Charks Guest Speaker Mallika Sarbhai

Here is a fascinating artistic speech given by Mallika Sarabhai. She is a writer, publisher, actor, producer and leads the dance company Darpana and uses various forms of artistic engagement to further a deep social conscience. This particular skit playfully uses story backdrops to shine the light on social injustice. She uses fun ways to express dark subjects that otherwise don't get talked about in a normal professional setting.

Hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving without busting your guts with food! Love to you all!

Guest Speakers on Chark's Corner

Here are just a couple of interesting videos of people talking about their experiences in front of an audience. I found TED a neat place to learn about stuff through a site that contains free lectures.

I will start posting a few a found interesting this week leading up to Thanksgiving to give my guest some mild, or in some cases...not so mild entertainment.

During the holidays one can get laden down with food and activity, so feel free to kick your heels up at your computer or laptop and enjoy from the same "virtual cup" as it were.

Cheers! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Not Easy Being Green, But Easy Being a Green Lizard

As you probably already know I am trying my best to be as green as possible. But, like everyone I can make some mistakes along the way. I'm still learning, and perhaps experiencing what life must have been like before the dawn of chemical pesticides that inspired the book "Silent Spring".

I don't use pesticides on my lawn and have not for about 3 years now and its amazing how the animal life seems to know this and gravitate to my little slice of eco heaven. I am inundated with grasshoppers, preying mantis and all sorts of birds that are just ecstatic that I have such a wide variety of insects that I don't even have to put out birdseed to attract them.

I admit, I was skeptical in the beginning as I lost several vegetable garden crops when my mini-eco system was unbalanced. But, now there seems to be a balance going on with the different species taking their part.

My mosquito population is down as an upswing of my insect zoo like conditions. Plus my herd of green little Jedi's seem to know through "The Force" that their little asses will be sprayed organic soap if they do not defeat the "bad" insects that drift in from the farmer's field to feast on my veg. So far it seems to be working.

Plus there has been an explosion of green lizards that seem to gravitate to my shed and all hang out around the door sunning themselves. We even had some accidentally make it into the house, so we had to run after them double time (because the insects they eat are very nutritious, sort of like the Backstreet Boys on wheat grass)

It becoming a veritable Galapagos Island around here. Maybe I should start selling tickets!

The Uninvited for Halloween

Boy, I was totally spooked for Halloween night.

Went over a friend's house under the bath of moonlight and trepidation. Had a dash of wine over some homemade pork chops and prepared myself to crawl out of my skin without my own express permission.

We watched "The Uninvited" and I was not prepared for the creep fest that ensued. The wine ended up on the ceiling. The pork chops reminded me of the goulish dead flesh flashing on the screen so I placed it down after a few bites. When I excused myself to go to the restroom all sorts of odd shadows enveloped me.

It did not help that this place was out in the boon docks. If I cried out for help, no one would have heard my pleas.

I think it was the surround sound my friend had. I do not have all the hookups to all that kind of equipment so it created another dimension for me. It was a real treat...yeah I kind of like getting scared....doesn't everyone?

I'm gonna Creep You Out!

I got spooked out the other morning. At six thirty a.m. and doing my morning Yoga... I got a knock on the door. I asked "who is it?". There was just some mumbling and nothing really coherent coming through. I kept the door closed. Then came the turning of the door handle. Someone was actually trying to get in my house!

Well, I always keep pepper spray handy on a nail right by the door so I took it out of its leather satchel and yelled that I was calling the police right now and don't try to come in or else you will get a nasty surprise. Did not want them to know what weapon I had so he could prepare to block it.

I looked out the peep hole and just saw him standing facing the traffic with a cap on and what looked like a car service person's gear on.

Three cop cars showed up and he did not move from the porch or try to force his way in anymore. I also did not open the door...no duh. The only words I could actually hear from the man was "let me in cause its raining".

Turns out he had dementia and did not know where he was. The police just carted him off and I asked them if they knew if anybody was taking care of him. He visited someone else in the neighborhood a couple days ago, so maybe they will know some info.

He is one lucky fellow as many people here sport sawed off shotguns with enough force to cut him in half.

That episode gave me a fright though. My daughter says she heard the whole scene from her room. She says I freaked out. That is a teenager's perspective. I was upset but in control of the situation.

Anyhow, how is your Halloween week going? Did you have a demented Freddy Krueger show up on your doorstep?

Picture above of my latest gothic vampire piece. Its a trapeze of fangs and pearls.

Happy Halloween!

May the Garden Of Your Heart Bloom

For all the dear ones out there going through transformation, keep the vision going.

When trudging through any of life's trials I try to think of a meditation exercise I learned from one of the Dalai Lama's books. If you are suffering mentally or physically, try to picture your suffering in some way relieving the suffering of someone else in the world. This helps us feel like our own insufferable plague of pain is not for naught, but is being applied into a worthy cause. It is just a mental exercise to help us "get over ourselves", sort of like volunteering at a food bank or visiting a nursing home without going anywhere.

Now, as far as the world's problems are concerned, if everyone worked on their own issues first, everything would fall into place.


Embrace . Educate . Guide . Transform

"In the case of such global issues as the conservation of the Earth, and indeed in taking all problems, the human mind is the key factor. ....Though these issues seem to be beyond anyone's individual capacity, where the problem begins and where the answer must be first sought is within. In order to change the external situation we must first change within ourselves. If we want a beautiful garden, we must first have a blueprint in the imagination , a vision. Then that idea can be implemented and the external garden can be materialized."

-His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (Born 1934), Tibet

New Soldering Toys

I am thrilled with my new toys. Now I can properly connect pieces together with molten metal rather than glue or jump rings. I am also stoked that I found solder that is lead free and cadmium free so I don't inadvertently poison someone through their skin. Oh joy! No, seriously some people don't really care what materials they use just as long as it gets the job done, but I'm different.

The same kind of loving care translates to food. Some of us do not even look at the labels on our food to take into our bodies. I used to be one of those people until I started reading up on the failures of our food industry. I will write about that another day. However, did you notice that the food amounts in the packages keep on getting smaller and smaller? They are cutting back on the sizes so quickly and so frequently they don't even have time to reduce the box or package size! I'm serious!

Just the other day my daughter commented that the Nutri-Grain cereal bar just last week had a bigger bar inside the same size wrapper. The new bar shrunk, but the wrapper did not...... to try to fool the consumer. We will now save a couple wrappers to catch them out next time!

This is also why I have returned to making my own granola bars, snacks and so on because it is getting too expensive to buy packaged stuff. Even people who can afford a glut of those things have taken notice. And they are pissed.

I found a new occupation: Soldering a string of aluminum wrappers starting with the largest to the smallest and display as a modern work of art exhibiting the blatant efforts of the food industry to slowly starve us to death. At the very least, people touching my exhibit will not die of lead poisoning.