You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category.
What’s a gluten-free girl with a turkey allergy to do to assuage her craving for this fowl threesome? First things first. I kicked the turkey out of bed.
And fluffed up the pillows for a …you’ll never guess… an alligator! My own duckenator. More details on this creation at my foodie blog.
Shop local. Or shop etsy or a small craft or business who create products that you want to see more of in the world. I recommend activist art. Check your local recycle art suppliers. See if a bicycle co-op or community gardens or art school is offering classes. These are not only great gifts but a great way to get your nieces and nephews and relatives of un-self-declared gender to build skills and alliances in the community.
http://voluptuart.com/last-one-in-ornament-p-353.html
|
Last One In Ornament Price: $29.00 $20.30
|
I was searching through the archives of my livejournal, looking for myself and I found this instead. Dated July 1, 2001
—
Grrrr…
I suck at journaling.Virgina Woolf was out of her mind. “Loosening the ligatures of the mind” ?!?I have completely lost touch with what my goals were in keeping a journal. Is it to spiral into my own feelings? (Often difficult depending on who I think is listening… but f*ck, can’t I train myself to remember the variable privacy setting? Write what I want and then decide who I want to see it…) Is it to chronicle my own life-journey? Date life-events? Eavesdrop on my own feelings? Impress strangers? (Gee, I thought that’s what publishing was for.)
Larry’s journal is clearer to me. One he writes because I told him he had to. Two it has become a sort of daily love-letter to Carrie and I. He knows she reads it every day. I don’t actually. It becomes a reminder of all I haven’t written.
…ohmygawd, of course… a reminder of not writing. That was one of my goals. To write just to be writing anything. No one told me writer’s block would be this aching rage. I’m not sure I can actually call it writer’s block… perhaps writer’s ennui? Writer’s stillbirth? Writer’s blown headgasket?
Sometimes I pretend not to know why I’m not writing. There are so many multi-layered reasons for everything that you can speculate out the wazoo (about anything). But I know I’m not writing because I’m at a crossroads of competing goals. I came to a fork in the road and instead of choosing the path less traveled I sat down at the junction and said “welll, fuck!” Which goal is worthy? To novel or not to novel. If so, how to finish? To write *my* story? If so what to leave in, leave out… do I really want to share with the world what I’m reluctant to say to my therapist? Why? Why? Why not? To be famous? As what? Poet? Erotica writer? Performance poet? And what’s the point in writing if I’m not submitting/marketing/publishing? Gawdess, I need an agent. With an agent my goals could be so much less esoteric.
Tee called me a while ago and said “What are you doing to be famous?” I love her and she so inspires me and then I fall under the fist of depression and whybotherness. Still it’s lovely to have friends who recognize being famous as a worthy goal.
I don’t want to be famous. I want to be immortal. So instead of feeling guilty about wanting it I should get out of bed and greet myself in the mirror with “Morning, girlfriend, what have you done today to ensure your immortality?”
Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Shakespeare (the actor who was perhaps a playwrite, perhaps a plagarist, perhaps a pen-name but none the less immortal) they all had one thing in common. They were unwavering about their own genius and they pushed, pushed pushed their work. That is what it takes to join and even alter the canon of literature. Banish self-doubt. Live for art.
Posted at 06:05 am
Open Letter From HIV-Positive Prevention Advocates Rejects Misinformation About Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2011
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Close to 100 openly HIV-positive gay and bisexual men from across the United States and around the world have signed a new letter (http://tinyurl.com/pozPrEPletter) calling for an open discussion, “based on facts rather than on fear or misinformation,” of the challenges and opportunities presented by pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention in gay and bisexual men and transgender women. The new open letter is designed in part to urge FDA review of PrEP and to clarify facts about important PrEP research that advocates say have been misrepresented in a paid ad campaign sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF).
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a new HIV prevention method in which an uninfected person takes a daily HIV medication to reduce HIV infection risk. Data from an international study released in November, 2010 called iPrEx found that men and transgender women who have sex with men who received a daily single-tablet dose of the HIV drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine along with condoms and safe sex counseling had an average of 42% fewer HIV infections than those who received condoms and counseling alone. Much higher rates of protection were achieved among participants who took PrEP consistently.
