implements Animated

A Letter on Taste: “we make paradise possible”

The colored etching on the cover of this issue was produced in 1811 by the satirist Charles Williams, entitled “Implements Animated, Pl.2, Dedicated to the Housemaids and Cooks of the United Kingdoms.” Williams indulges the perceptions of the UK’s rich industrialist class, playing on the capitalist sensibility which transforms working people into comically exploitable oddities. The image features two caricatures, each a misshapen body constructed of household tools. Viewers are hard-pressed to find anything distinct or human about the figures – no facial expression, no affect – besides the differences of their respective service crafts. The cook has a pot-head, the housemaid a mop-bucket-torso; and so on.

On Catalina, we’re quite familiar with service relations. Often patrons are kind, but we each know how it feels to be taken for granted and treated as the help. Either way, our livelihoods are secured by cooking, cleaning, and entertaining visitors. And Summer-time means double-time: when teachers and students become servers and busboys, tour-guides and docents, concierges and cooks. We’re all tied into this leisure economy.

But like any good piece of satire, “Implements Animated” bears a double-meaning. Williams’ dedication to service workers reads as both praise and warning. There is a vital force animating the everyday objects. This life-giving, creative force is our labor – that thing that exceeds the spoons and brooms we wield. He praises our tasteful combinations which create an entire world and ensures it keeps going ‘round. And herein lies the warning: Forgetting the labor that binds us together means dismissing the humanity of others. It means abandoning the company of others for the comfort of cash and believing paradise is but a divine gift. But remember, our sweat and tears make paradise possible.

Our Cazuela is a dish offered in the service of something otherwise: not for a world of servants and masters, but in celebration of a world shared between a community of comrades and strangers. Our Cazuela practices the ingenuity of necessity, born by the cocina pobre tradition of making more with less. Our Cazuela attends to the unknown with the presumptions of a feminist mutuality, retooling our senses in connection with the openings of others. Our Cazuela inspires itself with the reckless abandon of a child’s imagination, never afraid of faulty logic, failure, nor a bit of benevolent theft. Our Cazuela is seasoned with the artful wit of gramática parda, a way of listening to the world and being led by it.

* * *

There’s a popular aesthetic tradition which believes the hungry cannot have taste. It posits that the desirous pangs of an empty stomach impede the finer senses of the mouth and cloud objective judgments of the mind. To this we retort: If the hungry cannot taste, can the ugly not make something of beauty? Can the sinner not discern the good? Can the unlearned not appreciate brilliance? Can the poor not enjoy abundance? Can the blind not be capable of sight? Can the worker not engage in the creative arts? Quite the contrary, we’ll contest it on all counts. Hunger can hone our desires and heighten our senses. Where others find scraps and junk amidst ruins, we find the faces of humanity and the promise of a world-to-come.

archimboldo — *“The Instruments of Human Sustenance: Cooking” in the manner of Guiseppe Archimboldo (dated after 1569)*

Let none our modest worth presume. Lest they forget, we make paradise possible.

With Hunger & Taste,
Colin

Recipe for the Issue:

Start with a helping of
Articles and Observations:

• “To Listen”
by Jordan Monroe
• “Unplug Your Kids”
by Rich Zanelli
•“Winter Solstice ~ New Beginnings”
by Alison Neville
• “On a Planet of Plenty, Why Are There Still Hungry People?”
by Rich Zanelli
• “Soul Alignment”
by Sky O’Connor

Add a few finely aged Missives:

• “The Crab & Its Mother”
An Aesop Fable
• “The Crab & The Fox”
An Aesop Fable
• “Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid!”
by Rich Zanelli
• “11 11 Be-Here-Now”
by Sean Brannock

Mix in a handful of
Creative Writing:

• “Silence”
by David Pascoe
• “Tuesday Night Hosting Shift”
by David Pascoe
• “What If…”
by Ron Long
• “Empty Buoys”
by Michaela Edwards

Steep all the above in
Visual Art:

• Cactus
by Carlos Martinez, Mamba’s Art
• 26 Feet Under the Sea: A Photo-Series
by Blanca Alvarez
• FoneFauna: a series of stylus sketches
by Caprice Rothe
• An Avalon Meme
by Ricco Dominguez

To Listen: podcasts & audio stories on the go

by Jordan Monroe
* * *

“It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.”

