blogs are taking the brunt of my fb withdraw...

This morning, coming off the back wind of a depression, I found each of you in my studio.





Thank you for being with me. As Anne Hamilton once wrote...in my textbook that Elly stole and had signed... presence in absence.

It Gets Better Project

The It Gets Better Project is this pretty amazing youtube-based-grass-roots support group started by Dan Savage and his partner. The It Gets Better Project is promoting the Trevor Project, another support system for gay youth that offers a 24 hour hotline for people struggling with the pressures brought on by bullies, homophobia and growing up gay in a vastly heterosexual world. I really dig the attitude behind the IGBP because you can flip through what seems like infinite videos of people (gay and straight) encouraging others by way of personal testimony, sincerity, and often humor. The stars of these youtube-confessional-type videos are everyday looking people, some celebrities, some not... something really excites me about that aspect of the project...The website layout presents several different clips from different videos with one enlarged video in the middle. This grouping of multiple faces places the viewer face-to-face with a bunch of people all at once. And how do all these people look? They just look like a bunch of normal people. For me, this visual aspect of the project brings homophobic tendencies of seeing gay as "different", "abnormal", ultimately as "other" into high relief, possibly debunking those thoughts all together. In other words, (eh hem, Sydney and Lauren) good design can change things...for the better.

This so far is my favorite video from the project, for obvious reasons:


Check it out and let me know what you guys think...
www.itgetsbetterproject.com
www.thetrevorproject.org

another favorite:

My first class...

they are so damn cute...and they made pretty interesting sculptures too.

I get it now...

... food via the seasons = awesome.

FUN.

I'm totally digging this song/video. Let's have a dance party, ok?

In-flight GAGA/Perry routine. OMG.