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"That's probably not the comfiest place to roost."By Laura Bramble QuailBellMagazine.com #Quail #Illustration #WashingtonDC #WashingtonMonument #CapitolQuail #DMV
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Stories of SurvivalEditor's Note: This is a trigger warning. The following video and interview content contains stories of domestic violence and sexual abuse. This is the fifth in a series of videos by The James House, where survivors of abuse volunteer to share their stories. The James House provides support groups for men, women, and children who have experienced domestic violence and sexual abuse and is an important free resource serving the Richmond and Central Virginia areas. These resources include a 24 hour crisis line, shelters, private counseling, and many other confidential services. I have interviewed Director of Donor Relations, Kiffy Johnson Werkheiser, for her insights on the importance of storytelling as a method of community outreach. With this being the fifth survivor video released, how has storytelling become a part your organization? In the past we’ve tried explaining the magnitude of sexual and domestic violence using statistics. However, statistics don’t inspire people to take action—real people’s stories do. I could tell someone that based on the size of the population we serve, there are about 11,000 men in our area who have been sexually abused. Or I could show them Daniel’s story and have them understand how sexual abuse can tear a man’s life apart and get a much better outcome. We have always incorporated engaging teaching methods into our community presentations but these stories connect the audience to the issue in a way we never could before. The James House has never brought former clients to outreach events and presentations because we view it as exploitive and potentially traumatic. Our services are free, and there are no strings attached—ever. But the public—potential volunteers and donors—wants to hear from the people you have helped. In asking survivors to be part of the videos, we tried our best to make sure that they were emotionally prepared and willing to go public. Violence is a subject that can be difficult to talk about. Why is the process of survivors relaying their stories important? Survivors of intimate partner violence have different experiences but they all share one thing in common. They blamed themselves. Most survivors do not report these crimes, and far too many remain silent in their suffering. Speaking out about the abuse breaks the silence. It takes courage for survivors to heal, and sharing your story takes even more courage. When the community comes together to affirm the person’s experiences and support them in this effort, it can be transformational. What influence do you hope you have on those who may be watching these stories? I hope that anyone who views these stories feels the pain of the survivors but also feels inspired to take action. I also hope that they see how much The James House cares about involving the entire community in our work. What resources is The James House providing to survivors in our area? Our goal is to help clients to become healthy, safe and self-sufficient. To that end we offer a 24 hour crisis hotline, one-on-one counseling, support groups, emergency shelter, transitional assistance, emergency pet placement, court and hospital accompaniment, and community education. All of our services are cost-free, confidential and available to women, men and children. What can our readers do to help? Learn how to be a good friend to someone who is experiencing abuse. Believe them. Offer them resources. Help them make their own decisions. Think before you ask questions, like, “Why doesn’t s/he just leave?” Leaving is the most dangerous times for domestic violence victims, and so often we don’t ask, “How can s/he stop being so abusive?” Give your time, your talents and your resources to your local sexual and domestic violence crisis center. We’re all hoping to work ourselves out of a job but until we do, we need your financial support to sustain our life-saving programs. #TheJamesHouse #Interview #Abuse #Surviver #Stories
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Learning to Read AgainBy Fay Funk QuailBellMagazine.com It started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had a long commute between school and home. It was 45 minutes on the R train from the door of my Brooklyn apartment to my first class of the day at NYU. A 45 minute commute twice a day, and listening to music just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I’ve found I can’t sit still and listen to music, I need to be walking or running. The responsible way to spend that time would have been to do my homework, but I could already picture myself reaching my stop and dropping every notebook and pen and over-priced textbook on the ground as I overzealously jumped up to get off, and watching those things slide all over the dirty train floor as the doors were closing. So I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I decided to give it a try. It was the first book I had read for pleasure in about six years, and I was scared of it. The book was scary in the way anything unfamiliar, even something good, is scary at first. What if I didn’t like it? What if reading for fun was something that was just lost to me? I chose The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because it was familiar. By this time the book was a smash hit and praised by critics and everyone I knew who had already read it. Over my winter break my family had insisted on seeing the movie based on the book, so I already knew the story. It was safe. So twice a day for 45 minutes I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the subway. When I was done with the first book, I read the two sequels. My fears about reading again were unfounded. The books were safe, and not just because of their content. I was aware of the world around me while at the same time being completely disconnected from it. Accidental eye contact with perverts was no longer a problem, so long as I looked at my book. Whenever a scammer hopped on the train and started their obnoxious spiel, I could hear them, and turn my body as far away as I could from whatever container they wanted me to put money in, while never looking up. And even on the loudest, most crowded train I could disengage from what was going on around me. The story was separating. I was not part of the train. I hit a turning point. Reading went from scary to safe to powerful. It happened about a month before I left New York City for good. I had long since finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, and had moved on to another blockbuster book: Game of Thrones, another safe and comforting book series a fantasy dork like me, though still remarkable considering the amount of death and violence packed into every page. I was on my way to the gym, reading the fourth book in the series. I looked up briefly and saw a boy I had dated for two weeks several years before (and on whom I harbored an irrational attachment) on the train with his girlfriend, who looked like Lauryn Hill. And there I was, sweaty with a smelly gym bag, no makeup, and 30 pounds heavier than when we first met. So I acted like I didn’t see him. I acted like the book I was reading was so engrossing that I couldn’t be bothered to notice him. And it didn’t take any acting. Whatever fictional character being brutally flayed alive or stabbed in the face genuinely absorbed all my attention. I didn’t notice when he got off the train. Comfort is important when you start reading again, and in the months after I moved from New York to Portland I stayed squarely in my comfort zone of well-received fantasy and sci-fi novels. Escapism and otherworldliness were a godsend when I was unemployed. Fantasy becomes predictable after you read enough of it, though. It’s clear who is the villain and who is the hero, who is morally ambiguous and who is going to die to create conflict. And even though familiarity is how I wanted to start reading, it is not how I wanted to continue. I started reading The Bell Jar, a sharp turn from the stories about dragons and aliens I had been reading. It hit close to home. An academically successful girl in New York City who is overwhelmed and depressed despite having the world at her feet? I knew that that was me for four years. The Bell Jar was familiar too, but unlike the fantasy books I had read it wasn’t familiar because of the story-arcs, but because the feelings held in it were real. It wasn’t a comfortable book to read. It’s never comfortable to look at yourself that closely. The Bell Jar is also one of my favorite books. Pushing my own boundaries was part of why I set out to start reading again for pleasure in the first place. It’s not easy to read about such complicated feelings, but it is fulfilling. I am glad it was not the first book I started reading. My first attempt at a really unfamiliar book was Ulysses by James Joyce. And I didn’t finish it. So far it’s the only book I’ve had to stop reading. About 200 pages in I was too hopelessly lost to continue. To me that’s a book you train for, like it’s a marathon, and I’m still not up to speed. Still it was big. I had been assigned to read parts of Ulysses in college, and barely got through a page, so understanding 200 pages was a major step forward. I picked up some of the subtleties, the references to Irish politicians and poetry, that I had not understood before. Then I knew for sure: I had trained myself to enjoy reading again. #Books #Reading #Literacy #Hobbies #Learning #Self-improvement
