Blindsight, Chicago Premier

Starts April 11 at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago! Meet the Producer on Opening Night!

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, Blindsight follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000-foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest. The dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge -- made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.

Believed by many Tibetans to be possessed by demons, the children are shunned by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by Sabriye Tenberken, a blind educator and Nobel Peace Prize nominee from Germany who established the first school for the blind in Tibet, the students invite the famous blind American mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer to visit their school after learning about his conquest of Everest. Erik arrives in Lhasa and inspires Sabriye and her students Kyila, Sonam Bhumtso, Tashi, Gyenshen, Dachung and Tenzin to let him lead them higher than they have ever been before. The resulting 3-week journey is beyond anything any of them could have predicted.

Directed by Lucy Walker/Produced by Sybil Robson Orr

Released by Spark Entertainment/104 minutes/35mm/MPAA Rated PGIn English and Tibetan with English Subtitles.
For the trailer and more information please visit:

www.blindsightthemovie.com

Starts Friday, April 11: MUSIC BOX THEATRE, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago, IL 60613, 773-871-6604, www.musicboxtheatre.com

Daily Showtime April 11-17: 7:20pm; Sat/Sun Matinee at 2:30pm
Audio Description for the visually impaired available at all BLINDSIGHT shows.
SPECIAL EVENT AT THEATER ON OPENING NIGHT:A discussion and Q&A will follow the 7:20 show on Friday, April 11 with Sybil Robson Orr, Producer of BLINDSIGHT.

For more information contact Karen O'Hara at karenoh@aol.com or 520-326-0813

My Touch Lecture's Available from College Art Association

In February I had the pleasure of giving a talk on contemporary dis/ abled artists who explore the sense of touch in their work. I now have a copy of the panel discussion on cd for anyone interested in the topic. Maybe if I'm feeling ambitious I can figure out how to put it up on the blog. You'll get to hear me stammering away about the minor offenses of Derrida, the intrigues of Judith Butler and the awesomeness of artitsts Catheine Sherwood, Sandy Yi, Stepehn Lapthisophon and me. You might even be able to hear the old school chook- choocks of a slide projector in the background!

In Search of Vision's Body: the Role of Touch in the Practice of Painting and Architecture can be purchased online, along with the entire catalogue of events from the 2008 College Art Association Conference in Dallas. Be sure to check out my co- panelists and organizers Sanda Iliescu, Thomas Berding, Phoebe Crisman, Nathan Coleman and Derek Brueckner.

The Texture of Cyclops and Supernovas

I'm rereading a passage from James Elkins's chapter on blindness in The Object Stares Back. This piece was really important to me as an undergrad painter. It opens with this surprising observation.

Because we cannot see what we do not understand or use or identify with we see very little of the world- only the small pieces that are useful and harmless.

This statement had an odd impact on me at the time, perhaps it was the weight of 500 years of ocularcentricism lifting from my shoulders. Artists definitely pick and choose what themes will be central to their work though the single- mindedness of their choices aren't always harmless. In their own lifetimes, painterly obsessions are often treated as professional liabilites. I'm reminded of a 19th century critic's snippy comment about J. M. W. Turner's "cyclops-" those exuberant globs of yellow ochre and cadmium red suns stamped like a wax seal on his canvases.

When I was younger looking at reproductions of Turner's paintings I'd wonder, what's with all the seascapes? Turner's work isn't meant for remote viewing; standing in front of one of these paintings is the best way to explore physical evidence of the gestures that first ignited the chemical surf.

Painting has everything to do with residue, films, sheens, traces and other forms of pigmentary reffuse. Now that we're well into the second decade of digital imaging and with more than a century of photographic processes behind us, I'd argue that this textural alchemy is what makes painting great.

In Blindness Elkins' attention turns to the stars themselves when describing vision's remarkable exclusivity:

Perhaps ordinary vision is less like a brightly lit sky with one blinding spot in it than like the night sky filled with stars. He asserts that vision is immensely troubled. Sight is not merely partial blindness or selective seeing but a determinate trading of blindness and insights. I couldn't agree more, and I appreciate it when he positions blindness firmly in the physiological sense of the word. At least he recognizes that blindness exists on a continuum with vision; at one end is 20/20 vision, at the other, total blindness. Most of us (including most blind people) occupy a space on the bell curve falling somewhere between these two coordinates.

Supurban- thanks for asking!

I can't think of it as the suburbs- my apartment's only a couple of blocks from the El after all, but after ten blissful years in the city my street address no longer contains a Chicago zipcode. I'm still just 30 min from the Loop, and to my knowledge there are no kids picking banjos on their front porches. The public library, a 40's style diner and parks are all within a three block radius of my house and the big fur tree ourfront brings me disproportionate amounts of joy. I don't miss Pilsen- not yet anyway. I will miss my landlord, a Polish grandma/ architect who drove me home from the hospital once and brought me soup when I was sick- but I digress.

