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 :55 she says the government announced they couldn’t find any oil either. See story below…

Feds defend data that says 75 percent of oil is gone

I should also note this story was a favorite on conservative blogs.

At 1:17 the article in which she “got a little bit upset” is below…

Mainstream Media Helps BP Pretend There’s No Oil

And The Atlantic’s story is here…

Will the Oil Spill Really Be Less Damaging Than Expected?

At 1:42 this story in The Washington Post is mentioned…

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, how New Orleans saved its soul

Her response is here…

Sticking a Happy Face on Katrina

At 4:26 she mentions the cutting of UNO’s budget, Times-Pic story here…

UNO details plans to cut programs, staff

at 4:54 she mentions the dismantling of higher education statewide in Louisiana…

Pain of Louisiana’s public colleges’ budget cuts sought by Senate panel

Please ignore how the hed above makes no sense. I don’t know why the Seante panel would go looking for pain. It’s Nola.com man.

at 5:10 there is mention of large undersea plumes of oil still in the Gulf…

Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf

At 5:45 the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill are brought up…

Alaska fishermen still struggling 21 years after Exxon spill

New Study Documents Symptoms of Cleanup Workers in 2002 Spill Off Spanish Coast

The problems related to the distribution of information at 9:05 can be read about here…

Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News

The Economist cover mentioned at 13:48 is here…

The Colbert segment is here…

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Economist Photoshops Obama’s Picture

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2 thoughts on “More Reading on Mac Mac McClelland’s Keynote Speech at RT5”

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liprap says:

August 30, 2010 at 9:53 pm

Sorry to be the SpellCheck geek, but her name’s “Mac McClelland”, dude.

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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.