Daisy's Mini-Report from Makua Valley

Posted by Bunny.

Pinky and I have never been beyond the secured gates to the entrance of Makua Valley, so Daisy was nice enough to snap a few photos for us while he was there this past weekend.

Pinky organized the materials into a slideshow format and put it in the Commons Gallery. See it here. (The pictures have mouse-over commentary by Daisy - don't miss it.)​

​For those of you who never heard of Makua Valley, here is some background information from KAHEA, EarthJustice, and DMZ Hawaii/Aloha Aina.

~Bunny.

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Posted by Kim: I think I see the dog in the petroglyph. Did Hawaiian people know about cats before the European and American people showed up?

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Posted by Bunny: I don't think so. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that cats first arrived in Hawaii along with the first wave of European "explorers" (late 18th century). Apparently we were employed on those ships as rat hunters. Anybody know?

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Posted by Pinky: I heard that story too. I wonder how the cats got from ship to shore? Did they jump and swim? Did Captain Cook bring his cat friends to shore on those little boats? I wonder what Hawaiian people thought when they first saw cats? Did they like how soft we are? I wonder what was the first thing said after that first somebody touched that first cat?

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Posted by Bunny: Damn. As always, so many unexpected questions.

Pinky Show is "Best... Canadian Art..."

Posted by Bunny.

Excuse me for butchering words in order to generate fake-reverence but hey, all the big movie studios do it.

We just got another mention in the Canadian press - which is cool, but I don't like their description of our project:

"...a collective of politically minded artists anonymously explores the ethical and moral obligations of mainstream media through a group of cartoon-cat spokespeople..."

Cartoon-cat spokespeople?? WTF?!?

Whatevers. At least they call us "Best".​

​Thanks to Milena for sending us this press clipping!

~Bunny.

Q: Is it art? A: Who cares, etc.

Posted by Bunny.

I think we need a press clippings area on this website. In the past I've just been depositing them here in the blog, but somehow it feels very random and disorganized and I don't like it.

Anyway, here are a couple of reviews that came out today, graciously forwarded to us by Jennifer Gibson, (art) curator at the University of Winnipeg's (art) Gallery 1C03. Thank you Jennifer for keeping an eye out for us.​

​from Uptown Magazine

​from Winnipeg Free Press

Pinky likes contemporary art more than I do. I like old art more, the didactic stuff. Especially old religious art - those guys were always telling you exactly what to do! (I like.) With contemporary art it seems to me a lot of people get all huffy and start stomping around if the work is somehow not sufficiently weird / ambiguous / deliberately-mystified enough. Which isn't to say I have a problem with any of those attributes, I just get annoyed with people who think the world is not big enough to also accommodate overtly didactic work.

Which is why I find it a little odd that neither writer criticized us for making didactic work that also happens to look very art-like. Or maybe I just have a misconception regarding what art reviewers will find acceptable nowadays? (Apparently I do.)

I hope Kim and Mimi don't get all big-headed now that their pictures were chosen to be in newspapers.

For those of you who have been asking what we've been up to since returning from Winnipeg:

1. Pinky got real sick. She's still working but also sleeping a bit extra (slightly annoying) and coughing all over the place (very annoying).

2. We've been working on making ‘fine art prints’ of some of the images in the exhibition (plus some others that we haven't had time to put on our website). Hey - no need to roll your eyes - a fine art print is just a very high quality print made on archival materials.

3. Finishing up two more videos.

4. Trying to troubleshoot our stupid water heater that finally stopped working. Can it be saved? Still don't know.

5. Running all the errands that we neglected to do before we left for Winnipeg because we were busy preparing for Winnipeg.

Life is less exciting here than in Winnipeg but still okay. We're working. ~Bunny.

Persiflage: Check it out.

Posted by Bunny.

Go visit www.persiflage.ca, my current favorite source for relevant news and insightful commentary. So good. ~B.

New Mini-Zine: The Academic Freedom Debate

Posted by Pinky.

Hi. We made this new mini-zine for the Pinky Show-inspired panel discussion going on in Winnipeg tonight: Academic Freedom? A conversation about the way things are and the way things could be… Unfortunately we had to come home before the event so in lieu of attending we just made 125 of these little mini-zines and left them with Milena Placentile, the curator responsible for inviting us to Winnipeg and organizer of the academic freedom panel, and asked her to distribute the mini-zines to everyone who attended the panel.

