To Do: Worldwide Pillow Fight

The annual International Pillow Fight Day is soon approaching and will be celebrated in dozens of cities world-wide. This years fun in Los Angeles Pillow Fight will be happening on April 3, 2010 at 3pm in Pershing Square, located at 532 South Olive Street 90013. As part of the Urban Playground Movement, this is just one of several types of events that have taken place around the world in recent years with the purpose transforming society from a mindless group of "passive, non-social, branded" consumers zombie-ing out in front of the telly into a "global community of participants".

Blog on Blog Action 3

Here are some funny blogs about hipsters and dogs. I can't remember where I found them/ who passed them on, but they are cute. Unlike my blog which is never funny and rarely cute. So not exactly competition. =)


http://unhappyhipsters.com is a humourous take on Hipster lifestyle and architecture.

http://hipsterpuppies.tumblr.com features adorable canines and sometimes biting commentary on Hipster chic.

All Too True

I saw a witty bumper sticker the other day that made a simple, yet profound commentary on how all to often religion causes separation and conflict between us. How something with such a potential for beauty and communion can so repeatedly be used by humanity to shame, oppress and sometimes even 'excuse' the slaughter of our fellow man is beyond me. What is intended to uplift, too frequently is justification for the most despicable and low behavior we are capable of.


Is it evidentiary of the predictability of humans propensity for cruelty and conflict that religion is so regularly abused and misused to justify our wars and perpetuating abuses of power on our fellow world citizens, or is it a testament to the inherent potential for goodness and fellowship of man that a practice of worshiping a higher power can imbue that is the reason that modern organized religion even exists?

To Do: LA Day Trip

THE FORESTIERE UNDERGROUND GARDENS of Fresno, CA are the 40 year labor of love modeled after ancient catacombs.


Located at 5021 West Shaw Avenue in Fresno, California they are an unusual manmade creation built by Baldasare Forestiere (1879--1946), an immigrant from Sicily, over a period of 40 years from 1906 to until his death in 1946. The gardens, while subterranean, have many skylights and catchbasins for water.

There are a wide variety of hybrids and grafted trees, and the underground temperature helps guard against frost.

It is operated by members of the Forestiere family through the Forestiere Historical Center, and can be considered a spectacular and unconventional example of vernacular architecture.



Baldassare Forestiere was a Self - taught Artist, Architect, Engineer, Horticulturist and Builder.





The Forestiere Underground Gardens
are located at 5021 West Shaw Avenue
Fresno, CA 93722-5026
and are open March thru November
for tours.

The 46 Stages of Twitter

I copy and pastes this directly from ShaneNickerson.com

I'm sure I probably found it on someone's twitter feed, probably Dino's, since I seem to get more news an pop culture event info from there than I do the yahoo main page.

He has some other interesting blogs on random stuff. Much more commentary and I suppose more 'real' blog-esque than my stuff. So, if you like that sort of thing, then check him out.

The 46 stages of Twitter

1. Hear the word Twitter. Scoff.
2. Hear it again from someone else. Scoff again.
3. Hear about famous celebrity who is apparently "On Twitter." Scoff, but make mental note to check it out.
4. Log into Facebook to comfort self.
5. Sign up for Twitter.
6. Give up because it seems dumb.
7. Loudly criticize others on Twitter.
8. Follow @johncmayer, @aplusk, @rainnwilson, @wilw, @mrskutcher, @oprah, and one other person you actually know.
9. Post tweet that is a variant of: "Trying out this Twitter thing."
10. Attempt to dig a little deeper into Twitter.
11. Notice rampant usage of words: "Tweet," "Twitter," "Twitterverse," "Tweetie," "Tweetdeck," and something called "RT."
12. Scoff again, this time in confusion.
13. Tell friends you "tried that Twitter thing, but didn't get it and it's stupid anyway."
14. Log into Facebook because that site at least makes sense.
15. Read story about Twitter somewhere.
16. Log back into Twitter.
17. Try to avoid saying Tweet, Twitter, Twitterverse, Tweetie, Tweetdeck, and ReTweet.
18. Respond to @rainnwilson.
19. Curse self for fanning out.
20. Log off for 4 months.
21. Come back, just to see.
22. Post something relatively funny.
23. Get RT'd.
24. Discover that RT means ReTweet.
25. Make it your life mission to get RT'd.
26. Install Twitter app on your phone.
27. No longer ashamed to say "I've gotta Twitter that."
28. Attend events with the sole intention of "Tweeting" them.
29. Pray to get RT'd.
30. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
31. Close computer.
32. Open computer. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
33. Think in 140 character sentences.
34. Compulsively check phone all day every day.
35. Tweet that you compulsively check phone all day every day.
36. Alienate actual people in your life in an attempt to impress ones you don't know.
37. Lose weight because you forget to eat.
38. Place phone by bed so you can check first thing in the morning.
39. Defend Twitter to the death from detractors.
40. Hear self, and vaguely recognize that you have become "That Guy."
41. Feel like, and start to behave like River Tam.
42. Vow to quit Twitter to preserve sanity.
43. Read this and change mind.
44. Think to self, "I should twitter that."
45. Recognize irony.
46. Twitter it.*Related Video: "F Twitter."

