Quick post today, less due to lack of time to post, more due to lack of time to act.

The New York City Council is voting tomorrow on Intro. 371, an essential pro-choice bill that will bring transparency to controversial crisis pregnancy centers, what they do, and how they portray the pregnancy and abortion to impressionable young women and girls.

As you might be able to guess from the title of the recent report by NARAL (above), these centers, whose ads you likely have noticed all over NYC subways and bus stops (“Pregnant + Scared?”), are notorious for spreading misinformation as part of an anti-choice agenda. If you want to read more, check out the full report here (click to read on-screen, right-click to download, depending on your browser).

NARAL’s swinging into action, asking that those of us in NYC call our City Council members TODAY! Not sure if you’ve ever done it before, but it’s SUPER-EASY and totally not intimidating in the least. Usually you get someone who’s just excited to not be talking to a raving loon. And we were happy to learn that our guy, Brad Lander, is totally already planning on supporting Intro. 371 (District 39, raise the roof). You can find your gal/guy here quickly and easily and it just takes one minute to call. Then you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy all day.

NARAL’s also asking for volunteers tonight to run a phone bank to make a final push of support for the bill tonight. Just head on over to their offices—
Tuesday, March 1, 6-8:30 p.m.
NARAL, 470 Park Ave. South, 7th Floor South

So take a minute, make a call, and don’t let the jerks win. Holla.

We know. Valentine’s Day—yet ANOTHER holiday that’s been co-opted by commerce and, thus, has lost it’s proverbial soul, watered down and reduced to the meaningless buying of terribly vapid cards, heart-shaped boxes of mass-produced chocolates, and cookie-cutter jewelry (“Oh, he went to Jared’s…”). And don’t you even get us STARTED on prix fixe dinners, man.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re not the don’t-invite-them-to-the-party types that’ll talk your ear off about how, since you’re ordering Chilean Sea Bass, you’re effectively putting a choke-hold on your unborn baby or anything like that. On the contrary—we spend much of our time making fun of those types. I mean, how many people do you know that went vegetarian or stopped going to the circus because they were yelled at or guilted into it by the higher-than-thous? Not many, and there’s good reason for it.

But I digress, our point is, yes, Valentine’s Day could very easily be viewed in a realistically negative light. Why do you need Hallmark to tell you that you should do something for someone you love? You don’t. But, that said, I personally love an excuse for any sort of celebration. There are far, far, far too many moments in life that genuinely call for remorse or sorrow or hard work to make things better, so, in my mind, I will take any and every opportunity to celebrate a damned thing. Even if that damned thing has a copyright mark by its title. Thus my penchant for drinking heavily and singing Irish folk songs in March and my strong desire to smell a pine tree indoors and give prettily wrapped gifts in December and my unwavering habit of inviting far too many friends over to eat far too much food in November. So it comes as no surprise, to me at least, that I very unashamedly feel the need to celebrate my love for my dear wife February 14th, despite the fact that I know little to nothing about this St. Valentine or his supposed sweet tooth. Does that mean I don’t want to celebrate said love every other day? No. But, on the 14th, I get a free pass to go a little overboard, and I like that.

To that end, I have a suggestion for anyone reading who may feel a similar need to, say, buy jewelry or some such pretty thing for a loved one—check out Falling Whistles. Because, in this case, you have the opportunity to pair your desire for gift-giving with your desire to do some good in the world—100% of the proceeds from your purchase of a snazy, cool, and unique Falling Whistles necklace or any other merchandise will be used to restore the lives of war-affected kids in Congo through rehabilitation programs and stateside advocacy. If you don’t know what’s going on Congo, don’t feel bad—it’s woefully underreported here in the US. We were recently exposed to the conflict there and just how terrible and wide-reaching it is through some educational work on conflict-related sexual violence for UNIFEM and simply couldn’t ignore what we learned. We strongly urge you to check out FW’s site because they put everything into context and explain the situation much more adequately than we could. In short, though, it’s a living hell on earth for the people who live there and stands as one of the largest and deadliest wars since World War II. And the good people at FW, who have been there and seen this first-hand, are trying to do something about it. Of course, there are many, many worthy organizations that have been doing good work there for years, but we feel the need to call out Falling Whistles. They’ve created another access point for people to learn about the tragedy going on there and exposed many who may have never heard a word about it to this cause.

