"Dust & Illusions" BM film special screening in Berkeley June 4

anyone else want to go?
must buy your own pre-sale ticket via Paypal on website BEFORE JUNE 1ST.
thursday june 4 8:30-10:30 show.
maybe dinner first?

dustandillusions.com/screeni...4th-2009

Join director Olivier Bonin for a screening of Dust & Illusions.
The David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
Seats are limited
The film starts at 8:45pm sharp. Film is 83 minutes long. Be on time.

Spring Training LOST AND FOUND

LOST AND FOUND! yesterday at Spring Training in Joaquin Miller park

a pair of black cheap sunglasses
some brown/orange/blue woolly stripey arm warmers
a pair of light brown knit legwarmers, made out of sweater arms
a bright blue metal water bottle with gold swirly pattern
a silver metal water bottle with a tree on it that says "earthlust"
a blue "sierra outfitters" nalgene
a black striped fedora with a black floral appliqué (found wet)
a silver bracelet
a hot pink and black soaker/squirt gun
a pair of Reef flip flops - black and blue, girl size 7ish

that's all i got. if it's yours, you need to contact me and find a way to pick it up either in West Berkeley (near 4th street) during the day M-F or in West Oakland at night/on the weekend. amy@amyleblanc.com

Spring Training : Free Day Party in Joaquin Miller : Sunday May 17th!

"Of the many options you have for getting in shape this weekend -- maybe you were thinking about a few hours on the elliptical, or perhaps running drunkenly across the city in costume -- there is only one that will insure you are fully prepared for the seasonal shift from blooming to booming:

SPRING TRAINING
Sunday, May 17, 1-8pm
Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland

With your dedicated personal trainers...

Alxndr (DownLow, False Profit)
benchun (False Profit)
Dov (Muti Music)
Eugene Steele
:Metaphor:, aka Dave Jolley (additech.com)
Obi-J (False Profit)
Rhythmystic (Rhythm Society)

It's also worth mentioning that at least one meteorological expert and/or online internet web site predicts 85-degree weather for Oakland on Sunday. Bring your sunscreen, put extra ice in the cooler, and do all those weird-looking stretches before attempting any strenuous exertion!"

2 requests/demands

1. i am going to ask you (again) to please sign this petition for a sustainable USDA:
www.fooddemocracynow.org/origi...gners/
if you have questions, ask them, and i will do my best to answer or point you in the direction of some further information. but the gist is: our current food production model really sucks. we are raping the environment. we are making bad food cheap, and good food expensive. farmers are struggling nationwide. and i say WE, because it is our government, and our tax dollars. so sign it.

2. if you are within reasonable distance of san francisco, i urge you to come to this party tomorrow night, BEFORE 11pm, to see jay blow up the dancefloor. srsly. no joke. you do not want to miss this.

www.false-profit.com/2009/02...timulus/

Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:00pm
Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 4:00am
Cellspace
2050 Bryant Street
SF, CA
$15 at the door

SPACE IS LIMITED, so come early. if you come late and don't get in, blame yourself, not the recession.

openness

www.amyleblanc.com/2008/10/openness

October 14th, 2008

we watched “lars and the real girl” the other night, and it was not only way better than i thought it would be, it was one of the most touching and darkly funny movies i’ve seen in quite some time. the film was marketed as a sort of slapstick thing - i mean the premise just SEEMS slapstick - a reclusive shy guy buys a blowup doll (a RealDoll more specifically), falls in love with it, and takes her around town like a girlfriend, introducing her to people and having conversations. it WAS really funny (i laughed so much the whole way through), just done in a darker, more thoughtful, more uncomfortable way, not in a ‘haha that’s so stupid’ way. but take that silly premise and imagine for a minute if Lars were your brother, someone who’s been socially dysfunctional his whole life, someone who never had any friends or talked to any girls or left his dark room except to go to work and come right straight home again. imagine if that sad, lonely person really did this, and not in a joking way, but in an honest, sincere way - “mom, i’d like you to meet my girlfriend”. imagine how the family, how a small town community, might react, especially when it became clear that it was not a joke.

