Press Release from Gallery 1CO3: Class Treason Stories (excerpts)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Image: The Pinky Show, Isolated in a Self-Serving Fantasy, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 proudly presents The Pinky Show's latest endeavour,

Class Treason Stories (excerpts)

WINNIPEG MB, October 27, 2009 - Gallery 1C03 proudly presents The Pinky Show's latest multi-media installation, Class Treason Stories (excerpts).

From an undisclosed desert location, somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a collective of gently voiced cats produce and disseminate an educational project called The Pinky Show, intended to cultivate intellectual curiosity, openness, and compassion.

Focusing on information and perspectives that have been misrepresented, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion, Pinky and her friends use a variety of formats (i.e. online videos, visual art, books and 'zines, blogging, etc.) to explore the unseen world in ways that are easy to understand, with special attention given to reconnecting information (plentiful in our contemporary world) to its oft-ignored ethical and moral dimensions.

The Pinky Show's video episodes are generally organized around "simple" questions: What is settler colonialism? Is the War in Iraq legal or illegal? How do we get rid of nuclear weapons? They consider the mainstreaming of progressive ideals to be a foundational component to any broad strategy to create a more aware citizenry - one that is more apt to understand, support, and participate in the vital work being done by the many thousands of social change organizations established throughout the world.

In addition to material production, they also deploy human representatives to carry out their educational objectives via diverse forms of community programming including workshops and other public presentations, exhibitions, and agitprop dissemination. Some examples include Picturing Politics: Artists Speak Truth to Power (Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, Virginia), Encounter on Radical Education (Ljubljana, Slovenia), and study circles and workshops with the Center for Hegemony Studies (Honolulu, Hawaii).

Class Treason Stories (excerpts) seeks to provoke questions about the nature of education and the application of knowledge for either socially beneficent or individualist and competitive purposes. It enquires about the transformations we could each undertake in order to move toward a genuinely ethical state of being.

A well-established internet phenomenon with fans worldwide, this exhibition marks The Pinky Show's first visit to Canada. After launching at Gallery 1C03, Class Treason Stories (excerpts) will travel to Toronto Free Gallery in January 2010.

The Pinky Show is a project of Associated Animals Inc. - a non-profit educational organization based in the United States. For more information, visit www.PinkyShow.org.

The Pinky Show: Class Treason Stories (excerpts) runs from November 12 - December 12, 2009

Opening reception: Thursday, November 12 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. (Gallery 1C03)

Off campus artist talk: Thursday, November 12 beginning at 7:00 p.m. (aceartinc. - 2nd Fl., 290 McDermot Ave.)

On campus artist talk: Friday, November 13 from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (University of Winnipeg, Room 2C15)

Members of the media are invited to arrange interviews with the artists between November 9 - 13, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 and the artists wish to acknowledge the generous support provided by the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies and Cliff Eyland. We also wish to thank Platform: Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts for their assistance.

Contact: Jennifer Gibson, Art Curator
Gallery 1C03, The University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

Press Release from Gallery 1CO3: Academic Freedom? Panel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Image: The Pinky Show, The Consequences Are Terrifying, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 and The Institute for Women's and Gender Studies proudly present: Academic Freedom? A conversation about the way things are and the way things could be...

WINNIPEG MB, October 27, 2009 - Gallery 1C03 and The Institute for Women's and Gender Studies proudly present a panel discussion inspired by Gallery 1C03's upcoming exhibition, The Pinky Show: Class Treason Stories (excerpts).

In light of recent scandals around the world involving academics being served cease and desist notices for producing valid research challenging corporate activity, being arrested under suspicion of terrorism, or losing tenure without due process as a clear response to different ways of thinking and teaching, it is a ripe moment to discuss intellectual and ethical integrity vis-à-vis academic freedom in the context of societal expectations.

Academics are perceived as belonging to a certain social and intellectual "class". In what ways can they gravitate toward a genuinely ethical definition of their profession while confronting the influences that expect them to toe the line in order to maintain status?

