Eyes Flashing, Heart Singing

The Holstee Manifesto: Lifecycle Video

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:43:19 -0500

The Holstee Manifesto is a call to action to live a life full of intention, creativity, passion, and community.

"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key..."

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:12:00 -0400

““In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.””

- Jiddu Krishnamurti via This Battered Suitcase

meganwest: awesomejuice: motherjones: All that stuff you’ve...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:57:45 -0400

meganwest:

awesomejuice:

motherjones:

All that stuff you’ve been hearing about college grads falling behind, and student loans killing the middle class? Yeah, that shit’s for real.

Let’s all pay attention to the scale on that there Y-axis, as well. There is a $20,000 difference between men and women. Twenty. Thousand. Dollars.

Bolded for emphasis.

BERGHOLZ, Ohio — In an unusual public display of trouble among...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:27:50 -0400

BERGHOLZ, Ohio —

In an unusual public display of trouble among the traditionally guarded Amish, a breakaway group is accused of attacking mainstream members by cutting off their beards and hair, which carry spiritual significance in the faith.

champagnecandy: P1000969 (by seasonofthebitch) Let me tell you...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:42:21 -0400

champagnecandy:

P1000969 (by seasonofthebitch)

Let me tell you a little story about me and Occupy Wall Street.

This photo was taken the first day I stopped by there. I was skeptical; even scornful at first. Why are they occupying Wall Street on a Saturday? I figured it would be yet another protest ignored and gone by Monday morning.

When they were still there 5 days later, I packed my camera and went down to see what it was like.

I was impressed with the media center, smiled at the kitchen, but the thing that got me was the childcare center.

And I really didn’t stop and think about that until yesterday, when Mike Konczal tweeted a link with just the phrase “spontaneous infrastructure.” I’m a bit of a nerd and that’s the type of phrase that actually makes me click, and it was a link to the New York Times’ interactive map of the occupation. But my favorite bit of spontaneous infrastructure wasn’t on their map.

I’ve been seeing pushback from feminists against OWS for a while, and so last night I decided to write this up. Because I don’t have kids, I don’t want kids, I don’t even particularly like being around them, and yet it was the childcare center that changed me from a skeptic to a fan.

Because the childcare center, at which admittedly I have not seen children being cared for, is exactly the kind of thing that feminists should be asking of their protest movements, and exactly the kind of thing we mostly don’t have.

What having a sign that says “Childcare Center” really says is “Women and Children Welcome.” It says “Can’t afford a babysitter? Bring your children here and we’ll take care of them.”

An empty childcare center says “We thought about the needs of the people who might someday join us as well as the needs of people who are here right now and have the freedom and ability to give up all their time to camping out in a park.”

It’s infrastructure, of the type that this country especially has so dramatically hacked and slashed away from us or resisted ever building in the first place.

As we discuss and argue about Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health care services being cut, Occupy Wall Street built childcare into their plans.

Many have been saying that this is the resurgence of the anti-globalization movement, the one that declared “another world is possible!” Many others have complained that OWS does not have specific political goals and seems uninterested in buying in to (Democratic) politicians or institutions that support them.

This is my answer to that. They’re not building a political movement. They are building that other world. They have given up on asking for political action and have simply modeled the world they want to see.

That world provides free childcare.

(Do I have to add my disclaimer about it not being perfect? Of course it’s not perfect.)

meganwest: factsarenothing: Vimeo - JY CINEMASHUP - All the...

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:32:26 -0400

meganwest:

factsarenothing:

Vimeo - JY CINEMASHUP - All the President’s Boys

I’m in the library without headphones, so I haven’t watched this yet, but when you mash together All the President’s Men and Sabotage by Beastie Boys, you’ve got my attention. [via]

GENIUS.

This renews my faith in music and American democracy. Happy Constitution Day!

One of the less appropriate ways to commemorate 9/11.

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:42:43 -0400

One of the less appropriate ways to commemorate 9/11.

