The Week Before the Show.

As our show date gets closer and closer, I become more and more aware of how far I have come to making this show possible.
So far, Kailey and I have created a facebook page to promote our show and it has been quite successful. So far according to facebook, we have 94 confirmed guests, but it does not necessarily mean that all of them will show up. I remember from my last year's experience when I was part of Hayden's small art show at the frame store. Many people said that they will come, but half of them did not show up and hopefully, it is different this time.

Since our poster has been finalized, Kailey, Natalie, Ted, Alex and I have been going around town asking for permission to put our poster up. Places that are owned by corporations such as Safeway, Peet's Coffee, McCaulou's and more refused but all of them were impressed by the fact that we are only students and we are doing something like this. We were allowed to put our posters up at most of the local businesses around Lafayette.
The funniest thing was, we actually got a nerve to walk into the Round-Up Bar where we were laughed by mostly middle aged men. I asked if we could our posters up, posted three, and left as quick as possible.
I did not forgot to stop by the Gallery and drop off one.

Kailey, who was in charge of renting the tent is taking a while, but it seems like there is a storage problem. but we are very certain that we will get the tent at least by Friday, and it will be about 75 dollars. She is making me a little nervous since Friday is the day right before the show but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, Ted got us on the Lamorinda Patch! And it is a mystery, but some how, we ended up on the school bulletin also, I will check tomorrow if it was Ms. Taylor who has been very supportive of our show.

I have been going around school, inviting many of our favorite teachers. It seems like Acalanes has a strict posting rules so I was only allowed to post on the hallway bulletin boards. I will not complain but it was something different than what I expected; but that was my best effort to promote the show at school where most of our audience is from.

It seems like we are a bit confused on the printing of our art works. Everyone has a different plan and it is very disorganized. I will figure it out tomorrow when Kailey comes to school. She has been absent for past few days.

Television Ad: Citizens Against Government Waste

Donate to help end wasteful deficit spending at www.cagw.org. This new ad is part of an ongoing communications program in CAGW's decades-long fight against wasteful government spending, increased taxes, out-of-control deficit spending, and a crippling national debt that threatens the future and survival of our country.

I was watching television with my mom and came across this very irrational advertisement. This ad basically demonizes China to provoke nationalism to get their point across that the government spending will soon lead to end of the "Great Civilization," America. I found this very offensive because this ad will not get their point across but offend a large portion of the public. It is a similar opinion I have about the Hitler-Obama poster people.

Did Obama violate the Constitution with Libya military action?

As Ghadafi's ruling in Libya triggered many other countries, the U.S. joined France, Britain and Canada to defeat the oppressive regime. United States continues to be involved in missile strikes to establish no fly zone and it is unsure so far how far this battle or perhaps war will last.

While this is continuing, many American's question is: "Was Obama's decision constitutional?" It is a fact that in the constitution, congress must approve when it comes to declaring war as a president. 

The Constitution itself doesn't answer the question, because it gives Congress authority "to raise and support Armies," "to provide and maintain a Navy," and "to declare War." But it also provides that, "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States."
Congress has formally declared war only five times in U.S. history -- for the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II. But presidents have approved dozens of military actions with no such declaration, including the Korean conflict and the war in Vietnam. 
Some legal scholars conclude that President Obama violated the law's requirements, when he failed to seek congressional approval.
"Judging just from the pictures of what we are seeing happening on the ground, this is quite substantial, and this is the sort of thing that would have needed Congressional approval," said Professor Oona Hathaway of Yale Law School, an expert on executive power and international law.
While the president has stressed the international component of the operation, she believes that makes no difference. "The fact that the Security Council has authorized an imposition of a no-fly zone does not answer the constitutional questions," she said.
But one former official who advised President George W. Bush said that while the decision to deploy U.S. forces in the Libyan operation was a political and strategic mistake, it's entirely legal.
"Congress raises and supports the military, but the president is the commander. Declaring war and making war are two different functions. There's no question President Obama has the authority to do what he did," the official said, asking that his name not be used.

