[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_acgN7ESNZY]
The South and I
Its finally Summer…and time to make work!
Ahhhh…gotta love June. Especially June in Chicago. The joy of breaking out of hibernation and finally seeing friends. Chicago summers are addictive. Then winter comes back, but I won’t think about that right now.
The final critiques are done, grades in, and I’m ready to do some traveling and art-making. In a couple days I’m going to rural Nova Scotia with my family. I’m excited to be forcibly detached from my computer and blackberry, be around some big trees, and finally learn how to fly-fish properly. (and no, I will not be bringing the fish camera, but am bringing the “real” camera for a project I’ll tell you about later)
In March I had the opportunity to escape winter and go Down South for a quick trip. My dad and I went in on a new fish surveillance camera. I did a brief test and left it at the Lake for a longer visit in July. I suspect my dad will get it out sooner. I have to figure out how the new floating dock so this video is definitely an outtake. Look closely and you’ll see some minnows. I’m just happy that the quality of the footage is still kind of crappy…..refractory…….magical.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeVv7T7L738]
from home….
our eyebrows
from a year ago
She comes at me with a Sharpie.
“Do you think this will work on my eyebrows? Will you do them for me? Here…”
“No Grandma. You don’t want to use that. What happened to all those eyebrow pencils we bought you last time?”
“Hmmmmm….I don’t think I have any make-up”
(Grandpa from the living room) “They’re all over the house…who knows where they are.”
I put the Sharpie back on the desk and start rummaging through her dresser. I come across a bag of cosmetics.
“See Grandma…you still have make-up. Do you want to get ready?”
“Oh yes…just my eyebrows.”
There are two eyebrow pencils inside. They are light brown. I’ve never used an eyebrow pencil. Grandma Mary has all her life. I remember my mother saying Grandma did her eyebrows everyday. [Read more…] about our eyebrows
”It’s time to salute the Constitution,”…Frank M. Johnson
It is hard not to be overwhelmed if not giddy over all of the current dialogue that we, almost a unified nation, have failed to have over the past 8 years. Civil rights, women’s rights, education, health care, THE CONSTITUTION. I see people standing up….when in regard to their social circles, it is probably easier not to.
My mind drifts back to Judge Frank M. Johnson. Once called “The Most Hated Man in Alabama” he is one of my father’s (and my own) most revered heroes. He is the judge who took on Governor Wallace and cleared the way for the Selma March when it would have been much easier for him to sit quiet, roll with the good ole’ boys, and not have his and his family’s lives threatened by the KKK. He’s been on my mind a lot lately.
Here is an old editorial by HOWELL RAINES
Looking from my Great-Grandmother Em to Gloria Steinem
It is a political circus out there. Or maybe its more of a hurricane. Everyone’s gone mad. Mad for…mad against….mad about…mad in love. Of course I have my own very strong opinions about all presidential candidates. But today, September 4, 2008, seems to be all about Sarah Palin. I went to Gloria Steinem, the second-waver, for a little perspective.
BUT before I get back to that………I tell my students that we aren’t going to have class on Election Night because they have to go vote.. like their student loans depend on it….actually their future student loans WILL depend on it. We will make an election photo blog on Twitter or something instead. I also preach to them that you do not have the right to complain about any presidential administration for 4 years or even celebrate on election night if you are 18 yrs. old, a U.S. citizen, and have not done your civic duty.
But this “duty” is still somewhat a privilege. I immediately think of my great-grandmothers, Elsie, Em, Ellie and Big Mama. When my mother became “of voting age,” Em told her that she was married and had a child before she ever got to cast a ballot. She said this right was so precious to her that she NEVER missed voting once she finally received it.. until she passed at the age of 92. And now my mother, my aunts, my cousins, my sister-in-law, and myself do our bests to live up to their example. If I missed an election I feel I would dishonor their memory. (yes, I take it that seriously). Because this basic civil right wasn’t even guaranteed to us women until 1920. 88 years ago. Almost the lifespan of my maternal grandmother, Marybelle.
So what’s a girl to do? Thanks to the many women (and brave men) who have come before us, the suffragists and three waves of feminism…we have women who run for office and we actually have a say over the governing of our bodies and lives. For me, being the second generation of women in my family… actually born with the right to vote, that’s where Gloria comes in: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story
Here is a picture of Em and her sister.
