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Roger Waters recently turned 80 years old. It’s a major milestone for him. If I’m ever lucky enough to live that long, I would just take it easy by doing something no more stressful than going to the beach or spend a weekend in a cabin in the mountains. What I wouldn’t do is going out of my way to be a total apologist for a warmongering dictator somewhere in the world who had invaded another country and whose troops has committed mass atrocities. Nor would I want to be one of those hardcore political zealots of any stripe because I’ve met people like that in the past and they tend to be the most serious, most angry, most unpleasant people I’ve dealt with.
But Roger Waters has chosen something different at 80. He been giving concerts at various venues, in North America and Europe, which is an amazing thing for a guy his age to do. But he has also been very vocal about supporting Vladimir Putin and taking the Russian side in its war against Ukraine. Last year I wrote this rant expressing my displeasure over his choice: Fuck You, Roger Waters!
But he’s doing more than just putting on rock concerts. He was invited to speak at this free event on a panel that was held at Adler Hall in New York City on September 12. The topic was called “Climate, Politics, and Corporate Power: A Conversation With Steven Donziger, Michael Imperioli, Ayisha Siddiqa, Marty Garbus, and Roger Waters.” Roger Waters announced it on his Twitter/X account while also providing a link where people can get free tickets to that event.
Someone retweeted Waters’ message while adding this: “Roger Waters has a free event you can register for. Be a shame if people booked tickets and didn’t attend. Real shame…”
This is so reminiscent of 2020 when the young people on organized on TikTok to order free tickets to attend then-President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa only to have whole sections of the venue be completely empty. I remember Trump was especially infuriated at this as well.
I decided to carry the message from Twitter/X over to TikTok by creating this short video that I uploaded on that platform. For added measure, I also uploaded that same video on Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube.
It’s been a few days since that event was held and I haven’t heard any more about it. The only indication on how it went was this tweet, which said “Roger Waters free tickets all gone. Oh dear, sounds like it is very popular.”
I haven’t been able to find any information about how that event went. Was the venue was half-empty or was it filled with people? If it were filled with people, how many of them were hostile to Roger Waters and had only attended in the hopes of waving signs or heckle him? I wish I knew how it turned out. If I find any more information, I’ll definitely update this post.
I originally did the first short video about a pro-Russia Internet troll as a one-off parody of dealing with TikTok yanking my videos offline while getting account warnings if they think I’m being too hostile towards Russia and Putin. Mass-reporting is a really bad problem on that platform. All of the videos that TikTok has taken offline have been deemed suitable for YouTube, Instagram, and Clapper. I even had to deal with the first video being removed by TikTok while it has remained on the other social media platforms.
I’ve made a few more videos since then, some of which have been removed by TikTok but all have remained on other social media platforms. I recently did three such videos.
I did the first recent video, A Pro-Russia Internet Troll Loves Roger Waters of Pink Floyd Fame, as a parody on the first of two open letters that Waters had written to Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. I did that video soon after I wrote my rant about Roger Waters. I uploaded it on TikTok, Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube. The response to that video went really well and there was no censorship drama.
Soon afterwards I made another video, A Pro-Russia Internet Troll Takes on NAFO, where the troll battles NAFO, the real-life online group that has sprung up to counter the pro-Russian propaganda that has been posted on various social media sites. One hallmark of NAFO (which stands for the North Atlantic Fellas Organization and it’s a play on NATO) is that they post memes featuring a cartoon Shiba Inu dog. I uploaded it on TikTok, Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube. Once again the response to that video went really well and there was no censorship drama.
But then Roger Waters decided to write his second open letter to Olena Zelenska, which was way more unhinged than his first. I was getting pissed off at him because, in his letters, he seems to be blaming everyone but the person who actually ordered that invasion, Vladimir Putin. I had already done one video about him but I decided to do a second about that second open letter because I just want to inspire people to just start boycotting him, his concerts (he’s currently on a world tour that he calls This is Not a Drill), and his music as a solo artist. (I stopped short of calling for a boycott of Pink Floyd because his former bandmates have supported Ukraine in that war and they did a song as a fundraiser for that war-torn nation.)
So I did that video and it was quickly yanked off of TikTok and I was given an Account Warning. I appealed the decision and I got the Account Warning designation removed but my video has yet to be restored. There was zero controversy on the other platforms where I uploaded that video so you can check it out on Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube.
I wish I can explain why TikTok is way more sensitive about my content than the other platforms but I can’t. It’s not like I’m featuring child pornography or animals being decapitated. Hell, I’ve never even done full or partial nudity (except in my drawings). All that I know is that it had an effect on me in one way. When Roger Waters finally got around to writing his open letter to Vladimir Putin (which was also a bit on the bonkers side), I didn’t bother with doing any parodies this time around. I just didn’t need the Internet drama and I was also getting sick of poking fun at Roger Waters, to be honest.
If you’ve missed the previous videos in my series, I’ve created a playlist on YouTube where you can watch them all in about 15 minutes.
The one thing about this current Russia-Ukraine war is that the true colors of a certain famous person whom you’ve previously admired comes out and you end up feeling disillusioned and disgusted at that person.