Each whistle comes with a very nicely done little ‘zine that explains the story behind the group (why a whistle, for instance) and what’s going on in Congo which, yes, is a very sad but still heart-warming read. And each whistle can be worn with pride, acting less as a totem of ‘hey, look, I care about this thing’ and more as a sign of protest—’hey, I learned about this thing and I won’t ignore it.’ So, if you’re looking for that perfect gift, fuck Jared. Go with this instead.

Nikki McClure has held a place in our hearts for a long, long time. First, in college, as an independent musician, then, later, as one of favorite visual artists, taking single sheets of paper and carving into them a detailed, whimsical world of beauty and grace. So, needless to say, we were beyond excited and unbelievably humbled when she agreed to do an interview with us. Below, we talk about her papercutting process, misheard lyrics, and, of course, crows. All images © Nikki McClure (obvs).

So, for anyone who doesn’t already know your work, can you briefly describe what you do and how you do it?

Nikki McClure (NM): I cut images from paper using an x-acto knife.

KoR: Well, THAT’S a bit of an understatement. How long does an average(-ish) paper cut take you?

NM: I usually give myself a week, but sometimes it takes longer. The week timeline is usually a combo or procrastination and scheduling.

KoR: And do you always work from a single sheet of paper? I feel like that’s understandably one of the most impressive parts of your process to us.

NM: Yes. But sometimes there are separate pieces, but that’s very rare. I like to keep it all connected—a visible example of interdependence.

KoR: So there’s an artistic significance to the process or is it mostly a structural thing?

NM: Yes and yes. It started out as structural, a game, a challenge—the set of rules that I operated under—like math. But the artistic significance has been revealed slowly. We are all connected.

KoR: Nice. Are they always in black only originally?

NM: Mostly. Sometimes I will add an additional color, but it has to be the right color and the right paper. I like black and white.

KoR: It is classy. So, then with some of the prints based on your paper cuts, you add color, correct? Is that a silkscreen thing or a computer thing?

NM: It’s a computer thing. The images that most people see of my work are the graphic versions of my art. I sit in my friend’s basement and work on it directing him over his shoulder, or I scan and send it and we do it all via email. Hands-off.

KoR: We actually have a little old apple book that looks like it was colored in with red crayon. Guess that doesn’t happen much anymore eh?

NM: Ah, hands-on. Yeah…I have tied a lot of ribbons, punched a lot of holes, colored in a lot of red apples….that book has my 1st papercut as the illustration on the first page. It will be reprinted in 2012 by Abrams. No hand coloring this time.

KoR: I should hope not. So, do you ever get near the end of a piece and totally, say, take out a tree that supports the whole thing and have to ditch it all?

NM: No. Usually I mess it up earlier than that! Every piece has mistakes. None are perfect. I usually make do…or even better, believe that it is doomed and then I just keep going liberated from the fear that I will “mess it up”. It is already messed up and now I am free to try new things since I can’t mess it up more!

KoR: Very Zen. So, how did you get into this very specific realm of art? Were you ever into traditional Scherenschnitte?

NM: I had a period of folded scissor-cutting but it was mostly Valentines. I started with technical pen and ink, moved to scratchboard, then linoleum, then papercutting. Each step was consciously trying to move away from a technical tendency in drawing. I wanted to make mistakes. I wanted to make it not be perfect. Drawing with a knife is my therapy.

KoR: Certainly one of the more constructive ways to express yourself with a knife…. It seems like the subject matter in your art has been veering more and more toward the natural world and ‘simple’ living—farming, manual labor, sewing, canning, birds in trees. Is that just a reflection of your day-to-day life or should we pull more meaning from the subjects?

NM: I make pictures about my life. So yes, it is a reflection of that living…yet I also make pictures based on a broader community-based memory. I concentrate on evoking memory, from last week to ten thousand years ago—things that humans do. Positive things that humans do, I should add. I focus on our strengths: Hands, tools, dreams. We need to remember what we are fully capable of. It is not shopping or typing at a computer (I am making chicken soup and just revived the fire during this interview).

KoR: About all I can handle is coffee-drinking while I type. And even that’s a little dicey. So, for both Katie and I, much of our development—artistically, morally, educationally—took place when we were in college together in the early and mid-Nineties and we inundated ourselves with the Riot Grrrl and new new punk movements. So we’re familiar with you as an artist in two ways—first, in your work with K Records, Kill Rock Stars, and your own, edgy vocal-centric music; then only later did we come to know your visual work. While we’re big fans of both of these artists, it does seem like a big gap to bridge in terms of style and subject matter. Did one realm of work lead to the other at all?