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Doing Nothing is OkayBy Kay Feathers QuailBellMagazine.com “I never know what it was to rest. I just work all the time from morning till late at night. I had to do everything there was to do on the outside. Work in the field, chop wood, hoe corn, till sometime I feels like my back surely break. I done everything except split rails.” -Sara Gudger, former slave from Burke County, North Carolina Something that always astounds me when I visit house museums is the docent's mention of household chores. The average Southern plantation required an entire team of slaves to wash laundry, for example. Today I drop my clothes in the washer, pour in some detergent, and wait for the buzzer to go off half an hour later. Yet even though the convenience of modern household appliances is meant to free up my time, I still scrounge for extra minutes in my day. It seems that this so-called convenience has only bumped up the number of to-dos I must tackle before bedtime. Shouldn't I be taking advantage of the fact that I don't have to boil my shirts, beat them with a stick, and hang them up to dry? Today I called my parents to tell them about a recent professional accomplishment. My father congratulated me and said, “Aren't you glad you spent so much unscheduled time in the library as a kid instead of joining the youth soccer league?” He was referencing how many of my classmates growing up had hardly a second to just, you know, be children. To my parents' credit, they did allow me to explore and create and ask questions as a child. Maybe I would've been less likely to try those things had every hour of my day been predetermined. On that note, this December 2013 passage on the blog, Transitions and a Medically Complex Child, spoke to me when I stumbled across it earlier today: “In a world of medical appointments, therapy visits, home programs and educational tutoring, sometimes, special needs parents need reminders to play. To get down on the floor and have fun for the sake of having fun. To drift off in that special world in which imagination takes over and family fun takes precedent over all the other junk in our lives.” Though I am not a parent, I have worked with children and the idea that you should let kids be kids (to an extent) makes sense. You are more likely to notice your surroundings and make meaningful observations if you don't have to worry about the words coming out of your tutor's mouth and the ballet lesson coming up next. The idea that unstructured time should be considered as important as structured time applies to adults, too. An agenda that's too full affects your ability to rest and let your mind wander. While it's important to have some focus, it's also important to let go of the leash strangling your imagination. Forget about your taxes for five minutes. Really. I am always unhappiest when preoccupied; that's a natural human reaction to juggling too much at once. Our ancestors—females in particular—spent generations fretting over the struggles of day-to-day living because they had to. Obtaining food, water, and shelter, not to mention keeping a space clean and liveable, used to be much harder than it is for the average middle class American citizen to do today. When I think of people who really had it good in the 'olden days,' I picture a gentleman-farmer sitting at his desk with a quill and parchment, writing frilly letters and journal entries for hours as his slaves toil away in the fields. This gentleman-farmer wasn't tweaking his OkCupid profile while uploading songs to his iPod and attempting to watch House of Cards all at once before DJing a party. No, he had leisure time so he used it for exactly that: leisure—“freedom from the demands of work or duty,” “unhurried ease.” All I'm saying is that it's OK to have blank blocks on your calendar. 1950s housewives would beat you senseless with a muffin pan if it meant having that free time for themselves. So maybe take a break now that you're done reading this, alright? #FreeTime #Leisure #Hobbies #Relax #SlowDown #Seriously #BackThen The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
True [Lesbian] Love on ScreenAs the Academy Awards draw nearer, something that always is interesting to note is how America's biggest award show compares to one of the most important film events each year: The Cannes Film Festival. The Cannes Film Festival takes the best films from various nations and shows them in competition for various awards. The most coveted award, the Palme d'Or, is often overlooked at the Academy Awards, with only one film in history winning both the Palme d'Or and the Best Picture Oscar (the 1955 film Marty). This year, the winner of the Palme d'Or is the French film Blue is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), a film that caused a bit of controversy upon release. The film is a coming of age story of a young woman named Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos). The nearly three hour film follows Adèle from her teenage years to her mid-twenties, particularly through her relationship with the blue haired artist, Emma (Lèa Seydoux). This involves Adèle coming to terms with her sexuality, as well as the issues that arise in a long term relationship. The film has been infamous since its release. Behind the scenes, Exarchopoulos and Seydoux clashed with director Abdellatif Kechiche over his methods. The film was also criticized for its graphic lesbian sex scenes, which drew complaints from gay people over being unrealistic and complaints from critics calling the scenes pornographic. Yet when the Cannes judging panel awarded the Palme d'Or, they awarded it not only to Kechiche, but to Exarchopoulos and Seydoux as well. The panel recognized the two actresses as contributing just as much as the director to the film. It's a good call, as the film really is more than just graphic lesbian sex scenes. The film is almost three hours long, and after the ninety minute mark, there's not a single sex scene left. This is illustrative of the film's original title. La vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2 translates to The Life of Adèle: Chapters 1 and 2, and that's really what this film is. It's Adèle's story first and foremost. She starts the film as a directionless teenager, one who can't find any passion in a heterosexual relationship. When she meets Emma, she becomes a lot more passionate, becoming a muse for Emma and building a committed relationship with her. As the years pass, their relationship develops like a real one, not a fantastical cinematic one. Both women grow out of their original selves, and they face trouble with the changes in their lives. This all works because Exarchopoulos and Seydoux are phenomenal in their roles, each actress completely possessing her role and building such a natural chemistry with her co-star. It's an incredible on-screen pairing, probably one of the best in recent years. Blue is the Warmest Color may offend or intimidate some people, whether it be from the lesbian sex scenes, the long running time, or even from the directorial style of handheld cameras and lots of close-ups of the actresses. However, if you do watch the film, what you will discover is a very intimate and realistic film about a relationship and all the ups and downs that come from being in a long term relationship. The film doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on issues of sexuality (Adèle is never shown coming out to her conservative parents, even though we see that she and Emma moved into a house together), something that might have been good to explore. Regardless, this is a phenomenal movie, and definitely one of the best to come out in 2013. Blue is the Warmest Color is available on Netflix. #FilmReview #BlueIsTheWarmestColor #Cannes #Palmed'Or #FrenchFilm #AbdellatifKechiche #LGBTQ