Download the thing here. If you need instructions on how to cut & fold it, there's a little instructional video on how to do just that here.

Hope you find it interesting.

Take care,
pinky

The Pinky Show : Class Treason Stories (excerpts) @ University of Winnipeg

Posted by Pinky.

The Class Treason Stories (excerpts) exhibition is now open at the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03! The talks were all well attended and exciting and the opening was fun - with Kim, Zach and Haley right outside the gallery at the IWGS table selling Pinky Show t-shirts and books and stickers we sort of felt like rock stars! lol Here's a couple of pictures of how the installation came out.

The exhibition runs until December 12. Then it'll be taken down and packed up and shipped off to Toronto, where it will open for a second time in January (details coming soon) at the Toronto Free Gallery.

~ ~ ~

A big THANK YOU to everybody who made the 1C03 exhibition happen: Milena Placentile, who without her invitation and positive energy and guidance we would have never, ever, EVER been able to do this exhibition; Jennifer Gibson, art curator at UWinnipeg who was so accommodating and patient with us and just all-around helpful with helping us take care of all the little details an exhibition inevitably produces; Glen Johnson - the artist who basically single-handedly installed the show for us (we don't know how to use power tools and he's a lot taller than we are) and kept us reassured that everything would be okay with his calm temperament and deadpan hilariousness (?) even when cables were pulling out of the wall; Kim Hunter and her incredible family for showing us a deeper level of Winnipeg kindness and complexity and beauty; Zach, Haley, Tyler, Lissie, and all the folks (Hi Roewan! Hi Fiona! Next time please!) at the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies (IWGS) for their enthusiasm, institutional support, and of course, the non-stop bake sales; the people at AceArtInc, who  allowed us to use their very cool space for a public-HR03 dialogue (Liz Garlicki, can we hang out next time?); Cliff Eyland at the University of Manitoba School of Art for his graciousness and generosity (he invited us to talk with his students and he was so nice to us even though I could tell he was sick as a dog)… and of course the dozens and dozens to people we met at the talks, the opening, and behind-the-scenes meetings & get-togethers that made us feel welcome and gave us so much to think about. We were in Winnipeg for only a week and of course there are probably about 700,000 other people there we didn't get to meet but the people that we did meet were all very warm and welcoming and made us feel like there really is somebody out there who is engaging our work at a very deep level. To us, making work that is useful or helpful to others is the most important thing we can possibly do, so it's actually very difficult to put into words how important this trip was for us.

We will write more about the trip a little later (we're still getting our materials in order), probably in the blog.

Take care,
pinky

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Posted by Bunny: Glen and I ate bison burgers.

Pinky Show currently in WINNIPEG, CANADA

Posted by Pinky.

Hi everybody. In a few hours we are getting on a Canadian airplane and flying to Vancouver, then Calgary, then Winnipeg. We'll be in Winnipeg for about a week for THIS.

According to meteorologists, it'll be about 45/30°F (7/-1°C) day/night in Winnipeg this week - brrr! Bunny and I will bring a camera and try to photo-document the installation. We'll post it on the website when we get back. Everybody in Toronto: don't look at the pictures otherwise it'll be boring when the exhibition gets to your city!

Okay, I'm going to go pack. Bye bye for now!

xoxo,
pinky

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11/15 UPDATE: We are safely back at home now. We'll post a special report of our Winnipeg Trip as soon as we finish writing it up & sort through our photos! ~p.​

Press Release from Gallery 1CO3: Class Treason Stories (excerpts)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Image: The Pinky Show, Isolated in a Self-Serving Fantasy, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 proudly presents The Pinky Show's latest endeavour,

Class Treason Stories (excerpts)

WINNIPEG MB, October 27, 2009 - Gallery 1C03 proudly presents The Pinky Show's latest multi-media installation, Class Treason Stories (excerpts).

From an undisclosed desert location, somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a collective of gently voiced cats produce and disseminate an educational project called The Pinky Show, intended to cultivate intellectual curiosity, openness, and compassion.

