Israeli human rights activists are infuriated by the government’s recent policy of immediate deportment of illegal migrants back to Egypt regardless of whether they are refugees from Darfur. I understand that illegal immigration from Egypt into Israel is a problem and the government simply can not absorb all illegals, but I really feel that it should be determined who is a refugee and who is a migrant before any measures towards deportation are taken at all.

• Read more: Israel’s Government Must Provide Asylum to Darfurian Refugees Janine Reports 8/20/07

There are few clear answers about what exactly was released into the air Saturday when the Deutsche Bank Tower near ground zero went ablaze, killing two firemen and evoking the feeling of September 11th apocalyptic horror for many downtown New Yorkers. The New York Times says the building was filled with “toxic debris, including asbestos, dioxin, lead and chromium.” Logically speaking, it seems that a fire unleashed these chemicals into the atmosphere and there will be a point in the future where the stories start happening about sicknesses and deaths related to this incident, if such links are publicly made. Apparently, demolition of the building was delayed since 2001 because of the hazardous materials that the building contained. It’s ironic that this delay has resulted in a much more calamitous situation. I feel for downtown New Yorkers.

• Read more: What are New Yorkers breathing? Janine Reports 8/19/07

It’s Sunday morning and I’m nursing a hangover, it was a late night at the Catty Shack.

I did meet some nice smart ladies who, when I informed them that I ‘work’ in lesbian media, guessed at first that I worked at GO, then Curve, then correctly guessed “Velvet…whatever!” The correct answer!

Since their answer was so astute, I asked them to blog for us. So please pay attention to any upcoming posts from some new folks on topics ranging from pop-culture, fashion, trends, film…and who knows what. And if you think you got something to say and you have dreams of being a featured journaloger, er… blogalist… journalist/blogger, contact us. Put “I want to write” in the subject so we don’t accidentally throw your email out with the rest of the spam.
with love,
Velvetwhaterver—Moon

Elizabeth Murray has been in the papers and the blogosphere since Monday morning when news of her death this past Sunday broke.

I wrote a more detailed blog about Murray for OurChart. But, The most comprehensive and I might add moving homage was written by Roberta Smith in the Times on Monday.

Murray was an influential painter known for her exuberant bio-morphic paintings. Jerry Saltz, in the Voice described Murray as a “bridge” between two important movements in art. He wrote, “She built a bridge between the formalist-pluralist-pop concerns of the 1960s and ’70s and what followed.”

It’s to Murray that we owe a debt of gratitude of saving painting from the clutches of minimalism and in painter Deborah Kass’s words “she brought the subject back into abstraction.”

If you are in New York, Elizabeth Murray’s murals are installed at Lexington Avenue (59th Street) subway station in mid-town and the 23rd Street-Ely Avenue Station in Queens.

Lexington Avenue (59th Street) image courtesy of Tais Melillo

Warning: this may be a bit of a non-sequitor. I know I promised more on “ideation of a public”, but that’ll have to wait til next week. This somewhat relates to Brazil, though, in the sense that I found there a relatively poor city designed somehow both more freely and more efficiently than the wealthy cities that dot the coasts of the U.S.

OK, so, global stock markets this week have been shaking like a crack fiend. If you don’t follow those things, let me drop the 411. The European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve, as well as a few other lesser central banks, had to step in over night while you were asleep and pump a few hundreds of billions of emergency dollars into the banking system.

• Read more: architecture and value by Mitch McEwen

Call me biased but I thought Hilary Clinton came off as convincing and capable last night during LOGO channels Democratic win-the-queer-vote forum. Kucinich down right won my heart but, probably not my vote (though I haven’t committed yet) because we need someone whose gonna win it, damn it. Obama, sorry I know he’s supposed to be charismatic and all but I found him a little evasive on our civil issues. Dosen’t he realize us queers want to hear it straight?