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Kobe of Shockoe SlipBy Christine Stoddard QuailBellMagazine.com Let's make a healthy generalization for a moment and say that every Quail Bell(e) wants to live in a Sophia Coppola film. My pick? Lost in Translation, if for nothing other than the trance of Toyko. I don't want to be Scarlett Johansson, but I definitely want to be where her character is. A friend's birthday recently afforded me the taste of the metropolitan prefecture in my own sweet and sleepy Richmond, Virginia. The evening started at 6 p.m. I had just left the office to pick up the birthday girl from her apartment in the Fan. Then we bumped our way over potholes and cobblestones until we found downtown parking. After walking half a block up Cary Street, we rounded the corner onto South 13th. At last, an oasis. Our destination, Kobe Japanese Steaks and Sushi, welcomed us on a seasonably chilly Monday night with warmth in all senses of the word: a smiling hostess, the golden glow of ambient lights, and cooking steam in the air. The beautiful interior—a mix of Richmond post-Civil War and Tokyo cool—impressed us from the moment we stepped in and took off our coats. At Kobe, Historic Shockoe Slip meets the Land of the Rising Sun. I imagined the ghost of Commodore Matthew C. Perry trailing behind us as the bubbly hostess guided us to our table. Ordering was a straight-forward affair. Our spacious booth afforded us plenty of room to stretch out and open our big menus. We poured over all the delectable descriptions until we made up our minds. The sound of Gummi Bear Sake being irresistible, I indulged. My friend chose the Creamsicle Sake, coincidentally my close second choice. I could've sworn I was drinking candy—and only the highest quality stuff at that. Deciding to go a little more grown-up for my entree, I selected the ginger pork, presented as "thinly sliced pork tenderloin and onions sauteed in our signature ginger sauce" on the menu. My friend, a vegetarian, went for the fried tofu udon instead. I loved how tender my pork was, with just the right amount of spice (nothing that left me wanting a breath mint afterwards.) My friend and I ate as much as we could without turning into chubby koi! But composure be damned. We left stuffed. Domo arigato gozaimasu, Kobe, for a hot meal in a chic place. Especially at the height of winter, we could all use a little escape. #Kobe #Restaurants #RVA #Dining #Food #Japanese #Cuisine #Yum
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Michael Sam Isn't Your Click BaitBy Christopher Sloce QuailBellMagazine.com On Feb. 9, Michael Sam, a Missouri defensive end came out as gay. Unlike Jason Collins, his career is just beginning. Also unlike Jason Collins’s, he has a boatload of accolades: first team All American, bowl appearances, winner of the SEC defensive player of the year award. The premiere knock before this announcement was that, size wise, he was between being a linebacker and a defensive end. Now, it’s became more complicated, sadly so. I don’t need to tell you it’s brave that he came out of the closet. If you’re reading this, I hope you realize that. Writing about sports is difficult, because writing about anything is at its heart analysis, and sports analysis can fall into the traps of banal platitudes (“Tim Tebow is a winner!”), fogeyism (“This young African American player is celebrating grabbing the ball; what a gross show of his horrendous morals”), over-analysis (“What WOULD Schopenhauer say about Kerry Kittles’ socks?”) and the inconsequential (“What Breaking Bad character is your favorite curler?”). So when we talk about Michael Sam, we have a duty and we have an issue. Our duty is to treat this story with grace and to tell the entire truth and not let biases get in the way. Our issue is the modes of sports analysis we’re working with simply come up short. We’re at the crossroads of sports media and a social issue. It’s not a pretty place to be. We’ve outlined the issues with sports analysis above. There are also problems, however, with the social aspect of how we might talk about Michael Sam. Here is a headline about the Michael Sam story on Upworthy: “Breaking The Mold Like This Football Player Just Did Isn't Easy. But It's Terrific, That's For Sure.” I’m not arguing with the content. I am never going to know what it’s like to come out of the closet. But by calling Michael Sam “This Football Player” ignores exactly everything that MAKES Michael Sam Michael Sam: the accolades, that he may have dropped a draft round or two by coming out of the closet, that there was a definite end and effect to him simply being honest about who he was. Instead, he’s just a football player, moreover, This Football Player, archon of click-bait, a story, not a human with defined concerns and a life. He is the story, the story isn’t about him. In essence, he becomes a product and something to pat yourself on the back for supporting instead of something you’re now informed about. As a person who has held it evident for a while that it’s Terrific but not Easy to come out of the closet, I’m simply not impressed with someone telling me it is. Inside the article, which I put on a St. Christopher before opening, we get that Michael Sam is “potentially becoming the first openly gay NFL player in history.” There’s no potentially to it: he is. The hyperbole on show isn’t just a “Michael Sam story” issue. This is an issue that effects the issues that concern people on a daily basis, that change lives, that decide how we vote, how dates go, how we relate to people at large and how we want the world to relate to us and how, when that goal is or is not met, shapes our feelings. These issues dwarf vague and hyperbolic headlines. Of course, there has to be some sympathy with the plight of internet journalism. There is a desire to tell deliver news and there is a despair in realizing you have to compete with YouTube videos of cats playing Frozen covers on banjos. How exactly do we compete, this style emanates? But the approach is wrongheaded. It’s trying to outYouTube YouTube. In this day and age, everything is based around how much louder the merits are trumpeted, not on those merits alone. Nobody can simply have a good weekend, weekends are horrendous or amazing. While I have my qualms with upworthy, the qualm really derives from how we color our own lives, which is of course hyperbolic. If I stub my toe, it’s a tragedy. A man walking into an open sewer is comedy. This dichotomy has existed forever. But Michael Sam deserves better than this. He deserves to live his life separate from that thresher. And we’re going to have to be less obsessed with our tools and sharability for once and let the story breathe. After all, bards did not have or worry about Google Analytics. They just told stories. #MichaelSam #Football #NBA #LGBTQ #Journalism #SportsJournalism
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Reflections on Rapa Nui #TammyKinsey #RapaNui #ExperimentalDocumentary #Film
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Girls is Feminist—Whether You Like It or NotLena Dunham’s and her much-loved hit Girls certainly doesn’t need yet another blogger vocalizing their opinion on whether the show is a triumph or a travesty. However, after fellow Luna Luna Lady, Anne (L cubed?) discussed why the show isn’t exactly the epitome of perfect feminism (she brought on some valid points), I wanted to reroute the focus and talk about a few of Anne’s eight feminist ideals. They included: 1) Female Solidarity 2) Girl Power 3) Body Acceptance 4) Sexual Liberation 5) Intersectionality 6) Broad Expression of Acceptable Female Identities 7) An Awareness of Issues Outside Oneself 8) A Consideration of Common Sexist Attitudes Against Women The show failed. Hannah and Marnie’s main story arc has pitted them against one another through cattiness and the actual process of trying to determine who in the relationship is the bad friend. All four main characters are extremely egocentric. The show hardly features any characters that aren’t white and it takes place in one of the most diverse cities in the world. AND the girls—and I’m calling them this because the show is painfully self-aware in making sure you are in on the joke that they are 20-something GIRLS and not women—are all basically four female stereotypes that almost read like a Buzzfeed or Thought Catalogue piece like "The Four Girls in Every Group of Friends.” It’s more or less a demented and twisted version of the four girlfriends in a rom com. This does not make it an antifeminist show. It may not be a beacon of anything aside from body positivity, but it is not actively opposing the movement; it’s expanding the discussion, particularly in terms of how women are portrayed in and participate in the media. The Anti-heroines In a media landscape dominated by acclaimed anti-heros (Draper, White, and Soprano) anti-heroines are underrepresented but insanely important. An argument against this point, one I’ve made time and time again, is that the aforementioned men had something about them that made it irresistible for most audiences to root for them. We knew Tony is a killer but we want him to come out on top. Walt becomes a monster but we still want him to squash his enemies and have the last word. Don’s probably the worst father ever but we want him to win over every client and make Pete Cambell’s life just a little shittier while he’s at it. But what about the Girls? Do we want Hannah to score a book deal or are we enjoying watching her flail and fail because she’s too caught up in her own head to even function in a professional setting? Do we want Jessa to sober up and be happy or do we just want to see her spiral out and end up in rehab again? (I do, those scenes were great and I HATE her character). Do we want Marnie to be successful or are we enjoying her delusions a little too much? Do we want Shoshannah to become a person? Maybe, maybe not. If you’re still watching the show and enjoying it, does it matter if you’re rooting for or against them? You’ll still watch it. But where does that leave you? What does that do for female characters in the media? It opens them up to being more than just a pretty face and more than just the bubbly side character who’s more of a plot device with a flat personality. Other