We believe in capturing life as it is.

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We are in Ukraine this week, with Victor Yushchenko (previous president of the Ukraine) and The Leavitt Institute.  Learn more about the work The Leavitt Institute is doing in the Ukraine, here. 

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We are on our way to the Ukraine, and leaving the warmer climate of Mali behind us. It was incredible time spent with Yeah Samake, meeting the people of Mali and spending time campaigning for Yeah in the Malian Presidential Election.  

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headed out, across the sea.

We have been busy throughout the holidays and the new year preparing for travel we will be starting at the end of this week--

Our travels will be taking us to Mali with Yeah Samake and later, in Kiev, Ukraine.  

We will be posting photos (courtesy of our iPhones) during the trips-- be sure to check them out! 

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We have the honor of working with Yeah Samake, who is a presidential candidate for the 2012 Malian General Election.  

Running on a platform of decentralization and anti-corruption, Yeah Samake is a social  entrepreneur with a history of heavily contributing to the education system and lobbying for better conditions for the people of Mali.  We believe he is well prepared to continue to make a significant difference to the future of his country.  

For direct information about his campaign, http://samake2012.com/

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Homelessness is a huge problem in the U.S. With 10% of the U.S. poor experiencing homelessness there has to be something that we can do, right? I mean, we put a man on the moon, but we can't get a person in a house? Mentioned in our last post, Downtown Streets Team is a sustainable, scaleable approach to alleviating homelessness. With cleaning contracts with the private and public sector, getting off the streets can be as easy as picking up a broom. Downtown Streets helps restore human dignity and create a community based on self-sufficiency.  This is a small look into what Downtown Streets Team is doing. Specifically a new project in San Jose, the Clean Creeks, Healthy Communities Project.  Learn more at streetsteam.com Produced by Good Line thegoodline.com Special thanks to The Peery Foundation, The EPA, The City of San Jose, Santa Clara Water District, Destination: Home, and Ebay.

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This past June we filmed a short doc with the truly innovative Downtown Streets Team.

Over a 3 day period Chris and Greg guided us through heavily polluted areas of Coyote Creek in San Jose, California inhabited but homeless people simply trying to survive.

DST's initiative to combat homelessness by giving people—who are down on their luck—an opportunity to clean their environment  while reclaiming their life is a beautiful thing to witness.

It's been a joy to see not only the people involved in the program grow, but the organization as well.

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We don't want to cross any lines by mentioning them by name...yet, but we sure like what they're doing.

Good people, good story to tell, good good good good good.

For now it's a possibility.

Fingers crossed.

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Our boy, Micah. Composer. Dapper dresser. Papa bear to 2. 

He stands a mile high with his eyes fixed upon stars higher still, yet his heart lies with the rest of us.

It cannot be mistaken; he's a friend to the muses. They feed off one another. 

When Micah's inspired, the muses delight. 

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Dear Mom,

We didn't inhale.

-Good Line

[colenielsen]

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We have friends—good friends.

Our pal, Cole Nielsen, is one of our really good friends. The only thing he's better at than being a friend is a designer. No joke, he actually sucks sometimes as a friend but never as a designer.

That's why he was the first person we ran to when Good Line was ready to start branding. We needed to work with someone who could tell the story of storytellers (us) through design. And not nobody tells story through design better than Cole.

In fact, Cole and the word "design" are interchangeable to me. No kidding.

Architects "Cole" buildings. Engineers "Cole" dams.

Heck, even Cole "Coles" stuff.

depictionist:

A few yeas back, Jonathan Canlas approached me about designing a website for him to promote a workshop that he intended to teach later that year. At first, this was basically an aesthetic exercise. He had a brand, a portfolio site, collateral, etc all in place and so this project was an...

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This last week has been a blur.

We finished a rush-job for Adobe and then filmed with N. Yeah Samake. After a red-eye flight to NYC and a quick jaunt over the Atlantic, we've found ourselves in Jamaica doing some work for Fairbourne Consulting and The Ballard Center.

Meanwhile, back in the states our video has gone viral, and our music-man Micah Dahl Anderson is blowing-up, all big like.

It's a bit surreal to be away from all the attention our video is getting. We go out and work all day, return to see another 100,00 plus people have seen the video, and just laugh to ourselves.

Our intent from the beginning was to simply make a video that might make others smile.

If that's happening, then we're all smiles here.

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reel life:

big breath, hold it steady, here we go... western grit, a root herder’s joy, newfound home, back from death, small and fit...

no destination, dignity restored, a collective calm before the color storm focus child, and welcome thanks, wait your turn, and love the day take my voice, walk with care, enjoy the sights, they’re everywhere ride the risk, and make a plan, test your limits, don’t stop—nothing ever stops be hands-on, take a step back--ponder--think--again and again

stone meets water, water shoots light one who has been there and knows the good fight calm breaks through, let it fly, throw your thoughts into the sky ugly on beauty, beauty on ugly, he sees it, she sees it too

drops, don’t drop, PLEASE don’t drop hold your dream tight, hold a stranger tighter don’t look back, unless you see a friend celebrated, emaciated, intimidated

in the dark, under ground, at the base of life profound

chase it down, understand, new eyes

it happens fast, faster still, take it in

know it, say it, share it, do it

big breath, hold it steady...

here we go