July 10th, 2007
reading
lesbians sentenced for self-defense: all-white jury convicts Black women
originally from shannon, thanks shannon and via email from alix, thanks alix
lesbian house dining - profound, quirky, entertaining, refreshing
You can help Camp Sister Spirit, women’s land in Mississippi that took a pounding from Katrina and is once again a victim of the weather: “Summer is upon us folks. Up until last week we were pretty much recovered from Katrina (physically). A storm blew through a week ago and dropped an old tree top smack in the middle of the stage barn. Crushed it. We no longer have extra money for construction expenses. I am asking all of you to please send out our new site to as many people as you know and ask them to do the same. We need help again.”
I’m still embroiled in intensive Spanish and the week after that I’ll be a catalyst learning about media literacy. Here’s an excerpt from an email I received about the conference:
Please review this list of media issues before coming to the Catalyst Institute. Pick the three issues that are most important to you. Be prepared to discuss your choices in a small group discussion on Day One.
- Technology: New media technologies are being introduced faster than we can discuss their consequences. What do we gain and what do we lose with each new gadget? Should we use everything we can invent?
- Representation: How is race portrayed? Gender? Age? Sexual orientation? Looks? Wealth? Poverty? Other cultures? Do media promote intolerance of others? Which is more responsible: drama or news?
- Sex: Sexual messages are everywhere in our media landscape. What used to be called soft-core porn is showing up in TV commercials. How is sex and sexuality portrayed in media? What are the consequences?
- Manipulation: Hitler used radio and film to gain and maintain power. Does the digital age provide even more effective means for manipulation? Can we counter-act it?
- Aesthetics: Has new media technology changed our aesthetics? Is digital video better than film? How does an email compare to a handwritten letter? Do we get as much pleasure from an e-book as we do from a printed book?
- Materialism: We increasingly rely on “things,” not self-discipline, family, friendship, character, morality. Are media partly responsible? Is what we truly value available in the marketplace?
- Echo chamber: When we only communicate with people who agree with us, opinions harden into positions and myths become “facts”. How can our biases and false beliefs be corrected?
- Invisible Ministry of Culture: What happens to our culture when a few huge corporations determine what movies get made, what music is heard, what stories are told?
- Privacy: They know what you watch, what you buy, where you go and what you do. Data mining. Personalized pop-up ads. Spyware. Total Information Awareness. How do you spell 1984?
- Truth: They used to say that photographs never lie. In a Photoshopped world, do we still believe in absolute truth? Is this good or bad?
These are the first 10 items. There are fifty (50) items on the list. How the hell am I supposed to choose THREE?!?!?!?!
