Halloween story.

Posted by Kim.

Pinky has been encouraging me to do more creative activities instead of just reading comic books and playing video games. So I decided to write down this story for you. I didn't invent it myself - actually it's a story that my friend told me a while ago at kitten school. But since I forgot all the details I'm sure my version is pretty different and probably much better than the original.

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The Ribbon: A short story retold by me, Kim.

Once upon a time there was a man that was very lonely.

One day he met a woman - she was perfect: intelligent, kind, funny, patient, and beautiful beyond imagination. They fell in love and finally he wasn't lonely any more. 

There was only thing that he thought was kind of odd about her - she always wore the same thing every day. It was a nice outfit - a dark blue dress with cream-colored trim and a satin ribbon around her neck - but isn't it a little bit strange to wear the same thing every day? "Perhaps," he thought to himself, but he quickly reminded himself how lucky he was to have her in his life.

On the day they were married she said to him, "I will love you forever and take good care of you, but don't ever ask me about this ribbon on my neck, and never, ever try to touch it or remove it. Promise me." "Of course, I promise," he agreed.

Their marriage turned out to be very happy. Many years went by and every time he looked at his wife the man thought "She is wonderful, I love her so much." And sometimes, he also found himself thinking, "Why is she wearing that ribbon, and I wonder why I can't ask her about it?"

For years he never said a word about her ribbon, and he certainly never touched it. But as the years passed he found himself thinking about it more and more. And the urge to touch it was almost overwhelming. 

One night, as she lay sleeping next to him in bed, the man again found himself looking at his beautiful wife with her ribbon, and he realized he could not bear it any longer. "What is so special about this ribbon?", he thought. He reached over and gently touched her ribbon. She didn't wake, she was fast asleep. Very slowly, he carefully untied the ribbon. Her head fell off.

Pinky is at Koyasan

Posted by Kim.

I talked to Pinky on the telephone this morning. She has arrived safely at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. It is the spiritual and administrative center of Shingon Buddhism. She will be there for a few days. I asked her why she was there but she had only a few coins and so we'll talk more when she gets back to Kyoto and has internet again. Anyway, I just wanted to update all of you who've been asking about where Pinky is now, how she's doing, etc. She said her feet are tired and she got bitten a lot by mosquitoes but otherwise she's fine.

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One of the towers of Danjo Garan. This photo is not from Pinky, I just got it from Wikipedia. Either Pinky or I will post some of her photos from Japan when she gets back. 

Another crocheted thing: Water Cat

Posted by Kim.

Here's another thing I made out of yarn. Pinky's been calling it Water Cat because it’s actually a metal water bottle disguised as a cat. Maybe it’s too big but she really doesn't drink enough water.

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Water Cat's head flips back and then you can drink from it. It also has a crocheted carrying strap and a floppy cat tail in the back that you can't see from this angle.

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This is Water Cat tucked in next to the sleep doll that Bunny made for wheelchair lady.

Pinky takes a vacation

Posted by Kim.

Pinky is in Japan now. She got there on June 4 and is planning to stay there for a month. Of course if she is caught then she might get deported earlier. This is the first non-work trip she has ever taken and I think it will be good for her health. She will be mostly in Kyoto, visiting Buddhist temples.

I am making things now

Posted by Kim.

Now that Bunny is gone I am really grateful for all the time I spent with her, learning how to crochet stuff. At first I thought crocheting was stupid because it takes forever to make things. I generally like stuff that's fast, like rockets or instant ramen noodles. But Bunny showed me how to appreciate the tedious process of turning long thin things like string or yarn into fake animals and interesting objects, and now I actually think it's kinda fun. The best part is that I feel like I'm forever connected to Bunny through everything I make, because I received the knowledge of how to crochet directly from Bunny.

I may keep going with this. I want Bunny to be proud of me, to see me being productive instead of just playing video games. 

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These are some pufferfish that I made. I made several so that I could find the right size. 

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This is octopus prototype number 03. What I learned from this became the octopus in the Dreams & Nightmares of Empire poster. ~k.

Pinky Show included in large, heavy book

Posted by Kim.

We got this amazing thing in the mail today. At 4 pounds 2 ounces and 496 pages, this is the heaviest book the Pinky Show has been in so far.

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According to the index, Pinky Show is on pages 390-91, 403, 468, and 475. Nice! So what's it about?