the movie does a great job of not focusing on what i imagine in most small towns would have been a lot of hostility and horrible taunting, not unlike what is described here: tinycatpants.wordpress.com/2008...town/ . it seems a little optimistic and fantastic that everyone in the town accepts and supports what Lars is doing (the situation is decribed to everyone as a “delusion” that is helping Lars learn how to love and socialize after experiencing emotional trauma, and if they all just support him, he might turn out to be OK), and only once do i remember anyone in the film really saying anything mean. but even though it seems hard to buy at first that everyone would be so congenial about it, after a while you begin to see that it creates the real premise of the film: what if we treated people who weren’t like us with compassion instead of hostility? it’s specifically targeted at mental illness, but you don’t have to reach very far to apply this to all of us, everywhere.

my friend swan recently wrote a story about her homeless friend who lives in her neighborhood and whom she will miss terribly when she moves away soon, and it really touched me because i see so many people ignore homeless people every day, walk across the street from them, give them dirty looks. she describes a free spirit, a kind, gentle, giving human being who sees the world as his oyster and gives her so much joy, but only because she took the time to get to know him, to talk to him, to see him for who he really was. i bet most people on the block where she lives see him and wish he wasn’t there.

the movie also made me think a lot about certain members of my family and kids i knew growing up who were ignored, chastised, abused because they suffered from mental illnesses, or at a minimum were extremely socially dysfunctional. in the beginning of the film, when the siblings go to a therapist, they automatically assume he should be institutionalized. “why?” the therapist asks, “he’s not hurting himself or anyone else. he’s functional. you should support him.” and it’s true. usually what happens when families discover that someone has a mental illness those people are “put away” instead of supported. they are exiled instead of nurtured.

again, in many less extreme cases, we do this to those who need help - to those on our streets, in our communities, even in our own families - every day. on even lesser levels we do it to eachother, socially excluding people “not like us”, forming cliques and subcultures with walls like jerusalem. why?

it also made me think about my sister, who for several years now has helped run a home for adults with mental disabilities. not only does she have so much patience, whenever i see her interact with her clients she treats them just like she treats everyone else. it sounds easy, but it’s not. they love her. she loves them. she respects them. she treats them only as differently as she needs to in order to take care of them. i respect that a lot.

anyway, i highly recommend the film, especially if you know someone who’s been ostracized by their communities for no reason other than being “different”, when just a little bit of openness might have gone a long way.

Pigeons at Dawn

Extraordinary efforts are being made
To hide things from us, my friend.
Some stay up into the wee hours
To search their souls.
Others undress each other in darkened rooms.

The creaky old elevator
Took us down to the icy cellar first
To show us a mop and a bucket
Before it deigned to ascend again
With a sigh of exasperation.

Under the vast, early-dawn sky
The city lay silent before us.
Everything on hold:
Rooftops and water towers,
Clouds and wisps of white smoke.

We must be patient, we told ourselves,
See if the pigeons will coo now
For the one who comes to her window
To feed them angel cake,
All but invisible, but for her slender arm.

–Charles Simic

basura sagrada :: tomorrow :: june 12 @ DNA

tomorrow night @ DNA lounge in SF there is a fundraiser for this year's temple, basura sagrada (sacred garbage, holy trash), at which my friend miranda caroligne and i will be artfully serving the crowd from 7:30 onward. if you're around, i highly recommend attendance at something beautiful....


Please join us at SAGRADA, a beautiful event supporting the vision of the 2008 Burning Man Temple!

Thursday, June 12
DNA LOUNGE, San Francisco
7pm-4am

We invite you to eat, drink, dance and make merry while offering up some abundance to this year's community temple space, BASURA SAGRADA. For years, people have relied on the temple as a physical space of transcendence, a place to connect to their own sense of the metaphysical and provide meaningful offerings and prayers to the beyond. Now, we come to you in great need of your financial support so that we may continue to make the temple a reality!

