You may recall that on the last day of 2012 the Urchins set about to accomplish some very specific goals. Geo dreamt of de-draping his Brooklyn abode, Margaret set her sights on the great outdoors, and I wanted to overcome my all-consuming fear of fish brushing past my leg and go for a real live, get-my-hair-wet swim in the ocean.

Well, friends and countrypersons, I am ever-so proud to announce that it is not yet June and my resolution is resolved! On Monday 18 March 2013, I swam in the ocean. And not just any ocean, either. On the aforementioned date, I had the insanely good fortune of visiting the tiny but stunning island of Mauritius off the southeast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean for a grand total of 8 hours. I knew what I had to do.

Swim.

I’ll admit that the endeavor began with a fair amount of tentative wading and a false alarm fish sighting or two, but pretty soon I was doggy paddling around like a pro. Like a regular old labrador, really. I then graduated to some freestyle strokes before taking the literal plunge and swimming a whole five feet fully submerged. I’ll hold for applause.

Now, as you all know, once your hair is wet, there’s really no going back, so I spent the next half an hour happily floating through the inconceivably blue waters of the Indian Ocean. Apparently right next to this guy.

Thanks for letting me know I was floating so awkwardly close to The Swimming Nosepicker, photographer. What a pal.

Being that I was a newly-accomplished ocean swimmer, the Silent Photographer and I thought celebratory drinks were in order. Luckily, we had saved nearly all of our Mauritian rupees by figuring out a local bus to the beach and were able to put them towards some appropriately tropical fruity drinks. Which pretty much sums up the basic tenets of Urchin travel: take public transportation to live like a local and save some pence, only to later spend said pence on a pint or a sweet.

Just desert.

With six months remaining in 2013 and my original resolution already satisfactorily resolved, I feel compelled to take on another. Perhaps swim in a murky lake of unknown depth with untold numbers of unseen scaled creatures? Or maybe a kiddy pool. Jacuzzi? I’ll have to get back to you.

Until then, here’s just one more picture of the now-infamous beach. I’m currently collecting for a ‘Sarah Jost Swam Here’ commemorative plaque.

Arhat, Arahat. [a. Skr. arhat adj., deserving. Arahat is the Pali form.] A Buddhist saint of the highest rank.
[highbrow source: The Oxford English Dictionary]

Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese art tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society.
[lowbrow source: Wikipedia]

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami always strove to reach and connect the high, middle, and lowbrow culture, spreading them flat, rendering them two-dimension on his canvas. Arhat, an exhibit of his latest work, on view at the Blum & Poe gallery in Los Angeles through 25 May, brings together the imagery of Buddhist monks as they approach and confront decay and death, amidst the wild colours, skull-faced creatures and psychedelic landscapes of trademark Murakami.

’12 Arhats’, 2013.

‘Deer God of the Forest and Arhat’, 2013.

‘Pom & Naked Me: On the Blue Mound’, 2013.

‘Naked Self-Portrait with Pom’, 2013.

Machu Picchu, Peru

It’s one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world, but, really, how can you go to Peru without going to Machu Picchu? After visiting countless 15th century (and older) citites throughout Europe, I find exploring the ancient Incan city a fascinating insight into our collective history.

Machu Picchu was built around the time Columbus (theoretically) discovered America. At 7,970 ft. above sea level, Machu Picchu was a palace for Incan rulers but was abandoned as such only 100 years later during the Spanish Conquest. Though there is so much more to explore in Peru, Machu Picchu is an inescapable destination.

Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

When I visited Hong Kong this past February, the warm, humid weather was a welcome departure from the biting cold of Tokyo and Shanghai, but clouds still hung low over the city’s famed skyline. They provided great insulation but caused me to miss out on the supposedly spectacular views from Victoria Peak. The next time I’m lucky enough to find myself in Hong Kong, catching those views will be at the top of my list.

Undecided, however, is what mode of transport I’ll use to get to the top of the peak. The 125-year-old Peak Tram is renowned to be the most scenic option but, at $28 one-way, is almost unconscionably expensive. A bus climbs the peak from just under $10, but I think I might go with the old Urchin standby of my own two feet.

Hiking the peak would not only be free, but it will allow me to explore even more of Hong Kong, including the world’s longest outdoor escalator (!). Climbing from central Hong Kong to the Mid-levels, the escalator is far more Urchin-friendly, with machines along the way even providing free top-up travel card credits for people who chose to walk up the peak. Get paid for walking? Don’t mind if we do!

