4-26-11
Meet Mr. Banana!!
Yeeeeeah...it's been a productive day...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sidewalk Chalk
4-25-11
Flowers in the Cement
Thus named in homage to "Flowers in the Dirt." Yay Paul McCartney reference!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
On My Way Home
4-24-11
Biking home today I spotted this. Usually in Berkeley they say "Stop Driving" but apparently the graffiti-ists in Oakland are way hipper (albeit a bit stuck in the 90s).
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Sans Computer
I've been without internet access for a few days, thus the lack of blog updating/picture uploading. So here's what I've been up to:
Sorry, not super exciting. But I'm pretty tired and need to go make dinner so this is what ya get! :)
4-21-11
Dog sitting! This is Toby. He and I are good friends now, despite the fact that he stole my sock.
4-22-11
Took a walk out at the Albany Bulb. Really cool artwork out there.
4-23-11
Bike ride out on the Iron Horse trail! Here's Katherine ready to bike (we BARTed over there).
Sorry, not super exciting. But I'm pretty tired and need to go make dinner so this is what ya get! :)
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Easter Week
4-19-11
Tonight I am listening to this record and in doing so I am paying homage to my roots in a variety of ways:
1 - Listening to classical music a la mi madre
2 - records a la mi padre
3 - Mormon Tabernacle Choir a la my abuelos y mi tia (and my entire mom's family and I don't know why I'm writing half in Spanish and uh, French?)
4 - Easter - Christianity
Woopwoop!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Skeleton Keys
4-16-11
Was over at Kap's house last night and noticed in her hallway she had dozens of old keys hanging from a sort of pegboard. They looked really cool, and something about them really appealed to me. The keys, which are so commonplace, seemed somehow special and otherworldly out of context like that, used as a sort of art project. And the effect was intensified by the fact that they acted as a crude chime when the wind would blow through the hall.
I took a bunch of pictures, and then tried to edit the ones that made me feel something. This one felt x-files-ish to me, like the shadows were something captured on film that the naked eye couldn't see. I tried to emphasize that feeling with a skeleton/night vision sort of effect.
I just really loved how she used all these old, useless keys and tried to bring out the overlap of the both magical and mundane nature that keys contain. And if you scoff at the idea that keys have a magical nature, you clearly have never found the master key after searching dungeon after dungeon in a Zelda game, nor have you ever locked yourself out of the house when it's below zero out!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Trash Can
4-14-11
I saw this guy on a trash can on my way to get frozen yogurt (it's non fat!) on the other side of Cal's campus today. I always seem to be drawn to trash cans for some reason...maybe it's because when someone tries to place art on them seems so...ironic? That's not quite the right word. Maybe oxymoronic? That's not really it either. I'm not sure what it is but they intrigue me. I'm so deep. Anyway, I just liked this. Plus, I felt sort of like trash (not trashy or trashed, just kinda crappy) today, so this works on an emo level as well!
HOWEVER. A really cool thing also happened today! I took a short break to call my brother and cry halfway through the work day (thanks, bro) and as I was talking to him this hummingbird flew right up to me! No joke it was literally a foot away from me. And it was LOOKING at me! I swear to god it made eye contact with me for several seconds, and then fluttered away. I sort of felt like it was some sort of sign or something...and I did look up info. on what it means to have contact with a hummingbird. I've had strange experiences like this before (usually with animals of some kind) where I felt like it wasn't just coincidence, and like it held meaning and my google searches (oh my, so 21st century) seemed to confirm my uh, intuition? This was the same - it made a lot of sense to have a hummingbird come and engage with me...but then my skeptical mind always says "that's just silly"...and maybe it is...but I don't think it totally is. Anyway, whatever it was it was really, really awesome. :)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Concert Time
4-12-11
Went to a Bright Eyes concert with my awesome cousins tonight. I tried to take a picture of David, but uhm...I misjudged the time the camera required to take a picture and ended up instead w/a picture of this random dude who was the opposite direction. That, my friends, is called TALENT.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Blue Skies...With Embellishments!
