Mimi's surgery went well

Posted by Pinky.

The surgeon said everything went well. She was able to put a metal pin in there and wrap some wire for around the bone reinforcement. So hopefully if Mimi rests for a while and does all her rehabilitation, she should be able to bend that joint/move that leg again someday. For right now though, her whole leg is in a hard splint and she's wearing the cone and taking pain killers and antibiotics. And it's going to be like this for a while - total estimated time of recovery: 4 months. I asked Dr. Wendy "How come it's going to take so long to heal?" and she said, "Because she's old."

I didn't know we're "old." I'm actually a year older than Mimi & Kim. We're all old?

Take care!
~p.

Mimi fell down and broke her leg

Posted by Pinky.

Last night at around 8pm Mimi was doing her usual after-work routine (jumping and climbing, it's kinda like her hobby) when she somehow fell off a tall stack of containers and broke her leg. We took her to the emergency room where she got an x-ray and the doctor explained to us that her break is in a very difficult-to-repair place. The part of the leg bone where her achilles tendon is attached to completely broke off, and now it's just "floating" there. We won't know if the surgeon can wire her bones back together until she actually gets in there and tries to do it. If she can't, all the bones that comprise that joint will have to be fused together, which means Mimi would not be able to bend that joint from now on and she'd basically have to walk around with a peg-leg for the rest of her life - "like a pirate" the doctor said.

This is actually the second time Mimi got a bad injury from falling off something while climbing. I don't know if I blogged about it last time but a couple of years ago Mimi's tail went limp and was just hanging there for a few weeks when she fell off some stuff (I forget what already) and hurt her back/spine. It eventually got better after Dr. Wendy gave her acupuncture and laser treatment (?). Mimi's actually very good at jumping-climbing, maybe these things are just happen once in a while if you're doing it every day. I dunno.

Anyway, for now ER doctor just bombed Mimi with a bunch of pain medications and will keep her leg immobilized until her surgery, which is scheduled for Monday. And since doctors are famous for being the WORST patients (Mimi is a doctor), they even put a large plastic cone around Mimi's neck to prevent her from touching, biting, poking at, and otherwise fussing with the large splint they put on her. It looks pretty pitiful - Kim wanted me to put a picture of her coned sister in this blog entry but actually I don't think anyone needs to see that. No picture.

I will post an update after the surgery.

Take care everybody. I think this is a good reminder that we all need to be extra careful when climbing on unstable things. We need to clean up around here - this probably wouldn't have happened if we were more organized and didn't have so much junk piled up everywhere. ~pinky

---

Japan notes : Bunny self-narrative on schooling

Posted by Pinky.

One of the things I was doing in Japan was organizing the thousands of pages of notes that Bunny and I had written or transcribed on the subject of education. Although we had been working on our book for quite some time, much of the material has yet to be organized properly and there's even some sections that still require more thinking and clarifying. I'm confident I'll do a good job putting everything together and eventually I'm sure I'll get it published, but to be realistic now that I'm doing most everything by myself I'm guessing this is probably going to take a while. It's a big job because this book will have not just words, but also many drawings and illustrations and photos. But it will be fun to read. :-)

Anyway, in the meantime, I'm really enjoying re-reading some of Bunny's materials. I'll try to remember to post some of them here in this diary from time to time. Here’s an unedited transcription of some Bunny-talk:

"When I was young I was very violent. Basically I had this idea that I could solve any problem with some kind of violence. If someone made me upset I'd quickly find myself yelling at them. If someone looked at me funny I'd just bite or punch them. Even if, say, my tape recorder wasn't working properly, I'd just shake it hard. Obviously I wasn't getting great results from all this. So after a while I found myself thinking that there had to be a better way; the anger and violence thing wasn't working for me. This is around the same time I decided to become a teacher. For a little while I was a teacher in schools - did you know that about me? Anyway, that's what I was doing - "teaching" - until slowly I began to realize that the school system that I was a part of, is actually itself one of the most important components in the transmission of the Logic of Violence - society-wide violence, state violence, structural violence - violence on a much more massive, broader scale than anything I could've ever been able to achieve alone - as a single, violent individual so to speak. When I began to understand how schools are used for conditioning the imagination, and that I'd actually become a functionary, a tool, within this supremely violent system - and that everyday I was doing my part to actively promote control and subjugation, that's when I decided that I had to get out. I had to remove myself as a first step towards freeing my mind and body of the kind of habituated thoughts and actions that a violent civilization demands of its captives..."  ~Bunny

