The following is an interview with award-winning international journalist John advocating here on behalf of Wikileak’s founder Julian Assange – who has been arbitrarily detained for the last 5 years in the basement of Ecuadorian embassy in London. Under pressure from the US and UK governments, the Ecuadorian government has now cut off Assange’s communications with the outside world.
“Julian Assange his organization WikiLeaks have done so much to expose the true nature of this war – the rapacious side to this war, and the dangers that it presents. Silencing him, taking away this basic freedom of speech is part of that. It’s part of the propaganda war.”
“That’s what this propaganda war is about – it is a war on speaking out. It is a war on dissent… it’s a war on journalism and it requires collaborators like in The Guardian.”
“WikiLeaks, over the years is so important because it does what journalism should be doing and that is holding great power to account.”
“The British government is breaking the law. They participated in a 16 month-long investigation by the United Nations which came out with its report. They [the British] went along with it. They didn’t like the result, so they didn’t comply with it. It’s like walking out of a court when you don’t like the verdict… that’s what they’ve done. The law is very clear Assange has long been vindicated – the Swedish case was bogus. That collapsed and the political case against him has been answered many times over, and the international case is something that is there for all to see… the United Nations has called on the British government to abide by international law, and give Assange, a political refugee, free passage out of the embassy.” Watch:
Emotion, energy and authenticity are the most import things for me when it comes to producing, recording and mixing a song. It's all about the music! Tell me about your project and I will help you to bring out the best.
Musical Theatre Demos - lyrics by Kevin Wanzor, music by Anna Dagmar by Anna Dagmar | Free Listening on SoundCloud
Oz Montanía, an acclaimed illustrator and street artist from Asunción, is one of the first people to ever have painted on Paraguayan walls back in the late 1990s. After that a lot has happened, but only very recently has street art began to gain ground in the eyes of common Paraguayans. And we owe a lot of that to Oz. As a pioneer in the country’s graffiti scene, he has worked his ass off keeping this multifaceted subculture alive and finally bringing it to an ever-growing audience. This had culminated in the opening of Asunción’s first graffiti shop and the city hosting one of the first Latin American urban art festivals. Gone are the days of paint smuggling and a few random tags in street corners. So, homeboys, watch out: Asunción is breaking loose! Meet Oz Montanía and discover the rise of Paraguayan street art…
“In Paraguay, everything happens later than in other countries”, Oz Montanía begins telling me calmly, while sitting comfortably on a red sofa in the back room of his shop. “Whereas in Brazil street art existed already around 40 years ago, it didn’t land in Paraguay until more than 20 years later”, he continues, stating that even in the 1980s, the only people who even knew such a thing existed, were the people who had lived or travelled in the US or Europe and had seen a part of this underground culture. “When I was 11 years old, me and my friends would meet up in a skate park and exchange magazines and videos that we would then look at in awe”. Gladly, Oz’s parents owned a book distribution company, so reading about things came naturally for him. Hence, he would suck up all the information he could find from those worn-down magazines.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the first tags started appearing on the streets of Asunción. “In the beginning, we were around five people… Diestro, Saturn, Legacy, Joma…spraying on walls in the entire country”, Oz tells me. “We were literally only a handful of people and we all knew each other personally”. But all of a sudden, foreign tags started appearing out of nowhere. “It was like a dialogue. There was someone else doing the same thing as us. Someone we didn’t know and that was really cool.” Bit by bit, the scene started to grow.
One of the biggest challenges in the beginning was that there was no one to teach things. Although Oz Montanía had been drawing since he was a kid, he never studied visual arts. Therefore, graffiti was something to be learned from scratch. As it was all so fresh, the good thing was that there were also no rivalries between artists. “The scene is quite different in other countries. In Brazil, for example, there has always been a huge clash between the pixadores and the graffiti artists, and the graffiti artists are very careful not to paint on the works of pixadores and vice versa. Because if they did, they could get some beef”, Oz tells me.
Another challenge was paint acquisition. Still only a year ago, there was no established place to buy quality paints in Paraguay. There was no single graffiti shop in Asunción where you could buy street art and graffiti supplies so artists would smuggle paints across borders, mainly from Brazil. “We would use whatever means we could imagine”, Oz Montanía remembers and tells me that sometimes paints were even brought into the country on small boats. “Just for personal use, not for selling”, he adds. Then, around 13 months ago, Oz’s shop, PowerLine opened. “We started this shop with my business partner, Santo, who I met at a Meeting of Styles event in Buenos Aires many years ago. He had a shop in Buenos Aires, but when the economy of Argentina started going down, around four years ago he had the idea to start a second PowerLine in Montevideo, Uruguay. Then, a couple of years later, we started this one in Asunción.” Now, PowerLine is also an official distributor of the Spanish paint brand, Montana Colors, so it seems that the times of illegal smuggling are over. At least for Oz.