–Edward R. Murrow, 1958. Speech to the Radio-Television News Directors Association

The relevance of this quote today now goes beyond the radio and television workers, it applies to anyone with social media. Our ability to connect with other people from almost anywhere, as if they were at the other end of the bar, is amazing, but all too often the content of those connections is less than inspiring. It is too easy to type a snarky retort, piling them on day after day. But as soon as the feed updates that comment is old news. And if the power goes out, those ‘insights’ will be lost. Before audio recordings the same could be said for the spoken word. If you didn’t hear what was said, you never could hear it exactly again. However, Guglielmo Marconi, considered the father of radio, had a thought that maybe there is a chance that you can actually hear These Words Forever. Episode 12 of The Memory Palace podcast, which originally broadcast on June 1, 2009, titled These Words Forever, explores Marconi’s idea in just 3 minutes 17 seconds. This episode is why I subscribed to The Memory Palace, which is one of my favorite shows. Starting at Episode 12, about the father of radio (although he gets too much credit), and the idea that sound never dies — that the sound waves are permanent, but just get weaker — seems like a perfect introduction to listening, and The Memory Palace. http://thememorypalace.us/2009/06/episode-12-these-words-forever/

1889 radio Once you’ve explored the idea of radio, and listening to the people of the world throughout history, check out The World According to Sound. It’s a 90 second podcast that brings you nothing more than an audio clip of some sound, natural or man-made. In its simplicity, the tape (radio lingo for a recording — a throwback to the analogue days), and a brief description, in a minute and a half, this podcast really makes you listen, just listen to that moment, or place, or person in the world. It is a fast listen, obviously, but it brings so much with it. It is so important to listen, really actually listen sometimes, to something that might otherwise be overlooked as nothing. It’s kind of like taking a moment to enjoy the side dish as the main course. It doesn’t really matter where you start, but try Episode 24: WiFi, as that is a part of our daily life. Then for something a little more odd, try Episode 45: Cat Organ and Episode 78: Sound Audio- Year in Food. Listen to whatever you want, but end with Episode 71: Gassy Exchange. It is so important to listen to “nature”, the earth doing something it has, and will do, for a long time, and think about that. http://www.theworldaccordingtosound.org/episodes/

big ear Now that you are tuned in to listening actively, really listening, to people – past and present – and the world around you, it is important to recognize the value of hearing. Now I am not talking about paying attention, taking the time to understand what you are hearing, but just the actual process of hearing itself. Episode #14, Hearing Loss from Twenty Thousand Hertz will make you rethink the volume of your headphones, or not wearing ear plugs to the concert. And it gives you a scientific understanding of the process of hearing. What you then decide to do with your ability to hear, is now up to you. https://www.20k.org/episodes/hearingloss

I love radio because it makes you listen, just listen to someone, in a personal way, like reading a book is a personal experience, you hear and process each piece personally. It is a good skill to have when interacting with people and the environment around you, and not just trying to unproductively argue with them, whether verbally or online. As Rob Rosenthal of transom.org says, listening is primal. Long before texts or email, letter or books, or even paintings and music, we communicated orally — and that is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Bonus: check out Threshold — a podcast about listening to the data we’ve collected as humans. I’ll let them say it: “This is a pivotal moment in human history. In the future, people will look back at our era and wonder how we could have talked about anything other than the way humans are changing — and being changed by — the planet. We don’t lack data. Loads of facts and figures on environmental change can be found with the click of a mouse. What we lack is context and perspective. If we don’t absorb the meaning of what we’re taking in, the data is almost worthless.” https://www.thresholdpodcast.org

Silence

by David Pascoe
* * *

And when they had eaten their fill of each other’s lips,
the silence dripped from the mattress
and gathered in puddles under the bed,
slowly spreading its way across the floor
until the whole room had become
a lake of silence
and the only noises
were ripples
across its still surface

Unplug Your Kids

by Rich Zanelli
* * *

It is now common for kids to have a cell phone by the age of 10 years old. But MRI evidence shows that screen time is more harmful than tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. Screen time causes a thinning of the cerebral cortex, which processes information from the five most recognized senses. Kids who spend more than two hours a day connected to an electronic screen score lower on tests of language and thinking. Skills gained by playing with apps or video games do not translate into real life abilities.