“According to the U.S. Parks Association, by the year 2020...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:16:10 -0400

“According to the U.S. Parks Association, by the year 2020 only 10% of the U.S. will have a view of the night sky. Jon Morris, the creative director and founder of The Windmill Factory is attempting to illuminate the issue of light pollution with a new installation (Reflecting the Stars) on Pier 49 in the Hudson River. He and his team have installed 201 solar powered LED lights on decaying wooden pillars in the water. People on the pier will be able to control the lights from a series of buttons that will reveal constellation from the night sky. The installation is on view from sunset till midnight until October 25th. Weekly onsite stargazing events with astronomers have been planned.”

via Hither and Thither

admit it, you’d miss it. i would

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:05:30 -0400

admit it, you’d miss it.

i would

New to do list. The handsome gentleman included. by Rick Mereki

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:15:02 -0400

New to do list. The handsome gentleman included.

by Rick Mereki

life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. by Annette...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:41:22 -0400

life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. by Annette Funicello

via lollipops.

So much progress made…so much progress left to make.

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:47:16 -0400

So much progress made…so much progress left to make.

What if billboards showed art instead of advertisements? image...

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:57:44 -0400

What if billboards showed art instead of advertisements?

image via Hither and Thither

1:09 p.m., Ponte del SepolcroBridge and Tunnel crowd. via 72...

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:31:00 -0400

1:09 p.m., Ponte del Sepolcro
Bridge and Tunnel crowd.

via

72 Hours in Venice

It’s the Art Biennale this week–time for me to experience the world’s most romantic city during rush hour.

The Mutato-Archive is a collection of non-standard fruits,...

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:46:19 -0400

The Mutato-Archive is a collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables, displaying a dazzling variety of forms, colours and textures, that only reveal themselves when commercial standards cease to exist. The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look (and taste). The Mutato-Project serves to document, preserve and promote these last remainders of agricultural plasticity.

via Cup of Jo

"I have often wished that Jefferson had not used that phrase “the pursuit of happiness” as the third..."

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:10:30 -0400

“

I have often wished that Jefferson had not used that phrase “the pursuit of happiness” as the third right — although I understand in the first draft it was “life, liberty and the pursuit of property.” Of course, I would have been one of those properties one had the right to pursue, so I suppose happiness is an ethical improvement over a life devoted to the acquisition of land, acquisition of resources, acquisition of slaves.

Still, I would rather he had written “life, liberty and the pursuit of meaningfulness” or “integrity” or “truth.” I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, goal of your labors here. I know that it informs your choice of companions, the profession you will enter. But I urge you, please don’t settle for happiness. It’s not good enough.

Personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life; it is a trivial one. It’s looking good instead of doing good.

”

- Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning novelist in her Commencement Address to Rutgers University.

"Your parents, proudly here today, and their parents before them, perhaps proudly here today,..."

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:02:00 -0400

“

Your parents, proudly here today, and their parents before them, perhaps proudly here today, understood a simple equation for success: your children would do better than you had. Ditch digger to cop to lawyer to judge.

We’re now supposed to apologize to you because it seems that that’s no longer how it works, that you won’t inherit the S.U.V., which was way too big, or the McMansion that was way too big, or the corner office that was way too big.

But I suggest that this is a moment to consider what ”doing better” really means. If you are part of the first generation of Americans who genuinely see race and ethnicity as attributes, not stereotypes, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans with a clear understanding that gay men and lesbians are entitled to be full citizens of this country with all its rights, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans who assume women merit full equality instead of grudging acceptance, will you not have done better than we did?

”

- Anna Quindlen, writer and Barnard alumna, giving the Commencement Address at Grinnell College

when i grow up I want to be a sea otter. hellomissmeghan: Sea...

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:08:17 -0400

when i grow up I want to be a sea otter.

hellomissmeghan:

Sea otters hold hands when they sleep, so they don’t drift away from each other.

meganwest: curiositycounts: Three Big Pigs – Russian designer...

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:00:06 -0400

meganwest:

curiositycounts:

Three Big Pigs – Russian designer Egor Zhgun, master of cultural commentary via pop-culture-and-politics mashups, remixes Angry Birds, the theme song from Disney’s 1933 Three Little Pigs, and current Middle Eastern politics.

(via Ethan Zuckerman)

Perfect.

on the topic of elephants. via Papier Mache

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:24:39 -0400

on the topic of elephants.

via Papier Mache