entre nous

Friday:Someone hacked into my gmail account. Poo. Other than that today was lovely. The delicous pears on the tree in our backyard are ripe. When they start to fall off the tree, I know it's going to get cold very soon. Today they started falling, so I bought my first sweater for the chilly autumn winds that will suddenly be upon us. The sweater (or 'jumper' as Mark would say) I've been eyeing in Lululemon of course. I don't know why I like that store so much. Technically, if I had an identifiable style it wouldn't be that (too expensive!!!), but the cardigans are so thick and juicy. Like, I won't even let you try this on because you'll keep it. I could live in it. Maybe I will....as some preformance art statement (see Thursday's blog below).
Tonight I went to youth, and Ben Kennedy was preaching. He said something that gripped me. It went like this, "The world is constantly telling you you don't have enough time for God by distracting you with anything/everything. That's a lie, because Jesus had the exact same time as you had while he was on earth. He was confronted with distraction. He was confined to 24hours, and He still knew His Father and gave him his time." Time is your most precious thing to give away...who or what are you giving it to?

Thursday:
We've been researching and discussing preformance art in one of my classes for the last two weeks. I feel like I've seen EVERYTHING. From plastic surgery experiments to stomping around a stuido for one hour, to painting with people's faces and/or cow blood to getting someone to SHOOT you in the arm. Yes, this is all preformance art, most in video format, and it has deep meaning to the artist. Hmmmm.

Amidst all of these 'unique' approaches to getting one's point across, I've found some that I quite like. For example: Good ol' Yoko Ono. I've always liked her. She had everyone in her audience come up one by one and cut off a piece of the garment she was wearing. At the end, she told them to send that material to someone and tell them they loved them. Later, she explained that by letting complete strangers approach her and get close to her with scissors, she was sending the message that it's alright to trust one another.

Another man, gosh I can't remember his name, spent a year outside without ever going indoors in New York City. Apparently, a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was an illegal immigrant, and therefore felt isolated. I'm not sure how he went to the bathroom.
He also punched a clock at every hour once for a year (a different one). That was to express how our society relates to time...but to invest in something that most people won't appreciate or see for a year? Wow.

The artist I researched was named Billy Talen. He's known as Reverend Billy, and he has a church of Stop Shopping. They travel around and have 'revival-style meetings in shopping centres (uninvited), in Times Square, in universities...it's quite the ordeal. I liked the clips I saw for the most part. I agree with some of his views on big coorporations/ advertising/ sweatshops/ the environment, and some others I don't agree with at all. Anyway, he and his chior are talented, and certainly know how to draw a crowd...or get arrested. He gets a lot of publicity in the States. Check him out- www.revbilly.com

Love on your enemies,
Bethany.