"The geography of the visual arts changed with the end of the Cold War. Contemporary art was no longer defined, exhibited, interpreted, and acquired according to a blueprint drawn up in New York, London, Paris, or Berlin. The art world distributed itself into art worlds. With the emergence of new art scenes in Asia and the Middle East and the explosion of biennials, the visual arts have become globalized as surely as the world economy has. This book offers a new map of contemporary art's new worlds and documents the globalization of the visual arts and the rise of the contemporary over the last twenty years." (from the back cover)

Having said that it's kinda fascinating to me that this book was put together by a team of academics and museum professionals for an elite museum in Germany and is being distributed globally by MIT Press. That's funny, right? ^_^

Anyway, I'm sure Pinky will read this but it’s too heavy for me.

~kim

The new PS website: what it is.

Posted by Kim.

I forgot to mention in my last post what is new about this new website.

For starters, there is some new old stuff that we put into the Project Archives. One example is the Atomic Testing museum pictures - it's actually something we did a while ago, but for some reason we never put it online until now. 

Also, lots of the resources on this website are now available in a higher quality format. The videos are bigger. Photographs & PS art are big. PS comics are now much larger. Et cetera.  

A lot of stuff that used to be viewable only via downloading first can now be viewed directly on the internet via your browser. For example, the I Want to Punch Your Face book, the RadEd zine, the Seven Scenes from Work and Life booklet, the Future Museum Report, and so on.

A brand new Pinky Show store.

AND the website can now be viewed from mobile devices, if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, I hope you browse around, I'm sure you'll find lots of new materials or site features you never seen before. Bunny worked a lot on this new website the last few months of her life. So if you like it, please visit Bunny in your dreams and say thank you!

ttyl! ~kim

Happy Birthday Pinky! Your Present Is: PinkyShow.org v3.0!

Posted by Kim.

Welcome to the new Pinky Show website! Launched just in time before the day's end on Pinky's birthday. Yay! I know everyone's been looking forward to our new website (me too!) so thank you for being patient. It took a little longer than anticipated because while Bunny knew how to make the internet, I only sort of know how to use it. But I'm happy with how it came out. Enjoy!

....................................

A separate note from Pinky: Thank you to everybody who sent me Happy Birthdays - I would like to hug all of you. :-) This morning Kim & I took Bunny's ashes (still in the small metal can) down from the shelf and put her on the table with us, had a small birthday breakfast and a short meeting together. Kim and I decided we are both going to try to continue posting diary entries in this blog, and of course we will also keep the Pinky Show going with the help of our friends. To be honest, since Bunny's death there have been many times where I've wanted to just do nothing or even completely give up, but I promised myself that I would keep going no matter what. Bunny was always so strong and fearless and I think maybe in this lifetime I'm supposed to become more like that. Maybe that's why Bunny died before me. One day I will be in an urn on the shelf next to Bunny, but not yet. ~p.

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." - R.F.

They shot Cous Cous for being a lion.

Posted by Kim.

Today I read a newspaper story about how at a California zoo, a lion escaped from a small cage and killed a young zoo worker who was cleaning up nearby. Apparently he killed her instantly by hitting her head with his paw, breaking her neck. I feel sorry for the young woman who died; her father told the news reporters that she loved big cats. But I also feel sorry for Cous Cous (that's what the zoo people called the lion), who was shot "after the animal couldn't be coaxed away from [the woman's] body." [ link ]

According to the BI article, this is a photograph of Cous Cous. He was 4 years old.

This is interesting: "Officials at another big cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fla., told The Associated Press last year that at least 21 people, including five children, have been killed and 246 mauled by exotic cats in the United States since 1990. Over that period, 254 cats escaped and 143 were killed." [ link ] 267 people getting mauled or killed is awful. But this is also awful for all those big cats, even the ones who somehow managed to escape without getting shot. Are they still alive? What are they eating now?

Zoos as we know them should be abolished. Big cats and lots of other animals I know don't want to live in animal prisons.

People argue that zoos are educational. But lots of things are educational. I'm sure visiting a functioning slave-plantation would also have lots of "educational value.” But I don't hear lots of people saying "We should have that!"

Other people say that zoos do important work like saving endangered animals from extinction. That's great, people absolutely should do that kind of work, especially since human beings are often the reason why so many animals are extinct or barely clinging to survival in the first place. But why is a zoo such a great format for this kind of work? People think helping refugees of war or victims of famine is important too, but we don't have exhibition-style zoos for them to live in while they "receive help".  If you wanted children to think more deeply about how important it is to have love and compassion for their elders, what would be the best way to accomplish this? Would it be to make them pay money to watch a few representative old people for a few minutes getting fed or having their diapers changed?

