Fantastic Futures

While looking for this website for a bicycle tour Works Progress is participating in this weekend, I stumbled across Fantastic Futures, a platform created by a group of students from Iraq and the US for the mixing and sharing of field recordings, songs, interviews and stories.

At first I thought, “The US is still occupying Iraq, isn’t something like this just a little too precious?”

Then I realized that earlier today, we were telling the story of Give & Take to the Director of Community Development in Montevideo, MN, making similar claims about the power of simple platforms for exchange to actually create meaningful and powerful connections.

I’m starting to realize that when the cynic in me wants to react to something as simply naive or silly; that’s exactly when I need to slow down and take a careful listen.

I did, and found myself moved by the ordinary sounds of street life, people carrying on conversations in Baghdad and New York, laughing, arguing, celebrating…the sorts of moments that never make it into more formal accounts of a time and place.

What I ended up loving is exactly how simple the concept is; while at the same time, it maintains such grand intentions. That’s actually pretty awesome.

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