4-11-11
I am loving the clouds in the Bay lately! I also love having friends who need their cars babysat. I do not love the fact that I read and bike less when I have a car at my disposal.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wedding Favors
4-8-11
Jess and I went to San Francisco's Chinatown this evening to get fortune cookies made for Kristi's wedding shower tomorrow. I wrote the fortunes and watched as these awesome people made fresh fortune cookies and put the little strips of paper inside. It was a pretty cool process to watch - that machine is geniusly constructed and so perfectly timed.
All of the "fortunes" are wedding-themed.
Some of them have -- wait for it -- How I Met Your Mother references. Yeah. They're awesome.
True story. Tell your friends.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming
4-7-11
I apologize for my long-winded post from yesterday. Sometimes you just gotta follow your musings. Now back to our regularly scheduled nonsense. I found this on my desktop this morning. I had almost completely forgotten about it. Not that long ago I had this big plan to write and illustrate an existential story of identity and purpose.
Starring a garbanzo bean.
Yeah...
It seemed like a good idea at the time and made me giggle to myself as I wrote down ideas/the plot. I even went so far as to make some preliminary "sketches" of my cast of characters. Oh yeah, the plan was to only use MS Paint to create this story since I'm often mocked for my affinity for and dedication to MS Paint and my refusal to learn Photoshop since Paint is "good enough!" and "all I need!" I've since amended my ways and can see the value of Photoshop...though I still do love me some MS Paint, no doubt, and will defend its honor against the naysayers.
Anyway, here is one of my "sketches" when I was trying to create the look and feel of the illustrations for this story...drawing garbanzo beans is harder than you might think (or at least harder than I expected it to be). But I think Claude the Bean is sort of cute.
Maybe I'll revive this project and finish it...
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Inane Ramblings of a Wannabe Intellectual
[We take a break now from our regularly scheduled program for some random ramblings from Bekah's puny little raisin brain.]
I was thinking about this concept of oppressor-oppressed and...well...I'm always thinking about it at some level, really, but I saw this posted this on someone's fb recently:
"Do not be defeated by the
Feeling that there is too much for you to know. That
Is a myth of the oppressor. You are
Capable of understanding life. And it is yours alone
And only this time."
Some General Instructions, by Kenneth Koch
...and my immediate reaction to it was "well that's sorta stupid" to which I had to stop and ask myself WHY i thought it was stupid because really it's a pretty optimistic and empowering sentiment that probably should have inspired me. I suppose I could just be jaded and cynical (I can think of a few people who'd probably roll their eyes and say "you think?") but truth be told I'm not that cynical. I may be that cynical about church/organized religion, yes, but not about topics of oppression and freedom and liberty and education and knowledge. Plus, if you know me at all you know I talk a big game, but my opinions are rarely as extreme as I may act 1. So I started to think about what bothered me about this quote, since in many ways it actually echoes my feelings and philosophies.
I think what bothered me about it was the reference to a nameless/faceless and yet supposedly ever-present "oppressor."
"Who is this supposed oppressor?", is the question that tugs at the back of my mind when I read things like this. Who are you rising up against? Who is this alleged naysayer who haunts our creativity and impedes our pursuit of knowledge?2
Now don't get me wrong. I don't mean to say that there are not real oppressors in this world, or that systems of oppression don't exist. Clearly they do, with very real, tangible, deeply ingrained consequences. The issue I find is not within the concept of oppression, or the idea that there are historical relationships between people/societies/cultures/etc. of oppressors-oppressed, or that that such relationships can and do evolve into systematic oppression which, in a way, becomes an organism of its own over which even the oppressors seem to wield very little power (like creating a monster and losing control of it - the basis of so many horror flicks and sci fi stories).
I think the real problem I have with many of these discussions or sound bytes or proclamations revolving around concepts of oppressor-oppressed is that they rarely seem to move beyond defining life and people in terms of dichotomies. This bothers me because often those who are shining a light on the reality of such dichotomies are, in fact, seeking to discredit the idea that life can be defined in terms of dichotomies in the first place; much feminist literature, queer theory, postcolonial theories, liberation theology etc. etc. seek to challenge the idea that people/life can be defined in essentializing terms/in terms of "us" and "them" dichotomies. Yet, instead of truly refuting "us" and "them" ideas, it seems like more often than not these brilliant thinkers end up defining themselves and humanity in terms of the us-them categories of oppressor-oppressed, perpetuating the very categories - albeit with different labels - that they seek to refute and dismantle.
