July 3rd, 2009

Andrew D. Carson and a Song for Nora

An Andrew D. Carson Original

An Andrew D. Carson Original

 

One thing nice about having my own space back is I can hang what artwork I like. This is called “A song for Nora”, done by Andrew D. Carson, God only knows how many years ago, and has been in storage for a dozen years. Now it’s pasted to a foam core board and put on the wall as part of my getting my life back.  It’s not the greatest photo but it’s what I got for now.  http://www.carsonthird.com/index.html Check out his website for his more current work.

Andy is the second fellow.

Andy is the second fellow.

 

 

 

 

I always knew that Andy was an artist, but it has come to my attention that he has branched out into music as well. http://www.wheelhouserecords.com/index.html Check out that website and there’s links to audio files.

It’s always gratifying to find out that people I knew from the past have continued with their creative efforts. It takes grit to stay focused on one’s creative self expression. There is a lot of pressure from society at large for us to give up, grow up, get a “real job” and make “real money”, buy stuff and be part of the conspicuous consumptive cycle. Artists and musicians have to grow a back bone that’s stiff to stand up to that sort of pressure. So I’m proud of Andy and I’ll add his links to the collection of artists I admire.

 

 

July 1st, 2009

Sitting Shivah for an ended marriage

There are some things worse than being aloneNo matter that it’s been pending for 2 years. No matter that no one has been really happy in more years than that. One still has to sit shivah for a little while when a marriage dies. So I’ve been a bit quite. I’ve not been creating new art work. I’ve been going through my stuff and in the process sorting stuff in my head at the same time. What has done me a world of good is to unpack my art and sewing supplies and SPREAD OUT

While going through my sewing and art supplies I also went through stuff I brought back home after my father died in 2001. That put a whole new perspective on the end of a marriage… no one died.  I went through things that pre-dated this marriage, things that pre-dated my soon to be ex-husband’s whole life. I found pictures of my mother and my father from before I was born, pictures my mother doesn’t have copies of (they divorced when I was a baby) and that was also sobering. Those two young smiling people, the baby bump that was to be my older sister, they had their whole life in front of them at the end of WWII. Now that future is their past, my history, a faded photograph held in my hand as I wax philosophical.

It gave me perspective on my drama. No one died. There were no children involved between me and my ex. My grown sons came through for me emotionally and financially, so I don’t face and uncertain future, living in a door way, sucking on a piece of stale bread with no teeth, in the wind, all alone.

Shifting through boxes of my own history that pre-dates this marriage I realize I have been through worse and survived.  In my whole life I have not suffered as my parents suffered, through Hoovervilles and bombs falling out of the sky. I’ve never suffered as their parents suffered in a world before penicillin, jeese louise that was only discovered in 1928. My mother was born in 1931. Sometimes taking in the long view helps in the short run.

There are a few things I learned in the last 12 years though. I learned that you can’t make someone happy if they are not inheirantly happy themselves, left to their own devices. You can love someone but you can’t expect them to love you back in a way that feeds your soul. If someone leaves you for someone else, who you feel is not a step up, don’t take it personally, it’s not about you anymore. Even through uncomfortable situations there’s lessons to be learned and from those lessons you grow spiritually.

I got to remind myself that I am responsible for feeding my own soul and not taking it personally if someone I love refuses to be happy. Now it’s not on my duty watch anymore. All I have to contend myself with is making myself happy, which isn’t a difficult thing to do because I am a happy person, left to my own devices. I rediscovered my optimism and it feels good.

I’m not feeling guilty for laughing. I’m not feeling guilty for being peaceful in my own space again. I’m not going to look back like Lot’s wife and get salty, which is futile and illogical. I will make effort not to indulge in schadenfreude, knowing full well that someone got trapped like a rat, of his own making. No names named.

An artist friend contacted me with her new plan to teach crafts in a novel way. She wants me to be involved. It’s in Texas, oh I’d love to go back to Texas, you betcha. Maybe I’ll find myself some old wizzened cowboy who appreciates a woman who can make biscuits and gravey from scratch, who can sew a shirt without a store bought pattern, and who can clean fresh fish without complaint. I got skills that my ex never took advantage of.

