Blue Mouse Monkey Blog

Image from Farm Sanctuary

46 million avian consciousnesses get snuffed out for this day. I’m not going to get into a discussion of vegetarianism, or the meat production industry. But the turkeys aren’t happy, and I’m not happy for them.

Besides, it’s like calling your birthday ‘cake day’, or calling Christmas ‘presents day’. 

So just stick to “happy thanksgiving”, please, and I’ll wish the same back to you. 

Turkey production explained, with reference to pain and suffering removed

Turkey production explained, with references to pain and suffering included

Turkey insemination clip from ‘Dirty Jobs’

Time’s slipped by fast, but I wanted to get a word in about our party last Saturday. Before it becomes embarrassingly late to do so. Like it was embarrassingly late for us to hold a housewarming party months after we moved into the Ford building, so it became a first anniversary party instead.  Jimmy Thomas and I were super lucky to get into this building before it filled up. Whether we can stay as rents rise remains to be seen, but for now it’s a great place to be. The party was fabulous. You could hear the noise all the way down the hall (which runs a city block long). There were supposed to be photos but someone (not mentioning any names, but I’m married to him) got so absorbed in talking to people that he forgot to take any! Maybe there will be some from the second anniversary party.

David Kennedy - architect

A new website for architect David Kennedy was launched today. David’s main creative focus is in hospitality, but in his 20+ of practice he’s also done residential, commercial, and institutional work.

1000 Languages

The Mandarin word for “www” is wanweiwang, a loan translation meaning literally “10,000 connections net”.

- from a review of Peter K. Austin’s new book One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost  in The New Scientist.

Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end. (This is a followup from yesterday’s ‘Because We Want It’ post)

New York Times Special Edition Video News Release - Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

A “massive power shifting exercise” intervention/flash mob/activist art event scheduled for tomorrow in NYC. Organized by…well, I’m not supposed to say. Sign up at Because We Want It.

“We are the Web…We are teaching the machine…The machine is us…We’ll need to rethink a few things: copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves.” — Michael Wesch, Cultural Anthropologist @ Kansas State. Watch his highly informative and entertaining 5-minute video for the whole deal.

Leaving the 4D Brane, 2007; 12” x 36”; ink, acrylic, paintpen, inkjet collage on paper, mounted on wood

Three of my paintings are in the current group show at Mark Woolley gallery called Small Wonders.  Preview last night, public opening tonight.  The show is up through November 29th.