Japan notes : watching movies

Posted by Pinky.

When I was flying to Japan this last time the flight was sooo long I had time to watch quite a few movies (or just parts of the really horrible ones). I wanted something funny so I watched Bridesmaids (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, the guy from IT crowd) and The Hangover (unfunny people except for Zach Galifianakis), but... mieh. Can't recommend those. But I did watch Louis C.K. doing standup - I'd never really seen him before, but wow, he is an amazingly good performer, and some of his jokes (do people call these things jokes?) are just brilliant. People around me must have been wondering, "Why is that cat laughing? What's she watching?"

The most interesting movie I saw on the airplane ride was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith). If you're like me and you've been thinking a lot about aging and death recently, watch this movie. It will make you cringe (brace yourself - Indian people not portrayed nicely in this movie) but there’s also some very nice writing going on. Somehow I like this quote:

"Everything will be alright in the end... and if it is not alright then it is not yet the end."

Nice.

For most of this trip I was staying with Mugi (I like to call her Mugiko) and she loves Hollywood action movies.

Mugi: "American movies look so expensive. How do they pay for so many explosions???"

We watched - together - all the something-something Bourne movies (spoiler alert: Matt Damon kills many, many people) and all the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movies. They were SO BAD! It's fascinating to me how these movies with all their fake politics and gallons of special effects blood can be so popular when the real world - which happens to be a thousand times more interesting and a million times more savage - tends to creep by largely unnoticed... ~pinky

Albert Einstein on honeybees

Posted by Pinky.

I am finally back from Japan, happy to be back in the California desert with Kim & ants. I got super busy near the end of my stay and wasn't able to do some of the diary entries I wanted to do, so if you don't mind I will keep writing about Japan just for a little while longer.

But not tonight. Today I was cleaning up (Kim is not the neatest) and came across this magazine page that I think Bunny had cut out of a travel magazine. I don't know if she saved it because the photograph looks delicious, the poignant quote, or both, but either way, I wanted to scan and post here to share.

Want to hear more about bees tonight? Click here for NPR story.

Goodnight! I love you!
pinky

Japan notes : whale curry

Posted by Pinky.

The other day Mugi and I were at a store to look at cat food, and although this isn't cat food, it did catch my attention because it's not something I'd ever see back home.

I've never seen whale in a can before. Honestly, I don't know how people can look at a whale and think, "Wow, I'd really like to kill that and put it in a can." On the other hand I don't understand how they feel that way about cows, pigs, chickens, or fish either.

I guess the point of this diary entry is simply, "I wish people wouldn't kill animals." Or eat us. Or put us in cans. ~pinky

Japan notes : Today was rubbish day.

Posted by Pinky.

I never thought I would write a diary entry about rubbish collection but here it is.

Here in my friend’s neighborhood, when you get this plastic pouch (below) in your mailbox, it means it’s your turn to clean up the community trash collection area. Every house in the neighborhood takes turns cleaning up and today it was our turn. The yellow armband thing is to wear so that you can feel like you are doing official business while you sweep up.

This is where everybody in the neighborhood puts their trash. You write your family's name on each of your trashbags.

The (tiny) rubbish truck shows up promptly at 8am and two (friendly) rubbish guys get out of the truck and start throwing the bags of garbage into the back of their truck. They’re super fast - the whole thing takes less than a minute.

The bags are literally _flying_ into the truck!