I was a kid when Pink Floyd released its iconic Dark Side of the Moon album. That record received extensive airplay on the radio (especially the ones that were formatted to play rock music). There was something on that record for everyone. If you liked pure hard rock, there was “Time.” If your tastes leaned more towards jazz, there was “The Great Gig in the Sky.” If you were more into funk or blues, there was “Money.” Listening to that record was pure bliss because there was not a single dud track on that album. There was a reason why The Dark Side of the Moon became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Their follow-up albums like Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall had excellent songs on them as well and they became popular in their own right. But The Dark Side of the Moon remains the band’s most famous record.
When I was in college I discovered some of their earlier pre-Dark Side work such as Obscured by Clouds, which I also liked.
The band petered out by the mid-1980s then reunited without Roger Waters. I saw Pink Floyd in concert only once. It was held at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC and that concert turned out to be part of their last world tour as a band . That tour was done in support of their then-recent record, The Division Bell. Roger Waters was long gone from that group but I found the concert enjoyable with all kinds of cool props and lighting effects. (I still remember those two giant inflatable pigs that suddenly appeared while the band played the song “One of These Days” and they bobbed up and down to the beat of the music before completely crashing to the ground at the end of the song.) I’ll admit that their newer material from The Divison Bell wasn’t quite as good as their earlier songs but I still enjoyed the concert and so did my then-husband. (He told me that, as a teenager in the 1970s, he saw Pink Floyd in concert back when Roger Waters was with the band. That was before I had even met him and I still think he was lucky that he got the chance to see the band in concert when Roger Waters was still a member.)
Around 11 or 12 years ago (when I was still married) I found out that Roger Waters was doing a solo tour where he would play Pink Floyd’s The Wall album in its entirety, complete with giant props that illustrated the fictional story behind that album (about a troubled rock star named Pink). I figured that since my husband and I had seen a Pink Floyd concert featuring most of the band members, it would be cool to see a former member of that group live in concert playing The Wall. And he was scheduled to do a show in downtown Washington, DC, which was perfect because I figured that we could take the Metro to and from the show venue. But then I looked online and saw that tickets to that show cost $250 each. Not $2.50 but two-hundred and fifty dollars. Buying two tickets would have cost $500 plus there would be additional costs (such as service fees, sales taxes, Metro farecards, and any optional expenditures like refreshments or a souvenir t-shirt). The total cost would’ve come close to $600, which I thought was a bit much to pay for one night. When I told my husband about the costs, he quickly lost interest in going to that concert as well.
I’ll admit that I was never a fan of Roger Waters’ solo work. (I remember hearing one or two songs on the radio or MTV but his music as a solo artist didn’t impress me very much.) But I still had generally positive feelings for him based on what he did as a member of Pink Floyd. That band had a major impact on my childhood, pre-teen, and teenage years.
That was then and this is now. This year Roger Waters is currently on his This is Not a Drill world tour, which was originally scheduled in 2020 but was postponed until now due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently during his concerts he rants about the war in Ukraine where he has blamed NATO, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war. He starts his shows with this warning: “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd, but I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people you might do well to fuck off to the bar right now.”
Okay that sounds bad enough, which is why I have zero interest in even considering buying a ticket to see one of his shows this time. (Plus I still remember when he charged $250 per ticket for his The Wall tour and I wouldn’t be surprised if tickets for his latest show are just as expensive.) It’s his show and he could rant on stage about the war as much as he wants while I can choose not to attend at all.
But then he decides to up the ante since it’s apparently obvious that he wasn’t satisfied with limiting his political expression to just his concerts. He felt a need to publicly express himself politically beyond the paying audiences at his concerts. He wrote this Facebook post as an open letter to Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska where he begs her to talk to her husband about stopping this war. Waters essentially blames Washington, DC for this war instead of the actual invader: Russia. I don’t even know what the hell he was thinking when he wrote that letter. Did he actually expect the first lady to ask her husband, “Hey, Honey, could you just order the Ukrainian troops to stop fighting the invading Russians while making Roger Waters happy at the same time?”
Olena Zelenska responded with this tweet: “It is Russia which invaded Ukraine, destroys cities and kills civilians. Ukrainians defend their land and their children’s future. If we give up — we will not exist tomorrow. If Russia gives up — war will be over. @rogerwaters, you’d better ask RF’s President for peace. Not Ukraine.”
She’s right. Russia is the one who invaded Ukraine, not the United States or NATO or any other country or organization. Before this year’s invasion, Russia had interfered in Ukraine in other ways. In 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to establish so-called “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. In 2004 Russia attempted to poison a previous Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko.
Hell, I could go even further back in time to other notorious incidents that Russia, in its previous incarnation as the Soviet Union, had inflicted on Ukraine, such as Chernobyl and the Holodomor.
It’s no wonder that Ukraine achieved its independence from the Soviet Union as soon as it possibly could after the USSR collapsed. It’s also no wonder that Ukraine has zero interest in reuniting with Russia in order to reconstruct the old Soviet Union (which is Vladimir Putin’s rumored big ambition).
All Ukraine wants is for Russia to stop its invasion of that nation along with the return of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donesk. Ukraine isn’t asking for anything more than that. They aren’t going to be sending troops into Russia so it could invade territory as far away as Moscow. They have very basic demands that Vladimir Putin could easily fulfill if he wanted to.
Olena Zelenska is also correct when she told Roger Waters to ask Vladimir Putin to stop fighting. Russia was the one who started this war. Putin could easily end this war tomorrow by withdrawing all of his troops and restore Luhansk, Donesk, and Crimea to Ukraine. But, as of this writing, he refuses to do so. If Ukraine suddenly stops fighting, the Russians will take advantage by conquering all of Ukraine.
