My new year's project

Dear Media Friends and Supporters:

Way back in the 1980’s, at the tender young age of 25, I discovered that my work in media didn’t have to be as an observer, “objectively” reporting on things that I saw around me in a dispassionate, detached way.

I’d learned in school and by doing classical journalism that this was the only role of the media maker. And then I arrived in Vancouver, 1982 ... a city in a polarized province reeling from the cutbacks of the Bill Bennett government. Cruise missile testing in Cold Lake Alberta was a catalyst for some of the largest peace marches in history. Ronald Reagan had just arrived in the White House. For seven years his ideological mistress, Margaret Thatcher, had been convincing us from 10 Downing Street that only the rich and powerful mattered. And here in Canada, too many people were starting to believe her.

It was in the midst of this climate that I discovered Vancouver Co-op Radio and its message that media makers didn’t have to stand by and merely watch. We could write, take photos, do documentaries, create video and audio art in a way that participates in society, not just reports it. We could be catalysts for change, not just hold up a mirror to reflect the status quo.

Ever since that time, I’ve looked at my work in a different way. I have done my share of “objective” journalism but no longer believe that this is the only role for people working in the media. In more recent years, my experience in community-based activist media has taken me in some interesting directions. Two years at Appalshop, a major American community media arts organization dedicated to social change in the heart of the impoverished, environmentally devastated Appalachian Mountains; working with teenagers in an American inner city living in poverty; working with immigrants and mental health survivors helping them use tools of the media to tell their own stories .. All of this and my continuing involvement in community radio and the internet magazine Rabble.ca have strengthened my belief that we have important work to do.

Comparatively speaking, media for social justice is less developed in Canada than it is in places such as the United States, Europe and the UK. For a few years now I’ve wanted to start a new organization to provide a focus for work of people who share my aesthetic and my perspective on life (and more practically, so we can get grants that are only available to organizations.) I know there are a lot of you out there .. because many of you are my friends.

I am writing to tell you I am now doing it. The main goal of the yet-unnamed organization – to produce new works about some of the burning issues of our time; to create festivals, exhibitions and other dissemination opportunities for artists working in social justice oriented media; to provide workshops for our fellow travellers. And most important – to build a community of artists who work in social change so that we can work collaboratively and support each other in our work.

This is just beginning, so I don’t have it all figure out yet. If you would like to join the community of artists who have already said “Count me in”, get in touch. We’ll figure it out together.

Because this is important work we’re all doing, especially now. In many ways, it feels like the work I did and the things I learned way back in the 1980’s was just the dress rehearsal for the conditions we find ourselves in now. Our voices are needed now more than ever.

In the words of an inspiring writer, Clarissa Pinkola Estes ..

“I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now. .. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

… For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

.. Do Not Lose Heart. We Were Meant for These Times”

In Peace,
Victoria

Big Changes, Big Travel

It's a condition of our time .. too many blogs, too much Facebook, too much Twitter ..

Well no, I'm not going to say it's Too Much, because I just love this new internet environment. But it does mean it's hard to get everything done. And as usual, my businessy, arty blogs get more attention than this one, my personal reflections.

I originally set up this blog as a way for all my friends to stay connected when I'm on the road. Time for me to heat it up again, because I am once again GOING ON THE ROAD!

Not until the new year. I need some time to sort things and get rid of all the things I never should have packed up and kept in storage last time. And I need time to develop the plan. Which so far includes house-sitting in Toronto, a trip to Guatemala, a few months on either the west or the east coast doing my audio art camp again.

And I would dearly love to spend some time in Montreal studying with Montreal's famed electroacoustic composers. Especially Eldad Tsabary, who I had a brief and wonderful time with a couple of weeks ago studying Ear Training for the Electroacoustic Composer (including games like Name that Frequency. Is it 5000 khz, or 7,000?)

In the meantime, I am continuing to build business doing podcasts for clients. And building a new organization focussing on Media Arts and Social Engagement. Theoretically I'll be able to work anywhere there's a high speed internet connection.

It's all good .. I'm enjoying the present and really looking forward to the future.

Love
Victoria

Remembrance of Easters past

Happy Easter, everyone. Beautiful day today .. reminds me of Easters back on the farm at my grandparents' place. First tulips of the spring (we lived in extreme southern Ontario where flowers bloom three weeks earlier than down the road in Toronto. So while the daffodils are out down here, the tulips are likely coming out in Ruscom).

Childhood memories of Easter all revolve around being able to finally go outside without a coat on with my city cousins. In recent years, one of my strongest memory was Easter morning in the Appalachian mountains ... I decided to haul out the mattress and sleep under the stars so I could watch the sunrise. I awoke to the sound of birds .. one of the best choirs I've heard in my life.