With a view to opening discussion on this subject, four University of Winnipeg faculty members have been invited to express perspectives concerning the dilemma experienced by academics who come to realize that their political, social, and/or ethical beliefs run counter to the status quo maintained by the elite. Should academics perpetuate traditional networks and hope their different opinions will appear more palatable through association with moderates, or should they find altogether new ways of working? Should they speak out and risk being ostracized by their professional community, or take that chance and turn their practices of research and analysis into active resistance? What's at stake and is it worth it?

Featuring:

● Kelly Gorkoff, Instructor, Criminal Justice Department discussing the neoliberalization of higher education

● Christopher Leo, Professor, Department of Politics revealing barriers in academic publishing

● Vesna Milosevic-Zdjelar, Instructor, Department of Physics addressing biases in educational curriculum

● Brock Pitawanakwat, Asst. Professor, Aboriginal Governance Program commenting on abuses of power within the academy

Winnipeg-based curator and writer Milena Placentile will moderate this conversation. Extended biographies and summaries of each presentation are available online; please visit: http://gallery1c03.blogspot.com.

Academic Freedom? A conversation about the way things are and the way things could be...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Ave (3rd Fl. Centennial Hall)

Admission to this event is open and free for all! Members of the media are invited to attend.

Class Treason Stories (excerpts), created by internationally renowned feline artists and educators, Pinky and Bunny (with the assistance of Mimi and Kim), offers a multi-media installation seeking to provoke questions about the nature of education and the application of knowledge for either socially beneficent or individualist and competitive purposes. This exhibition runs from November 12 - December 12, 2009 before traveling to Toronto Free Gallery in January.

Contact: Jennifer Gibson, Art Curator Gallery 1C03
The University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

Bunny Mailbag: U.S. Imperialism or...?

Posted by Bunny.

It's good to start off a new month with a new Bunny mailbag. Today's e-mail comes from Shawna.

Hi Pinky, I've been slowly working my way backwards through your collection of videos and wanted to say that I've enjoyed them all in different ways so far. I just finished watching the Ribbon Sticker video where at the end you make your own sticker that says "Reject U.S. Imperialism". I was wondering if you could think of a more positive alternative that would basically say the same thing, much like the "Support Our Troops" ribbons are "positive" (they may be misleading but the tone is positive). I believe very strongly in positive messages! Because we can't build a social justice movement with negative slogans! I just wanted to ask you for your 2 cents! Shawna

My reply:

Hi Shawna. I'm glad you're enjoying our videos. I'm going to respond for Pinky because she's busy editing right now. But we talked about your e-mail and in the end we both decided there's no simple answer to your simple question. For example, part of the problem with a statement like "Reject U.S. Imperialism" is that it actually doesn't make sense if you really think about it. (We just went ahead and used it anyway because we wanted to keep things simple.) The reason why this doesn't make sense is, considering how the U.S. came into existence, how it developed into what it is today, and what it has to do in order for it to "maintain its shape and form", there is no way to even imagine the U.S. "without" imperialism. Actually, we think it's fair to say that the U.S. is imperialism - always has been. So how could we really say that anybody should "reject U.S. imperialism", as if the two could somehow be split apart and one side thrown away? See the problem? We still believe that the U.S. should stop stepping on people - not only all around the planet but also including people here within its political borders - but if the U.S. were to really stop doing that, we think the U.S. would literally become something so different that maybe it wouldn't even make sense to call it by the same name anymore. Anyway - that's getting a bit ahead of ourselves - we'll worry about finding a good name after we've fixed a few problems, yes?

In the meantime, how about we just get comfortable with the idea that rejecting bad things is not negative; it's positive.

-Bunny.

Winnipeg Descends Into Raging Pinky Show Frenzy

Posted by Bunny, PSR.

WINNIPEG, CANADA - The first fund-raising event for the upcoming exhibition by The Pinky Show at the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters today, resulting in the sale of 18, possibly more, t-shirts.

Reports confirm it was, apparently, somewhat like an unholy shark feeding-frenzy. No serious injuries were reported.

The event, staged by the University of Winnipeg's Institute for Women's and Gender Studies (IWGS), was highly successful. Kim Hunter, suspected leader of left-wing fringe group Women, said, "We've sold 18 t-shirts".