They’re also super neat - here Rubbish Man #2 notices a small, stray piece of rubbish on the ground...

...and then he reaches down to pick it up?!? Wowwow! This really is not the U.S.!

After they drive away Mugi and I sweep up, although in reality there wasn’t much rubbish around so basically we just collected a bunch of leaves and put it in a tiny bag. Not hard work.

Done!

The whole experience reminded me a little of how when I was in kitten school we had to clean up the cafeteria after lunch, clean our own classrooms & bathrooms, and so on. I wonder how come in the U.S. this kind of shared-cleaning duties stops when we become adults?

Anyway, I kind of enjoyed rubbish day.

Take care,
pinky

Japan notes : manga kissaten

Posted by Pinky.

Since my friend doesn't have internet access at her house, when I want to use the internet I've been going to a nearby manga kissaten. Manga (comic book) kissaten (cafe) are really interesting - for a fee, you can read comic books and magazines for hours and hours, drink coffee or eat snacks, or use the internet. (The one I go to is about $3.80 per 90 minutes including coffee or tea.) It's kind of like a library, except is has a huuuge selection of Japanese comic books and of course you can talk and eat and drink while you read, which of course I'm not supposed to do at the library.

I’ve always liked the aesthetics of Japanese comic books and movies but have never really looked at them carefully before. But on this trip - largely because of manga kissaten - I've had a chance to spend more time with them and now I find the artwork in them beyond amazing...

Because manga kissaten are open 24 hours a day and have food, internet, and amusements, some people use them as a place to rest for a while, or even to stay overnight. There are private booths and recliners where you can sleep, and some of them even have showers where you can keep yourself clean.

Do I wish there were manga kissaten in the U.S.? Well, yeah, I think they're neat. But one thing I would change is how much the manga kissaten feel so much like a "boy's space". There are sexy girl pictures all over the place (anime & manga posters, magazine covers, etc.) and it takes a lot of effort for me to not be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of boobs, mini-mini skirts, skinny legs, and supercute smiling faces.

Kind of hard to concentrate on drinking my coffee with boobs and panty shots on continuous video loop under the glass tabletop...

I've been asked quite a bit while I've been here if I like Japan. I tell people I love Japan, but I also say that I find many aspects of Japanese society deeply disturbing - one example being the way women are treated here. They ask me what I mean by that and I just tell them Japan seems like an intensely patriarchal, misogynist society, same like the U.S., only different. People look puzzled when I say this but it's hard to explain what I mean in one minute.

Here is a photo of a tree that I like. I've been wanting to ask someone what kind of tree this is but no one is ever around when I pass this tree on my way to town.

I'm so grateful for this time here in Japan. By offering so many layers of contrast and similarities, I feel like I am having a chance to look at my home back in the U.S. with fresh eyes.

Please take care. I love you!
pinky

Japan notes : growing vegetables where you live

Posted by Pinky.

Since I mentioned that I am currently in Japan, I've received a few e-mails with questions like "What kind of things are you doing there?" or "Do you like Japan?" and so on. So I decided to post some random thoughts and observations about some things that have caught my interest while I'm here.

For much of my stay here I've been in a small city/town. The closest big city is actually kind of nearby (Nagoya, only 30 minutes by car) but this area has a very "not big city feeling", though it's definitely not rural either. Every day I've been walking around a lot and I've been very interested in how many of the families around here seem to be growing their own food. Even if they have just a little bit of "empty" land they will grow vegetables on it.

Many vegetables growing even though it's in the middle of winter!

Across the street from my friend's house there is this tiny wooden stand with vegetables for sale. Today the white container has radishes and green onions in it. Sometimes the stand has squash, pumpkins, or Japanese potatoes to buy.

On the way back I bought the cabbage. :)

The vegetables come from the nearby houses and they're always cheap. If you want something you just put some money in the metal box.

I'm sure someone can easily run away with the whole metal box so I dunno why it has a lock on it...

