Marina and Ulay

    I've seen Marina Abramovic's work before (and it's truly lovely and absolutely fascinating).  I'm not a fan of performance art, usually.  I just never thought a lot of what is labeled "performance art" is actually art, just someone trying to be all "deep" and "meaningful".  But Abramovic's art was different; it's emotional, raw, exposing.  It's art in the sense of humans and our actions.  Her piece 72 Objects was what first caught my eye. In 1974,  Marina Abramovic stood in a room for 6 hours passively with a table that had 72 items on it.  Some of the items could cause pain, others pleasure.  Abramovic would allow people to use the objects in any way they please, without her having any repercussion.  After the six hours, Abramovic said this: "What I learned was that if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you. I felt really violated – they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.:" 

72 Objects on the table

Abramovic in 1974

This is so fascinating, this ART is like a PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY. Without punishment, people will do things that are hurtful but when we see confrontation we instinctively run. I mean that's so interesting.  I also ENVY the courage it takes to stand in a room and allow people to just do anything to you for 6 hours, as well as the complete and total exposure it causes.  It's art, it tells us more about human nature.  It truly reflects our instincts, our tendency towards violence. 
  I could go on and on about this, but I also wanted to talk about Marina Abramovic's partner, Ulay.  Ulay was also a well known performance artist in the 60's and 70's and focused on the body and space.  He began to work with Marina Abramovic in 1976.  They loved each other, and worked together until 1989.  They felt that their relationship had come to an end and decided to walk the Great Wall of China, meeting in the middle for a final hug and then to leave each other, never to see one another again. 
  Now, that in itself is a beautiful story.  Mutually leaving someone you love in the most beautiful, most sweet way.  But it gets even better.  
  Abramovic continued her career as a performance artist and in 2010 did a show called "The Artist is Present" at MoMa.  She sat at a table and would stare at the person who sat down across from her in complete silence for one minute.  Think about that, think about how much you can take in by staring at someone for one whole minute. Think of how unnatural that is, people never look at each other that long, it's personal, revealing.  You can tell a lot from a person's face.  During one of the shows, Ulay sat down at the table.  Abramovic had not known he was coming, they had not seen each other in years.  And for one minute, one minute, they sat and looked at one another. 

 Watch it, watch it ALL. Because it's beautiful.  The amount of memories stored in each other, the love, the craving, the acceptance, it's all beautiful and visible in their eyes.  The fact that they did not speak, that they just saw each other and just understood.  The few seconds after he's gone and new person sits down, she has to find herself again. It's so beautiful to see so much love, so much complete and total unplanned raw emotions, it's so complicated and so pure and amazing.  It's truly incredible. 

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Mother, Daughter and in the Spirit of Holy Women

   The news these past few days has been FULL of amazing women.  I don't think I can truly describe the sentimental love and pride I feel for women who are involved and are willing to stand up for not only their rights, but my rights, your rights and every other women; young, old, middle-aged, rights.  The women who have been out and about and whom you have most likely heard about or read about at this moment are Senator Wendy Davis and Senator Leticia Van de Putte.

  In the past 24 hours, these women have truly inspired me.  I did not know who either of them were until yesterday while I was skimming through my twitter feed when Wendy Davis' named popped up.  I then began watching her filibuster in the Texas Senate.  Senator Davis was opposing a bill that would make it impossible for women over 20 weeks pregnant to get an abortion and would also close down all but 5 abortion clinics in the state.  I already thought that was extremely impressive, any women who is willing to stand up for women's rights in a room that is mostly filled with conservative Texan senators has guts.  I became even more touched by the tweets and other posts on the internet supporting this women.  I don't think I've ever seen so much positive support for a women on the internet EVER.  I was talking to my mom about it and began tearing up.  Imagine being a women in a room where you are (most likely) going to get negative feedback and to have thousands of women and men online saying "Hey, you, thank you, thank you for giving me a voice because I need one." "Thank you for sharing my opinions thank you for making them be heard." It makes it even more touching because Senator Davis literally did nothing but stand up to Texas' Senate for 11 hours STRAIGHT. In Texas Senate, during a filibuster the leader cannot lean on anything, cannot drink, eat or go to the bathroom.  For 11 hours this women stood there and stood up for us, and as a young woman I can proudly say that Wendy Davis is my hero. 

    I was really into the senate filibuster when Senator Leticia Van de Putte came up to the stand and asked the President for a Parliamentary Inquiry numerous times.  I wasn't paying too much attention until she said a sentence that to me, truthfully embodies women fighting for equality.  "At what point does a female senator need to raise her voice to be heard over the male colleagues in the room?" I have watched the video of her saying this and it almost always makes me tear up.  She is so passionate, so powerful.  Women of America, these are the type of women who are fighting for our rights, they go out there and are ready to ask hard questions, they are ready to stand up for what they believe in in a room full of people who disagree with them.  

So, overall, lets stand with these women.  Let's continue to give positive feedback, to stand up and talk about these issues.  Let strong women like Hilary Clinton, Senator Davis, Senator Van de Putte and others like them to inspire you.  Imagine the feeling of having thousands of people saying "Thank you for giving us a voice." and be a part of that group! Because maybe eventually, you will be that person, the politician who inspires young women or the speaker or even the mother. Get informed, get inspired, get involved.  

 THANK YOU WENDY DAVIS, LETICIA VAN DE PUTTE AND ALL THE OTHER STRONG WOMEN WHO ARE GIVING US A VOICE AND INSPIRING YOUNG WOMEN TO GET INVOLVED!  

(Photo Courtesy of Daisy from tumblr her blog is rad so check it out!) 

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fashionaid: Penny Lane

OK guys let's jump right into the topic.
Almost Famous is an awesome movie.  I liked it the moment the movie began and loved it by the time it was over.  The whole movie is just a whole type of awesome.

I mean come on, it has good music, a lovable underdog, a coming of age story, and my favorite part, Penny Lane.  Kate Hudson plays the unbelievably cool bandaid.  She hates being called a roadie, no way, she actually helps the band, she's not just some girl who follows those superstars.  She's so eccentric and easy breezy, ugh and her clothes. Let me tell you, her clothes are A M A Z I N G. 

She's rocking that fur hat. And those boots; gimmeeee! I love Penny Lane's style, it's just boho rocker crazy hippy girl bandyish.  And Kate Hudson also happens to be gorgeous in this movie, with those pretty blonde curls and her very plain makeup.  I would love to be Penny Lane, and although I might not be a Bandaid with rockers on tour, I can certainly dress like her.  

Not gonna lie, all of that stuff is ridiculously expensive (except for the black dress I have that) but it's just to give ya the idea of Penny's (amazingly incredible) style.  It's easy, but doesn't come off as lazy, it's breezy but not everything in her wardrobe is light.  Here's my semi-Penny Lane look:

So, although we might not be able to live like Penny Lane, we can totally dress like her.  She's a pretty cool person, I mean she's fun and super low maintenance but still kinda crazy.  And by god she can wear a white fur hat like no other.

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