public fruit

I'm in L.A., home of Fallen Fruit! As someone who stole pomegranates from a neighbor's yard as a kid, and who (yearly) picks roadside mulberries by the million, the concept of harvesting public fruit, veggies and nuts is exciting. The maps created for this purpose are beautiful in and of themselves. Learn more about projects Fallen Fruit, Urban Rangers, Farmlab, and Edible Estates here.

meditation

Still reflective, and spending the afternoon with the ocean. This is Roni Horn, Vija Clemins and me.

restore

I've just spent a weekend at a yoga retreat, and am thinking about the incredible importance of having places to escape to, to reflect and refresh and remember, to hide in, and find oneself in.

Beach Pods of Turks and Caicos, originally uploaded by cosmo-girl.

animal art

Like "animal lover," animal ART doesn't have such a good ring to it. People picture either sappy kitten photos, or the tortured, bloodied animals of animal rights posters. It's great to see animal rights activists & artists making work that is nothing like either of those genres.

Enter: Gale Hart and Why Not Eat Your Pet.

warm bats

Lest you think I'm interested only in Olympic drama, I bring you the climate change bats, courtesy of Barry Newman and James Denoyer of Starve the Beast.

china: quake & run

With 12,000 dead and missing in southwest China, the Olympic committee continues its blind determination. Li Zhanjun, a spokesman for the organising committee, said the organisers were "very sad" for the victims, but the quake would not affect the preparation of the Games or the torch relay.

"The earthquake-stricken area is not on the route of the torch relay, so the relay will go on as scheduled."

Not surprisingly, I learn of the games' top sponsors: GE, Coke, McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Visa.

olympics: 2010 resistance

Vancouver's Native Warrior Society. Read more.

chair distress

Is it just me, or can spilled chairs indicate emergency, desperation and resistance? The first image is Doris Salcedo's, the second is a detail of one of my prints.

peckers

Nearly 20 years ago, when Hooters restaurant was causing a stir in Tucson, AZ, our little branch of Queer Nation produced these billboard-sized posters, and wallpapered the town with them.

I'm a little embarrassed by them, and a little proud of them. Our efforts did make the papers, though the bulk of the wheatpasted billboards disappeared quickly.

Note the *tofu* weenies!

free tibet

On Friday night I stumbled across a Free Tibet demo in Union Square, that looked much like this one. I first noticed it (from blocks away) because of the chanting. As I got closer I saw that the whole plaza was filled with candlelight spelling out "Martyrs 49th day, Free Tibet."

The scene was completely mesmerizing, with the group chanting, the candlelight, and the whole group seated with multiples of signs about the Olympics and the continued torture of Tibetans. There was also a table stacked with fruit and incense and cakes, to honor the rituals that have not been allowed to be practiced by Tibetans in Tibet.

Not to downplay the seriousness of the issues being addressed by this demonstration, I have to say that this group knows how to make an impact with a demonstration. Visually beautifully, the chanting acting as a pull, and cake to boot.

The controversy over this years' Olympics is making me reflect on the many, many demonstrations of Olympics past and future: Black Power, Indigenous Land Rights, Palestinian prisoners, and much much more.