Nowadays, there are around 80 street artists in Asunción. “The kids who start painting nowadays, don’t start from precariousness. They have it a lot easier than us pioneers, because they can see and learn things on the streets, in magazines, on YouTube…”, Oz says. In addition to that, many new street artists have studied either graphic design or fine art, which is quite different from how it all started. However, according to Oz, the identity of Paraguayan street art is yet to be discovered and developed.
“There’s a long road ahead of us”, he says and continues that as it’s all still very new, what Paraguayan street artists lack is long-term, constant practice. “This applies to everything in this country, but the good side of it all is that it’s super easy to develop something new and be the first one here to do it”, he says. In fact, Oz’s vision for the future is to live in Paraguay, but at the same time travel and import what he learns abroad into his home country. “Before there was a lot of brain-drain from here to other countries, but nowadays I think there’s a booming generation of people who want to make art, music and other creative things. People, who don’t want to see this place asleep anymore”, he speculates.
As with other countries, Paraguay has seen a separation between street art and traditional graffiti, but according to Oz, both parties coexist in harmony. “The common denominator for us all is that we want this culture to grow”, Oz says and adds that this doesn’t leave any time for fighting. The only challenge is that in Paraguay there are no rules. “In other countries, graffiti artists are very orthodox”, Oz says. “The rules of the game are strict: you can’t write on someone else’s work, you have to be anonymous, you can’t make money with it, real graffiti is illegal, etc., but here, people do what they want”, he says. This can be seen as both good and bad and even Oz doesn’t agree with all the rules. “I don’t understand, for example, why a graffiti artist couldn’t earn money with what he does. MCs do it, DJs do it, b-boys do it… so, why shouldn’t writers do it?”, he asks. In fact, if it weren’t for a couple of commissions received doing some big walls, the whole shop we’re sitting in wouldn’t exist. “Traditional graffiti will and should always keep on existing, but what matters in the end is that everything is valuable. Illegal or not, paid or not”, he concludes.
In August 2016, Asunción was the first non-Peruvian city to host LatidoAmericano, a Latin American festival for urban art. The curators of the event were Oz and Peruvian artist Entes. But, how did it all start? “In 2011 I met Entes and Pésimo, two Peruvian graffiti artists who belong to the same crew as me, DMJC (one of the oldest crews in Peru with around 35 members), at an urban art event”, Oz begins. “We painted side-by-side and got into talking about the lack of a more Latin American, native event”, he continues. By that time, they had all attended various street art events around the world, but the dominance in all of them was always either European or North American, which didn’t go hand-in-hand with what they wanted to do. “The main difference with the European and US artists is that they’re all very individualistic”, Oz says. “For them it’s more of a personal process, whereas for us it’s much more collective”, he explains. According to Oz, with Latin Americans there’s no need to agree on what kind of murals to do, as they’re simply born on their own.
So, in 2012, Latin America saw its first Latino-only urban art festival in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. A couple of years later it was decided that the same kind of event would be organized in Asunción as soon as possible. However, it took years of hard work before the people from the Management of the Historic Center finally listened to Oz in January 2016. “There was one person particularly, Carla, who really believed in us and fought for this project to happen”, Oz tells me. “In fact, if it wasn’t for her, it probably never would have happened”, he says. In the end, LatidoAmericano was the first project to be realized from the 40 pilot projects of PlanCHA (Plan Centro Histórico Asuncíon), a plan created by the municipality in order to revitalize the Historic Center of Asunción.
However, the approval of the management was merely the start of all the work. In addition to 3,5 years of convincing, Oz scouted over 650 walls in the historic centre, took photos of all of them, talked to influencers, contacted the artists and planned the theme of the event with them. It was decided that the theme would be: rediscovering Paraguay (Paraguay, pronounced with the last y guttural, is the original name of Asunción). After that, Carla Linares (who was in charge of the historic part of the project) searched for historic information about Asunción, although also the artists themselves did a lot of research before reaching Paraguay. “Only two of the 35 artists had been here before, so they were really curious about the place”, Oz tells me. He recalls how most of the them would go through numerous books, museums and whatnot, not only back home but also immediately upon their arrival in Asunción. “These people don’t want to just paint something, they really want to contextualize their work”, he states. Many of them also changed their flights back home, because they fell in love with the country and its vibe. “People had very few expectations on this country, so when they were here, it was all like one big, positive surprise to them”, Oz says.
During the the week-long festival, the artists worked passionately on the rediscovery of Paraguay. The end result is amazing: 44 murals in 40 different places, done by 35 artists from 12 different countries. Many different styles and techniques united by the spirit of Latin America and the mystic history of Asunción, turned from a purely aesthetic experience into a playground of past and present. Only one of the murals has been painted over by this date, because the religious owner of the house didn’t approve of its supposedly ‘satanic symbolism’. “But that’s how it is”, Oz says, “as a graffiti artist you learn to let go. Sometimes your works are there for only a few weeks and all that’s left of them afterwards is a photo or two for people to look at”. However, right now in Asunción, you don’t have to look at pictures or enter galleries to see the rest of the works. All you have to do is simply open your eyes and look around. And please do it, because this project is like a time machine which lets you enjoy the flow of present Latin American urban art whilst simultaneously rooting you deeper into the ground you’re standing on. So, people, get your asses to Asunción and check it out yourselves! And if you can’t do it, at least check out the pictures and videos below to see the rest of the works and the process involved in creating them.
