When:   Friday, April 27 from 1-5pm

Where:  Artisan’s Asylum

10 Tyler Street,

Somerville, Massachusetts, 02143

What:

This Friday, April 27, Artisan’s Asylum founder Gui Cavalcanti and CIC’s Wayne Stokes will be giving tours of the Artisan’s Asylum facilities and answering questions for CIC clients who may be interested in signing up for a membership. We described our new machine shop facility at Artisan’s Asylum before: use of the facility, including basic access to equipment, is free to CIC clients.Shared facilities include a classroom, machine shop, welding shop, wood shop, fabric shop, electronics, bike shop… there is also a dedicated CIC client work area.

For more details on the facilities and resources available at the Artisan’s Asylum, check out their website — and then come join the tour!

Rudi Seitz’s 45 photographs on the theme of “everyday wonder” will be closing on April 20. If you haven’t had the chance to enjoy his work installed throughout the 4th floor, now is the time to do so.

As part of the exhibit closing Rudi will be offering framed limited edition prints to the CIC community at a special price of $200. The 8″x8″ prints are matted and presented in a 12″x12″ frame. For all inquiries please contact Rudi directly at rudi@rudiseitz.com.

Rudi is a member of the C3 community.

From the show’s opening announcement on 6/23/2011:

Rudi has put together this collection of what he calls found images – candid photographs that explore the wonder of the ordinary world. He is interested in the way photography can inspire us to look closer at the things we pass by everyday – a bit of peeling paint or rusting metal, a feather on the sidewalk, the shadow of a chain link fence. He explores “the democracy of light” – the way sunlight transforms grand and humble subjects alike.  Rudi’s closeup perspectives and attention to texture give viewers the sense they can almost reach out and feel the objects depicted – common things rendered strangely beautiful by an uncommon perspective.  The photographs now on display in CIC are the record of a year’s worth of close observation in places ranging from Kendall Square to Mahabalipuram, India.  Rudi works with digital equipment but avoids cropping or editing his images after capture – keeping them as close as possible to what he saw in the moment, and what you too might see with your own eyes if you stop and take notice.

We are very excited to announce the start of the 3rd season of the CIC bike share program.

We have learned a lot in the past two years.  We learned for instance that the performance bikes we used last year, which often had narrow tires, many gears, and various bells and whistles, did not stand up to the rigors of a bike-share program.

This year we have a new fleet of Biria single speed bicycles for you to use and enjoy.  These are simpler and, we hope, more durable. They are also very sharp-looking!

Another thing we learned last year is that without a system for keeping track of who has what bike out, it was easy for bikes to stray away from CIC for long periods of time.  We don’t think this was intentional, but some CIC bikes were found locked to bike racks in far-flung locations in the Greater Boston area, looking like they had not been used for a while.  As much as we liked our reservationless, accountability-free system, we’ve concluded it does not work in practice.

So, along with our new fleet of bicycles we also have updated the check-out process.  When you want to use a bike simply go up to CIC’s 14th floor reception desk, sign out a bike on our new form and grab a key.  You can also quickly electronically sign the bike share liability waiver which is required to use the program at this time if you have not yet done so.  All the bikes are numbered on the seat post and have a corresponding keyed U-lock.  Match up your number on the keychain to the bike and you are off. You will find that the U-locks can be held in place nicely on the rear rack of the bike.

To go along with the bikes, we have a whole new stock of helmets located near the bike rack toward the rear of the garage.  When you return the bike sign it back in and return the key to the front desk so that others can go for a ride too.   Enjoy!