March 30 - Activists/Tibetans in Boulder
I just got back last night from 4 days in Boulder, CO. It was a meeting of the awardees of the Leadership for a Changing World. Some really amazing activists, organizers, visionaries from around the country. Lily, Blossom & Keahaulani from Maui, welfare moms from Oakland, Andrea, Abby, Arnie... I was moved to tears by some of the presentations. It was very inspirational. And exhausting.
On Saturday night, Nob, Lily, Ora and I went to see a concert of Monks of Drepung Gomang Monastery sponsored by the Boulder-based Tibetan Village Project. It was a beautiful concert with chanting, dances and music. Afterwards they had a slide show, giving a little about the history of the Tibetan Buddhists in exile and learned about Tibet today. Things you just don't see on the news or hear about in daily life. Only 2% of Tibetan children go on to secondary school. About 85% of rural Tibetans cannot afford basic medical treatment when they get sick, and have to travel several days by foot or horse to find a healthcare clinic. I realize how sheltered we are in terms of knowledge abo
ut what's really happening in the world. Watching reality TV... when there really is no reality on TV.
Earlier that day, I had bought a Tibetan singing bowl--Nob found me one that really sang to me. Yesterday, I went to the 4th Tibetan/Indian/Nepal store within a 2 block area of downtown Boulder, and bought some Tibetan prayer flags and a little book, "The Dalai Lama's Book of Love & Compassion." As I read this little book, everything seemed to make so much sense for my life in terms of balance, positive energy, health, and reducing fear and anger. The concert, the bowl, the book, it was a coincidence that I happened to find all these things in Boulder, or was it? Because I had an unexpected doctor's appt, I had to leave Boulder a day early. I gave up a free ticket to see Desmond Tutu at Colorado University, but I was able to take today off. I put gas in my car, air in my tires and got a hair cut (checking off one item from my To Do list from last week), it looks somewhat like Jennifer Aniston circa 1995.
Tuesday - Click here to comment:
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March 25 - Gotta Do, Gotta Crochet
My first blanket - Watermelon
It's about 30 X 44
My To Do list is out of control. Actually, I don't even have a To Do List, it's all swirling in my head. Help! I don't even have time to play SIMS! I barely have the energy to sit on the couch, watch TV and crochet. Planning for the pilgrimage is out of control. Gotta do the taxes. Gotta write that grant report (10 months late). Gotta get the 'zines out to the contributors. Gotta update the Manz website. Gotta set up a paypal acct for the 'zine. Gotta finish laying out a sample brochure for JACS. Gotta get the GL newsletter finished (9 months late). Gotta finish a budget (actually 3 budgets), negotiate some theater costs and finish some grant paperwork. Gotta hire a grantwriter. Gotta vaccuum. Gotta get a haircut. Gotta get a baby gift.
Gotta crochet. Frustrated because I started crocheting a new blanket over the weekend, but I don't know how to do row 2, and row 1 is wrong, but i don't know how to find out if it's right unless I take out hours of work and start over. If anyone crochets and wants to do a blanket with me, I can post the photo of what it's supposed to look like along with the pattern. But probably not this week. I think it's written for experts, not beginners like me. I did finish the first blanket this weekend for my sister's baby--it's hot pink and fluorescent green, but it was an easy pattern, which I repeated throughout the whole thing. Mrs. Ayala taught me how to do the border this weekend. Anyways, like i said, the new one is much harder.
Last night, I made a tofu, beet, carrot, tomato, avocado salad with miso dressing and an avocado sandwich, but it was not so delicious and somehow took almost an hour to make. This morning I made Tony a bagel and poured OJ and made him a lettuce, cheese, tomato sandwich for lunch. That's about the extent of my cooking skills as of late. Tony's busier than I am these days, if you can believe, what with J-town Voice, doing a workshop for college students, doing Little Tokyo tours 3 weekends in a row, working on getting the Little Tokyo Mural started, teaching the Asian Am night class at SMC, and his regular day job. We're stressin and we need a vacation... or at least a breather. Thursday - Click here to comment:
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March 21 - "Keep it Going" Published!
For the past two years, I've been working to put together a 47-page book, "Keep it Going... Pass it On: Poetry Inspired by the Manzanar Pilgrimage." AND IT'S FINISHED! The Manzanar Committee received funding from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program to expand to a full weekend of programming at the annual pilgrimage in 2003. But then, without increasing the grant amount, we were asked to add a 'zine of poetry. So, a year later, we finally finished. I had help of two writers on the editorial team in completing the 'zine. Sharon, Martha and I spent the last year tracking down poets, editing poems, collecting bios, determining the format, etc. We have 23 contributing poets, songwriters and community people whose poems are included in the 'zine, including well known poets Lawson Inada, Al Robles; and talented spoken word artists such as traci kato-kiriyama and Yukiya Jerry Waki.
Now, we are working to put together a marketing plan for the 1500 copies we printed. We were lucky that the editorial team, graphic designer and printer all donated their time. We are planning poetry readings, book signings and a public program at the Japanese American National Museum. We are trying to get the 'zine sold through some of the Asian American book vendors-online, and it will be available from the Manzanar website in the next month. The price is $10 plus shipping (email me if you're interested), and will be debuted at the Manzanar Pilgrimage in April 2004. I'm proud. It was a helluva lot of work. But with 1500 copies to sell, the work has just begun.