I think it is unsure so far whether if we can clearly define this a war or not. Meanwhile, Obama have stated that he will had over the command of the military intervention in Libya to allies within days or weeks; however, the media believes that it will be delayed.

The Final Product For The Poster

 

 Ted, a member of the project who is very skilled with photoshop has been helping me with designing our poster. I final edited the poster, and above is our finalized poster!

I spend all my time after school until I went to bed to finish this poster since we have shorter time to promote our show now. Ted did the background, which is a collage of one of each artists' art work and I did the text which I had a hard time fitting and wording all the information. I was really happy when I was done and I think the poster is very good looking.

All the members of the project accepted the poster. The poster will be printed so we can spread around the area including our school.

Today, I went around Lafayette looking for a place for printing service. I found Allegro Printing & Copy where I was offered 15 cents for each sheets; and I needed 200 sheets.

It cost about 30 dollars but I think that was a good deal. I did hear later that Kinko's has a better deal, which was 10 cents; I said to myself, "why didn't I thought of Kinko's?!"

The flyers should be ready by tomorrow morning so I can pick them up on my way to school. I am very excited to start putting them around. It is a mini stardom for all of us involved in this show.

And hopefully, this poster would be significantly affective for our promotion.

Meeting With The Gallery Ladies

Last Wednesday, Kailey and I were invited to meet the gallery ladies at the venue.
I went through the front parking lot where the show is supposed to be held. I pictured where the band, art tents and baking sale/cashier table would be set up; and I smiled with excitement.

As I walked in, Kailey and the gallery ladies were waiting for me. They happily greeted me we got some chairs to sit down. I had my print out of the show information in my hand and we basically went over what the students went over with me. They were okay with all the plans we presented which was very nice.
We talked mostly about our equipments: tents, tables, chairs, power and etc.

The gallery already owned two tents and a big table and they were willing to let us use.
We already had tables but they said we could just use theirs since that could be more convenient.
They also got out of their way to use their power source through their window.

They also offered to provide us with hooks for the display. "It's fine I have million of those at home!" said one of the gallery lady with such friendliness.

I did not forget to ask them about the parking issue. During the weekend, people often use the gallery parking lot to eat at Chow's which is right across. She said feel free to put ropes around the parking lot and indicate that the parking lot is not available for the weekend. That also confirmed that we are allowed to use the entire parking lot which was expected and hoped.
They also told us that at least one of the gallery managers will be with us the whole time to watch over us and help us with our community service.

They thought us donating our money to the Red Cross for Japan's natural disaster crisis was a fine idea. One of the lady suggested that some one should paint at the scene which tents to attract a good curious crowd. I volunteered to do so since painting is my main hobby; that should be very fun for me and the audience.

The ladies were willing to lend us anything we needed.
They were awfully generous; but they had a price for it which Kailey and I were more than happy to pay.
Ms. Miller owns a charity group that collects donated teddy bears which goes to police officers. When a child is involved in a stressful situation that involves the police, for example, a father being arrested, the police will give the child a teddy bear during the commotion. I thought that was a wonderful and creative charity.

She wanted us to make a facebook group for the charity and tell others. She said she does not know much about computers, and of course, we are part of the facebook generation and we could definitely help. Also, if anyone at Acalanes is interested for their community service, they could help.

The ladies said if we want to add more artists, works or anything, we could do it. They were really flexible about our planning.

One of Kailey's concern was neighboring stores and houses being disturbed by our music. Kailey was wondering if we should go around the area asking if the music at the gallery is okay. However, the ladies said that they had music around before and it seems like the neighbors are okay all the time which was a relief.
We did tell them that it would not be anything too loud or strange; our musicians are planning to play peaceful and calming songs. I thought it might be their concern since we are teenagers and youngsters are known to have a music taste that is not exactly similar to adults.