You’d think that Roger Waters would drop the subject matter after Olena Zelenska’s response. But, no, that’s not how he rolls. He made this Facebook post where he wrote, “Great letter to POTUS from my friend Gerry Condon.
Now all we need is Olena Zelenska Олена Зеленська!!!!! And maybe we can stop the war.” He included a link to this article by Gerry Condon on the Popular Resistance website where Condon wrote an open letter to Joe Biden asking President Biden to end the war in Ukraine. Never mind the fact that it is the Russians who launched the invasion and that open letter should’ve been addressed to Vladimir Putin instead. President Biden had absolutely nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine. What’s more, this letter is filled with the Russian point of view regarding that nation’s policy towards Ukraine and it seems very sympathetic to Putin. If you want to learn about the Russian version of events in Ukraine, this letter would be a great reference.
That Facebook post also illustrated Roger Waters’ bizarre fantasy that he, Olena Zelenska, and Gerry Condon can together stop the war in Ukraine. I don’t know if he was on any drugs when he wrote that post but if he was, I would love to see what he took so I could avoid taking them myself.
What’s even more galling is the fact that Roger Waters wrote a response as an open letter to Olena Zelenska’s response to Waters’ previous open letter. It has got to be the most unhinged letter from a rock star that I’ve read in recent years. Here are a few choice quotes:
I feel I’m getting to know you a little, I see that you, like me, trained as an architect, so maybe we have a common interest in building things. That is good because we all need to focus on building something now, and obviously that something is peace in your country.
You were so close to a ceasefire. I smell interference from Washington, I’m quite prepared to be wrong of course, but in my experience, if it smells like fish and looks fishy, it’s probably what passes for foreign policy in Washington DC. Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge now. What I am suggesting is that the only sane course is for all sides, and I say all sides, not both sides, because clearly this is a proxy war that involves the USA, so all sides need to agree to an unconditional ceasefire and the beginning of talks. I for one Olena will continue to bang the drum of peace, however unpopular that may be in these bellicose times.
https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/posts/pfbid02AQdV7S5ScZ6KjLnJUkGVjYFttK5TW8BGAhLc3HFiFJFQ4j87Ff9vC7qyRFibGjd2l
At one point he goes off on a long tangent about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis while trying to tie it with today’s war in Ukraine. Then he goes off on another tangent about the late Soviet naval officer Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov and how he ties in with the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also invokes Julian Assange, who has absolutely nothing to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Then he ends his long letter (which could’ve used an editor) by writing:
So where was I Mrs. Zelenska, I’m sorry I got a bit side tracked, oh yes, why don’t you prevail upon your husband to ‘do the right thing’, and ‘We the People’ in the USA will try to prevail upon poor old Uncle Joe Biden to do the right thing, and the Russian people will prevail upon the ‘stripped to the waist’ Vladimir Putin to do the right thing, and maybe, together, ‘We the People’ can prevail upon all our leaders to do the right thing, and maybe we can save the world from the imminent destruction upon which they seem hellbent. Maybe we can prevent The Powers that Be from sacrificing this, our beautiful planet home, on the altar of their deadly uni-polar warmongering.
https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/posts/pfbid02AQdV7S5ScZ6KjLnJUkGVjYFttK5TW8BGAhLc3HFiFJFQ4j87Ff9vC7qyRFibGjd2l
Basically he claims that if Joe Biden stops doing whatever Roger Waters is accusing him of doing in Ukraine and if Olena Zelenska convinces her husband to order the Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons and stop fighting, Vladimir Putin will follow suit and peace will break out all over Ukraine. It sounds groovy and blissful, man. I hate to say this but I’ve read fairy tales that were far more realistic than Roger Waters’ bizarre “end the war in Ukraine” fantasy.
The common theme in Roger Waters’ open letters to the Ukrainian first lady is that he somehow expects Olena Zelenska to openly oppose and resist her husband’s war efforts. Talk about unrealistic expectations! Surely he must know that a first lady of any country has limited powers and can’t directly control the actions of the president.
Then there is Roger Waters’ bizarre fantasy that Olena Zelenska is some kind of a rebellious peace activist. Over the past few months I’ve read and seen enough interviews with the first lady online to know that she and her husband are essentially on the same wavelength when it comes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She is just as committed to seeing Ukraine remain independent as her husband. There is no way in hell that she is going to oppose her husband on this issue, no matter how many open letters Roger Waters writes to her.
That second open letter has resulted in Roger Waters literally getting roasted on both Facebook and Twitter. Here are a few choice comments I found on the latter platform:
What’s even more galling is that Roger Waters issued his latest open letter around the same time as a major grim discovery in the recently liberated city of Izyum: There have been hundreds of graves in that town that were filled with at least 400 bodies of Ukrainians who had been slaughtered during the Russian occupation of that town. There are media people who are comparing Izyum with an earlier massacre that took place in Bucha.
It’s so obvious that Roger Waters is pro-Putin in this war to the point where he refuses to admit that it was Russia who launched the invasion of Ukraine. I wonder if Waters had deliberately posted his latest letter to Olena Zelenska in an effort to divert attention from what happened in Izyum since the idea of Russians committing atrocities doesn’t jibe with Waters’ belief that NATO and Joe Biden had launched this invasion. If he did, that effort failed because the whole world now knows what happened in Izyum when the Russians occupied that city.