In many ways these conversations seem to actually reinforce dichotomies and in doing so (and this is the part that I find the most problematic and unsettling) they seem to say, not so much in words as in practice, that identity essentially is defined in opposition to someone else, or in opposition to another identity or definition. The oppressed cannot exist without an oppressor. And while such definitions are useful in beginning the discussion and in helping people to recognize the systems of oppression, power and privilege that do exist and affect our lives, my opinion is that they are of little benefit beyond this initial stage of education and recognition of the situation.
The way I see it is this: defining oneself in opposition to something or someone else is extremely problematic, and it is problematic because not only does it pigeon hole people into particular, seemingly innate categories, but it begs the question: who are you once the "other" - to whom you define and compare your reality - person or concept or reality ceases to exist? If the point of such scholarship is to cease the perpetuation of oppression (as I hope it is), then the categories of oppressor/oppressed too, in time, must cease to exist (theoretically).
What then?
It feels to me like at this point in scholarship we know who we are not (or who we don't want to be), but we don't have a clue as to who we are (or who we want to be).
1 And such extreme expressions of opinions are more of a defense mechanism than anything else, really. It's a really good way to cut things off when I don't want to be in a particular conversation. And yes I did just use a footnote in a blog post. Academia has seeped into my bloodstream. And yeah. I did make it with html code. I am so cool.
2 Of course, I realize this is a quote from a poet and I'm responding to it as if it was from a scholarly journal. However, this was being posted by an academic and used in order to illustrate an academic point, therefore I think it's fair to analyze from an academic/scholarly lens. Also, I am thinking more and more than academia/scholarship and art are two sides of the same many-faced dice. I could take up an entire book explaining what I mean by that, but suffice it to say that both mediums seek to observe, interpret, re-interpret and re-invent the world from a particular viewpoint. They try to help you see the world in a new way and both are only effective and exciting when they are creative, original, and tap into something that resonates with the reader/viewer/listener/consumer. So in that sense, I think it's appropriate to look at art from an academic lens and vice versa.
3 A reference, if you're not familiar, to a saying attributed to the Buddha in which he once again tries to teach us non-attachment. The "parable" of sorts is that his teachings/the teachings of Buddhism are like a boat. When you're crossing the river you need the boat. But when you arrive on the shore, you leave the boat behind. To carry it with you and cling to it because it got you to shore would be foolish and counter-productive. You don't need it any more so leave it behind and move on.
I was thinking about this concept of oppressor-oppressed and...well...I'm always thinking about it at some level, really, but I saw this posted this on someone's fb recently:
"Do not be defeated by the
Feeling that there is too much for you to know. That
Is a myth of the oppressor. You are
Capable of understanding life. And it is yours alone
And only this time."
Some General Instructions, by Kenneth Koch
...and my immediate reaction to it was "well that's sorta stupid" to which I had to stop and ask myself WHY i thought it was stupid because really it's a pretty optimistic and empowering sentiment that probably should have inspired me. I suppose I could just be jaded and cynical (I can think of a few people who'd probably roll their eyes and say "you think?") but truth be told I'm not that cynical. I may be that cynical about church/organized religion, yes, but not about topics of oppression and freedom and liberty and education and knowledge. Plus, if you know me at all you know I talk a big game, but my opinions are rarely as extreme as I may act 1. So I started to think about what bothered me about this quote, since in many ways it actually echoes my feelings and philosophies.
I think what bothered me about it was the reference to a nameless/faceless and yet supposedly ever-present "oppressor."