Animals are awesome and I can understand why people like to look at us. But this isn't a good enough justification for captivity; it's just a convenient excuse for not having to come up with more imaginative solutions to problems that concern animals. And when people are unimaginative usually animals or plants or the environment are always the ones who have to suffer the biggest consequences.

f you really want to educate people to love and respect animals, there are many better ideas than zoos. Which reminds me - I also don't like animal theme-parks like Sea World, which I went to one time just to see what it was about. It was horrible, like if you paid money for the privilege of going into a prison to see what poor people are really like, behind the safety of bars. Stupid, stupid idea.

How to make death squads & torture centers (video)

Posted by Pinky.

A lot of times the media talks about paramilitary death squads and torture centers as if they exist within a historical vaccuum. They just "are" - they are not discussed in terms of how they come into being - who orders their formation and why, how they are funded, who comprises their membership, and so on. So it is very important to watch and discuss reports like the following one, which was produced by the Guardian UK and BBC Arabic and just released today. In this report we learn how U.S. leaders created a system of torture and murder within the larger framework of occupation in post-invasion Iraq.

Watch the video (length: 51 minutes) at the Guardian website.

mmm - I'm sure many people will be interested in this report primarily because U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and General David Petraeus (the 'stars' of this report, so to speak) happen to be very famous people. But to me actually individuals are often the most easily interchangeable parts within these kinds of horror stories...

Anyone familiar with the history of U.S.-style terror - against the peoples of Vietnam, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, [...complete your own list here...], and of course we must include Native Americans on this list as well - will be left to wonder if any of these war crimes will ever be punished.

Side note: Much of the information in the Guardian/BBC report would probably never have been researched, let alone made available to the public at all, had it not been for Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. For exposing the truth Bradley Manning is now in a U.S. prison.

~pinky

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) died.

Posted by Pinky.

Hugo Chávez died of cancer yesterday. He has been a big influence on our thinking.

Although Bunny and I have never been to Venezuela - or anywhere else in South America for that matter - we have been trying our best to study about resistance to U.S. imperialism in that part of the world for several years. I still hope to go there one day to see with my eyes what is happening there.

Chávez holds a miniature copy of the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution at the 2005 World Social Forum held in Brazil. (photo and caption from Wikipedia)

"I believe it's better to die in battle, rather than hold aloft a very revolutionary and very pure banner, and do nothing - that position often strikes me as very convenient, a good excuse... Try and make your revolution, go into combat, advance a little, even if it's only a millimetre, in the right direction, instead of dreaming about utopias..." - Hugo Chávez, as quoted by Tariq Ali

Bunny died.

Posted by Pinky.

Bunny died on Friday afternoon, January 25. It's still hard for me to think of what to write, but I want to write something for all of you who have been in contact with us, providing Bunny with so many kind words of support and encouragement. I want to share with all of you how Bunny died, because she died magnificently.

As some of you may know Bunny had a lot of physical problems these past few years - first arthritis, then diabetes, and then about a year and a half ago she also found out that she has cancer. She did traditional Chinese medicine and chemotherapy for a while, but finally decided to stop all her treatment when the doctor told her she also found (via ultrasound) a rapidly growing tumor in her main artery and that it was already obstructing about 90% of the blood-flow from her heart to her body. Shortly after that she survived a severe episode of congestive heart failure. The emergency room doctor told us she had no time left, that death could come at any moment. This was over six months ago.

When we found out Bunny had cancer I just cried and cried, but she said to me, "Don't be afraid. I'm going to show you how to die."

Bunny was calm until the very end. Even as her body became weaker - "wasting away" the doctors called it - her spirit seemed to steadily become larger and more powerful. There were so many times that Bunny was in a lot of discomfort or pain but she never complained even once. She was so strong. We spent the last few months enjoying every moment together, working as hard as possible. Now everything is in order, and the Pinky Show can continue, even without Bunny.

Three days before she died she began fasting - no food or water. I made a soft bed for her in a cardboard box and she laid down in it, and for the last three days she didn't move much. I told her everything I wanted to say. She didn't say anything. And when she was ready, she left. She left so quietly for a moment I wasn't sure if she was gone or if she was just sleeping. As always, she did everything exactly the way she wanted.