Did I miss any?

Art & Culture: Silent Film Goddess Lingyu Ruan

Lingyu Ruan was one of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930's. Before her tragic death by overdose at age 24, she acted in 29 films, all of them silent. Her tumultuous life was dogged by massive pressure and gossip from tabloids, mostly resulting from an extended legal battle with her scoundrel of an ex-husband.

Maggie Cheung played her in the 1992 biopic Yuen Ling-yuk.

Below is a clip from her 1933 film 'Little Toys', one of only 8 of her films remaining in existence, the entirety of which, along with 'The Goddess' may be viewed on THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL.



Part 1/8 of 'The Goddess' (Wu Yonggang, 1934) with English Intertitles

Cool Website:

Soul Pancake was created by Rainn Wilson for the purpose of exploring, sharing and discussing creativity, philosophy and spirituality. Quite simply fantastic.

Here is a great art video from the Soul Pancake website:


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Art & Culture: International Film

Gabbeh is a superbly arresting and visually stunning feast for the eyes. One of my top favorite films of all time.


Trailer for Gabbeh

Musical Flying Saucers

The Hang means "hand" in the Bernese language (pronounced "hu-ng") is a young musical instrument. It was created in Bern, Switzerland in 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer of The PANArt Company after many years of research on the steel pan and numerous other resonating percussion instruments from around the world such as Gong, Gamelan, Ghatam, drums, cowbells, and musical Saw.

This percussion instrument is comprised of 2 metal hemispheres bonded together: the top side contains 8 tone fields which together form the 'tone circle' (scale or mode). The circle surrounds the central dome, or DING, which sounds like a Gong. The bottom side has a hand sized hole, the GU, for resonance, which can be played like an udu or used to modulate the sounds of the DING (either with a hand or a wooden damper, a DUM).

The Udu-like sounds are produced with the air resonance, the sounds of the clamped shallow shells sound like bells or harmonically tuned steelpans. The inner note on the bottom dome is the bass note, and when played in a dampened way allows change in pitch like a talking drum. Seven to nine notes are tuned harmonically around a central deep note. The hemispheres are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding (a thermal treatment process in which nascient hydrogen atoms diffuse into the steel and form nitride compounds with many of the alloys in the steel).

The Hang is typically played resting on the player's lap with the palms of the hand, thumbs and fingertips instead of mallets, so the sound is soft and warm. Depending on how it is played the notes can sound like a harp, bells, or harmonically tuned steelpans.

The PANArt Company was offering a number of Hang models and encourages each purchaser to participate in the design their own instrument since each Hangis tuned individually, which allows each person to choose their personal 'tone circle'. Word is that currently the creators are taking a break from making Hangs, so if you want to buy your own you may contact them via mail to be placed on the waiting list or hope to stumble on someone selling theirs.

PANArt Hangbau AG
Engehaldenstr. 131
3012 Bern/Switzerland
Phone international: +41 31 301 33 32
E-Mail: info@hang.ch



Hang

For more Hang vids see The Art of Fusion or Davide Swarup.

Recovering...

from way too much fun at last nights Anti-Valentines Tequila & Porn Party. Smashing success. The adult theme entertainment offered endless conversation starters and opportunity for commentary. Everyones parting words were (circa 4:30am kick out time), "When can we do this again?!"