The only consolation is that, so far, Roger Waters is one of the very few famous entertainment figures who have openly come out as being pro-Vladimir Putin. Earlier this year his former Pink Floyd bandmate, David Gilmour, came out with this tweet that is diametrically opposed to the views that Waters expressed in his open letters to Olena Zelenska: “Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers. There will be no winners in this war. My daughter-in-law is Ukrainian and my grand-daughters want to visit and know their beautiful country. Stop this before it is all destroyed. Putin must go”
What’s more, David Gilmour and fellow surviving Pink Floyd member Nick Mason decided to get together to release this new song featuring Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox as a fundraiser for humanitarian groups providing aid to those who have been affected by the war in Ukraine.
As for Roger Waters, he can just go fuck himself. If he loves Vladimir Putin’s leadership so much, maybe he should consider moving to Russia where he can live under Putin’s regime all the time.
UPDATE (September 25, 2022): Roger Waters’ stance on Ukraine is receiving blowback. His upcoming shows in Poland have been canceled after the Krakow city council scheduled a debate on a motion to declare Waters a “persona non grata” and one councillor had urged city residents to boycott the concerts. Roger Waters responded by writing yet another open letter to the reporters who reported on the cancellation of the Krakow shows. Here’s an excerpt:
If Mr Łukasz Wantuch achieves his aim, and my forthcoming concerts in Krakow are cancelled, it will be a sad loss for me, because I have been looking forward to sharing my message of love with the people of Poland, something I have been doing on many tours over a career that has lasted in excess of fifty years. And also, regrettably, it will deny the people of Krakow the opportunity to see my current show, “This Is Not A Drill,” which is an important addition to a lifetime’s body of work. His draconian censoring of my work will deny them the opportunity to make up their own minds.
https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/posts/pfbid0cwJ7qACEQFvJXDwA7xZ9TBqNyYnmJA5DjEvhMZRnJNqX79RitsVbNR67RS4FjfVTl
That open letter is definitely full of self-pity. This whole drama could’ve been avoided had he not written those open letters to Olena Zelenska while also openly blaming everyone else for the invasion of Ukraine except for the invaders themselves—Vladimir Putin and the Russians.
I’ll close this update with this tweet from Keith Olbermann: “As a lifelong fan of Roger Waters, let me suggest this solution: He can go fuck himself; I hope he goes bankrupt; and I hope everything he ever recorded gets erased.”
UPDATE (September 28, 2022): After dealing with the fallout from his two open letters to Olena Zelenska and the subsequent cancellation of his gigs in Poland, Roger Waters finally wrote an open letter to Vladimir Putin and posted it on his Facebook page. He wrote it as a caption to this short video he posted from one of his concerts (where a couple of giant video monitors flashed “Make Love, Not War”). Here are a couple of choice excerpts from that open letter:
I am increasingly asked to write to you too, so here goes. Firstly, would you like to see an end to this war? If you were to reply and say, “Yes please.” That would immediately make things a lot easier. If you were to come out and say, “Also the Russian Federation has no further territorial interest beyond the security of the Russian speaking populations of The Crimea, Donetsk and Lubansk.” That would help too. I say this because, I know some people who think you want to overrun the whole of Europe, starting with Poland and the rest of the Baltic states. If you do, fuck you, and we might as well all stop playing the desperately dangerous game of nuclear chicken that the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic seem so comfortable with, and have at it. Yup, just blow each other and the world to smithereens. The problem is, I have kids and grandkids, and so do most of my brothers and sisters all over the world and none of us would relish that outcome. So, please Mr Putin indulge me, and make us that assurance.
Alright back to the table, if I’ve read your previous speeches correctly, you would like to negotiate a state of neutrality for a sovereign neighboring Ukraine? Is that correct? Assuming such a peace could be negotiated it would have to include an absolutely binding agreement not to invade anyone ever again. I know, I know, the USA and NATO invade other sovereign countries at the drop of a hat, or for a few barrels of oil, but that doesn’t mean you should, your invasion of Ukraine took me completely by surprise, it was a heinous war of aggression, provoked or not.
When Mrs. Zelenska replied to me via Twitter, I was very surprised and mightily moved, if you were to reply to me, I would mightily respect you for it, and take it as an honorable move in the right direction towards a sustainable peace.
https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/videos/1068365470548910
Of course that latest letter went over like a lead balloon on both Facebook and Twitter and he has gotten roasted on both platforms. Here are a few choice critiques.
I could go on and on but basically Roger Waters needs to focus on completing his current world tour and stop posting embarrassing open letters where he acts like he’s the expert on Ukraine and Eastern Europe without even doing so much as looking up the Wikipedia first. I still maintain that—unless he issues a sincere apology for his recent embarrassing open letters—Roger Waters can go fuck himself. I’m just only glad that I was never a fan of his solo work and the other surviving members of Pink Floyd are supporting Ukraine and not Putin.
UPDATE (October 8, 2022): Roger Waters digs a deeper hole for himself the more he opens his big mouth about Ukraine. He did this interview with Rolling Stone magazine that does him no favors. His views in that article are so explosive that the interviewer posted the full, uncut, uncensored interview here so the reader can read Waters’ words in their original context. For added measure he also appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast where he blurted out more of his explosive radical pro-Kremlin political views.
