By Heidi Minx:
Over a year and a half ago, I started a column for InkedMag.com, called Inked for A Cause — it combined two of my passions: socially-minded people and my 20-year love affair with body art.
Like most tattooed people, my tattoos have a deep personal meaning to me. But about four years ago, I noticed a transition — my tattoos became more defiant.
The Tibetan flag is outlawed in Tibet.
The phrase Bho Rangzen, 'Free Tibet,' is also punishable.
Crackdowns on artists and writers continue at an alarming rate inside Tibet, and I find it necessary to make marks of protest in any way I can.
In that vein, I began recently to pursue another love of mine — cultural anthropology. I realized that there are many books on tattoos, everything from flash guides, to beautiful books of Japanese masters, to the prison tattoos of the Russian mafia.
Tattoos have transcended the alternative, and become mainstream. People are becoming more aware of tattoos’ relevance in different cultures — from passage into manhood, to the blessing tattoos given by Thai monks.
I wanted to explore this within the Tibetan exile community — and particularly those of ex-political prisoners.
I had previously interviewed a Tibetan tattoo artist in-exile — he will tattoo ‘Free Tibet’ for free.
This past week I completed my first interview with a member of GuChuSum, the ex-political prisoner’s association in Dharamsala, India.
I’m hoping that presenting human rights violations in a different slant will encourage young people to learn more, and use their voices to effect change.
Personally I’m not one to buy calendars when they’re new. I wait till the New Year and get them when they’re 80% off at the local mall kiosk. That is until Lucy Vonne a friend and model for the New York City Sex Bloggers Calendar and of course writer of the infamous Sexy Blog Time told me about this one. Not only is it filled with unbelievably gorgeous women like Vonne, but it benefits a pretty awesome and noble cause Sex Work Awareness.org.
What is Sex Work Awarness.org? I’m glad you asked because I had no idea until about thirty minutes ago. According to charities’ website:
“The first project, which launched at the end of March 2008, was inspired by the expressed need for basic information about the sex industry in conversations at the Women, Action, and the Media feminist conference held annually in Boston and organized by the Center for New Words. The result of these conversations is the website Sex Work 101, which serves as a resource for basic information about sex work and people who work in the sex industry.”
When asked about her work with the calendar Vonne told me; “Being a part of this project with these amazing women has been a wonderful experience. Plus knowing we are doing this all of charity is an even greater feeling.” As most of you know I’m a sucker for a couple of things, one of them is gorgeous women and the other is a good cause, but spending $20 and going to their site you’re helping out both. Go check them out and for more info click the link at the bottom.
South Park has been a part of my life since around 98 when the show was about a year old. By then there were Cartman plush dolls everywhere and the words “You will respect my authoritahhh” were uttered in middle and high school hallways. Now in it’s thirteenth season the show has become a berometer for pop-culture. The South Park boys have made fun of everything from Kanye to Ginger Kids.
What’s more amazing than then Trey Parker and Matt Stone constantly pushing the evenlope of what you can and can’t say on television is what they’ve done on the internet with South Park Studios.com. The website contains every single episode of the show completely uncensored and streaming to your home computer. In the era of everyone hiding their TV shows or pimping them on sites such as Hulu, the South Park team decided to just us all have what we want. For people like me who can’t choose an episode there is a “random” button. The episodes stream extremely fast on my MacBook and there is a auto-detect feature that decides how much bandwith to allocate. All in all one of the cooler ideas in online TV.
One night while waiting for Project Runway to start, Erin Anding my regular viewing partner suggested since Project Runway is the most commerical laden show on television that we record it and watch something else. She had recorded some episodes of Eureka on the now not so cleverly spelled SyFy network. I was suspect at first, being that my television schedule is already full of fantasy/scifi shows like Fringe and Dollhouse, why did I need another show about unexplained paranormal activity.
Because frankly the show isn’t about that at all. The one hour series is filled with colorful characters and a town that’s every geek’s dream come true. Eureka is a government run town that does research through a company called Global Dynamic. Inhabited by the top minds in the world, the company employs half the town and something is always going wrong. The man who keeps it all together is the former U.S. Marhall now turned Sheriff Carter. Carter, along with his debuty Joe (a very attractive gun-toting hard ass) and daughter Zoey tackle not so everyday problems like a smart house on the fritz, aliens and GD’s token genius screw up Fargo.
If you want laughs, lovable and eccentric characters and just plain zany scifi/fantasy fun, check out Eureka. I promise you won’t hate it. Check it out on SyFy, Fridays 9 PM EST