When I get back home I will to see if I can grow my own vegetables. I wonder if anybody would want to eat my vegetables?

I'm sorry that the photos are not good. I dropped my camera and it broke, so now I am just using the built-in camera on my (non-functioning) telephone. But, I will post more photos again soon.

Please take care,
pinky

I just posted a new Pinky Show zine

Posted by Kim.

I put it in the Project Archives. It's called This Cat World Dismantled. Pinky actually made it last year (2013) but I'm just posting it now because I was waiting for Pinky to say it was okay to post it. She finally told me "yes" today. So here it is. Please read it, it's really good. 

I hope 2014 will be a good year for all of you out there. I hope it's filled with good health and happiness and lots of fun!

=^_^= kim

New Year Message from Pinky

Posted by Pinky.

Hi. I want to wish everyone reading this a Happy New Year.

Right now I am in a small town just outside Nagoya (Japan) staying with a friend while I make plans for the future. I have had some time to visit old bookstores, go vegetable shopping, and learn how to do some Japanese cooking and so on, but mostly I have been reading, walking, and thinking about the past and the future. When I look back at our previous blog entries it's easy to see that the past two or three years have been not so productive in terms of making new Pinky Show things. But that same period of time has been a period of tremendous growth for me. Not just because of difficulties associated with caregiving (Wheelchair Lady) or Bunny's death, but because I have had a lot of time to think carefully about many things that I was probably too busy to think about before, or maybe because I was depending on Bunny too much to take care of so many things. I have thought a lot about what I would like to do with the last part of my life, and after much crying, depression, false starts, self-doubting, and wandering around, I've decided that am truly wanting and ready to focus all my energies on Pinky Show things again. I don't want to do things the same way we used to do things before - that wouldn't make sense since I'm different now and everything around me is also different - so with the help of Kim, Mimi, and Daisy, I have been working very hard to shape a new, more appropriate vision of work for where I am in my life right now.

Finally, I wanted to say: yes, Bunny does visit me and sends me messages and information all the time. Maybe some people will think I'm crazy for saying this but I don't think I am.

Much love to you,
pinky

Halloween story.

Posted by Kim.

Pinky has been encouraging me to do more creative activities instead of just reading comic books and playing video games. So I decided to write down this story for you. I didn't invent it myself - actually it's a story that my friend told me a while ago at kitten school. But since I forgot all the details I'm sure my version is pretty different and probably much better than the original.

• • • • •

The Ribbon: A short story retold by me, Kim.

Once upon a time there was a man that was very lonely.

One day he met a woman - she was perfect: intelligent, kind, funny, patient, and beautiful beyond imagination. They fell in love and finally he wasn't lonely any more. 

There was only thing that he thought was kind of odd about her - she always wore the same thing every day. It was a nice outfit - a dark blue dress with cream-colored trim and a satin ribbon around her neck - but isn't it a little bit strange to wear the same thing every day? "Perhaps," he thought to himself, but he quickly reminded himself how lucky he was to have her in his life.

On the day they were married she said to him, "I will love you forever and take good care of you, but don't ever ask me about this ribbon on my neck, and never, ever try to touch it or remove it. Promise me." "Of course, I promise," he agreed.

Their marriage turned out to be very happy. Many years went by and every time he looked at his wife the man thought "She is wonderful, I love her so much." And sometimes, he also found himself thinking, "Why is she wearing that ribbon, and I wonder why I can't ask her about it?"

For years he never said a word about her ribbon, and he certainly never touched it. But as the years passed he found himself thinking about it more and more. And the urge to touch it was almost overwhelming. 

One night, as she lay sleeping next to him in bed, the man again found himself looking at his beautiful wife with her ribbon, and he realized he could not bear it any longer. "What is so special about this ribbon?", he thought. He reached over and gently touched her ribbon. She didn't wake, she was fast asleep. Very slowly, he carefully untied the ribbon. Her head fell off.

Pinky is at Koyasan

Posted by Kim.

