3/12/2022 #55
Here & Now (no IG!), Art, Fang-Od Oggay, Indigenous Ink (Canada), Chuco Moreno, MFox, Max Haiven, Jen Pan + Krystal Ball, Dakha Brakha, Andriy Khlyvnyuk, Abel Selaoco, and Macka B + The Kiffness.
HERE AND NOW
I closed my personal Instagram account today. I’ll miss some of the folks and artists I interacted with, there; but hope I can keep in touch in other ways—this newsletter, for instance, or my blog—or even in person (gasp)!
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A day without Instagram: I read the AP news and textNPR to see how the war in Ukraine is going. Went for a walk in Palo Corona Regional Park and took no photographs; lounged on my bed and did nothing for about an hour; to counter sleepiness, sipped a cup of fukamushicha and a cup of genmaicha; after discussion with web developer Miguel Z. Nuñez (about a nonprofit website), considered switching my art website on Wordpress to Weebly* (tried the free version and was knocked out by how user-friendly it is); finally, I worked on this newsletter.
* Sans a house of my own, working on my website has become sort of like my endless remodeling project. It’s not that I’ve gotten any good at it—it’s just a thing I do. So, now that I’m off Instagram, I’ll be getting my toolbox and maybe tearing out a few walls and putting in a new floor. Or maybe I’ll just rebuild the whole dang thing—as I mentioned, maybe I’ll chuck the whole Wordpress shack and head over to Weebly.
ART
I produced only one artwork this week; I created it this afternoon because I had to have something for the newsletter (sometimes all you need is a deadline), and this is it:
Untitled ink drawing on Lokta paper, 8.5 x 11 in. By Jean Vengua.
LINKS
I had no idea when I started the links section that I would end up devoting most (but not all) of it to tattoo art. Yes, this could be another rabbit whole, except that once you start looking through YouTube’s endless stream of tattoo videos, it quickly disintegrates into stupid stuff (like “horrible tattoo accidents” and obsessions with gang tattoos). Here’s a few that I found interesting:
Happy 105th year on this earth to Fang-Od Oggay! She still maintains a daily work schedule and has been teaching girls in the Philippines to “ink for independence.”
“This Ink Runs Deep” is a short film about the revival of indigenous Canadian tattoo art:
A perspective on “traditional” tattoo art, and it’s very SoCal—
featuring Chuco Moreno:
Michele Volpi (MFox) is a tattoo artist who is inspired by science:
Continuing from the list of what I did post-Instagram:
I also read an article by Max Haiven entitled “Should Artists Take the Money and Run?”
Watched a Jacobin video, “On exiting the endless churn of the culture war” (and the rise of independent media), with Jen Pan and Krystal Ball:
SOUNDINGS:
“. . . plumbing the depths of contemporary roots and rhythms, inspiring cultural and artistic liberation” from Kiev, Ukraine—Dakha Brakha:
That clip of Andriy Khlyvnyuk with Kiffness in the last issue didn’t give a clue about how popular Khlyvnyuk and Boombox are in Ukraine. I have no idea what he’s singing, but the title translates to “Rain” and the emotional tone is universal:
Abel Selaocoe is an innovative cellist and vocalist from South Africa. Here is a video of him performing “Lamentatio” (Mourning):
Selaocoe will be performing at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall, Sunday, March 13 (tomorrow!) at 2:30 PM. Tickets start at $32
I thought I’d end with a smile: Macka B with The Kiffness (David Scott) performing the Cucumber (“Cucumba”) song + special cat/cucumber performance. And what is it about those cucumbers?
Alrighty, then. See you next weekend . . .
Do visit my website, jeanvengua.com
The nonprofit I work for, Asian Cultural Experience, now has a newsletter on Substack!