i found my song

auto-tune, for better or worse

My boss was telling me today that there is no good hip hop music out there any more. He was downloading a bunch of really old stuff like Ryz and Gang Starr. He's not really into conscious (political) hip hop because he says most of it has no edge. And he respects some Atmospheric (trip hop) type stuff but it's not really his thing.

Which brings me to Jay Z's latest single, "D.O.A - Death of Auto-Tune". Let me say that no matter what his motives, I fucking love this song and Jay Z (and the video, for that matter). I think he is totally doing it for the publicity of being on the "anti" side of a movement. Especially since Kanye produced his whole album and they made a joint decision to take all the Auto-Tune samples off the tracks. And yes, he is 39 and fighting to stay as popular as he has been the last 10 years, as well as dealing with the economic slump that has hit the music industry hard. I don't think it really matters though. Auto-Tune really is out of control and he is right that it has turned from innovative technology into a "gimmick". The reality is, so many musicians from all genres rely on it now that it is not going anywhere. I think it is a fresh idea to take a step backwards and I'm really surprised at all the criticism Jay Z has gotten for it. These people don't care about T-Pain's feelings; they're just pissed they didn't think of it first.

Moving Past Mao...

A short video from the NYT about contemporary art in China, namely an underground art exhibit of intense, emotional pieces that have been forbidden to be shown within China's borders.

When I was in China in 2001, young people were just starting to talk about the Cultural Revolution. Not necessarily speak openly, and certainly not on record, but they were willing to have a dialogue. These artists' work show how far people have come towards accepting and working through the past, and towards public education and liberation, even in just the past few years. Although having said that, this art is still illegal in China.

Don't French Kiss or you might get SWINE FLU...

Bummer. This was one of my favorite things about the French culture. I seriously doubt that H1N1 is going to end this tradition, but you never know...

Bisous!

Martine Fougeron

A cool photography project that explores adolescence, intimacy and personal narrative.

Olympic National Park

So I went hiking in the Rainforest last weekend. Yes, hiking! in the RAINFOREST!! It was so beautiful and really great to get away from the city for a few days. I don't think I thought about work once. We were too worried about water and bees and trying not to poop for 3 days. We hiked over 30 miles and I have to admit, there were points when I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did...and it made me feel so great, physically and mentally. I don't think I have really challenged myself like that in a long time.

Anyway, it was a perfect weekend and I just wanted to post some pictures to show everyone how beautiful Olympic National Park is.

let's just call these...experimental

some photos taken with my lomography camera (sunflowers in my apartment, julie and aline in vancouver, CA, missy laughing, julie coming up the stairs). they are scanned, so the quality is not so great, but what are you gonna do?

ok...i went back and played with these pics in photoshop and re-uploaded. i might just continue to do that because it's fun and i come up with different stuff every time.

New Beginnings

I have been thinking recently about where I would like to live if I decide to go teach in China next fall and, although I love Shanghai, the city of Shenzhen is looking pretty likely right now.
It is a big city, with a booming economy and a population of somewhere around 10 million people. The crazy part is how the city has exploded from a small fishing village in only the past 30 years. It started out as one of China's "special economic zones," an experimental province with more liberal business/trade regulations, meant to increase foreign investment. Now it is the economic center for southern China, has several universities, and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The population is split between intellectuals (the most PhD's of any city in China) and migrant workers from rural China. Also, the average age is 28, which is pretty cool.
I found a relevant article that discusses how different Chinese people view the city: the migrant workers, the business people, the young students... The article brings up an interesting point about the "culture" of Shenzhen. Relative to the rest of China, this city is still an infant that is growing at an unbelievable rate. Thus it is much less rooted in Chinese tradition and history. While some take a critical stance on this divergence, calling it a lack of culture, many young Chinese people find it liberating.
I have a friend who is living there now and she highly recommends this program. Something to think about...

Spatulatta!

I was hanging out with my family that lives in Portland this weekend and we cooked this delicious dinner for my aunt's birthday. I wish I had pictures, it was absolutely beautiful. Grilled Ahi tuna steaks, jasmine rice with vindaloo sauce, and this delicious Gomae salad, a traditional Japanese spinach dish.

