Audio link to my coverage of Keith Ellison's health care forum last month in North Minneapolis.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Needlework Knowhow
Lately the only thing that has helped me pass the part time job blues is needlework. My amazing grandmother taught me how to crochet when I was very young and I've been going in and out of crochet phases since then. It wasn't ever something I would consider myself an expert in, but it is great for someone like me who has a phobia of being idle.
About four years ago, my dear dear friend Ellie O taught me how to knit. I loved it at first, but after realizing that knitting is a much slower process than crocheting (and therefore far less gratifying for me), I rediscovered my love for crochet. I'm not sure if it's the process itself, or the fact that crocheting reminds of and makes me feel closer to my grandmother. Perhaps it's both. But lately during my long periods of time off I've been crocheting anything and everything I can.
I used to be against using patterns because I believed (and still do in a way) that 'art' does not come with instructions. Many people might not consider needle work a true art, but I'm a proud supporter of the applied arts. I believe that everything in you use in life can be beautiful. Why just hang paintings on blank walls, when the building itself can be a work of art?
But now I'm older and supposedly wiser and can recognize that patterns (and instructions for that matter) teach the tools you need to go off on your own and make more unique works of art. By crocheting with patterns (and often deviating from them) I have learned many new techniques and I've come to appreciate the importance of using a quality yarn product as well. Though, you can't beat the color selection of good 'ol $2.50 a scene Red Heart yarn (http://www.redheart.com/).
Another thing I've come to realize is that it is ok to sell your art. I used to be very against selling any of my art or craft projects because I thought that one you added money into the mix, it would stiffled creativity or cause you to resent your art as an obligation rather than a hobby to enjoy, but I'm finding that I'm crocheting more than I could possibly keep for myself or give away to friends and in order to afford to continue at this rate, I will have to resort to selling and taking orders. A realization that I'm not so sad about anymore. I'm excited that even though I may never get a job that uses the degree I've gone into all this debt for, at least people might enjoy my crocheting enough to support my ability to continue. So feel free to commission a project from me. Right now I'm really into making purses, but I'm begining to make shawls and skirts as well. My rates are low and my quality is high. Thanks and good night.
View my ads on Craigslist!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Juneteenth, A Forgotten Holiday?
People in the Twin Cities celebrated the annual Juneteenth festival yesterday at Theodore Wirth park in Minneapolis, but event organizers still have their work cut out for them as far as educating people about the historical significance of the celebration. KFAI's Michelle Alimoradi reports.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
In times like these I'm reminded of the lyrics from one my favorite musicals, Avenue Q.
What do you do with at B.A. in English?
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college,
And plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.
And so it is there that I stand, right in the middle of internship eligibility and two years professional experience. How does that type of system even make logical sense? Why are there not more entry-level positions? Why do more people not have paid assistants instead of unpaid 'interns?' I would gladly sit alongside a seasoned professional in my field for barely above minimum wage if it meant that I would be gaining the type of experience necessary to actually advance in my field later.
In light of this apparent catch 22, I've decided to return to the basics. Learning to rediscover my love for writing may be the only way to maintain my current level of sanity. My reserve supply of patience has long since been consumed, my virtues, exhausted.
I even find myself at a loss for topics to write about. I won't pretend that people will remain interested in my log of personal antics and happenings for long. It's nice to break up the news with personal check ins now and then, but I know, in the long run, I have to find my areas of conviction.
Recently the issues that have been weighing on me pertain mostly to the job market, obviously. Many layoffs that have occured lately were ill-advised and exponentially harmful to the terminated workers. My own cousin was just recently laid off from his job at a television station in Flint, Michigan where he had been employed for many years. His position was eliminated due to a station merger and now he has been leadless in his job search for months. I am convinced that new legislation should be developed to prevent companies from approving drastic job eliminations without first exhausting all other options.
How have the powerful few in this country gotten away with isolating the fruits of their success from the hands of their labor-class counterparts? How has this exploitative mindset survived for so long in the land of the American dream? I am not a socialist, but I don't believe that the rich few can lay claim to the vast wealth earned by the manual labor of a less fortunate army. We must shrink the opportunity gap in this country, now more so than ever.
Perhaps the American dream has become antiquated with rapid population growth. How can this country sustain delusions of equality when there are too many people to track? Sometimes I feel as if our system has been out-manned.
My current dilemma is that I have no tangible solution. I am literally and figuratively stuck. I am also not sure if I have wandered outside the realm of my intellectual capacity or if my frustration has become temporarily debilitating. Where to turn from here?
For now, I am at a loss for other topics to explore. Feel free to offer any suggestions you'd like to hear more about.
Alimoradi out.
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college,
And plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.
And so it is there that I stand, right in the middle of internship eligibility and two years professional experience. How does that type of system even make logical sense? Why are there not more entry-level positions? Why do more people not have paid assistants instead of unpaid 'interns?' I would gladly sit alongside a seasoned professional in my field for barely above minimum wage if it meant that I would be gaining the type of experience necessary to actually advance in my field later.