So Happy Easter, Passover or whatever Rite of Spring you celebrate. The Light has returned after the long, dark winter.

The Nature of Progress

For the first time in my life, I decided that I was going to go to the gym on a regular basis.

That was last August. The first few months (until about December) were really, really painful. The minutes dragged by so slowly, my legs complained at me constantly. I ran out of breath. I could run for maybe a minute at a time at a speed of about three and a half miles an hour (which isn't even a fast walk) before I had to drop my speed back. My heart rate maxed out at 140 once I approached a 4 mph ... it was working hard.

Well, today I ran at four and a half miles an hour for five minutes without stopping (hey, I know it's not marathon standard but really good for me). I even got up to 2 minutes at 5 mph. I couldn't get my heartbeat to go over 140 even at that speed .. at 3.5, it barely went over 118 today.

And as I ran and walked I reflected on how much harder I have to work now to get the same result (actually I wasn't so much reflective as pissed off). Somehow it just didn't seem fair. Do I have to keep working so damn hard ALL the time?

But that's what happens. I do more and more, and expect more and more from myself. And how often do I stop and look at what I can do now that I couldn't do last summer, and compliment myself on how great I'm doing?

That's what I am realizing. I will always expect a lot of myself. When I achieve one milestone, I will constantly look ahead to the next one. And that's good .. as long as I remember to appreciate where I am at this moment and allow myself at least a little bit of contentment before taking another gulp of water, mopping the sweat off my forehead and challenge myself to Five and a half miles an hour.

Hello from Ottawa

It's four in the morning
The end of December
I'm writing you now
just to see if you're better ...

Whoops, that poem has already been written. Thanks Leonard.

Doesn't matter ... I just wrote my own. Do you ever have that happen to you .. you wake up at some early hour of the morning and a perfect poem or story is going through your head. And you want to just say go away, I want to sleep. Kind of like a lover who is trying to get your attention and you're in the middle of a good dream.

I got up and wrote it. I'm glad. Except now I can't get back to sleep. Oh well, doesn't matter. Lots of good poems going through my head.

Something about Ottawa does this to me ... for some reason I am at my poetic best when I am up here. I think it's because when I lived here I had lots of time that I could spend on things not directly related to making a living. It was nice not to have to be the primary income earner for a change ...

I'll let you know when the poem is ready for publication.

Living in Two Places

See! Said I would do another update!

For the past month, I have been living in two places. Half the week, from Sunday to Wednesday, I am at my friends Lil and Ronnie's. I'm housesitting for them for a couple more weeks.

Then, from Thursday to Sunday, I am back in my own place here in Hamilton.(The photo above is a winter scene from my balcony of my Hamilton home, looking over to Locke Street)

This kind of lifestyle has its challenges. But every time I do it, I am reminded that I am the kind of person who really likes this way of life. I've done it several times before .. first, when Barry was in Ottawa and I couldn't leave Hamilton yet. Then when he was in Appalachia and I didn't want to entirely leave Canada. Now I'm realizing I really like living like this.

Some of the challenges -- never knowing which place my favourite sweater is living this week. And groceries are a challenge -- inevitably, I end up packing the lettuce, tomatoes and zucchini that won't last until I come back to whatever house I am leaving. So my backpack tends to be heavy. And it always takes me a few hours to acclimatize to whichever place it is I'm at.

The advantages -- I see a lot more of my friends. It makes my Hamilton friends seem more special because I don't get to see them all the time (absence makes the hearts grow fonder). And I get to spend time with my Toronto friends, many of whom I haven't seen in a long, long time.

The change of scenery really shifts my perspective and gets me thinking about change .. too easy to get "settled" and dull in one place. At least it is for me.

I want to keep on living like this. I won't be able to afford to live in too many places. But I do want to have two homes .. one here in Southern Ontario and one in Bear River, Nova Scotia. And fill it in with invitations to housesit for friends in other parts of the country and even the world.

I am really glad that my business (Sound Out Media -- multimedia productions for the internet) can be done any place where there is high speed ..

I have not abandoned this blog ...

If you looked at this blog on a regular basis, you might come to the conclusion that Heading To Central Blissville is an orphan.

No, it's not ... it's just that I have been working on my OTHER blog, which is business-related (therefore money generating related). This particular blog is all about me .. the rest of my life that reflects the real, personal me.

Got to admit, I haven't been taking the time to reflect the personal side of me in recent months. Seems like I did lots and lots of that in the past four years so now time to focus on my more public side ...

If you want to see how the public side of me is evolving (and I know you do), my other blog is www.soundoutmedia.com

Check it out and check back here as I pay more attention to this blog and the other sides of my life!

Happy new year .. and congratulations all on the inauguration of Barack Obama .. I can feel the world turning in a better direction ...