cowboys in Paris

Jerry Hall in Vivienne Westwood Opus
Link: Stylefrizz

Wandering in cyberspace, El Chamizo stumbled on a fabulous yarn about a couple of Texans who end up in Paris kicking it with mother of punk fashion Vivienne Westwood. Moral of the story: Be your hick self and the doors of "Hoite Coiture" will open wide.

"In my early days while living in Paris, France, my roommate W and I made friends with the director of one of the most popular nightclubs in Paris that went by the name of Le Bain Douche which actually means “the bath house" which is what this prime night club was in its early days. This club director was an American who had been living in Paris for a number of years before we showed up in the city. Her name was Beverly and she became a really good friend of ours mainly because she was American and spoke English! One day Beverly called my roommate and I and asked if we would like to escort her to a Vivienne Westwood dinner to celebrate Vivienne’s new line of fashion for that season. I asked Beverly over the phone, 'Who in the heck is Vivenne Westwood?'..."

Read on: My time with Vivienne Westwood and her husband, Andreas Kronthaler

travels and cosmic messaging

True to her nature, El Chamizo has tumbled south along with fellow artists and museum representatives as part of an exchange program between Chiapas and Chicago organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art.

First on the agenda was a group show at the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas (UNICACH). Among many local artists, we met Robertoni Gómez, whose lyrical clay sculptures grace many public spaces around Tuxtla. Robertoni was kind enough to escort our group to El Zapotal, one of Tuxtla's ecological preserves that also houses a zoo. We ended the day at his studio, a rambling property where sculpture and daily life mingle effortlessly.

You can see Robertoni's work on his blog, including the phenomenal Escultura Astroarte. Made of four concrete slabs facing the sun like open books on lecterns, Astroarte projects, by means of reflective surfaces, an image of the earth that comes together as a puzzle and falls apart again in a matter of minutest only during the Spring and Fall equinoxes.

on the eve of election results

So yes, the dream has been shattered, (Amen) and I have had my nightmarish experiences, but I tell you this morning once more that I haven’t lost the faith.
...
And so it is marvelous and great that we do have a dream, that we have a nation with a dream; and to forever challenge us; to forever give us a sense of urgency; to forever stand in the midst of the "isness" of our terrible injustices; to remind us of the "oughtness" of our noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The American Dream, 1965

Link: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

prescription for survival

Image source: Free Stock Photos

I hope all of you who are voraciously reading my blog right now in Chicago will attend Dr. Bernard Lown's talk at the University of Chicago this evening. He will be presenting his new memoir, Prescription for Survival: A Doctor’s Journey to End Nuclear Madness.

"The inventor of the defibrillator, Dr. Lown was also a peace and anti-nuclear activist, participating in the founding of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1960 and of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1981. In 1985, IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Lown is currently Professor of Cardiology Emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health."

Dr. Lown was featured on Worldview yesterday. He hit on so many profound ideas that it will be hard to enumerate them, but mainly he pointed to consumerism as a root problem that "...intensified under Reagan where you’re on your own, buddy. Consumerism really robs human beings of what life is about: the interaction... the lovemaking, the conversation, the poetry of living... Because consumption is responding to wants which you don’t need. In the process, you have to work very hard, and your wife has to work very hard, and both have to have a job and can't take care of your children ... and [the children] become the dictators and are the ones that define consumption..." Vicious cycle and sad legacy.

Time: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 6:00 p.m.
Location: International House, 1414 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Links:
Seminary Book Co-op
Gerome McDonald's interview with Dr. Lown on Worldview

in memoriam

Photo source: Theresa Duncan, The Wit of the Staircase, January 3, 2006

El Chamizo Volador dedicates this post to the late Theresa Duncan (October 26, 1966-July 10, 2007), pioneer video game designer, filmmaker, culture arbiter and compelling author of The Wit of the Staircase blog. Her style and fierceness have left a mark on this blogger.

Duncan left her hometown in Lapeer, Michigan for work at the World Bank in D.C. where she discovered new media and its potential for story-telling. She soon partnered with illustrator Monica Gesue and together they authored Chop Suey, and interactive CD-ROM for girls. Other games followed. In 1999, Duncan and her romantic partner, the artist Jeremy Blake, collaborated on The History of Glamour, an animated film about a young rocker who moves to N.Y.C. in search of stardom but ultimately chooses "grammar over glamour."

Duncan's own biography resembles the story of her film's heroine. From the outside, she seemed to have what many only dream about. She was beautiful, intelligent and sophisticated. Her relationship with Blake seemed idyllic. Her blog entries conjure up a chic lifestyle amidst the art intelligentsia of L.A. and New York. Inexplicably, she took her life on July 10, 2006. Blake followed her a week later by walking into the ocean.

Links:
The Wit of the Staircase
The Golden Suicides

justice is slow...very slow

Eugène Delacroix, La Justice de Trajan
Source: Wikipedia

Finally, justice is catching up with Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander responsible for torturing as many as 148 (mostly African American and Latino) defendants in Area Two in the 70s and 80s. Yesterday, Burge was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. In spite of evidence revealed by a special probe to the tune of $7 million, Burge and his subordinates have eluded justice because state and federal statutes of limitations have long expired.

Links:
Reaction to Arrest of Former Chicago Cop Jon Burge
La Justice de Trajan

trails

El Chamizo Volador loves travel, be it local or to far away places. The blog's picture was shot by Kees Lokman at the Bloomingdale Trail, an abandoned 3-mile long elevated train track in Chicago. We hiked up there on January 1st to start the year right. It was 16 deg. with a windshield of -8. I am wearing my mother's tehuana dress, which I received as a Christmas present.

tumbling tumbleweeds

Chamizo volador is the name given in the north of Mexico to the tumbleweed, that icon of cowboy life and American westward expansion. But tumbleweeds are not native to America (neither are cowboys!). They are an invasive species introduced as a stowaway in a shipment of flax by Ukrainian farmers living in South Dakota in the late 19th century. I learned this while reviewing the NMMA's recent show A Declaration of Immigration. I was particularly captivated by Juan Angel Chávez' Trojan Tumbleweed. The sculpture's title is genius, likening the invasive nature of the shrub to the Trojan horse all the while challenging and complicating our ideas about immigrants, immigration and U.S. history. Trojan Tumbleweed is a beautiful conceptual work that is also wholly approachable on an experiential level. It is one of the inspirations for this blog.