Monday, May 28, 2012

USA Heroes



Bill Moyers last couple of shows have revived my faith in America. RoseAnn DeMoro head of the Nurses Union and Tom Morello aka The Nightwatchman have both been active with the 99% aka waking folks up! (PBS)

Believing in strong unions, people and economic justice, they are speaking into the microphones because they have the power to be heard. Yay.

That doesn't get the rest of us off the hook. Be the hook! Every day we have opportunities to bring up the hard stuff. Hone in on an issue, research it and drop it into common discourse as often as possible. Sure some people will get upset, but wow, that's a small price for providing the information services we need to get to a real, community strong, diverse participatory democracy. This seems the next phase of the journey. As barriers and ignorance fall away, healthier models will ensue and we all "win."

More power at the community level could nurture case specific endeavors in an efficient and speedy manner. This will encourage people to become more responsible, involved and motivated as they see themselves as active members of a larger dynamic whole.Thus, more individual potential will bloom.

This is the magic paradox. Consider:
Tom Morello: "What I think the global human cost of this horrific poverty is how many Mozarts or curers of cancer are slaving away in the Maquiladoras along the Tijuana border, or in the Indonesian sweat shops? You know, there are billions of people who will never become the people they could be, or the people they were meant to be, due to crushing poverty.
Poverty is not an accident of, sort of, an economic spreadsheet. Poverty is a crime. There are criminals involved. And those criminals walk the streets as free men. What my music is about, and what-- this from, you know, from the riots in the streets of Greece and Spain to the people's uprisings in Egypt and Libya and Madison is about is holding those people accountable, those who are responsible for subverting the entire global economy and causing so much misery and then laughing about it with their, you know, clinking their champagne glasses on their yachts." (from the transcript)

Why these jobs and why the low pay?

The ruse is over, the applause is stopping, we are learning to read between the li(n)es We know that it is rigged, unfair by design and failing the people, failing human be-ings

"The 2,300 assembly plants known as maquiladoras in Mexico are an important example of the benefits of these low-wage jobs.
More significant is that employment in this sector has grown consistently during periods when Mexico's economic crises have been at their worst and unemployment has been at its highest." (New York Times)

Fruit companies, land loss, distribution chains, GMO crops  and bribery from many sides have helped create dependent poverty. (Dependency creates need, which is good for corporations and governments, isolates and mesmerises) Pushing people off the land and into factories by closing the commons, helped the early Industrial Revolution gain momentum...serfs weren't people- doncha know? That belief has carried us here. That belief has been proven false.

Is there a corresponding cause ...why do we have to short change workers and pay huge amounts to those CEOs willing to be the henchmen of the major stockholders?

"Banking is a huge leech on our economy. 40% of every dollar we spend on goods and services -- 40% of all that we create and all we consume -- is siphoned off the top as bank interest in one form or another. (Calculations of Margrit Kennedy) The US Government is in the absurd position of paying interest to a private bank for every dollar that is put into circulation. The Federal Reserve system has privatized the power to create money, which, according to the Constitution, ought to belong to Congress alone. Presently, interest on the national debt costs the Federal government $500 billion in 2011, and (because of structural deficit spending) it is the fastest-growing portion of the Federal budget."  (Published on Sunday, May 20, 2012 by Common Dreams -The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Quiet Drama in Philadelphia by Ellen Brown)http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-tom-morello-troubadour-for-justice/

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Vintage Umbrella

The floral umbrella is featured in this story,
though they are both vintage and still functional

How fashion made for a better day!

A few days ago i had an appointment downtown and it was all rainy and as i was going to volunteer for a gig put on by arts activist event, i debated even going. Then again, i approved of the action and wanted to meet the team, as they are quite well known and i have posted their work on this blog...so . it was good form to show up. (Conscience rules)

Its Seattle, it rains; it's good for the flowers, rees and skin -I heard the 'good to go voices' in my head as i walked out the door.  I unfurled my umbrella and suantered down the road toward the bus stop, a few blocks away.  Then about mid point, the 358 bus passed me by.  I was still a good block and half away from the stop. I stopped and wondered if i should change my course and hike up the street to catch the number 5, or give up - was this a sign?

Then i noticed that the bus was not moving away from the stop. Maybe the driver had seen my look of despair, maybe if i ran i could make it. I decided to try and started running towards it.

The driver stepped off the bus with his little litter bag. He walked slowly to the big trash receptacle and slowly emptied his bag. I was able to catch up and board the bus. Amazing ...bus riders know this is a rare and wonderful thing. Right, this hardly ever happens.

I thanked him. He just nodded. I don't know if my vintage umbrella caught his eye so he saw my sad face or if it was just that the trash needed emptying. All i do know is that it felt terrific.

The next scene was all about the umbrella. After i got off the bus and was crossing the street, a woman with a small dog walked by me from the other side. She pointed to my umbrella and said, "That's a beautiful umbrella, vintage?"

"Thank you, and yes it is vintage," I smiled, she smiled and the dog was just cute. .

All in all,  that practical fashion accessory garnered about 5 "likes" in a 3 hour period. That is good energy sent to the cosmos and justifies the  need for color, good design and social connections.