In an era where cell phone apps are being designed to capture and keep kids’ attention, it is becoming more clear that these shiny bells and whistles are harming the brains of their target audience. People think that their children are just doing what we used to do when we were younger: going online to research and discover. The reality is that our kids are going online, more and more frequently, to gossip, bully and participate in activities that could be extremely dangerous. What we do not take into account is that there are thousands of engineers on the other, undisclosed, side of that device who are tracking tendencies.

Screen time releases dopamine in the brain, the same chemical that stimulates craving and desire. This creates a situation where young people act impulsively and causes them to compulsively log on to their social media. Teenagers now use their phones, on average, about four and one-half hours a day. Most of them cannot even remember a time when cell phones did not exist. While this has led to a documented decrease in teens who drink alcohol or have sex, there has been a marked increase in teens who self-report depression and loneliness.

Smart phones are a wonderful technological advance, but they should be useful to us as a tool, not as a tool that uses us.

The Crab & Its Mother

An Aesop Fable
* * *

A CRAB said to her son, “Why do you walk so one-sided, my child? It is far more becoming to go straight forward.” The young Crab replied: “Quite true, dear Mother; and if you will show me the straight way, I will promise to walk in it.” The Mother tried in vain, and submitted without remonstrance to the reproof of her child.

Example is more powerful than perception

Winter Solstice ~ New Beginnings

by Alison Neville
* * *

In our Northern Hemisphere on December 21, 2018 at 2:23pm is Winter Solstice. Revered all over the world for its spiritual and cultural meanings, it is so much more than just the first day of Winter.

earth-milky-way-and-moon — *earth, moon, milky-way*

We humans are cyclical creatures. In body, mind, and spirit we move through cycles. But nature all around us moves in its own cycles, too. Finding ways to sync with nature’s cycles was something that came easily for our own ancestors looking to ensure their survival. Just think about it: during times of tumult, when your life becomes unbalanced, do you find peace in nature? Nature is a wonderful guide to recalibrate one’s personal life compass. The tides go in and out, rise and fall. Plants sprout, bud, blossom and decay. The sun rises and it sets. The moon rises and it sets. There is a certainty to cycles. And when life goes awry, we can look to the fact the most ups have an eventual down and most likely an upside again.

The secret of learning how to surf the waves is in balancing our cycles, which is why I use Winter Solstice as my starting point for new beginnings. It’s the first day in my New Year. Starting my New Year with nature on the shortest day of the year makes sense to me.

If we think about the sun bringing in light energy, Winter Solstice could be the annual starting point of that seasonal process. It’s the day of the least light and longest night. Beginning with Winter Solstice means beginning our journey in darkness. Darkness has a quiet stillness that is essential to our inner cycles, and the stillness of Winter Solstice can become a moment for reflection: What do we need to bring in and what do we need to let go in our lives? We hold onto so much junk, especially emotionally. Winter Solstice, in its quiet darkness, becomes the still point where a tradition of letting go and bringing dreams to life is celebrated.

SOLutions Over Resolutions!

We all know the usual perils of New Year’s resolutions. For me, they were always a frantic attempt to resolve whatever in my life wasn’t aligned. But, somehow, it always felt unsuccessful before I even started. As time went on, I just gave up on even attempting to create a list of hopeful change, because a part of me never felt committed to its success in the first place.