Most of the HIV prevention community welcomed the news of a new tool that could significantly reduce infections in the populations at highest risk for HIV in many parts of the world. One HIV treatment provider, however, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has taken out an extensive series of full-page advertisements in gay papers around the country claiming that gay and bisexual men will act recklessly and will spread HIV if they are allowed to use PrEP. The AHF ad campaign claims that it is supporting gay and bisexual health by urging the U.S. FDA to ignore the PrEP study.
Today’s open letter challenges both the tone and content of the AHF communications and encourages “a full and factual discussion of the pros and cons of PrEP… based on facts, not misinformation.” Reminding the world that “gay and bisexual men invented safer sex…and have worked tirelessly to prevent new HIV infections,” the letter also points out that gay and bisexual men account for more than half of new HIV infections in the United States and are in particular need of new HIV prevention approaches.
“As an HIV positive gay man I signed this letter because I learned from experience we need all credible options to stop this epidemic. I owe my life to the fact that advocates and activists have pushed hard for decades to make effective AIDS drugs available to HIV-positive people,” said Kali Lindsey. “Now we know that AIDS drugs can also play an important role in the health and well-being of HIV-negative gay men, how could we not move forward to reap the benefits of this research. It is not an option to ignore these findings.”
In July of this year the results of two addition studies, Partners PrEP (led by the University of Washington Department of Global Health) and TDF2 (led by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) demonstrated that PrEP is also safe and effective in heterosexual women and men. The Partners study found that participants who received PrEP experienced an average of 62-73% fewer HIV infections than those who received placebo. The TDF2 trial, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that the risk of HIV infection dropped by an average of 63% among those who received PrEP in addition to condoms and counseling. Data expected from the FEM-PrEP trial, which was stopped in April after it was determined that the trial would not be able to provide an efficacy result, will also provide additional information about PrEP use among women.
The new letter acknowledges that the PrEP, “is no magic solution to the HIV crisis,” and that research, “raises important questions…includ(ing) how to best support regular PrEP use; how to ensure the continued use of condoms and other precautions for those who decide to take PrEP; how to target PrEP to those who will benefit most; and how to pay for this new HIV prevention tool.” Its signers express their commitment “to promoting safer sex and the open exchange of accurate information on HIV prevention,” and to “clarify the facts about PrEP, open up community discussion and make clear our belief that we are entitled to respect, accurate information and new HIV prevention tools.” The letter concludes by calling on all interested parties to “get the facts about PrEP, seek information, and express opinions…but to do so based on real information, not fear of the scientific process or prejudice against gay/bi men.”
The letter was coordinated by a group of U.S.-based AIDS advocacy organizations, including AIDS Foundation of Chicago, AVAC, International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA), and Project Inform.
A copy of the sign-on letter supporting an informed debate on PrEP for gay and bisexual men is below. Openly HIV-positive gay and bisexual men who wish to add their name to the letter can do so at: http://tinyurl.com/pozPrEPletter.
SOURCE AVAC
CONTACT: Kay Marshall, +1-347-249-6374, kay@avac.org
Imagine you are at a cocktail party. A stranger making small talk asks you “What do you do for a living?” Innocent question or time bomb? Well, that depends on your answer. There are two professions it is dangerous to admit in any social situation without a foolproof exit strategy. These are jobs which are only glamorous to outsiders and for some reason cause strangers to feel entitled to monopolize your evening and attempt to wring every bit of free professional advice out of you that they can.
Which two jobs?
Doctor and, believe it or not, Writer. Admitting you’re a physician is too often followed up with a list of physical ailments or an insistent invitation to look at a stranger’s mole. “Does this look like cancer?”
So what do writers have to complain about? The same thing actually. The unsolicited demand that we examine and diagnose everyone/anyone’s literary moles.
