fashionRIP: subculture Joe

Monday, July 25, 2011

hey joe

July 19,1996

Subculture Joe vs Seattle is the story of how a city took down a creative force, incited a public outcry and stabbed the heart of a hero as an excuse to buy some super expensive anti terrorist toys.

Score Seattle; now millions of potholes and vacant storefronts later we can look back and ask how many times that expensive little toy was hauled into action before obsolescence took it's toll? And who made the money on the deal? Like we know who paid the price.

In this 4 ever game where boys will be boys, where are the men? & don't tell me it is human nature, because it is just as (if not more) human to be fair, care about others and live from love not just fear.

FYI: it's the city micro to USA Inc and on to global macro that is so foul. The game is out of control. Are we waiting for nature to smack us down? or will enough of us decide on intervention tactics to stop the power addicts?

The window of opportunity is shrinking.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Energy Crisis

Hammering Man w Ball and Chain -Labor Day 1993.
This is a stitch illustration, fabric and metal piece I am putting into the Species on the Verge and Other Works w/POV as an accessory to original 2006 homage piece for Subculture Joe. The late Jason Sprinkle (SubC Joe 1969-2005) was a brilliant artist, "our Banksy," who was (intentionally) misunderstood and driven out of town by the City of Seattle.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts." A Einstein.

I just had to share this, but please read the full article from Wired Magazine.

These are the words that jumped for me:

"Gates: ...We saw a car factory that turns out 300,000 vehicles in a spot that had been a field 18 months before. It’s incredible to see the speed. The engineers are living in a dormitory and working 16 hours a day, and they don’t talk about permits or getting time off. I’ve seen this before—when I visited Japan in the ’70s,..."

Aha, explains the mass layoffs of 2003/4 at Microsoft, when 45 yr old + employees were canned, (i sat next to a few of them in classes at Shoreline CC) while Indians were enticed to emigrate (body shopping) and fill the gap, because American workers weren't "qualified." Now i know what "qualified" means.

As far as solar, Mr Bill might be advised to take some time to speak with the Ballard solar research home owners, (name ?- were on the Green Home Tour 4/11) and learn from reality. FYI he and Microsoft didn't catch on to the internet idea all that fast either.

Back to "Wired" interview:
"Anderson: So suffice to say we will find no solar cells on the roof of the Gates residence?

Gates: Oh, we like to be cute like everyone. For rich people, this is OK. Rich people can do whatever they want."

It's good to know what a culture measures, rewards and values.

Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.