v-day 2011

I had a major weekend of celebrating V-Day, the global campaign behind the annual flurry of performances of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, which this weekend I saw for my third and fourth times. I surprised my mama on Friday night by coming to her performance of "The Flood." She did so very well, connecting with a character who is so different from herself, not just in age, but in exuberance. Our dear friend Cecile finished the performance with a respectful and heartfelt monologue honoring Myriam Merlet, who was a Haitian V-Day activist who died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It was so sweet to see this group of women come together and feel a real bond. I think my mom and Cecile came out of the experience with new friends.

Photo of my mama by Daniel Knight, Studio B Photography

Saturday night, we saw another production of The Vagina Monologues at Evansville's Victory Theatre, this one directed by Steve Small. It was delightful, too. The interesting thing about the Monologues is discovering how the women who share the stories give them individual flavors and how different audiences respond differently. In my mom's performance of "The Flood," there was a little laughing, but she helped the audience understand the sadness of a woman's being so embarrassed by her body that she "closed up shop" for life. The performance at the Victory shed more light on the hilarity of some of those lines. On the whole, the audience at the Victory was a lot more giggly.

Also interesting to note is the selection of the monologues. I've always before seen the performance at the Victory, where they don't include the monologue called "Say It," which shares the story of "comfort women" in Japan during World War II. The Friday night performance included that one (which I found incredibly moving), but didn't include "The Memory of Her Face," which uses three monologues and an epilogue to explore violence against women in Iraq, Pakistan and Mexico, and which was included at the Victory.

Since my talented photographer Papa, Daniel Knight, was the official photographer of the Victory production (as he has been in the past), we went to the Afterglow party. It had a great, warm atmosphere and I met some truly delightful people, including a high school English educator who is also a Teacher Fellow for Washington, D.C.'s United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. One particular delight was getting to chit chat my friend Holly Dunn Pendleton, whom I photographed for a story for Evansville Living. Holly is one of Evansville's most well-known warriors for women. She founded Holly's House, a refuge for women and children who are victims of intimate violence and a safe place for them to share their stories with law enforcers.

On the whole, the weekend was a treat of celebrating womanhood and honoring the suffering of so many other women who've been victims. If you've never seen The Vagina Monologues, I hope you can find a performance near you to hear these amazing stories.

weekend playlist

Atop L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France (June 2008)

Photo by Shanti Knight

These sweet tunes have been on repeat on my iTunes this week. Give 'em a listen if you're so inspired, and hop on over to A Cup of Jo to see what guest blogger Miss Moss suggests for a good weekend.

"The Youth" by MGMT

"Eyes" by Rogue Wave

"Sleep" by Azure Ray

"Flight Attendant" by Josh Rouse

"Miracles" by Jefferson Starship

"Same High" by Uh Huh Her

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum

"Le Festin" by Camille... hence le photo de la France ;)

smarty-pants dance

Cuuuuuute.

fake subway advisory

Check out this fake advisory designed by some snarky, clever, creative and disgruntled New York City commuters. Kinda cute, huh?

via Matador Network

until it is done

Today, I'm working on writing a profile piece. I have a great subject and lots of information, but there's much composing yet to be done in a very short amount of time...

Thank you, Jen, for the inspiration.

vegetables

This past weekend, I watched The Kids Are All Right. Have you seen it? If you haven't, you simply must. It's just outstanding. (& nominated in four categories for the Oscars next week, including Best Picture!)

Photo of Annette Bening and Julianne Moore courtesy of Chino Kino

In this movie, Mark Ruffalo's character is an organic farmer. And everybody eats so many vegetables! It reminded me of a New York Times article ("Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries") from last September about how most Americans don't eat nearly enough vegetables. Then I became very very aware of how my eating habits have been slipping down a slippery slope. I'm normally a pretty clean eater, but this winter I have indeed eaten pizza, french fries, meat (?!), cake, milk and cheese. And on Friday night, I even allowed my friend Alen to buy me some white-chocolate frozen yogurt.

There. I've said it.