I have taught, published and edited writing for two decades. I’m proud of what I do. Still I’m tempted to make up answers for the casual inquisitor. “What do I do? Let me think…” Government cheese inspector? Assassin? The inventor of bikini wax?
Me: Okay you caught me, I’m a writer.
Them: I write too!
Me: (glassy eyed nod)
Them: Would you take a look at my writing and tell me if it’s any good?
For some reason this request always comes out as one question. Sadly, the more aggressive the request/er, the more likely I will not enjoy their work.
Truthfully, they are asking the wrong question. And definitely asking it the wrong way. When a student or colleague asks “Is this story/poem/whatever any good?” I answer them with a question of my own.
“Good for what?”
All writing has an agenda: to persuade, to entertain, to inform, etc. Here’s a quick grammar lesson. Every sentence must have at least two components: a subject and a verb. Persuade, entertain, inform: these are all perfectly lovely verbs, but they require more than the subject (your writing) to complete their sentence -and to fulfill their purpose. They require an object. Persuade, entertain or inform whom?
Sometimes we become so obsessed with the technique of writing we forget its purpose: to communicate ideas between the author and the audience.
Is it any good? Good for what? Before you can answer those questions ask yourself this one: Why (and for whom) did you write it? The right question is not is “Is this writing good?” The right question is “Is this writing successful?” Does it do what it set out to do?
If a poem was written to commemorate your parents’ wedding anniversary or seduce a lover, your intended audience is clear. If you are looking for publication, then you must ask yourself market by market: is this poem/story a match for this audience?
When you meet me at a party, ask me instead “Should I submit this poem to the New Yorker?” The answer is usually “No.” However, if you ask me “Is it publishable?” The answer is always a resounding “Yes.” In today’s market, where publishing is cheap and accessible everything, literally EVERYTHING, is publishable. It’s just a matter of finding the appropriate audience.
Stephenie Meyer did.
Sunday, April 17th, 2011 12-3 pm (please note date change!)
Writer’s Resource Fair
Portland’s Central Library
Portland, OR 97205
Angst Gallery
Angst n. (Angkst) :
An acute but unspecific feeling of
anxiety; usually reserved for
philosophical anxiety about the world
or about personal freedom.
1015 Main Street, Vancouver, WA 98660 
360.253.1742 Leah.AngstGallery@gmail.com
Wednesday to Saturday, Noon to 5:00 pm or by Appointment
Burning Word
Burning Word at Icicle Creek
Co-Sponsored by the Washington Poets Association with generous support from A Book for All Seasons
May 21-22, 2011
http://icicle.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150&catid=1&Itemid=141 COVER TO COVER BOOKS6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
Welcome Artist & Muse,
Thank you for your interest in BeMuse, a cross-disciplinary collaboration project for artists, musicians, writers and more!
In order to pair you with another participant, we would like you to forward the following information to poetrymaven@gmail.com on or before April 22: *artist’s name, email address and phone number
*a brief bio or artist statement
*the title of your work, its size, medium and style
*any special requirements or notes of which the curator should be aware
BeMuse will commence with the unveiling of the initial pairings at the launch of a preliminary month-long show starting May 1st and the results of the collaboration will constitute the second show opening on June 1st. Both will be public events including poetry reading, music and other performance.
Each participant will have 20+ days to complete a new and original work inspired by the Muse with whom you are paired. The new work should be delivered to (or arranged with) the curator by May 25th. If you wish to participate but are unable to attend the May 1st launch party, please let BeMuse organizers know. (We will be unable to pair you with a performance artist, musician or dancer –as their performance would be your inspiration.)
If you have additional questions, please feel free to ask. We’re excited about this new endeavor and thank you in advance for your interest and participation. With your help as an artist and muse, we hope to make this BeMuse, the first of many.
Yours,
G.L. Morrison
poetrymaven@gmail.com
In 2009, I participated in an international art collaboration project called “Art Spark”. The brainchild of Virginia artist, Amy Sousa, “Art Spark” paired two artists; usually one visual and one literary. Each artist would offer up a previously finished work as an inspiration for a new work to be created by the other. The writer, painter or photographer then had TEN DAYS to finish the piece and both were displayed side by side in a virtual gallery.
