The Long Crumble 1953
Cat.: Uncategorized30. September 2005
1| The Long Crumble
2| Aesthetic : Synergenesis - October 8th (in SF)
3| Sedition : Recipe for Disaster
4| Decadence : The Cargo Cult - October 2nd (in NYC)
1 |________________________________
For nine days between the chaos of Katrina and the fizzle of hurricane Rita, we were in Houston Texas working to support the displaced people of New Orleans. It was a deep experience of tragedy and triumph and a lesson in resilience. We could relay dozens of stories from our work there, but instead we offer the abbreviation of one.
The drive is long and Cherish, my passenger, is anxious to see her daughter. Since their separation at the Superdome into separate busses going to separate cities, she has no other chance for transportation except for my borrowed car and me. The story of her journey from the drowning 9th ward to the crumbling disorder in the Superdome to the abyss of the cot city at the Astrodome, cuts a vivid image of failure and desperation that isn’t possible to convey in the news.
Her loss is unimaginable.
Cherish’s family survived but nothing else. Her house, her church, the only neighborhood she knew is submerged. Now as the weakened clapboard structures dry their fate is sealed to demolition.
Her daughter is all that she has.
Their moment of reuniting is as poignant as those moments can be. It is a familiar scene after a week of working here. But with her daughters hand gripping mine, with the sincerity of the thank you, with tears in eyes and lumps in throats there is little beyond this one moment that truly mattered.
I wish I could offer them as much as they gave me. I wish there was hope beyond this. At times we dream of an elegant revolution; of bringing truth to power and prosecution to Delay, Abramoff, Libby and Rove. But even as the pillars of the right-wing crumble, our good days are fleeting and our long fate is sealed. The poor is lost first in the rubble of this crumbling nation.
Then there’s us, the lucky ones, still able to live loud through the thick and the thin. The events below offer a moment of distraction as the dark fall begins and we fight for our salvation in the midst of the long crumble.
2 |_______________________________
Aesthetic : Synergenesis : Saturday October 8th
Complacent Nation will be presenting at the gathering below, to be hosted on October 8th in San Francisco. From here, we can see forever.
Details:
Visionary Culture Design Conference and Celebration
Visionary art is evidence of a world that does not yet fully exist; a world that we are calling into being through the very act of creating and participating in the Work. This is not an art that will support the present system of environmental exploitation, social alienation and spiritual commodification. This art is not just painting–though it is that–not just poetry, nor just music, nor just something for a target audience to consume. This art is an integration of creative manifestation and daily life; of technical craft, spiritual practice and cultural experimentation. Visionary art is dissolving the boundaries between audience and performer, between work and play, between activism and prayer. In this way we are returning to the tribal, shamanic roots of art, tapping into an endless potential for healing, community and transformation.
Synergenesis is serving as a powerful catalyst for the (r)evolutionary creators of our time to converge and collaborate on manifesting the reality our art invokes, creating a portal through which our collective vision is crystallized and potentiated.
For tickets, and more details see:
http://www.synergenesis.org
3 |_______________________________
Sedition : Leave My Child Alone and Recipe for Disaster
Just before leaving for Burning Man we did some design work in San Francisco for Act for Change (the progressive activist arm of Working Assets). The most interesting campaign we worked on is Leave My Child Alone. The goal is to spread information on the nefarious policies around military recruitment and how to opt your kids (or yourself) from the harassment lists of military recruiters.
Details:
http://www.leavemychildalone.com/
Another small project coming from
the same minds that made the above:
http://www.recipefordisaster.org
4 |_______________________________
Decadence : Madagascar Institute Presents: Cargo Cult
The event below builds on centuries of history bourn out by
minutes of research and months of building. It is the kind
of oddity spiked with illegal that titillates us deeply.
Details:
Being: The culmination of years of hard labor and brutal ritual, the final push that will get the runway done, the ancestors pleased, the planes back, and deliver to us the abundant cargo that we so, so deserve; featuring: merchant marines, brazen brass, exceedingly clever flying machines, cardboard communication, synchronized semaphore, lighthouses, ropework, Melanesia, control towers, morse code, dazzling displays of ritual dance, arbitrary and capricious blood letting, sacred Jello, red crosses, gigantic, gimpy John Frum, sea chanteys, and your helping hands when they are needed the most.
or: an elaborate ruse for a tramway escape to a desolate island paradise.
Beware of swashbuckling pirates, unsympathetic Red Cross workers, and John Frum. If you follow the signs and complete the ritual, you will be amply rewarded for your faith.
Don your WWII flight suit (or similarly inspired attire), brush up on your semaphore signals… and chart a course for 14 Honey Locusts Park, at 59th St. betw. 1st Ave and 2nd Ave in Manhattan.
Sunday, October 2, 4:00 pm. You will be done at dark.
Watch for the arrival of the Vanuatu Air Fleet for your
first clue. Be late and you will miss it.
Bring libations, a Metro card and be prepared to walk.
After party at the Carriage House, 59th St. Bet 2nd & 3rd
Ave.
________________________________
Throughout this coming Fall we will continue to rebuild.