"18 shirts is a lot of shirts. I don't think we've even sold 18 shirts from our website in the past 3 months," commented Pinky, democratically elected leader of the fabulous Pinky Show project. "I'm not sure, I have to check."​

​Semi-related: Pinky, Bunny, and Emily folded up a sizable stack of new Pinky Show mini-zines, which are set to debut at a roundtable discussion on the subject of academic freedom, November 17 at the University of Winnipeg. For more information, you gotta find out yourself because that's all I know.

​Report on bake sale based on "facts" heard third-hand by Bunny (IWGS Kim > Pinky > Bunny). Bake sale photos courtesy of IWGS Kim, mini-zine photo by Pinky.

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

​[ Note from Pinky: Bunny & I send our appreciation and thanks to everybody who helped make this happen - Kim, Lissie, Tyler, Roewan, and Milena! xoxo pinky ]

Are You My Bug-Bot?

Posted by Bunny.

Okay, if you're a regular reader of our blog, by now you may have noticed that we have a perverse fascination with cutting-edge technologies of war and death. (Like this, or this...) A small part of the attraction I'm sure is just the "wow, that's amazing"-factor involved. The remainder is more like, "wow, that's totally insane."

I suppose a reasonable question would be: Do we really need more craziness in the world?

Unfortunately, even if you think the answer is 'no', when it comes to the proliferation of weapons technologies, even the most futuristic inventions eventually become more widely available. Which means there may come a day where every nerd with a god-complex will have access to his very own swarm of MAVs.​

Enjoy your paranoid nightmares.

~Bunny.

Bunny Mailbag: Is Canada So Great We Should Kiss Its Ass?

Posted by Bunny.

So I guess Jordan from yesterday's Bunny Mailbag was offended by my resonse and took it upon himself to write back. Here's an excerpt:

...I knew you guys would say that you hate Columbus becaues that's the typical response from socialist fucktards like you. I see you'll be in Canada soon so why not just stay there. YOu think they're a utopian paradise? WHAT A JOKE. THEY have the SAME SHIT going on over there and OVERALL it's WORSE. So enjoy your time kissing Canadian ASS and I hope you get detained at the border trying to re-enter the US! Jordan

Hilarious. I'll just make a few points:

1. I don't hate Columbus because I'm a socialist. (When did I say I was a socialist?) I just have a problem with greedy, slave-trading, genocidal maniacs. Plus, he was a poor administrator. Do I need more reasons?

2. Whether we live in Canada or the U.S., we'll still keep up with our critique of U.S. hegemony, thank you very much. Why? Simply because the U.S. remains #1 in messing up the planet. Don't take it so personal, sheesh. As soon as the U.S. steps back from these bad habits, we'll turn our attention to other topics, such as cross-stitching, which is an excellent hobby, by the way. Everyone - even Jordan - should try it.

3. And finally, here's a mini-checklist just I threw together to help answer that profound question advanced by our fan Jordan: "Should We Kiss Canada's Ass: Yes or No?"

Have single-payer health care? Yes.
Have massive drop-dead stupid-scary oil sand project? Yes.
Have homeless people? Lots.
Settler state structure? Yes, just like U.S.
Signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? No, just like U.S.
Signed Convention on Cluster Munitions Treaty? Yes, unlike U.S.
Military spending as % of GDP? 111th in world (U.S. 1st, of course)
Invaded Iraq with U.S.? No.
n Afghanistan? Yes.
Have nuclear weapons? No.
Thinks they own the North Pole? Yes.
Hockey or Baseball? Hockey.
Responsible for making Top Gun & Pretty Woman? No.
Who has prettier flag, U.S. or Canada? Canada.
Tastier ice cream: U.S. or Canada? We'll find out when we get there.

So there it is. Go kiss Canada’s ass if you feel like it, nobody cares.

~Bunny.

P.S. When I get to Canada I will be looking for one of these things (below). A guy I know told me they are large enough to ride.​

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

Posted by Kim: Isn't Julia Roberts Canadian? Wouldn't that make Canada at least partly responsible for Pretty Woman?