I had fun. Evidence below.
But I thought why can’t we recreate this locally, shown in a gallery side by side where the work can be fully (not digitally appreciated) and out of that thought BeMuse was born!
BeMuse is open to any artist who wishes to participate. You will be randomly paired with an artist-muse and will Be Muse for a fellow participant. Applications will soon be available (check this blog or Lalanarts.com for updates). Each participant submits a piece which will appear in a gallery(s) TBA. The opening show will be on May 1st. Arrangements will be made by email to deliver the work to the gallery prior to the show. Dancers, musicians or performance artists will be given time slots and venues and will make all needs known in advance to the show’s curator. We will do what we can to accommodate diverse forms but organizers reserve the right to restrict participation wherever other reasonable accommodations cannot be provided.
At the May 1st BeMuse launch party, artists will discover the Muses with whom they have been paired based on application criteria, randomness and organizers’ whimsy. The public will enjoy the show but will not know the otherwise secret pairings. Artists will have 20 days to create a new work based on the art/inspiration assigned to them. On June 1st-ish, the BeMuse relaunch occurs. Works will have been rearranged to show the inspired pairings side by side.
Gabriel Shanks and G.L. Morrison
Gabriel Shanks
Duet Of Myself
Created using G.L. Morrison’s poem (below) as inspiration
Howl for Me
By G.L. Morrison
I have howled at night alone like a dog, hollow and wild
I have coo-whimpered the dying song of a pigeon caught in the dog’s
mouth
my heart is a double-throated singer, duet of myself
killer-howl/killed-cry
I stalk myself through these mad streets
passing cars toss their headlights in puddles like discarded cigarettes
cherry burning
their reflection set my feet on fire
acid clouds darken with chemical rain
my shadow splashes at the side of building
gray as hiroshima ash
the best minds of my generation
were destroyed by greed
and doting parents and I didn’t see it
I was busy learning not to look, not look
starving in our mothers’ kitchens
clothed only in our father’s prejudices
starving, cynical, naked
we dragged ourselves through alleys
and days looking for nothing
anger is justice defiled but
we never knew her innocent
justice was turning tricks before we were born
we danced the faggot streets
knew everything, expected nothing
and were never surprised
burning adolescent tallow off our quick lit wicks
saving nothing for tomorrow
who knew we would survive?
starry nights, so many starry nights
seen through madhouse windows
constellations sordid and stale
yesterday’s failed suicide attempt
stars falling like accusations
beautiful in their falling
belle morte,
fireworks, light show, stars in death
beautiful, beautiful
the machinery of night
grinds on, gears slip
noticing us not at all
——————————————————-
Gabriel Shanks
Canal and Mott
Inspiration piece provided to G.L. Morrison
Canal and Mott
By G.L. Morrison
The ghosts of what’s to come shop here.
Armed with bright shopping bags
that smell of cloves and Szechuan pepper,
but are filled to overflowing with totchke moments
savory regrets and battery operated
appliances of destiny, these zeitghosts overtake
our common sense(s). They are reverse
pickpockets who slip gaudy keychains
and snowglobes into the bags of unwary tourists.
Possibilities chase us up the street like rain
forcing us to take shelter in storefront windows
and kiosks full of everything we never knew
to need. Buy nothing and still it will all come
home with you. The open Air is five-spice thick:
the bitter hickory smoke of a street vendor’s poultry
competes for top note with the invisible breeze
of star anise and cinnamon that trails after
an old woman exiting an adjacent restaurant.
Hao Hao.
Pungent but good as the moment passed,
the moment to come waits like a mugger.
Stars appear in the still light city sky
distant and dark as fennel seeds in rye bread.
We can’t help noticing
every sixty seconds we spend here
we grow one minute older.
——————————————————-
Note: All of the art, writing, and music on this site belongs to the person who created it. Copying or republishing anything you see here without express and written permission from the author or artist is strictly prohibited.
Recent Comments