Dear Mother Earth, Please hear my humble and heartfelt apology for all this. I am just an ordinary human, but I am not an ungrateful sleeper who disregards or discounts you. I know this is YOUR show and long after my own little scene here is finished, long after the spectacle of spacemen and ships that move through time become commonplace, I will always know you by the love felt in my own heart. You have imprinted my soul with true kindness, a constant reminder of divine source. This sounds … [Read more...]
Why War May Really Be Over…
Centuries of killing each other seem "normal" to us. Accepted human behavior. "This is what humans do" kind of thinking. Pacifists and anti-war sentiments have been met by anger, outrage at the disrespect this seems to mean to soldiers now or lost in previous wars, outrage at the disrespect to "ideals" Americans were told were the right of people everywhere. Americans especially were righteous and holy for fighting for this elusive "freedom" we never seemed to question until now. It started … [Read more...]
Distress, Death and Graphic Design
The Urban Outfitter Kent State shirt design. It's almost embarrassing to talk about it. On the one hand, what power could a shirt design have? Shirt designs come and go in seasons, like everything fashionable. New ones pour out of department stores daily. What could have caused one shirt design to get so much flak? Last week, Urban Outfitters released a shirt that became almost immediately controversial, not in a good way. The shirt has the Kent State University logo on it, under what seems to … [Read more...]
Announcing the QEG: Happy Earth Day!
QEG developments are a sign that Earth Day means more than lip service to some... While we think that the idea of going off petroleum entirely would be good for the 99% as well as Mother Earth herself, we have been convinced that it wouldn't be easy. After all, the light bulbs in your house are powered by generators that have to burn/combust something (like coal or oil or gas) to create a constant commotion because that's how we get energy. And solar and wind are great, but our present fossil … [Read more...]
If Everyone Told the Truth: A Personal Fantasy Through the World as We Know It
What do you think the world would look like if everyone told the truth? It would be wild, right? Imagine honesty falling out of important zipped lips in the highest places in the land.... If the President of the United States could tell the truth, he would say: “I made a mistake. I led the American people down the wrong path because I really don't have as much power as everyone thinks I do. I'm a pawn in a global game too, and honestly I would like Americans to begin to take more … [Read more...]
On Silk Stockings, Cigars and Turning 20
My favorite 20 year old is celebrating an amazing history of creativity and commitment this year. And while I do know a lot of 20-year-olds, I'm talking about The Alternative Pick, the place to find edgy photographers, illustrators, multimedia and design since 1992. AltPick.com went live in 1995. It's bit of graphic design history in the making, you might say. AltPick has been attracting the freshest talent in the business from the start of it's youthful life. Founder Maria Ragusa wanted this … [Read more...]
Occupy the Heart in 2012
At a client holiday party last week, talking to a marketing director at the bar and the subject of Occupy Wall Street comes up. "I've been working with a friend to create some Occupy graphics, maybe even sell them and give the money to the movement," I said to her. The marketing director responded, "Oh don't give the money to them, Give the money to the stores in that area that are losing business because of them. Stores in the area are being forced to close down." She was angry with … [Read more...]
Confessions of a Teenage Vegetarian
Some of us were "earthers" from way back but it was so much a way of life for us, a natural attitude, that it became integral to our lives and relatives or friends weren’t much interested in hearing about it. We ate our whole grains quietly in the back of the bus so as not to gather unwanted attention and avoid the inevitable annoying questions about why our lunch was so funny-looking. I was a young teen when the first Earth Day hit, but even way back then, some of us went out of our way to … [Read more...]
Women’s History Month and the Two Things My Mother Gave Me
There's a few minutes left to March and it's been one deadline after another, but I couldn't let Women's History Month slip by without noting the greatest female hero I knew first hand, my mom. Of course I spent the month enjoying whatever public celebrations of great women I could find...the Joan Baez American Masters special on PBS was probably my favorite, since I could re-appreciate her political stamina over a lifetime more than I ever did. Whatta chick! But I guess my number one female … [Read more...]
Internet Radio: The Small, the Independent, the Future!
BEFORE THIS SHOW GETS TOO OLD, I wanted to post it here so that you could listen to the podcast. There are maybe at least 20 reasons why I love internet radio, but mostly because I believe (next to YouTube) it's the best and most entertaining learning you can do. The democracy of it all makes some people nervous ("you just can't trust the internet to give you THE FACTS") but lest I remind you, we just can't trust our corporate-run media to give us THE FACTS either! As I always say...think for … [Read more...]