In light of this apparent catch 22, I've decided to return to the basics. Learning to rediscover my love for writing may be the only way to maintain my current level of sanity. My reserve supply of patience has long since been consumed, my virtues, exhausted.
I even find myself at a loss for topics to write about. I won't pretend that people will remain interested in my log of personal antics and happenings for long. It's nice to break up the news with personal check ins now and then, but I know, in the long run, I have to find my areas of conviction.
Recently the issues that have been weighing on me pertain mostly to the job market, obviously. Many layoffs that have occured lately were ill-advised and exponentially harmful to the terminated workers. My own cousin was just recently laid off from his job at a television station in Flint, Michigan where he had been employed for many years. His position was eliminated due to a station merger and now he has been leadless in his job search for months. I am convinced that new legislation should be developed to prevent companies from approving drastic job eliminations without first exhausting all other options.
How have the powerful few in this country gotten away with isolating the fruits of their success from the hands of their labor-class counterparts? How has this exploitative mindset survived for so long in the land of the American dream? I am not a socialist, but I don't believe that the rich few can lay claim to the vast wealth earned by the manual labor of a less fortunate army. We must shrink the opportunity gap in this country, now more so than ever.
Perhaps the American dream has become antiquated with rapid population growth. How can this country sustain delusions of equality when there are too many people to track? Sometimes I feel as if our system has been out-manned.
My current dilemma is that I have no tangible solution. I am literally and figuratively stuck. I am also not sure if I have wandered outside the realm of my intellectual capacity or if my frustration has become temporarily debilitating. Where to turn from here?
For now, I am at a loss for other topics to explore. Feel free to offer any suggestions you'd like to hear more about.
Alimoradi out.
Monday, May 25, 2009
A Few Audio Links
In case you missed their original broadcasts, here are some links to a few of my KFAI news stories.
Here ya go.
A story I did recently on Experimental College, the twin cities chapter.
This story in on the progress of the Saint Paul Saint's request for a new baseball stadium in Saint Paul.
More to come soon.
Life After Graduation
A blog on the first 30 days after college graduation said this: “You have a lot on your plate, from searching for a job to figuring out your living arrangements to plotting your finances. With all of these variables, this can be an incredibly confusing time.” Thank you for fishing out the most obvious response master google. But could google offer me any advice on how to sacrifice my sanity amid this thirty-day crisis? Google’s response was this: “Remember, however, that you’ve achieved a lot and reached the point where you can finally live life on your own terms.” Well at least I still have my keen ability to bullshit, a skill I honed successfully throughout my pursuit of an undergraduate degree in useless theories on real life. With that I can at least feign sanity until the whole situation blows over.
I did return to the job search again this morning, not much else to do on a cloudy memorial day. But my search was quickly interrupted by Internet disconnect when my roommate decided to use the house phone to make a call. For the past few months, none of us have bothered to call the phone company to fix the fact that our Internet and phone line can’t be used at the same time. Today, I was just glad it gave me a good excuse to find some other way to occupy my time.
I headed down to the kitchen to put together meal numero uno for the day. I first thought of making spaghetti, but then decided to get a little more ambitious. I make this black bean stew that everybody really loves and today I noticed that I had all the fresh ingredients to make it from scratch. Giddy at the thought of spending the next hour or so cleaning, dicing, peeling and spicing, I dove into the project whole-heartedly. I roasted corn, peeled carrots, and chopped onions all morning to my heart’s content. I’m still amazed at how sharply my attitude towards cooking has shifted in the past few years. I used to despise it. Maybe I saw cooking as a fulfillment of some debilitating female stereotype. But now, politics aside, I find it so relaxing. It’s a fun little project to create something really tasty and original. Plus, I find most prepared food I buy either too bland, or shamelessly flavored with too much salt. Finding my own savory blend of spices has turned cooking into a fun little adventure.
After finishing up with my bean stew prep work and getting the mixture on the oven to simmer, I decided to tend to my new vegetable garden on the balcony. I just planted spinach and cucumber seeds and bought tomato and jalapeño plants from the nursery yesterday. I’ve got quite the little botanical oasis started on my perch. I’m pretty excited about the garden, because as soon as the fun of gardening has paid off, I’ll be able to cook with the crop. I love how the two hobbies complement each other.
Life after graduation is still in the beginning stage of course, but I believe I’m in the midst of the hardest part of the transition. My drive to accomplish tasks each day has lost the majority of its momentum. I’m staggering to complete anything and dragging along from one day to the next. I woke up at one in the afternoon today thinking it was still nine in the morning. I unknowingly slept half the day away when only a month ago I was never able to sleep past eight in the morning.