I talked to Pinky on the telephone this morning. She has arrived safely at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. It is the spiritual and administrative center of Shingon Buddhism. She will be there for a few days. I asked her why she was there but she had only a few coins and so we'll talk more when she gets back to Kyoto and has internet again. Anyway, I just wanted to update all of you who've been asking about where Pinky is now, how she's doing, etc. She said her feet are tired and she got bitten a lot by mosquitoes but otherwise she's fine.

View fullsize

One of the towers of Danjo Garan. This photo is not from Pinky, I just got it from Wikipedia. Either Pinky or I will post some of her photos from Japan when she gets back. 

Another crocheted thing: Water Cat

Posted by Kim.

Here's another thing I made out of yarn. Pinky's been calling it Water Cat because it’s actually a metal water bottle disguised as a cat. Maybe it’s too big but she really doesn't drink enough water.

View fullsize

Water Cat's head flips back and then you can drink from it. It also has a crocheted carrying strap and a floppy cat tail in the back that you can't see from this angle.

View fullsize

This is Water Cat tucked in next to the sleep doll that Bunny made for wheelchair lady.

Pinky takes a vacation

Posted by Kim.

Pinky is in Japan now. She got there on June 4 and is planning to stay there for a month. Of course if she is caught then she might get deported earlier. This is the first non-work trip she has ever taken and I think it will be good for her health. She will be mostly in Kyoto, visiting Buddhist temples.

I am making things now

Posted by Kim.

Now that Bunny is gone I am really grateful for all the time I spent with her, learning how to crochet stuff. At first I thought crocheting was stupid because it takes forever to make things. I generally like stuff that's fast, like rockets or instant ramen noodles. But Bunny showed me how to appreciate the tedious process of turning long thin things like string or yarn into fake animals and interesting objects, and now I actually think it's kinda fun. The best part is that I feel like I'm forever connected to Bunny through everything I make, because I received the knowledge of how to crochet directly from Bunny.

I may keep going with this. I want Bunny to be proud of me, to see me being productive instead of just playing video games. 

View fullsize

These are some pufferfish that I made. I made several so that I could find the right size. 

View fullsize

This is octopus prototype number 03. What I learned from this became the octopus in the Dreams & Nightmares of Empire poster. ~k.

Pinky Show included in large, heavy book

Posted by Kim.

We got this amazing thing in the mail today. At 4 pounds 2 ounces and 496 pages, this is the heaviest book the Pinky Show has been in so far.

View fullsize

According to the index, Pinky Show is on pages 390-91, 403, 468, and 475. Nice! So what's it about?

"The geography of the visual arts changed with the end of the Cold War. Contemporary art was no longer defined, exhibited, interpreted, and acquired according to a blueprint drawn up in New York, London, Paris, or Berlin. The art world distributed itself into art worlds. With the emergence of new art scenes in Asia and the Middle East and the explosion of biennials, the visual arts have become globalized as surely as the world economy has. This book offers a new map of contemporary art's new worlds and documents the globalization of the visual arts and the rise of the contemporary over the last twenty years." (from the back cover)

Having said that it's kinda fascinating to me that this book was put together by a team of academics and museum professionals for an elite museum in Germany and is being distributed globally by MIT Press. That's funny, right? ^_^

Anyway, I'm sure Pinky will read this but it’s too heavy for me.

~kim

The new PS website: what it is.

Posted by Kim.

I forgot to mention in my last post what is new about this new website.

For starters, there is some new old stuff that we put into the Project Archives. One example is the Atomic Testing museum pictures - it's actually something we did a while ago, but for some reason we never put it online until now. 

Also, lots of the resources on this website are now available in a higher quality format. The videos are bigger. Photographs & PS art are big. PS comics are now much larger. Et cetera.  

A lot of stuff that used to be viewable only via downloading first can now be viewed directly on the internet via your browser. For example, the I Want to Punch Your Face book, the RadEd zine, the Seven Scenes from Work and Life booklet, the Future Museum Report, and so on.