anti-heroines of note that you may actually be rooting for include Olivia Pope (Scandal), Selina Meyer (VEEP), Chloe (Don’t Trust the B…), Juliette Barns (Nashville), and Fiona Goode (AHS: Coven). Some you may have heard them referred to as such. The discussion-up until recently-was and still mostly is male dominated. However, Lena is due some props for adding four females to the scene. Fuck Obligation, She Writes What She Wants The list itself in Anne’s piece makes good points for ways a show can help a movement. But does that mean a show about girls/women must be all of those things to be considered a part of the movement? I wrote about writing anxieties back in November—particularly regarding whether or not I needed to include feminist ideals into my main characters or make sure enough of them were female. I ran through so many worries making sure that my story was feminist enough that I ended up scrapping my entire story and not finishing anything. A writer, regardless of their gender, should be allowed to write the story they want to write. If feminism is about women being strong and making the choices they want to make and being equal on all grounds, then women should be given this right. Lena has taken this right and has the right people supporting her in order to pull it off. You can like or not like their stories, but that doesn’t mean they have to write what you want them to write. I believe that a story has a power all its own. This story becomes its own whole thing and while the writer can control it, the writer also knows when a plot direction or character action feels natural versus forced. The audience knows when things are forced, though they usually doesn’t even notice when it’s natural because that’s the story they get immersed in. While I would love to see at least one of the girls get a little self-actualized, if it’s not done right, it’ll go all wrong. Not All Girls Will Be Friends Female solidarity is an important, albeit a hotly debated and discussed point for the feminist movement. In a TV show it can be nice to see female friends supporting each-other in healthy friendships. But Girls is not about healthy friendships. The friendships in this show from the very beginning have been problematic at best, but that’s sort of the point. They say people’s entire group of friends shifts dramatically in their 20s. The friendships that seemed strong when you were between the ages 18 to 21 may have seemed unbreakable but things change, people grow apart, and sometimes people start seeing things that were always there but were completely invisible until they started to grow up. This is a fact for PEOPLE and I like seeing it happen to a group of girlfriends. Not all bonds are like those in Sex in the City. People can be terrible to one another, even when they call each other friends. Basically, it’s going through those motions and hitting those realizations that are part of the growing process. (Well, it’s true.) The point of Girls is that they aren’t done growing. This is a trend that’s started seeping into more of the indie scene. What was once dominated by men in arrested development is now being dominated by women. The man-child is meeting the woman-child. I want to see female characters grow into their own and become functional adults, but I can’t say there is no reality in the pitfalls of failing at achieving adulthood status, whatever that even means anymore. I am in no way arguing that Girls is a perfect show. I find the characters to be annoying, whiny, privileged little assholes…but maybe that’s the point. That’s fine, I don’t need to watch the show. This does not discount its objectives. While it is whitewashed and occasionally problematic for other reasons (see poster for reference), the show has brought female representation in the media to the foreground in a way that no other show has in a long time. For that, I tip my hat to Lena. I’ll give her credit, but it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. #LunaLunaMag #GIRLS #Feminism #HBO #LenaDunham #PopCulture #FeministMedia
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Lost in Young BodiesBy Paisley Hibou QuailBellMagazine.com Sunday, one month left of winter, street parking stolen by church-goers, our stomachs weighed down by brunch. We scurried into the opera house like mice late to a ceremonial cutting of the biggest block of cheese in the kitchen's history. A black-vested woman scanned our tickets and muttered something without making eye contact. Then we stumbled through a door on its way to closing. The usher raised her brow at us and tutted. Our seats were in the center of the theatre. Since we stood to the far left, that meant squeezing past many unhappy patrons. After crushing a couple of feet and cracking many more knees, we sat down and waited for the curtains to part. But, as tardiness is part of the glamour of show biz, we found ourselves squirming in anticipation—and under watch. We were the babies of the audience. Of course, we were used to it: being in places where the average age is 45. On this particular day, we had lived up to the stereotype of a twenty-something, being late, underdressed, and filled with mimosas. Yet normally we showed up early and wore moth-eaten things several seasons out of fashion. We said “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” like a black man in Jim Crow era Alabama. We held our own in cocktail conversation, even with our dirty habit of stuffing my purse with pastries and hors d'oeuvres because—despite what may appear to be a life of middle-aged glitz and elegance—we live on a young adult's budget. Luxuries often come complimentary in our line of work; yet basics are rarely free. We pay more for a jug of milk than we do tickets to the ballet, mainly because of the wonder of the press pass. We have learned to endure the looks from older people who do not think we belong. For we are young, we have not yet earned any of this. We should be playing beer pong because we'll fret over our next paycheck in our sober state. But we are grandparents. We rise and retire early. We revel in our grumpiness. Our habits are studier and stickier than a spider's web. We cherish the small moments—like butter melting and running over hot bread—and write letters to our friends. We love the opera. And when the curtain reveals the glittering stage, we feel as giddy as children before a magician. Somehow, though, our taste in opera is seen as old. Lost in young bodies, no magic will make us older than we are. Only age and wisdom and feelings too big for our younger selves to understand. #OldSoul #Opera #PersonalEssay #Youth #YoungAdulthood #TwentySomethings #Ageism
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Advice from a MuralistMural work is quite different than most other 2-dimensional work as the surface is usually much larger than a painting, and instead of moving the piece around, you the artist must move around to accommodate its permanent place and the surrounding area. Whether outside against a cityscape or inside a room or business wherein the furniture and people set the parameters of the work, the mural artist is always at the mercy of the space. Having just completed a mural for Smartmouth Brewing in Norfolk, Virginia, the process of mural making is fresh on my mind. Here are five things I think every artist needs to consider before starting on a large-scale mural. 1. Have the appropriate design on hand and approved before you begin Gather information and research the subject of interest. Knowing your design will be a major triumphant victory. When your design is okay'ed then it means that the owner's ideals and views align with the mural you will be creating. Always get the okay before proceeding in order to save time and feelings. During my research of Smartmouth Brewery's Cow Catcher Stout I was able to find out the origin of its name and how it relates to Norfolk. Cow Catcher refers to the front grill of a train, normally adorning older trains. The name of the beer also references its diary properties. Furthermore Smartmouth is directly next to a train yard. All of this went into my consideration of the design. 2. Show up with the proper tools Know the size and restraints. Have scaffolding available by renting local or borrowing from a friend. Prices vary at about $25-30 a day. Norfolkians should go to Grand Retail Station (333.4188). Ladders are a pain in the ass. No surprises so make sure your transportation is in line. Also, is it inside or outside? You must prepare for the atmosphere to stay comfortable. Clothing you'll feel good creating in over hours is a vital tool. 3. Know your materials What's the mural going to be comprised of? Paint, spray paint, chalk? Knowing what you're using ahead of time helps a lot. Learn by research how to use best your means of creating. Youtube is your friend. Don't be afraid to reach out to a more experienced artist for advice. In this case, the material to be used was chalk. When it comes to chalk, be sure to know how you can stretch its boundaries. Since it reacts to water you should know to use a paintbrush as a means to make lines that you couldn't otherwise by just using a finger. A great marking tool could also be a drafters erasers that is of a light color. Erasing can just as well be another form of making lines with more control, offering more dynamic cut-ins and detail oriented maneuvers. RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH and learn something. 4. Have a step-by-step plan of action & a schedule Cow Catcher | Photographic ArchivesTake time in the plan of action and know your pace. Have a level to ensure the piece is straight--and whatever else you need to keep your mind straight and on task. T-squares are also handy in concert with a measuring tape. Keep your reference(s) in view to help guide you. Breathe easy and stretch as needed to stay limber. Limber is half the battle. 5. Be open to difficulties that may arise and learn to adapt to those challenges Stay loose and work tighter towards the end. Detail and cut-ins should be a last process finale. Always step back from the piece to allow for it to be straight and correct within its respected development. Mural work offers its own set of challenges, but also its own set of satisfactions. Hope this was helpful to future mural artists out there. #Murals #StreetArt #Norfolk #ArtistTips