When I asked Don where he got the recipe for the Gomae salad, he said a friend of his had these two nieces that have their own cooking show on YouTube and when he googled the dish, their video was the first to pop up.

Since I have been thinking about nutrition a lot lately, both in my personal life as well as public education, it struck me as a really unique and fantastic idea for children to have their own cooking show. What better way to teach young people not only about what is healthy, but about the importance of preparing meals and celebrating food and family. They also like to focus on cooking international foods with other children from around the world. The girls, Belle and Liv, who are now 13 and 11 years old, started doing these one-minute cooking show vignettes back in 2005 and they now have their own website, cookbook for kids, and are starting to produce these vignettes for tv news programs.

It's funny how the same things come up again and again in a given time period. Not only am I now trying to finish Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemna after a 9 month reprieve, but my friend Julie was recently telling me about this article that Pollan wrote for The New York Times about cooking as a spectator sport. I definitely suggest reading this article, as it explores our fascination with the Food Network and the implications of taking cooking out of the kitchen (and onto the television). Finally, in discussing our bleak future with a "veteran food marketing researcher", Pollan is told that it's pretty much no use: "...the skills are already lost. Who is going to teach the next generation how to cook? I don't see it."

And on that note... I give you Gomae Salad by Spatulatta!

And also this...because it's funny.



Did I mention that I baked this weekend?? I am so domestic!

you're so 2000 and LATE

i kind of love this video right now... i couldn't figure out how to embed the video, sorry :(

no more ms. nice girl

Today I stood up to one of my coworkers about usurping my authority when I'm with a client. My heart was beating so fast. Why is this so hard for me?

Whenever I'm explaining something to one of our clients and this coworker happens to be around, he always interrupts and takes over the situation, as if he has more knowledge on the subject than me. Quite frankly, it's offensive. It sends a message to the client that I do not know what I'm talking about or that I do not have the authority to distribute information or make decisions on our company's behalf (which I do). I'm pretty sure he does this with our male co-workers as well, but it offends me particularly because I'm the only woman who works here and I technically hold the lowest position on the totem pole. Thus what little power I have, I would like to hold on to. Besides, I work too damn hard to have someone not take me seriously.

On that note, I just ordered this book online... A friend of mine highly recommends it for any woman who is interested in financial planning. Hopefully it will encourage me to stand up for myself in the work place more often and make sure I get the respect and compensation I deserve.
Here are a few highlights from an excerpt I found online:

“Nice girls” don’t get rich in large part because of the social messages they receive when they are growing up:

* Money is power, and most little girls are not taught to be powerful—they’re taught to be “nice.”

* Girls are socialized to be caretakers, nurturers, and accommodators in society—not necessarily breadwinners.

* As child bearers and caretakers women often work jobs discontinuously and are penalized for it. Alternatively, they’re put on something demeaningly referred to as “the mommy track.”

* Women are more likely to spend their income on their children and the household, whereas men are more likely to be prudent about investing.

* Women are reluctant to ask for wages, perks, or raises reflective of the value they add to their organizations because they’re not sure they “deserve” it.

Of course, there are more important things than getting rich, but damn...it would be nice to see some moolah ;)

no cash for clunkers

So I designed this flyer for the Cash for Clunkers program only to learn this morning that it has already been suspended for lack of funds. Four months turned into four days. Glad we got our money up front!

the sonnet lives on

Like it Matters

The trees outside your window undulate
in ripples mild or wild if there’s a storm.
I shelter in the crevice of your arm
between the storms that rage then dissipate.

You talk about Beethoven, about Kant
and architects whose names I’ve never heard
and naked dawns that rouse sojourning birds
but never do you ask me what I want.

I’d tell you I try not to want too much.
For what’s revealed, there’s always more concealed.
There are too many fences in this field.
These woods are filled with thistles sharp to touch.

But if this night were deep as it is long
I’d say I want your cloud of birds at dawn.


Poem by Kelly Ellis

dora the explora

I've seen the cartoon television show Dora the Explorer a few times and while I never found it particularly enthralling (I'm also not four years old), it struck me as a genuinely cool idea for a tv show. Here we have this young, smart, female, Latina character who goes on adventures and solves problems and she is teaching our children some Spanish along the way.