NM: It is still the same me! The music definitely gave my voice confidence but it was nicer to just stay home and make a book that one person WANTS to read—maybe with a child in their lap—as opposed to sleeping on floors and waking up next to a pit bull (“Dont worry, he’s nice!”) and making people listen to me un-miked in a bar when they just want to hang out with their friends without some lady yelling at them (nicely…in a singy-sort of way). There’s less stage fright involved and now I get hotel rooms and 11AM story time tours. But the music was an awakening. Now my voice is refined and printed. No more yelling. Even the words I use are not in your face…but suggestive reminders.

KoR: I was personally always a huge fan of the song, “Omnivore”…though I was constantly singing the words wrong, it turns out.

NM: That is perfect. You made up your own song. I like that my pictures have a very specific memory for me…yet they evoke a different memory to others.

KoR: I don’t know…I think I was singing something like, “Baby I’m on the voor”…. I’m bad with lyrics. So, are you still involved with the Olympia music scene at all or has it all evolved from music into…I don’t know…organic bakeries and local bookstores as its members have grown?

There are bookstores, bakeries, burritos, clothing stores, and cafes that are punk-based ventures. It has been exciting to participate as reader and eater.

KoR: You’ve been somewhat of a keystone seemingly in the Olympia community for years now. How have things changed there?

NM: Ahh…to be a keystone. I have been here a long time! About the same time I had a child (6 years ago), there was a cultural exodus from Olympia to Portland, mainly. I became a hermit in my Mom Cave. BUT, there is still Evergreen State College and there are still young dreamers and makers arriving all the time. A handful stay and CONTRIBUTE!! So that is still the same yet ever evolving.

KoR: Over the years you’ve translated your work into a variety of formats—books, posters, amazing calendars, notepads, shirts…. Any new products in the pipeline we can get excited about? Life-size paper cut sets for the stage? Capes?

NM: Capes??? You may have something there. I am dreaming of large silk-screen duvet covers.

KoR: Those would SO do well. Can we call dibs on a crow one? Now, in closing, and speaking of, we have to ask—what’s with the crow fascination?

NM: There are crows everywhere in Olympia. I keep time by them. They are me.

KoR: Crow clock. Amazing. Why didn’t we think of that?! Alright. Lightening Round. New band/music you’re listening to lately?

NM: Tender Forever.

KoR: Favorite recipe?

NM: Kale salad—massage the kale with salt, add some apple cider vinaigrette, some chopped apple, toasted sunflower seeds, golden raisins.

KoR: Yum. Best place in Olympia?

NM: Home.

KoR: Do they do brunch…? Cat or dog person?

NM: Bird.

KoR: Of course! Favorite piece of your own, ever?

NM: The one I am about to make.

KoR: Nice. Totem animal?

NM: Crow. Duh. Or chicken, according to my son (he gets to be a puma…grrrrr—I mean “cluck!”).

KoR: Favorite area artists that’s not you?

NM: Marilyn Frasca.

KoR: Odd thing not many people know about you?

NM: My ears are lopsided, so I can’t wear sunglasses comfortably.

KoR: Ah. My head’s weirdly thin, so I have to wear, like, designer kids’ sunglasses. Boooo. Finally…can we be crow buddies?

NM: Cawww!

Whether you’re of the mind that horse-drawn carriages are quaint, charming throw-backs to a time long-lost or you think they’re a totally cruel, unnecessary, inhumane tourist trap, you most likely at least agree that shouldn’t be used up and thrown away—literally sometimes—with the garbage. But that’s what’s happening with some of the carriage horses from New York City. As is, there aren’t any governing laws that require any documentation whatsoever when the horses are taken out of the city. So owners can do pretty much anything they want with these animals.

So take, like, one second, and sign this petition at change.org. It proposes the radical (italics denote sarcasm in this case—I’m not an ironic qoute marks kinda guy) notion that owners of carriage horses in NYC be required to sell the animals to private individuals or legit animal sanctuaries. Nothing crazy.

As you may have already guessed, we happen to fall in that second camp, by the by, and think that the whole industry is fucked, and guess what? That lady from Glee agrees with us! …though she didn’t use that exact wording. Check out her totally not lip-synched video below. It’s actually very enlightening and well-done. Then, if you want to speak up for the 200 horses working day in and day out on the rough (currently super-snowy) streets of New York, take another quick second and visit this site. Seriously. Like, seconds to speak up for these poor creatures who can’t speak up themselves.

And thanks!