Focusing on information and perspectives that have been misrepresented, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion, Pinky and her friends use a variety of formats (i.e. online videos, visual art, books and 'zines, blogging, etc.) to explore the unseen world in ways that are easy to understand, with special attention given to reconnecting information (plentiful in our contemporary world) to its oft-ignored ethical and moral dimensions.

The Pinky Show's video episodes are generally organized around "simple" questions: What is settler colonialism? Is the War in Iraq legal or illegal? How do we get rid of nuclear weapons? They consider the mainstreaming of progressive ideals to be a foundational component to any broad strategy to create a more aware citizenry - one that is more apt to understand, support, and participate in the vital work being done by the many thousands of social change organizations established throughout the world.

In addition to material production, they also deploy human representatives to carry out their educational objectives via diverse forms of community programming including workshops and other public presentations, exhibitions, and agitprop dissemination. Some examples include Picturing Politics: Artists Speak Truth to Power (Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, Virginia), Encounter on Radical Education (Ljubljana, Slovenia), and study circles and workshops with the Center for Hegemony Studies (Honolulu, Hawaii).

Class Treason Stories (excerpts) seeks to provoke questions about the nature of education and the application of knowledge for either socially beneficent or individualist and competitive purposes. It enquires about the transformations we could each undertake in order to move toward a genuinely ethical state of being.

A well-established internet phenomenon with fans worldwide, this exhibition marks The Pinky Show's first visit to Canada. After launching at Gallery 1C03, Class Treason Stories (excerpts) will travel to Toronto Free Gallery in January 2010.

The Pinky Show is a project of Associated Animals Inc. - a non-profit educational organization based in the United States. For more information, visit www.PinkyShow.org.

The Pinky Show: Class Treason Stories (excerpts) runs from November 12 - December 12, 2009

Opening reception: Thursday, November 12 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. (Gallery 1C03)

Off campus artist talk: Thursday, November 12 beginning at 7:00 p.m. (aceartinc. - 2nd Fl., 290 McDermot Ave.)

On campus artist talk: Friday, November 13 from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (University of Winnipeg, Room 2C15)

Members of the media are invited to arrange interviews with the artists between November 9 - 13, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 and the artists wish to acknowledge the generous support provided by the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies and Cliff Eyland. We also wish to thank Platform: Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts for their assistance.

Contact: Jennifer Gibson, Art Curator
Gallery 1C03, The University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

Press Release from Gallery 1CO3: Academic Freedom? Panel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Image: The Pinky Show, The Consequences Are Terrifying, 2009.

Gallery 1C03 and The Institute for Women's and Gender Studies proudly present: Academic Freedom? A conversation about the way things are and the way things could be...

WINNIPEG MB, October 27, 2009 - Gallery 1C03 and The Institute for Women's and Gender Studies proudly present a panel discussion inspired by Gallery 1C03's upcoming exhibition, The Pinky Show: Class Treason Stories (excerpts).

In light of recent scandals around the world involving academics being served cease and desist notices for producing valid research challenging corporate activity, being arrested under suspicion of terrorism, or losing tenure without due process as a clear response to different ways of thinking and teaching, it is a ripe moment to discuss intellectual and ethical integrity vis-à-vis academic freedom in the context of societal expectations.

Academics are perceived as belonging to a certain social and intellectual "class". In what ways can they gravitate toward a genuinely ethical definition of their profession while confronting the influences that expect them to toe the line in order to maintain status?

With a view to opening discussion on this subject, four University of Winnipeg faculty members have been invited to express perspectives concerning the dilemma experienced by academics who come to realize that their political, social, and/or ethical beliefs run counter to the status quo maintained by the elite. Should academics perpetuate traditional networks and hope their different opinions will appear more palatable through association with moderates, or should they find altogether new ways of working? Should they speak out and risk being ostracized by their professional community, or take that chance and turn their practices of research and analysis into active resistance? What's at stake and is it worth it?

Featuring:

● Kelly Gorkoff, Instructor, Criminal Justice Department discussing the neoliberalization of higher education

● Christopher Leo, Professor, Department of Politics revealing barriers in academic publishing

● Vesna Milosevic-Zdjelar, Instructor, Department of Physics addressing biases in educational curriculum

● Brock Pitawanakwat, Asst. Professor, Aboriginal Governance Program commenting on abuses of power within the academy

Winnipeg-based curator and writer Milena Placentile will moderate this conversation. Extended biographies and summaries of each presentation are available online; please visit: http://gallery1c03.blogspot.com.