"Who is this supposed oppressor?", is the question that tugs at the back of my mind when I read things like this. Who are you rising up against? Who is this alleged naysayer who haunts our creativity and impedes our pursuit of knowledge?2
Now don't get me wrong. I don't mean to say that there are not real oppressors in this world, or that systems of oppression don't exist. Clearly they do, with very real, tangible, deeply ingrained consequences. The issue I find is not within the concept of oppression, or the idea that there are historical relationships between people/societies/cultures/etc. of oppressors-oppressed, or that that such relationships can and do evolve into systematic oppression which, in a way, becomes an organism of its own over which even the oppressors seem to wield very little power (like creating a monster and losing control of it - the basis of so many horror flicks and sci fi stories).
I think the real problem I have with many of these discussions or sound bytes or proclamations revolving around concepts of oppressor-oppressed is that they rarely seem to move beyond defining life and people in terms of dichotomies. This bothers me because often those who are shining a light on the reality of such dichotomies are, in fact, seeking to discredit the idea that life can be defined in terms of dichotomies in the first place; much feminist literature, queer theory, postcolonial theories, liberation theology etc. etc. seek to challenge the idea that people/life can be defined in essentializing terms/in terms of "us" and "them" dichotomies. Yet, instead of truly refuting "us" and "them" ideas, it seems like more often than not these brilliant thinkers end up defining themselves and humanity in terms of the us-them categories of oppressor-oppressed, perpetuating the very categories - albeit with different labels - that they seek to refute and dismantle.
In many ways these conversations seem to actually reinforce dichotomies and in doing so (and this is the part that I find the most problematic and unsettling) they seem to say, not so much in words as in practice, that identity essentially is defined in opposition to someone else, or in opposition to another identity or definition. The oppressed cannot exist without an oppressor. And while such definitions are useful in beginning the discussion and in helping people to recognize the systems of oppression, power and privilege that do exist and affect our lives, my opinion is that they are of little benefit beyond this initial stage of education and recognition of the situation.
The way I see it is this: defining oneself in opposition to something or someone else is extremely problematic, and it is problematic because not only does it pigeon hole people into particular, seemingly innate categories, but it begs the question: who are you once the "other" - to whom you define and compare your reality - person or concept or reality ceases to exist? If the point of such scholarship is to cease the perpetuation of oppression (as I hope it is), then the categories of oppressor/oppressed too, in time, must cease to exist (theoretically).
What then?
It feels to me like at this point in scholarship we know who we are not (or who we don't want to be), but we don't have a clue as to who we are (or who we want to be).
I suppose in some sense I'm asking for an answer to the question: what would utopia look like? But isn't that what good scholarship should do? Shouldn't it be as visionary and creative as those works of art which shake us to our bones and not only shed light on the world as it is, but also force us to imagine an alternate reality? Shouldn't scholars, at some point, imagine a world in which oppression and dichotomous labels do not exist, instead of using the very labels and dichotomies they are opposing to present a different but equally dichotomous and limiting world?
Clearly this is a very broad consideration of this issue. I really am just basically free-writing on the topic because it's on my mind and I felt like it needed to escape my brain via my fingertips. There is a lot more complexity to it than I'm allowing here, and I recognize that. And of course I do think the scholarship or artistic lens that undergirds quotes like the one at the beginning of this post have their place, and I think amazing accomplishments have been made because of such scholarship, creativity and imagination. I just crave the day where someone takes the next step and imagines something new and different and actually breaks the mold of oppressor-oppressed and dichotomous identities.
That goal is, at the core, what spurs me towards pursuing further academic work. I want my academic peers and superiors to recognize that the initial, and even 2nd or 3rd waves of these ideas are tools, not the goal, and ought to be left on shore once we've crossed the river and begun our trek through the woods.3 I think too often we get so attached to these ideas - as revolutionary as they may be at the time of their inception - that we refuse to let them go when they cease to be useful, or to propel us forward. And that's what I feel I find myself reacting negatively to, even in such good-willed sentiments as the one that spurred this babbling.
...
Um...anyway, I think that's enough for now. I'm getting tired, and this could go off in so many directions and ways that I should probably just stop now before I write an entire book's length post (or have I already?).
[You survived. If you actually read this thing, thanks for bearing with me as I ran around in the garden of ideas. And if you caught that reference, I owe you a beer.. If you read the footnotes, gold star to you and I owe you a beer. And if you didn't read a word of it: I don't blame you. But you owe me a beer. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!]