​....................................

Posted by Bunny: No, she's not Canadian. Which is another plus for Canada, I suppose.

Bunny Mailbag: Celebrating Columbus Day

Posted by Bunny.

From our e-mail:

Hi Pinky & Bunny, I notice you guys haven't been very actively lately. I was wondering How are you planning on celebrating Columbus Day today? What is your take on all these people who say he was a murderer? Do you agree? Josh

My reply to Josh:

"Not very active lately"? Don't piss me off.

And regarding Columbus Day, we're going to celebrate the same way most everybody else celebrates Columbus Day here in America. First we're going to watch baseball on TV, then we'll toast Columbus beer, then finally we'll drive our automobile to a shopping mall so we can BUY THINGS. We celebrate all our genocidal favorites (Alexander, Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Pol Pot, etc.) on their respective special days like this. Why, you do it different?

~Bunny.

Incidentally, Venezuelans should lay off the history books. ~B.

​[ photo from Reuters ]

PS in Oh Dear! Magazine

Posted by Bunny.

Oh Dear! magazine is a cool online magazine for all you D.I.Y. girls out there. And guess what - The Pinky Show is on page 78 in this month's issue. What does it say? I don't know but Pinky is translating it as part of her attempt to learn Spanish.

I hope we get huge in Mexico. Oh Dear! magazine is at:

[ www.ohdearzine.com ]

~Bunny.

Update: Moon Pacified; Obama Most Peacefulist

Posted by Bunny.

I was going to write a post about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize but what's the point - the Juice Media guys already did it. ~B.

Let's Crash Some Shit Into The Moon And See What Happens

Posted by Pinky.

Okay, I think I'm a fairly reasonable cat when it comes to scientific inquiry, but this experiment just makes me sad beyond words. According to NASA:

illustration: NASA.

"The Mission Objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) include confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon's South Pole. The identification of water is very important to the future of human activities on the Moon. LCROSS will excavate the permanently dark floor of one of the Moon's polar craters with two heavy impactors in 2009 to test the theory that ancient ice lies buried there. The impact will eject material from the crater's surface to create a plume that specialized instruments will be able to analyze for the presence of water (ice and vapor), hydrocarbons and hydrated materials."

"Excavate"? Are they joking?

If you have a 10-inch telescope or larger you'll actually be able to see the impact from Earth. The resulting damage from the impact of these spacecrafts (actually missiles) striking the surface at over 5,000 m.p.h. is expected to be spread over an area several miles wide. Is this a respectful way to go about learning things? Does this remind anybody of settlers' attitude toward and exploitation of "frontier lands"?

Disgusting. The moon-bombing is set to happen on Oct 9.

To read more agency-speak, click here.

Better yet, watch this awesome video. (thanks Hugo & Jordan!)​

~pinky

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

Posted by Kim: That's moon abuse. Scientists should follow some kind of ethical guidelines when they are designing experiments, like "Would you be okay doing this experiment to your own mommy?" If not, then probably you shouldn't be doing it!

I Want To Punch Your Face @ AK Press

Posted by Bunny.

If you had to name the single most ass-kicking book publisher in the U.S., who would it be?

Well, I'm sure a lot of people would say "AK Press".

And guess what? The AK Press is now distributing I Want To Punch Your Face. So that is very cool. Oh, by the way, make sure you check out the rest of their offerings. They have amazing stuff.

[ www.AKPress.com ]

Over 5 million YouTube Views

Posted by Bunny.

A couple of days ago we passed the 5 million views mark at YouTube. I'm pretty sure the majority of those people hate us but we're happy to be the fly in their soup.

Someone recently asked us how many total viewers we have. The short answer is we don't know. In addition to YouTube, we also have people watching PS episodes at our website (which also is easy to count), but there's also lots of people coming across our stuff on various public access TV stations across the U.S., or watching downloaded videos or DVDs in classrooms and other offline situations. So we don't even try to count those ones. I'm sure there are sophisticated methodologies that marketing people use to guesstimate viewership in circumstances like ours, but we don't bother because we wouldn't know what we'd do with that information anyway.

