iTOMB: Bringing the First Amendment to the People - Inauguration 2013

iTOMB on the Mall in Washington D.C. 01.21.13

My thanks to those who helped get me to D.C. this week. It was a bit of a crazy time with all the buses being booked, but me and iTOMB made it just fine and joined up with A Thousand Artists for the installation that brought art up through the people, as opposed to all the propaganda that was being trickled down from the top. It was a lovely day and we all loved it in our Tyvek 1000 Uniforms and orange hats. A thousand artists turned out to be more like twenty-something but it didn't matter. Thousands of attendees enjoyed our show and a great number painted their own dedication to the ceremonies. Art speaks louder than words.

Constituents painting the future.

Urgent: Help Us Exercise Our First Amenment Rights at The Inauguration

The People Listening...Oil on Canvas 2009 by Andrew Purchin

Breaking news: I just received a note from a friend in San Francisco regarding the project "A Thousand Artists: Inauguration 2013" and I apologize for the lateness, but this is just the sort of thing that I would like iThink Outside My Box to be involved in, in the future. The trouble is, the future is tomorrow. Literally tomorrow. 

"Four years ago, Andrew Purchin set up his easel in the nation's capital to capture the crowd on Inauguration Day. He painted alone. When he returns Monday, he will be one artist among many. 'It was incredibly moving in 2009. It was the best day of my life,' said the 50-year-old Santa Cruz artist and psychotherapist. 'But it will be second best after this year's inauguration."  

The website for the event is here.

With no political agenda, not for nor against the President or any government, but much more in the spirit of allowing art to be a conduit through which people can express themselves publicly, the message of iTOMB fits perfectly with Mr. Purchin's event.

"'The inauguration seems like the best place to magnify the importance of art, especially when the arts are so underfunded,' he said. 'If everyone had some sort of creative outlet, our society wouldn't be as crazy as it appears to be these days.'"

And so I would like to join in. Not unlike the crazy trip I made a few years ago to see Todd Rundgren in Amsterdam - leaving from Munich, this will be a rush - but I won't hitchhike this time:) Buses and trains will be available Saturday night and that will get me there for a full Sunday and beyond for the Inauguration on Monday.

The best way to help would be to send contributions via Western Union with David E. Carlson in New York City, marked as the recipient.The budget is $500 - there and back.

The second best way is to use the PayPal button in the sidebar - but that takes a few days and I wouldn't see the donation until after the event.

In either case, I would love your support to have iTOMB attend "A Thousand Artists: Inauguration 2013". Things have been a little trying in the Big Apple this winter, and I know the project would benefit from a little airing out and quite possibly national exposure in advancing the people's creative voice in our national dialogue. God bless America.

 BTW: I just heard from Andrew, the organizer, and he's keen to have iTOMB at the event:-)

Flying to NYC on 09.11.11 Finds a Paranoid, Manipulated and Depressed Nation Upon Arrival

Those little town blues

Flying from Asia to New York is punctuated by an announcement on the PA from the pilot leaving Taiwan that says they are required by US law to tell passengers that they are not allowed to congregate in groups of more than two, anywhere on the aircraft during flight. It is only a small notion of the American paranoia to follow. You don't hear that going to China. On the flight from San Fran to NYC the first sign that America is in deep shit is that there is no free food on the flight as there had been from Saigon to Taipei and Taipei to San Francisco. Nope. You can buy a breakfast cookie for $3 on American Airlines or a limp shrink-wrapped croissant with ham and cheese for $6. It sucks. Welcome to the good ole US of A. Time to pay for everything - including the free-everywhere-else carts that you use to get your luggage out of the airport. In America, those cost $5. In Europe, Asia and Africa, all of which I visited in the past two years, they are free - and supported by advertising on said carts. "Sorry, we're fresh out of money in America because all the war and shit over the past 10 years", reads the idea and fresh out of things like 'freedom' and 'liberty' too according to the press I read.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”: Mohandas Gandhi

Did anyone else find the display and joy of Americans in the streets over the death of Osama Bin Laden just patently morose and self serving - even crass by conservative standards? I am American and I did. I also live in Vietnam, a country where America killed nearly 1,100,00 north Vietnamese soldiers over 40 years ago during the conflict and infected another estimated 5 million today with diseases and deformities as a result of Agent Orange dispersion - the 2nd largest display of attempted chemical genocide ever in modern times. Perspective is needed here. Information is needed here. History is needed here, compassion is needed here - not gloating in place of proper grieving for our small number of lives and architecture lost. This week was a media event, a play into our willing suspension of disbelief to have a bad man die at the end of a battle. You can leave the movie now, it's over. Time for another presidential election campaign. I felt we as a country behaved deplorably in a moral capacity this week.