visual recipe by claudia pearson

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no impact week: day ONE

my one week "carbon cleanse" started today. yeah, it's a gimmicky environmental movement thing, but it's not going to be as easy as i thought -- especially on friday, when i am supposed to replace my 30-minute hot shower with a "sponge bath". ick! (**dear friends who have served in the peace corps, forgive my only-in-america sins).

i signed up for no impact week without really knowing what it was. i thought it was just a commitment to not buy anything for week (except food, and even that is supposed to be non-packaged). seemed like a great money-saving idea for a pathetic grad student swimming in credit card debt. i found out about it because i was searching grist.org for an article about a woman who gave up corn products for a week (the article is actually here). umbra, the stalwart eco-advice columnist, was promoting no impact week, and heck, i had to click on it.

so here i am.
day one was all about stockpiling your garbage (i decided there was no need to stockpile my recycling: a water bottle and some sheets of paper). at the end of the day i only had two items in my garbage bag: a used lint-removal sheet and an empty bag from those delicious snap pea crisps. success? well, i had already cheated, and in a really embarrassing way. i did not stockpile my feminine hygiene-related trash. i'm not going to apologize for this. end of story.

i also failed in the consumption department. after biking to the farmer's market to buy ethical eggs, i stumbled upon a booth full of art by this artist (spenser little) i have been trying to track down for months. i "bought" a relatively expensive piece as a gift for k.'s birthday. i say "bought" because i made him pay for it, with full promise that i would pay him back next week (not so much because of N.I. week as because i didn't bring my wallet).

if you want to participate, you can sign up here.

feminist graffiti

please, please, please let me get what i want

reality being too thorny

i cut up this 5-cent rimbaud book of poetry to make a collage painting:

DIY: ironic* film fest

*colloquial/modern usage; "perverse appropriateness"

::all films are available from your nearest netflix shipping facility::

feauturing 8 documentaries and 2 docudramas
showcasing 2 foreign films!!!

FEAR
-september 11 (2002)
11'09''01: onze minutes, neuf secondes, un cadre (france)

i first saw this film in a cineopolis in mexico and left the theater wondering whether it been suppressed or simply ignored in the united states (perhaps because of the indignant/insensitive japanese contribution?). sean penn directs one of the 11 short films.

-united 93 (2006)
-world trade center (2006)

FREEDOM
-gunner palace (2004)
-occupation dreamland (2005)
-in the shadow of the palms (australia 2005)
-baghdad ER (2006)
-operation filmmaker (2007)
-operation homecoming: writing the wartime experience (2007)

FORENSICS
-uncovered: the whole truth about the iraq war (2003)

i screened this film at a now-defunct independent coffeeshop called ashton's in decatur, georgia. it spurred a year of war protests and a lifetime of political activism for me.

-iraq for sale: the war profiteers (2006)
-no end in sight (2007)

i sat alone in a nearly empty theater in la jolla, california to see this film. i gave it a standing ovation. for sensibility's sake.