China Blue

This completely adorable girl was the main character in a movie produced by Micha X. Peled, called "China Blue". It was created in 2005, I think by using an undercover camera or something. It follows the trail of Little Jasmine, who is the 2nd child in her family (Chinese families can only have 1 child, of course) who must leave her home in Sichuan and go to the big city and work a factory job. She's only 15, though her ID says that she's 16, but she ends up in a blue jeans factory dormitory working w/ girls even younger than her. It's a very entertaining movie because of her, but it also exposes a decently crappy blue jeans factory (with a wealthy factory owner who doesn't know how to pay his workers on time-- usually it's because he doesn't know accounting or his police chief background really didn't give him business skills, and that he thinks he can get away with enslaving his factory workers) that apparently wasn't producing garments for the United States market (they didn't show product or customer purchasing for the US). Also, the movie didn't demonstrate how much money it takes to live in China. We just see US dollar amounts, such as the $1.45 that Little Jasmine and her friends made in the time the audience watched this movie. That figure shouldn't reflect off of an American standard of living. The movie demonstrates that this particular factory and others like it have a lack of respect for people and product, and how easy it is for people to accept things that are undervalued. Like I said before, the people who won't ever want to or bother to see this movie are the ones who truly need to become aware of the effects of globalization, i.e., where our blue jeans might come from, and we should all be careful about the choices that we make when we exchange money for an object. Personally, I think I'm going to decide from now on, to wear jeans that haven't gone through a pre-washing, whiskers-sanding blasting process, and break them in myself, just like them Wranglers I had in elementary school. This decreases the amount of handling in the factory, and eliminates some steps that can help shorten production time. That way people like Little Jasmine, who worked all hours as a thread cutter, can work less, and go to bed at a decent hour.

Apples and Leef-peeping

One of the benefits of living in New England is the fact that fall=apple picking! and Apple cider! and cider donuts! and all of the leaves are changing colors now! Here is my ragtag group of smarty pants people picking apples at Shelbourne Farm before it got mobbed with stroller families.
Yes, I know this same stuff happens in other parts of the country, but nyah nyah, the scenery is wayyy better here!

Sucked in By Facebook!

I surrender!!! After the third facebook invitation, I have finally caved in and now any chance of ever maintaining a MySpace Account is forever lost, now that I have found Facebook... It's so much cuter and easier to read, and so far, people I'm pretty good friends with are "connecting" with me, no weird random strangers, yet! So now I'm addicted. Bad me. hehe.

King Corn!

So, I've been trying to find enough time to finish this really eye-opening book by Michael Pollan, called, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and this book runs through the different food systems that the author experienced: Industrial corn, Industrial organic, Pastoral grass, and foraging/hunter gatherer. Lucky for me, while this book was getting popular, there was a movie trying to get released called "King Corn," that traces some of the stories in this book! Read it, or watch it! The two guys making the movie are decently charismatic and cute, but make sure you're fully awake when ya watch it. Go find out how much corn you have in your body in this King Corn Movie

Design Life Now Cooper Hewitt Triennale at the ICA

Time to visit Boston, y'all! An exhibit from the Coooper Hewitt museum, Design Life Now, has finally come to the ICA. Yippee! A DESIGN exhibit. There is a huge variety of displays here, from toys to robots to fashion to architecture, and the presentation is very different from the NYC exhibit- I really like it, and love explaining design stories to my fellow tour guides! So you have until January 6th to visit me in Boston, ok? Go ask Conchens for a tour of this Design exhibit at the ICA

Made in LA documentary on PBS

Just broadcast today on WGBH, my local PBS station: a P.O.V. Documentary about really amazing sweatshop workers The film is called "Made in LA" and it chronicles the fight against a really huge fashion retailer called Forever 21( some of you know and love this store!) to pay garment workers who make their product a fair, survivable wage. It's a really great story, and has very touching moments, and gray areas that mix in your head. Most of the garment workers are illegal immigrants, they are taken advantage of by their garment factory- do they deserve a voice in the United States? Yes, they are in need of basic worker rights, and they should get them. There was also a race play going on, with the workers all from South America and Mexico, the laywers and activists were of various Asian descent, and the LA based president of Forever 21 is a Korean. Lastly, the documentary reminds you that in general, fashion oriented clothing is a truly underpriced commodity, and mass fashion retailers like Forever 21 are charging way too little for their clothing. Please see this film on your PBS station.

Tour Guide Opportunities at the ICA! and Backpacking

All you all who live local to Boston, my museum is looking for some new tour guides- The training is great-- it's just like being back in school again, you get access to more than a membership to a museum, and I think it is really fun to show people how to look at contemporary art to people who aren't used to talking about it. See website here:  

Wanna become an Institute of Contemporary Art Tour guide?


On another note-- I'm in Seattle now, and C. and I went backpacking camping! I never did it before, I have only car camped before. It was really amazing scenery. We backpacked near Rialto Beach on the Olympic Peninsula coast, camped right on the beach next to the Pacific Ocean, and you can hear high tide crashing in at night when you sleep. There are rocky beaches, huge pieces of drftwood everywhere, really tall rock formations, and tidepools with starfish and sea anemones.