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I admit Velvetpark may not be known for timeliness, but we finally got ’round to posting video from Murray Hill’s Miss Lez Pageant in June (view in the player above.) Featured interviews include: Le Tigre, Glenn Marla (Miss Lez 06), winner of Miss Lez 07—Miss I Heart Brooklyn (of the I Heart Brooklyn Girls 07 calendar fame), wild card contender Lanuza Luza, the Snapshot crew, downtown legends Dee Finlay and Wanda Acosta, Mr Showbiz himself, as well as other odd surprises…

Its Friday, and its been a long one. Tami and I have been sitting at our “satellite office” at Perch cafe in Brooklyn, where the coffee is strong, the wait staff is cool, the mac and cheese is to die for and the wifi is reliable. Tami is trying to figure out how to create a drop down menu for our top nav. Since I’ve been convinced that navigation is the biggest hurdle in getting through our site to the tons of content that we have buried here. Even though our web traffic has increased 5 fold since we got the new site up and running—we still have a ton of content folks are not getting to.

So please peeps, bear with us as we work through the unlawful amount of code to make the content more accessible. In the meantime follow our weekly posts, which at this point has become an ongoing surprise to us…

On the subject of weekly posts, this is a shout out to anyone who feels they got something to say, or show. If you would like to be our next blogstar (writers, photographers, idea people) please send us an email Here.

Have a great weekend,
G Moon

I’m up at 4 am, bleary and exhausted. I open the blinds and Las Vegas is pulsing like an electric eel. Not so different from New York, and yet so different. From my window I can see where the city ends and the desert begins. Booze and 24-hour buffets in the middle of a scorching wasteland. Some kind of twist on the idea of “oasis.” My head hurts. Last night’s mini-fridge beer experiment, though fun, was not the best idea. And now that I think about it, I could have just poured it into a cup… well.

• Read more: Vegas Race Camp: Day Two, Part I by Kat Parr

Thanks to Mitch for another informative discussion on urban living. This week Mitch clues us in on dwelling in Rio (read on below.)

Speaking of living and the environment I want to draw your attention to a new start-up company, Scryve.
Have you ever wondered if the coffee you were over paying at Starbucks was actually going to protect the environment and fair trade practices? Are your politics on social welfare and sustainability in line with the premium you pay shopping at Wholefoods? Do you want to make sure that you are investing in companies who are responsible stewards of our global community and the environment? Scryve.com seems to have made it possible to search through a database of corporations allowing you to make quick informed decisions about companies and websites. And, yes, it is a free service.

Have a good weekend and continue to check in with us as we post more behind the scenes from the DUMBA collective, Kat Parrs racing diaries and more!
xo —Grace Moon

There are many aspects of Rio’s urban character that have to be chalked off to the urban equivalent of good genes. By this I mean climate and other related benefits of being positioned perfectly in the midst of abundant resources. Rainforest, waterfront, beaches, bountiful access to some of the most beautiful marble and wood species in the world. But, there’s more. Like a woman with killer looks who also hustles a top notch career and beats you at scrabble, Rio works hard to be more than just pretty.

This photo illustrates a few big ideas that run throughout the city. You can see how lush the planting is - every sidewalk corner has mind blowing rainforest species. Now check out the sidewalk. Instead of wide swaths of cement or asphalt, the sidewalks throughout the city are made from the same sizes of stone.

• Read more: urbanism at the equator by Mitch McEwen

So - I’ve been MIA due to 2 weeks in Rio. Lots to share about public space at the equator. Afraid I’ll have to take another day or 2 to download images and gather my thoughts. Personal background info: I flew to Rio primarily to train capoeira, an afro-Brazilian martial art, for 6 hours a day in a concrete-floored and masonry-walled gym of a catholic high school. There were also rodas, ie sparring circles, on a stone sidewalk in Ipanema and under the old train tracks in Lapa (the tracks you may remember from the start of the Black Orpheo, that old carnival take on the greek tragedy). That was week 1. Week 2 involved attempting to surf the winter (it’s their winter now, windy and rainy) waves, spotting monkeys in the rainforest park and that sort of thing.

As you may have noticed by now, my little posts tend to be pseudo-professional musings on architecture, urbanism, and design. So, sifting through Rio, I’ll be posting about a few specific things: 1) materials 2) ideation of a public 3) balconies. And maybe capoeira.

• Read more: dispatch from Rio de Janeiro by Mitch McEwen