Since I know there are a number of wonderful conceptual artists who read this blog regularly, here’s a reminder about the call for a Juried Exhibition entitled “Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush.” I found the waterbottles shoe image on the web, but it says worlds about the world Bush left behind, doesn’t it? A lot can be done with Chuck Taylors; I found these on the web, too, and I’ve had fun decorating a pair for Burning Man. If you contribute something, please send a jpg to me to post here on the blog or comment and leave a link to the image so we can see what you made! You have one week to get it overnight mail!
Farewell SHOES for Mr. Bush
Entry information: In reference to the life that we, the world, have been breathing over the past eight years – thanks to our fine leaders in politics – we would like to salute them and wish them the “best” with a unique fun and participatory farewell gesture exhibition.
Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush is a shoe art exhibition open to artists of all mediums and from around the globe, who will have an opportunity to express their feelings on a shoe or pair of shoes. Participating artists are encouraged to explore innovative, evocative and genuine creations and to transcend the outside layers of the shoes. Shoes of all sizes (size 10 not required!) materials and provenance will be transformed into expressions of political, visual art, or simply a “farewell”.
The selected entries by the jury would be exhibited at DECORAZON gallery in an installation curated by Hugo Garcia Urrutia and MK Semos, DECORAZON gallery directors.
To participate in this exhibition, the artist’s application package must be received by DECORAZON gallery no later than 6 pm on Friday January 30, 2009.Read more…
People around the world found today’s US Presidential inauguration a moving and inspiring event–the address itself, the work of a master of words: words to make us move and groove and get change going, words which recognize the challenges we face. To read the complete text, go to the bottom of this post or here. To read Rush Limbaugh’s response to Obama “I hope he fails”, read below that or here.
Ventura City Manager Rick Cole attended the inauguration in Washington DC. He reported on KCRW that he hopes President Obama will help change and retool the economy here in Ventura and beyond to meet the challenges of the 21st century. He went DC to share the momentous day with his children.
The small boy and I watched on-line, with KCRW‘s NPR coverage on as back-up for when the internet faltered, wearing our “The New Groove” t-shirts; tears came to my eyes often, and the boy marveled at the huge numbers of people, more people than he’d ever seen or imagined before. “Why aren’t we there, Mom?” he asked. “I wish we could be,” I replied with a hug.
In more inaugural news from the Art Predator’s email bag: The Tucson Poetry Center sent the following…
Poet and President President-elect Barack Obama’s poetry In 1981, Feast, a literary magazine produced at Occidental College, published two poems by Obama, who was then a student there.
The Day After the Election Anthology – call for poetry
Richard Vargas (American Jesus, Tia Chucha Press) and Rafael Alvarado (internet radio producer/host of the Moe Green Poetry Hour) are co-editing a poetry anthology to be titled ‘The Day After: Poets Respond to the 2008 Presidential Election’.
They are open to submissions. Says Vargas: “Please limit length to 2 page max per poem. We’re getting a lot of emotional expressions of joy, and a lot of rants. A lot of the stuff comes off more like a history lesson than a poem. If it’s warm and fuzzy, it better be really good. What we really want are those slice of life moments that capture the mood… surprise us with the unexpected and still address the theme of the anthology.”
No limit on number of poems submitted, but no poem should be over two pages in length. E-mail submissions: rvargas5 at yahoo dot com. Paste poems into the body of your email; files and attachments will not be opened.
What follows is the text of President Barack Obama‘s inaugural address on Tuesday, as delivered from here; also available here. Here’s a link to video.
OBAMA: My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents. Read more…
As I’ve enjoyed the joyful infectious rhythms of various “Obama Songs” on KCRW, I am offering a selection of them here. Above is Michael Franti’s “Obama Song.” Below is Sampa Mapangala and the Occidentals; there’s another song of theirs I think I prefer “The Obama Song” but haven’t found it on YouTube yet. I did find this:
While in town a couple of weeks ago for World Music Festival Chicago the great African singer and bandleader Samba Mapangala (a native of the Congo who achieved his greatest fame after relocating to Kenya) went into Delmark’s house studio, Riverside, to cut “Obama Ubari Kiwe (Obama Be Blessed),” a song he also performed during at least one of his festival sets. In the studio he was joined by members of his own group, Virunga, as well as guitarist Nathaniel Braddock and saxophonist Greg Ward of Chicago’s Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. The tune is a lovely, lilting slice of benga, with luminescent guitar lines snaking around the infectious but easygoing groove. There are some introductory English-language rhymes from Fanaka Ngede, a Kenyan rapper based in Minneapolis, but for most of the song Mapangala’s effortlessly fluid cry takes center stage; in part, his Swahili lyrics say, “Obama, leadership is a gift from God, and you have it / Please help to bring peace, change, and hope to all Americans, and all the world / We love you!”
Peter Margasak continues about the band above:
The other song, called “Obama for Change,” is by the Kenyan group Kenge Kenge, who play a sort of raw, pre-electric strain of benga. I wrote about them here last summer. Their song, which is available on emusic.com, opens with a bit of English: “American people, citizens of the world! Here are sounds and
memories from Africa, drumming support for Barack Obama!” It’s hardly news that support for Obama outside the U.S. is overwhelming, nowhere more than in Africa, and musicians from Africa should be especially fond of Obama–his office’s assistance in cutting through immigration red tape has allowed both Extra Golden (who subsequently recorded their own praise song, “Obama”) and Seun Kuti to tour in the U.S. in the past couple of years.
Lots of ways to honor the occasion. You could watch the HBO televised “We are the One” event here. My family will be wearing red, blue and gray versions of this shirt:
Read selected excerpts from past speeches and all of the poems commissioned to be read at the inauguration of U.S. presidents. The poetry section of the module includes poems written in honor of Obama’s presidency by a number of U.S. writers including former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, like this one from Bob Holman:
Bob Holman
In Bamako, the koras can’t stop singing praises
Of the African king named Barack Obama.
You can talk all you want
in the courtyard
under the mango tree,
But these harps know their stories, revel
In contradiction’s harmony.
A song that consumes history.
Meanwhile, in Timbuktu
The shirt off my back
Spirited off in high-fived exuberance
Barack Obama’s face
Lifted in 2008 Sahara sandstorm
Lifting off from Dakar, Leopold
Senghor – they name their airports
After Poet-Presidents here —
An “I Made it to Timbuktu
And Back!” t-shirt on my back
Back to Union Square, 14th Street,
New York City, flying Middle Passage
Route of Bones Fair Trade Agreement
Here’s one from Derek Walcott:
Forty Acres
Out of the turmoil emerges one emblem, an engraving —
a young Negro at dawn in straw hat and overalls,
an emblem of impossible prophecy, a crowd
dividing like the furrow which a mule has ploughed,
parting for their president: a field of snow-flecked
cotton
forty acres wide, of crows with predictable omens
that the young ploughman ignores for his unforgotten
cotton-haired ancestors, while lined on one branch, is
a tense
court of bespectacled owls and, on the field’s
receding rim —
a gesticulating scarecrow stamping with rage at him.
The small plough continues on this lined page
beyond the moaning ground, the lynching tree, the tornado’s
black vengeance,
and the young ploughman feels the change in his veins,
heart, muscles, tendons,
till the land lies open like a flag as dawn’s sure
light streaks the field and furrows wait for the sower.
And why are people everywhere wanting to sing songs of Obama praises? To explain, here’s Keith Olberman on 8 Minutes on 8 Years of George W. Bush:
slingshots hold no
thunder and lightening
inside a shoe that doesn’t fit
imagine cramming all that eternity back
in the middle of summer
pulled around the building
I sat in the living room
open the window
here: it’s hot
my dream angel solid and
burning mind no time for feathers
HOT we wished for
slashes of lightening
physical form is no small feat
The photo above was taken in Ventura county that night (August 15, 200 by Candice Cunningham, of 2020 Images; she specializes in unusual wedding photography and her website is worth checking out! The poem combines lines from 3:15 experiment poems written August 15, 2008 by Danika Dinsmore, Tod McCoy and myself as part of our process of creating a collaborative piece to submit to a journal; this is the draft of the stanza I produced. Will let you know when you can see the final piece!
I chose this stanza to put up because it calls to mind the changes we are transitioning into–no small feat!! And it’s really HOT here in SoCal! We’ve had an insane heat wave with wild wild winds for over a week now! Rain is supposed to come our way on Wednesday and through the weekend; personally I will continue praying for La Nina to deliver us from the unmitigated and unsolved onslaught of mud from our neighbor’s property. To read other poetry posts, ride the Poetry Train.
“Martin Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run,” said one boy in the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church service remembering MLK.
“Barack Obama ran so that all children could fly,” added another, standing a few feet away from the first African-American ever elected president on Sunday Jan. 18 before the big celebration at the Lincoln Memorial where MLK shared with us his dream.
In honor of King and in response to President-elect Obama’s call to service, hundreds of thousands of Americans are helping those in need. Projects range from giving out free meals to cleaning up blighted areas, distributing winter clothing and repairing dilapidated homes.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. Read more…
Everyone needs a place to be for the inaugural and something to wear!
Personally, I don’t need to be in Washington on Tuesday; the natural cathedrals of the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or Yellowstone would be preferred, and listening to the actual festivities and address at the gracious and historic Ahwahnee Lodge while gazing up at Half Dome would be ideal. Honestly, I don’t want to see it at all; I just want to hear it. Hence how awesome that “Trees,” a UC San Diego’s art installation by Terry Allen which stand in the eucalyptus grove between the library and the faculty club, will offer a live PBS broadcast. (Jeff Kaiser, if I can’t join you there, please go for me! And if I can make it, how about we do some yoga then drink some tea and cap it off with some whisky older than us!)
And what more do you need than this way cool t-shirt to wear for the inaugural? Local artist Sean Kirkpatrick has come up with this design and it’s available in different colors and styles here as well as other designs–I’m partial to James Brown and bringing more funk to every house! They also have a video showcase:
So today I’m cleaning house (aren’t we all?) and listening to the big celebration in Washington on KCRW, an npr.org affiliate. Soon I hope to connect with Sean and pick up t-shirts for everyone in my family! Or I can pick them up at Reds Cafe, 211 Helena Ave, Santa Barbara. They’re also available at my favorite Ventucky store, Wild Planet, in downtown Ventucky on Main Street across from the movie thater. 560 E Main St Ventura, CA 93001 (805) 643-5238 Get directions
Did you know “I’m on Fire” by Bruce Springsteen is one of Barack Obama’s favorite songs? (For a version of Bruce playing the song on the street in Copenhagen, scroll down.)
Barack Obama says he admires Springsteen as a man who never forgot his roots. That could be one of many reasons why Springsteen is helping Barack and the world celebrate Obama’s inauguration!
Springsteen fans have another reason to celebrate–a new album Working on a Dream coming Tues. Jan 27. According to NPR,
Bruce Springsteen‘s return to pop production (and the E Street Band) on his 2007 album Magic left him wanting more. Although he hadn’t pushed himself to complete back-to-back albums in more than 30 years, the legendary singer’s longtime producer, Brendan O’Brien, urged Springsteen to keep recording.
“I thought, ‘No, I haven’t done that since my first two records came out in the same year,’ ” Springsteen says. “Usually, I don’t write that quickly. But I went back to my hotel in Atlanta, and over the next week, I wrote several songs that formed the beginning of the new album (Working on a Dream). I found there was more than enough fuel for the fire to keep going.”
Springsteen’s new album, Working on a Dream, will stream in its entirety at npr.org starting Jan. 20, a week before its official release date.
Springsteen’s 24th album was recorded with the E Street Band during breaks from the group’s 2007 tour.
“I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band, fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we’ve ever done,” Springsteen says. “All the songs were written quickly. We usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end.”
Working on a Dream contains 12 new Springsteen songs and one bonus track, “The Wrestler,” which is featured over the closing credits of Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 film of the same name. The track also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Bruce Springsteen will be in Washington DC Sunday January 18 for inaugural excitement televised by HBO.
Springsteen is officially part of the line-up for We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. Bruce will join a slew of other artists — including Beyonce, Bono, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, and Springsteen’s ’92-93 tour guitarist Shane Fontayne! — for this “Opening Celebration” for the 56th Presidential Inaugural. The event, which begins at 2:00 p.m., is free and open to the public; a portion will be televised courtesy of HBO from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Don’t expect the E Street Band; according to the press release, “Rob Mathes will be the music director and arranger for the backing band, which will support all of the artists.” Producer/director Don Mischer: “This is a great opportunity to capture an historic event in a very meaningful setting. We will have the statue of Abraham Lincoln looking down on our stage and a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people lining the mall — a tableau any director would relish.”
From Backstreets, a Bruce Springsteen fan magazine which developed into a website:
DOWN TO THE MALL Setup is underway at the Lincoln Memorial, where in just about 24 hours, Springsteen will be part of “We Are One,” the Obama Inaugural Celebration kickoff. USA Today calls it a “test run for inauguration,” noting that 500,000 are expected for tomorrow’s free and open-to-the-public event. Temperatures are expected to be in the 30s; gates open at 8 a.m., for a 2:30 p.m. start.
For a spoiler update, here’s something from the Backstreets mailbag [highlight to reveal hidden text]: “I am singing with the Inaugural Celebration Chorus, and we have not been rehearsing “This Land Is Your Land” to sing with Bruce. I don’t know if he’s doing that as well, but….we’ve been rehearsing‘The Rising’.”
We’ll just have to tune in to be sure. See more information at HBO.com, which now lists a live broadcast at 2:30p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT, and an encore play at 7 p.m. ET/PT and 11:3- ET/PT.
500,000 people??? That’s gonna be crazy! Fortunately for us we have a simpler problem: finding someone who’s got HBO! Any volunteers to host the Big Monkey, Art Predator and small boy? We’ll bring some wine and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale!
It’s going to be quite a week for Springsteen fans, what with an inaugural concert and the release of a new album. And in two weeks, there’s Bruce’s Super Bowl Half-Time show. From Backstreets:
Sunday, February 1: Bruce and the E Street Band play Super Bowl XLIII Halftime. Visit NFL.com to watch the Halftime commercial, and to have a look at and discuss seven “tentative playlists” just posted today. For another (hilarious) take on how halftime might go, don’t miss The Sports Guy’s column — this is Bill Simmons at ESPN.com:
As a lifelong Bruce Springsteen fan, the Super Bowl ads for his performance next month never stop flooring me. Don’t they know how the man is wired? He can’t bang out three songs without sprinkling one autobiographical story in there, and he certainly can’t just go away without returning for an encore, right? (Note to the NFL: After Bruce finishes his set, hog-tie him to one of the uprights or else he’s coming back out for three more songs. Just trust me. You don’t want Bruce wandering back onto the field with his guitar like Shooter in “Hoosiers” and getting bowled over by a safety.) Look, Bruce might be telling the NFL, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a story. I’ll just sing my three songs and get out of there.” But he won’t be able to do it. You watch.
Julie Tumamait Chumash speaker says
the people named several hundred places
in the 7000 acres where they lived.
Names came from what was abundant when they
looked at the land, names came sometimes from dreams. Camulos is their name for juniper;
names after water—Lompoc: stagnant water; Zaca Lake: no bottom, made by thunder.
These names still sing here, are known by us
I see these places, these names the ancients.
Sometimes they named the land for body parts.
The people who first lived here were large
so large they could wander around easily.
The mumula people, in a flood, they
turned to stone. You can see an eyelash here
an elbow there and that named those places.
Animal body parts too were found here:
–the place of the jaw of the coyote–
or after an abundance of animals:
house of the jackrabbit, urine of the deer:
the curative powers of the healing
waters –hot springs—the tears of the suns.
Ojai –or moon– the place nobody knows.
Mt Pinos– after dusk where the spirits came. Malibu where the surf sounds loudly. Saticoy means sheltered from the wind. Pismo, the word for tar which sealed tomols
The people canoed out to the islands by tomol.
Lots of references to tar along beaches.
Our paths today follow the native paths.
Our directness disrupts natural ways.
Our tunnels in mountains upset water flows.
The people honored the calendar cycles.
At winter solstice, the moon was going
to fall off the middle earth and the people
called the sun back to middle earth.
On the hill above Shishilop, village
of the Mud People, they gathered 5 days
in ceremony paying homage to
ancestors, they left shell money, pine nuts,
to start over the new year in sycamores.
The people weren’t a warring tribe—they got
even using spells and curses. We do
our work at certain shrine areas:
open fields with sycamore and oak trees,
shrines as sacred as a church. Know this earth
held for centuries the people, cradled.
They saw the moon going in and out of
phases: tides of the ocean, women’s cycles
Caves also were altars where they could find
a spirit helper, celebrate that god
was not out there but in plants, animals,
in the datura, Grandma Momoy.
Bring these native plants back into our yards
to heal the world sing songs connect yourself
to the earth and to your family lines.
This is a poem in progress based on a talk Julie Tumamait gave Thursday January 15 on Chumash spiritual places 5th Annual California Cultural & Heritage Tourism Council’s Symposium held at the historic Pierpont Inn in Ventura.
I intend to integrate a few more of the names, to check on spellings, and a few other ideas. I hope to find some images of the places she mentions and to indicate the Chumash words more clearly, possibly find links–right now they are in blue. The image above is found here. Ventura is full of Spanish words and most of us assume that words like Saticoy and Lompoc are Spanish. As part of a larger writing project, I look forward to learning more about the Chumash place names.
What to call the period just past–2000 to the present you wonder?
from the collection of Charles Phoenix
The Early 2’s as coined by photographer Steven Schafer and Charles Phoenix, slide show producer extrodinaire and author of Southern Californialand at the 5th Annual California Cultural & Heritage Tourism Council’s Symposium held at the historic Pierpont Inn in Ventura where the Art Predator has a media pass and is trying to do some live blogging…
Although after 2010, people may call it the “Teens” I bet in history that period will go down as part of the early 2’s as well. Or will it be The Early Twos? We’ll see! Certainly, we’re all tumbling toddlers trying to find our way int he new world world of web 2.0.
Just remember you heard it here first!
The Art Predator–on the prowl… more from the symposium soon–info on cultural tourism and how to turn cultural capital into economic capital by creating meaningful brand experiences.
Oh and you can experience Charles Phoenix in person at the DooDah Parade this Sunday 1130am in Pasadena; he’ll be the grand marshall.
PS
<!– p></p –>Get the SLIDE OF THE WEEK and info on upcoming events from Charles Phoenix!
What is the SLIDE OF THE WEEK you ask? Each week I email a gem from my vintage slide collection. I comment on it and you can respond with your comments too! Also included in the email is info on my upcoming slide shows, field trips, and other events. (view a recent mailing here)
Curious, of course, the link led me to the following story:
An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls “the best job in the world” — earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.
The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner’s home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland’s state government announced on Tuesday.
In return, the “island caretaker” will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of “a few minor tasks” — and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.Read more…
ABOUT Art Predator aka Wine Predator aka bikergogal aka head coach at The Write Alley aka Compassionate Rebel:
A yogini cycling activist mama, I teach college, love wine, attend Burning Man, seek Hot Springs & blog about that which engages my soul. I'm a writing coach who can help you discover how to make your writing shine!
We have all heard about how 
by Candice Cunningham, of 2020 Images; she specializes in unusual wedding photography and her website is worth checking out! The poem combines lines from 3:15 experiment poems written August 15, 2008 by Danika Dinsmore, Tod McCoy and myself as part of our process of creating a collaborative piece to submit to a journal; this is the draft of the stanza I produced. Will let you know when you can see the final piece!
</p –>Get the SLIDE OF THE WEEK and info on upcoming events from 
art predator 