Always Remember the Love

Someone recently asked me why I "followed" the Philadelphia Eagles (I put followed in quotation marks because I barely understand football but like the Eagles because my awesome step dad and step sisters love them and they are a seminal part of my adopted home town, that's all) when I am an animal lover and Michael Vick (the notorious NFL-playing, dog-fighter) is their much-prized quarterback. I struggled with how to respond to this question because I have gone through a major evolution in how I express and act on my "more-than-human" love for animals.

I know you may think the Michael Vick/dog fighting story has been run into the ground, but here is my take on the situation:

Unfortunately, working for PETA, even for a short time, I started to feel very hostile towards anyone who hurts animals (or eats animals, or wears animals, or...). Not that, that is a bad thing. It was just that the anger distracted me from what I love, the animals. It has taken me some time to realize that I should be directing my passion towards what matters. In the case of Michael Vick, that is that (a) he did get caught and his being such a high-profile person has brought the issue of dogfighting to a national level of awareness, and (b) many of the sweet animals got rescued and are either living in Best Friends Animal Sanctuary's Dog Town or have been rehabilitated enough to be adopted out.

My heart will always be with those dogs who died under Michael Vick's cruel watch or had to be euthanized due to their abuse. But, I have chosen to honor them by directing my energy towards loving animals instead of hating Michael Vick.

And that is what I told them. I feel so much better now. I am actually inspired to honor the Vicktory dogs further by painting some of their portraits (I do dog portraits, see earlier posts) and selling them at the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival and sending some of the proceeds to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.

Always remember the love <3

Last Chance to See My Art in Philly…

…at least for a while.

I will be once again selling my wares (aka awesome jewelry, paintings, and bottle cap and wine cork art) at the Memphis Taproom’s Handmade Craft Market tomorrow from 11 am to 3 pm. From the looks of the list of confirmed vendors (http://www.memphistaproom.com/upcomingevents.htm) this is going to be a big one, people.

To get a glimpse of my stuff, check out my etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/marleysshop. Be aware, the etsy store isn’t completely stocked yet (I will probably get to that after this last craft show in Philly). So, to get the full experience, come visit me tomorrow!

One of my trademarks is definitely the bottle cap earrings (dating back to my college recycling coordinator fundraiser days (see pics below).

And for those of you who live in the city (ahem, Joseph, Tina and Cragin) I will probably be hanging at the Rocket Cat Cafe before the show and maybe at the Taproom itself afterwards.

My Dog is Cool

is yours?

Thousands of dogs die from heat stroke each year. Many of these cases can be easily prevented.

A few weeks ago I was at the local Pathmark on an emergency veggie hot dogs mission and found just that… an emergency involving several very HOT dogs. Multiple people had left their dogs in closed cars on a day where it was 90 degrees at 5 in the evening. Studies have shown that if it is 90 degrees outside it could be 115 degrees (Fahrenheit of course) inside a closed car. Luckily several people were rising to this occasion. Multiple concerned customers had already called the police. They had collected what they could from their own cars (cardboard boxes, sunscreens, etc.) to shade the car. One well-meaning bystander had found the passenger door unlocked and opened it to let more air in. They had provided water but the dog would not come out to them. I had my own doggie to take care of so I couldn’t stay but the 3 or 4 concerned citizens were clearly not going anywhere until the police got there to take care of the dog. But lots of dogs don’t get that chance.

What should you do?

First, never do this to your dog. Even with the car windows down, your car will act like a greenhouse on a sunny day and the temperature inside your car could be twenty degrees hotter than it is outside. If you will have to leave your car for more than five minutes, please leave your animals at  home. They will be happier, and so will you.

Second, make sure no one else does this to their dogs. Check out http://mydogiscool.com for important information and ways to help. You can print or buy the United Animal Nations’ “Don’t Leave Me in Here- It’s Hot!” fliers to distribute as a reminder that leaving your animals in the car can be fatal.

Here, PETA’s http://www.HelpingAnimals.com provides helpful tips for preventing heat stroke for your animals.