His increasingly outspoken views on the war in Ukraine, Israel, and Julian Assange had led to this Variety magazine article whose headline says it all: Will Roger Waters’ Explosive New Comments About Israel and Ukraine Sink a $500 Million Pink Floyd Catalog Sale?
Sure, you could buy that book online for $15. But here’s what that book really costs us.
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Today is yet another birthday for me. For this special day I’m going to upload .jpegs of some special letters I wrote earlier this year that basically explains a few things about myself.
Here is some background. This past spring the Religious Exploration program (which is what my Unitarian Universalist congregation calls its Sunday school program) decided to do an intergenerational activity which is supposed to foster more community between the young children in the program and other adult members beside the children’s parents.
So the Mystery Buddy program was started. Basically one adult and one child would be paired up. Neither would know about who the buddy was other than each person was given a mailbox number where the two buddies would deliver letters. (The mailboxes were really manilla folders that were hung on a bulletin board and they each had a number.) Basically each Sunday in April the person would drop off a letter for his/her buddy while picking up the letter that the buddy left for him/her. At the end of the month a special reception would be held after both Sunday service and the Religious Education classes (which run concurrently) where both paris of mystery buddies would meet each other in person for the first time.
I decided to take part of it because I figured that it would be fun. I was paired with a pre-school boy who is a big fan of My Little Pony. Since the kid was so young, I had to be careful about writing letters mainly because I wasn’t sure what his reading level was (or if he had even learned to read yet). I decided to create picture collages instead. Well, anyway, we managed to put our letters in the slots and I finally met him in person. (The boy was a bit on the shy side and he ended up not speaking much while sticking closely with his mother. I ended up talking with his parents instead, which was okay.)
So, as a special birthday feature, I’m going to upload what I originally gave to my Mystery Buddy. Each week of the Mystery Buddy program had a different theme so we didn’t have to come up with a subject idea for our letters, which was a great idea. The first week focused on music. I downloaded some graphics off the Internet and I did this collage in Photoshop where I mixed in some of the musicians I actually like (such as Pink Floyd and The Beatles) with Octavia from My Little Pony (as a nod to my Mystery Buddy’s interest in that show), the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku (I figured that he might be into cartoon characters), and the Internet sensation Keyboard Cat (I figured that he would get a kick out of that one). For added measure I had Rainbow Dash near the rainbow-producing prism that graced Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album.
Week 2’s theme was favorite hobbies. I ended up doing a short one-page letter where I included a few samples of my drawings and photographs.
Week 3’s theme was happiest childhood memory. I was a bit stumped on this one until I decided to write about The Enchanted Forest. Even though, at two pages, it’s the longest of my letters, it’s basically a short and simplified version of my Saving The Enchanted Forest movie that I screened at last year’s Artomatic in Hyattsville.
The fourth and final week had favorite games as the theme. I decided to just list two board games (Monopoly and The Game of Life) and two video games (Pac-Man and Angry Birds).
Okay so I didn’t write my entire autobiography in those letters but hopefully, through reading them, you have the chance to learn a little more about the person who writes this blog (me). 🙂
I had quite a day on September 25. A few hours after going to the Silver Spring Maker Faire I rested for a few hours and ate dinner. Then I headed over to the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, Maryland where I caught a live performance by a band from Belarus known as Stary Olsa. This band dresses in medieval folk dress and perform songs in the style of traditional Eastern European folk music. What’s really cool is that they perform songs by bands like The Beatles in this style and their classic rock covers are so interesting to listen to. Stary Olsa has gained such a following that they even have their own Wikipedia page.
This band was incredible to listen to in person. I stuck around for a bit despite the fact that I learned that The Backstabbing Couple From Hell (a.k.a. my ex-husband and my onetime friend whom he screwed around with while I was recovering from hip surgery and he married despite her severe mental illness) were also at the show. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m currently broke, I definitely would’ve purchased one of their CD’s that they had for sale at the show.
Here are couple of photos from that show, one of which you can see the band in their medieval outfits and the traditional Belarusian instruments they played at the show.
I shot a few videos of the band doing those classic rock covers. They are amazing to listen to. Here is their cover of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.”
They did a traditional Belarus tune that literally had people dancing in the audience.
Here is Stary Olsa’s amazing cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.”
Last, but not least, here is Stary Olsa doing a blistering cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, which proves that folk musical instruments can kick ass just as much as electric guitars.
Previous in This Series
Last week I mentioned that I’ve been going through some old files on my computer hard drive and I found the original rough drafts of my old Artomatic blog posts from previous years. (There was a time when Artomatic gave everyone who participated their own blogging account. For Artomatic this year, I had to step up and volunteer to be a blogger before I received my own blogging account.) It’s pretty appropriate to share some of these posts here since Artomatic is going on until next month.
While I visited a few previous Artomatics, the first time I actually participated was in 2007. I enjoyed that experience so much that when Artomatic was announced again in 2008, I jumped at the chance to participate in it again.
2008 was a momentous year for me for reasons other than Artomatic. I was born with a dislocated left hip and, as some old baby photos have documented, I was placed in a body cast for several months. My left hip joints snapped into place, the cast was removed, and I learned how to walk like an average child soon afterwards. I sprained the same left hip in a roller skating accident when I was 12 but I managed to recuperate and I walked like a regular person again. All that changed by late 2007 when I began to walk with a limp. As time went on, I had a harder time walking and by the time of Artomatic 2008, I had to use a cane to get around.
