Oil...

I was listening to an npr radioshow that I often listen to--"left, right and center"--and they were talking about offshore drilling. One commentator asked the other about if he supports offshore drilling, then what will happen to the coastline off of santa barbara.

This reminded me of when we used to visit california from hawaii, when I was young, and I'd see the "oil horses" along the sides of the highway. When I just google'd "oil horses," apparently that's not what others call them. The are referred to as "nodding donkeys." How bizarre. But very evocative.


I remember that those black machines seemed almost alive. They were so foreign to me, having always seen the landscape of sugar cane fields, ocean, and volcanoes growing up on Maui. I loved seeing those oil horses; it was like getting to see aliens, for me. The slow-moving horse, actually a machine, against the backdrop of the ocean or the green fields, along the highway.

Today, in the nytimes, there's an article on offshore drilling, with an amazing photograph. In the same way that the oil horses (or apparently nodding donkeys) made me see some perverted beauty, I see it here too: the horror of our greed for oil, and the beauty of what we must destroy for it.

More Banksy, from Grandma

My grandma, who my brother says should get the "Senior Computer Literacy Award" is awesome at using the Internet, and finding articles.

(This is my grandma and me before my graduation from Berkeley in 2004).

Here's a link to a fascinating (long) New Yorker article on Banksy, from my Grandma!!:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_collins

Tel Aviv Grafitti

A while back, I posted grafitti from Neve Tzedek. Throughout Tel Aviv, there are a number of graffiti art drawings of people, babies, and dogs with gas masks on, in a very unique style.

I never knew that they were Banksy copies. Banksy is an anonymous British artist, but apparently these aren't his. But they're fascinating and insightful.

There is also an unofficial website that has more fascinating photos of Banksy's art--worth checking out. Here's just one of them.