Here is a good check list for summer travel for your favorite furry companion, http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2098&aid=832

Visit Me… at the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival

Want something to do this Saturday? Come out and support me, my mom, the East Kensington Neighborhood Association, and hundreds of other great local artists, galleries, organizations, food vendors and more at the 5th annual Trenton Avenue Arts Festival.

There will be music all day and lots and lots of unique art to buy. The day will start out with a type of derby you have probably never heard of… the 4th annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. I know, I’ve been hearing about it for months and still don’t know what it will be exactly. I think it may just be one of those things you have to see to believe, or in this case, comprehend. Pretty much, people ride a parade route on human powered vehicles (i.e. must have wheels) ending with a run through a giant mud pit. Leave it to Philly, huh?

For a full list of artists and the band line up visit the Festival blog at: http://trentonaveartsfest.blogspot.com/. My mom and I will be selling amazing hand-crafted jewelry and other vintage/antique oddities for amazing prices. I would say look for the big white tents, but there will probably be hundreds of those, so I will say, look for the awesome colorful jewelry booths in the middle of the street 2/3 of the way between Susquehanna and Dauphin on Trenton Avenue! Bring you money, your sunscreen, your walking shoes, and a huge smile! See you Saturday!

Everyone Loves a Dog Hugger!

I used to create dozens of these advocacy campaigns daily for PETA. But I really like this one, it combines my favorite things: dogs (adopt, never buy), and the twilight saga. Kellan plays the awesome vampire Emmett and New Moon comes out Saturday!

Have you hugged a dog today?

Today’s Monopoly

Those guys over at The Daily Finance (I know, I’d never heard of it either) came up with a great idea to look at how Monopoly’s properties are valued 75 years after the game was created. Monopoly was one of my favorite games growing up (right up there with Mall Madness and Pretty Pretty Princess), probably because there were so many colorful pieces. When I would visit my grandparents in Texas as a kid, I would always fuss if anyone else bought Pennsylvania Ave. or Pennsylvania RR.

Oh, but back to the story. Monopoly was based on properties in a boiled-down 1930s Atlantic City. Back then Boardwalk was the most expensive property, Mediterranean Ave. was the cheapest, there were no casinos, four rail roads and lots of free parking. Today? Boardwalk, despite shoreline erosion, is still the most valuable area, you can actually stay in one of the vacant lots on Mediterranean Ave. for free, casinos are the main reason any one comes to Atlantic City, none of the railroads represented in the game exist any more and free parking? what’s that. In between, the yellows and greens and blues are all doing the tango around the board. Watch this video to get an idea of the changes. But me and my urban planning mind would love to diagram the changes using aerial photos from 1935 and 2010 and a box of multi-colored sharpies…

2 days down, 4 to go

This week a motley group of current students, under-employed or unemployed artists, architects, and photographers (no wonder when I mentioned that I was applying to graduate school for urban planning half of the room started talking about what schools had better historic preservation programs or studio space) converged on the Quad at PENN with the guys from DesignYorDorm.com and a crew of security guards. I decided to join them… you know just for kicks.

What are we doing, you ask? We are taking ever-so-detailed measurements of the 750+ different floor plans in the 1100+ room Quad buildings. What for, you ask? So that DYD.com can build 3-D models of each room. Why would they want to do that, you ask? OK, OK, I’ll stop playing games. The company gets schools to join and they create models of each room so that incoming students can visualize their rooms before they get there. Therefore, they know exactly what will fit, where the outlets are, how high the ceilings are, flooring type, how big their closet it, what dressers come with, etc. On the website, the students can also pick out dorm stuff and see how it will fit in the 3-D model of their room before they actually purchase. Wow, kids these days are so spoiled. What will think of next? A box in your car that tells you when to turn left?

It’s important to remember that most of the buildings in the Quad were built in the late 19^th century. You’ve got to think outside of the box here… some of our rooms have 12 walls (18 if you count those “pillars”), bay windows, cathedral ceilings, wood floors, all that fun stuff. Plus, we didn’t trust our “laser measuring thingamagig” after it told us a 17-foot wall was only 13-feet, so we measured almost every wall by tape measure! Stay tuned for reports from the next ridiculous job that Marley finds on craigslist.