I haven't been homesick for any of my old apartments in Chicago, with the possible exception of my first, a historic women's international dorm in the Gold Coast which has since been turned into condos.

As for Alabama, well I'm always homesick for Cheahah and miniscule hillside towns swimming in pine trees. I miss the geophraphy of forest and foothills and indigo ridges in the distance. I do NOT miss the flatness of the prairie or the brown shrubs midwesterners stubbornly refer to as trees.

Fissures

When I began this blog, I never imagined Id be reporting on hate crimes, but here we are. There are infinite ways for the heart to break over this stuff, a kaleidoscope of faces and stories that flicker across the Internet and are never heard from again. Documenting hate crimes against people with disabilities should be handled with the same swiftness and professionalism as crimes committed on the basis of race, sexual orientation or religion. We know this, so why hasn't the media gotten the message? It's unconscionable for a crime like the premeditated beating death of Brent Martin by three teenage boys to go unnoticed by the major networks.

Meanwhile, my friend "Saul" is concerned about going to a birthday party at a friend's house. He's afraid his sister won't let him go. He thinks she doesn't trust him to be on his own. It may be true that ableism clouds her perspective, but Saul's sister is also influenced by the very real fear that what happened once will happen again. Saul is the survivor of a hate crime. I doubt anyone in his neighborhood would classify it as such. They tell themselves, these things happen. Better keep him home from now on for his own safety.

Punishing the victim, restricting his freedom- this makes sense to some people. As solutions go it is a fairly low maintenance one. Apprehending the assholes who target people with disabilities, prosecuting them and raising awareness about such offenses takes work. It takes a zero tolerance attitude and cohesive action on the part of law enforcement. More importantly, it takes a commitment from the community to assert that these things don't just happen. When a person with a disability is assaulted- this is major news, because we should all be on the same page on this one! Is our culture really so degraded that we're incapable of acknowledging the thugs who do this, which, let me point out, is an attitude that is still painfully, pitifully, far from voicing public outrage?

When my friend Saul is discouraged from going out for fear that he will "get into trouble" or more accurately that trouble may find him, it sends the message that Saul's freedoms are held in lower regard than those of the punks who assaulted him. It suggests that there is no middle ground- no cell phones, for instance, that he could use to call someone if he happened to need assistance? It implies that there is no safe public space for people with disabilities. It smacks of the "women ask for it" myth. I'm loathe to even go into the various ways Saul could achieve his goal of traveling independently because that's so not the point of this post.

Look how easy it is to give into a lie when dissenting voices of those in the know are kept at the periphery.

Media Musings: Rock the Loud Minority!

Every blog carnival that I've had the pleasure to click through leads me to the same conclusion. I am thrilled at the range and depth of talent of the writers in our blog community- and stunned at how many of us type away each day delivering consistantly fabulous, illuminating contnet- for free and easyInternet consumption. I do believe that writers should get paid for their craft, but we all know the significant challenges involved in getting quality disability- related content out to the masses by means of popular media outlets- i.e. those that write checks.

The reason we invest our valuable time and limited resources- essentially reporting the news for free- is simple. We care about the issues that affect people. Regardless of one's position in life, the concerns affecting people with disabilities affect us all. Americans can no longer afford to hide behind an "us/ them" mindset. We in the community understand the nature of the dividing line, that it is infinitely porous, fluid. Maybe it changes its course as you enter your senior years, have kids, when new neighbors move in across the street. The line arches to encompass friends and relatives at all stages of life, colorfully winding its way through our communities. When did your "them" start to bear an uncannty resemblance to those you call friend, colleague, lover, parent, child?

If you are under 40 you likely shared a classroom with a disabled student. Maybe you hung out, went to each others birthday parties. You did not attend a segregated school system, why accept media that is one- dimmensional and lazy with the facts about a vital segment of your community? Take this as fact instead: disability issues influence YOUR legislators, YOUR community leaders, YOUR bills in congress, YOUR healthcare providers, YOUR school districts, YOUR places of business, YOUR economy.

It is my hope that disabled journalists, with or without a venture like [With-tv] will figure out a way to fill the gap created by popular media's consistant misrepresentation and cliche- ridden content. This week's blog carnival hosted at [With-tv] is a fine compilation of voices and a testament to the possibilites of engaging a broader audience.

With the current writer's strike network television is at a standstill. But writers in the disability blog community won't go silent because we understand that the price of media complacency is a debt of devastating proportion. Turn to this week's blog carnival to read some of the facts the mainstream media overlooked.

Happy Holidays!