However, after reading an article in Bitch Magazine, I have begun to think more critically of the true meaning of Dora. The article uses Dora the Explorer as a jumping off point to explore the link between American consumerism and factory exploitation of women in Latin American (and other) countries. It suggests that Dora is actually a poor representation of Hispanic people because of her lack of a specific cultural identity and the show's overall absence of "historical and political realities". The article further implies that while these predominantly white parents believe Dora to be the ideal Spanish speaking, female role model for their children, she is merely a reinforcement of a monolithic, generic, and almost white (because of her straight hair and "cinnamon" complexion) stereotype of Latinas.

Just as interesting as the article were the readers' comments. Most were offended by the article's implications and many were very defensive about Dora. (Those moms love their Dora!) For my part, I believe that Dora an age-appropriate role model who shows children that a young, Hispanic girl can be smart, confident, adventurous and empowered person. It also doesn't hurt to expose Americans to a Spanish speaking show every now and then. Is she a substitute for teaching your children about people from other cultures and their histories and politics? Definitely not. We shouldn't be relying on television to do that for us any way. Let your children have Dora and if you want to take a stand against factory exploitation, take a close look at your realities as a consumer and modify your lifestyle accordingly.

takin' it to the next level

-Jay Smooth from Ill Doctrine

eat food. not too much. mostly plants. -michael pollan

I recently saw "Food Inc." and I was pretty impressed with the message of the film. While the documentary itself was fairly conventional, the message was definitely an innovative one for Americans.

Michael Pollan points out that, as opposed to the "French Paradox", the "American Paradox" is that while Americans are obsessed with health food and nutrition, they have some of the poorest diets in the world.

It is my belief that, along with physical education, nutrition/health education needs to take a higher precedent in our schools, both primary and secondary. Until the government stops controlling the public image of what is healthy, millions of Americans a year will continue to die of malnutrition (whether from diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, the list goes on...)

For example, I'm sure that many of us remember this food pyramid when we were growing up. Harvard has recently published their own version of the healthy food pyramid, but American schools have not yet accepted this into their curricula.

"A Fatally Flawed Food Guide" by Luise Light is a somewhat outdated, yet still highly relevant article that outlines how the modern food pyramid was sold to the highest bidder and then marketed as the ideal model for good nutrition. Some highlights:

When our version of the Food Guide came back to us revised, we were shocked to find that it was vastly different from the one we had developed. As I later discovered, the wholesale changes made to the guide by the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture were calculated to win the acceptance of the food industry. For instance, the Ag Secretary’s office altered wording to emphasize processed foods over fresh and whole foods, to downplay lean meats and low-fat dairy choices because the meat and milk lobbies believed it’d hurt sales of full-fat products; it also hugely increased the servings of wheat and other grains to make the wheat growers happy. The meat lobby got the final word on the color of the saturated fat/cholesterol guideline which was changed from red to purple because meat producers worried that using red to signify “bad” fat would be linked to red meat in consumers’ minds.

Where we, the USDA nutritionists, called for a base of 5-9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, it was replaced with a paltry 2-3 servings (changed to 5-7 servings a couple of years later because an anti-cancer campaign by another government agency, the National Cancer Institute, forced the USDA to adopt the higher standard). Our recommendation of 3-4 daily servings of whole-grain breads and cereals was changed to a whopping 6-11 servings forming the base of the Food Pyramid as a concession to the processed wheat and corn industries. Moreover, my nutritionist group had placed baked goods made with white flour — including crackers, sweets and other low-nutrient foods laden with sugars and fats — at the peak of the pyramid, recommending that they be eaten sparingly. To our alarm, in the “revised” Food Guide, they were now made part of the Pyramid’s base. And, in yet one more assault on dietary logic, changes were made to the wording of the dietary guidelines from “eat less” to “avoid too much,” giving a nod to the processed-food industry interests by not limiting highly profitable “fun foods” (junk foods by any other name) that might affect the bottom line of food companies.

