Empty Apartment Holding a Place for me

The irony of being able to have a devoted space, a space devoted to you or the other way around, is that you get to pay rent whether you show up there or not.  Lots of things in life are like this and I'd love to create a list to make me feel less guilty about not being there for 5 months in a row.

Lovers: you may or may not have to pay long distance rent or attention.
Friends-you do NOT have to pay rent emotionally, but there will be a period of back-pay where you have to catch up at some point-or realize why you need to get a divorce.

Having an empty apartment is like having your life on hold. And holding a place/space for that version of yourself to exist. It takes a lot to imagine you who are at a distance, but you show up and you fit into the role perfectly.

The last time I took a bus from NYC to Boston, I watched Thoroughly Modern Millie. Flapper girl in big city gets into trouble immediately. But happy endings, all around.

MIT Reality Hackathon

Attended the MIT Hackathon about XR, actually called a Reality Hack.  I crafted and scripted the narrative about Desegregation in Miami in 1957-specifically a story about Frank LeGree and how his family had picketers outside his house, threw rocks and eventually erected a cross on his front lawn-all in order to get him out of a neighborhood.

The video of the AR experience we created is here: https://youtu.be/C6w3e4wqwfk

Our team would love to do more with AR and explore this and other stories of America's growing pains further. Desegregation of schools, different neighborhoods in large cities i the 1950's. Life for a growing country and how that time period brought forth change that is still unresolved today. 

Connect that period with When They See Us-and #OscarsStillSoWhite and you will see how America still exists in black and white for so many people. The best part of the Hackathon was the idea that so many different people could come together to build a new reality. One in which the only judgments issued are on a lack of imagination.

Mark Twain in the Azores

I've been doing some research on Twain's visit to the Azores. He stopped in Horta on his way to Palestine-a series of correspondences that would become his book,  Innocents Abroad.

Most of what he wrote about the Azores in that book was not kind, he was trying to create jokes-and also created a cynical sense of the superiority of the American traveler. He made himself the joke of an ugly American-especially viewed from the perspective of today.

In the Book about the Dabneys, there is evidence that he was in their house. Below is a quote from one of the female residents.

“At 10 the parlor was quite full….One young man had his note-book out all the time and remarked as I gave him some verbena,’I am taking notes as I am a correspondent of a paper’. 

‘Horrors;, writes CPD, “how we may appear in print,’

Next adventure!

Having spent Thanksgiving in Provincetown, with all its associated Portuguese heritage, I noticed that there is an Annual Blessing of the Fleet and weekend-long Festival at the end of June (6/25-28/2020) More information can be found here:
https://provincetownportuguesefestival.com/

It's never to early to plan your time in this seaside town, especially bc it fills up so quickly in the summertime. See you then!!

Toronto "Counterculture of the 1960's" Conference: Me & the Monkees and . . . Angela Davis

So, there is an amazing event happening in Toronto the first weekend in November.

As part of the 40th Annual Toronto International Festival of Authors, they are having a conference especially dedicated to the 1960's aspects of counterculture.

It's officially called The (re)making of a Movement: New Perspectives on the 1960's Counterculture and I'm presenting at it.  What's more, I'll be presenting a talk about Six Degrees of Monkees and the relationship map I'm creating. <insert fangirl scream of well-earned pride here>

The official description is below. I'm on after Angela Davis. She's a tough act to follow, but I hope to channel all my (nervous) energy into being inspired by her.

Very happy to help represent the Monkees and their importance in the counterculture movement of the 1960's!

==

Counterculture on the Radio & TV

Nov 2, 2019 | 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Main Loft

Tammy Rose, MBA, MS, User Experience Research Lead

Six Degrees of Monkees in a Relationship Map of CounterCulture

The Monkees phenomenon involved music & a TV show, and an unusual amount of connections that make it the center of American counterculture. Despite being dismissed as bubblegum, from 1965 to 1968, the brand encompassed a wide variety of non-commercial memes from Vietnam protest references to Frank Zappa to their most infamous masterpiece, the movie HEAD. An extensive relationship map visualizes any and all references to people, works and concepts to the Monkees. Almost anyone working in Hollywood prior to 1980 can be connected to the Monkees by a low number of degrees. Sex, drugs and rock and roll as well as cynicism were regularly snuck into America’s living rooms and fed into the minds of children.

Visiting an Artist Studio inside LaGuardia

I was walking to my flight at the Jetblue Terminal and saw a tiny art studio in the lobby area.

Stopping, I chatted a bit with the woman who was running the space, Anna, but was rushing to my flight and I couldn't linger.  What a funny place for a popup art location, I thought.

And then I came through again, and my plane was delayed. Finally I had the proper time.

This time I stayed for a good while, and spoke to Davi Leventhal, an enchanting man who told me about being raised Brazilian in NYC, something I related to, being raised Azorean in Boston. Anna was there as well.

His art was based on fuxicos-simple circles of fabric, which when combined, make a giant tapestry of color and energy.  Visitors are invited to make one and leave one. I made 3, but one fell apart.  He gifted me one-which I will attach to a blanket my Vovo made me.

His assembly method reminded me of my Mousetrap Project, creating small pieces of beauty which are seen as a strong presence when mounted together. And because there was the interactive element, of getting to sit and sew (especially in what is normally a stressful environment), the was a performance piece that I was happy to have experienced.



==

For more info:

https://www.davileventhal.com/about.html

https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/buildings-maintenance/press-release/21076449/the-port-authority-of-new-york-new-jersey-local-artist-residency-program-returns-to-laguardia-airports-marine-air-terminal-for-second-year

https://www.queenscouncilarts.org/2019-artport-artists

Visiting an Artist Studio inside LaGuardia

I was walking to my flight at the Jetblue Terminal and saw a tiny art studio in the lobby area.

Stopping, I chatted a bit with the woman who was running the space, Anna, but was rushing to my flight and I couldn't linger.  What a funny place for a popup art location, I thought.

And then I came through again, and my plane was delayed. Finally I had the proper time.

This time I stayed for a good while, and spoke to Davi Leventhal, an enchanting man who told me about being raised Brazilian in NYC, something I related to, being raised Azorean in Boston. Anna was there as well.

His art was based on fuxicos-simple circles of fabric, which when combined, make a giant tapestry of color and energy.  Visitors are invited to make one and leave one. I made 3, but one fell apart.  He gifted me one-which I will attach to a blanket my Vovo made me.

His assembly method reminded me of my Mousetrap Project, creating small pieces of beauty which are seen as a strong presence when mounted together.

==

For more info:

https://www.davileventhal.com/about.html

https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/buildings-maintenance/press-release/21076449/the-port-authority-of-new-york-new-jersey-local-artist-residency-program-returns-to-laguardia-airports-marine-air-terminal-for-second-year

https://www.queenscouncilarts.org/2019-artport-artists