brief gazette

boy, the days certainly do fly like hummingbirds, don't they? i won't bore my two devoted readers by recounting the past few weeks or so, but here is a quick smackdown:
presented the final project for roadsharing for the Portland Traffic & Transportation class which ended last week, topped off by a fine time at Paddy's with Rick Gustafson as the host; organized a fundraiser at The Monkey & The Rat which went well; got the end-of-year appeal out the door finally; spent thanksgiving in sacramento with my CAL (Crazy Aunt Laurel) and fabulous cousins Pam, Chris, Andy and David; did the Junk to Funk fashion show which was AbFab (Ashlee was gorgeous and a great sport, and the costume got acolades from the other participants and from Sam Adams who officiated in a tux made from used bike tubes and coffee cups); working on the play "Private Lives" which opens feb. 22nd, and we are currently working on a Viewpoints Lab; the umbrella group is going to be called Umbrella, and boy are there some smart cookies working on it; got my stage epees back from Ricky; trying to figure out how to create a silkscreen emulsion; learned how to knit hats; saw the gospel choir perform with the oregon symphony; and am taking a Voluntary Simplicity class at David Evans organized by the Great Corey Schuster.
next on the to-do list: sing-your-own messiah, holiday crafts and shrinkie dinks; build vertical shelving for my room pending landlord approval; sew an apron; and need to find caroling opportunities. also hopefully volunteering with the CCC for their holiday bike drive.
okay, must sleep. hope you're well!

thank you, BonB

just found this write-up about a recent transportation-related film extravaganza at the Bagdad in the Oregonian by Joe Rose and repost it here. the apples he mentions were leftover donations from BonB the day before. i don't remember having been quoted in an article before. what fun!

and here's a poster for Junk to Funk on december 2nd. Ashlee, my roommate, has graciously agreed to wear my design, which means i need to spend this weekend making it look a little better than it does. it is going to be great fun, and i can't wait!

lessons from Katrina - united in homelessness

first, brief random updates:
*my submission was selected for the Junk to Funk fashion show. yeay!
*i got callbacks to "Private Lives". yippee!
*did callbacks for "If You Take One Elf off the Shelf". hot diggity!
*started hard-core plans for Green Empowerment's Burma fundraiser at The Monkey and The Rat on Nov. 18th. meow!
*actually rented "V" for the weekend. thrilled!

okay, and now for the title event of the day . . .
this evening there was a panel lecture hosted by the Oregon chapter of the APA (American Planning Association) entitled "Lessons from Hurricane Katrina" (http://www.oregonapa.org/content/view/106/80/). the panelists included a FEMA volunteer, Gulf Coast Program Manager from Mercy Corps, NW Medical Teams volunteer, legal volunteer, and a PSU urban planning graduate student who did undergrad at Loyola in New Orleans and went back to volunteer after Katrina.

i am sorry to say the PSU student's name eludes me now, but let's call her Kaye for brevity. Kaye's story killed me. She talked about a fellow named George who was a handyman who traded his skilled labor for rent in his New Orleans apartment and, due to the fact that he didn't pay bills associated with his house and had lost his ID during the evacuation, couldn't receive FEMA aid for lack of residential proof. George and Kaye went through a labyrinth of bureaucratic hoops, including Kaye physically driving to New Orleans to get a copy of a form that in the end couldn't be printed due to their lack of printer, then finally giving FEMA the information they needed in a format they would accept only to have it lost later due to a data entry mistake. they have not been able to find George since the last letdown, and he is homeless somewhere without any way to locate him.

the panelists' stories reminded me a great deal of life shortly after the tsunami in southern Thailand. but sadly, they actually reminded me a little more of life in Portland. most of my friends and family have either met or known about Don and Ken, two really cool homeless guys that hang out between 1st and 2nd and yamhill in the mornings. they have been trying to get assistance for years from social security, since Ken has not been able to work since a train accident that made his arm nonfunctioning at best and a serious threat to his kidneys at worst. their prospects got a little more hopeful a number of months ago when Ken had to have his arm amputated, thereby eliminating all doubts as to his disability. and yet it's been months of waiting for them. we talked this morning (as we do most mornings), and we had all hoped for some final good news in the form of a social security check that would help get them off the streets. due to clerical error (tell me if you've heard this before), their processing has been delayed, and they'll have to wait a little longer. did anyone else feel how cold it was today? and wet? it certainly wasn't this cold in june when Ken's arm was amputated and they started the process. now it might not be until december. the whole time Kaye was talking about George and everyone was shaking their heads in wonderment, i just wondered whether the system ever actually worked in someone's favor. i am sure many social service workers try very hard and put their hearts into their jobs. there are many heroes among them, and nothing in this little rant is meant to say they are anything less than wonderful and well-meaning folks trying to make a difference (the ones that don'e make silly and frequent data entry mistakes, anyway). however, i struggle to see how efficacy and accountability can coexist in such a bureaucracy-laden society.

i won't start on post-tsunami aid or displaced persons and developers' ambitions. that is a travesty too often told and too often forgotten. and i've already ranted enough.

My Quilted Subscription

2 december marks the first annual Junk to Funk Fashion Show in portland. many other places have versions of this celebration of recycled couture, but i feel sure that our fair city whose patron saint seems to be the God(dess) of Sustainability, is ready to leap onto the stage with great fanfare. these are a few pictures of my submission. only 25 folks are chosen, so who knows, but it was great fun to make, and it is a fantabulous exercise in the whimsical. the skirt and tank top are made entirely from my subscription to "the economist" magazine, grocery bags and duct tape. i still haven't made the hat or the purse yet, and there are some bits of frippery on the tank top and skirt yet to be completed, but i look forward to making these. my roommate modelled them, but sadly the camera's memory card was on the fritz, and she is now housesitting and unavailable for another session. but there it is. what a wonderful event it is likely to be!

in other news, i auditioned for integrity production's upcoming show of "private lives" by Noel Coward. such fun! i could take up auditioning as a sort of pasttime. i met Morgan and Chloe, my auditioning partner and the play's stage manager respectively, and had a bundle of laughs playing Amanda an Sibyl. in truth, i'd had hopes of reading for the maid, Louise, but this was not to be. who knows if callbacks are in the future, but good people, good company, and a grateful opportunity. also, this morning's inbox was greeted with a timeframe for callback auditions for Francesca Sander's latest. also got a coffee brewing donor for Breakfast on the Bridges which is pretty swell (and what's more important is that we'll have the opportunity to publicize
JAMES BEAN COFFEE on 2nd & SW Taylor
which is owned by a great couple who are not only golden-hearted but can speak Chinese to boot!).