Polar bear sculpture using "found" mosaic pieces- I love the teapot nipple on her belly! This expat Berliner Bear stands outside a popular Canadian restaurant where we retreated for a hearty breakfast during our stay in Berlin (Germans eat a lot of cold cuts for brekfast, this gets tiresome).

More of photos of my vacation to Berlin and western Czech Republic can be seen here.

Jeanne Assam Dealt Charlie's Angels Treatment

I don't know why I even bother turning on the television anymore, seeing as how the morning news has a tendency to pulverize an otherwise affable mood. I probably should have flipped the switch on Tuesday's interview with Jeanne Assam, the born again security guard who shot Colorado's megachurch gunman on Sunday.

According to Assam it was God who guided her hand in the fatal shooting of 24 year old Matthew Murray shortly after he'd opened fire on parishioners of the expansive New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Murray killed two teenage girls in the church's parking lot before entering the building where he was apprehended by Assam and killed. The shooting followed on the heels of Saturday's incident at a youth mission center in nearby Arvada in which two were killed and others wounded. Murray is thought to be responsible for both attacks.

I don't believe in God, but if I did I 'd hope It wouldn't favor the micro-managerial style fundies often attribute as a divine presence dictating their actions. Does God really have to tell you to disarm a murderous gunman? This kind of rhetoric suggests that nothing short of a belief in God can inspire selfless acts like Assam's. Hearing people talk about their relationship with God is like listening to someone describe their own alien abduction, for me anyway. It's cool if you believe in that sort of thing but listening to you talk about it is just going to make me a little afraid of you.

It's sickening that more people have been killed in this manner- that goes for everyone including the gunman. Mainstream media's handling of these crimes is frequently cringe- worthy, but Tuesday's GMA interview with Assam was the most excruciating 30 seconds of programming I've witnessed in quite some time. A review of the facts of the church shooting were followed by questions about Assam's faith and how she came to be a member of the church (Assam stated that, like so many, she'd come to God "after hitting rock bottom"). As if that weren't painful enough the reporter turned the screws on Assam by delving further into her personal life. In a sing- song voice one might use on a kid he cooed something like, "And I hear that you've been looking for something...?"

Assam hesitated as if shocked before taking the bait, regrettably.

"Yeah, I'm looking for a good man. I know God will reveal him to me in His time."

Did the reporter set out to make Assam look foolish? I may not agree with her ideology, but there's no denying that she acted heroically in a horrible situation and should be commended for her level- headed marksmanship. What saving hundreds of human lives has to do with her dating prospects I'll never know. The 9/11 firefighters wouldn't have been subjected to discussions of their match.com accounts, so why was Assam considered fair game? I suspect it had something to do with the need to defuse a fine example of female spiritual power. Because it's much easier to reduce a woman to her sexuality than to form a portrait of her character in the space of time of a soundbite. ABC producers took the low road capitalizing on the (easily consumed) titillation afforded by casting Assam as a hot, gun- slinging ex- cop who kicks ass- AND she's single!!

IIt kind of freaks me out to learn that megacurches have security guards (though I'm not entirely surprised). The church did state that its security force is made up of volunteers, not hired mercenaries as some had suggested. Interesting.y, Christian fundie blogs were among the first to report that heightening church security had been Assam's idea following the Arvada attack.

As usual scant commentary has surfaced on the fact that the current epidemic of shootings are carried out by people who are MENTALLY ILL. Suggesting that such crimes might be preventable just doesn't make for good infotainment (best stick to good old fashioned woman bashing). Certainly extending blame to include anyone but the shooters is met with derision. I fear that the subliminal message being sent is that the sick and disenfranchised must always act alone, preferably with an eye towards a violent flourish.

Violent criminals are just that- regardless of the severity and scope of their destructiveness. Lone shooters have ample access to fire arms and limited exposure to psychiatric treatment options. Getting connected to useful mental health care supports is very often a long and complicated process that demands sustained motivation on the part of the individual seeking care, the collaboration of trained professionals, not to mention personal skills like patience, assertiveness and planning. A patient that can make that level of effort and commitment to her mental well- being is probably farther from the types of extreme emotional states that precede deadly shooting sprees.

Americans still cling to the idea that unfettered access to health care is somehow unamerican, the hallmark of mamby- pamby governments that coddle their citizens with soft core "socialist" perks. Want to be healthy? Here in America we still gotta work for it.

My thoughts on all of this sort of landslided into a slushy heap of disgust. I have to admit, I feel a little guilty about criticizing fundie rhetoric given the timing, but Tuesday's newsbite was all about dueling cliched rhetoric.

Last night I dreamed that Jeanne Assam had been drafted by the CIA to work in Lisbon under the cover Excessive Shoe Shopping. Diabolical.