Academic Freedom? A conversation about the way things are and the way things could be...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Ave (3rd Fl. Centennial Hall)

Admission to this event is open and free for all! Members of the media are invited to attend.

Class Treason Stories (excerpts), created by internationally renowned feline artists and educators, Pinky and Bunny (with the assistance of Mimi and Kim), offers a multi-media installation seeking to provoke questions about the nature of education and the application of knowledge for either socially beneficent or individualist and competitive purposes. This exhibition runs from November 12 - December 12, 2009 before traveling to Toronto Free Gallery in January.

Contact: Jennifer Gibson, Art Curator Gallery 1C03
The University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

Bunny Mailbag: U.S. Imperialism or...?

Posted by Bunny.

It's good to start off a new month with a new Bunny mailbag. Today's e-mail comes from Shawna.

Hi Pinky, I've been slowly working my way backwards through your collection of videos and wanted to say that I've enjoyed them all in different ways so far. I just finished watching the Ribbon Sticker video where at the end you make your own sticker that says "Reject U.S. Imperialism". I was wondering if you could think of a more positive alternative that would basically say the same thing, much like the "Support Our Troops" ribbons are "positive" (they may be misleading but the tone is positive). I believe very strongly in positive messages! Because we can't build a social justice movement with negative slogans! I just wanted to ask you for your 2 cents! Shawna

My reply:

Hi Shawna. I'm glad you're enjoying our videos. I'm going to respond for Pinky because she's busy editing right now. But we talked about your e-mail and in the end we both decided there's no simple answer to your simple question. For example, part of the problem with a statement like "Reject U.S. Imperialism" is that it actually doesn't make sense if you really think about it. (We just went ahead and used it anyway because we wanted to keep things simple.) The reason why this doesn't make sense is, considering how the U.S. came into existence, how it developed into what it is today, and what it has to do in order for it to "maintain its shape and form", there is no way to even imagine the U.S. "without" imperialism. Actually, we think it's fair to say that the U.S. is imperialism - always has been. So how could we really say that anybody should "reject U.S. imperialism", as if the two could somehow be split apart and one side thrown away? See the problem? We still believe that the U.S. should stop stepping on people - not only all around the planet but also including people here within its political borders - but if the U.S. were to really stop doing that, we think the U.S. would literally become something so different that maybe it wouldn't even make sense to call it by the same name anymore. Anyway - that's getting a bit ahead of ourselves - we'll worry about finding a good name after we've fixed a few problems, yes?

In the meantime, how about we just get comfortable with the idea that rejecting bad things is not negative; it's positive.

-Bunny.

Winnipeg Descends Into Raging Pinky Show Frenzy

Posted by Bunny, PSR.

WINNIPEG, CANADA - The first fund-raising event for the upcoming exhibition by The Pinky Show at the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters today, resulting in the sale of 18, possibly more, t-shirts.

Reports confirm it was, apparently, somewhat like an unholy shark feeding-frenzy. No serious injuries were reported.

The event, staged by the University of Winnipeg's Institute for Women's and Gender Studies (IWGS), was highly successful. Kim Hunter, suspected leader of left-wing fringe group Women, said, "We've sold 18 t-shirts".

"18 shirts is a lot of shirts. I don't think we've even sold 18 shirts from our website in the past 3 months," commented Pinky, democratically elected leader of the fabulous Pinky Show project. "I'm not sure, I have to check."​

​Semi-related: Pinky, Bunny, and Emily folded up a sizable stack of new Pinky Show mini-zines, which are set to debut at a roundtable discussion on the subject of academic freedom, November 17 at the University of Winnipeg. For more information, you gotta find out yourself because that's all I know.

​Report on bake sale based on "facts" heard third-hand by Bunny (IWGS Kim > Pinky > Bunny). Bake sale photos courtesy of IWGS Kim, mini-zine photo by Pinky.