A fascination with the seasonal and lunar cycles sparked in me a few years ago, after studying how ancient spiritual cultures celebrated Winter Solstice. I felt a longing to create more intention and discipline to my own personal experience, so I began writing on Winter Solstice. Something similar to my discarded tradition of writing out New Years resolutions developed. By candlelight I sit with my thoughts, writing a prayer for my new year and asking for the inspiration to bring my best self forward into this new journey.

Maybe writing Winter Solstice SOLutions is the new New Years resolutions? Casting a wish into tomorrowland where each day sheds more light on our dreams. When Summer Solstice arrives, we can bask in the daylight and see if we are manifesting our heart’s desires wished upon in last winter’s darkness. Did we make that change? Did we act according to our intentions?

Remember — It’s nature’s New Year. It’s the still point of the whole year. Everyday day after Winter Solstice will bring a little more energy into what you wish to create in your life. There is a time and season for everything. Perhaps Winter Solstice can be a fantastic time to let go of what has its grips on you that isn’t serving your best self. There are also some things dancing in your head waiting for your imagination to light a fire under. Follow your cycles. Allow nature to remind you of yours. But, most all, enjoy the new beginning that Winter Solstice is offering. Happy Winter Solstice on December 21st!

Women of HERstory: The Women Who Inspired Wonder Woman

by Constance Rux
* * *

Planned Parenthood. Lie detectors. Women’s suffrage. Pin-ups. Feminism. Comic books and a polyamorous relationship. Some of these things might seem unconnected. Or at least, not connected by straight lines. They are all, however, closely connected to one woman who is as well known as the Man of Steel, the Dark Knight, and that kid who was bit by a spider on his class field trip and started climbing walls.

Wonder Woman: A Brief Introduction

Although usually called the first female superhero, that title actually belongs to Fantomah, an Egyptian superheroine who made her debut in 1940. But Wonder Woman does have plenty to call her own. She was the first female superhero to have her own comic book. Her book debuted in 1942 and she did not make her debut quietly. Diana of Themyscira was a damsel saving men in distress — and she did it in a skirt, ruby red lipstick and heels. Or, to quote cartoonist Bob Thaves about another leading lady, “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did…backwards and in high heels.”

ww1 — photo cred: @carlitarocks — check out an interview with Carla Moreno here!

Wonder Woman’s creator was a writer, psychologist, and contributor of the polygraph, William Moulton Marston AKA Charles Moulton. She was drawn by artist H.G. Peter to Moulton’s specifications. Moulton was not only a feminist, believing women to be equal to men, he inherently believed women to be superior to men. He created a world for his Amazon warrior called Paradise Island. It was paradise because it was a peaceful, secluded, beautiful land hidden away from men. It was paradise until the war of men found it, and dragged the only Amazon who was 100% never touched by anything male (being in her original storyline made of clay by her mother and given life by the gods) into it.

Illustrating Systemic Oppression; Subverting a Patriarchal World

Some thought the idea of an all female society was meant to be alluring to the male reader. This is not so. It was meant to demonstrate how a society of all women, strong, independent, and still (somehow *gasp*) having a women’s figure, could be better than the male dominated world. Left to their own devices, women could create a utopia. Think the opposite of Lord of the Flies.

Another often misconstrued aspect of the early Wonder Woman books was the way “bad guys” often tied Diana up physically, effectively showing her in bondage. This was said to be solely added as a male fantasy. But that these scenes are automatically seen as serving only male fantasy is a precise point Moulton was trying to make, and one made quite successfully. He wanted to show woman in bondage as a physical representation of the bondage women faced in society every day. The social constraints of the time being placed on women by “the man.” So it being construed as being for male readers to enjoy was another parallel to be made about the male dominance of women being enjoyable to men. As an alternative, however, he also believed that if men saw a beautiful woman who was also as “capable as a man” (and that all women were, when left to their own devices) then they would be more than happy to submit to that woman.

That being said, Moulton was not a purist, or ignorant to the fact that his comic book did have many innuendos. They were intentionally placed. With his many feminist beliefs he held the conviction that people were overall, somewhat hypocritical when it came to love. That things that people would openly call taboo or shame, were in fact mainstream. At least, behind closed doors. He wanted women especially to be okay with embracing their sexuality — to be open with it. This leads us to Olive, Elizabeth, Ethel, and Margaret.