There are things to look forward to, so much so I can’t waste time looking back and pretending that it was all light, love and laughter with my soon to be ex-husband, because it wasn’t. He wasn’t happy and I wasn’t happy because he wasn’t happy, because I suffered from the delusion that I had any influence on his mood.

Nope, I only have my own mood to claim ownership of and I state for the record, right here and now, that I’m done with my mourning. I started two years ago and it’s done now.

Success is the best revenge, and having a happy life is my goal.

June 23rd, 2009

China’s New CITY

200px-mieville_city_2009_uk1The City & the City is the title of a fantasy/weird fiction novel by British author China Miéville. It was published by Tor on 15 May 2009. In the US it was published by Del Rey Books on 26 May 2009 (ISBN 0345497511).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City

Some of you might not know how much I love China Mieville. When Bushyaib told me that there’s a new book coming out we got very excited. I looked about for reviews and found that it’s going to be a murder mystery but in perfect form with China’s style there’s two universes that exist in the same space. It’s illegal to “see” the other universe and young people have to learn how to “unsee” the overlay of the other universe. Yes, it’s very China.

The book isn’t going to be available in the US until next month and I can’t afford to buy it hardbound anyway. So it looksl ike I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback. But I’m SO HAPPY that he has another book coming out because we (the family and I) have read everything he wrote so far.

May 28th, 2009

Two Great Sites: TED and Idealist.org

Check out these sites

Check out these sites

Check out these two websites!

http://www.ted.com/

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.”

This is the most interesting sites I’ve run across in a long time. I was looking at polymer clay blogs and one of the clayers mentioned a video on TED and I went to go see it at the site. The thumbnails on the home page will be larger for topics that are getting a lot of hits and eyeballs, smaller for topics that aren’t getting as much traction. There’s all sorts of different subjects: Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science, Culture, Arts, Global issues, Featured, and they can be sorted by most talked, emailed, discussed, or recently updated. Each choice you make the result will come up in that popularity cloud, it’s very impressive. The talks are between 18 and 23 minutes, sometimes to the chagrin of the speaker. Someone I worked with briefly Brewster Kahle is there talking about digitalizing everything that’s ever been online or in print. Short shrift – print on demand he likes a lot. Anyway check out TED and listen to what some of the brightest people are talking about.

Now let’s see what some of the brightest people are doing:

http://www.idealist.org

Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 with offices in the United States and Argentina. Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives.”

This site is where non-profits can go to network, find employees that are especially suited to work for an idealistic nonprofit and I think it’s wonderful. This time in history we can be worried about what we can’t have, what limits us, or we can think about how we can help others, help the world. That’s our choice right now, constriction or expansion, negative energy or positive energy, personal materialism or doing things for the greater good. Idealist.org helps folks who want to make a positive impact on society and the world can meet, greet, and say neat!

May 22nd, 2009

Green Day vs Wal-Mart

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won’t be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.

The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, “21st Century Breakdown,” because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused… to read more

green_dayGreen Day is one of the few bands I will spend money on. It’s not because the lead singer is cute as buttons, or that they are home boys from the Bay Area, but because the content of their songs have some meaning beyond “boy meets girl” “girl loses boy”. It is no accident that the album “American Idiot” charted in 26 countries and reached number one is 19 of them. The content of “American Idiot” stated the helplessness and frustration a lot of people felt about the Bush administration and the War in Iraq. The song (and video) of “Holiday” made me want to stand up and shout. It was the first rock anti-war song that had real content and was hard rocking.

“Holiday”

Say, hey!

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame
The ones who died without a name

Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called “Faith and Misery” (Hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find, the money’s on the other side

Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

(Hey!)
(Say, hey!)

(3,4)

“The representative from California has the floor”

Sieg Heil to the president Gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we’re outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

This is our lives on holiday

Thanks to azlyrics

What people need to understand is being anti-war isn’t anti-American. Our right to protest was seriously hampered in the last administration. To speak out against the war was to be perceived as being unpatriotic as if exercising our constitutional right of free speech was suddenly a crime. Green Day protesting Wal-Mart’s demand that they censor their lyrics in order to be sold at that franchise is another hit against free speech. It’s not like Wal-Mart isn’t going to make money selling Green Day. Wal-Mart wants to control content and that’s un-American.