But even this neutralized wording of the revised Guidelines created a firestorm of angry responses from the food industry and their Congressional allies who believed that the “farmers’ department” (USDA) should not be telling the public to eat less of anything, including saturated fat and cholesterol, meat, eggs and sugar.

Americans are never going to be healthy unless we start changing our perception of nutrition and our education at the most basic level. I think Michael Pollack sums it up best in this article, when he says "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

No More Excuses

I'm having a little trouble getting going on this blogging thing and I think the problem is that I spend all day working on the computer, so I don't really want to spend my free time on it as well. So, instead of trying to blog, why don't you get off your ass and go do something that you enjoy? one might ask... WELL there, before we all get hostile, I have to say I do appreciate having a space to present my thoughts, simply for my own organization. Making this space public (even if no one reads it) forces me to put to think through these ideas and make them legible. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that rather than trying to reserve large chunks of time to write long-winded blog posts, I am just going to post short ideas that pop into my head and perhaps I will go back and expound on them later. Maybe. If I feel like it.

fayres and farewells

sitting underneath the theatre building, it begins. we wait, watch water trickle down a muddy stream, part of a "protected ecosystem". the air is bright with our anticipation. smoke swirling upwards from our cigarettes- lingers in the foliage.
sweaty palms wiped on damp jeans.

without warning, the sky opens up its purple mouth. our timing is so perfect. good thing we didn't linger at that bug eating contest.

i stand, jostled in the damp hallways of a school that isn't mine, mind a million miles a minute. everywhere people- flood in around me. outside! we need to be outside. stumbling, pulled by tides, onto covered brick veranda. we watch in near silence at the ensuing madness. the wind bends trees in half. rain pelts sideways, threatens to invade our little haven. everywhere, people- moving: out of the rain, into the rain, through the mud... somewhere off to the left, the strained chords of electric guitar. a band starts to play.



the guitar player is rocking out. i like his red pants and the fact that i can see all but his head from where i stand. slowly the courtyard fills with water, beginning in the tiny crevices of the brick, until giant puddles of indeterminable depth have formed throughout. the hippie children splash, slide, dance in the rain. "come on..." i feel a girl whisper to her hesitant friend. she tugs her hand and edges closer to the heathen figures dancing, "we're already wet!"

then, sudden as it came, the storm is gone; forgotten. the air breathes wet but we don't care. the sun is shining! we stare in wonder, sole still figures in the chaos. and once again the people pour out of the school, always moving.

word to your mother

how old school is that title? everyone who is 5+ years older than me seems to think it is hilarious, which i find hilarious. ohh, old people are funny.

anyway, i went to a mother's day tribute performance at the Baghdad Theatre last night where people read hilarious stories about their childhood/teenage years. soo funny.

i have to mention this one woman in particular, Sarah Hoopes, who read these hilarious excerpts from her 16 year old diary. She currently has a project in which she blogs her journal entries from today, 15 years ago. ha, did that make any sense? in other words, everyday she copies her journal entries from that day, 15 years ago, into her blog, without correcting anything except the occasional spelling error.

she's part of this show called Mortified, kind of a once a month thing at the Someday Lounge that i keep meaning to go to, where people read to each other from their childhood journals. apparently at the last performance she shared her "tween-aged erotic vampire fantasies". i'm sad i missed that one.

anyway, check her out here..... or at Mortified on June 19th/20th.

word.
g

tongue-tied:: some video art

i stole the name for this blog from a poem by erica schreiner, a video and performance artist from portland that used to be a friend of mine (we don't keep in touch so well)..

lucid unison is a collaboration of (8) artists from all over the country that are bringing their multi-media projects to the interweb. it's a somewhat erratic and inconsistent venture, lurching in one direction and another and another, but the interplay between these artists' individual styles is dynamic! besides, sometimes it's the awkward moments that are the most scintillating.





www.lucidunison.com

kitchen

first

Pocket Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary © 2005 Oxford University Press:

folie /fɔli/ feminine noun

1. madness;
   aimer qn/qch à la ~ to be mad GB or crazy about sb/sth;

2. act of folly;
   elle a fait une ~ en acceptant she was mad to accept;

3. extravagance.

COMPOUNDS:

~ des grandeurs delusions of grandeur.