Despite my hip problems, I wanted to participate in Artomatic and I did so. That year I decided to focus mostly on photography, with the exception of this Peep Floyd diorama that I originally did for The Washington Post‘s annual Peeps diorama contest but it failed to make even Honorable Mention. Here is the original online catalogue that I put up to promote my exhibition space.
Here are just a few selected posts I made in my Artomatic account’s blog that year as archived on my hard drive. (That blog has long since been deleted since Artomatic tends to totally revamp its website whenever a new Artomatic event is announced.)
I’m Participating in Artomatic 2008, March 27, 2008
I’ve finally finished with registration. This year I’m going to emphasize my photography more mainly because I’ve been more successful at that than doing strictly drawing and painting.
Now my next task is to sift through my vast trove of digital photos to pick out the right ones to display. I am quite a shutterbug. I’m glad for the invention of digital cameras because I still remember the pain of running out of film and I had to choose between shelling out more money for film (then have to shell out more money to get them processed) or quit my picture taking for the day. I have a monumental task ahead of me so I’m going to sign off now.
Latest Stuff About Me, April 18, 2008
Last Saturday I went to the Artomatic orientation where I picked out my site. I’ll be located on the 7th floor, NE Quadrant, Area C4. I know it sounds like gobbledygook now but I’m sure it’ll become more apparent once the show opens and the maps/brochures are printed. For the time being, I’ll just say that my wall space is located right next to the men’s restroom on the 7th floor.
My Exhibit for This Year, May 8, 2008
I know that some of you who are familiar with my exhibit at last year’s Artomatic will be wondering if I’m doing anything different. Well, the answer is yes. I’m going to describe the difference between this year’s exhibit and last year’s.
Last year I had a variety of different media ranging from digital photographs to drawings to paintings. I even had a couple of dolls I customized myself that were on display in small glass cases that were mounted on the wall.
This year I’m focusing exclusively on digital photographs. That’s mainly because I wanted artwork that was more transportable than my larger art pieces. All of my photographs are either 8″ x 10″ or 5″ x 7″. Keeping the photos at those two sizes made frame shopping really easy for me since those two are standard sizes. On top of that, I’ve had people tell me that my biggest strength is in photography so I decided to highlight that some more.
The biggest challenge I had was whittling down the hundreds of digital photographs that I have on my hard disk to just 32 photos. (Sixteen of them are 8″ x 10″ while the rest are 5″ x 7″.) Then I had the additional challenge of printing since, as experienced digital photographers and computer graphics artists know, what is seen on the computer screen doesn’t mean that the print version will turn out the same. But I managed to get everything done in time for the opening tomorrow night.
I’m also pricing my photos at $10 for the 8″ x 10″ and $6 for the 5″ x 7″. I know my pricing methods may become controversial but there’s a method to my madness. If you’ve been reading a newspaper or watching any of the cable news channel, you’ll know that this country is in an economic crisis due to rising gas costs, higher food prices, and the subprime mortgage crisis. I really don’t think that people are in the mood to shell out $100 or higher for a piece of art no matter how much they love it because of the economy.
I also had an epiphany around the end of last year’s Artomatic. I got someone who wanted to buy one of my drawings but she wanted to know how much it would cost if I would remove it from the frame. Since I didn’t have any other serious buyers of my artwork last year, I told her that I would take $25 off my drawing. So I sold it to her and took home an empty frame.
This year I scoured the local big box retailers looking for the lowest frame prices. A.C. Moore had the best prices with many frames being sold for $3 and $4 and with some going for as low as $2. What’s more, the frames still looked pretty decent despite the low prices. Then I went to Staples where I bought a pack of satin-finish photographic paper for $35. I calculated each sheet as costing around sixty cents per sheet, which isn’t bad.
I even have a catchy ad phrase that I put on a sign in my area: “Affordable Artwork for Uncertain Economic Times”.
What’s more, since I have my photos on a hard drive, I can easily print multiple copies so if one person buys one of my photos and someone else wants that same photo, I can print and frame another copy and sell it to that other person.
I will have a small table next to my photos where I will have a guestbook for you to sign and a digital frame that will rotate digital photos of some of my other works of art like my drawings, paintings, sculptures, and crafts. I purchased this digital frame at Target and I love it because I can display more of my art than the space that’s alloted to me.
I will also have a diorama displayed on that table called Peep Floyd. I originally created this diorama for The Washington Post’s second annual Peeps contest but it didn’t make the final cut among the judges. I was disappointed but my husband was even more heartbroken than I was. (He felt that I was robbed.) So I decided to give my little diorama a second chance by displaying it with my artwork. I’m even putting it up for sale for only $5 (which is about how much money I spent making it in the first place). What’s even amusing is that there will be a display of the winning Peeps dioramas on the 10th floor while my display will be on the 7th floor. So if people decided to start on the first floor and work their way up, chances are that they will see my own diorama first before they see the winners on the 10th floor. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Last year I printed three photo zines that I sold on the honor system where people can put money in a box if they wanted one or more of my zines. I did it mainly as a promotional item, even if it was a pain to print multiple copies for the duration of Artomatic. (The fact that I was using a 10-year-old Epson color printer didn’t help matters much.) I thought that I would get some sort of opportunities from the zines after Artomatic in the long run so I toughed out the time spent printing, collating, and stapling the zines. I also gritted my teeth as I spent lots of money on printer ink since those zines did use up tons of ink. Even though the zines sold pretty well (some people did leave money in the box), nothing ever came of those zines after Artomatic ended. No one contacted me saying, “Hey I liked your zines and photos and I want to do some work with you.”