A brand new Pinky Show store.

AND the website can now be viewed from mobile devices, if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, I hope you browse around, I'm sure you'll find lots of new materials or site features you never seen before. Bunny worked a lot on this new website the last few months of her life. So if you like it, please visit Bunny in your dreams and say thank you!

ttyl! ~kim

Happy Birthday Pinky! Your Present Is: PinkyShow.org v3.0!

Posted by Kim.

Welcome to the new Pinky Show website! Launched just in time before the day's end on Pinky's birthday. Yay! I know everyone's been looking forward to our new website (me too!) so thank you for being patient. It took a little longer than anticipated because while Bunny knew how to make the internet, I only sort of know how to use it. But I'm happy with how it came out. Enjoy!

....................................

A separate note from Pinky: Thank you to everybody who sent me Happy Birthdays - I would like to hug all of you. :-) This morning Kim & I took Bunny's ashes (still in the small metal can) down from the shelf and put her on the table with us, had a small birthday breakfast and a short meeting together. Kim and I decided we are both going to try to continue posting diary entries in this blog, and of course we will also keep the Pinky Show going with the help of our friends. To be honest, since Bunny's death there have been many times where I've wanted to just do nothing or even completely give up, but I promised myself that I would keep going no matter what. Bunny was always so strong and fearless and I think maybe in this lifetime I'm supposed to become more like that. Maybe that's why Bunny died before me. One day I will be in an urn on the shelf next to Bunny, but not yet. ~p.

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." - R.F.

They shot Cous Cous for being a lion.

Posted by Kim.

Today I read a newspaper story about how at a California zoo, a lion escaped from a small cage and killed a young zoo worker who was cleaning up nearby. Apparently he killed her instantly by hitting her head with his paw, breaking her neck. I feel sorry for the young woman who died; her father told the news reporters that she loved big cats. But I also feel sorry for Cous Cous (that's what the zoo people called the lion), who was shot "after the animal couldn't be coaxed away from [the woman's] body." [ link ]

According to the BI article, this is a photograph of Cous Cous. He was 4 years old.

This is interesting: "Officials at another big cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fla., told The Associated Press last year that at least 21 people, including five children, have been killed and 246 mauled by exotic cats in the United States since 1990. Over that period, 254 cats escaped and 143 were killed." [ link ] 267 people getting mauled or killed is awful. But this is also awful for all those big cats, even the ones who somehow managed to escape without getting shot. Are they still alive? What are they eating now?

Zoos as we know them should be abolished. Big cats and lots of other animals I know don't want to live in animal prisons.

People argue that zoos are educational. But lots of things are educational. I'm sure visiting a functioning slave-plantation would also have lots of "educational value.” But I don't hear lots of people saying "We should have that!"

Other people say that zoos do important work like saving endangered animals from extinction. That's great, people absolutely should do that kind of work, especially since human beings are often the reason why so many animals are extinct or barely clinging to survival in the first place. But why is a zoo such a great format for this kind of work? People think helping refugees of war or victims of famine is important too, but we don't have exhibition-style zoos for them to live in while they "receive help".  If you wanted children to think more deeply about how important it is to have love and compassion for their elders, what would be the best way to accomplish this? Would it be to make them pay money to watch a few representative old people for a few minutes getting fed or having their diapers changed?

Animals are awesome and I can understand why people like to look at us. But this isn't a good enough justification for captivity; it's just a convenient excuse for not having to come up with more imaginative solutions to problems that concern animals. And when people are unimaginative usually animals or plants or the environment are always the ones who have to suffer the biggest consequences.

f you really want to educate people to love and respect animals, there are many better ideas than zoos. Which reminds me - I also don't like animal theme-parks like Sea World, which I went to one time just to see what it was about. It was horrible, like if you paid money for the privilege of going into a prison to see what poor people are really like, behind the safety of bars. Stupid, stupid idea.