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/

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.

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?

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!!

Cooperation

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... 

Strreet April 26

Volunteered at Artist Trust (envelope stuffing to raise funds to help artists)  and on the way met Annabel with gloves from Sweden and a sweet jacket in a splash page plaid. Pulling it together right!

Elvs was also a volunteer (musician ?) at the Trust that day. Below, she is wearing a great graphic patch jacket, love the look.

Seattle style breaking the bore of department store schmack makes for good days.

Patch workshop at the Kerf?

Shoot It!

The book "Shoot It! Hollywood Inc and the Rise of Independent Film" by David Spaner,  had me at the intro.

(P 10)
"The studios of early Hollywood are now massive corporate entities with a devastating impact on the quality of movies and on local film cultures….Internationalism and globalization are as different as volunteering to fight fascism in Spain in 1937 and outsourcing Nike production to a nonunion zone in China in 2007. Internationalism is about diverse local cultures and joining to find common humanity across borders. “my nation is cinema and my language is film” says Mexican filmmaker, Alfonso Cueron. Globalization is about worldwide homogenization. The globalization of culture has seen less attention than the globalization of economics, but it is this conflict between internationalism and globalization that, between the local and the global, that defines the difference between independents and studio. “The more local you are the more universal and international you are,” says filmmaker, Jean Pierre Lefebvre, who as a young Montreal cinephile fell in love with Italian neorealism. “What made Italian cinema universal? Because it always talked about Italian values, it showed landscapes showed food, showed people with different attitudes.” American folklorist Alan Lomax, writing in 1968, warned that “soon there will be nowhere to go and nothing worth staying home for. Our Western mass production and communication systems are inadvertently destroying the languages, traditions, cuisines and creative styles that once gave every people and every locality distinctive character-indeed their principle reason for living.”

Fashion is also taking the hit, as design by corporation tends to water down, cheapen, generify and dictate style which pushes it into a very small corner. Independent designers (artist, thinkers...rebels) need our support. Ok this might be a Kerf Project promo, but is also way more :-)

(p 16)
.....Of course, not every purely independent film is great cinema, but like Warner Bros, when it really was the Warner Brothers, independent filmmakers are more willing to take risks that today's business grad--turned-studio executives who always choose the safe route. And it is risk taking that makes possible the movie (the life, the art, the evolutionary adaptation) that shatters expectations. "

As corporations are now controlling so much of the arts, fashion, life -our very ability to imagine possibilities, is limited more and more.  No risk, comfort zone and "safety" are words of stagnation.  Ruled by fear, its proponents are scarcity and greed. Safe under these conditions, simulates the "safety" of death. The issue becomes moot- shoulda, coulda, woulda  -Duh!

Job scarcity enabled by WTO, led to outsourcing that was helped along by the USA Propaganda Inc. (N Snow)  that was paid for with our collective tax dollars, now effectively lowering wages, by raising costs on necessities!  Ideas of food scarcity are made real to raise prices, allow GMOs..etc. (Frances Leppe World Hunger, 12 Food Myths, Farm Aid) The more controlled and narrow the input, the lesser the chance for great output. Remember the phrase "race to the bottom."

That is not the world I wish on my children (my granddaughters)  nor yours. They and we, deserve to overcome this systemic depletion of being. The more we are encouraged to think as machines,  the more robotic like products of manufactured consent, we will become. Trust me, that ain't life, that is an intellectual narrowing into a deficit subreality, the shallows-AKA a super lossy one function plug in. Say no and get out now!

As a "get out" surmises a "get in" elsewhere, we, like the independent filmmakers, need to collaborate, cooperate and build for healthy alternatives.

People are experimenting with meaningful, mindful processes, groups, arts and events. This is conscious doing. It comes in many formats, frames, models and designs. It is the freeing of that which kept "noses to the grindstones," and lives in pain.

I believe that seeking to foster the unique potential of each person will foster more potential in the whole. The sum of the parts is more than the whole, it is following the light of the expanding universe, it is in our DNA, it is our heritage.

The Pulse

Seattle streets are full of art for all and lately a lot of pieces seem to be calling for a compassionate wake up. Is the theme in the streets or is the theme 'in me?'...Is it awareness that opens us to life, or is life showing up to make us aware? The law of attraction perhaps? I know not, but i do know we shouldn't let it/us/them/self down. We should say yes to love and choose the path of the true heart. Why is it so difficult?

WaterRip Installation

Dress from thrift store, yard sale fabric, with trimming bits from Zootsuit days and brown braid from Sew Up Seattle.This time i used a pattern -McCalls- with changes...always seem to go there.

I graduated (YAY! BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, focus on environmental science and communications) and am now into setting up workshops at the Kerf (sewing, multi media, have an idea, talk to us!) and developing the Water Spirit dresses.

The WaterRIP installation will go up in the Fall, ready for the October Wallingford Art Walk. Ann Teplick writer, teacher and local treasure, is curating a literary scene that will present sometime(s) during the shows run. This is exciting, as i so look forward to hearing and seeing how our works combine; the magick's in the sum of parts!

This time the story (WaterRIP)  connects the human species and water, not just in a physical resource management way (Huge and Important by itself!), but in a complex atomic reality that smudges the borders between us.

Born of Stars

We are one. Born of stars we are connected to the whole of the universe. Super novas are the extraordinary, the ones who choose to go beyond normal. According to recent Wayne Dwyer PBS broadcast, "Wishes Fulfilled" our imaginations will lead us if we follow them. Yes!!

Mr Dwyer then proceeded to contradict himself. In the Wishes Fulfilled lecture show he preaches that "everything is possible."  However when pushing for PBS "ratings and cash vote fundraise spot" he says that  "if it isn't possible to go to Assissi , Lourdes..then watch my dvd ...like you are there" ..

So what part of not possible works with all is possible?

I am offended

This ad was posted to fashionRIP and is a construct of the false beliefs that influence rational, emotional and spiritual mind fields.

Overturn Roe vs Wade?  Like what dinosaur is behind this despicable violation of women's rights over their own bodies?

We are not here to procreate like rabbits! We are here for more purposeful attention to our genius and to the genius in others.We are here to give love, to understand light and to align with LIFE. Real pro life is about respecting the breath in all of us, to value the full lifecycle as it relates to the whole of a vast living universe.

The right to bear or not bear children is best left to the individuals who elect to cherish, love, nurture, respect and guide them. This ad is not about that, this ad is about control, control for a world vision that is not just antiquated but is logically absurd.

We need to  focus on the true potential of the children already here.  We must care now for the living if we are to ever fully comprehend who we truly are.

Our species rising population is breaking down natural cycles at an accelerated,obscene rate.  This is insane as we are more dependent upon the natural cycles than the stuff of corporations. The stuff that is causing the problem is for the most part unnecessary and will be obsolete at the blink of an eye. How does this make sense?

We need to act in wisdom, now. We have no more time for creepy games in abstracted reality..

So R vsW campaigners-  practice with the living now, create safe havens, an education system run by teachers that get it, more creative diversity, more meaningful, relevant options for work etc. Take those marketing funds and build a future full of possibilities for the poster baby, that would be beautiful.

 You see without a coherent lifecycle understanding,  i must suspect this ad is about raising human crops to insure a good supply of younguns to march into battle.

As resources dwindle, wars will continue, worsen. I understand your business model. However, i have spent years researching, following paths and stories and we humans have far better, do-able, healthier options.

Please stop this game and go into you, find you and i believe you will redirect. Choose light!