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A Moment in RVA HistoryEditors Note: This is an anonymous submission which was sent to Quail Bell's editors with the message, "I apologize for the anonymity. Lots of pressure going around. Sending this to all Council members. Thank you for your consideration." This letter has been lightly edited for grammar but has remained otherwise untouched from the original submission. Dear Honorable Members of Richmond City Council, I am writing you this afternoon because we are at a major crossroads in the great city of Richmond. In the next couple of weeks you will be asked to vote on a variety of issues that will weigh very heavily on the future of this city and the people within it for many decades to come. While there are a variety of different development projects including the Revitalize RVA proposal, the Brown’s Island Amphitheater plan, and the ongoing management of Monroe Park on the table for you to soon vote on, there is a much more serious civic situation that you have the heavy burden of addressing. The yay or nay ballot that each of you will cast in regards to Mayor Jones’s Shockoe stadium proposal will be a vote on much more than whether or not to build on a historic site in Shockoe Bottom: It has now become a yay or nay vote to validate a model of how business is to be conducted by both non-profit organizations and well-funded commercial enterprises in the City of Richmond. Over the past 4 months since Mayor Jones’s initial announcement of the RevitalizeRVA plan, his conduct, as well as that of Venture Richmond and LovingRVA, have been questionable at best (and spinelessly manipulative at worst) to both the democratic process and the non-profit model that has been at the heart of much of RVA’s lifestyle and cultural expansion over the past 3-5 years. On the surface it may appear that there is a large amount of support in the form of Facebook “likes” and signatures from both the commercial and non-profit sectors of the city for this plan. The reality is that many of RVA’s small businesses are being kept in a silent, financial stranglehold around raising any questions or concerns around the RevitalizeRVA plan. Because many of our city’s non-profit organizations receive funding from major corporations such as Capital One, Bon Secours, and Altria there has been a passive aggressive mandate issued that if you want to keep receiving funds for your organization that you most “go along” with the stadium plan or risk losing some level of funding for your organization. This has been echoed by a number of different employees across many sectors under the cover of anonymity for fear of fiscal retribution. Many of these organizations know that building another recreational facility is not in the best interest of the city. Regardless of the mayor’s blind eye to the educational issues in RVA’s currently rock-bottom education system, most RVA taxpayers overwhelmingly agree that our schools and infrastructure across the entire city are the immediate priority, not recreational sports and an illogical design that puts a hotel (typically consider a place for rest and relaxation, no?) right next to 7,000 screaming fans and fireworks going off at 9:00 at night. It doesn’t take a civil engineer to understand the problems around that and the many other shoddy details around financial liability and infrastructure assessments for this project. But alas, nothing can be said by many local organizations about that for fear of losing much needed funding dollars and threats of being “white-listed” from certain opportunities regardless of if this deal is successfully railroaded through or not. That is a detrimental and n unfavorable situation for businesses, their employees, the city, our culture, and the democratic process as a whole. So, this is where you, our elected city officials come into play. You have the authority and power to end this. You and only you have the ability to let these people and organizations within our city know that this is not the model that is appropriate for how business is to be conducted in RVA now or in the future. Because if you validate their actions, empower these cultural bullys holding many of our most beloved organizations hostage, and allow the RevitalizeRVA plan to proceed, you will undoubtedly and irreversibly de-base the culture of the business of politics in this city forever. We are teetering on the brink of an unprecedented land and resources grab by Venture Richmond and a small group of people who wish to cash in on a tax-payer funded structure that will undoubtedly damage the beautifully emerging, independent culture by continuing to shut out local businesses and vendors the same way the Skins training camp has. It is well known and echoed in many halls that in 2014 and beyond the future of economic development is in small business, NOT real estate. Good, fair wage jobs (not minor league sports or part-time jobs with rotating, unpredictable schedules like at most grocery stores) and spending at homegrown establishments are the foundation to growing an effective, long-term tax base that will allow RVA to continue to grow and improve the city-wide services everyone agrees are in dire need of attention. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Birthing a Book"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience." -Emily Dickinson I never imagined writing a book days before deadline to be as messy as a scene from Window Water Baby Moving. Though the experience may not have been as bloody, I did consider eating a placenta at the end of it all for nourishment. (Placentophagy seemed smart after the couple dozen 7-11 mozzarella sticks I had consumed that week.) Other than the reminder that procrastination has its consequences—namely in the form of sleep deprivation, binge eating and poor hygiene—this hellish episode reinforced that writing is a privilege. I had the golden opportunity to lock myself in an ivory tower and pour my thoughts onto paper. So what if my hair was a little tangled? My thoughts would be printed, distributed, and made permanent. As the soon-to-be author of a non-fiction history book, this was my chance to make history herstory. Plus, I was getting paid to do this when, statistically, I should be a nanny. I started the weekend before my deadline by packing up at the office and complaining to my co-worker that I'd be spending my Friday night parked in front of a computer. With such a “grueling week” coming to a close, I whined that I just wanted to rest. The complaint was met with a cold stare. At age 25, my dyslexic co-worker had not yet completed his college degree. “At least you don't have to be outside laying bricks,” he said. I cringed. He was right. I wasn't in danger of tearing a tendon. I imagined myself in the blistering sun forcing dexterity out of my calloused hands as sweat stung my eyes—more or less how this co-worker had spent his late teens and early 20s. Instead, I would be sitting in a cushy chair at a university library surrounded by art books. As I bobbed along to a soundtrack of Jewel and Pearl Jam, a white chocolate mocha was only a grasp away. Hadn't this been the dream since childhood—the life of an authoress? The following week, my co-worker would explain how hard even basic spelling came to him and how the thing he wanted most was a college degree, but reading and writing made realizing that dream a slow and arduous journey. He could usually only manage one or two courses at a time without overexerting himself. Meanwhile, I had written 18,000 words in one week, not counting the writing I had done outside of the book. Sure, I could barely keep my eyes open. But even in my zombie state, I should've admitted how lucky I was to have finished a manuscript. I am lucky because I am capable and I am lucky because I have a platform. Yet our struggles always seem relative. Because my social circle is largely comprised of journalists, and M.F.A. candidates, I sometimes lose perspective on my good fortune. Deadlines may seem “unfair.” Word count may seem “quaint.” Oh, groan, our editors are so inconsiderate. Let's check our privilege, shall we? The literacy rate of South Sudan is 