Fresh Start in the NewYear

I never thought I would be able to start living my life again without building it from the ground up in a new place but I'm being born into the strength to take the risks I need in order to fight for it. I havn't been happy in this city for so long so the fact that I get to actually start thinking about - communial homes, cold mornings that need thick wool socks, eating lentils and depending a little more on myself than I've had the trust to do in far too long - is making my heart so warm right now.

I can't wait to meet myself again

take a deep breath

She is going to be ok - for now

sleep deprived

I'm utterly exhausted at the moment as I've been writing papers for around 35 hours, but couldn't be more excited for what's beyond this little hump. MySpace is fueling my words and I am flowing of one site to another, tucking myself into the new transformations of old favorites and stumbling across bands that are making this session a dream.

After listening to Nantes by Beirut I am daydreaming this time around of Europe in early spring...perhaps sipping orange juice out of a box by a little stream in some perfect Parisian community.


www.myspace.com/beruit

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

Today, I want to run away.

Prance

Tonight at Lick is going to be one heck of a good time. The brand new East Van queer dance party, Prance, has arrived. I don't know much about DJ's but the one they have booked (DJ Mickey Moniker) at least sounds like they would play some amusing and light hearted stuff. I'm defenatly going to keep my fingers crossed for some Aqua.

Their goal with the night is to raise some awareness of their movement and to get some funds to book a more expensive but necessary fully accessible space for their events. Somebody in their crew built a ramp for the entrance but the bathroom stalls aren't equipt with the necessary space or accessories to be useful for all.



9pm-late
$5-$10 sliding scale
I'm taking pictures so that's always a good reason to come out....oh yes, and there is to be a "prance-off" at the end of the evening. If bragging rights for winning that isn't good enough for you, you must be pretty lame.

http://pranceparty.wordpress.com/

xoxo
Sarah

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

dreaming of moments in cities of reinvention

Curses!!

I have this problem; I am particular.
I know what I like, which isn't much, but the things that I do like have a tendency to be boutiquie things that put me in a tough jam that I can't seem to work my way out of. The battle of style vs cost seems to be around every corner. I'm not broke, far from it, but that is all due to this squirrel like instinct in me to save away for a rainy day. It is the bane of my existence..ok, well it really isn't - but it is frustrating!

My nit-picking at fashion has come to a new head with my current search for a new pair of glasses. Scouring the city two days ago I thought I had found a good compromise; big ol' nerdy things, but stylish and at a reasonable cost as the frames came from a box that the store had from the 80's and 90's. However this nagging feeling wouldn't let go - they were a bit too drastic - too far over the edge into a look that is very current but would make me sick to see them after a month. Sort of like that pillowcase full of candy from Halloween; exciting and then terrible.

(current frames)

Anyways, I checked out the frames the next day and decided that my gut instinct was right on the mark and I walked away from them, trustingly albeit little sad as I contemplated the thought of more months of duct taped glasses that had had their time. There was this one pair of frames that stayed in the back of my mind though...but they were the ones that my girl really didn't care for. Thinking about them for three days straight meant that I had to have another go - and I did - and I loved them, but I also found another pair that got me thinking further.


These are the Dita Joya glasses. Cute, smart looking and a combination of eras that creates it's own little modern twist. They are quite a good size on my face - eyes square in the middle - and they look quite a bit bigger on me than this model. The cat-eye top makes me want to read books in a park during late September while wearing an over sized sweater, comfortable skirt and bobby pins in my hair. Perfect, no?! My one tweak would be that the roundness to the bottom portion could be a bit too nifty lookin for me, perhaps a bit too feminine.



These Oliver Peoples NDG-1 seemed to fit much of the same retro-bill as the Joya and satisfied my fear of a rounded bottom, but the edges on the outside seemed so be a bit too sharp and the adorable cat-eye top was all but lost.


...and then low and behold...the internet proved that it is the greatest thing ever.





This is the Dita Lavish. Cat eye, softly squared edges, beautiful construction...siigh...I think I'm in love.
Further updates to come!

Bush Beans Gone to Seed

As gardening for me seems to be about trial and error, I figured that it would be good to post up some pictures of my green beans that have hopefully gone to seed. I'm not quite sure of the variety but they are some sort of a bush bean that I seem to think works better with my elevation and soil than I would imagine the climbing varieties would fair.

This years batch was grown from the beans collected from last year after I figured that purple flecks meant something, that I wasn't going to eat them anyways now as they looked a little hard and that it was worth a shot to figure out if they amounted to anything when planted. Not all seeds popped into the soil sprouted a seedling, (around 15% failed) but all-in-all the relocation from a rocky back plot to my new one cut out of the grass in my front yard, meant a happier patch of green.