Looking back I guess I can see now that Bunny had been preparing for death her whole life. She used to say, "We come into this life alone and we will leave alone." I used to feel a little bit lonely and afraid when she'd say things like that. But now she's gone and I am realizing that she wasn't trying to make me afraid, she was just trying to move me towards preparing for death too. I wish she had told me exactly how to die, or how to face death without fear. When I realize how far away I am from understanding these things, and how much suffering she endured, I think Bunny made herself into a good example because she loved us so much.

Kim and I covered Bunny in a blanket and we took her in the box to her doctor, Dr. Wendy, who took care of Bunny's cremation. A few days later we got a telephone call that we could return to pick up Bunny's ashes. When we got there we were shocked to see that they had put Bunny in a tiny metal can. Bunny used to be so big, now she is in a little can. Somehow I don't like it, I think when I am feeling stronger I will try to find something better to put Bunny in.

It's so quiet around here now. I find myself feeling sad and missing her so much, but when I think about how she lived and died, I feel nothing but happiness and respect for her, my friend.

Much love,
pinky

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Wheelchair Lady's cat.

Posted by Pinky.

We received a bunch of e-mails about Bunny's crocheted cat toys the past few days, ever since I posted the photos of the toy she made for Myles Kitten. Since people seem to like Bunny's toys I will post this one too - it's the first "big toy" she made. (She made a lot of miniature dolls before this one, to work out details like how to make the shape of the ears, how to attach the arms, and so on.)

Bunny crocheted this doll for Wheelchair Lady, who sleeps with it every night. This cat's had lots of names already, because Wheelchair Lady's short term memory isn't so good, so almost everyday she gives her a new name. It's cute because the nurses at the hospital, when they make WL's bed in the morning sometimes they rest this cat's head on the pillow and pull the blanket up over her to make her look very comfortable. This way when WL gets back to her bed she can feel happy that this cat looks like she's been waiting for her.

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I borrowed Cat X this morning so I could photograph it. (I asked permission first.) After I photographed it I realized it's pretty dirty, so I'm going to wash it...

I'll try to photograph & share whatever new things we make around here.

Take care,
pinky

PS welcome Myles to Earth.

Posted by Pinky.

I thought I posted this earlier but somehow managed to lose this entry in my desktop clutter.

This past October 1st our very good friends had a kitten. They asked Bunny and me to name him. We suggested the name Myles, to honor Myles Horton. So his name is Myles. He's now 3 2/3 months old and super cute.

Side story: When Bunny and I were trying to think of names we like, we realized that practically all of our heros have spent time in prison. Some of them spent a LONG time in prison - some of them are actually still in prison, and some of them even ended up dying in prison. It's sad to think about, but such a concrete reminder of the price sometimes paid for speaking truth to power.

Anyway, I wanted to show you this toy Bunny crocheted for Myles. It's wool yarn stuffed with wool roving and it's about 7 inches tall. And yes, that's a cape she's wearing.

pinky

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For some reason Bunny decided to crochet a cape for this cat.

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The back.

Whoops, the "new year" part already zoomed by.

Posted by Pinky.

Wow, I feel like I blinked and suddenly 2+ weeks of 2013 has already disappeared. One of my new year resolutions is to consistently make entries here in our project diary, so I am already kind of flopping on this one. Bunny and I have been working a lot on the new Pinky Show website, the new PS online store, the new project and also the new project's store.

A few people e-mailed us after my last entry asking us what our new "secret project" is. It's actually not a secret at all so I'll talk about it a bit now.

To make a looong story short, we want the Pinky Show to be financially stable and we've decided to make and sell objects as a means to achieve that. Bunny had the idea that she wanted to make "nice leather wallets" and bags. (I put that in quotes because personally I think anything made out of leather by definition can't be nice - they're gross! Have you seen how leather is made?) So anyway since I don't like harming animals Bunny agreed to develop wallets and stuff that are not made of animal parts. We found a very nice substitute material that functions like leather but the good thing is you don't have to kill a cow in order to make a bunch of wallets. The material also doesn't require a lot of harmful chemicals and water to produce, so it's far friendlier to the environment than anything else we've been able to find.

Anyway, Bunny and I have been making lots of drawings and prototypes the past few months. This is a very early pattern we were working out with paper. We're trying to keep all of our designs as compact and clean as possible.

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I’m finding out that designing useful objects is a lot of fun! ~p.