27 percent. How many people there would feel blessed to read a book, let alone write one? Writing is not just something I do because I can; I do it because I must as my societal duty. I am educated and I am a woman and, to quote Debra Winger, “Women don't write enough.” VIDA, a nonprofit dedicated to women in literary arts, performs an annual tally of “gender disparity in major literary publications and book reviews” to “offer up concrete data and assure women authors (and wayward editors) that the sloped playing field is not going unnoticed.” They call this the VIDA Count. They are currently in the process of tallying for 2013, but take a look at the 2012 VIDA Count for insight into gender inequality at The Atlantic, Boston Review, Granta, Harpers, London Review of Books, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, and other major publications. Writing a book is similar to giving birth in that it is time-intensive and painful. That being said, that suffering is beautiful. I distinctly recall one morning where I was grinning and typing away at 3 a.m., oblivious to the fact that I had to be at the office at 8:30 a.m. I was possessed, in flow, radiant. Just as not everyone is lucky enough to be fertile, not everyone is lucky enough to be literate and college-educated and have a publishing contract. Throughout history, women across the world have especially found themselves in the latter camp. The next time I catch myself whining about a book I must write, I hope I remember that. Bookstores, libraries, and society as a whole needs more female voices. Adding to the conversation might be scary and overwhelming at first, but I am grateful to do it. #VIDACount #WomenWriters #Literati #Literacy #Publishing #CreativeWriting #Journalism #WritingABook
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Real Gypsy LooksBy Jessica Reidy QuailBellMagazine.com Editor's Note: Previously Jessica Reidy wrote this essay on Romani fashion for Quail Bell Magazine. Please read it for insight and context if you haven't already! These outfits are selected from a place of love of tradition and with the modesty and purity rules of Romanipen in mind, namely, covered legs, arms, and décolletage. I allow room for interpretation and flexibility however, in the spirit of the contemporary Romani-fusion style that so many Romani women embrace and create on the streets, in the workplace, and in the home. For instance, instead of strictly skirts, I allow for long dresses too. Some of the hemlines are not quite floor-length, but none are above the knee (or even the calf, really). All five photos in this post were taken by Leonard M. Reidy. Outfit 1 Dress: Navy, floral Gunne Sax dress with lace detail. Vintage circa 1970’s from The Odd Showroom in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Shoes: Maroon combat boots, Kickers, circa 1990’s. In Romani fashion, practicality is essential. These combat boots, which I’ve had since I was 11, stand the test of time and add an edge to the long, feminine dresses emblematic of Romani style. Also, when the dress is shorter than ankle-length, like the Gunne Sax dress, tall boots preserve modesty. Outfit 2 Dress: Turquoise, cotton Mexican wedding dress with lace detail, vintage circa 1970’s from The Odd Showroom in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dikhlo: Turquoise and green plaid silk, family heirloom. Shoes: Maroon combat boots, Kickers, circa 1990s. While this fantastic wedding dress finds its roots outside of Romani culture, it reminds me of a glorious mash-up of Flamenco dress (originally a Romani dance) and the traditional full-skirts of Romani fashion. The neckline is a little daring, so if you would feel uncomfortable, a jewel-toned, heavy-lace camisole would be lovely underneath. Outfit 3 Dress: Black evening dress with sheer skirt overlay and green ribbon detail, vintage circa early 2000’s from Second Time Around in Porstmouth, New Hampshire. Shawl: Red silk, vintage, from a charity shop in Ireland. Shoes: Knee-length leather Ecco boots. Romanipen discourages bare arms and low-necklines, so a shawl is a perfect accessory to keep covered and add a shock of color. The layered skirt of the evening dress hearkens to the tradition of wearing long, many-layered skirts to preserve purity—the lower-half of the body is marime, polluted. This is why Romanipen requires that clothes for the lower-half of the body are washed separately from clothes for the upper-half, as well as inner and outer clothes (shirts versus jackets), and men and women’s clothes. Outfit 4 Dress: Black, velvet evening dress, vintage gift from a friend. Cardigan: Charter School Cardigan in Magenta from Modcloth. Dikhlo: Silk, vintage Pucci scarf circa 1990’s, gift. Shoes: Knee-length leather Ecco boots. Cardigans are very popular for everyday wear and are often paired with long skirts or dresses—they make almost any neckline acceptable and add a layer of color to an ensemble. Romani style embraces bright color palates so this is a particularly good option because the Modcloth Charter School Cardigan comes in a variety of lovely colors and patterns. Outfit 5 Skirt: Indian, floral silk wrap skirt from Quarter Moon Imports in Tallahassee, Florida. Top: One and Only Bodysuit in Navy polka-dots from Modcloth. Sunglasses: Vintage Yves Saint-Laurent, circa 1970s, from The Odd Showroom in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Shoes: Dance Instead of Walking heel in blue from Modcloth. Mixing patterns is a hot trend right now but Romani women have been doing it for centuries. Polka-dots and florals is my favorite combination—it’s upbeat and celebratory, and at the heart of Romani culture there is a celebration of music, stories, and the natural world. My grandmother always taught me to love the small things in the present moment because even during the darkest of times, there are glimpses of love and beauty. Jewelry worn for each outfit Coco Rosie earrings in Mint from Modcloth. Gold rings, family heirlooms. Historically, the tradition of wearing heaps of gold originally comes from banks’ discriminatory policies against Roma. If you can’t get a bank account, the next safest option is to keep your valuables on your person, of course. A note on Romanipen and laundry: I wash bodysuits and dresses separately since they are a kind of liminal clothing—neither top nor bottom, but both. A note on vintage items and Romanipen: Traditionally, it’s discouraged to pass items down to others, especially if the person is deceased. For many families, this tradition has loosened in order to preserve family artifacts and for thriftiness’ sake. I wash all previously-loved items that I purchase or inherit, but that’s just good practice for everyone, regardless of culture. #Romani #Gypsy #Fashion #Vintage #Thrifted
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Fine Linen and ChinaBy Raquel Lynne QuailBellMagazine.com "Living simply makes loving simple." - bell hooks I’ll be honest: the last couple of weeks have been tiring for me. Between the several snow storms, work family and personal commitments, my “me time—"Raquel Lynne time”—has fallen significantly short. Personal time, the time taken to love ourselves, is essential for personal growth. For it is moments spent in loving ourselves where we are able to quiet the noise around us and listen to what is driving us inside (or not); to make directional changes in our lives, and receive internal confirmations to move forward. As I write this, I am drawn to thoughts of an aunt of mine. Let’s call her Aunt Susan. When I was a child, people would refer to my aunt as “selfish”, “a loner," and “uppity." Personally I didn’t see that in her. What I remember are elegant china cups that were slightly filled with coffee. She’d have creamer and sugar sitting on a fine linen covered table with the most delicious cookie assortment. It was because of my Aunt Susan that I first discovered the delightfulness of coffee. A petite woman, whom, like my mother, was an elegant and gracious woman, Aunt Susan always carried a smile. In conversation I recall Aunt Susan speaking about how she choose not to affiliate herself with negative people and anyone who “brought extreme tension, anger and hostility to her doorstep." The elders in my family would disagree with her saying, “Aunt Susan, you can’t be like that." But what my aunt was communicating to them was simple: "You must align yourself purposely as to avoid those things that may cause strive and heartache. This is how you love yourself and take care of yourself." So, you ask, what will I do to get back to me? I will steer clear of those things which pull me away from loving myself. I will slow down, relax, breathe, trust, and rely on my inner guidance and intuition to see me through. What will you do? #SelfLove #Self-esteem #PersonalTime #MeTime #Relax #PeaceOfMind The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
A Step Towards Cementing Harmful Gender Binary The news has hit the presses that the Virginia High School League has changed a policy, voting 27-0, allowing for the participation of transgender students in school sports. The new policy has some people declaring this yet another move towards equality, while others are rising to the surface with plenty of transphobic things to say.
