Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

sunspot

Monday, April 21, 2008

Activism Award


In commemoration of the 60th year since Al-Nakba (The Catastrophe)

The award reads:

"The San Diego Chapter of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee

ACTIVISM AWARD

presented to

Jennifer Hsu

In recognition of your activism on behalf of the Arab people, especially your efforts to bring to light the plight of the Palestinians in the San Diego Women's Film Festival."

I've never received an award before, and one such as this I was very proud to accept. I labored over my acceptance speech, which I didn't get a chance to say. In lieu of a statement, I showed my newly edited preview of the Refugees in Syria experimental documentary.

Here is the statement I would have said:

Thank you, I am very honored to receive this award, and I am accepting this on behalf of the 13 judges of the 5th annual San Diego Women’s Film Festival. The decision to observe the international boycott of Israeli cultural exports was a collective one made by this group of women from diverse backgrounds. In practice, this decision meant that we would not exhibit films funded by Israel. Amongst the many other controversial topics concerning the politics of race, sexuality, class and geopolitics, we decided to join the global community of artists and cultural leaders who have been acting in the wake of the Anti-Apartheid boycott movement of South Africa 20 years ago.

Boycotting artists are not about censorship. Cultural boycotts are not boycotts of individuals- but of policies and institutions. ..... The goal is to pressure large entities that are complicit with the Israeli government's policies of human rights violations and transgressions against Palestinians. Violent methods have been employed, and are still being employed, in a thus far unsuccessful attempt to regain the rights that have been lost. As a westerner and pacifist with democratic values, I have few options remaining to me for resistance to war. I realized that observing the boycott in the context of art curation was the only appropriate way to resist.

This decision lit the fire of divisive outcry that changed my life. In my naivete I underestimated the consequences of this decision. ... Much of the press that ensued eclipsed the humanitarian crisis issue completely and it transformed into a smear campaign against me. I was struggling with my board of directors, hate mail and phone calls and it was a horrifying experience to be the target of such hate and venom.

In the end, the festival went on. After I was able to negotiate a compromise with the board: the festival showed a program explicitly titled: “A Future Now: Non-Violent Resistance and Boycotts in Israel and Palestine” that included pro-peace films from both Palestine and Israel, followed by a panel discussion.

After the festival was over, I resigned from my position as festival director. In the end, as a woman, a minority in the US, a filmmaker and as an arts curator, I believe that the controversial decision to boycott shed a tiny beam of desperately need light on a dire humanitarian crisis that has been going on for far too long.

Thank you again for recognizing me.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Unique thrift store $1 junk bag find


Disclaimer: This really should be eileen's post, but since she hasn't written it, I might as well.

The note below was enclosed in this delightfully official looking envelope- with a bonafide melted wax Maker's Mark seal! Eileen stumbled upon this vintage treasure while thrifting at Unique (oh how I miss Unique in Chicago...). She noticed a fascinating deck-of-cards-shaped object in one of their dollar grab bags and was rewarded for her whimsical curiosity with this original wax seal kit. Maker's & Ginger being my favorite drink to order at bars, I am duly touched.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

carrying this around


eileen mailed this beautiful note to me and i've been carrying it around in my purse. i pull it out every so often and feel loved. i <3 you eileen.

white snakes


Mary Ting's exhibit at Metaphor Contemporary Art

I really like this image, and it scares me. I would like to learn from her. She is teaching a course called "Collections, Obsessions, and the Display of the Other" this summer at the TransArt Institute in Linz, Austria. I might take it, if we decide Europe. India or Europe? and Europe being a continent... we're having a hard time narrowing down. I think Hong Kong is almost definitely out though, the cost of living is obscene.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Beware- this one is really rough

Photography by Stanley J. Forman


"Forman was already an accomplished photographer. The previous year, he had followed a firetruck to the scene of a fire in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. He instinctively ran to the back of the building, where he saw a fireman climbing down from the roof onto a fifth-floor fire escape to rescue a 19-year-old girl and her 2-year-old goddaughter. As a firetruck extended its ladder toward the girls and their would-be rescuer, the fire escape collapsed."

http://www.slate.com/id/2188648/slideshow/2188675/fs/0//entry/2188672/


Friday, April 11, 2008

shit

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, said on Thursday that while people in developed nations complained about the high cost of fuel to run their cars, poor people in developing nations were struggling to feed themselves.

"In many developing countries, the poor spend up to 75 per cent of their income on food. When prices of basic foods rise, it hits hard", he said.

"In just two months, rice prices have skyrocketed to near historic levels, rising by around 75 per cent globally and more in some markets - with more to come."

The price of coarse rice, the staple food of poor Bangladeshis, has more than doubled in a year [EPA]

Price riots

Riots over rising food prices began in southern Haiti earlier this week and quickly spread to the capital Port-au-Prince.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the food price increases.

Four were killed in the disturbances, while UN peacekeepers used rubber bullets and tear gas to drive away rioters from the presidential palace.

Most Haitians live on less than $2 a day.

Reports suggest some people have turned to eating cookies made of dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

Meanwhile, at least seven people have died in Egypt in riots earlier this week, sparked partly by rises in the price of bread of other foods.

Similar riots have been reported in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Indonesia and Peru.

Biofuels link

The increased use of grains to produce biofuels, first heralded as a way to cut greenhouse gases, has been blamed for contributing to rises in the cost of basic foods.




al-jazeera article

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

hear hear!

Re: pretty sea star

Southern California is a deapsea weight to be beautiful. Moving back here was like an unsuspecting plunge past the continental shelf into the ocean bottom of desire to improve my self image. I didn't even notice the sudden dark pressure down here, the greatly increased heaviness in the air all around until I noticed that I see that familiar expression in the mirror: frustrated embarrassment. The sun is out so often that the normative culture around what to do about the exposure seeps in everywhere: pluck. wax. epilate (ors). laser hair removal. These phenomena exist everywhere, it's true, but I always felt like I had an easy choice to ignore them. When did I start feeling secretly ashamed? Soft skin abounds and shame on you for coarse and fur.

And the speed- we zip around everywhere in zippy cars that screech to halt at the door of our destination. We apply makeup in the visor mirror and boyish boots, thrift store pants poke out the driver's side door?? Not hot.

Eileen said all I have is my wit and dignity, and I said, hear! hear!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Dog Years

oh, animals break my heart.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Portal


Human beings found this beautiful sea star off the antarctic. They've been living in the quiet (dark, Eileen, dark) deep all this time, and we've been living up here close to the sun. Parallel worlds, and the portal: Marine Science.

Our astonishment stems from our illusion of knowledge, we think we Know. But what of this sea star's internal life? and the weight upon her? and the evolutionary pressure to be so beautiful?