The hardest part of all of it is the vast amount of options that lay before me. I realize now that I never considered life without the structure that school provides. The concept totally blindsided me. I’m looking out at a vast gray area of competing options. If I think too much about the future, I’ll never get anywhere in the interim, if focus too much on the now, I may lose sight of my long-term goals. I feel the heavy weight of adulthood responsibility lowering down on top of me. My childhood vigor and curiosity have escaped my recollection.
I don’t really expect anyone to read about my struggle and see it as unique or intriguing. I suppose it’s more just to spell out my struggle in a more tangible way. I think getting over the hump involves a great deal of self-exploration and re-connecting with one’s old hobbies. But also I think one can find serenity by connecting with others in the same stage of life, reaching out to each other even if only to help occupy the time on the more fruitless days; when you find someone else to join in your struggle, at least you can distribute some of the weight.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Old Memories of the New Moon
It has been thirty years since Teatro de la Jeune Lune (Theater of the New Moon in French) began its journey in 1979। In that year, Co-founder Barbara Berlovitz and three of her fellow classmates of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq School of movement-based theater in Paris, France were burning with fresh inspiration. The company spent the first several years switching back and forth between Paris and Minneapolis, but after the first five years, the company finally settled in Minneapolis.
“Paris is like New York City, it’s difficult to find space…any little hole in the wall is a goldmine। “In Minneapolis we were supported,” said Berlovitz, “we [knew] Minneapolis somewhat…so if we [wanted] to rent a theater or if we [wanted] to see if we could get funding we [knew] some of the people.”
The Echo asked Berlovitz when she and her co-founders knew it was the right time to pursue the creation of Jeune Lune। “The four of us decided in our own different ways that the theater that we were seeing …was not what we wanted to be doing,” said Berlovitz, “it basically came out of discontent. We wanted to open a new path.”
Berlovitz quoted her teacher and mentor Jacques Lacoq as saying, “I’ve given you the tools to create a theater that doesn’t exist, now go out and do it।” Lacoq was experimenting with the idea of theater that originated from moving the body. Movement theater, Berlovitz explains “is an approach to acting with the idea that everything starts with movement and the voice comes after.”
This physical element became the signature trait for all Jeune Lune productions। Exaggerated and grotesque characters have adorned their stage, telling their personalities without words.
Like many smaller, experimental theater companies, Jeune Lune was not immune to financial instability। The Echo asked Berlovitz what got the company through the rough patches they experienced before the ultimate closing last summer.
“I would say it was a total commitment to our vision,” said Berlovitz, “anything that we did, we knew that we had this goal in supporting this vision that we would eventually reach।” Berlovitz mentioned that when times were rough financially, all the company members lived together or with family to save on housing costs.
The vision Berlovitz mentions was of a “theater that was for an audience of today; we were never interested in doing plays just because they were good play,” said Berlovitz. “If [they] had to change some of the text or [the setting],” that was acceptable as long as they were sharing a new experience with their audience. “Most of our shows were visually beautiful,” said Berlovitz, “I wanted [the audience] to see something they had never seen before.”
Juene Lune was nationally recognized for their regional theater efforts with a Tony in 2005 and the company has toured their work on the west coast for years in addition to their productions in Minneapolis।
Unfortunately for Berlovitz and the many loyal fans, Juene Lune had to close its doors early this summer due to surmounting debt and declining theater attendance.
“In the theater, we certainly walk the line,” Berlovitz noted, “we were never able to have a safety net of cash।”
This past weekend the company held a rummage sale at their old theater building to liquidate their assets. Tables of posters listed for $5 a piece were the only tangible remnants of the body of work that was realized in the old warehouse building. Their chandeliers still hung above boxes of old hats and dusty plywood. Buyers carried out chairs, dresses and other set pieces that they purchased for bargain prices while still carrying a look of disappointment on their faces.
The Echo asked for a comment from the workers that day, but with a stern reply were told “There is no story here…if you’re not here to buy, you should leave।”
Berlovitz looked on the verge of tears at the mention of the sale, but we quickly moved on to what this new chapter of her life has in store। Berlovitz is now working with the Augsburg theater department; she directed her first Augsburg production, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, in 2007. She is currently directing Samuel Beckett’s Eleutheria, set to open in late January in the Tjornhom-Nelson Theater.
“It’s a great place to come to try ideas and to give experiences to the students that come out of a conceit that is very specific to a specific group of people,” Berlovitz explains, “What I can do is I can bring my understanding of the theater experience to the students here।”
Berlovitz has many projects aligned post-Eleutheria, including an all female production of King Lear at the University of Minnesota। She also mentioned that she will be working on her own original show with the help of a grant she received from the Fox Foundation.
“The thing I think about Jeune Lune, something I’ve thought about in the last few years…I think that we did things that said to people that certain things were possible, that it was possible to make a change, it’s possible to take a risk and it’s possible to believe in your own self and what you have to say. It doesn’t have to be earthshaking, as long as it’s what you have to say.”
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