I think 7 million views (the ones we can easily count) is a pretty decent amount of views. We’d like to have more, but if you give me a choice between coming up with a marketing plan and reading a history book… you know. So, main thing - thank you to all of you who've taken the time to tell your friends about The Pinky Show.

~Bunny.

Bunny Mailbag: Stopping the Holocaust, Swimming, etc.

I haven't done any public replying to e-mail in a while, but since Pinky is busy with painting at the moment I thought I'd answer some e-mail today. The first one is from a viewer in Germany:

dear bunny, there is something i've been thinking about, watching your film [Hawaii vs. U.S. Imperialism] i like how you point out and analyze american imperialism. (but) seeing germany in a list with vietnam and other countries as "colonized" is really weird for me. anti-facists, jewish people and non-fascists from all over europe were really glad the usa helped stop WWII... it finally put an end to holocaust, murder, and genocide by the germans [...] just to give you an impression from an anti-fascist post-war perspective. i'd love to see your work in an art show or in a discussion in europe somewhere. any plans in that direction? viele grüße, panda

My reply to panda:

hi panda,

if i remember correctly, including germany on the list (the long list towards the end of our hawaii vs. US imperialism video) was based on the US's extensive military presence there, plus US military and CIA activities on german soil. we were pointing to how the US has made germany a part of its global imperial structure; it is not a "colony" in the classic sense.

what you say about US fighting in WWII is true - if the US did not fight germany, i would guess that probably even more atrocities against jews and other marginalized people would have occurred. we are definitely NOT suggesting that anything like genocide should ever be unchallenged. what we ARE saying that it is important to examine the inconsistencies and contradictions of US interventionism. for example, if the reasons the US gave as a moral justification for fighting germany were true ("we must enter into this war to stop genocide" or "we must fight fascism/support democracy"), then why have these reasons not also required the US to intervene in parallel circumstances? even a quick look at history shows that the US intervenes in some cases but not others. in fact, there are many examples where the US goes to a foreign country and destroys their democratic government, or supports or commits genocide. why is this? does the US just not know what it's doing? (unlikely) or are there other factors besides moral imperatives that make the US leaders commit violent actions with their military and/or economic weapons? (i think so) this is why we say a situation like WWII cannot be analyzed only according to 'moral justifications' ("we have to stop genocide & fascism"). if we confine ourselves to this kind of logic we will not be able to understand why the US also engages in anti-democratic or even genocidal actions in other situations. however, when we do an analysis that takes into consideration 'imperialism' (what it is, how it works, what it needs to continue, and so on) - well, then suddenly a lot of things that at first seem like contradictions can be explained. so, there are many forces at work!

regarding pinky show in europe, we are going to have a small thing in a group show in belgrade in january. but besides that right now we have no invitations from anybody in europe. europe is very exciting to us, we have only been there one time, for a trip to slovenia last year. we get a lot of emails from germany though, so maybe one day something will happen and we will be able to go. we want to learn more about situations outside the US - our analysis is from a US perspective and often doesn't directly translate to other political & social contexts very well, so we are always trying to learn more.

peace,
bunny

Here's another e-mail from Valerie:

Hello Pinky and Bunny... I just watched the 13 Things I Learned at Kahoolawe episode and I really liked it alot. It has a sweet, gentle feel to it while sharing very valuable lessons and insights. You are amazing. Thank you. Valerie P.S...I think cats CAN actually swim, they just don't like to (except Tigers, I think)

My reply:

Hi Valerie. I'm happy you liked the video. We would be super happy if it moved even one person to start fighting against the widespread abuse of this planet. Even if we just started with a tiny sub-category of the broader problem, like, for example, challenging the military to stop destroying native people's most sacred places - we still would have TONS of work to do. Kahoolawe needs lots of help, and there are many other Kahoolawes too, not just in Hawaii but all over the world. Oh, regarding the other thing, yeah, I assumed I could swim too (I've seen videos of swimming cats before) but when I got into the water I found out that actually I can't swim and almost died. So I won't be doing that again. Tigers, yeah, I think they have huge feet. Take care, Bunny

Okay, last one, from a guy named Mark:

I watched the episode on illegal immigration. Weren't native American Indians settlers too? Nothing is fair and people have been taking other peoples stuff since human existence. That's just the way it is...