Everything was covered so far and all of us were happy with our meeting. I have told them that they can contact me if they had any questions or concerns. I could guess that they really liked us since they were being so nice and generous.

Meeting For The Show

I set up a meeting on Thursday at Acalanes Library to meet with all the people who are involved with the show.
Kailey, Ted, Ryan, Laurel, Natalie, Sonia and Alex came to the meeting. Unfortunately, Cybelle and Sarah who are involved in music for the show could not come. However, Alex and Kailey took some notes for two of the missing musicians which was awful nice of them.

At the meeting, I basically went through all the basic details about the show and we all discussed about things such as the name of the show, the kind of baked goods, the art works, the presentation of works and much more.
Here are things we have talked about in the meeting:

• The date of the show is March 26th and 27th
• The venue is Lafayette Art Galley
• We decided to name the show "Inelegant Expression"
• All the profit will go to a charity
• The show should be at least 7 hours each day to fulfill our community service hour.
• The flyers will be ready by March 18th at latest for us to put around town and school.
• Natalie is in charge of the baking sale, and the profit will also add up to our donation.
• Musicians can collect money too for the donation.
• Ryan is playing for 4 hours each day and helping out at the show and other use of hours are up for the musicians.
• We need some back up works just in case people do buy a lot of the works on sale.
• I will set up a table where an artist can make art on the spot and sell.
• Alex will also submit some art works.
• Laurel will help Natalie with baking by baking some of her own.
• Many of the art will be switched to fit the public's taste. (It sounds bad as artists but this will help us gather more money possibly).
• Natalie will print all the flyers.
• Ted will design the rough draft of the poster and give it to me for editing.
• Sonia will get a piece done by March 18th that can be on sale.
• When all the works are ready and organized, we will discuss about the pricing of the art sale.
• When all the works are collected, I will work on the information tags and presentation of each.
• Ryan, Ted and Laurel will print their own work.
• We will possibly have a mandatory meeting again.

I am so happy that all the members of the project are so engaged and excited about the show. It makes me feel strong that we are all coming together for this project. Everyone is down to hear each others' input and everyone respects each other. Many of the kids came up with great ideas such as Natalie who came up with the idea of the baking sale and Kailey who came up with the idea of involving musicians in the project. This project became not only about my endeavor as an artist but also how I communicate with others to make my day dream come to reality. 

Ms. Miller from the Gallery sent me an e-mail about her, Kailey and I having a meeting about the show. I am very nervous about this because I want her see that we are trying our best to not be a hassle but maybe a helper for her gallery to attract more crowd and engage the community with power of art. I will meet with her after school on next Wednesday. I hope it goes well.

Introduction of The Fellow Artists

Here are the introduction of other students from Acalanes and other schools who are helping me to make this charity art show possible.

Ted: A photographer, Ted shows great maturity with his pictures. His scenery work not only captures the beauty and the ambiance of the place perfectly, but also captures the color and the shade with so much control. His works are sophisticated, yet straight forward subject wise. That is hard among many young artists but Ted is successful.

Kailey: The co-director of this show, Kailey has a great social skill that I needed help with. Her friendly and open style of conversation blended well with my professionalism which made every single meetings with possible venues very smooth. Pen and Ink is what she is best at; she has control over her pen but she is never too stiff. Her work is free yet balanced with the medium very well. She concentrates on her work more than anyone I know.

Ryan: Ryan is not only submitting his photography work, but also will play his cello at the show. With out Ryan, this show would not be the same as I dream. What I like about his photographs are the details and maturity of the work. His work is above high school level. Also, when I say detail, I mean he has a lot visual offer in his pictures. He always include more than one simple subjective in his works and it works fantastically.

Sonia: A very talented girl with a wonderful Russian accent; Sonia will create one piece of art work that will be on sale at the art show. Her illustrations of animals and fantasy dragons are something that you will not forget. Her works will gently melt your heart.