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March 16 - Fighting for ARTS in LA
We are fighting for the survival of arts and culture in Los Angeles. Mayor Jim Hahn is considering eliminating not only the $3.5 million grants program that reaches millions of LA residents and visitors each year, but the entire Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.
Great Leap has reached up to 50,000 people each year with performances that cross cultural borders, build communities and change peoples lives with the support of the LACAD. Last summer, we fought the elimination of grants funding from the California Arts Council and lost our largest grants funder. We live in a state that spends 3 cents per person per year on the arts compared to a national average over $1 per capita. (See my column "State of the Arts" from last August about the 94% cut to the CAC.) Now we stand to lose funding from Los Angeles as well. If the LACAD is eliminated, Great Leap's major culminating performance of "To All Relations: Sacred Moon Songs" set for July 31, will most likely be cancelled. A multi-ethnic, arts residency project that links the Muslim, Mexican and Japanese American communities with respect to relocation, deportation and expatriation, will be cancelled. Using the arts to share a message of peace, tolerance and understanding, will be cancelled.
Send an email to Mayor Hahn and the LA City Council: reyes@council.lacity.org, greuel@council.lacity.org, zine@council.lacity.org, labonge@council.lacity.org, weiss@council.lacity.org, cardenas@council.lacity.org, padilla@council.lacity.org, parks@council.lacity.org, perry@council.lacity.org, ludlow@council.lacity.org, Miscikowski@council.lacity.org, smith@council.lacity.org, garcetti@council.lacity.org, villaraigosa@council.lacity.org, hahn@council.lacity.org, MayorHahn@mayor.lacity.org, dliu@MAYOR.lacity.org, jkirwan@MAYOR.lacity.org.
Tomorrow 3/17, I will go to an Arts for LA meeting at the California African American Museum at 8:30 am. Join us in the fight. Peace. Out.
Tuesday - Click here to comment:
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March 13 - Easy Friday 5 1. What was the last song you heard? Nelly Furtado's pop hit on the radio coming home from work last night, don't know the name. Also listened to my friends from Visiting Violette on iTunes last night at work. 2. What were the last two movies you saw? "The Road Home" - a great Chinese love story on DVD and "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Audrey Wells. About 6 years ago, Audrey Wells loaned us her house in Malibu for a day for GL Board Retreat - it was a cool house overlooking the ocean. Never met her, but I love her movies. 3. What were the last three things you purchased? (1) Veggie Quesadilla and side salad with spicy ranch dressing yesterday for lunch, (2) Mitsuwa Japanese Market on Thursday night - got organic tofu, miso salad dressing, tempura shrimp sushi rolls, and Japanese sponge cake; and, (3) organic orange, apple, and Naked Juice Green Machine, at Rainbow Acres health food store. 4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? (1) Finish the project and org. budgets on our NEA grant due Monday, (2) write a Manzanar grant report due last June 30th, (3) go to a JA Historical Society dinner and book signing for "Nanka Nikkei Voices: Little Tokyo, Changing Times, Changing Faces" (an anthology book I helped to edit over the past year or so); and (4) start compiling our taxes. 5. Who are the last five people you talked to? Hmmm, (1) Tony this morning, (2) Jim M.'s answering machine to see if he'll perform his 1969 poem at the 35th anniversary of the Manzanar Pilgrimage, (3) Hector at Hop Li's for dinner last night, (4) Erica at Hop Li's, and (5) Luke from GL.
NOTE: My friend Nora, who lives in Madrid, Spain, was directly across from the train station when the bombs went off on Thursday. Thank goodness she's ok. A moment of silence for the families of the victims... Peace. Out.
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March 10 - Checking In
Just checking in. I'm still recuping, almost two weeks post-op. I wish I could say I was all better, but I'm still not. Although I have been working from home, I didn't go back to the office until yesterday, for only two hours. Last night, I had my first Reiki treatment, a form of hands-on energetic healing. It was pretty intense, but I could actually feel the energy moving around in my body. She worked on my emotional healing--and I need to work on making changes in my life so that I can get back into balance, start working towards the things that are most important to me, and eliminating stressors and things that drain my energy. Sometimes I feel like I should be blogging every day, but at this point, I'm thinking about maybe blogging less frequently. But of course I have lots of things to say about what's going on--from the LA Mayor wanting to eliminate arts funding in LA, hate crimes at the Claremont Colleges, the upcoming election, what's going on in the JA community, to the big "end the occupation in Iraq" rally coming up on March 20th, etc. So, we'll see. On another note, I want to give shout out and congrats to Letty, who completed her 3rd LA Marathon on Sunday in 90 degree heat!
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March 5 - TV, Sims & Sleep
I don't have much to say, because for the last 7 days since my surgery, I have been at home. TV, computer and sleep is what my world has been reduced to. I left the house to vote on Tuesday for about 20 minutes, and I left the house for 2 hours on Wednesday to go to the Emergency Room (Urgent Care refused to see me) for an infection I developed post-surgery. I stopped one of the painkillers two days ago, and started working from home yesterday.