From 2003 until today there are few anti-war songs and as a Boomer who grew up on anti-war songs it was amazing to me that musicians were so timid about speaking out against the war. Green Day got my attention by being not only brave but creative, irreverent, as well as sassy smart about their musical protest.

I have major issues with Wal-Mart in general. Wal-Mart’s practice of not giving health benefits to their workers has placed a severe burden on the local communities that host Wal-Mart stores:  

“$420,750: Annual cost to U.S. taxpayers of a single 200-employee Wal-Mart store, because of support required for underpaid workers — including subsidized school lunches, food stamps, housing credits, tax credits, energy assistance, and health care

“45%: Proportion of her entire annual wage that a single Wal-Mart employee might have to pay out-of-pocket before collecting any benefits from the company-sponsored health plan” How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The World and What You Can Do About It

Local Mom and Pop stores are crushed when Wal-Mart opens a store in any location. Businesses move out and taxes are lost to the local economy, schools are hurt, churches are hurt, and Wal-Mart doesn’t contribute to the local economy in such a way that off sets the losses that are incurred with their presence.

We purchase our groceries from a local family owned supermarket. The prices are a little higher than at Wal-Mart or other box stores but we know them, they know us, we have a long standing relationship. If I’m sort a couple of bucks they just write it off because I’m a regular. Going to the store is like going to visit friends. They don’t discriminate against folks who work there so we have clerks that are skate boarders with tattoos, long hairs, a gal in the deli is a BBW, and there are a lot of accents from around the world in their staff. But the staff can afford to support their families. They have health benefits. I choose to pay a little extra at a local store to add my support to a family I’ve known for over 20 years.

The way Wal-Mart keeps the prices low is the impact is felt at the manufacturing end. The workers who make Wal-Mart items are underpaid and have no employee protection from abuse or pollution.

For several years, Wal-Mart has been the single largest U.S. importer of Chinese consumer goods, surpassing the trade volume of entire countries, such as Germany and Russia. Global sourcing is now fully integrated into the company’s operations — giving Wal-Mart enormous leverage worldwide. Foreign products account for nearly all of Wal-Mart’s trumpeted low opening price point goods. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html

In 2003, Head reports, the Korean owner of a plant in Pago Pago supplying garments to Wal-Mart was convicted of human trafficking and of holding more than 200 Vietnamese workers under “conditions of involuntary servitude.” The National Labor Committee has found that Wal-Mart suppliers in China, Bangladesh and Central America routinely withhold employees’ wages, enforce unpaid overtime, ignore restrictions on working hours, and deny employees health care and maternity benefits.

Wal-Mart is far worse in this regard than other retailers. In 2004, the National Labor Committee found that 90 percent of Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers violated their female employees’ right to maternity leave. A number of manufacturers—including Liz Claiborne, Costco, the Gap, Levi Strauss and Sears—pledged that any woman in Bangladesh sewing their garments must be guaranteed her legal right to maternity leave. Wal-Mart gave no such pledge.  http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A25541

The decision to control content in Wal-Mart starts from the top. Like the old saying goes, “the fish smells from the head”:

Know Thy Neighbor is reporting that Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke is among the 80,000 Arkansas residents that signed a petition to ban adoption for same-sex couples. His wife signed also. http://current.com/items/90019761_new-reason-to-boycott-walmart.htm

It’s not only the content of a dissident rock band that Wal-Mart wants to control it goes further than that.  The weight and power of Wal-Mart wants to change American into their image of the ultra-right conservative life style, which means if you’re gay you’re not in their plans. Wal-Mart doesn’t offer domestic partnership benefits.  As a mother of a gay son that gets my goat.

But I digress… I applaud Green Day’s refusal to censor their music for Wal-Mart.

 

May 18th, 2009

Another reason why I don’t do FaceBook

Got an unusual name? Facebook may think it’s fake

NEW YORK -

Alicia Istanbul woke up one recent Wednesday to find herself locked out of the Facebook account she opened in 2007, one Facebook suddenly deemed fake.

