Last night Dave and I were able to catch the last half of the Academy Awards on TV. When the best documentary category came up we were mainly routing for The Cove but also liked Food Inc. When they announced that The Cove won we clapped and cheered. The movie is about the dolphin round up and killings specifically in Taiji-cho, Wakayama-ken and the people trying to stop it and expose not just the brutality of the killings but also the health risks posed but eating such meats. I just read an article about the mayor of Taiji defending the dolphin hunt because of the long cultural tradition of it and he believes that cultures have different regional food traditions that should be respected. First, I would like to say that although I think long held cultural traditions are generally important, sometimes there are traditions that are just wrong. An example being the holding of human slaves to carry out manual labor. For hundreds of years this was carried out; the ancient Egyptians had slaves and as recently as in the 19th century, Americans had slaves. Just because it exists doesn't make it right. Second, sure, people all across the globe hunt or raise and eat animals. But as intelligent beings, humans have the capacity and the obligation to question if and when this is necessary for survival and to even debate if the way we are doing so is ethical or not. Otherwise we are just the same as any other mammal on the planet who may or may not be operating more or less on instinct and primal urges rather than with their intelligence and know how.
I'm sure many Japanese people don't like seeing anything done by other Japanese in a bad light but I hope that when this movie comes out in the next few months in Japan, that you would consider watching it in hopes of finding out the truth about things that occur around us such as this and then make their own judgments about the matter afterward. I put off watching it myself because I thought that it would be too bloody for me to watch but that part is kept to a minimum and mostly it feels like you are watching a spy movie or an action/adventure movie and you will be mesmerized by the lengths to which the movie crew went in order to film what actually is going on there. If you have ever watched Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, or Thirteen with George Clooney and Brad Pitt it's like that except in real life.
I'm embedding the trailer in English here. The English version is more true to the content of the movie as a whole whereas the Japanese version really only focuses on the dangers of mercury tainted dolphin meat to the Japanese people. I think they only did that so that people would not think that it is an anti-Japanese movie and that it is to help the Japanese people only. And it really isn't an anti-Japanese movie. I'm Japanese so I hope you'll trust me on that.
We opened a new show at the New York hpgrp Gallery that I curated. It's called "X.O.Triangle.Square" by artist Korakrit Arunanodchai. Korakrit and his friends did a performance for us at the opening and it was really fun.
A few weeks ago we opened a show that I curated at Mountain Fold Gallery by artists Cristina Toro and Rebeca Raney. The works were all very strongly feminine and powerful at the same time. It was a blast.
I found out about this artist Allison Schulnik today and I think she might be my new favorite artist. Her paintings remind me of this one strange painting that used hang in the waiting room at my pediatrician's office. It had clowns in it and it was supposed to be a happy piece of artwork for children but instead it was very creepy.
She also does amazing animation. This is a piece she made for the band Grizzly Bear. I love that it's totally analog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puph1hejMQE
Over the holidays I went through my record collection and put aside a small stack of singles to sell on Ebay. I do this every once in a while to slowly get rid of things I probably won't ever listen to again or to raise some money when I'm short on cash. Most of my records are from the 90's and when I say records I really mean vinyl records, not cds.
Some bands were so important to my development that I don't know if I would have ever turned out the same had I not encountered their music. The two most important in my teens/early twenties were Bikini Kill and Fugazi. Bikini Kill taught me that being a girl could be powerful and that I didn't have to be some perfect skinny blond girl to be attractive. I could be loud if I wanted to be and I could be smart and opinionated and scream and yell if I wanted to and that there were other girls just like me if I ever needed support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtgpx7WsBdk
Fugazi taught me about integrity and that your actions should follow your morals and values. They taught me that as a consumer I have the power to buy or not buy a company's product and that I should support companies that don't exploit people or the world. They gave me (and still give me) the strength to be the best person I can be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJFWirQ3ks
Music is pretty amazing isn't it?
残念ながらモーテンソンの本はどちらも日本語には翻訳されていませんが、もし英語が読めるなら、『Three Cups of Tea』か『Stones into Schools』を見つけるように強くお勧めします。どちらの本も、あなたに希望と、そして世界をより良い場所にするために行動する勇気を与えてくれるでしょう。
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Merry Christmastag:www.hpfrance.com,2009:/Blog/Hanna//2.29082009-12-21T06:01:29Z2009-12-21T06:01:53Zハンナ・フシハラ・アーロン]]>
雪です！tag:www.hpfrance.com,2009:/Blog/Hanna//2.28422009-12-11T02:23:01Z2009-12-11T02:23:46Z もうこんなにたくさん雪が降っています！ We are getting lots...ハンナ・フシハラ・アーロン
Earlier this month we fostered two puppies for a while. They were only 5 or 6 weeks old at the time and full of energy. They chewed on things and bounced around and peed and pooped and were hungry all the time. What a handful! These were puppies that were originally sitting at an Animal Control facility with no one caring much about them. It was great to give them lots of love and affection, good food, and toys to play with. They are on their way to finding new homes and I'm sure they will make some families very happy.