The Women Who Inspired Wonder Woman

In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. She was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail for breaking the Comstock Law. This law forbid contraceptives as an illicit substance. She reopened her clinic after her release and continued being arrested and fined for her refusal to comply with the law. In 1938, one of Margaret’s cases led to a ruling that lifted birth control out of the Comstock Law and legalized their use for married couples. This was a huge ruling and opened the doors for Planned Parenthood. Through her own efforts, she was able to raise over $150,000 in the 1950s (she was over 80 by this time) to develop the birth control pill. It was legalized in 1965, although use of the pill for unmarried women was not legal until the 70s. But I am getting way off subject. Margaret was Ethel Byrne’s sister.

ww2 — photo cred: @carlitarocks — check out an interview with Carla Moreno here!

Ethel Byrne opened the 1916 birth control clinic with her sister. They were both arrested and sentenced to 30 days. Ethel did not serve her sentence quietly, however, and went on a hunger strike. She was on strike for over 185 hours until she was subjected to force feeding; making her the first incarcerated women in American history to be force-fed. While her sister is the more famous of the two, Ethel was more instrumental in bringing attention to their cause and passing out literature on safe sex. The two began traveling the country and spreading family planning (AKA Planned Parenthood) education. Ethel passed away before birth control became legal, so most credit for the development of birth control goes to her older sister.

SO this brings us to Olive Byrne. Olive was Ethel’s daughter, Margaret’s niece, and Charles Moulton’s life partner. Olive met Moulton as a senior in college. He was her psychology professor. Olive is credited with Moulton’s inspiration for Wonder Woman’s looks. She even wore those chunky bracelets! In the comic book, these bracelets were meant to symbolize the shackles of being a woman in a man’s world. This makes, in essence, Ethel – Hippolyta (Wonder Woman’s mother), and Margaret – Antiope (Wonder Woman’s aunt, known as the fiercest Amazon warrior). Olive takes us to Elizabeth — Elizabeth Moulton being William Moulton’s legal wife. The three of them lived together in a polyamorous relationship.

Elizabeth and Olive were both educated and pioneers for women’s rights. Elizabeth had an MA in law — paying her own tuition with income from selling books door to door. She was one of the first practicing female lawyers in a time when women still did not have the right to vote. She is also credited with helping her husband develop the early versions of the polygraph. Elizabeth used her law experience and Moulton contributed his psychology background to prove, in 1922, that women could serve as jurors not just as well as men, but often better. They demonstrated that women could process the spoken evidence and emotion of the witnesses on stand better than their male counterparts. That said, women serving on a jury did not become legal in all 50 states until 1973.

Elizabeth was also an editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica. But what does this have to do with Wonder Woman? Well, Elizabeth wanted to prove women were as capable as men, or more so in some areas. She wanted males and females to be seen as equals. Women could be whatever they wanted to be, and should be represented in all professions. Not as a secretary, or an assistant, but in the same careers and positions in society that men held. Wonder Woman looked like Olive, but had the character of Elizabeth. Elizabeth had an even more important role in Wonder Woman’s creation. When Moulton spoke to Elizabeth about his desire to portray his ideas of love and truth being stronger than brawn — Elizabeth told him to make the hero a woman.

ww3 — photo cred: @carlitarocks, read an interview with Carla Moreno here!

Both women had two children with Moulton. They each named one of their children after the other woman and continued to live together after Moulton’s death and raised their four children as siblings. Olive stayed home to raise the children, and Elizabeth continued her career outside of the home. There is no solid evidence that Elizabeth and Olive ever had a physical relationship, even though a romantic relationship was portrayed in the recent movie titled, “Professor Moulton and the Wonder Women.” Elizabeth’s granddaughter has categorically denied this, stating in various interviews that the two women lived together after her grandfather’s death because it was a practical thing to do, rather than being romantically attached.

