Coffee Becomes Art

photo Eric Tank

Video Hybrid Media Co.

MadCap Coffee is the ArtPrize venue for the Beerhorst Family this year.  Our project is called Perspective Lifters.  Our team meets once a week to develop our project vision and develop specific tasks.  We are creating a site specific installation that will inside and outside.  We want to take the lessons learned with Plan B in 2010 for pulling a team of creatives together to create an inviting art experience that grows organically in a specific place. 

MadCap takes their relationship with the farmers growing their coffee beans seriously.  They are trying to brew the best possible cup of coffee they can, roasting the beans right on site.  They also see their customers as their partners in business.  The up shot of all this is a place that has great coffee and warm atmosphere. They have created a place where people come together to meet or just take a moment to relax in the midst of a busy day.

The World Wants To Change Now

Where Do We Go From Here? Occupy Wall St. from Ed David on Vimeo.

 I love this video and I love the OWS movement.  It can't be stopped anymore than the cold weather and the falling leaves. 

When we created Plan B last year we wanted to begin a conversation about our future.  Last year I was overwhelmed by a sense of impending collapse on a very large scale and yet I saw everyone around me simply going along with business as usual. To watch people go about their routines you would think that no change was necessary. We chose to use Art Prize 2010 as a context to bring people face to face with what huge changes may be lying in wait for us in our very near future.

I think that the OWS movement is composed of people around the world that have chosen to leave their typical routines in order to bring attention to the incredible injustices we have become numb to. Large corporations have highjacked our political system and have only left us with a husk of democracy that isn't anymore alive than a well prepared corpse in an expensive casket. Big money and corprate lobyists get it done in Washington. Regular people are hitting the streets demanding their voice to be heard. There is a small cluster of people that hold the majority of the wealth in this country and that needs to be shook loose. I remember Ronald Reagan promising it would trickle down but it never did - so now we are sharpening a stick to start poking some holes.

Music Brings Heaven Down To Earth

Last night The Wealthy Orphans had a band rehearsal and there was a moment in the middle of one of the songs that I felt lost in the beauty of the sound and when it came time for me to begin singing the next verse I had no words.

Making music is a wonderful and mysterious process.  It is a rare opportunity for a cluster of people to come together in a unique way that is both intimate and social.  There is a undeniable power released in music making that touches the spirit in a way that is deep and profound.

During our Plan B project last fall we had a quote by the philosopher William James written in paint on our kitchen wall that went like this;

               "I do not sing because I am happy but I am happy because I sing"

I love this simple thought becuase music, like other art forms makes a crack in the heavens that allows glory to begin leaking through.