My reply:

First thing: "Weren't native American Indians settlers too?" Good question. The answer is no. Please study settler colonialism. I recommend Patrick Wolfe. It's not "easy reading" but it'll take you far. Do a search for Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology - it's on Google Books.

Second thing: "Nothing is fair and people have been taking other peoples stuff since human existence. That's just the way it is." This is a good example of using (arguably) true statements in order to justify moral weakness. Yes, human beings have been jerks througout history - so what? Surrendering to the inevitability of abuse just makes it far easier to continue. - Bunny

About a month ago Pinky and I were hanging out with a friend, and we were just talking about social justice or whatever, when he asked Pinky why she is so obsessed with learning about and fighting against all the bad stuff in this world. I work with Pinky day in and day out and we talk about these kinds of things all the time, but her answer surprised me. She said something like, "In the future, I don't want our descendants to look back and know that we were cowards."

So that's the end of today's Bunny Mailbag, cuz now it's my turn to cook lunch.

~Bunny.

Have You Seen This Cat?

Posted by Kim.

Somebody had this picture on Facebook and I think it is funny. :)

View fullsize

Japanese Small Box Toys

Posted by Bunny.

Yesterday Pinky and I made our monthly trek to the Marukai Store, which is kind of like the mother ship of all Japanese Supermarkets here in California. Besides stocking up on Japanese snack foods the one thing that jumped out at us was their large selection of small box-toys. You know those small box-toys from Japan? In case you don't know here's how they work: each toy-box shows a selection of possible toys on the back of the box, but then they don't tell you which toy is actually inside. Which means you have to keep buying boxes and boxes of toys until you finally get the specific toy you want. Some of the toys are really cool but making you buy a bunch of toys you don't want is not my idea of "exciting" - it's WEAK. Anyway, this is the toy-series that had my attention:​

​They have little cat statues inside. Most of the cat statues in this series looked pretty boring to me but two of them looked kind of like me and Pinky. And I figured out if I squeeze the box a certain way I could peek inside, so I stood there and squeezed all the boxes and eventually I found the two toys that I wanted. So here's what I bought - this one looks just like Pinky:

​Pooping. It even has a bunch of wheat grass, which is funny because she loves wheat grass for real. She's always saying, "Do we have any wheat grass?" even when we don't have any wheat grass, it's so irritating. Here is the other one, it looks like me, sort of.

​Actually I'm a lot better looking than this in real life but I thought it was good that it came with a computer because I really like computers.

I've never been to Japan but I want to go one day because their toys and food is really good.

In other news, Pinky is still painting every day in preparation for our upcoming Winnipeg show; I'm working on everything else.

~B.

We Are Painting

Posted by Pinky.

Hi Everybody! I hope everybody is doing good. Some of your e-mails have been asking about what we've been up to since returning from our walk in the desert. Well, lots of things!

1. continue work on settler colonialism episodes
2. working with Teacup on hegemony project
3. planted a mini-garden (then we ate it)

But the biggest thing we've been working on is to prepare for our upcoming Pinky Show exhibition at the University of Winnipeg Art Gallery. The exhibition is going to be from November 12 to December 12, 2009 and is titled Class Treason Stories (excerpts).​

The show will feature a brand new video made specially for the installation, a whole bunch of big, hand-painted banners, a viewing station to watch old PS videos, and some other stuff. Bunny and I are working super hard to make sure it will be a fun exhibition to visit, but also that it will have some brain-poking function in regards to questions of class treason - especially "what is it?", and "what does that have to do with me?", stuff like that.

Here are some photos of the banners taking shape.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Special thank you to HR02 & HR03 who are allowing us to use their studio to paint all these big things!

For more information about the upcoming exhibition, here is a PDF flier from the UWinnipeg Art Gallery:

click to get PDF.

Okay, back to painting.

Take care!
pinky

Photos from the Long Walk & Ride

Posted by Bunny.

I'm posting some photos Pinky made during our recent mini-journey.​

This tree is in Southwest Colorado, near Cortez.

