April 12, 2009
Peace, one stitch at a time
What started as a simple class project, Knitivism is becoming a growing presence on Penn State's campus as a form of peaceful protest and activism with only needles and yarn to do the talking.
Similar to Knitta Please and Jerilea Zempel, the students of Knitivism use the act of knitting as a way to promote peace. Because knitting has certain stereotypes, seeing students knitting in public is sure to gain some attention by people passing by.
It began in a women studies class taught by Stephanie Springgay and she asked her students to try knitting in public areas like the sidewalk or the bus, and see peoples reactions. From there, some of the students in that class realized that with all that attention, a lot of good could come out of it. In the Fall of 2008 Knitivism was started, and it is still growing.
Some of their events have been held to bring awareness to human rights issues like sexual violence against women and the genocide in Darfur. In addition to raising money through donations, the group also knits works that will be donated, such as scarves and peace blankets. Some events that they have planned are for Earth Day and Take Back the Night.
So if you're walking through Penn State's campus and you see a group of people knitting, stop by and ask what they're doing, they will even take the time to teach you how to knit.
April 6, 2009
Coming Soon
J o s é D í a z
OH SHIT, IT'S SPRING
Coming to a inVESTED blog near you.
April 4, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 13)
April 3, 2009
April 1, 2009
Mad Decent Days and Nights
Anyone From Philly knows about Mad Decent from their stickers posted on every “No Parking” sign in center city to their bang-up parties at The Mausoleum, their studio at 12th and Spring Garden, but when the Mad Decent team isn’t busy arguing with Philly’s finest over noise violations, like last nights Diplo and Boys Noize show, they’re moving from city to city wreaking havoc, throwing parties, and wearing Toad Masks. SxSW in Austin, TX was no different. Being from Philly as well I was able to as Flufftronix called it, “Mad Decent’s 50 plus crew."
The Mad Decent takeover started on Thursday night after the premier of Diplo’s Baile Funk documentary, Favela Strikes Back. Our first stop was to be the official SxSW Showcase for IHEARTCOMIX, a record label similar to Mad Decent. The Showcase was filled with Philly favorites like; Juiceboxxx, Totally Michael, and Designer Drugs, the DJ team who throws Live Forever at the Barbary. The only problem was practically none of us had any of the SxSW badges, meaning their was no way we would be able to see any of the performances, but when you’re with Mad Decent, problems like that don’t seem to matter anymore. We walk around the side of the bar and head to the back door where we were let in with hugs and handshakes from the bouncers.
When we arrived Radioclit was finishing their set and getting ready for Drop The Lime, one of the most promising DJ’s spinning at SxSW. As Drop The Lime dropped banger after banger I was puzzled when I noticed that most of Mad Decent team were keeping to themselves, either drinking silently with bobbing heads or talking with friends.
I didn’t have much time to think before we were out in the Austin air again. This time headed to the Fools Gold Records party being Thrown by Richard Henry a promoter and DJ from Austin. When we arrived at the club the line of guests seemed to stretch on forever, so again, we went to the back door where, after waiting for several minutes we again got in effortlessly.
The Fools Gold party was apparently the place to be that night. As the hours passed I was able to meet a whole slue of celebrities including; A-trak, Kid Sister, The Blood Brothers, Steve Aoki, DJ Mehdi, Little Boots, The Mae Shi, Flosstradamus and I’m fairly sure an incredibly drunk Fred Durst. Most of these people fall into my most played list in Itunes and of them put up with me geekin' out a bit, but again, I noticed that most of these celebrities and the Mad Decent crew were keeping to themselves. They weren’t spurning the advances of fans, but they also weren’t swimming in a pool of self-love and inflated ego, again I was puzzled. As morning creeped up on us and when I was able to get the drummer of Champagne Champagne to quit telling me what its like to be have started a rap group with The Blood Brothers and after Paul Devro stopped singing about zombies I thought all that celebrity gossipin'/fanboyin'/unhealthy obsessions.
I know that I've fanboy'd before, recently it might have cost me something important, but in all seriousness I'm not a perpetrator, at least not to the extent that I witnessed. There were people climbing up fences and walls to be inside this party. There were people who had more fame then I had and they were abusing it to attempt to saddle up next to people more famous than them. It wasn't Beatlesmania, but it was almost as pathetic. Sure, it's already known that I have a severely low tolerance for people, but that night it was stretched to its limit. As I said I'm guilty of it, but there is a line between respect and balls out dick sucking. And some good old foreplay is what I saw.