Elizabeth, Olive, Margaret, and Ethel were the women who inspired the creation of an icon. Diana of Themyscira is a symbol and role model for millions. Her story and the comic art change with the times, keeping her current and meaningful to each new generation. But the women that inspired her creation, their real stories and lives, are just as inspiring and impactful; their legacies as meaningful and colorful. They fought just as hard, and faced as many oppressors. To quote Gail Simone – who was given the task to write Wonder Woman from 2008 to 2010 – “If you need to stop an asteroid, you call Superman. If you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But if you need to end a war, you call Wonder Woman.”

A Wonder Woman Inspired Woman: Catching Up With Carla Moreno

Wonder Woman has always been a part of Carla Moreno’s life. As a little girl, she watched all the cartoons and TV series. She jumped off couches, fearlessly imitating the beautiful super-heroine. As an adult, Carla channels her own inner Wonder Woman to face the world’s challenges and overcome personal obstacles. From physical discomfort to emotional distress, financial hardship to familial struggle, Wonder Woman allows Carla to keep herself clairvoyant and honest.

So how did Carla get the idea to transform her own struggles into a creative Wonder Woman themed photo series? And where did she get the courage to share it with the world at large on Instagram? We had the chance to catch up with Carla Moreno to find out:

Do you remember when you first began taking photos of Wonder Woman? How did it begin?

So at first it was kind of a personal project. Hiking is difficult for me, just incredibly draining physically, so I needed a little extra goal to help me push through the pain. I’d seen online people who would bring dolls with them while traveling and post photos in exotic locations, So I thought that making a goal to photograph her at the end of hikes would be a perfect incentive to help me push through.

But the project quickly evolved because during these hikes I would talk to myself and process my life. Bringing Wonder Woman with me also made her a part of the conversation, like a companion. I would try to figure out what I wanted to accomplish or identify certain obstacles that needed overcoming, and her strength and wisdom would inspire breakthroughs about my life that I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. Her presence brought a confidence and honesty. That’s one of the reasons why my Wonder Woman photos are life-sized. I wanted her to seem like she was there on those mountains, because she accompanied me on each of these journeys.

How did you start sharing this project with other people? Were you afraid it was going to be perceived as too nerdy or cheesy or not received earnestly on social media?

I posted first on my Facebook. Only later did I share it on Instagram and in an article I wrote for the Huffington Post called “On Being Wonder Woman.”

But I started posting these photos as a way to talk about my fears honestly with other people. Of course I was nervous to put my story out there and I had a thousand different thoughts about what people might think. But when I was talking to my life coach and friend, that’s when I realized everyone was going through this same stuff as me. Wonder Woman helped me start that conversation, because I could say, “Hey Wonder Woman is something very real to me because of my life experiences…this is part of my childhood, and it keeps me going when times are tough, so why should I give that up?”

And social media is especially tough today, you know, because everyone just wants to post their best selves always having the best time. But as a society we are really suffering by not talking about things when we’re struggling. We are shunned from saying and doing so much. Hearing about Wonder Woman, and what she means to me, invited others to open up too. It just captured people’s attention! The posts became a confessional — where I would get messages about some really personal things that strangers and friends were dealing with or had survived.

It got to a point where I’d go on a camping trip and forget to take photos with Wonder Woman and people would say, “Hey! Where’s the picture from that trip?”

What does Wonder Woman embody for you?

Self-Compassion. Wonder Woman reminds me that I’m human and the challenges I struggle with are too. Realizing this allows me to be compassionate with myself. Only then can I forgive myself and get back up again and again, even when everything feels terrible and the world is crashing down on me.

We hide our truths and that’s why there’s so much suicide and self-harm in this world. We hide it and we isolate ourselves. But we can’t have community when we do that. Community isn’t possible without being compassionate to ourselves, because only with self-compassion can we share ourselves with others and accept help, advice, care, and love from those around us.

Category: December Issue

A Letter on Taste: “we make paradise possible”

Recipe for the Issue: