Chabot Space & Science Center presents the 2nd Annual Science & Art Appreciation Night Friday, April 24th 7pm-11pm

CALLING ALL VISUAL ARTISTS

Want to showcase your artwork to a new audience FREE of charge? Chabot Space & Science Center is calling all aspiring, emerging and professional artists to come and

showcase their art or photographs during the 2nd Annual Science & Art Appreciation

Night. The specific theme for the evening is the infusion of Art & Science. Just as

Leonardo da Vinci was an artist AND a scientist, great art is often inspired by discoveries in science. The study of light in painting, led to many great discoveries by scientists such as Galileo and Newton. We are a family friendly environment so no explicit or sexually suggestive images are permitted. Selected artists will be featured for the duration of the event. Artists must be 18 years of age or older. Each artist is asked to submit a minimum of 2 pieces (electronic versions only) and a 200 word statement about their piece and how it relates to science for approval. All final pieces must be self contained; free standing pieces will be accepted if accompanied by an easel. Minimum number of submission is 2. Selected artist and 1 guest will receive free admission to the Center on the day of the event. Deadline for submissions: 4/17/09. Send all submissions to ljohnson@chabotspace.org

What is Lunar Lounge? Lunar Lounge is an event designed to attract new visitors to

Chabot for an evening of musical entertainment in the form of a DJ or a live band,

interactive exhibits; food; beer and wine; and telescope viewing through our spectacular telescopes- weather permitting. This event also features a special presentation of DomeFest 2008, a production of the ARTS Lab at the University of New Mexico.

DomeFest is dedicated exclusively to dome-work, which incorporates video, animation, art and technology in a fully immersive, hemispheric experience. The primary audiences targeted for this event are in the 18-44 age range as an alternative date night or group outing.

Lunar Lounge is held on select Fridays of the following months (February-April- May-July-October) Tickets Price: $20Adults/$18students/$15Members

CHABOT SPACE & SCIENCE CENTER — a Smithsonian affiliate is a 501c3 nonprofit

interactive science center whose mission is to inspire and educate students of all ages about our Planet Earth and the Universe. Founded in 1883, the Center is located just off Highway 13, at 10000 Skyline Blvd. in Oakland’s Redwood Regional Park.  

Welcome to April’s Synchronized Chaos issue! This time we have the privilege of featuring artists from a wider variety of genres, including independent filmmakers, several musicians, and a business consultant. Each work within this month’s assortment was highly unique and distinctive, with a clear sense of theme and purpose. Our contributors know they have something to say, and have clear reasons for choosing their particular styles and media.

Various aspects of adaptation and change served as a common thread through this month’s work. This theme currently features in popular and academic culture outside of Synchronized Chaos, through works such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point and Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. How can we identify and keep up with the changes around us? How can we survive and effectively adapt and take advantage of the opportunities presented by changing times while holding on to our values? Can we choose our responses to, or choose to direct and modify, the changes happening in the world around us? How have people historically dealt with periods of rapid societal change?

Our April contributors explore and address these kinds of questions through their art and writing, as well as concerns of their own. Authors Adam Metz, Ina Wong and Ashlee Holland provide a framework through their characters or their business models for choosing to change oneself  first to better adapt to personal and encourage broader societal change. To encourage ethical behavior (accommodations for deafness, loyal, honest friendship) or to move one’s company towards use of the latest technology, one must examine one’s own behavior and attitudes honestly before seeking to critique others. Not that any of those authors shies away from encouraging activism…but world-changing starts with oneself and one’s own approach to speaking out for what one believes.

Cultivating an attitude of curiosity and wonder also helps many people face change…the band Corpus Callosum explores old, odd technologies and bits of history to create a sense of horror/fascination and wonder at how things have changed historically. Their music brings us back to the days when people stared in wonder at Bell’s telephone or Edison’s phonograph. Missy Feigum’s paintings depict mutant animals with pastel colors, delicate little Siamese twin unicorns and pigs with extra legs…at once showing off the effects of possible environmental damage to chromosomes and touching on the childlike sense of wonder at something out of the ordinary, different from the children’s book romanticized views of animals. We can be afraid but curious and strangely fascinated at the same time.

Acceptance and taking full advantage of change can also start with acknowledging the reality of one’s fears and emotions. Shanna Gilfix’ music looks at love, loss, and questioning one’s place in life and encourages people to recognize their own emotions in the lyrics and to know through hearing the song that they are okay and not alone. Other songs inspire people to question their place in life, to sit with themselves and wait for answers from the truest part of themselves which may not come immediately. Michael’s Resignation, an upcoming independent British film about the psychological consequences of war and the global financial crisis, explores how change causes many ordinary, decent people to feel irrelevant and experience extreme frustration. The new story from M.R.C. of Chaos Creations looks into loss and grief and how those change-associated emotions hold people back as metaphorical ‘ghosts’ unable to move forward into a new reality as represented by Heaven/remarriage/new life directions. Both pieces look into how change affects different people in different ways…quick and easy adaptation is not a privilege everyone can enjoy, and how can we help those for whom change may be more difficult? Also, in both pieces acknowledging honest feelings of fear or rage concerning impending change (as an individual in terms of saying a ritual goodbye and moving forward, or as a society in terms of providing retraining/assistance to jobseekers or treating ordinary people with dignity) comes forward as the first step towards progress. We see what happens for people who cannot adapt (Michael’s violence, the ghosts stuck forever in the desert deprived of Heaven) and start a dialogue concerning how to best facilitate adaptation for those who will be disadvantaged.

Susy Flory and Ashlee Holland’s writing, and Ricci De Valdez and Shanna Gilfix’ music (as shown by their artist’s journeys, detailed in brief through our interviews) all celebrate resourcefulness when it comes to adapting to change. Locally based musicians must deal with performing to a wide variety of crowds, financing their ventures in unique ways, and often fusing a variety of styles. Susy Flory also presents adaptation by choice…coming across icons from the lives of famous women she admires, and taking small steps towards emulating them. Her work reflects a high degree of creativity in terms of figuring out how best to incorporate each historical woman’s life choices into her own…how can a suburban homemaker take on qualities of Queen Elizabeth or Mary Magdalene? Ashlee Holland’s journey through deafness involves many adaptations by necessity…but she still approaches these with creativity and honest self-acceptance, which is a choice in itself.

Synchronized Chaos Magazine certainly has adapted over the years, both by choice and by necessity. We celebrate and honor these artists who have highlighted the journey of adaptation and the historical imperative of change and responded by encouraging personal and societal compassion, creativity, and resourcefulness.

He and the small unit of men he had been with had been attacked by aircraft earlier that morning. Two dead, one badly wounded, and himself with minor injuries. Their jeep labored as they struggled to make their way to a small oasis that was marked on the map they carried, it was supposed to be neutral territory and many of their troops were in the area.

Eamon walked around and glanced into the jeep and sighed. Sergeant Anderson, the only other survivor, had died. Eamon had known it was coming, the injuries were just too bad, but it was still a frightening reality that he was standing in the desert with a disabled jeep, three corpses and damn little else. He thought for a few moments, then began scavenging items from the jeep, setting them aside and building them into a pack. He then carefully arranged the three bodies to lie in state in the jeep and covered them with a tarp the best he could to keep off carrion birds.

Read the rest of the story here:

I am a painter currently living and working in San Francisco, California. I have been painting since the age of 19 when I discovered that the skills I acquired in college art classes could be applied to the examination of my own psyche. Since then, I have used painting as a tool to help me better understand myself, creating honest, humorous, moody and expressive paintings.

Currently, I am compelled to explore freaks of nature, animals whose physiology verges from the normal. Though often considered horrific–especially when created with imperious intent by humankind- they can be endearing as well. When I stumble across their images, I find myself unable to pull my eyes away: pity and revulsion battle it out within me as I peer in fascination at their abnormalities. I know I am not alone in my fascination as images of these unique creatures abound in the media. On the Internet alone they are often the most emailed image of the day, some achieving a near celebrity status.

My latest work “Little Abominations” is a series of animal portraits rendered in a whimsical, brightly colored fashion, giving them a children’s-room feel. This initially distracts from their deformities. Once the ‘wrongness’ of the animals is spotted, the too-vivid colors and over-the top cutesiness seem cloying and twisted. My intent is to re-create for the viewer the juxtaposition between the allure and repulsion I feel for these oddities.

Missy Feigum’s work is on display at San Francisco’s Artist’s Exchange (16th St. near Valencia.) She may be contacted at catsbah@gmail.com or online at www.missyfeigum.com

 Our souls are like fingerprints. You recognize a fingerprint as a fingerprint, but each one is different from the others.  

My influences were initially conscious, then became unconscious. I started with all the music I liked, even though it wasn’t cool then. Ken Loggins…Culture Club, Boy George, Billy Idol.

There’s more value placed on originality today…you’ll get popular if you sound like yourself, have your own niche inspired by people you admire.

What distinguishes you from other musicians…what do you feel makes your sound unique?

Probably the way [my friend and bandmate] Brian Fernandez and I play off of each other. Brian is a supervising chemist and a UCLA grad….very smart and knows music theory too! We’re a real mix of educated and undereducated people.  Some know music theory, while some, such as myself, don’t.

Also passion, inspiration…I came up with Calibama spur of the moment during a performance…everyone was amazed and thought I’d spent more time on it, but it just came to me.

“Mei and I stood transfixed on the deck with our eyes and mouths wide open as we saw the sun rise from behind the horizon, little by little, as if shy of the open sea and sky.  Then suddenly, it shot up into the heavens, high and majestic, golden and glowing, giving warmth and light to the world beneath.”

Many authors convey mood and enhance setting and scene by incorporating sunrise and sunset descriptions into their novels. Ina Wong, creator of the young adult novel Su-Ling’s Treasure, handles the common literary device in a relatively original way, depicting two young Taiwanese immigrants watching from the bow of the ocean liner bringing them to 1960’s America. The title character, Su-Ling, an orphaned sixth grader adopted by an American couple, and her college-age cabinmate Mei bond through waking up early and searching the ship for the best vantage point, and continue a friendship after disembarking in the new country.

Religious faith plays a strong role in many characters’ lives, reflecting the outreach efforts of Chinese-American Christians to the recent immigrant population during this time period. Faith provides the core sense of identity and purpose which helps the newcomers survive and adapt to their new environment. The events on the ship, and the events surrounding Su-Ling’s beautiful necklace, which actually belongs to one of the orphanage’s teachers, show faith naturally integrated into the plot and the characters’ lives. Other segments of the book could be enhanced by more closely grounding each and every spiritual and philosophical thought in the physical reality of the characters’ lives, interspersing paragraphs of personal realization and growth with action and description.

Su-Ling’s Treasure offers a very human, interesting variety of characters within Su-Ling’s elementary school class, from the silly, annoying bully Big George to the popular, outgoing Jennifer to the creative, sensitive Miriam. At first glance the children may seem stereotypical, but the characterization works here as we see people through Su-Ling’s eyes, inspiring knowing recognition from many readers who remember their elementary school days. The action, thoughts, and physical descriptions balance well together to create compelling scenes, which keep people turning the page to see what our young heroine will encounter or decide next.

Along with the suspense and pacing, this book’s power comes from its lack of melodrama. Missing math homework, spelling bees, birthday parties, and other childhood events create a backdrop for the novel’s themes of repentance and forgiveness, intercultural tolerance, and loyalty among family and friends. Wong did not feel the need to ‘spice up’ the novel with more dramatic events, which keeps Su-Ling’s Treasure realistic and more easily relatable by exploring serious themes within the simple, ordinary setting. Also she demonstrates how much one can grow and learn through ordinary life, how even average events can spark transformation.

The book struck me as slightly unfinished at the end, although Su-Ling and Miriam reconcile at long last through admitting to each other that they have made similar mistakes in life. Su-Ling also finally makes her decision concerning her shiny necklace, the object and moral concern which serves as a unifying plot thread. Many issues get resolved and Su-Ling and Miriam certainly develop as characters, but I wondered what would happen once Su-Ling had to face school permanently without her best and only friend.

Overall, Su-Ling’s Treasure serves as a compelling story, not simply for immigrants, although one can certainly learn much about historical newcomers to America from this piece. I did think through my positions on bilingual and multicultural education while reading this novel, but this book is much more than an ‘issue’ or themed piece. Children and adults of all nationalities and life experiences can relate to and learn from the universal human themes of personal growth and change present within the pages.

Ina Wong seeks an agent or publisher for Su-Ling’s Treasure and can be reached at inawong@aol.com

Corpus Callosum is an independent group based out of Santa Clara, California. Known for transforming ordinary objects into musical instruments, their motto is “To Confuse and Terrify.” They explore bits of history and unusual facts and stories through their songs, and have been reviewed as ‘both behind and ahead of our time.’

Guide to bandmates by initials:

AB: Avery Burke (guitar, songwriter)
DT: Dax Tran-Caffee (accordion, glasses, songwriter)
QC: Qarly Canant (ukelele, glasses)
SH: Stevie Hryciw (keys, keys, keys)
AC: Andrea Craer (mandolin)
JS: Jason Samaha (percussion)

You have a lot of influences…were they conscious or unconscious? Does a new musician set out to emulate or do a takeoff on someone else, or does it just happen?

AB: I feel that artists (musicians or whoever else) should always remain as conscious of their influences as they possibly can. Especially when you first begin to generate a body of work. Ira Glass of the NPR show This American Life once said something to the effect that when he first started out in radio he had taste but no idea how to express himself; he had no voice and no clear artistic vision. Everybody starts out that way: you have taste but no voice. This is especially true for musicians, I think, and it manifests itself in the phenomena (well observed at open mics) that most new musicians just sound like their influences. Some musical outfits never graduate from this stage, and that suits them fine. But really good acts eventually find a unique voice – I would like to think that Corpus Callosum is slowly progressing toward this latter sage of artistic maturation. In my opinion keeping your artistic influences present in your mind while creating and performing makes the difference between referencing and imitation.

What distinguishes you from other musicians…what do you feel makes your sound unique?

DT: There is a significant compulsion in all of us in the band to make something unlike anything we have heard before, but this has always been tempered by a desire to craft quality songs and compositions with lasting taste.  Because most everyone in music is trying to do ‘something different,’ however, I think that it is actually the latter impulse that has separated us the most from our peers.

Where do you get your song ideas? Share more about your process in composing. Music or lyrics first?

QC: Avery and Dax are really the strong stead of inception for our songs. One of them will have an idea and it will be posed to the group. Sometimes they have an idea of an arrangement already, other times we work together to discover a sound that pairs well with the skeleton of the piece.

DT: Personally, I can’t help but write the lyrics first, like a poem, and then try to slap it over a silly vamp.  This produces horrible results, of course, which I present to the band and hope that they can help me sort it out.

Did/do you have a mentor with whom you worked to develop your music?

SH: For Corpus? Just each other. The songs are very collaborative, especially recently.

DT: I have painting mentors and performance mentors and puppet mentors, but I have never had a musical mentor.  I wonder if this is why music has been my most satisfying form of expression.
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