The pieces of LatidoAmericano are all located in the historic center of Asunción, and as the distances are relatively small, it’s completely feasible to see them all on foot. I personally love rambling the street of Asunción on a bicycle. So, if you can get access to one, I advice you to do the same. Just keep in mind that cars are not too used to seeing cyclists on the roads and, therefore, don’t always remember to watch out for cyclists too attentively.
The following forms of massage and bodywork where born from the healing arts traditions of Japan, China, Thailand, India, Polynesia and the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula.
My studies have been broad and include cultural anthropology. Presenting this work in ways that honor the traditional healing cultures of origin expands the client experience. The intent is to practice each style as an inspired practice, sharing ancient wisdom through conscious touch and bringing the ritual of self connection back to the modern world.
Each style has a pace, rythym and quality of touch that is as unique as regional cuisine. Try them all to find the session that makes your body resonate. As creativity permits, video links will be added to enhance the selection process.
A sacred form of massage from Hawaii, combines energy raising movements from the art of Hula with deep forearm strokes and nourishing coconut oil. The sensation is like having waves wash over the body taking all manner of stress and discomfort away.
Popular in India as part of the family practice of grooming. Indian Head Massage is practiced in homes, salons and barber shops to reduce tension, improve circulation, rebalance subtle energies, and stimulate the scalp.
This seated massage focuses on marma points in the head, neck and shoulder region, as well as the upper three chakra centers. Swift movements and a light touch whisk away tension.Clients report feeling refreshed and relaxed yet mentally agile. A perfect pick me up for students, and those who find themselves in front of a computer screen for long hours.
A form of acupressure from Japan that utilizes palm and thumb pressure to bring balance to body and improve organ function. Referencing the meridian structure of anatomy based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu helps restore harmony, equalize emotional upset, and increase range of motion. Shiatsu is performed on a traditional cotton floor mat.
Often referred to as yoga for lazy people, Thai massage includes gentle compression, rocking, and percussive motions, with broad sweeping rotations of joints and passive stretching. Energies along sen lines are rebalanced, the mind calms, muscles relax, knots unwind and flexibility improves while the recipient relaxes on a cotton floor mat.
Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy™ (ATMAT) is a system of bodywork that combines massage, structural balancing, lymphatic stimulation, topical compresses and warm herbal steams to improve the health of pelvis. It improves circulation and helps release deeply held tension in the abdominal core and pelvic floor, Breathing improves, anxiety is soothed, and digestion and elimination is more robust.
***Please Note this is not appropriate technique for women who are currently pregnant or using an IUD.
On May 16th, 2015 at NOON in your time zone people of the world will have an opportunity to join hands and draw a line in the sand against expanding offshore oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing, XL pipeline, tar sands mining, mountain top clearing and championing clean energy for a sustainable planet.
Hands Across the Sand event began on South Walton Beaches in February 2010. Hands Across the Sand quickly grew into an international movement after the BP oil disaster in April of that year. People came together to join hands, forming symbolic barriers against spilled oil and to stand against the impacts of other forms of extreme energy.
Join Hands to embrace Clean Energy. “It’s the most important thing we can do as human beings” Dave Rauschkolb, founder.
Hands Across The Sand is held annually in Florida and on beaches, waterways and land all around the world. The event is intended to bring awareness about the dangers inherent in securing and burning dirty fuels and to champion a new era of Clean Energy for a sustainable planet for our children and theirs.
This year, South Walton's event will take place at Ed Walline Park in Gulf Place. Meet at 11am, rain or shine. At noon, join hands to form a long line across the beach, standing with hands linked for 15 minutes, showing your support for clean energy.
Now is the perfect time to come together and embrace a stronger-than-ever appreciation for what's really important -- our coastal environment, clear emerald waters, our sugar-white sandy beaches, and our way of life. Come out for a big group hug on the beach.
Join hands for 15 minutes at 12:00 PM, in your time zone, forming lines in the sand, or on the land, against dirty fuels. Say yes to clean energy and renewables.
Leave only your footprints. In addition, consider getting involved in a local organization that supports clean energy.
Note: Hands Across the Sand will not take place in Seaside this year. Meet at Ed Walline beach access in Gulf Place to join friends and neighbors. Other events on the Panhandle will take place in Pensacola and St. George Island.
Read more about Hands Across the Sand and Hands Across the Land at http://www.handsacrossthesand.org/. Organize local events on May 16, or find events happening near you. The website contains a wealth of information about current issues and impacts on our beaches, waters and land. Find out more about how to support Hands Across the Sand, get involved and donate!
SoWal Video: June 25, 1011. Hundreds gathered to take a stand, hold hands, and draw a line in the sand in Seaside, Florida with "Hands Across the Sand" founder Dave Rauschkolb.