Clearly this is a very broad consideration of this issue. I really am just basically free-writing on the topic because it's on my mind and I felt like it needed to escape my brain via my fingertips. There is a lot more complexity to it than I'm allowing here, and I recognize that. And of course I do think the scholarship or artistic lens that undergirds quotes like the one at the beginning of this post have their place, and I think amazing accomplishments have been made because of such scholarship, creativity and imagination. I just crave the day where someone takes the next step and imagines something new and different and actually breaks the mold of oppressor-oppressed and dichotomous identities.
That goal is, at the core, what spurs me towards pursuing further academic work. I want my academic peers and superiors to recognize that the initial, and even 2nd or 3rd waves of these ideas are tools, not the goal, and ought to be left on shore once we've crossed the river and begun our trek through the woods.3 I think too often we get so attached to these ideas - as revolutionary as they may be at the time of their inception - that we refuse to let them go when they cease to be useful, or to propel us forward. And that's what I feel I find myself reacting negatively to, even in such good-willed sentiments as the one that spurred this babbling.
...
Um...anyway, I think that's enough for now. I'm getting tired, and this could go off in so many directions and ways that I should probably just stop now before I write an entire book's length post (or have I already?).
[You survived. If you actually read this thing, thanks for bearing with me as I ran around in the garden of ideas. And if you caught that reference, I owe you a beer.. If you read the footnotes, gold star to you and I owe you a beer. And if you didn't read a word of it: I don't blame you. But you owe me a beer. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!]
1 And such extreme expressions of opinions are more of a defense mechanism than anything else, really. It's a really good way to cut things off when I don't want to be in a particular conversation. And yes I did just use a footnote in a blog post. Academia has seeped into my bloodstream. And yeah. I did make it with html code. I am so cool.
2 Of course, I realize this is a quote from a poet and I'm responding to it as if it was from a scholarly journal. However, this was being posted by an academic and used in order to illustrate an academic point, therefore I think it's fair to analyze from an academic/scholarly lens. Also, I am thinking more and more than academia/scholarship and art are two sides of the same many-faced dice. I could take up an entire book explaining what I mean by that, but suffice it to say that both mediums seek to observe, interpret, re-interpret and re-invent the world from a particular viewpoint. They try to help you see the world in a new way and both are only effective and exciting when they are creative, original, and tap into something that resonates with the reader/viewer/listener/consumer. So in that sense, I think it's appropriate to look at art from an academic lens and vice versa.
3 A reference, if you're not familiar, to a saying attributed to the Buddha in which he once again tries to teach us non-attachment. The "parable" of sorts is that his teachings/the teachings of Buddhism are like a boat. When you're crossing the river you need the boat. But when you arrive on the shore, you leave the boat behind. To carry it with you and cling to it because it got you to shore would be foolish and counter-productive. You don't need it any more so leave it behind and move on.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Let's Go Oakland!
4-3-11
Opening weekend in Oakland! Someone was foolish enough to try and give the A's mascot a high-five while wearing a Giants hat.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Float Like a Butterfly...
4-2-11
I have been wanting to try out a boxing gym for quite some time. I've done kickboxing before and learned a little bit about boxing from a friend of mine who used to be kinda serious about it. Both were awesome but left me wanting more - to try out a REAL boxing gym. But it always seemed so expensive, and I always had a membership at the Y and couldn't justify both. But a couple of months ago there was a trubates deal for 3 free classes at this gym. So I bought it. I went today for the first class, and it was awesome! So much fun. SO incredibly hard; SUCH a good work out. Love it! The teacher was everything you'd imagine a boxing teacher to be. I love workouts like this where you sweat buckets, work until you feel like you're about to die, PUNCH THINGS, and get yelled at (not in a mean way, just in a motivating 'c'mon, step it up! sorta way) to do it right. Yessssssssssssssssss.
I have 3 more free classes, and then I think I am definitely going to get a membership here. My Y membership is up and I can't renew for the same price any more so I've been considering just dropping it anyway. Seems like perfect timing to me! Cue Rocky music!
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