“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”-Pablo Picasso
Why is this important?  Why are the arts important?  Why should we care if we remain artists when we grow up? Arts programs are often the first on the chopping block when budget cuts are deemed necessary in public schools. Funding for the arts in the US is considered nonessential when compared with all the problems we face - like hunger, poverty, violence, bullying, homelessness.  Private funding for the arts is often spread too thin among many worthy projects. While funding for wars seems to be a bottomless pit, funding for the arts and humanities is always at risk. Outwardly it appears that our society doesn't truly support the arts and creativity,  yet creative thinking is now more essential than ever. Research shows that "students who are exposed to music education do better in other subjects." CEOs know that creatiity is essential to success. Applying our creativity may be the only way to restore our long gone "American Dream".  I say “long gone” because if you look at what the US has done in the past, and our current situation, it is difficult to support the idea that we are living the American Dream.  And exactly what was this American Dream? Is it the ideal that every US citizen  " should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative"?     Or is it more than that? This dream is rooted in the idea that freedom is our birthright, as stated in the US Declaration of Independence.    James Truslow Adams in 1931 said that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth."  It would seem that both freedom and creativity have in fact been discouraged by our system.  Why? What good can come of this?  We used to talk about "American ingenuity", prided ourselves on our inventiveness.  One cannot nurture creativity without freedom.  The best way to stifle creativity is through authoritarianism, the pressure towards blind obedience.  "Creativity is nurtured by freedom and stifled by the continuous monitoring,  . . . pressure to conform that restrict children's lives today" and I would venture to say in adult's lives today. Peter Gray Article in Psychology Today: As Children’s Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity  A research report by Kyung Hee Kim, mentioned in Peter Gray’s Article in Psychology Today, shows a decline of creativity in school children in the US over the last several decades.  In Kim’s words, the data indicate that “children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.” Every one of us is creative.  It's the nature of life - to create. Freedom is a big part of creativity, being free within one's self and free thinking is crucial in order to access creativity.   But through years of schooling, our upbringing, we're essentially taught to conform, to fit in with standardized testing, homogenization of thought --  even in the arts, music, and creative fields.  We're living on the brink of an authoritarian maximum security society with fear as the foundation.  Money and the acquisition of power have become the primary focus, as more and more middle and working class people slip into poverty.    Einstein said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.Had creative thinking rather than money/power thinking been used during the Fukushima, Katrina and other disasters,  the tragedies would have been lessened. Life is tenacious - think of the blade of grass that pushes through the cement.   Creation is not something that can be contained, nor can the desire to be free.  Whether your belief system is based on spiritual or worldly views, you are alive and unique, you are constantly creating, your cells are creating, your mind is creating.  To open yourself up to creative thought is a holistic opening -- your heart, your mind, your body, your intrinsic Self-ness, call it Soul, call it whatever you like.   Every moment, awake or asleep, you are a Creative Being.   It doesn't matter what you were taught; this is a base reality.  Now, all you have to do is get those belief systems (BS) out of the way. There is hope through awareness and action. We can influence and change the conversation.   In 2012 the LA Unifed School District voted to make the arts a core subject.  This is a tangible goal, and with a little bit of rallying, organization, any small group in any city can do this.   President Obama attempted to restore federal funding for some large arts organizations when their funding was on the chopping block.  It was not as much a step in the right direction, as it was to prevent existing funding from slipping away.  There are examples from across the US of dedicated individuals and groups trying to preserve access and funding for the arts.  Whether amateur or professional, we need to build a society in which every person can fully express their potential; the arts and creativity play an essential role in the future of our attempt at self governance and a more civil society.

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the future controls the present" - George Orwell
"Wounded Knee, a Line in the Sand", a new movie by Kevin McKiernan comes in the midst of a firestorm of controversy generated by American Indian Mafia, a new book written by the FBI Special Agent-in-Charge of the Wounded Knee siege.


