So today is Valentine's Day which is of course allowing me to dwell on the past. There are a few ironies in existence today, one is the irony that I taught today and saw all of the giggly girls clutch badly dyed carnations to their developed and not so developed chests in earnest exaltation. This constantly begs the question; was I like this too? And also, despite the fact that this is my first time being single on VDay I haven't had an excellent example of Valentine goodness since high school. On another side note, for the first time in my life I have a normal schedule that matches that of several of my exes, ironically I am not with any of them anymore when it would in fact, be convenient. Go figure.
But this isn't all about bitching. In all actuality I am looking forward to being just me on this Valentine's Day without the prerequisite mental attachment and worry that goes along with having a significant other. No, I will see no flowers and go to no fancy dinner, but I will have a peace of mind and no pressure.
and, end transmission.
posted by tori at 2:02 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Because my contributions to the Darfur project are long since over and the project is in more capable hands this is my blog again. So for the sake of my own whimsy:
The littlest worm
(The littlest worm)
You ever saw
(You ever saw)
Got stuck inside
(Got stuck inside)
My soda straw
(My soda straw)
The littlest worm you ever saw
Got stuck inside my soda straw
He said to me
(He said to me)
"Don't take a sip
("Don't take a sip)
'Cause if you do
('Cause if you do)
You'll get real sick" [alternate: "I'll really flip"]
(You'll get real sick) [alternate: "I'll really flip"]
He said to me, "Don't take a sip,
'Cause if you do, you'll get real sick" [alternate: "I'll really flip"]
So lip to lip
(So lip to lip)
And squirm to squirm
(And squirm to squirm)
Try drinking so-
(Try drinking so-)
da through a worm
(da through a worm.)
So lip to lip and squirm to squirm
Try drinking soda through a worm.
I took a sip
(I took a sip)
And he went down
(And he went down)
Right through my pipe
(Right through my pipe)
He must have drowned
(He must have drowned)
I took a sip and he went down
Right through my pipe, he must have drowned
He was my pal
(He was my pal)
He was my friend
(He was my friend)
There is no more
(There is no more)
This is the end
(This is the end)
He was my pal, he was my friend
There is no more, this is the end.
My mother and I used to sing that when we took showers together when I was a little girl. I have been thinking of the gleaming moments of my childhood lately and wishing.. well, trying to remember if they ever happened.
posted by tori at 7:50 PM 1 comments
Friday, November 17, 2006
Yesterday I watched a documentary called 'War Photographer' about James Nachtwey. Nachtwey has been photographing wars and poverty since the mid 80s and has produced some of the most astounding work I have ever seen.
In the documentary he said one thing that was extremely powerful for me;
"It's occurred to me that if everyone could be there.... just once to see for themselves what white phosphorous does to the face of a child...... or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single bullet, or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone's leg off.... If everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear.... and the grief..... just one time.... then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens.... to even one person let alone thousands... But everyone cannot be there- and that is why photographers go there to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on...... to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the deluding effects of the mass media..... and shake people out of their indifference to protest, and by the strength of that protest to make others protest."
Here are some of his photographs so that you know what I am talking about..
Now, obviously I am not a photographer, filmmaker nor a journalist. But I am a person who cares and wants others to be informed. I commend the filmmakers of Darfur Diaries for making such an avid attempt at spreading the word about the situation in Darfur. As I have mentioned to many the screening here in Richmond was an amazing success turning out more than seven hundred people. The only fault I found in the entire program was the artwork. Now that is not to say that the work was not good or that it was not important to the event. The problem was the art was for sale with the intentions of donating all of the proceeds to the refugees of Darfur. This is a wonderful idea except for the fact that the screening was advertised as being free and there was no mention of the art sale. This posed a problem as the artwork was priced anywhere from 600 to 1000 dollars. Needless to say, a crowd of 700 with no inkling of and idea that money would need to be spent was not very suscpetible to the idea of purchasing work that they probably couldn't afford anyway. Now, like I said, I thought the idea of selling work for the purposes of aiding Darfur was genius- just the style in which they were doing it wasn't.
Now I have two motives here; I want to give aid to the people of Darfur and I want to spread the word about the Darfurian conflict. In mulling over this in my mind I remembered another relatively unsuccessful art project that occurred several years ago in regards to Hurricane Katrina. A professor in the Art Education department organized a show in which she collected small works from local artists, college students, and public school students for the sake of selling them and donating the profits to Katrina relief. I felt that the show went relatively well but did not do as well as hoped because of the small mindedness of it.