Without a hefty crop, and the fact that my dad had bought a giant bag from the market, my little things mostly amounted to me snacking on them while gardening as opposed to becoming side dishes with dinner. I have to say that it reminds me of that Christmas tree movie from the 90's that is all heartbreaking because all he wants to be is a "proper" Christmas tree with a star on his top and presents underneath.



For the most part my harvest today has appeared to be a bit hasty. I left about 30 beans growing on their little branches but pulled about 16 that once opened I don't think will create much other than a good lesson for next time

When the pod is still mainly green and has a thick wall the beans inside are quite pale, with only a little purple colouration.



At this stage you can see that something is really starting to happen. The pod is dying back, turning yellow and is much thinner than at the earlier stage. The beans certainly look like something is going on inside but they still have a milky pearlised luster to them. I get the feeling that this will can still go towards next years crop but we will just have to wait and see.



Ahh...now here is where I think I hit it right. When I picked these they looked like nothing I would want to eat - dryish yellow pods with thin walls that seem to have had all of their goodness leached into the little beans inside. It's fruit are smaller, more densely compacted and dark purple.


For my next steps I'm going to peel back the rest of the green pods I had picked, organize them by colour, and put them in little dishes to dry out for the time being. It would be most adorable to make little paper packets for them which will note their 'classification' for next years planting. Once organized into rows this will help me to better understand what works and what doesn't for the seeding process as well as make cute little presents for friends when it comes to passing on the dark purple ones.


-Sarah

Look at My Garden Grow

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.
For as long as I can remember there would be raspberries on my birthday when we arrived back from camping in the Okanogan. I would climb though the stalks barefoot popping them into my mouth or filling a little bucket with them to share with my family or store away for winter and the desperate need for berry muffins when the weather got miserable outside. Blueberries were picked off the bushes that poked out from the cedar trees, huckleberries from the forest, salmon berries and blackberries brought home from the roadside.

A few years ago I started growing more vegetables in the rich soils in my yard but without much luck. unsuccessful strips of 'carrot paper' that never sprouted were eventually met with bush green beans that seemed to finally grow all on their own with all but a little help from me. The soil where I had planted them wasn't very good but they still managed to pump out handfuls of juicy plump pods that I happily crunched, and this time shared with my father as we would sit on the couch watching TNG. I ended up leaving a few that seemed to be all too developed and a few weeks later I was sure they were seed so I took them in, excised their innards and dried them for wishful planting in the future.

This year things have started to blossom in a new way for me and my garden. Being granted rights to cut up the lawn, my brother and I put in a little raised bed and tilled the soil for a regular one beside it. I said goodbye to my beautiful tulips and forget-me-nots that would show spring and summers changes in the little terraces to the upper lawn and planted carrots, romaine lettus, broccoli and spinach in their wake. For the green beans that didn't have much of a chance, their seeds were given new life in the new front bed, lined with peas and unsuccessful office-grown green beans that were tall as hell but weren't born to feel the elements so it seems. Cardoons and an artichoke were popped in and soon became the feed for aphids as I learned their work as the cows of the bug world. Butternut squash have taken over my raised bed and there are about 9 little yellow gourds coming into the world at the neck of the vine with yellow blossoms coming down from their hard work. To top it all off a little stack of stolen tires have helped my blue potato grow to be about 5 feet tall. It's purple flowers have created little bulbs that I need to look up on the Internet for more information on.

At work in Environmental Services, the folks who started the TC Bean Growing Competition had some organic potatoes that had gone to eye and I was encouraged to take them home for planting along with two pumpkins grown from seed in little paper water cups. Unfortunately a day or two later my dog had gotten to the potatoes before I had so they were to rejoin the circle of life sooner than I had hoped however one survived. Raiding my neighbours pantry I came up with a few sprouted spuds of different variety and after popping them in pots on the windowsills of my house, along with some healthy looking tomato babies, they were well on their way. Who says you need seed potatoes?!.

In the fun of planting potatoes I came across three well developed carrot stalks in the back where I had once attempted to grow them. After taking their time to germinate at their own pace one has suddenly jumped into a blossom that I expect will bring enough seeds for next years supply. My spuds are doing well in their now heaps of forest soil and the whole thing seems to be in bloom. I had planted hubbard squash seeds at the start of all of this right where the green beans once didn't fair all that well, however this seems to be a good spot for them as little plump babies are growing where the blossoms have been germinated.

My only great interventions in the whole affair involved some careful thinning and re-planting of carrots so they could all have the space they needed to grow, some further window-sill lettus, tomatoes, spinach and

After 5 good harvests my raspberries have ended their season with a swam of wasps taking their last tastes of what was left for the birds and I am excited to see my remaining beans go to seed once more in preparation for an even more well thought out little farm next year.