So, with all of that thrown into harsh perspective when I watched Julianne Moore & Co. eat vegetable after fresh vegetable in sunny California, I decided in no uncertain terms that the time had come for a shift. Saturday afternoon, I went to the grocery store and I bought so many vegetables. And I steamed them— kale, broccoli, garlic— and I ate them. And I was well.

It didn't stop there. Sunday afternoon I conjured up this treat:

Photo by Shanti Knight

It was some kind of pretty little orange-and-yellow-skinned tomato. I sliced it, topped it with dried sage (home-grown and home-dried by my organic gardener friend Steve from home) and then sprinkled the whole mess with Celtic sea salt. It was just delightful!

So while it's not The Master Cleanse, it's a jumpstart. Combine that with the running and Pilates I did over the weekend and my body is feeling more alive than it has in a while.

I love springtime! (Even if it is still February.)

back to the future

Have you seen Irina Werning's photo series called Back to the Future? She works with her subjects to recreate their childhood pictures. I love thinking about the process of revisiting those locations from each subject's personal history. The attention to detail is just beautiful. It's almost like an Alice in Wonderland visual.

All photos by Irina Werning

via A Cup of Jo

sampled music

Last week in class, we were talking about copyright and music. I learned about this interesting Web site called WhoSampled.com. Have you seen it? You can type in songs and artists, and it will show if the music has sampled other music or if another musician has sampled from that song.


In a similar vein, here are two videos about things we love to hear in music. I find it fascinating!

This one came from Augusta. She's a cellist and had her own story about her days of playing Canon in D at weddings. (She agrees that it's incredibly boring.) Since I'm not a cellist, I can honestly say that I think Canon in D is just beautiful.

solitaires

Could living alone lead to dancing with a hatstand?

Thanks to Devices of Wonder, to which I have been contributing as part of a class project, I just found this 2008 New York magazine article about loneliness (& lack thereof) in New York City. It's stellar! And such a sweet love letter to this beautiful city.

Photo of Mel Gibson from What Women Want found on MySpace

goldfish tiles

Wow! I'm loving these digitally printed tiles. The color is so saturated and it really pops on the white ceramic. And it's such a fresh alternative over wallpaper or tile patterns since it's irregular. It really looks like you're just peeking into an aquarium. This seems like something I might find at Louisville's 21C, but I would just love to have these in my bathroom. Or maybe some with big bright-green leaves for a kitchen!

via Bliss

trouser snake

oh me, oh my.

Normally, snakes creep me out in a big way. leave it to (the incredible) Elizabeth Messina to make a photo of a snake that doesn't give me nightmares.

via kiss the groom


On second thought— I am creeped out. This photo is just super cool anyway.


hilarious euphemism (headline) via the brilliant Louise Rennison

merry and tragical! tedious and brief!

Four years ago, Joanna said it better than I ever could. =) (But she's in a different place now. Smiles.)

Photo from A Midsummer Night's Dream via StarDust Trailers

P.S. I do really like this Glamour story about where to get your love advice.

bob & joan

What a beautiful couple they were. A few years ago, I had the delight of seeing Joan Baez give a fairly intimate performance at Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley theatre. John Mellencamp, our favorite Bloomington resident (who has recently been dating Meg Ryan!), was in the audience. Joan saw him from stage and said she'd heard he was getting ready to tour with Bob Dylan and asked him to say "hello" for her. Funny to me how those two became such a legend. And how "Diamonds and Rust" is so clearly about Bob, without ever saying his name. ("You burst on the scene, already a legend. The unwashed phenomenon— the original vagabond.")

Images courtesy of Live Internet

what is the internet?

Back in 1994, The Today Show really couldn't figure it out... Wow— crazy times!

valentine piglet

The gifts of nature are so beautiful.

looks like fun!

I just love this image of a girl flying away on a popped champagne cork. Love champagne, love flying. Love art like this!

A 1915 ad

Image courtesy of The Naked Scientists


P.S. Loving Rachel's input over at Fur Coat, No Knickers

brrr

After a weekend that almost felt like springtime, it's back to freezing rain as usual. Fortunately, I've got my cute weather widget on my Dashboard to give me a smile with its graphics.

P.S. The trees look really pretty, too!