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CCSF World AIDS Day poster i will add to my portfolio soon.
a photography link oona sent me: olivia malone. tres bien.
new to me blogs
grandma club (my kinda blog)
mieke willems
lilac moon studio (in sf)
made by katrina (in oakland)
some flickr faves as i missed friday's (soft, light colors this week)
color library
hanging
horse ii
from hannapaivik
199
oh, and two leaping dog photos
fetch
ten kinds of crazy.
Last night I watched this documentary on PBS about the Karuk tribe of California. They live along the Klamath River. The logging companies and the federal government’s fire suppression policies have almost destroyed the Karuk. The Karuk cannot gather their medicinal plants, make their traditional foods, practice their ceremonies, etc. like they used to, because the landscape, their home, has been altered so much. Fire suppression and the planting of fir trees has almost wiped out many of the native plants in the area. This also affects the river water (fir trees drain the water) and thus affects salmon and other river flora and fauna.
The Karuk believe that the earth provides everything we need. Watching this documentary, I recognized a lot of similarities between the Karuk’s values and those of the Slow Food movement. There is an understanding that ecology and culture are inextricable, and that the only way to maintain cultures is to respectfully and correctly manage the environment. This is also the only way the earth will continue to provide for us. This kind of value system is not an economic one, but a subsistence one.
Now when we’re in this big economic crisis, I think these values are vital for us to ponder. When we don’t trust that the earth and our community will provide for us all, we become greedy and we try to figure out ways to produce/extract as much stuff as possible at any cost. {As an example, industrial agriculture plants monocultures of crops, because in the short term that is the easiest way to produce a lot of food. This ruins the soil fertility however, which will not only make the land unproductive, but also endangers surrounding communities because the soil won’t absorb water. Thus when there is a flood, it is far more devastating. There are tons of examples how overuse like this not only leads to depletion of resources and the obliteration of biodiversity but also makes us much more susceptible to flood, fire, hurricane damage.}
In the book Plenty, the co-author imagines what the part of Canada he lives in looked like before Columbus. The abundance of animal and plantlife described struck me. Our earth has become and is fast becoming less and less abundant because of our incorrect management of the environment, our shortsighted overuse/exploitation of resources and our blindness (or willfull ignoring of) how we are connected to all creatures and plants. In the focus on profit, we (industrial societies) are killing cultures, we are killing plant and animal species, we are endangering lives by making communities more vulnerable to natural disasters, we are polluting water. The list goes on and on.
I worry that in hard economic times, people will look to the short-term solutions that (the agriculture, oil, etc.) industries offer, instead of re-evaluating our capitalist value system. But I hope having a visionary leader (in America) who seems to want us to fight for community and for what is right, might inspire us to work towards just and respectful ways of living on and sustaining this earth and the earth's abundance.
another find from the depths of my closet at my parents' house. this austrian game i would never have remembered if i didn't see it for myself. but of course, the moment i saw the box cover, i remembered many of the various characters/costumes and was eager to match up their tops and tails again. i remember thinking the ladies were so pretty (if uniform given their supposed different origins). the best part is that everyone's tops can match with everyone's tails, like an exquisite corpse, which of course makes for some queer characters. speaking of queer characters, i just love sisters emma and lisen adbåge's people. here, here, here and here, here and here (swedish).
i feel like i've seen these people before. perfect gestures. they're familiar and funny and endearingly strange.
in potrero hill today i saw:
a house engulfed by flowers
a colorful eyeball mural.flickr favorites this week are mostly lovely ladies:
amanda in the underlandet
3 from chelakmaxim
vera
***
dasha
and by the lovely vallmovild, this beautiful, very swedish and very perfect photo, mormor.
i woke up and 5:30 and can't fall back asleep. so i'll write to say how grateful i am. i am so grateful that our next president is a thoughtful, care-ful, serious, eloquent and humble person. i am so grateful that our next president is an african american. that our country has come this far and that our next president understands racism and discrimination, our country and people in a different, deeper way than any past president. i am so grateful that he expects us to work for each other and not just ourselves. i am grateful that he mentioned gay people in his speech last night. i am grateful that i actually believe he believes our strength is in our people and not our arms or wealth. i am grateful that he understands the magnitude of the struggles we face as a world. i am grateful that we have chosen hope, optimism, unity and love.
welcome to shash's new website! let me know if you find any errors, weirdnesses or confusing parts.
puffer was a cat we had (only briefly, sadly) when i was a sophomore in high school. a few weeks ago, when i was at my parents' and sorting through my storage there, i found this drawing i made of puffer. it reminded me of ernie the cat.happy voting tomorrow! can't wait to celebrate (please let us be celebrating) on wednesday!
to you. this photo is from last weekend, before the 9th anniversary party (pseudo commitment ceremony {though they wouldn't call it that}) of my friends j & c.
hoping to get back to regular blogging starting tomorrow.
in the meantime. some beautifulness:
coffee is for lovers (just last week she had many more in this set. not sure where they went. :-()
forms (so so so lovely)purple bitssandra's printwish i could have gone to this.i bought this print/calendar at little otsu. it's rainy and dark and cozy here. my mom will be glad i finally am posting something, and she will no longer be so prominent on my blog. heehee.