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​[ Note from Pinky: Bunny & I send our appreciation and thanks to everybody who helped make this happen - Kim, Lissie, Tyler, Roewan, and Milena! xoxo pinky ]

Are You My Bug-Bot?

Posted by Bunny.

Okay, if you're a regular reader of our blog, by now you may have noticed that we have a perverse fascination with cutting-edge technologies of war and death. (Like this, or this...) A small part of the attraction I'm sure is just the "wow, that's amazing"-factor involved. The remainder is more like, "wow, that's totally insane."

I suppose a reasonable question would be: Do we really need more craziness in the world?

Unfortunately, even if you think the answer is 'no', when it comes to the proliferation of weapons technologies, even the most futuristic inventions eventually become more widely available. Which means there may come a day where every nerd with a god-complex will have access to his very own swarm of MAVs.​

Enjoy your paranoid nightmares.

~Bunny.

Bunny Mailbag: Is Canada So Great We Should Kiss Its Ass?

Posted by Bunny.

So I guess Jordan from yesterday's Bunny Mailbag was offended by my resonse and took it upon himself to write back. Here's an excerpt:

...I knew you guys would say that you hate Columbus becaues that's the typical response from socialist fucktards like you. I see you'll be in Canada soon so why not just stay there. YOu think they're a utopian paradise? WHAT A JOKE. THEY have the SAME SHIT going on over there and OVERALL it's WORSE. So enjoy your time kissing Canadian ASS and I hope you get detained at the border trying to re-enter the US! Jordan

Hilarious. I'll just make a few points:

1. I don't hate Columbus because I'm a socialist. (When did I say I was a socialist?) I just have a problem with greedy, slave-trading, genocidal maniacs. Plus, he was a poor administrator. Do I need more reasons?

2. Whether we live in Canada or the U.S., we'll still keep up with our critique of U.S. hegemony, thank you very much. Why? Simply because the U.S. remains #1 in messing up the planet. Don't take it so personal, sheesh. As soon as the U.S. steps back from these bad habits, we'll turn our attention to other topics, such as cross-stitching, which is an excellent hobby, by the way. Everyone - even Jordan - should try it.

3. And finally, here's a mini-checklist just I threw together to help answer that profound question advanced by our fan Jordan: "Should We Kiss Canada's Ass: Yes or No?"

Have single-payer health care? Yes.
Have massive drop-dead stupid-scary oil sand project? Yes.
Have homeless people? Lots.
Settler state structure? Yes, just like U.S.
Signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? No, just like U.S.
Signed Convention on Cluster Munitions Treaty? Yes, unlike U.S.
Military spending as % of GDP? 111th in world (U.S. 1st, of course)
Invaded Iraq with U.S.? No.
n Afghanistan? Yes.
Have nuclear weapons? No.
Thinks they own the North Pole? Yes.
Hockey or Baseball? Hockey.
Responsible for making Top Gun & Pretty Woman? No.
Who has prettier flag, U.S. or Canada? Canada.
Tastier ice cream: U.S. or Canada? We'll find out when we get there.

So there it is. Go kiss Canada’s ass if you feel like it, nobody cares.

~Bunny.

P.S. When I get to Canada I will be looking for one of these things (below). A guy I know told me they are large enough to ride.​

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Posted by Kim: Isn't Julia Roberts Canadian? Wouldn't that make Canada at least partly responsible for Pretty Woman?

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Posted by Bunny: No, she's not Canadian. Which is another plus for Canada, I suppose.

Bunny Mailbag: Celebrating Columbus Day

Posted by Bunny.

From our e-mail:

Hi Pinky & Bunny, I notice you guys haven't been very actively lately. I was wondering How are you planning on celebrating Columbus Day today? What is your take on all these people who say he was a murderer? Do you agree? Josh

My reply to Josh:

"Not very active lately"? Don't piss me off.

And regarding Columbus Day, we're going to celebrate the same way most everybody else celebrates Columbus Day here in America. First we're going to watch baseball on TV, then we'll toast Columbus beer, then finally we'll drive our automobile to a shopping mall so we can BUY THINGS. We celebrate all our genocidal favorites (Alexander, Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Pol Pot, etc.) on their respective special days like this. Why, you do it different?

~Bunny.

Incidentally, Venezuelans should lay off the history books. ~B.

