ladyfantastico

How can I say just how happy I am that David Altmejd has blessed us with a show at the IKG? Sure his stuff was inspiring in photo form, but photos have nothing on the real-life physical show. Looking at his stuff, you get so sucked in and just keep discovering more the more you stare at it. I don't know how entwined werewolf skeletons growing crystals preserved in mirrors on a mint green platform could be so sexy- oh wait... how could it not be? Altmejd always talks about creating growing energy in a piece and making it feel as though it's living. Standing in front of a piece you can almost feel the energy seeping into your own skin, you feel as though if you stand there long enough, maybe crystals will start growing out of your own skin and in a few thousand years you'll be another facet of the sculpture itself.
I feel so glad that for a few months if I need to be inspired, all I need do is sneak downstairs and spend some time with the werewolves and giant heads and birdmen.

Two murders, both happening within three blocks of the two places I call "home".... One of my favorite lines about Kensington is that you can walk around at any time of day or night and feel safe- hence the sick feeling in my stomach. Ramsay, not so much, but still, I'm unspeakably angry that no one would call the cops while safe inside their houses when they heard screams and begging- I mean, it took someone walking their dog down the street and pretty much stumbling across a body for something to be done.

I'm so sick of hearing people say this about assholes who love nothing more than to tell stories about the fights they've gotten into and people they've beaten up for no good reason: "It's just in their personality- it's not like they're hurting anyone that matters." Everyone matters to someone else. I'm having a hard time writing out my feelings here...

A culture of fear is manifested by people sitting in their homes being complacent and scared of taking responsibility for their community. If people would do small things like telling the damnable punk highschoolers in Riley Park to pick up their trash and stop wrecking the park, or paint over racist graffiti instead of pretending they don't see these things maybe idiots who think it's fun to cause trouble would stop feeling it's their "right" to smash whatever they want to. "Tough" people aren't usually as tough as they pretend to be.

Ron Pippin is my new hero. http://www.ronpippin.com/

Found a new website to drool over: http://www.ecogeek.org/

Well, my house is on the way to being clean. I now have a little sunny sewing and painting corner. I just have to start organizing my art supplies....
Strangely- well, perhaps not so strange- I can't bear to look at any of the work I've made this semester. It just seems so.... foreign.
My mind is currently exploding with ideas- strange, because usually in the summer everything goes strangely blank. Now however, I feel as though I might not have the time to execute them all. I'll try my damndest though. I even have more ideas for animation- awesome, because I can still go to quickdraw and werk.
Here's a neat little animator: http://www.senggeng.com/wada/
And here is an amazing street artist: http://blublu.org/

So, I was watching CBC news with the parents last night and this story comes up about how agent orange is still affecting people, animals and plants in Vietnam a lot more than anyone is willing to admit. Food and supplies are still delivered to victims of Agent Orange. Many were not born when the US sprayed the area - but there is strong evidence the chemicals are still having an effect.
On the BBC website:
"A disproportionately large number of children in the areas affected are born with defects, both mental and physical. Many are highly susceptible to cancers and disease.

And Vietnamese doctors are convinced Agent Orange is to blame.

Planes spraying Agent Orange over Vietnam
Agent Orange was intended to defoliate the jungle
"This is due to the US sprayings," said Dr Hong Tien Dong, village doctor who has lived in the area all his life.

"Before, in this area, the environment was quite clean.

"Now it has become like this."

In the late 1990s, a Canadian study tested soil, pond water, fish and duck tissue, as well as human blood samples, and found dangerously high levels of dioxin travelling up the food chain to humans.

Dioxin concentrations have been found to be 13 times higher than average in the soil of affected areas, and, in human fat tissue, 20 times as high.

A Japanese study, comparing areas sprayed with those that were not, found children were three times more likely to be born with cleft palates, or extra fingers and toes.

There are eight times as many hernias in such children, and three times as many born with mental disabilities.

In 2001, scientists found that people living in an Agent Orange "hotspot" at Binh-Hoa near Ho Chi Minh City have 200 times the background amount of dioxin in their bloodstreams."
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4494347.stm )



Apparently it will take about 10 million dollars in aid to help this situation... I said that the United States should be forced to pay for all of it as it was them that did the damage in the first place. My Mom said the Vietnamese should pay for it and I asked her why. She said " Because they let those communists hide in the bushes." I wanted to get up and start punching her in the face.

It burns!!
I keep on finding more and more blogs of people who hand craft almost everything in their lives, and are addicted to Japanese crafting magazines ( http://www.craftlog.org/craftingjapanese/ ) and ridiculously cute fabric.
Anyways, I found http://homepage3.nifty.com/omura/shugei/amigurumi/kabutomushii/kabuto-006.jpg
yeah. That's right. A crochet beetle.

Oh... my landlords are back. I was hoping they would arrive after Darren moved in so's I could beg forgiveness instead of ask permission. .... I love my house, but I also really want to find a new house- one where I don't have to live in constant paranoia of the strangeness of seventy-year-olds, and also one where I could possibly live aboveground... and have a closet.

Must finish Bateman essay! ERGHHH!

Go see this crazy website: http://www.encyclopediapictura.com