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Month: August 2010

Less Lying or More Firing?

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Varg

Serpas takes hard stance against lying in plan for NOPD A question I wanted to ask Chief Serpas on Saturday at Rising Tide was in reference to his “You Lie, You Die” policy toward the department. Just wondering if the end result will be more firings or less lying? I think it depends a lot…

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More Reading on Mac Mac McClelland’s Keynote Speech at RT5

Posted on August 30, 2010August 30, 2010 by Varg

For anyone who heard Mac McClelland’s Rising Tide 5 Keynote speech on Saturday and was wanting to do anymore reading on what she said, links and audio are below. Also, see this post from the Rising Tide blog. At :28 the story below is referenced… Gulf focus shifts, but where is all the oil? At…

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8/29/2010: The Chaos of a Storm

Posted on August 29, 2010August 29, 2010 by Varg

After witnessing the effects of hurricanes over the years of living on the Gulf Coast, one of the most amazing things about them is the chaos they create, and what comes out of it. You take a group of variables and apply the same stimulus to them, after a period of time, patterns form. You…

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Jeffrey Worshipping Mac

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Varg
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Grenade-tatooed suspect and feds settle with black farmers top Louisiana links

Posted on August 25, 2010August 25, 2010 by Varg

So, based on the hed here, I am assuming there are some black farmers on golf courses and they have for one reason or another entered into a dispute with the Federal Government. I am not sure how long the dispute went on but the African American agriculturists finally agreed on some sort of settlement…

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What Are Your Rising Tide 5 Panelists Doing Right Now?

Posted on August 24, 2010August 24, 2010 by Varg

Rising Tide 5 Aug. 28 at the Howlin’ Wolf … See below… Keynote speaker Mac Mclleland … “The goal is not to let it blow up”: A tour of BP’s relief rig Treme panelist Eric Overmyer… Treme News: Eric Overmyer Looks Back on Season One Treme panelist Dave Walker … ‘Witness: Katrina’ tells storm’s story…

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Treme Season 2 To Be Set in 2007

Posted on August 17, 2010August 17, 2010 by Varg

Perhaps in time for this? Also… Rising Tide 5 Treme panelist Eric Overmyer recently spoke at the Clinton School in Arkansas and offered some glimpses into next season… ‘Treme’ to get more ‘Wire-y’ next season Overmyer revealed that next season of “Treme” will jump a year in the future from where last season left off…

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Casket Cartel

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Varg

God and the State are embroiled in a debate concerning the nature of casket sales… Benedictine monks suing Louisiana regulators over casket sales The monks of the 121-year-old St. Joseph Abbey, in St. Tammany Parish north of New Orleans, charge the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is attempting to maintain a casket cartel,…

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Red Dress Runners: Spartans of Spirits

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Varg

On Jackson Square I have been witness time and time again to large groups of runners, gay people, pirates, African Americans, running bulls, Lutherans and many more. So I can say with a certain bit of authority that none of them get wasted like the red dress runners. Maybe it’s the swampy heat or maybe…

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Rising Tide Conference Program

Posted on August 6, 2010August 6, 2010 by Varg

There may be a few late additions but this is our most complete program for the Aug. 28 new media conference… Keynote Speaker: Mac McClelland – Mother Jones.com   Mac is Mother Jones‘ human rights reporter, writer of The Rights Stuff, and the author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story…

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3 Noble Truths

Know yourself. Know the Universe. Know yourself in the Universe.

Rev. Varg’s Artist Statement

Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.

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