WARNING: this post is 18+ only, if you are under the age of 18, STOP READING now. k, thx

We watched a number of different films from various genres and time periods. I'm taking the time here today to review them and share some general impressions.

We started off with Vintage Burlesque which was a DVD burn of an old VHS tape of a collection of Burlesque dancers from the earliest days up to the 70's or so. It was both entertaining and informative. It allowed for easy viewing without interrupting conversation flow and was a great introduction to the nights activities.

Next up was some Hentai, which was, as I had been warned, rather strange and disturbing. Plant monsters raping young girls with their freaky tentacles. Eww.

After the creepy cartoons, we watched a DVD of some of the old Betty Page films, which were fabulous, of course. Then we segued into a vinyl/fetish film that explores various bondage related fetishes, which we viewed on x2 fast forward. It was mostly tedious, with drawn out scenes of flogging that moved on to electro stimulation via various attachments followed by some rather unengaging girl-on-girl-on-girl action involving saran wrap and some, lets just say, 'that ought not go there'. All in all the modern fetish vid was a bust, where as the previous vintage fetish was an all around hit. Just something to do with the energy of the participants I think. The Betty Page era participants had a much brighter spark and where clearly having fun, whereas the contemporary women seemed to be 'enduring' the process by focusing their minds on their paycheck.

When everyoen was fianlly ready for the 'real' porn, we popped in a vintage XXX film from 1976, Alice in Wonderland, a musical porno. It was fantastic and hilarious with several song and dance sequences and reasonable acting skills during the many non-sexual scenes, with good cinematography along with interesting scenes and costumes. Fun times.

We completed the night with Porn Wars, an adult film spoof of the Star Wars Trilogy complete with cheesey special effects to go with the cheesey dialog. The was fantastic and fabulous fun. My only complaint with it was that unlike Alice where they included several brief sexual scenes in a film, this seemes like they were merging an adult film with a bad C-level movie and the run time was excessively long as were some of the sexual scenes.

We also had a selection of tequilas as well as other libations, including: Don Julio, Cuervo 1800 Resposa, Milagro, Patron Silver and Corazon, which is my new favorite.

At future Tequila & Porn parties I shall include various games (with prizes!) to up the fun even more, such as T&P Bingo where guests are looking for specific dialog, actions, or situations like 'fingernails that long ought not to go there' or a few rounds of pausing the film at key points to 'Guess what happens next!'.

Good times ahead.

Peer Pressure

So I am finally on the twitter, heaven help me.

twitter.com/GoddessKasha

Now off to catch Push and then time for mucho party fun. More tomorrow.

Music: Prem

Prem is a Sanskrit word for 'the way God loves you'. It is also the title to a CD by Snatam Kaur Khalsa.

Snatam Kaur is a Sikh who began her study of music and spiritual practice at an early age. Schooled in kirtan, meditation, and Gurmukhi (Sanskrit-based language of Sikh scriptures of Northern India), she began to develop the devotion and skills that have grown and blossomed into her compelling and profound talent.

She has a voice that invokes a sense of reverence and the sacred. It is simply impossible to listen to this album and not be deeply touched. I was gifted this album and everyone who I've played it for has been deeply touched, almost all to the point of tears at it's pure beauty and Grace. My Mother loved it so much, she specifically asked that this be played at her too soon to come funeral.

On Myspace

Buy it or Other Albums and Music Samples


Rehansabai - Smrath Guru Sir Hath Dhareyo

Art & Culture: Indie Film

For those of you who are tired of the same trite and unimaginative drivel turned out by the Hollywood machine, here is one of the best online film festivals dedicated to CULTURE - Culture Unplugged Film Festival

Here is one of the short films, Salt n Pepper, a story of a young girl who has been dumped in love. She is so dejected that she decides to kill herself. Suddenly a thief enters into her house. She discovers that thief is actually a farmer who essentially is looking for food because he is so hungry. She orders for a pizza. The farmer refuses pizza because he feels that it is pizza that has pushed him to this dire state. What he tells changes the perspective for girl also, so much so that she decides to live on.


Part 1


Part 2