The stay-at-home mom was cut off not only from her 330 friends, including many she had no other way of contacting, but also from the pages she had set up for the jewelry design business she runs from her Atlanta-area home…. to read more

Facebook and MySpace have never appealed to me for a number of reasons. This is just another reason why I have no desire to participate. It seems as if only Anglo-Saxon western European names are considered valid. Facebook doesn’t bother to contact the individual whose page is being blocked. I mean, really, she had over 300 contacts, she is running a business, how difficult could it have been to contact her and validate her name?

Even though it cost money to own your own website it’s better than relying on a free service that can axe your account for no good purpose. Remember PhotoPoint and then Epson photo storage? Using those free photo storage sites cost me hundreds of hours of scramble to save photos and screen shots from webcam demos when they decided to close their sites. Now GeoCities is closing down and I have my earliest polymer clay efforts stored on my ancient GeoCities site. I have to salvage that, change all the links on my website that points to those first efforts and all because I used a free service.

You get what you pay for evidently.

 

May 16th, 2009

The Story of Stuff

I found this video on another website and it was suggested that I share it. So I am.

May 13th, 2009

BlipTV an alternative to YouTube

I was searching art websites and on one of them there was a link to a video site that I never heard of before “BlipTV”. I did a search for “BlipTV problems” and the only complaint I found was it didn’t work well with full screen.  As for reasons why BlipTV is better than YouTube check this article:

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/12/10-reasons-why-bliptv-is-better-than.html

I’ve not tested it out yet but I’m seriously considering it because of the 10 minute limitation on YouTube.  I have some playlists on YouTube that has a number of videos that are part of the same tutorial. It would be nice to have a tutorial be intact so everything is seen.  From the stats on YouTube I see that people skip over some of the videos in a particular tutorial. Also YouTube uses a frame caught in the middle of the video as the thumbnail. My videos have captions for the deaf or hear of hearing ClayMates so some of my thumbnails are text, which makes me a little annoyed. On BlipTV, I’m told, you can choose any part of the video as the thumbnail.

For more information check these two links:

http://blip.tv/

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blip.tv

May 6th, 2009

What I found

 

making us all look bad

making us all look bad

As they say on their “about” page: “We collect found stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles– anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life. Anything goes.”

 http://www.foundmagazine.com/

At first I thought, “What’s so interesting about found ephemera?” but I took a look anyway. The wrinkled, stained, misspelled, notes that people have left behind are a window into their lives: love desired, love lost, love tossed out the window and into the garbage, threats, and notes to self to be a better person, dreams, it’s all there. Do check out the link and I’ll bet you money that you’ll spend more than a few minutes looking at the things these folks found.

May 1st, 2009

Increase your calm, John Spartan

women_waiting_for_perfect_manI do feel this Swine Flu thing is being over blown.

Schools have been closed in San Jose and Marin Counties. What happens to the parents who can’t take time off of work? Not everyone has paid sick days. A lot of the hardest hit parents do not have medical benefits.

30 - 50 thousand people die of the regular flu every year.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hsc-scen-3_flu-pandemic-deaths.htm

Between 30 and 40 thousand people are killed in auto accidents in America each year. I don’t see any effort to close down bars.
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

That is the same as if a fully loaded 747 fell out of the sky, with no survivors, every day for a year. If a 747 fell out of the sky for two, three days running, the airports would be closed down. I’ll betcha.

350 thousand die each year from poor diet and lack of physical exercise.

435 thousand die each year from tobacco (I’ll be in this group one year)

The knee jerk reaction to the Swine Flu is making me crazy. I don’t see “health warnings” on packs of potato chips.

I want to take the face masks I use when working with powders and paint big red lips on the front, decorate the face masks with tiger teeth, the Rolling Stone’s lolling tongue. Yeah, I think I’ll do that this week end.

Did you know that face masks won’t protect you unless you change them every 20 minutes? The moisture from your breath make the protective property of face masks null after that amount of time.

Then the people who think that eating pork will give them Swine Flu (Can we say Paris Hilton? That moron). What? Watch the news, google some factoids, get a grip, don’t kill those little piggies.

I don’t know how much more stress the public is going to be able to handle. On top of the swine flu, drug cartel murders, economic crisis, Mexico had an earthquake. People were thinking that these are the end days.