Air?

Gravity Feed provides a wireless Internet access point for free to the public.
It’s an old conundrum - what is the air worth? Is it worthless, priceless, or just air, a vector for supplying Earth’s species with oxygen, pollen, and among other pungently wonderful things, the smell of garlic in the air at 5:00 PM on a warm summer evening.
I believe that charging someone for wireless Internet that is being broadcast on the free airwaves is kind of like the FCC charging the public a licenses fee for broadcasting on the very same air that you breath or some asshole somehow attaching a Ragu ad to the aforementioned garlic smell and charging you for it. I just don’t think it’s right to charge people for something that is so obviously provided to all for free, therefore the second you broadcast something on the air it becomes free to all who can receive the signal.
Right?!

Who?

It takes a certain kind of person to actually want to sit down and communicate with other people by manipulating words. Matter of fact, I have found that some of my favorite people in the world are those troubadours of verse, those tellers of tales - the poets, novelists, idealist, rhapsodists, bards, Parnassians, lyricists, and liars who are truly the very breath of civilization. The air a society must breathe lies within its artisans of the written word. For the most part these people, because of their very nature, are not easy to find unless of course you lure them in with delicious, wholesome addictions. Very few wordsmiths can resist a smooth, creamy mocha or a warm apple cider on a cold, wet December morning. The bottom line is, if you want to entice the really smart citizenry of a city as brilliant as (funky-like) Berkeley, Calif., you gotta offer some pretty good bait.
Besides our freshly spun InternetJuice and our shade grown fair trade all organic coffee drinks, we’ve baited our Berzerkeley hook with three deliciously quick public computers on a lighting fast, always on Speakeasy ADSL hookup.

...Geek Bait!

Gravity Alfa
Station Programs Available: OpenOffice Text, OpenOffice Spreadsheet, OpenOffice Presentation, OpenOffice Draw, MS Access, MS Excel, MS FrontPage, MS PowerPoint, MSWord, NTI CD Maker, JewelCase Maker and Notepad.
Self-Extract.
Internet Tools Available:
Internet Explorer,Netscape,RapsodyRadio, QuickTime, RealPlayer, WinAmp, Trillian.
Rate is $3.50 per-hour.

Gravity Beta
Station Programs Available: Same as Alfa but for
left handed people.
Rate: $3.50 per-hour.

GravityGraphics
Station Programs Available: Same as Alfa and Beta with these added graphics programs; Adobe Illustrator 10, GIMP, OpenOffice Draw, Acrobat Reader 32, ImageReady, InDesign, Adobe PhotoShop 7.0.
Rate: $6.50 per-hour.

Our Computer Lab hours are:
Tuesday-Saturday
9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Closed Sunday and Mondays

We also offer an ultra fast network printer at our beautiful gallery located at 1959 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley, Calif. 
Our prices range from $3.50 to $6.50 per hour and only .50 cents per laser print.

...Also, if you've been in that vacuum and have a laptop but don't have a wi-fi card yet? Wow, come on in honey, we'll hook you up with a wi-fi card to try out for only $2.00 an hour.

07/01/2004

This really is what I do all day, everyday. You should know that we just added the entire Macromedia suite to our Gravitygraphics station! It rocks.

Gravitygraphics is still only $6.50 per hour!

Below is a chronological list of some of the really cool things that we've done at the feed.

Winter 2003

March 20th 2004

What a wonderful lecture!!!

Please join us for a very special evening with Dr. Soheir Stolba, President of the S.H.A.R.E. Institute speaking in person at the Gravity Feed Gallery (1959 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, Calif) Saturday, March 20th 2004. Dr. Stolba has just returned from a long and powerful trip to the heart of our world's focus in Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen and many more. She will be addressing many of the issues dramatically affecting the women of the world today, please join us.
7:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday March 20th 2004 at the Gravity Feed Gallery. Suggested donation is $15.00 but no one will be turned away.

S.H.A.R.E.
The Mission of the S.H.A.R.E. Institute (Social, Health, Assessment, Research and Education Institute) is to establish collaborative relationships that foster the well being and empowerment of individuals, organizations and communities both nationally and internationally with respect and sensitivity for cultural and ethnic diversity.

April 17th 2004

May 13th 2004

Gravity's June
2004

This is where we begin.

Please Join us for Junes addition of Gravity's Sound. No Amps, no FX's (whatever that means) and of course
no limits!

7:00pm to 10:00pm June 10th 2004

... Just say something!

Gravity's Sound
III

July 8th 8-10pm

Wow what a great party!

On the 10th of July 2004we kicked ass! From Robert Misrach to Paige in a dress we had it all. Not only that but we had a packed house for most of the night and Brett sold my favorite of her photographs, Karnataka! The Gravity Feed would like to thank all the artist for being present and representing what I believe to be one of the strongest artist communities in our country. We'd also like to thank all of our honored friends and guests for a perfect evening.

July 30th 2004 What a perfect party!
Thank you CollectivEye for a delightful summer!

Click on the above photo to enter the CollectivEye gallery.

***

Please join us every second thursday of every month for Gravity's Sound, an evening of sounds and noises produced by the species, Homo-Sapien.
We had a great night for Gravity's sound #3 and can't waite for the fourth installment coming soon!!!
September 9th 2004

Please Join us for a very special evening with the artists on Saturday September 4th 2004 from 8:00 pm till 11:00 pm.

The second thursday of each mounth is dedicated to Gravity's Sound... T.A.Z!

Please join us for The fifthV installment of Gravity's Sound, "Sounds and Shapes Produced by Humans" with didgeridoo and percussions by Steve Nechodom and James Lane. October 14th 2004 from 7:00 pm till 10:00.
10/15/2004: You might think that two people in a great big room like the Gravity feed Gallery would feel kind of lonesome all by themselves, quite the contrary, we filled this beautiful room with wonderful sound,
just the two of us and that's enough.

Dena won the glass bottle full of salsa in a bowling contest and we both got the chicken, "The most Endangered bird in Texas!!!"
for X-mas 2004 from my mom,

Thanks Mom, really we love it!

January 2005

Not a very big turn out for this beautiful event.

Not too many people showed up for this one either but it is always a pleasure to hang out with Bill Muhler. Thanks again Bill...JL

"I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use?
silence, exile and cunning."

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, (1916)

...Happy Birthday James Joyce 2/2/1882

ModernOrganicChemistry at work for you...

To all my friends, family and loyal customers who so often were one and
the same...

As of April 1st, 2005, I will no longer be a part of the Gravity Feed Wi-Fi InternetJuice Gallery located at 1959 Shattuck Ave in
(funky-like) Berkeley Calif.
Jon Nechodom, a very capable and motivated young man has decided to take over Gravity Feed and make it his own. I truly believe that Jon's ideas are solid and that he will indeed do amazing things with the beautiful space that we have built here.
Jon, of course, is J. Steve Nechodom's son, which really does means he has more than just a working knowledge of blowing glass. I've seen pictures of him as a little kid handing his dad a punny and blowing! Jon also took to making fine fair trade espresso drinks with a vengeance by continuing to do as much research as he can, via the internet when we're not working together first hand. He also likes making all organic juices and hearing those three words from a satisfied customers lips: "Wow, that's Perfect!"
I am moving on to dedicate my life (once again, as a good sailor should) to discovering civilization on the planet earth one port at a time. I love the work that I have done here in this beautiful little part of this chaotic Bay and it is my most profound wish that my lifetime friends Steve and Jon and all the rest of the incredible family, friends and loyal customers find success in all of their endeavors.

Thank you all!

James Lane

Wednesday, March 09, 2005