Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
A Map for Ella
Ella Diaz and I have made plans to take a train trip to Sacramento on March 31.
Much of Ella's academic work is focused on 'remapping' areas in relation to cultural change...I think I am interested in exploring this sort of theme when documenting her. Perhaps a map of the train route from SF to Sacramento correlated with what I learn about her as a person and her work in general. After the train ride, she will show me the remaining murals that she is focusing on in Ph.D. thesis and I will visit her house and meet her dog.
This is her dog, Bean.
Much of Ella's academic work is focused on 'remapping' areas in relation to cultural change...I think I am interested in exploring this sort of theme when documenting her. Perhaps a map of the train route from SF to Sacramento correlated with what I learn about her as a person and her work in general. After the train ride, she will show me the remaining murals that she is focusing on in Ph.D. thesis and I will visit her house and meet her dog.
This is her dog, Bean.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
We met.
On last Friday January the something or other, I met with my Some People classmates for the first time. We had an unusual class, we spent most of the six-hour day talking about ourselves, about eachother. We learned what people thought significant about themselves, we listened and we got to ask questions. We spent so much time doing this, that we only heard the stories of four of the maybe ten or twelve people in the class. We get to go back tomorrow and hear more and I am excited. Its invigorating to participate in the giving of proper attention to each individual, to witness thier stories and enjoy them. And to have the permission to be curious about my classmates when normally I would be attempting to appear politely distant, giving each person thier proper space.
I am nervous to tell my real story, I caught myself worrying that people would think me an unhapy person. A person with baggage. Looking over my list of 'significant life events', I felt apologetic. I even feel self-concious now about writing this. I am already aware of the thick discomfort my stories will cause...
The day before my first class, I found a dog walking down the sidewalk in the rain by itself near my house. It was a black pomeranian boy dog. I approached it and saw that it was collar-less. He came up and investigated me, he liked me fine but continued on his way, to where he couldn't tell me. I decided to put him in my car, I drove home and got a towel to dry him off. Now what do I do? I went to the pet store and bought a leash and some treats and then brought him with me where I needed to go and then to the SPCA to see if he had a micro-chip implant, he didn't. I made a Found Dog Report. The dog and I spent the day together, we went back to the pet store and bought some dog food and I brought him to meet my best friend and her two dogs. My boyfriend and I spent some time calling the dog different names to see if we might discover the right one by chance. The dog liked to play and cuddle and EAT, it was fat. I think it liked me. While sitting in the morning half of our class, all I could think about was that silly dog. After a busy day of eating treats and meeting lots of new people and most probably riding in the car way too much, he got sick and threw up on my bed the night before. I felt bad for him. He looked like he was sorry, but he felt better. He looked like he missed his real home. I wanted to keep him. I started calling him Mr. Pukerton. During lunch last Friday I went home to check on him and I got a phone call from a woman who was looking for her Aunt's lost black pomeranian, it's name was Cesar. The dog was Cesar, and it spoke Korean and could do cute tricks. I left him with them. I cried that night.
That was the story I most wanted to tell instead, even though it was happening right then.
I am nervous to tell my real story, I caught myself worrying that people would think me an unhapy person. A person with baggage. Looking over my list of 'significant life events', I felt apologetic. I even feel self-concious now about writing this. I am already aware of the thick discomfort my stories will cause...
The day before my first class, I found a dog walking down the sidewalk in the rain by itself near my house. It was a black pomeranian boy dog. I approached it and saw that it was collar-less. He came up and investigated me, he liked me fine but continued on his way, to where he couldn't tell me. I decided to put him in my car, I drove home and got a towel to dry him off. Now what do I do? I went to the pet store and bought a leash and some treats and then brought him with me where I needed to go and then to the SPCA to see if he had a micro-chip implant, he didn't. I made a Found Dog Report. The dog and I spent the day together, we went back to the pet store and bought some dog food and I brought him to meet my best friend and her two dogs. My boyfriend and I spent some time calling the dog different names to see if we might discover the right one by chance. The dog liked to play and cuddle and EAT, it was fat. I think it liked me. While sitting in the morning half of our class, all I could think about was that silly dog. After a busy day of eating treats and meeting lots of new people and most probably riding in the car way too much, he got sick and threw up on my bed the night before. I felt bad for him. He looked like he was sorry, but he felt better. He looked like he missed his real home. I wanted to keep him. I started calling him Mr. Pukerton. During lunch last Friday I went home to check on him and I got a phone call from a woman who was looking for her Aunt's lost black pomeranian, it's name was Cesar. The dog was Cesar, and it spoke Korean and could do cute tricks. I left him with them. I cried that night.
That was the story I most wanted to tell instead, even though it was happening right then.
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