The Sagrada Soiree offers many ways to tithe along with fellow burners, patrons, and temple supporters. With sumptuous dishes creatively served by temple avatars (Miranda Caroligne and Lady LeBlanc!), tasty libations, performances by mind-blowing troupes, live painting with Shrine and others, it's a unique event not to be missed! In addition, we will be hosting an incredible art auction featuring one-of-a-kind works by artists and friends of the temple, some special presentations by the Basura Sagrada creators, and other delights to complete this lavish evening gala. Plus, it's all set to a beautiful soundtrack by some of the best downtempo talent in the city!

Later, we will throw open the doors to the entire community, and turn up the heat (and the volume) for some splendid late-night celebration. With more performance, more music, and more art than you can believe, SAGRADA will provide an exciting peek at what this year's temple has to offer!

Get your tickets now and support this sacred undertaking!

SAGRADA SOIREE — 7pm-4am
$150 ($250 for two!)
Hosted reception between 7-10 pm, with VIP access to special performances, presentations, and pre-event admission to the silent auction. Includes ample hors d'oeuvres and drink specials, conversations with the artists, and much more!

SAGRADA SHAKEDOWN — 10pm-4am
$17 PRESALE
$20 AT THE DOOR
edIT: anasia: saQi: COMMA: mozaic: EPROM

For tickets, please visit www.dnalounge.com

For more information about the Basura Sagrada temple project, visit www.basurasagrada.org

Basura Sagrada is working with MAPS, a generous non-profit foundation, to make a portion of your Patron Level ticket price tax-deductible.

Spring Training : Free Day Party in Joaquin Miller : Sunday June 1

(spring training 2007 photo by jasonunbound)

...the most beautiful non-renegade day party in all the bay area is happening this sunday, and the weather report says SUNNY IN THE EAST BAY HILLS, even if it's foggy in the city...
www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin...Forecast

get ready
get set
go!

www.false-profit.com/2008/06...raining/

False Profit presents...

Spring Training
Sunday, June 1st
Joaquin Miller Park (@ Woodminster Falls)
3300 Joaquin Miller Rd
Oakland
where?
maps.google.com/maps

Noon-8p
Free

Alxndr (False Profit, DownLow)
benchun (False Profit)
DJJD (False Profit)
Dov (Muti Music)
Dr. Toast (False Profit)
F’kir (elderfae.net)
Obi-J (False Profit)
and more TBA…

Oakland, CA - As global weather patterns continue to destabilize, campout industry insiders have been busily preparing for the Summer Quarter. They reportedly expect that investors, given new confidence by the influential predictions of the Sun, will arise from hibernation into a wild fits of weekend trading that will send the Bass Index soaring.

False Profit, LLC, a major player in the campout industry, is taking measures to ensure a smooth market transition.

In a move that the Treasury Department has hailed as “fiscally healthy”, False Profit, LLC will offer Spring Training, a free “Summer Campouts for Dummies” course, that will help investors prepare for the upcoming trading frenzy.

“You can’t just jump right into these frenzies,” said Dina Pinza, a Senior Medical Analyst for False Profit, LLC. “Even the most experienced summer camper needs a little refresher course.” She added, “You’ve seen what Bass can do to people.”

Spring Training will be held in picturesque Joaquin Miller Park on Sunday, June 1st from noon until 8pm. False Profit, LLC recommends participants bring water, food, and sunscreen.

EBX roundup: The Grouch, Ariel Schrag, and George Lakoff

i wanted to point out a few articles of interest in the current East Bay Express:

this EBX article gives a bit of history and background to The Grouch (of "you ain't artsier than me" fame), a bay area native, and reveals that he's not really that much of a hater. or a grouch:

Anti-Artsy Emcee
www.eastbayexpress.com/music/...Content

"He explains that the song is set up as a parody, and the video is actually a pastiche of images borrowed from other people's videos: ink blots from Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," hand gestures from a Hewlett Packard commercial, silhouettes from an ad for iPods. In describing the video, Grouch is pretty open and unapologetic about his intent: The concept behind it, he said, "was that we were stealing from other people's artsy campaigns that they had already put out."

