you and me

this is a blog about me. and you.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

ProductionHouse

So my friend said the other day “yeah not working really fucks with my productivity”. In that way where you plan to write that great american novel on the weekends, a time when you are not at your day job, but then the weekend comes and ... well, its the weekend.
I mean, I think this is pretty normal.

So I've now got this big list of stuff that NEEDS to get done. like,
The Plan.
but (and this happens to me a lot i feel like) The Plan, as it turns out, has no contingencies for little stuff. like laundry. eating. processing time in line at the bank (i went to the bank for the first time since I'd been back last week. I got really confused trying to find the ENTRANCE to the building. It is a really big building. never under estimate how much your assumptions can trip you up.) Anyway - the list of big things is going really slowly.

I went into The City the other day for the first time also. I missed the bus twice, couldn't find the friend I planned to meet, mistakenly ordered a beer which was not included in happy hour specials and got kind of confused trying to figure out what purpose the street festival in front of the bar we were at was serving, if nothing more than just a forum to showcase polka bands. Maybe I wasn't ready to go into The City yet. Maybe I just need to slow it down a bit.

On that note, I really really love where I live. I love being at home these days. Maybe because it feels like I have been moving around so much, but I have been a total homebody these past couple weeks.
There's really no other point to this post. Just that I'm at home these days and I'm really happy with that.

Monday, September 08, 2008

we're back.
right before i left i was in jakarta for a few days, and while walking around with friends i saw an ad for that movie by the same guys who did Scarey Movie, but this one is called Super Hero Movie, and the theater had taped paper over the cleavage of the main female characters depicted in the poster... well, everyone is fasting for ramadan/lebaran and trying to be especially pure... but then right next to that poster was ads for this movie:

http://www.hantuaborsi.com/



hantu means ghost and aborsi means abortion.

I'm not making any judgements, im just telling you. this is how it is.

there were a lot of horror films i saw advertized based around various types of ghosts - hantu ambulance, hantu kereta (train), hantu jeruk purut (orange peel), etc. and most of them had that lady from the ring in there somewhere. which is nice i suppose. for the people who copyrighted that character. if they have some free time, they can try to recoup some stuff. you know, rainy day kind of work.

this week i feel like i am looking at all the rainy day work i have amassed over the past year and the pile is so big its overwhelming. and its not even raining today. but it sort of feels like it is. i am always cold now. yesterday my friend naia said that it probably wont get warm again and i wanted to start crying. but, as i emailed my friend in west java, coming home at the very least means that my heart is warm again. which is wonderful. patrick is now painting the bathroom. we have a new apartment. come visit.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

hi all - we've arrived, safe and sound. ive had trouble in the past posting to my blogger account from indonesia, so for now we are updating my flickr account with pictures - check them out at the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27103520@N00/sets/72157602089792963/

hope all are well - thinking about everyone at home and missing you lots - best -
carrie

Friday, September 14, 2007

going away week

the phone game opening at the Johanson Charles Gallery in Detroit:

the drive to town (post leg surgery)
































a quick rehearsal

















the crowd swells



































the work looks great (works pictured from Brian Pittman and Mary Beth)
















calling occupants...
































its all about collaboration















then a grand "see you later" style at the gold kat:

where the art















and the people















and the free jamz















and the food
(thank you misha for the going away present)





























and the people















and the people















will be missed















see you tomorrow.
(all photos by christina mezuk)

Friday, August 03, 2007

new favorite thing

Philippines inmate choreography youtube video.



Short interview and more infor from the warden:
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=49152
(also notice the other dances to RADIO GAGA and SISTER ACT.)

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Thursday, July 05, 2007

So I knew about this, but I had forgotten until it came up the other day in my Indonesian class.
