Basically it really wasn’t worth the time or money spent making and distributing the zines so I’m not going to do any more this year. I know that some of you will be disappointed but that’s the way things go.
The biggest change from last year to this year is myself. Yes, I am a year older but my health has gone down a bit. I have an old injury in my left hip that was repaired a long time ago but I’ve now developed osteoarthritis in it. Last year I was able to walk normally most of the time (although I did limp if I overextended myself by doing too much walking or other physical work). This year I’m walking with a limp and I use a walking stick whenever I have to walk around outside for any great distances. I’ve consulted an orthopedic specialist and he’s recommending that I undergo a hip replacement, especially since my left leg is now a little bit shorter than my right leg, thanks to the osteoarthritis.
But, before I undergo the surgery, I have to lose weight and do exercises to strengthen my hip. As a result, I’m still able to participate in Artomatic since I won’t be able to undergo the surgery until July at the earliest.
Having osteoarthritis is a bit of a bummer. I get more physically tired than before, partially because of having to take prescription version of ibuprofen (which has drowsiness as a side effect) and partially because it’s just more physically taxing to limp around. My current condition was a major factor in my decision to focus on smaller photographs than my larger canvases since the photos are easier to cart around than a big canvas. Since I decided to eliminate the zines, I will find Artomatic less taxing than last year.
I will be at the opening tomorrow night with my husband. This weekend I will be working as a vendor at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. I will have a packed schedule.
I’m Doing Pretty Well at Artomatic This Year, May 26, 2008
So far I had someone who wanted six copies of my “Shalom Y’all” photo because she wanted to give them away to her Jewish friends. I also have one other person who may be potentially interested in purchasing something from me but I haven’t heard back from him.
So far I took part in a drawing workshop on Opening Night and I’ve also worked one shift so far. (It happened to be on the same night as the “Meet the Artists Night” so I couldn’t be at my area, with the exception of a brief break that I took around 8 p.m.) Right now I’m typing this entry from a hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina but I intend to participate in more Artomatic events once I return.
I happened to be in Charleston at the same time as their annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival—an art-filled festival that includes special exhibitions at area art galleries, special theatre shows, special musical concerts, and a crafts fair. I intend to check out the crafts fair at least. I also intend to visit the City Market, which is filled with stalls of people hawking food items and various types of crafts. It’s also where a local African-American group of people known as the Gullahs sell their speciality craft–making baskets, vases, flowers, and other items out of sweetgrass.
Well, anyway, see ya later!
My Artomatic Videos, June 2, 2008
This year I’ve been doing more at Artomatic than just showing my artwork and attending a few events. I’ve also been taking photographs and shooting video. I haven’t decided what I’ll do with the photos yet but I’ve already edited and uploaded three short video clips on my YouTube account.
All three videos are of the firedancing troupe known as Flights of Fire. I shot this during the second hour of their show on May 16. (I missed the first hour because I was finishing up the last hour of my own volunteer shift during that time.) I was pretty exhausted after working my five-hour volunteer shift so I basically went outside, sat down, and unwind a bit by watching the group perform the rest of their show. I happened to have my videocamera with me so I filmed them as they did their various fire tricks to some lively dance music.
This first clip is a general highlights reel as I focused on the troupe’s most spectacular firedancing tricks:
The second clip is a very sexy and erotic routine that is performed in its entirety:
The third clip is the grand finale that is also performed in its entirety. Imagine a bunch of people dancing and swinging flaming torches at the same time and you’ll get something like this:
Two More Artomatic Videos For You to View, June 5, 2008
I shot two more videos at Artomatic that I’ve uploaded to my YouTube account. The first one is the Peeps artist reception that was held on May 31, 2008.
The second one is the first-ever Artomatic 500 cardboard car race, which is just as hilarious as it sounds.
Enjoy!
A Posting From Artomatic, June 13, 2008
I’ve just finished the third required volunteer shift over an hour ago and I’m waiting for this workshop on “Urban R & D: Developing a Community Research and Design Lab” to begin in a few minutes. Actually volunteering wasn’t too bad despite my totally arthritic hip (which has given me a bad limp in recent months and has definitely put a crimp on my mobility) because I was given desk jobs. (I worked the front desk on the first floor the first two times and I worked the fourth floor this final time today.)
Last night I attended the Artists’ Social. I met someone whom I had volunteered with on a previous shift and I also met up with other people whom I had met at other Artomatic events. What was cool was that I sold two of my photographs to someone who loved by two robot photos (one of the Toyota Partner Robot and the other of the Honda Asimo—both taken at a Japanese cultural festival at the Kennedy Center a few months ago).
I’m looking forward to attending Artomatic tomorrow night–they are having the first-ever Art in Fashion show, which is supposed to have fire as the theme. From the way this event is being hyped, it sounds like Project Runway on steroids.
Well, anyway, I gotta wrap this entry up and head off to tonight’s workshop.