CocaineBlunts.com blogger Noz suggested that the song is actually a diss on Grouch's fanbase — a claim Grouch resolutely denies, though it has gained currency in the blogosphere. He said it's mostly about being an anti-elitist: the guy in the hip-hop scene who's not boasting about how he has the flyest clothes and the rarest records; the guy in the hippie scene who's not trying to front like a baller just because he ate brown rice and salad for lunch today.

Grouch takes the Barack Obama gambit in this album, emphasizing personal stories, ranting against elitism, and gabbing about life in the domestic sphere..."

if you want to watch the video, it's here:
www.youtube.com/watch



then, there's this interesting piece about Ariel Schrag, now known as one of the writers of The L Word but first famous at Berkeley High for self-publishing comic books about the awkwardness of being a teenager the she sold to her classmates:

Top Spy at Berkeley High
www.eastbayexpress.com/artscu...Content

"She wrote Awkward during the summer after her freshman year, cribbing it partly from sketchbooks she filled with cartoon depictions of stupid high school exploits (like spray-painting with boys or stealing yogurt pretzels from a store and getting chewed out by the cashier). "My brain sort of naturally did the perfect amount of editing, in terms of remembering what was interesting and forgetting what wasn't," Schrag said. Awkward is the most primitive of her comics, though it's still a thoroughly entertaining read, filled with a fourteen-year-old's chatty stories about her crush on actress Juliette Lewis, and the best guy friend who became a pseudo boyfriend, but not really...

Schrag finished Awkward before tenth grade and sold copies for five bucks a pop. By the time she started school in the fall, she was a minor campus celebrity."



and finally, a sad but revealing article on the recent demise of The Rockridge Institute, a thinktank co-founded by well-known linguist George Lakoff formed to focus on pushing the progressive movement forward. mostly interesting because 1) i'm working for a similar thinktank, and the lessons learned here about funding and image apply to many small progressive organizations, whether NGOs or not, and 2) the idea of 'framing' is something that we do a lot of in my environmental public policy work, and one around which me and my colleague formed an "environmental salon" in 2005; the shorthand for the name of the group was "enviro-framers", inspired by Lakoff's book, Don't Think of an Elephant.

Framing Issues Is Hard; Just Ask George Lakoff
www.eastbayexpress.com/news/f...Content

"Because Lakoff's best-selling book had received such acclaim, everyone assumed Rockridge was flush with cash. "People thought that they should just get stuff from us for free," said Joe Brewer, a fellow who wrote about environmental policy. He said advocacy groups would approach Rockridge talking excitedly about how they could use the institute's resources; when they heard there was a price tag attached, "they just turned off," Brewer said.

In fact, Rockridge suffered from the same fund-raising issues that plague all progressive organizations, where funding is often doled out in dribs and drabs for small, specific projects. Conservatives don't have that problem, Brewer said. "The Cato Institute will get a million dollars a year for five years, and the donor will say, 'Do whatever you need to do to reach your goals,'" he said. Whereas in the progressive world, it's more like: "Here's $20,000 and we're going to watch how you spend every penny, and no you're not going to get any more," he said.

...Brewer and his colleague Eric Haas both say that the group realized six months ago that "framing" was the wrong word for its focus. Too many people took that word to mean that the Rockridge Institute worked on spin, propaganda, and messaging, and that it wanted to slap some new labels on candidates and policy proposals to trick the public into supporting them. A review of Lakoff's best-seller in The Atlantic called framing "psychobabble," and Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel devoted a section of his own book to bashing Lakoff, saying that Lakoff is "flat-out wrong" to think that Democrats can win campaigns through word games."


cognitive framing and linguistics are something we spend a lot of time on in the public policy field, as the words used to describe an issue have so much weight and meaning and greatly affect how people think about a subject, whether it's immigration or healthcare or the economy or national security, and it's sad that the Rockridge Institute, as the author points out, ironically framed themselves in a way that negatively affected their success.