The Belgian Comic Strip Center, Brussels

Due to its geography as a European thoroughfare and the cosmic pull of its beer and pommes frites, I’ve managed to visit the Belgian capital, Brussels, three times. Its compact size, in comparison to London and Paris, has led me to believe that I’ve walked through the entire city on more than one occasion. Whether that’s true or not is anyone’s guess, but I do know for certain that there is still one thing I haven’t visited in Brussels: The Belgian Comic Strip Center.

Photo from ‘Knowing by Designing’

The last time I walked the Belgian cobblestones, I stayed with a relative who called the city home and thus knew its streets well. He advised me to visit the Comic Strip Center, but at that time I hadn’t read a comic book in about fifteen years, and so the desire to go was squashed under the weight of my beer pint.

Since then, I have dived eyes-first into the wonderful world of graphic illustration, reading wonderful stories from renowned illustrators who hail from all over the world. Belgium, of course, is no small player to the comics world, and so the Belgian Comic Strip Center, which proudly chronicles the history of Belgian comics, is now a must-see for my eventual revisit to Brussels.

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.

- Gertrude Stein

Conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch have made no secret of their political affiliations. As of 2011, they have donated nearly $3 million to politicians, over 80% belonging to the Republican party. They have been outspoken about their anti-environmentalism and anti-health care reform stances. As a 1980 Libertarian vice presidential candidate, David Koch said he would end social security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools.

These clearly partisan beliefs present a serious ethical conflict with the Koch brothers’ latest potential business venture: the purchase of several Tribune Company newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant.

Luckily, the staff and readership of these papers have displayed the integrity the Koch brothers apparently lack.

At a recent Los Angeles Times staff event, half of those present raised their hands when columnist Steve Lopez asked, ‘Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by the Koch brothers.’ In a letter to the leading shareholder of the Tribune Company, ten public employee unions spoke out against the possible sale.

The general public seems none too pleased, either, with numerous organizations collecting hundreds of thousands of protesting signatures. Even politicians have recognized the unsavory ethics of the possible move, with leaders of the California state legislature, LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders making moves to prevent the acquisition.

The conflict of interests between the Koch brothers’ very clear political opinions and the neutrality required by quality professional journalism is blatant, and the staff of the Los Angeles Times must be commended for their commitment to the integrity of their work.

To stand with the staff of the Los Angeles Times, follow the links below.

http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=388&tag=0513KochDK

http://democracyforamerica.com/pages/768?t=bernie

In many ways, the 1973 Spanish film The Spirit of the Beehive is a searing critique of the Francoist regime from which it was born. The film depicts a rural landscape isolated from progress and prosperity, whose emotionally-stunted inhabitants retreat further and further within themselves in reaction to the submissive defeat at the hands of a Fascist overlord.

In the year of the film’s release, Francisco Franco, although weakening, was still in power and still two full years away from his eventual death in 1975. Yet somehow The Spirit of the Beehive was released without a single cut or alteration to its original form. How did this film make it past the Francoist censors?

Let’s start from the beginning. Director Victor Erice and screenwriter Ángel Fernández Santos set about constructing a story built around the enigmatic memories of early childhood. The film lover Erice used as his source of inspiration an image from a film that captured his imagination as a child, James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein. The film still of the Frankenstein monster and the little girl by the pond is a moment, Erice maintains, that captures every important emotion within its edges.

From James Whale’s ‘Frankenstein’

And so from one film came to construction of another. Erice and Fernández Santos dug up the buried memories of their youth—from childhood games to more serious memories, such as the time a young Fernández Santos discovered the fugitive freedom fighter his parents were housing in their barn—to build around their very own Frankenstein, the result of which would become a mysterious and enigmatic film all its own.

Conjecture is about all we can accomplish in analysing a film like The Spirit of the Beehive. Fernández Santos describes the film as a collection of moments, tied together by visuals and atmosphere, as words fall victim to afterthought in favour of meditative, festering emotion. We don’t know how politically-minded the two filmmakers were as they wrote, nor how conscious they had been if they were, or whether the effects and reactions of living under a repressive regime inevitably made its way through each pore of the story. Perhaps the only thing readily evident from the film is that it is telling us something, and it is using silence and symbolism to accentuate two things: that oppression aims to silence and that silence can still communicate.