In the 70's Suharto's wife (first lady Tien Suharto) came up with the idea of creating a mini Indonesia as a kind of theme park. $26 million US, multiple acres and several years of building later, it was completed. Taman Indonesia Mini Indah lies just outside of Jakarta and is said to depict all of Indonesia's provinces, just slightly smaller (ive been told it no longer does, and it also still includes Timor, which is also no longer Indonesia’s, but I suppose these are minor (or mini, if you will) details). I still cant figure out what the exact scale is though, as I couldn’t find any pictures with any people in them. Just buildings. I was reminded of it's existence and got super excited to go see it. Jakarta’s a huge dense urban city and I am glad at the prospect of having other places to go while I clear up visa issues my first few days in town.

















But as we were talking about Taman Mini Indonesia Indah i couldnt help but think of the images from my first moments in Indonesia - also right outside of jakarta, speeding in a cab toward Jalan Jaksa (main tourist street and site of a string of super budget hostels) and watching through the window as i passed miles of encampments made of corrogated materials and burning trash and the air having a slightly hazy brownish tinge.
In Taman Mini there is a theater called The Theater of My Nation. Who is this for, the locals or the tourists? There is also an aquarium, a series of gardens, etc. Its one of indonesia's biggest tourist attractions.
Im not sure yet what this trip is about for me, but if i could answer that question i dont think id be going. And i was reminded after reading my friend nicole marroquin's blog the other day that in all this global moving around and ‘what does this mean’, ‘who am i in this place’ mental weightiness, there is also the everyday. the finding yogurt (also something my friend kat mentioned as a comfort while traveling in ethiopia for the past month/s few) - things like buying a new toothbrush. watching kids play. this is the everyday and these are also things that happen. and probably/maybe serve to define the "who am i" more than any passport label or national title can (unless the national title is the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Champion Title. then youre pegged for awhile.)
(Taman Mini website - http://www.tamanmini.com. Check out the skyride animation.)

Saturday, June 23, 2007

oh, deja vu.
















back again.
road trip staples




























(like giant tie racks)
















give us landmarks that look like we could be anywhere.
















(on the trip out here, we were cut off by this dog, barking ferociously until we let him cut in front of us.)
i think of summertime memories now and then.
















gold cats.




























days gone by.
















nice things.
again returning to little indonesia in the midwest.
















where i learn how to say the important stuff. things like




























annihilate. (dihancurkan)
















potato (kentang - while mashed potatoes is dihancurkan kentang.)
















also, another verb meaning destroy or annihilate is named after sylvester stallone, 'merambo') all this while in the tranquil setting of madison, wi.
having incubation time. before taking off again.

Friday, June 22, 2007

you could put a down payment on a Prius for 8 grand...

from the New York Times article online...

"There have been no major terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2005, and Jemaah Islamiyah appears to be leaning more toward smaller-scale attacks and small localized wars like one that is now under way in Poso on the island of Sulawesi.
“There are those now within J. I. who have realized that by using violence they would not be able to achieve their objectives,” said an Indonesian intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is, I suppose you could call it, a split within the group.”
It is not that they oppose mass killings on principle or that their aims have changed, Ms. Jones said.
A cost-benefit analysis by the International Crisis Group issued last month indicates that large-scale attacks are more expensive and also less effective in drawing new recruits.
An attempt to bomb the Australian Embassy cost about $8,000, the report said, while the assassination of the leader of the Central Sulawesi Protestant Church cost $25."

Monday, June 04, 2007

have had some trouble sleeping lately.
















like when i have time to sleep sometimes i cant sleep and when i dont have time to sleep is when i really wanna.




























dunno why sometimes it seems like a good idea, then you see later that it wasnt.
















i dont think ive figured out the system yet. but ive been trying. im selling things slowly on ebay. lots of emails going around that start with "the item..."




























i had this dream the other day... about trying to find a litter of dachshund puppies somewherre in the rural hills of ohio.
















i dunno, maybe i gotta get better at free time.
















actually no, thats wrong. i had a good day today. i dunno what my problem is, sometimes i just get to feelin like i been sitting in one place too long.















gotta run...