If you would like to also try fostering an animal in need of temporary care in Japan please contact Animal Refuge Kansai who has offices in Both Osaka ans Tokyo. Contact info - http://arkbark.net/?q=en/contact
I've just sent a handful of sweatshirts and t-shirts to the store by artist and designer Korakrit. He was recently featured in a video for Dell Computers. Take a look at how her makes his swirling prints.
Dave works at an organic farm store near us. The farm store is part of a bigger community that includes the actual farm, a bakery, a school for students from early childhood to high school, a school for adults learning to be teachers, as well as an alternative book publishing house. The community centers around "social and cultural renewal through education, agriculture, and the arts". It's pretty neat. Recently they had a Fall Farm Festival so I went along with Dave's parents to check it out. There were blacksmithing demonstrations, booths with beautiful locally hand made objects, farm tours, and lots of food. Our favorite parts were the talk and demonstration by the wildlife rehabilitator and the falconry demo. The wildlife rehabilitator showed us birds that were brought to him that were injured but were not able to be fully fixed and that now had to be taken care of. Normally he releases all of the wildlife that are able to be rehabilitated fully but sometimes he has to keep taking care of ones that will not be able to live on their own anymore. The falconer had all sizes of owls, hawks, and falcons that were trained to hunt. He showed us how he hunts with them but used a fake rabbit instead of a real one. Phew! I'm glad it was a fake one. I have been thinking lately that it's too bad I didn't become a biologist. I would have liked to have become a conservation Biologist. I love animals and plants and all wildlife. I wanted to share that with more people so I recently bought some pendants made by a real biologist for the store. Tanja Sova makes beautifully intricate wood burned pendants that depict different animal species. She also writes the scientific names of each animal on the back which I think is a really nice touch. The photograph doesn't do it justice so please come take a look in person.
When our store was in Ginza, then Aosando, we had a bulletin board up that showed animals that were up for adoption through Animal Refuge Kansai. When we moved to WaLL/Laforet full time, we couldn't find enough wall space to hang it. Recently we figured out a way to make a smaller version that sits on top of our tabletop and we change the animals presented every week or so. The reason I started doing this a long time ago, was just that I wanted more people to know that you could adopt a pet rather than buy one. I wanted people to see these cute little faces and realize that just because they were unwanted by their previous owners, that they were still just as good as any other pet you might buy in a store. People are often surprised that we would promote such a cause in a store that has nothing to do with selling pet food or pet accessories but I want to do it BECAUSE of that. This is the only way to reach a wider audience, by giving information to people who otherwise wouldn't ever know. Next time you're in Laforet come take a look.
This is a picture of a recent harvest from the garden. I gave up on weeding it so everything is growing amongst lots of weeds but most of the vegetables seem to be doing fine. Unfortunately there was a fungal disease that spread across large parts of the US this summer and most of my twenty four tomato plants died or the fruit was badly damaged before it ripened. I maybe only got 10% of what I should have. Too bad. At least I had a really good onion harvest. I shouldn't have to buy any for months. I started them from tiny tiny seeds back in February so it took a long time but the bugs don't bother them and they seem to be immune from diseases. Other than that, you can see a few tomatoes, cabbage, kale and collard greens, peppers, a few beets, and lots of basil. In a week or so I'll try to clean up some beds in the garden and plant garlic. Like the onions, they take a long time to grow (they will be ready next July or August) but they are really easy. I only planted 12 bulbs last year and it was a total mistake. I use a lot of garlic when I cook so it's almost all gone.
When I was little I went to the same summer sleep away camp every year. My mother likes to joke that I was always the only one getting dropped of that wasn't crying. I would just walk off and wave and smile. I think I usually went for a month to six weeks. It was called Camp Redwood and it was about an hour and a half away from New York City. There were little kids there that were maybe in kindergarten up to young teenagers. There were all kinds of activities during the day like swimming, archery, tennis, basketball, arts and crafts. One of my favorites was water skiing and the other was horse back riding. Other than that we took field trips to the shopping mall on weekends and also to go bowling. It was always an adventure to be away from my parents and even though there was always some kind of supervision, we always got into a bit of mischief.
This summer we had two guest dogs staying with us for a few weeks and I couldn't help think that it was sort of like summer camp. I took these photos on the last day that Pinot and Princess were here and I wondered if, when they started to know they were going home, if they would feel like I used to at the end of summer camp. Excited and relieved to soon be sleeping in their own beds. Looking forward to the routine of their every day lives again. And at the same time a little sad about leaving their friends and the strange freedom that comes with not being with your own parents when you are young...... Coleman who now has his house back to himself seems happy to have all my attention once again but also slightly bored by the lack of drama in the house.
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