More Artomatic Videos, June 21, 2008
I shot and posted a few more videos at Artomatic before it ended last Sunday but I’ve only gotten around to blogging about it now.
First is a video of my own exhibit, which was displayed on the 7th floor next to the men’s bathroom.
Next is a video of a couple of interactive exhibits that were done by other artists.
I previously videotaped the Peeps artist reception where I spoke with prolific Peeps diorama artist Carl Cordell. At the time he was working on a fourth diorama, “The Day The Earth Stood Peeped”, that wasn’t ready in time for the reception. I kept on going to the Peeps area for the next few weeks but the diorama didn’t make its appearance until last Saturday, the day before the last day of Artomatic. I made a short video highlighting that diorama.
I did a three-part video about the Art in Fashion show, which was the closing event of Artomatic. (It was held the night before Artomatic’s final day.) It highlighted fashions created by fashion designers in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. I had fun attending this because I’m such a fan of Project Runway and I had never seen a fashion show in person before.
After the fashion show ended, there was a big party that included all kinds of activities. I videotaped some of it but I was running out of battery power by that point so I didn’t film as much as I wanted to. But it should give you an idea of what it was like. (Some parts of this video are definitely NSFW because it includes scenes of body painting on partially or fully nude bodies.)
Well, anyway, that’s it for the Artomatic videos.
Visiting the Artomatic Site for the Last Time, June 21, 2008
I had successfully sold yet another photo to someone and he and I agreed to meet at the Artomatic site today. After the transaction was made and he took his newly-purchased photo with him, I took down my exhibit. I felt wistful as I did it but, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
Goodbye For Now, June 23, 2008
Now that Artomatic is over and I’ve picked up my artwork from the site, it’s time for me to say goodbye to this blog until the next time I decide to participate in an Artomatic.
Three months after I wrote that last farewell Artomatic post, I underwent a hip replacement followed by physical therapy that lasted until well into 2009. In early 2011 I suffered two falls within a week that knocked my hip replacement out of alignment so I had to undergo hip revision surgery followed by more physical therapy. Right now my hip is doing fine. <knock wood!>
Next in This Series
Free Tutorials
How to easily clean a hot glue gun. That one is important for those of us crafters who frequently use that tool because that is one item that can easily gunk up with old dried glue.
29 Geek DIY’s To Make Right Now includes an abacus bracelet, a Doctor Who Tardis phone charging station, and RPG dice earrings.
What is Spec Work? is a video that describes the term and shows why designers should never waste their time with spec work.
16 Creative Ways To Give Sneakers A Makeover is a great tutorial for those who are in the mood to buy a new pair but currently own a good pair of sneakers and don’t really have the money to buy a new pair or two for fashion reasons.
Browse other free tutorials previously mentioned in this blog (along with pictures) right here.
Miscellaneous Links
David Irvine is an artist who specializes in collecting old, discarded paintings from thrift shops and adding pop culture characters like Darth Vader and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. The results are interesting to say the least.
Here’s a clip from a 1950’s TV show that features an appearance by Samuel Seymour, who was the last surviving witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He mentioned how, as a five-year-old boy in Ford’s Theater, he saw John Wilkes Booth jump from a balcony to the stage where Booth broke his leg and he was initially concerned about Booth until he saw President Lincoln slumped in his seat. This TV appearance happened just in time because Seymour would die just a few months after appearing on that show. Seymour’s brush with history has since earned him his own Wikipedia page.
When I made my first trip to London back in 2007, I managed to make a brief visit to the world-famous Abbey Road Studios (where a lot of classic albums were made, including The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon) and I even walked in the same crosswalk where The Beatles were once photographed. While I saw the famous graffiti-filled walls on the perimeter of the property, inside of the building was off-limits to the general public. Google now has a virtual tour inside the Abbey Road Studios that is totally awesome and gives a fascinating glimpse of Abbey Road’s rich recording history that goes as far back as the early 20th century. There are also a few fun hands-on features as well, such as trying your hand at mixing music with the J37, a machine that was used to mix such albums as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
I only went to one high school reunion in my life—the five-year reunion. It was held in the historic Belvedere Hotel, which has since been converted to luxury condominiums. At the time I was a new college graduate and a newlywed. I even convinced my husband to come along with me even though he never attended my high school (he grew up on Long Island while I grew up in Maryland) because I wanted to show him off as a “Ha! Ha! In your face!” message to those assholes who made my high school years miserable. We decided to rent a room at the hotel that night so we could hop on a elevator going to and from the lower level ballroom where the reunion was held without worrying about driving home that night. That backfired because my husband was bored, no one cared about the fact that I married a NASA employee who was a graduate from Oberlin College, and the majority of the few friends I made in high school didn’t go. The majority of those who attended that reunion were the popular kids (mainly the jocks and cheerleaders) who looked down on me as a retarded alien freak during those high school years and they didn’t give a damn about how I married well while they all gave off this “You’re still inferior and too insignificant for me” vibe when I unsuccessfully attempted some small talk during that reunion night. I socialized with the two or three friends who were there only to discover that I hadn’t seen them since Graduation Day and I didn’t have much in common with them anymore. The only good thing was the night we spent in that hotel room, which I recall was a very fancy room with nice bedsheets and soft towels. I haven’t gone to any other high school reunions since. I came across this post called Why I Will Never Go to My High School Reunion and it does a great job articulating on why high school reunions are overrated.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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