The gaping holes in the plot… and the mysterious motivations of its characters are typical of this ‘Francoist aesthetic,’ a term used to describe artistically ambitious movies of the time that made use of fantasy and allegory. These characteristics, which remain so magical to modern audiences, were used in the period as a form of indirect critique.

—Paul Julian Smith, ‘Spanish Lessons’

Once the film was completed, Erice had to screen it for the censors, a formidable threshold considering the regime’s history of artistic repression. The film’s symbolic aura, though bereft of any overt and tangible political agenda, unsettled the censor’s office, who could do nothing but describe it as ‘intellectually ponderous.’ Still, the overall lack of evidence against the film proved to be the eventual reason The Spirit of the Beehive passed the Francoist censors. Perhaps the censors partly felt that the Spanish people would react similarly to the film as they did.

They might not be on the top of Congress’ agenda this week, but these issues are on the top of ours. Who else wants to see something done?

Ag-Gag Bill Lies in Wait in Tennessee

I wrote about the ongoing ag-gag bill debate a couple of weeks ago. Now, one form of ag-gag legislation lies in limbo on the desk of Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. Haslam is expected to either pass or veto the legislation sometime within the next ten days. Since the bill reached his desk, he has been confronted with over 15 thousand emails and 5 thousand phone calls, urging him to veto, according to the latest news from Will Potter’s website.

Potter, who recently appeared on a Memphis-based radio programme called Drake & Zeke, expressed his understanding of the tough spot Gov. Haslam is in, having histories of being both a Big Oil supporter as well as a moderate voter.

Demand Gun Reform Legislation

In 2006, the mayors of Boston and New York City formed the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition to combat gun violence across the country. Over the past seven years, the coalition has grown from 15 mayors to over 950 mayors from 45 states. Despite the support of these mayors and their constituents, President Obama’s proposed new gun legislations have failed to pass Congress due to the monetary influence of the NRA. According to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the 45 senators who blocked the gun reform legislation bill were paid over $8 million by gun lobbyists, corrupting them from voting in align with the wishes of 91% of U.S. citizens. From the Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ Demand Action site (www.demandaction.org), you can sign a petition to Congress, call your Congressperson, or send letters to Washington leaders to make your voice heard about the future of gun reform in the U.S.

Climate Change

On May 9, the planet passed 400 C02 parts per million – the highest its been since the Miocene (that was over 5 million years ago when there was very few ice upon Earth.) What’s even more frustrating than hearing lay people comment on the strange weather, then blame anything but climate change, is the fact that  the United States government refuses to take any legitimate action in leading the international community in a concerted effort to reduce our carbon emissions. By now we know, or should know, that our emissions aren’t the only ones that count – India and China are two of the world’s largest producers. It has to be a global effort and we can’t do it without U.S. on board.

CO2 emissions are only part of the problem. As developing countries destroy their rainforests to produce farm land for beef, soy, etc…, we are decreasing the planet’s ability to deal with CO2. This problem has gone far beyond what we as individuals can accomplish by recycling and driving less. It’s a political debate that has yet to get serious even when the problem is just that.

Within just over 24 hours of landing in Sydney, Australia, I’ve gone from crying, ‘Remind me again why I like to plop myself in foreign places with no job or place to live?!’ to a pretty damn fine day about town wondering, ‘Why would I be anywhere else, doing anything else?’ Thanks, Sydney. You’re swell.

From the late eighteenth century onwards, it is no longer from the practice of community but from being a wanderer that the instinct of fellow-feeling is derived. Thus an essential isolation and silence and loneliness become the carriers of nature and community against the rigours, the cold abstinence, the selfish ease of ordinary society.

-Raymond Williams, The Country and the City

The last time I ran with another person was at the New Mexico High School State Track Meet in 2004. Over the course of nearly 10 years (oh crap), I ran with my dog or by myself, increasingly getting more bored and dissatisfied with running. I did it out of habit, but not because it was particularly enjoyable.

Three weeks ago, I started trail running with a local group on Wednesday nights. The mud, sore knees, stubbed toes, and burning calves have totally re-awoken all the reasons I love running. I look forward to these runs all week – especially the crazy steep hills, the multiple opportunities to roll an ankle, and the elation of being DONE. I am stoked after a super hard run now.

I have to ask myself – is it the running or the new challenge that’s got me enthused about the sport again? And what would happened if I challenged myself to other things I’ve lost interest in over the years?