So if you find yourself in a situation much the same as the one I've presented be sure to at least say hello before you haul out anyones cock to slob it off.
March 30, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 10)
March 29, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 9)
March 26, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 8)
or something like that.
March 25, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 7)
March 23, 2009
LAN PARTY.
Okay, so hopefully everyone read Matt's masterpiece letter to Asher Roth. If you didn't, go back a few posts to March 3, 2009. A handful of students from Temple University and their friends created a spoof video on Asher's hit song "I Love College." Genius director and lyricist John Note and his chosen LAN party gamer-cast spent hours filming the video. I had the privilege to hang around and watch them, and let me tell you, if this song comes on the radio I am guaranteed a good laugh. Check out the video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHVMuRM2Kx8.
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 6)
March 20, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 5)
March 16, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 4)
1. Jasper
To perform a sex act on a coworker. If performed in the place of employment, this can be called the Full Jasper.
"I just jaspered that hot chick from work!"
to:
11. Jasper
Jewish Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Used by some Jews in Northern California to describe people of Jewish heritage who have completely assimilated into white gentile culture to the point that they are indistinguishable from WASPs, or people who seem like WASPs but are Jewish or half-Jewish.
“He seems so goyish, but he's really a jasper.”
However, when first I looked the word up, the first definition was:
14. Jasper
A name used to describe a hopeless lover.
“Yo man you need to grow some balls and stop being a Jasper!”
This is what I took as the meaning of ‘Jasper’ when Mary said:
“You boys are total Jaspers.”
OBEY! No One
I was working on an article about Fairey, which was ultimately supposed to be an explanatory piece that would hopefully (Can I use the word "HOPE" without infringing? YIKES!) lead my audience to consider for themselves whether or not they believe Fairey to be a proverbial sheister. After numerous attempts to contact the OBEY! company, they finally got back to me regarding my initial query: Does Fairey cite his sources anywhere?
Their answer: Buy the book.
His book, full of borrowed art, faux-pithy sayings and misrepresented socio-political imagery is about $60. Fat chance.
I am really quite tempted to photocopy a borrowed issue, highlight a few sections, staple it together and sell it on my website. It's tempting, until I think about how quickly this guy will turn around and sue me. Just like he's doing to Steelerbaby.
Please, join my crusade against Fairey and buy some Steelerbaby merch.
I hate the Steelers, as I am both a Philadelphian and not a football fan. Despite this, I shall buy a shirt to support the real "grassroots" artists and superfans who are being abused by a gluttonous, ego-centric, monster capitalist. I also happen to collect Kewpie dolls, so it's just a nice fit.
Yeah, capitalism usually doesn't bother me, but this type of abuse burns me up. Read more about Fairey's art crimes (my emphasis) here: Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey.
Also, he got blasted by the ASSOCIATE PRESS!
I know I'm just one, little, mostly-insignificant person, but I support local arts and artists and I don't want someone like Fairey reaping benefits that he should be sharing. I also, dare I say, think most of the OBEY! stuff is kind of dumb and emo looking. But, as I conceded, my opinion really doesn't matter.
Want to see some good, local, wearable art? Check out the artists at Space 1026, Magic Outlaw, Vox Populi, Art in the Age and Topstitch.
March 12, 2009
inVESTED In Austin
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 3)
March 10, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 2)
Roland Barthes, in A Lover’s Discourse, argues that the love letter is not tactical; it is not an “enterprise to defend positions, make conquests” (158). Rather, the letter is “purely expressive”. What is engaged in the other is a total relation between two images and not a mathematical correspondence with the other’s perceived weak points. Barthes did not live to see the inception of consumer-level recordable media, but the thought still bears mention.
I had a girlfriend who told me I was very talented at making mix CDs. She was impressed with the way in which the songs fit together in sequential order. I later made a mix for a different girl, including a song I had written about her; the lyrics were written accompanying the track list. Her roommates read it at her birthday party. Upon reviewing both cases (one with whom I had fooled around, the other about whom I had been fooled), I find that the use of “tactics” or “strategery” depends very much on your relationship to the other.
March 9, 2009
13 Éxitos que Nunca Oirás: A Serial Poem (Part 1)
March 3, 2009
An Open Letter to Asher Roth
Fix the recession? Let's get high!
February 19, 2009
I can't believe we missed this show
This is what happens when I decide not to keep up with my google reader for a day!
Ghostly International, an awesome Michigan based Record and Art company that put out one my favorite albums of 2008, Michna's Magic Monday, just put out Iamundernodisguise by School of Seven Bells. I'm kicking myself right now, because I just saw that the Brooklyn trio played the Trocadero last night, opening for Fujiya & Miyagi and they won't be back to the States or the East coast until June. Better yet, they're touring with one of my favorite artists while in Brighton, the one and only Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes)
You can catch them in D.C. tonight, but then they're out of the country! So jealous...
School of Seven Bells - My Cabal (Live on Radio K) from Radio K on Vimeo.
February 7, 2009
Frankford Avenue First Friday
First Stop was Atlantis, a bar favored by the guys from Philadelphia Brewing Company just around the corner, so don't hate on Kenzinger too loud in there if you don't want to get beat up by a bunch of beer brewers. Ryan Briggs (who looks like the lead singer of Yeasayer) was my guide for the night. He worked with the NKCDC to help organize the Frankford First Friday and went around making sure all the participating businesses were doing okay.
This is actually Ryan, not Chris Keating
Goldfish Gallery
Since this was our first stop I started to think no one was going to be out due to the biting cold weather, because there was one guy perusing the walls of Goldfish. There were a lot of interesting sculptures, bronze and plaster (I think) and these real kitschy photographs that made you blush if you were caught looking at them too long. The photographs were of older women, maybe late 30's to 40's, in really provocative poses or just straight up naked. It felt like that day you walked in on your parent's doing it and couldn't look them in the eye for a while. Yup. Anyways, the sculptures were really great though. There was a really really really fat cat sculpture with a little guy being crushed in its paws. I don't know, I thought it was funny.
Highwire was next and it was packed. Their exhibition theme was LOVE in honor of Valentine's Day. So keeping that in mind, I walk in and the first thing I see is a huge canon sized penis spitting out bubbles, oh and little kids were running all around it... basically frolicking. There were also some pretty graphic pencil drawings of girls getting it in with a dildo. gross, but also hilarious given the kids running around and all. There were some poetry readings that were mostly just three old guys saying whatever they felt like and being as over the top as they could be, which was great. The one poet wore a white button up shirt with Love written in lipstick on his collar and on the back of his shirt was, also in red lipstick, a giant penis. I bumped into my middle school art teacher and he remembered my name!? This is a photo of him and his daughter. I don't even think he was married when he taught me how to paint with numbers back in 7th grade.
Perpetua Antiques across the street was next. I really liked this place, but it was so cramped and there was SOO much stuff. The owner said he wanted to shut down early because he had to take the Mrs to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. I still don't know if this was a joke or not. After I told him about my dad's coin collection he slipped me this weird Chinese Silver Dollar coin or something... I'm not sure what it is. I didn't feel like explaining that I was actually Korean and being rude, plus the coin is pretty awesome. I'm gonna show it to my dad next time I'm home.
Anyways, woah, sorry I went so off tangent. I think this place is better explained through photos:
Mr. Ryan Briggs (aka the guy from Yeasayer) hahahahha.. don't hate me.
This place has a huge collection of Life magazine that I definitely want to go back to check out sometime!
The Germ Bookstore was next. I had interviewed the owner David Williams the other day for a short write up and found out all this info on the exhibition, which was DEITSCH HEATHEN HEXOLOGY. Like Pennsylvania Dutch Hexology. These hexes are found in barns all over Pennsylvania and their history relates to pagan practices by the first German immigrants that later became the Pennsylvania Dutch that we know today. Not necessarily the amish. There were four artists: Valúlfr Vaerulsson, Swan Hilde, Patricia Hall and Hunter Yoder. Hunter had this awesome piece that actually combined Indian mythology and had a depiction of Vishnu made out of parts from 9 different animals.
Phew... we were really tired at this point, so we dropped in the Rocket Cat cafe to get some tea and harass Holly behind the counter.
Bambi was our last stop. Even though First Friday was supposed to end at 9, we stayed there pretty late. I really liked their stuff and definitely want to go back to pick something up sometime.
That's all for now. Matt, your turn.
January 28, 2009
January 21, 2009
Oh, Damn. I FUCKED UP these PISSED JEANS
January 20, 2009
Obama Hearts Club Band
“The Hopeful Hearts Club is a painting that reflects the essence of hope that the campaign has inspired in millions of Americans over the past 2 years. The 1967 Beatles Sgt. Pepper album manifested during a time of social, economic, and worldwide change. I feel that we are in another moment where the choices we make are having a profound effect on our lives, and the world at large. "
- Michael W. Cuffe
Today, that change came, and it was beautiful.
Michael has other Obama inspired art here.
Support him!
(via: boingboing)