While it could perhaps be said that even acknowledging the presence of transgender students is a move in a positive direction, the actual text of the policy means that there will not likely be any real impact or benefit for transgender students in Virginia schools. The new policy reinforces cis-gender privilege and the use of the gender binary to divide and classify. The new policy specifies that students will have to compete on a sports team of their birth gender unless they have either under gone a sex reassignment before puberty, or undergone a sex reassignment after puberty and can prove that they are taking hormones and stay on the hormones. What folks unfamiliar with transgender issues may not realize, is that sex reassignment surgery is not the endgame for many trans-identified people. And the requirements VHSL are asking for are extensive: They ask for surgical removal of the external sex organs and the ovaries or testes. Many, many adult trans people will never be able to or want to have that sort of surgery. High school age people are very unlikely to have had the emotional, medical and financial support necessary to have a sex reassignment surgery. They are unlikely to be legally allowed to do so before the age of 18. They also may not want surgery even if that option exists for them. Trans identity is not limited to people who desire or identify as one of two gender options. There are trans people who reject the male/female options, and genderqueer people as well. For these folks, surgery might not be the answer to their gender identity. Parents are another concern with this new policy's demands. Unfortunately, not all transgender or genderqueer minors are supported in those identities by their families. And almost all transgender minors would need a parent or guardian's consent for either surgery or hormone treatments. This policy is yet another way in which transgender minors might be trapped by the prejudice of their parents. Sports might seem silly, a little superfluous of an issue to focus so much time and energy on in the realm of other issues faced by transgender, genderqueer, intersex, etc. folks. However, sports are important because they contribute in many ways to the mental, emotional, and physical well being of people. Self-esteem, teamwork, health benefits and more are just some of the ways that sports contribute positively for anyone who participates. Preventing transgender people from competing in sports also prevents them from opportunites for scholarships and carreers as athletes. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The higher the hair...#Everyday #Life #Trivial #Looks #Style
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Reflecting on Reflections on Rapa NuiBy Paisley Hibou QuailBellMagazine.com Tammy Kinsey is a Professor of Film at the University of Toledo in the Midwest. She has been making films since she was eight years old, and continues to revel in the possibilities of experimental film and varied modes of storytelling. She received her MFA in Filmmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work is a hybrid of experimental film and documentary, often dealing with identity, personal history and memory. She works in digital media as well as 16mm and Super 8 film formats, melding the traditional with the new in moving image presentation. Kinsey's most recent film is Reflections on Rapa Nui, which will be making its online premiere here on Quail Bell on February 25, 2014. Her thoughts on this experimental documentary about Easter Island. What did you know about Rapa Nui prior to making this film? How was your knowledge and perception changed now that you've gone through the effort of traveling to Easter Island and creating this film? I knew about the moai (those monolithic figures), the big heads in the fields and standing by the sea. I also had some sense of the Birdman Cult of Orongo and the ‘god’ Make-Make. This came from growing up with the National Geographic magazine, along with watching the 1950’s documentary Kon-Tiki and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Those tales of exploration were the stuff that fueled my imagination when I was a kid. So my knowledge of Rapa Nui before making the film was mostly just broad strokes about difference and the sense of a magical, secret storybook land far, far away. Over the past several years, I have had a great deal of curiosity about it and what it had become in the 21st century. In making this film, I found that it is REALLY, really far away from other land masses, and very small. It’s like a dot in the ocean—and I wondered about the monumental set of meanings found in the giant heads so far removed from everything else. How had these moai been perceived throughout the years? I was really looking for interpretations beyond those of concrete, Western anthropological summations of a culture. So often the questions are about how they were moved and why they were made. To me, that’s almost reductive. I was interested in the folktales and legends, in the indigenous notions of the moai, and in a sense of the place now. This played out in days of walking and filming, gathering visual representations of place, and in the experience of a story told to me by a woman in a little shop in Hanga Roa about how the moai stopped the tsunami waves after the mainland earthquake. The waves were surprisingly low after the 2010 earthquake, and I loved hearing the indigenous perspective on that. I enjoyed each greatly but there was a distinct difference between my experience of the indigenous islanders and the people of mainland Chile, and I think that’s very much about size, population density, and location. My interest in visual language and referents of space as sacred and as purveyor of Meaning were amplified on Rapa Nui because of the experience of it as a truly remote place. The town on the island, Hanga Roa, is very small; the entire island is about 120 square miles, and blessedly unspoiled. Rapa Nui felt very much like a sanctuary. Do you consider film a form of visual anthropology? Do you consider yourself a visual anthropologist or a curator of visual anthropology? I think it can be, but that’s not how I approached this project. I think the subjective experience of place is challenging to the desire for objective study, and its something I am very much aware of when I travel and when I work, even as I try to have pure experience. This intersection of thought is what I seek to evoke with the overlapping sounds in the audio track. What are some of the observations you made about material culture in Rapa Nui life? The local connection to the moai seemed to be one of respect and protection (they protect the moai, and the moai somehow look out for them). More than once I saw locals telling visitors to stand further away from the statues, which seemed to me to be saying that the moai need their space both literally and figuratively.Locals seem to be a part of the living world of the moai, not distant or removed from them but cohabitating with them. I began to ask, what does it mean to grow up on Rapa Nui? When do kids realize that they live in a place unlike any other place in the world? I was there in July and August, which is winter in the southern hemisphere, but you could still see the presence of the tourist industry. There were fliers for performances featuring dancers and musicians, and regular screenings of feature films based loosely on the place. I found the church and graveyard in Hanga Roa intriguing with its blend of indigenous and Catholic imagery. I also witnessed a non-indigenous religious pilgrimage–a traveling service at the ahu at Tongariki. There’s a definite mingling of cultures. Did you have a chance to visit mainland Chile? How did that experience differ from your time on Easter Island? Yes—I arrived in Santiago and spent a couple of days there before and after travelling to Rapa Nui. I found the mainland to be different in many ways, from the local color to the climate, flora and fauna, and the urban versus rural environment. But most significantly for me—as mentioned in the film—I had a critical encounter with a local there, and it really guided me as I began the journey. My first night in Santiago, I found a small café to have a bite to eat. I struck up a conversation with a man who worked there. He asked me what I was doing in Chile, how I planned to spend my time there. I said I was flying over to Rapa Nui. He furrowed his brow, thought for a moment, then looked directly at me and said, “They think they’re Polynesian.” He seemed disappointed, perhaps even sad for me about Rapa Nui. It was more than two thousand miles away, under Chilean rule, an indigenous population on a remote island. He told me there wasn’t much to see there. I think it was the presence of time, history, and a sense of ownership on his mind. ‘That’s Chilean territory, not Polynesian …’ That statement really resonated with me while I was there. How did your time in Virginia influence your understanding of history and your approach to telling stories through film and photography? I was born and raised in Richmond, and my mother’s side of the family goes back generations in Virginia. I left Richmond for several years but returned because the graduate program in Photography and Film at VCU was just what I was looking for as an artist. (Joan Strommer was my mentor; I had seen her work when I was younger). My father is from North Carolina, and his father is from Georgia—there are deep, multi-generational connections there as well. I am very much shaped by my family history and ties to the South. I find connection to the oral traditions of storytelling, and I think that even as a child I was striving to tell stories in this way as a means of creating concrete manifestations of the visual and verbal semantics I was experiencing at home and at grandma’s house. #RapaNui #Film #Documentary #ArtistInterview #Chile #EasterIsland
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Be On Top of the World! (Not 'cause it's V-Day.)By Laura Bramble QuailBellMagazine.com Dear fledglings, In case you're wondering why we didn't post about Valentine's Day this morning, here's why: We wanted to be the only website in the world that didn't remind you—from the moment you woke up—that, on this day, you had to spend money and/or put on a nice outfit and/or feel lame for not having a date. Your Facebook feed is probably filled with enough hearts and chocolates and romantic sayings as it is. This evening, just be happy that it is Friday. No moping, especially if you're without a honey tonight. Instead, reflect upon the words of Carl Jung: "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." (Or any of these other fantastic 50 self-love quotes compiled by Psychology Today.) With that in mind, it is definitely okay to finish a box of candy hearts by yourself. Just do so in an imaginary, nostalgic or otherworldly way. Crushed and through a straw? One every 16 minutes while wearing a martian costume? Or while reciting Shakespeare backwards? Hey, whatever you think will earn you the most fairy punk cred. A for effort. Happy Valentine's Day! Feathery hugs, The Quail Bell Crew #Illustration #QuailsRuleTheWorld #Valentines #VDay