Last Thursday, August 6th, a friend pulled me out to Little Mountain Studios to show me a side of Vancouver that I havn't had much experience with - the expermental art world. Beyond attending the Cheaper Show last year the more formal presentation of art has a terribly tendency to scare me away. I'm not sure whether it is the clean white walls or the airyness that comes with walking into a room with only one other person there (usually situated behind a destressed desk and wearing some carefully thought out array of vintage clothing), art can be a little overwhelming for the non-native. It turns out though that a breed of kids in this city have been involved in a work of love and self expression that doesn't have the pretentious bells attached.

Off Main and 26th, Little Mountain Studios is a relativly non-descript bulding that is pleasntly close to a convienance market. Twizzlers and Orange Crush are close at hand, not to mention thoes giant cans of Arizona Iced Tea that run you 99c and will case several trips to the washroom in one night. Having been there once before for a concert I knew that relativly not matter what the show would bring, I would leave a happy girl, exhausted and ready for bed.

The first room of the Studio is an art space rather like no other. I'm not sure how long it is running but on Thursday there was a silent auction running for a fundraiser for prostate cancer with a bicycle theme. It's scuffed floors and home-caught in the middle of remodeling-feel make you automatically comfortable. The fact that the bathroom door doesn't have a door handle, doesn't lock, isn't lighted, has minimal toilet paper all add to the ambiance that forces hillarious friendly moments with strangers.

Once we passed through the main gallery space the multi-use space was filled with chairs and a precariously teetery old movie projector that brought me back to my elementary school days. After about 20 minutes of chatting with friends and admitting the fact that I was so niave about experimental art that I wasn't sure if the ambient music playing in the background was part of the show, a boy took to the front of the room with his card table, record player, mixing board and reverb peddels to begin the show. Using the Eagles Hotel California, or rather the sound of the record needle scratching against that, Empress looped and tweaked the sounds into a drone noise that was simultaniously confusing and beautiful. I have honestly never heard anything like it.

Having been denied entrance at the boarder, the film was introduced to us over speaker phone co-curator Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa (Co-curator Brel Frobe was denied as well but didn't take part in the call). Reading to us a little off the program we knew that we would be in for some fun. "The Speculative Frontier is a distinction between the known and the unknonw. It can exist as a wall, seemingly inpenetrable, as a veil which can be lfited, as a problem, waiting to be solve,d or as the threshold to a path, which, once discovered, demands to be followed. We find this frontier though different access points".

I won't go into great detail in lieu of spoiling the fun for the few who may read this and then want to watch the show, but highlights include; watching a man jackoff against a fence in public (using two fingers and his thumb - later soluting the cameraman with the same fingers), a blind woman staring a moving object, a cloud bicycle and an Apollo 8 Radio Address that garnered a few scoffs from the audience at the first mention of "God" from the austronaut.

All in all the night was a success. I heard and saw some stuff that was unlike much of anything that I had experienced before.


Lessons learned;
1. Art is subjective.
2. Art nerds are of a different breed.
3. Little Mountain Studios has my heart.



http://www.littlemountainstudios.ca/

SATURDAY!

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

I smell from sleeping on a couch with my clothes on, not changing thoes clothes, biking and...like..sleeping on my living room floor. It's one of thoes days.

Also, will be getting creative tonight! Yay!

<3

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

I watched the last 30 minutes of Deep Impact today and cried for 10 minutes straight.

kitson photography

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

it looks like my dreams are coming to fruition faster than i had anticipated

now what

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

School is done for this semester and besides my growing book list from friends and 3 weeks of heaven with my love, I have no idea what I am going to do with myself.

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

Love is so easy sometimes

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

I'm in a really exciting place right now; finally seeing my path and how all of the roads of my life have synthesised together to form this one.

Last night I attended a performance of Nanay: a testimonial play, which was created in collaboration by the Philippine Women Centre and Geraldine Pratt, a UBC professor of Feminist Geography; Race, Gender and Labour Market Segregation. Basically it is a match made in heaven and my own work will grow from hers. The performance is a multi-media interaction on the topic of the real human effects of Canada's Live-In Caregivers program, where women are required to complete 24 months of work within a 36 month time frame. As Pratt states, "Given the situated meaning of home and childcare, it seems much cleaner analytically , and possibly more effective politically, to interpret Filipina domestic workers as vulnerable to the most extreme exploitation, as standing alone in their experiences of layers of oppression " (Collaborating across Our Differences, 2002:197).

I stall so much in my life but now I'm not afraid to move forward. I know where it will take me and how much good will come of this work. My own work will be much like Pratts, participatory action fieldwork, this time centering a mini-ethnography around the production of Nanay and what it means to the people who have come to create it. I'm not going to be one of those researchers who is only involved in the field for a short time, then moving on to bigger and better things...I think this could be it for me, or at least a big chunk of my life. The work done by the Women Centre and the Kalayaan center is so wonderful. Enough wanting, I am going to get involved.

, originally uploaded by sarahkit.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. My grandfather passed away yesterday and today I the last facet of my support structure has started her own journey.