In 1973  Kevin McKiernan,  a young NPR reporter who didn't think the media should be embedded on one side, penetrated the cordon of agents and soldiers around Wounded Knee and made his way into the village. He stayed until the end, smuggling out reports and film.   While other reporters were reporting the official story, Kevin witnessed and filmed the siege from the inside.   This was a turning point in modern Indian history and is considered the longest public disorder in US history not counting the Civil War.  
The dramatic standoff caught the attention of the world. By the time it was over, two Indians were dead, two federal agents and 18 Indians were wounded, and more than 500 arrests had been made.
Why would Kevin McKiernan revisit this 40 years later?   Is it because the truth in media is essential to a free society?   He opens the trailer to the movie with the above quote from George Orwell.   When we  look at how a controlled media can change the story, change history, the politics, and the power structure, finding out what really happened at Pine Ridge, could have an impact our future. Every time another lie is written as history, there's another nail in the coffin of freedom.
Many worthy films do not get the support from big funders these days.  Kevin is using crowd funding to get completion funds.  The movie is in post - production.  For more information and to support this documentary check out theKickstarter campaign here: 
Kevin McKiernan is a veteran foreign correspondent, photographer and filmmaker. McKiernan's photography, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, has taken him to some of the world's most troubled regions, from El Salvador to Iraq, from West Africa to Afghanistan and Syria. 

Art, Film & Spoken Word Collaborative: a 9/11 Healing Arts Event Sept. 9th – 12th


OSR presents “Pause || Press Play>” an Art, Film & Spoken Word Collaborative at Columbia University | Barnard Hillel’s The Kraft Center, 606 W. 115th Street, NY 10025

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Opening night, September 9, at 8 pm, California filmmaker Penny Little will presented her new film “9/11 Dust: A Healing Journey”.  The film features US Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Daily News reporter Juan Gonzales, EPA whistleblower Cate Jenkins, Susanne Mattei, numerous doctors and 9/11 first responders including John Feal of the Feal Good Foundation.

Pause || Press Play is curated by L-M-N-T.com Gallery Miami, the art exhibition featured artists Gino Tozzi,  Ashley Cumberland, Billie Grace Lynn, Rachel Hughes, and Kevin Vancio.  A centerpiece of this exhibit was “The Pause Towers” – a plexiglass sculpture filled with medical packaging from ten years of prescription based treatments of a health survivor of the World Trade Center illness.

Pause Press Play contributor Rachel Hughes says, “It’s eleven years since the horrific events of 9/11 and our society has been on ‘pause’ too long. “It’s time to press ‘play’ and heal.   Our project focuses on healing through the arts to release the grief from 9/11 and heal our society.”

The schedule for the three day event included films, presentations and guest speakers who are experts in the fields of holistic health, healing, creativity, integrative arts and education. Notable guest presenters include Dr. Lee Vickers, AmaLia Wai Ching, Olga Meylakh, Jonathan Talat Philips and many others.

Click to Play This short clip gives another reason to get out and vote -- the larger the turnout the more difficult to disguise and perpetrate election fraud. This clip will be part of the re-release of Penny Little's Film Electile Dysfunction 2008, and part of the Unconventional Tour 2008, which includes music, film, audience participation. You can see the entire clip from Mark Crispin Miller on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvOjjvtMHGc

Click to Play The Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club displayed their "Green Block" as part of the Ventura Street Fair in Ventura on the 4th of July. The 30th annual street fair is mainly a shopping extraveganza, but the "Green Block" was selling ideas: how to Save the World for Kids, and how to Green the Home. The Ventura City Environmental Department showed kids how to recycle which items and how to win prizes with the correct answers to their quiz. Air Pollution Control District of Ventura had games for kids and prizes, as did the KidsVsGlobalWarming booth run by young teens. The MEChA Club from Oxnard College was requesting help to get rid of toxic waste in their community, and the younger kids painted pictures of what they do to Save The World!
For the adults as well as kids, there were prizes and more prizes for answering correctly the questions about how to save money, energy and reduce global warming - at center stage, hosted by 3 teenagers actively participating in the environment: Eric Fernandez, Shannon McComb and Alec Loorz.
Ladybugs and wonderful aromas brought many landscape enthusiasts to Nature by Design's booth. Free bike parking was provided for all fair goers. It was a great day for the saving energy, saving money and saving the environment!

Click to Play Walter just got his naturalization papers. His co-workers introduce him to "american" foods and deserts, but he seems a little skeptical....

Click to Play The Pacific Surfliner runs from Central California to points South. I took it from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, with my bike, then took the subway with my bike, then a city bus with my bike, went to visit my friend, and returned home.
It sure as heck beats driving, and I got some exercise!