​[ photo from Reuters ]

PS in Oh Dear! Magazine

Posted by Bunny.

Oh Dear! magazine is a cool online magazine for all you D.I.Y. girls out there. And guess what - The Pinky Show is on page 78 in this month's issue. What does it say? I don't know but Pinky is translating it as part of her attempt to learn Spanish.

I hope we get huge in Mexico. Oh Dear! magazine is at:

[ www.ohdearzine.com ]

~Bunny.

Update: Moon Pacified; Obama Most Peacefulist

Posted by Bunny.

I was going to write a post about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize but what's the point - the Juice Media guys already did it. ~B.

Let's Crash Some Shit Into The Moon And See What Happens

Posted by Pinky.

Okay, I think I'm a fairly reasonable cat when it comes to scientific inquiry, but this experiment just makes me sad beyond words. According to NASA:

illustration: NASA.

"The Mission Objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) include confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon's South Pole. The identification of water is very important to the future of human activities on the Moon. LCROSS will excavate the permanently dark floor of one of the Moon's polar craters with two heavy impactors in 2009 to test the theory that ancient ice lies buried there. The impact will eject material from the crater's surface to create a plume that specialized instruments will be able to analyze for the presence of water (ice and vapor), hydrocarbons and hydrated materials."

"Excavate"? Are they joking?

If you have a 10-inch telescope or larger you'll actually be able to see the impact from Earth. The resulting damage from the impact of these spacecrafts (actually missiles) striking the surface at over 5,000 m.p.h. is expected to be spread over an area several miles wide. Is this a respectful way to go about learning things? Does this remind anybody of settlers' attitude toward and exploitation of "frontier lands"?

Disgusting. The moon-bombing is set to happen on Oct 9.

To read more agency-speak, click here.

Better yet, watch this awesome video. (thanks Hugo & Jordan!)​

~pinky

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Posted by Kim: That's moon abuse. Scientists should follow some kind of ethical guidelines when they are designing experiments, like "Would you be okay doing this experiment to your own mommy?" If not, then probably you shouldn't be doing it!

I Want To Punch Your Face @ AK Press

Posted by Bunny.

If you had to name the single most ass-kicking book publisher in the U.S., who would it be?

Well, I'm sure a lot of people would say "AK Press".

And guess what? The AK Press is now distributing I Want To Punch Your Face. So that is very cool. Oh, by the way, make sure you check out the rest of their offerings. They have amazing stuff.

[ www.AKPress.com ]

Over 5 million YouTube Views

Posted by Bunny.

A couple of days ago we passed the 5 million views mark at YouTube. I'm pretty sure the majority of those people hate us but we're happy to be the fly in their soup.

Someone recently asked us how many total viewers we have. The short answer is we don't know. In addition to YouTube, we also have people watching PS episodes at our website (which also is easy to count), but there's also lots of people coming across our stuff on various public access TV stations across the U.S., or watching downloaded videos or DVDs in classrooms and other offline situations. So we don't even try to count those ones. I'm sure there are sophisticated methodologies that marketing people use to guesstimate viewership in circumstances like ours, but we don't bother because we wouldn't know what we'd do with that information anyway.

I think 7 million views (the ones we can easily count) is a pretty decent amount of views. We’d like to have more, but if you give me a choice between coming up with a marketing plan and reading a history book… you know. So, main thing - thank you to all of you who've taken the time to tell your friends about The Pinky Show.

~Bunny.

Bunny Mailbag: Stopping the Holocaust, Swimming, etc.

I haven't done any public replying to e-mail in a while, but since Pinky is busy with painting at the moment I thought I'd answer some e-mail today. The first one is from a viewer in Germany:

dear bunny, there is something i've been thinking about, watching your film [Hawaii vs. U.S. Imperialism] i like how you point out and analyze american imperialism. (but) seeing germany in a list with vietnam and other countries as "colonized" is really weird for me. anti-facists, jewish people and non-fascists from all over europe were really glad the usa helped stop WWII... it finally put an end to holocaust, murder, and genocide by the germans [...] just to give you an impression from an anti-fascist post-war perspective. i'd love to see your work in an art show or in a discussion in europe somewhere. any plans in that direction? viele grüße, panda