Burned trees, also near Cortez.

Lonely sign, Petrified Forest National Park.

Billboard, Route 66. I think this was in Arizona.

Right near home. Death Valley.

​We are making some of our photos into an art project. We will post it in the PS Commons Gallery when we are finished.

~B.

We Are Back, WITH FRY BREAD RECIPE

Posted by Pinky.

Hi everybody. Bunny and I finally got back home - very dusty and tired - but we're fine and nothing bad happened to us on our walk. I'm writing this as Bunny is (voluntarily) taking a bath.

Trip summary: It's been so hot this past couple of weeks we could hardly believe it. In some parts it got almost to 120° F (49° C). In fact it was so hot we didn't walk everywhere as planned and ended up riding in people's cars whenever possible. We met a lot of nice people and another good thing was that we were able to go a lot farther than if we'd just traveled by foot. After about a week we found ourselves in the Navajo Nation so we wandered around there for a little bit. One day I'll write down some of our experiences, either here or in an episode or something, but right now I think I'm going to lie down and rest for the rest of today.

Okay I think Bunny fell asleep in the tub so I'm going to tell you one story. While walking a little west of Petrified Forest National Park, I found some really great papers stuck to a fence alongside Interstate 40 (I'm always finding good stuff alongside highways). One of the papers is a story about Navajo fry bread. I liked it so I put it in my backpack and brought it home with me and now I'd like to share part of it with you. I don't know who the author is - if anybody reading this knows please e-mail me as I'd like to credit them.

"I like to give a little history on the Navajo fry bread. The Navajo fry bread actually evolved in the mid 19th century. In 1863, approximately 8,000 Navajos spent 4 years imprisoned at Fort Sumner, New Mexico and were given little more than white flour and lard to eat. American Scout Kit Carson and his troops drove our Diné people from their land by destroying our means of survival. Kit Carson and his troops killed our sheeps, goats, and horses, poisoned our water wells, burned our crops and destroyed shelters and anything else that was value to our Diné people.

Carson and his troops then rounded up thousands of starving Navajo women and children and sent them on what is called the "Long Walk", a 200 mile walk from Arizona to Fort Sumner and Bosque Redondo, New Mexico, one of the saddest events in Navajo and U.S. history. As time went by, the U.S. government provided those on the reservation with wheat flour as part of a commodities program. Lard and wheat flour became the main ingredients in the making of Navajo fry bread. The Navajo women, back then had to make the best of what was often considered poor quality rations in concentration camps and the varying availability of government issued commodities.

Frying was totally new to Navajos because we were used to hunting game that was very lean and making bread in mud ovens. The iron pots were also introduced to us thus created fry bread.

As with many cultures around the world, Native Americans have an all purpose flat bread that is a staple of our cuisine. Fry bread is considered a food of inter-tribal unity and is made at all Indian pow-wows. The dough is a variation of that used for flour tortillas, consisting of flour, preferably Blue Bird flour, shortening, salt, water, and baking powder. Navajo fry bread is a tradition in Dinétah.

If you ever become a visitor to a Navajo family home or a family gathering and you're offered fry bread or other traditional food, please take it, even if you ate 10 minutes ago, this is to show respect to the family that offered you their hospitality. That famly that is offering their food to you put great thought and love into their work. They want you to be happy with a full tummy and a safe journey down the road of life.

THIS IS OUR WORLD FAMOUS FRY BREAD, ALSO MADE FROM SCRATCH.

5 CUPS OF FLOUR
2 TBL SPOONS OF BAKING POWDER
2 TSP OF SALT
2 CUPS OF LUKEWARM WATER (NOT HOT, WILL BURN YOUR HAND, AND NOT COLD, WILL HARDEN YOUR DOUGH)

MIX ALL DRY INGREDIENTS TOGETHER IN LARGE MIXING BOWL. SLOWLY ADD WATER, KNEED YOUR DOUGH TILL IT BECOMES A NICE AND FLUFFY.

NOW YOU ARE READY TO MAKE FRY BREAD!!