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The Art School HaircutA mix of scraggly and shaven, the art school haircut is the signature look on “creative” campuses everywhere. Though these heads of hair are badly dyed, awkwardly textured, and strangely tapered, they are beautiful. Not actually, of course, but what they represent is beautiful: idealism. Somewhere today, a few young artists or writers or filmmakers are doing wacky things to their bangs or sideburns or scalps to take their first step on the road to revolution. It is a snow day and, therefore, in the minds of many suffering from cabin fever, a good day to drink and take out a pair of craft scissors and see what happens. Because that’s how the road to revolution usually starts on campus: not quite soberly eyeing one’s reflection in the mirror and declaring it time for change. One may ask why the art school haircut is necessary. Can’t people fight for revolution without ironic mullets? Sure. You can protest and volunteer and write letters to your local politician in a $100 salon cut and J. Crew outfit bought new at the mall a ten-minute SUV drive from your subdivision. But you probably won’t. The art school haircut is part of a uniform. Like any uniform, it has its advantages and disadvantage. Call the art school haircut ugly if you wish. Call out the posers. Yet the art school haircut is also an immediately recognizable symbol of shared beliefs. To quote political columnist Mark Shields, “There is always strength in numbers. The more individuals or organizations that you can rally to your cause, the better.” Spot the art school haircut and you know you have an ally. #ArtSchool #Hair #AntiStyle #Beauty #Politics #Radical The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Lessons from Frankenstein's MonsterIn 1973, Spanish director Víctor Erice released a film called The Spirit of the Beehive. The film follows Ana, a six-year-old girl living in a Castilian village right after the end of the Spanish Civil War. After watching Frankenstein, Ana becomes fascinated by the character of Frankenstein's monster and by death in general, particularly the scene where Frankenstein's monster accidentally kills a little girl. Her fascination with the film ties closely to the lives of the other members of her family, from her father who spends his time writing about his bees, to her mother who writes to a former lover. This film is particularly interesting because of the power of nostalgia. The film was made towards the end of the Franco years in Spain, signaling an end to the Fascist power that had ruled Spain for nearly forty years. Erice is looking back on his own childhood, taking feelings and memories of his life and using Ana to portray them. The film, shot mostly in warm colors from the fantastic cinematographer Luís Cuadrado (who went blind during the production of the film), echoes the feelings of nostalgia and the romanticism one feels when looking back at the past. The film even begins with childish drawings of images and scenes that will occur. Ana is slowly becoming more aware of her world and spends the film trying to understand it. She doesn't entirely understand the war that just ended, but she's open to learning about the fantastic. Frankenstein, a school lesson on human anatomy, and the discovery of a poisonous mushroom begin to make her think about life and death. Her sister, Isabel, tries to make her believe in the fantastic, mostly to play with Ana's gullible nature, but causing Ana to make most of the choices she makes in the film. There's a part in the film where Ana discovers an injured Republican soldier in an abandoned sheepfold. Ana was previously lead to believe that the sheephold was where Frankenstein's monster, or rather the spirit that took the guise of Frankenstein's monster, lived. What began as a prank by her sister became a strange meeting. Ana and the soldier have a quiet relationship; Ana brings him food and a coat, and he entertains her with sleight of hand. This part of the movie is fascinating because it blends the childhood fantasy (Ana's spirit has finally appeared) with real world issues (he's a fugitive). From Ana's perspective, this is just evidence of something incredible. To the viewer, it's a grim reminder of the world beyond the Castilian plains. The film may come off as somewhat slow to some viewers, but it's a very atmospheric piece. There's a lot of warm colors everywhere and a real intimacy with the characters. The family in the film are never all in the same frame, but we get to see them all individually and learn about how they live and go about in their daily lives. The distance the characters show is reminiscent to how children do see their parents. The father is an older, wiser figure who stays in his study and imparts wisdom. The mother is a lot more emotional, but a little more distant from the others. Towards the end, we do finally get to see the family begin to get closer. The parents finally occupy the same space and show compassion towards each other, Isabel shows more concern for Ana, and Ana comes to accept her own identity and place in the world. The Spirit of the Beehive is available on Netflix and The Criterion Collection. #Film #FilmReview #AlexCarrigan #TheSpiritOfTheBeehive #ForeignFilm #VictorErice #SpanishFilm #Nostalgia
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$30,000 a YearOne week ago, I was pressed against a blond wood bar, talking shop with a publishing colleague. Somehow we had found ourselves in the nosiest restaurant in all of Richmond outside of the Fan—and yet still a safe distance from the droves of restless VCU students eager for their PBR and cut-offs at the height of winter dreariness. This conversation, despite the presence of hard cider and chocolate cake, was all business. But we had every distraction trope in our midst. A family and all its multiple generations crowded the belly of my neighborhood hang-out. It appeared to be Grandpa's birthday. Either that or everybody was too drunk to remember the lyrics to any other song but “Happy birthday.” '80s rock played overhead, the only tip-off being the sting of synths. Beyond that, it was impossible to tell what was playing. Behind the bar, the middle-age waitresses were all clones of each other: brunette, bleary-eyed, defeated. At one point, my colleague asked me about my business goals. I elaborated upon my earlier summary of Quail Bell Magazine and Quail Bell Press & Productions. He chuckled because, in several ways, our goals overlapped. “We both want to be nerd famous,” he said. “Making stuff full-time and making $30,000 a year doing it.” We listed mutual acquaintances ten or twenty years older than us who had paid their dues and now earned their living writing, cartooning, and publishing titles that excite them. They do not wait tables. They do not teach grade school. Their names are known at comic book conventions and small press expos. They may or may not have health insurance and their spouses definitely have full-time jobs, too, and probably in a different industry. In some cases, they actually made better money working in high-end food service or at a well-funded public school system than they do running a small press. But that was before hundreds of people followed their doodles on Instagram and they could actually boast “fans.” Anyone seriously aspiring to break into any media industry has heard or read the horror stories about long hours, low pay and cruddy benefits. Today I had a friend tell me that one of her former college classmates was now working a full-time editorial job at Rolling Stone's New York office for $22,000 a year. Statistics back up the anecdotes; just look to The 2013 Publishers Weekly salary survey. For those averages,, I would much prefer to DIY and work with fellow creatives and clients on my own terms. (For that reason, sometimes Quail Bell art director Kristen Rebelo and I like to joke and call our operation “The Christine and Kristen Show.”*) Of course, most people do not enter the publishing industry with the illusion of becoming rich. They want to work in publishing because they love books, magazines, and, increasingly, websites. They want to write or edit or design or illustrate and, as the cliché goes, “tell stories.” But aren't they--we—allowed to seek a sliver of material comfort, too? Not a BMW and annual European vacation necessarily; more like eating out on a monthly basis and having enough to cover our behinds in case of an emergency. What great artists need, to quote Joe Fassler of The Atlantic, is “solitude,” not destitution. Washington, D.C. is the 8th most expensive metropolitan area in the U.S., Quail Bell(e)s. Living on $30,000 a year, while possible, is difficult. Christian Garcia, the lowest-paid player on the Washington Nationals team, still makes an annual salary of $491,000. Compare that to the average staff writer at Washington City Paper, who makes $35,000. Not to knock baseball players, but is playing a sport really ten or fifteen times more important than telling stories? Though someone running a successful small press usually makes about the same as a staff writer or designer at a bigger publishing house and certainly far less than a baseball player, their real reward is autonomy. That autonomy is priceless. Christian Garcia might make enough to buy a property in Hybla Valley every year, but The Nationals own him. When you run a small press, you make all the decisions: what you're going to publish, how you're going to publish it, and, even to some extent, where it will be distributed and, to an even lesser extent, who will read it. And on those candle-burning nights before press or client deadline, there is plenty of solitude...and smeared ink. Always smeared ink. *Again, it's a joke. You can star in our show, too. Please submit your work for consideration. #Publishing #Writing #Cartooning #Designing #Jobs #Economy #Salary #DC #RVA The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
NestingFashionable consolation in the face of the Snowpocalypse. -CS "Nest deals with isolation and hibernation. It’s about the animal instinct to burrow and hide away, which is simultaneously comfortable and claustrophobic. Our nest is our home and the walls we build around ourselves, which keep us exquisitely safe but also still and imprisoned." #Fashion #Beauty #RVA
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For Your BookshelfThe Quail Bell Crew is proud to announce the premiere of its two books--Airborne: An Anthology of The Real and The Nest: An Anthology of The Unreal—which were released by Belle Isle Books this year. They feature the best of the best of Quail Bell Magazine from 2011-2012, with special edits made particularly for an enhanced print experience. Add them to your bookshelf today. #Anthologies #Books #Print #Publishing #Brandylane #BelleIsleBooks
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