That is how fashion good is just good.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

NICE


photo of WaterRip Skirt

Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical, wow -i am thinking how an ethical monarchy sure  beats a crazed faux democracy.  The US political construct based on a gamers need to compete and win, hinged to the corporate need to grow and dominate is embarassing and is not designed to facilitate full spectrum potential. We are suffering in this delusion.

Brain power in crows is being linked to their social habits. If this migrates into human terms then working together, helping each other succeed, along with empathy, compassion and the realization that we are one big challenging "family" might be considered attributes of higher intelligence.

Oh right, we have this distort of disciplines to keep us from seeing...safe borders for experts makes for ditches, ditches limit sight. Ditches keep birds separate from global warming, war, health care...yup "ya gotta keep em separated." (Offspring -lyrics)

Okay enough with the rant, but sometimes a woman needs to scream out the pollutants. I have been trying to work with people who have "standard"  USA world views. This is a real deterrant to effective group constructs.

 Long story short, those who were brought up under the winner take all paradigm tote around a huge fear package. When a misunderstanding appears the gates are drawn and the spears come out. Too weird for me. Cooperative, collaborative intentions thrive better in conditions that support the idea that we are here to facilitate a "something." We are not here to cause each other harm. Simple no?

In eco fashion NICE is working with the cooperative construct. Together they can and are making a difference.

I am looking for a space to hold workshops if anyone is interested, please email me . We too can design for sums better than parts. Working with other mediums, artists and craftspeople helps build creative capacities...we learn and  teach each other and that is NICE!

Why did my grandmother leave Sweden?

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

google wake up!!

This ad on my blog is appalling. Life is a full cycle event, if you want to be pro-life then stop war, consumer toxic events, hierarchical injustice, I mean think critically  for a minute...what does pro-life mean?

In a living universe it is about intelligent proactive design for the better quality of all living things. Human anthropocentric arrogance is a poor excuse for this co-opting of other's bodies, guilting the issue further with these innocent babe photos is cruel. Promoting ignorance that stems from antiquated beliefs is just sad. . ..

We know not our origins. DNA is a set of directions but doesn't work outside of a cellular home (cool like phytochemicals in real food- the sum is more)  However what we know, lets us know we are more than we give ourselves credit to be. In a living universe we expand...in a control freak agenda, nihilism is veiled by "pro-life"  Please!! get off my blog!

Death is when the brain and nerves stop talking and organs quit right? If we accept that definition of death than the opposite reconstruct would be that life begins when the wires are connected. That is around 25 weeks . However we are not machines and guidelines need to be soft edged. Banning abortion is a trick euphemism for taking away the rights of women. (Control)

"FYI ..... there are some 100 billion separate nerve cells in the human brain - which is, by strange coincidence, around the same number as there are thought to be galaxies in the Universe."

So much more!!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Sunday, May 6, 2012

WaterRIP


 photo taken in Seattle 2007 or so

I am working on the ocean siren dress for the WaterRIp installation. The story was flowing along a sensible course that has recently shifted.

 Like real water,WaterRIP can change direction easily, if and when the concept alters.

I came across a video 3/30/12 with a fluoride, pineal gland and Vatican connection. This was so bizarre and yet so perfectly suited for the next story as well as the installation at hand, i had to go with it. I do not know if fact and fiction are colliding, if truth is taking a sci fi twist into mainstream reality or what?

I did some research and spilled it on my mom as we waited in recovery after her day surgery. A young man who was waiting with another someone across the room, met up with us on the elevator. He looked at me and said he had over heard me talking about fluoride poisoning the public. He said "you are right and there is more. Calcification of the pineal gland, melatonin issues, evidence of artery damage ...." he told me to look up a website, which i can't remember. Anyway the odds of this conversation just happening is remote, i have to think it speaks to "deeper truth." 

I think this is how the universe enters lifestream consciousness; so I pay attention.  The more i honor this practice the more things seem to "happen."

The Pineal Gland was called the third eye in ancient times. Its Latin name is epiphysis, and it is shaped like a tiny pine cone. Mythic Reality swoops over the Court of the Pigne (Vatican) and imagination soars.



Knowing that flouride is still being  added to our public water after there has been concern raised and that other countries have stopped the practice (New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic ..more) makes me wonder why we in USA are still being forcefully "medicated" ?

I wrote the water department and got a reply about how it was voted on to add it to "our" water back in 1968, wow, I mean what we thought in '68 is vastly different from current era thinking.

Formaldahyde , nicotine, asbestos, lead, DDT...all were part of the "living better through chemistry"  campaign of the 30s and on into the 80s. "Scientists estimate that everyone alive today carries within her or his body at least 700 contaminants, most of which have not been well studied" (Body Burden/Come Clean)  ...ok that time is over. I bring this up not to toss out everything but to handle life with care. This seems reasonable. Nature will end our madness if we do not and that is something my proactive philosophy just rails against..the not on my "watch' refrain.

The Earth is a garden and species that don't contribute to the whole get turned into mulch. (B Lipton, loosely quoted from the book Deep Truth)

PS
This feels like a "new" old language to me. Past and present converge like fluttery luna moths, karma and change. As my intellect plays with origins and myth, my heartmind wonders why Roach, Refuzor and epiphysis have surfaced within days of each other. There is meaning, the light beckons, i follow. This must be how trusting the universe shows up. To be continued...