Yesterday I think the phone rang 20 times. Before 8 am today, I had a half an hour call to Amherst, MA for a project we're working on. This morning, I'm feeling a bit nauseous.
The best news of the week is that 4 states are now performing same-sex marriages (CA, OR, NY, NM). I hope it continues to spread and just wipes out that whole constitutional amendment crap (read: wedge issue). I feel for Cheney's daughter - she's fighting to have equal rights for gays and lesbians, and her dad has flip-flopped on the issue. Of course the Dems are no better. I was reading a young blogger yesterday who was conflicted about the issue. She said that she believed in love, regardless of gender, but that her religion and her parents felt it was immoral--that is so not even a question in my mind. Hmm, I think that'll be the topic for my March poll!
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Comment March 3 - Finding Peace in DC
Peace in DC (blocking the White House)
Conchita at Lafayette Park
24 Hours a Day Peace Vigil since 1981
My healing continues, although today seems like a setback... I have a ways to go before I am better.
Anyways, 3 weeks ago, I was in DC for barely two days. It was my first trip. I was at a fantastic 2 day workshop on Nonprofit Planning for Executive Transitions.I didn't form a very good impression of DC, although it's hard to make an impression in less than 40 hours. The vibe of downtown DC was definitely cold, with dirty slush lining the sidewalks, the atmosphere of the city seemed gray and dingy. I saw countless people walking briskly, with their black and beige suits, overcoats and cell phones attached to their ears. Someone called it a very power-trippy kind of place.
After the workshop session, I decided to walk to Chinatown for dinner. I knew I wouldn't have time to get to the Smithsonian or any other sightseeing excursions, but according to my map I was about 5 blocks from the White House. It's not like I had a burning desire to visit Dubya, but thought what the heck, I'll check out the man's white colonial mansion. I walked over there, it was dusk and about 30 degrees. There's a lot of construction going on, with a chain link fence circling the grounds. The closest you can get is across the street at Lafayette Park, maybe part of the homeland security renovations? Then I got the idea that I should take a picture of myself flashing a peace sign in front of the White House. I asked a security guard to take my picture, and he said he actually wasn't allowed. So, I had to take my own picture. The one (top right) you don't actually see the White House b/c I'm blocking it, but you see the peace sign. I have other pix where you see the White House behind me, but I'm wearing black gloves, so you don't see the peace sign, which is the most important message.
Lafayette Park was practically deserted, but I did meet Concepcion, or Conchita, a peace activist who has been on a "24 Hours a Day White House Peace Vigil"--with an anti-nuclear message in front of the White House since 1981. She let me take her photo and gave me a "no more Hiroshimas" flyer, and an article about her life's work. I told her I had been to Peace Park (ground zero) in Hiroshima. Talk about really dedicating your life to a cause. At one point, she and her partner had 18 signs, but "they" limited the signs to no more than two, and limited the size of the signs. Both signs are at right. Conchita lives in a tent in the park, but she too, has a website. It's awesome. See also prop1.org.
I never made it to Chinatown that night. I walked block after block looking for Chinatown. I found an abandoned building with Chinese characters, an enormous Chinese Methodist (or Catholic?) Church, a convention center, and a whole lotta big huge construction. My guess is that I found where Chinatown used to be--before it was torn down to make way for big buildings. I couldn't find any places to eat. Just embassies and office buildings. When I got back to my hotel, I found 2 upscale Chinese restaurants in the DC visitor's guide--ie., not the kind of old-style Chinese places Tony would have wanted me to check out for him. So that was a bust... I got sore feet, and paid $22 for a cobb salad, blue cheese chips, and ice water at the hotel restaurant, ugh. Just glad I found Conchita, and a little "peace" in DC. Wednesday - Click here to comment:
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March 2 - Recovery
The last 5 days, my life has been all about the recovery. I had some surgical tests on Friday morning. It wasn't as bad or scary as I'd anticipated, but it was also harder than I wanted. I'm not a great patient. I feel guilty asking for help. Over the weekend, I had to rely on Tony for anything that was not within arm's reach. So besides the phone and my two remote controls, I basically was completely dependent. Mike & Laura came over and made soup and potato salad on Saturday night, and Gayle & Kieth brought Baja Bresh on Sunday for lunch. As much as I don't like to take any prescription drugs, I have been taking painkillers... about half as much as prescribed, but enough to relieve the pain and keep me drowsy. I finally got back on the computer yesterday... played some Sims and today I surfed around at some of my favorite bloggies. Today I was able to do some straightening up around the house and even cooked (boiled) some organic mac n cheese. That's about all I can do today. I still can't wear pants, and still not off the meds, so not sure if I can drive to work tomorrow. When Tony gets home from work today, we may walk the one block to our polling place. I think I can do it, but not positive. Today, I'll give Dennis a nod, but come November 2nd, I'll vote for whoever is on the D- ticket.
Oh, does anyone know why I got 43 hits yesterday? I only got 8 a day over the weekend. That's strange. Tuesday - Click here to comment:
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