Laurel: A talented girl, Laurel is not only good at photography but painting. Her subjects are dark and emotional. Her work has a euphoric effect; she successfully makes her work very memorable. Her works are mysterious and they are one of those art works that appear to have a behind story, which easily infatuates the viewers.

Tiffany: She is not one of those artsy-fartsy kids at school. Art is not a priority to Tiffany. But that does not matter; she always make very successful surrealism pieces. Artists tend to stand unoriginal when it comes to surrealism works but Tiffany's works are very characteristic, yet fits the definition of classical surrealism.

Alex: The only member of the project who is not a senior. She was added to the project last minute. She loves photography and has been taking pictures for art for a very long time. She has well thought out subjects in her pictures. She is very free and uncontrolled style that is very inviting to the viewers.

Yoko Ono on CNN?

Watch the Video

My parents and I were watching CNN's coverage on the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Crisis, and then saw the interview of Yoko Ono. I do not know how to explain the feeling, but when I was watching the whole interview with careful observation, I could not agree with CNN's choice this time.
To be very honest, it was vulgar; This is the biggest crisis Japan is going through since World War II, and not only many people are dying but Japan is facing perhaps more disaster due to nuclear power plant failure and economic crisis; and meanwhile, CNN is inviting Yoko Ono because she is a Japanese celebrity.
And CNN, one of the most representative news media of America, decides to bring a famous Japanese celebrity to talk about the issue. Is this really CNN's best? I highly doubt it.
What did this accomplish? Majority of the people on Twitter is already unhappy with what CNN did.
If CNN is trying to engage people into the issue by using celebrities, I think Yoko Ono was a bad idea.

Tsunami cancels Toyota overtime in U.S., threatens supplies of luxury and high-mileage models

Toyota halted overtime at its U.S. factories to conserve Japan-supplied components due to the natural disaster which wiped out northeastern Japan. Many Japanese automobile company still relies on many Japanese made parts despite the fact that many of their model are driven by the Americans.

It's "too early to say" how long it would take for the tsunami shutdowns in Japan to hurt inventories of cars and parts in the U.S., but "it's a long supply chain" from Japan across the Pacific Ocean to U.S. shores, says Javier Moreno, spokesman for Toyota's corporate operations in the U.S. If Toyota were to keep running all U.S. factories on overtime and used up available components, it would take weeks to refill the parts pipeline.
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru and Mitsubishi have closed all their plants in Japan for varying periods, from another day to several days, and possibly well into next week, to repair damage and because tsunami damage has caused power blackouts.
One possible effect on the U.S. market -- shortages of premium vehicles and fuel-sippers. The luxury cars almost all come from Japan, as do many of the favored high-mileage vehicles, such as Toyota Prius and Yaris and Honda's Fit, and its Insight and CR-Z hybrids.

2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster in Sendai, Japan is already known as the biggest crisis in Japan since World War II. For being one of the economic power holder, Japan's crisis is affecting many other countries around the world. Everyone knows that Japan is powerful when it comes to the automobile industry. And now, that this natural disaster happened, the affect to America has become more visible.

Death of A Princess

 

Some time ago, I have mentioned a story about a princess who was executed because she committed an adultery. This article, from a British news media, talks about the princess Mishaal bint Fahd al Saud and her unfortunate fate.

Princess Mishaal bint Fahd al Saud, the 19-year-old great-niece of the late King Khalid, was shot several times in the head in 1977. Her death is thought to have been ordered by her grandfather, Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the King's older brother. She was unmarried but had confessed that she had committed adultery.

This is a really famous story, yet not many people know for some reason. This story is shocking in a way because it clearly shows that Middle Eastern fundamentalism does not discriminate; even the princess can be killed for being a promiscuous woman. How ever, considering what is going on in the Middle East right now, will this improve? Will this revolution fight against the fundamentalism or will the fundamentalists utilize this chaos to take more control?