Photo above, courtesy of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages; video, courtesy of NYCLASS/PETA; and poster image by us, from a campaign we did with NYC vegan shoe store, MooShoes a couple years ago.

You know how you sometimes come across something—usually something tiny, something you can easily hold in your hand—and it totally intrigues you, totally pulls you in? Whether it has a much of a function or a purpose or not, you want to take it with you and make it part of your life somehow. Well, last month I happened across a store that’s essentially a gallery of such items.

That’s right, reader! It’s the triumphant return of Not Just a Phase, where friends share their stories of choosing a vegetarian lifestyle. Deciding to go totally animal-free is a big deal, especially if you, like many of us, grew up eating and wearing animals without giving any of it much thought. Finally taking the initiative to make such a significant change—whether for moral or health reason—can be a highly personal and empowering choice. Which is why we ask all of friends who have made such a move to write us with their individual stories. If you’d like to share yours with us, send it, and any fun, related pics, to us at info@lunchwithravenandcrow.com.

I was extremely quiet and rarely spoke up for myself, and their songs about taking a stand and fighting back against the world, yet living compassionately resonated deeply within me. I became a vegetarian at first because it was something my punk rock idols endorsed, but in this case, it was the right thing to do even if the reason wasn’t so solid.

In the years since, of course, I’ve learned much more about countless reasons to be a vegetarian or vegan—from ethical to environmental to health and well-being and on to spirituality, but I’ll always be grateful for YOT and that initial exposure.

As people trying to live compassionately I think sometimes we (myself included) get a little full of ourselves and become proud about what’s really a very selfless choice. I had already been a vegetarian for years, probably 10 or more, before I made the connection that choosing to eat compassionately is just one step toward cultivating essential qualities like humility, tolerance and kindness—qualities that to the extent we live without, we never really become whole.

Living and growing this way has helped me see beauty in things I hardly noticed before, and for that, even on a bad day, I’m thankful.

About three years ago, a very creative friend of ours—Agatha—started something called the Brooklyn Music Exchange, which basically boils down to getting a group of people who love music together and having them create and then distribute a new themed mix on a regular basis—in our case, every month. So, one person or couple or pair of roommates sends out a mix one month in the year and then gets eleven other mixes from their various friends on the list throughout the year. Kind of like an awesome pyramid scheme. Though it can be a bit of work and the idea’s evolved somewhat over the years—CDs have become a little less common that shareable MP3s and, after some Brooklyn exoduses, BMX now more accurately stands for Borough Music Exchange—we’ve discovered countless new bands and tracks that we may never have heard without BMX and we totally suggest giving it a try with your group of friends.

We wanted to quickly share our entry this year, built around the theme of old-school Choose Your Own Adventure books and a fantasy-style quest to find “The Ultimate Band.” Many who know me know that I’m a total nerd and, in addition to growing up on a steady diet of D&D games, I was a HUGE fan of the CYOA book series. Though Katie’s opinion on freeform roleplaying games differs a tad from mine, she also shared a love for the books in her youth. So we bought a collection of the actual old CYOAs from the 70s and 80s and designed new covers/jackets for the books, staying as absolutely true to the original designs, fonts, layouts, and writing style as possible. We used a combination of hand-sketching, in-Illustrator pen + blob brush work, and some other random illustration work to get the cover art and back jacket down. The result—Katie can conjure musically-inspired mystical energies and looks pretty damn snazzy in a hooded cloak and our cat has some bad-ass dragon wings. The books, which we sent out to the BMX list, each featured a call to visit a Web site we built to Begin the Rockventure!

Via our regular Music Monday, we now extend the invitation to you, dear reader. Don your feathered cap and totally tough tunic and enter the weirdly rock-nerdy musical world of our 2010 BMX—IF YE DARE!!! Out of respect for the artists involved and because….um….we’re not made of storage space, it won’t stay up for long, so check it out while you can. And, obvs, if you’re one of the artists involved and would like me take your tracks down, say the word.

Below: The entirely sensible site navigation diagram and full front-back jacket design. Click for larger versions.

We’re trying to post more of these here article type things—due to the OVERWHELMING demand—and, as a result, we’re doing some smaller, more frequent posts. Ones where we don’t necessarily pour ALL of our heart, soul, and spirit into. Ones where we maybe don’t pull out all the stops with the electronic thesaurus. Plus it’s like nuts balls awesome out. Who wants to work/blog/pretend to work in an office on a day like this? Who? Dimwits, that’s who. Dunderheads. Real saps. Clods, in fact. Mmmm. Right-click thesaurus.