It’s hard to believe its already been a year!
Author: Nathan
I’m sitting in front of my computer with the case on the floor, the monitor resting on top of the case, keyboard in lap, and mouse on a piece of paper to my side. I’m moving.
You see, my wife is a Mexican citizen. We’ve been blissfully married for the past year, living in Tijuana, and we’ve come to that point where its time to process her legal residency paperwork (the infamous green card). Even before we got married, I looked at all the government forms, got an idea of how much it would cost and how long it would take. The process is quite complicated, but I’ll sum it up: in our situation, the US gov’t requires her to come to the US, give up her visa, stay in the US for 2 weeks pending work permit and travel visa, then wait for a year for final approval. This means, she was going to take a 2 week vacation from her job in Tijuana, and everything would proceed as normal.
Enter the war on terror. The processing I just described used to happen (prior to April of this year!) on a local level. But now, with xenophobia topping American cultural charts, our beloved gov’t has decided to send all immigration processing through one office. This means 2 weeks just turned into 3-4 months. Ahh, freedom at its best. So with a special thanks to Uncle Sam, we’re moving. My wife won’t be able to work or visit her family 25 miles away until the end of the year (fingers crossed).
Here’s our new place. 7272 Saranac St., La Mesa, CA 91941. It’s actually a pretty decent place. We’re right off the highway, about a mile from the trolley, and about 2 miles from my job. There’s a large swimming pool and the rent is fair. I’ll post some pictures once we get settled.
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My MP3 Podcast button
Earlier this year, I started several podcasts for local public radio station KPBS-FM. In the process of getting them online, I modified a podcast button that was becoming popular 
. In terms of usability, I think average users are still behind the curve in understanding technology abbreviations like XML RSS etc, and opted to make it 
instead. The orange color is the only real standard at this point, and people do know what MP3s are. I posted that version of the button in April, and to my knowledge, it was the first podcast button to make this distinction.
So today, I noticed that Youth Radio is now podcasting, and guess what? They used my button!
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Keep on Crossin’ Manifesto
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to cross borders of political, social, linguistic, cultural, economic and technological construction…we will cross. For long before there were borders, there were crossers. We are the proud sons and daughters of these crossers, and we hold that crossing is a basic human right. Furthermore, we hold this right to be in-illegal alienable.
Artificial borders of body and mind and spirit must be crossed off the list. For every star-crossed, cross-bearing, cross-platform, cross-dressing, cross-country, cross-walker at the crossroads of culture, the time has come to cross.
We are living in a time when a truckload of toxic waste has more rights to cross than a human being. Wherever and whenever this is the case, we will cross.
Our crossing will be a sign to other crossers that the time has come to cross. We will cross at intersections. Anywhere we cross will become an intersection by the act of our crossing. We will look both ways before crossing, and then, with the positive momentum of humanity, we will cross.
We will cross into other manifestos. These include but are not limited to the Prague Manifesto for Esperanto, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear war, the Roxy Music song “Manifesto,” the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Plan of Delano, the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan and any other plans, declarations or manifestos that encourage, promote and reward crossing.
When the border expands, we contract. And when the border contracts, we expand. And when it is time to cross, we will cross all by ourselves.
Wherever there are tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we will cross.
Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, we will cross.
As Martin Luther King wrote from the injustice stained confines of a Birmingham jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
By wearing this patch, we declare that our garment be counted as a piece from Dr. King’s “single garment of destiny.”
And to ensure that the sun and moon continue to shine on the smiling faces of the free, we will keep on crossing.
- Victor Payan & Perry Vasquez, January 18, 2003
http://www.keeponcrossin.com
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0v3r104d to screen in Hong Kong
ILL AT EASE (Hong Kong Art Centre, July 23) is a showcase of video responses by artists and activists to the Culture of Fear and Consumption produced by the last five years under the Bush administration, the advent of Home Land Security and the recent war in Iraq. A reflection of the political state of the States, ILL AT EASE sums up the emotional tenor and extreme uncertainties current in North America.
- Norman Cowie – Terror Alert
- Ximena Cuevas – Cinepolis
- Kathy High – Zero Visibility
- Bryan Boyce – State of the Union
- Bryan Boyce – World’s Fair World
- Les Leveque – 2 Spellbound
- Norman Cowie – Scenes from an Endless War
- Paul Chan – Now Let Us Praise American Leftists
- Tara Matiek – Operation Invert
- Nathan Gibbs – 0v3r104d (overload)
- Jackie Goss – How to Fix the World
The International Festival of Cinema and Technology will screen Crayola Monologues as part of its 2005 summer tour at the Remote Lounge, 327 Bowery in Manhattan. The event takes place Saturday July 23rd and Sunday July 24th. If you’re in the area, let me know and I can get you free tickets.
The IFCT tour 2005:
- April 14th, 15th – UK – Lovebytes
- July 23rd, 24th – New York, NY Remote Lounge
- November – Orlando, FL – Universal Studios Citywalk
- November – Sydney, Australia- Fox Studios
- December – Los Angeles, CA – Sony Studios Theatre