Contributed by Isabella Mori
This blogathon really got me going. Too bad I can’t participate; can’t wait to be part of this next year! So at least this year I want to stand at the sidelines and cheer real loud!
Since Rebecca is blogging for the Surrey Food Bank, I thought I’d talk a bit about my experience with food and poverty.
Fortunately, I’ve never been so down on my luck that I didn’t have enough to eat. I got really close once, though, in Chile. We were waiting for money to arrive from Germany and it just wouldn’t show up. We were stranded in this quaint little fishing village about 100 miles north of Valparaiso (a beautiful port city, quite similar to san Francisco or vancouver in many ways), and our host was away for a day or so.
She was something else. Maria Gloria was her name, an eccentric ageing actor from Spain, from the time before Franco. Anyway, Maria Gloria was gone – and all we had left were a big pack of rice, a fig tree full of ripe fruit in the garden, and a well stocked bar, with quite a selection of Grappa. We survived, listening to Violeta Parra, Mercedes Sosa and Georges Moustaki, getting drunkerer and drunkerer as the day went on.
It was different for my parents. They were literally starving artists. The post-war years in Germany, where I was born, saw many people with very, very little food. But even as it started to get better, my parents didn’t quite catch on because my father was busy being a painter (a very good one, might I add) and was not busy hunting down the bacon.
His interest in (cough) illegal substances had him disinherited so there just weren’t any sources of money anywhere. My parents spent days and days not eating at all. I was born a bit after that but for a long time, my parents were still poor. To this day, eating a soft pretzel with butter on it – both luxuries back then – imbues me with a feeling of incredibly delectable decadence.
These experiences are probably part of the reason why I feel pretty strongly about the need for everyone to be fed. When I ran a small social service organization in the Downtown Eastside for a while, we had a ritual of making lunch for our clients on the last day before many of them would receive their income assistance cheques. That’s usually a tough week. We didn’t really have the budget for it and certainly not the mandate – but how can you let anyone go hungry? People get weak and grumpy and confused when they’re hungry. That’s no fun.
So here’s my cheer for Rebecca and the surrey food bank. Let’s make sure people don’t go hungry!
Yeeehawwwwwww!
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Blogathon: Post #26 – Sponsor me to keep going for the Surrey Food Bank
For Blogathon can I scoop another blogathoner‘s post? I think it’s allowed, I ‘ve actually just been wondering how the Simpsons Movie is being received. I was seriously nervous about it, wondering if it would live up to 18 years of faithful episode-watching all culminating into a few hours of would-be-glory on the big screen. What if it sucked? That would be a total let down. Luckily, it seems as though all early reviews are quite positive.
I loved it. I laughed like I had not laughed in years, and at one point I couldn’t stop until tears welled my eyes. It is a really funny movie. Granted, it has an environmental theme and given that environmental affairs are issues that are near and dear to my heart, I was particularly pleased that these topics were touched upon. [Hummingbird604]
Hummingbird604 another Vancouverite who is blogathoning, head on over in case you need more selection in your blog reads today.
Blogathon: Post #25
Although Phillip was at Northern Voice, I didn’t meet him until the Gastown photowalk just a short while ago. It was a most excellent photowalk and we also met up to watch Transformers when it came out. Phillip actually lead a session at NV:
For moosecamp today I will be running a discussion group/chat session about facebook, a social networking site primarily used by students (e.g. What is going on there? What is it about?).
Relevance: What can I learn from bloggers that is of relevance to my research? What can I learn from this community to help me better understand digital spaces such as facebook? [Fade to Play]
This was back in February, right before the mainsteam Facebook explosion, it would definitely been a good session to sit in on. Phillip’s got quite the educational background and is very involved with digital culture and media which he discusses on his blog, Fade to Play.
Thanks for the support and linkage via Twitter!
Blogathon: Post #24
What’s more fun than when John and I sit beside each other, both on the computer and geek out for hours? Well, when John’s at work and Keira comes over and we do the same thing.
Blogathon: Post #23 – Sponsor me to keep going for the Surrey Food Bank
Contributed by Keira-Anne
It’s an art; having your photo taken, that is. Many factors influence the outcome of a photo. The setting, the lighting, the pose, the colours, the photo subjects and any number of crucial camera settings. Every single person has both a “good side” and a “bad side” – even Lisa Turtle. For me, my left side is my good side. Miss 604’s is her right, so this works out exceptionally well when we take photos together. And believe me, that happens often.
Once one has learned their “good side” and how to capture it, the next hurdle to get over is the dreaded double chin. This frequent occurrence typically happens when candid photos are being snapped one after another and usually in group settings. Because of the candid factor, avoiding the double chin is next to impossible. However, like the “good side,” creating a self-awareness is the key to avoiding the majority of double chin moments. “Tilt your head, not your neck,” says Becky.
The double chin effect can manifest itself in full-body shots. In these instances, not only do you need to remain aware of the shape of your face, you’re also at a high risk for unnecessary muffin top or displaced weight. Not many walk around with perfect posture, and it’s simply too easy to just let it all hang out. Key No. 2: stand up straight! The best way to achieve this is in letting your stomach muscles, and not your spine, support the weight of your body.
All of this said, there is one crucial, evil, unrelenting ingredient that will always make or break a picture.
Alcohol.
Last night’s Blogstock 2007 pre-festivities at Steamworks were a prime example. About an hour before our group paid the bill and left, I asked our server how many pitchers of Lion’s Gate Lager we’d ordered so that we could make an informed decision in deciding whether or not to order another pitcher. She told me “I think it’s at two.” We all shrugged and said “sure, bring us another.” The bill came an hour later and we’d actually ordered a total of six pitchers split between five people (Duane stuck to hard liquor). When you mix six pitchers with three ladies, you get copious amounts of photos that, when shown the next day, only produce embarrassment, head shakes and an “oh god.”
Friends don’t let friends drink and snap.
Blogathon: Post #22