TO FRY YOUR BREAD:
1 CAST IRON SKILLET
1 1/2 CUPS OF OIL (YOUR CHOICE CORN, CANOLA OR 10W30)

TURN UP HEAT ON OIL, WATCH OUT THOUGH!!!

PUT A PINCH OF DOUGH IN HOT GREASE IF IT SINKS, IT'S STILL COLD, IF IT RISES, IT'S READY

NOW THAT YOU'RE AN EXPERT, LET'S MAKE A TACO!!

1 FRY BREAD
1 SCOOP CHILI CON CARNE
ADD THE FOLLOWING AS YOUR BASE - CHOPPED LETTUCE, DICED TOMATOES AND ONIONS AND GRATED CHEESE.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE NOW FAMOUS!!!"

So that's the story and recipe I found. Maybe later this week when I go marketing I will buy some baking powder and try to make some fry bread. Oh - here is a photograph of some fry bread I ate at the Blue Coffee Pot Diner in Kayenta. I also ordered ice tea and that was the biggest cup of ice tea I ever saw in my whole life.​ Those people do not mess around.

Till next time - peace!
pinky​

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

Posted by Bunny: What's that comment about "voluntarily" taking a bath's supposed to mean? I TAKE BATHS. I remember that Kayenta fry bread. I ate something that looked like Chinese stir fry + french fries + half that fry bread. It was GOOD.

Chalmers Johnson on Empire: 3+10

Posted by Pinky.

Here's a nice follow-up to the last blog entry re: empires - a short list-based essay by Chalmers Johnson titled Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire, and Ten Steps to Take to Do So. Again, in the interest of making this entry as brief as possible, I've taken the liberty of stripping the list down to small-size (apologies to Dr. Johnson). Please read the complete essay here, or better yet, read his trilogy of books on the subject: Blowback, Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis.

Three basic reasons why we must liquidate our empire...

1. We Can No Longer Afford Our Postwar Expansionism

2. We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and It Will Help Bankrupt Us

3. We Need to End the Secret Shame of Our Empire of Bases

10 Steps Toward Liquidating the Empire

1. We need to put a halt to the serious environmental damage done by our bases planet-wide.

2. Liquidating the empire will end the burden of carrying our empire of bases and so of the "opportunity costs" that go with them.

3. As we already know (but often forget), imperialism breeds the use of torture.

4. We need to cut the ever-lengthening train of camp followers, dependents, civilian employees of the Department of Defense, and hucksters — along with their expensive medical facilities, housing requirements, swimming pools, clubs, golf courses, and so forth — that follow our military enclaves around the world.

5. We need to discredit the myth promoted by the military-industrial complex that our military establishment is valuable to us in terms of jobs, scientific research, and defense.

6. As a self-respecting democratic nation, we need to stop being the world's largest exporter of arms and munitions and quit educating Third World militaries in the techniques of torture, military coups, and service as proxies for our imperialism.

7. We should abolish the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and other long-standing programs that promote militarism in our schools.

8. We need to restore discipline and accountability in our armed forces.

9. We need to reduce the size of our standing army.

10. We must give up our inappropriate reliance on military force as the chief means of attempting to achieve foreign policy objectives.

[ full essay here ]

Maybe it's too obvious to be included in the above list, but my favorite reason to dismantle U.S. imperial structures is simply because they're vicious and immoral. Enough is enough.

Okay, Bunny and I leave for our walk now.

Much love to you,
pinky

New Pinky Show Video: Kahoolawe

Posted by Bunny.

I just posted our newest video in the archive: 13 Things I Learned at Kahoolawe. It's an unusual episode by Pinky Show standards, so I'm curious how people will react to this one. As always, if you have any comments please e-mail them to us. We're not able to respond to each and every e-mail we receive (sometimes we get over a hundred e-mails a day) but feedback definitely influences the way we approach future episodes.

Starting Friday Pinky and I will be going for a walk for two weeks. We don't know where we're going - the point is to see where we're going as we're walking. It's been very hot here these past few days (sometimes over 110 degrees Fahrenheit), so besides having a good look into our future, the #1 priority will be to not die from the heat.

Bye for now. Bun.​