The curator of the show put a lot of limitations on the artists and differentiated between what size you could do based on what level artist you were- for example, a professional artist was allowed to make a piece 24 in by 24 in or smaller and had to price it between 20 and 50 dollars while an art professor could make a piece 12 in by 12 in and price it between 10 and 20 dollars, and an art student could make a piece 6 in by 6 in or smaller and price it for 5 to 10 dollars and so on. Basically, it failed I think because it became more about the heirarchy of art then about aiding people.
As a result I have manipulated that idea and brought it to a much larger scale. I want to create a show to open here at First Fridays in Richmond with work the size of postcards or smaller that ranges in price from 1 to 20 dollars. Everyone will have that same restriction and price range. The more important part is that I want there to be not just hundreds of post card sized work to choose from, but thousands, hopefully hundreds of thousands. The idea is to send e-mails out to all of the major art schools, public school systems, in every major city across the U.S. and call for entries. Artists simply have to label the work with their name, title, sale price and contact info and send it to me in the mail. Just think of it, a huge art school could just put a box in the hall of one of their buildings and students could just drop the work off in it. The school could set their own deadline, pick up the box at the end of their deadline date and ship it to me. Sounds like it has some kinks right? Who cares, it can all be worked out.
In the mean time I have already gotten myself an appointment with one of the big wigs in the Dean's office to talk about networking this idea around to as many major schools as possible. So not only am I finding a way to raise money for the Darfurians, but I am also getting the word out to the art community in the U.S. about the situation in Darfur. The idea is that the show will only be up here for a week and we will sell as much as we can in that week. At the end of the week we take the remaining artwork and ship it to a gallery in say, Baltimore. They put the show up and sell more work. Maybe we could even have multiple deadlines on a webpage or something like that, so the gallery in Baltimore has been receiving some work of it's own all along as well, and from there it goes to NYC, to Philadelphia, to Boston, to Chicago.. EVERYWHERE.
The show would occur in every major city in the United States each with their own deadlines so that each city would have a huge body of work to choose from. I need to catch my breath. Anyhow. As of right now I am working on finding a gallery here in town that would be interested in showcasing this brainchild of mind. A gallery with connections to other galleries in other cities would be most preferrable but we will simply do what we can. I'm no James Nachtwey, but I know that I can do something too.
posted by tori at 3:54 PM 2 comments
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Success! Today in a meeting of the Senate Seantor Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) addressed the situation in Darfur. If you missed it I am sure sorry for you. As a response I sent him the following e-mail:
Dear Senator Durbin,
Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to view a documentary called 'Darfur Diaries' here in my city and to meet one of it's filmmakers. I was curious about the film as I had never heard of Darfur. In experiencing the film and understanding the situation in Sudan on a more complete level I found myself to be greatly shocked by the fact that there had been very little media coverage on the situation and that the U.N. nor the U.S. had made any real effort to put a stop to the genocide in that country. Today as I watched my television I saw something I thought I would never see. To make a long story short, I had the wonderful honor of witnessing the eloquent and moving speech you made before the Senate addressing Darfur. I wanted to thank-you for making an effort to address this situation but wanted to encourage you to take action. You mentioned in your speech tonight that all you could do was give a speech. Is this so? Is there really nothing else to be done? The showing of 'Darfur Diaries' here in Richmond turned out more than 700 people. This was not only the largest screening they had ever experienced for the film but also the museum they were showing it in's largest crowd. I only mention this as a means of expressing to you that we the average, everyday citizens do in fact care about what is happening to the Darfurians. I know that I speak on the behalf of many when I say that the United States needs to intervene if the U.N. will not. I feel that the death and destruction caused by Darfur's genocide is currently just as important as the situation in Iraq. I was under the impression that the U.S. had declared war on Terrorism. Is the situation in Darfur not terrorist in nature? How can the U.S. government make such a blanket statement of 'War on Terrorism' as a means of justifying their decision to occupy Iraq but do nothing for the millions suffering from terrorism all over the world. Please Senator, tell me there is something that can be done and that you will make some effort. As you do have a position in a public office I need not remind you that it should be considered an honor by you that the people of your state elected you. In electing you they had the greatest of hopes that you will keep in mind their interests and concerns. I am not a resident of your state but a citizen of this country. I felt that as a citizen it is my right and my expectation to reach out to you because you expressed interest and concern for Darfur. I cannot express to you how excited I am to have heard you speak tonight. I hope you are not afraid to speak of it again in the future even if they aren't listening. They have to hear you if you say it enough. Also, do you know what we- the average citizens can do? Someone must do something, someone must take a stand.
With the greatest of hopes,
Victoria Lynn Kesling
It is not the best written piece of politics I ever wrote. But it will do.
posted by tori at 8:49 PM 2 comments
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