My reply to panda:

hi panda,

if i remember correctly, including germany on the list (the long list towards the end of our hawaii vs. US imperialism video) was based on the US's extensive military presence there, plus US military and CIA activities on german soil. we were pointing to how the US has made germany a part of its global imperial structure; it is not a "colony" in the classic sense.

what you say about US fighting in WWII is true - if the US did not fight germany, i would guess that probably even more atrocities against jews and other marginalized people would have occurred. we are definitely NOT suggesting that anything like genocide should ever be unchallenged. what we ARE saying that it is important to examine the inconsistencies and contradictions of US interventionism. for example, if the reasons the US gave as a moral justification for fighting germany were true ("we must enter into this war to stop genocide" or "we must fight fascism/support democracy"), then why have these reasons not also required the US to intervene in parallel circumstances? even a quick look at history shows that the US intervenes in some cases but not others. in fact, there are many examples where the US goes to a foreign country and destroys their democratic government, or supports or commits genocide. why is this? does the US just not know what it's doing? (unlikely) or are there other factors besides moral imperatives that make the US leaders commit violent actions with their military and/or economic weapons? (i think so) this is why we say a situation like WWII cannot be analyzed only according to 'moral justifications' ("we have to stop genocide & fascism"). if we confine ourselves to this kind of logic we will not be able to understand why the US also engages in anti-democratic or even genocidal actions in other situations. however, when we do an analysis that takes into consideration 'imperialism' (what it is, how it works, what it needs to continue, and so on) - well, then suddenly a lot of things that at first seem like contradictions can be explained. so, there are many forces at work!

regarding pinky show in europe, we are going to have a small thing in a group show in belgrade in january. but besides that right now we have no invitations from anybody in europe. europe is very exciting to us, we have only been there one time, for a trip to slovenia last year. we get a lot of emails from germany though, so maybe one day something will happen and we will be able to go. we want to learn more about situations outside the US - our analysis is from a US perspective and often doesn't directly translate to other political & social contexts very well, so we are always trying to learn more.

peace,
bunny

Here's another e-mail from Valerie:

Hello Pinky and Bunny... I just watched the 13 Things I Learned at Kahoolawe episode and I really liked it alot. It has a sweet, gentle feel to it while sharing very valuable lessons and insights. You are amazing. Thank you. Valerie P.S...I think cats CAN actually swim, they just don't like to (except Tigers, I think)

My reply:

Hi Valerie. I'm happy you liked the video. We would be super happy if it moved even one person to start fighting against the widespread abuse of this planet. Even if we just started with a tiny sub-category of the broader problem, like, for example, challenging the military to stop destroying native people's most sacred places - we still would have TONS of work to do. Kahoolawe needs lots of help, and there are many other Kahoolawes too, not just in Hawaii but all over the world. Oh, regarding the other thing, yeah, I assumed I could swim too (I've seen videos of swimming cats before) but when I got into the water I found out that actually I can't swim and almost died. So I won't be doing that again. Tigers, yeah, I think they have huge feet. Take care, Bunny

Okay, last one, from a guy named Mark:

I watched the episode on illegal immigration. Weren't native American Indians settlers too? Nothing is fair and people have been taking other peoples stuff since human existence. That's just the way it is...

My reply:

First thing: "Weren't native American Indians settlers too?" Good question. The answer is no. Please study settler colonialism. I recommend Patrick Wolfe. It's not "easy reading" but it'll take you far. Do a search for Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology - it's on Google Books.

Second thing: "Nothing is fair and people have been taking other peoples stuff since human existence. That's just the way it is." This is a good example of using (arguably) true statements in order to justify moral weakness. Yes, human beings have been jerks througout history - so what? Surrendering to the inevitability of abuse just makes it far easier to continue. - Bunny

About a month ago Pinky and I were hanging out with a friend, and we were just talking about social justice or whatever, when he asked Pinky why she is so obsessed with learning about and fighting against all the bad stuff in this world. I work with Pinky day in and day out and we talk about these kinds of things all the time, but her answer surprised me. She said something like, "In the future, I don't want our descendants to look back and know that we were cowards."

So that's the end of today's Bunny Mailbag, cuz now it's my turn to cook lunch.

~Bunny.