self-Reliance," the American character has defined itself by its iconoclasm. But are Americans actually uniquely individualistic in practice?

I’ll be live-chatting about the most important news item of the week (the LOST finale) on Wednesday, May 19 at 12 noon (central) on WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio’s Vocalo blog. Follow the chat and add your own comments here.

Last night I performed a new short story, “This One’s A Classic”, for 2nd Story at Morseland in Rogers Park, with musical accompaniment by Elvis Bride. A hilarious tale of personal failure, about the ill-fated Mule Train Pacific Northwest tour of 2005, which ended in a Wal-Mart parking-lot in Yreka, CA. Due to technical difficulties with the video-camera, this was shot on an iPhone, so it’s not the best-quality video or sound but still comes across quite well. Enjoy!

(Note: the first line of my performance was cut off in this video; so just imagine me yelling “This One’s A Classic!” in boastful old man voice before watching.)

I’m performing a brand-new short story for 2nd Story this Wednesday, April 28, at the Morseland. It is about the ill-fated Mule Train Pacific Northwest tour of 2005, which ended in a Wal-Mart parking-lot in Yreka, CA.

Here’s a teaser of the story:

“This one’s a classic,” Old-Timer Al said to us, sternly examining our VW Bus parked across three spaces in the Wal-Mart lot, yellow in the sun as a sea lion carcass. Tendrils of rust crept from the wheel wells. It was far from a classic.

“Sure is,” Kevin responded.

“All we need to do is sign over the title and it’s yours,” Cody said.

“I couldn’t let you boys do that,” Al said to us. “How much do you want for her?”

“Seriously, you can just have it for free if you take over the title.” All we wanted was to be rid of this damned bus, which we’d bought off an acquaintance a month earlier for $800. Still, Al wanted to haggle.

“Okay, how about $300″ Cody said.

“$150″ Al responded. “It’s a deal.”

We’d finally found a taker. Stuck in the tiny town of Yreka, ten miles south of the Oregon-California border, we were selling our only form of transportation for $150, and it was the best news of the day.

Also performing are Darwyn Jones and Andrew Reilly, and there will be musical accompaniment by Elvis Bride. Doors at 7:00, music at 7:30, stories begin at 7:45. Tickets are available online here, and you can RSVP on Facebook.

* actual dead bus pictured, taken moments after it died!

I’m writing articles and also blogging for Shareable.net, a “nonprofit online magazine that tells the story of sharing. We cover the people, places, and projects that are bringing a shareable world to life,” as they describe it. I’m very broadly covering the technology, social media and Midwest beat for them in my weekly blog posts. It’s a great site with an interesting take on community-building and affecting social change, and I’m excited to be working for them.

The latest article is about Chicago’s Gabriel Levinson and his book bike. In short, Gabe rides his bike around Chicago during spring and summer weekends, stopping at public parks and distributing donated books to anyone who approaches him.

I’ve also got a number of blog posts up on the site:

The Unconsumption Un-Manifesto: About Rob Walker’s unconsumption blog/wiki/movement, an attempt to get people to reconsider what they’re consuming and what they do with unwanted products

Wisdom of the Swarm: ThinkTank collects the knowledge of your online community: covering Gina Trapani and ExpertLabs’ ThinkTank app, that aggregates responses to questions posed on social networks

Video Games as a Force for Social Good: a follow-up to the DEMO Magazine article about Mindy Faber’s work with Open Youth Networks to use video games as a tool for social good and community outreach