May we have a long year filled with art, an attempt at peace and everything that makes us feel good. It's so cold here in Los Angeles right now, I'm about to zoom into Hollywood...but my dog curled up into a tight little ball on my cozy bed right now looks appealing too...all the best to all the great contributors to fp in the new year.

The MANIFEST HOPE: DC Gallery celebrates that role and shines a spotlight on artists who use their voices to amplify and motivate the grassroots movement that carried President-Elect Barack Obama to victory.

It's really sad that there still has to be a title for an Agenda called "Women." That being said, I am at least grateful that there is one, and one at that that does not involve stripping more rights away. Check out the section on the Change.gov site and ask your own questions. You can vote on mine if you click on the link "lidaswan." The question I posed is this:

"How soon will you begin to reverse the recent ideological Bush anti-choice ruling to limit women's freedom of choice (including birth control) from federally funded health care providers?"

lidaswan, Los Angeles, CA

- Health Care

Got my Christmas jolt this morning in San Francisco with a sharp flash of lighting and thunder loud enough to shake the bed...it's dark and rainy outside, coffee's on, Happy Holiday everyone!

Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret's installation based work centers around a utopian narrative titled "The Crystal Frontier" that she has been writing for nearly a decade. It is a purposely unresolved, fragmented account of a small group of women in their twenties and thirties who have moved to the desert to escape a life codified by Western capitalism, following their activist leader Beatrice Mandell "...starting with a core group of women who would have to learn how to be perfectly self-sufficient before being able to include men in the community." - SF MOMA

The exhibition really feels like you're walking into a new world - like a hippie commune on the moon. Metal and glass sculptures, silkscreened wall paper prints, papier-mâché, and my favorites, her glazed ceramic pieces of "artifacts," cast faces and hair, create this feminist lunar landscape.

Just got back from San Francisco and on one of our many walking adventures we came across this awesome art-filled alley near Valencia & 16th. I particularly liked these huge girls and the organic deer-girl.

I heard this on Democracy Now this morning...I just think this story is awesome and this guy needs more recognition...

"In a national broadcast exclusive, University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher explains how he “bought” 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from drilling. The sale had been strongly opposed by many environmental groups. Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said, "This is the fire sale, the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.” For the rest of the transcript click here to go to Democracy Now's website.

My yoga teacher extraordinaire, Krista Cahill, is also a hot blonde babe who models for Jasper Johal's amazing yoga portraits. Get the new calendar here and get your naked yoga on.

This 4-pack of the best of Agnes Varda is definitely going on my Christmas wish list!

In the age of Photoshop, Cindy Sherman still reigns as the transformation queen.
Sherman Evokes Aging, Botoxed Dames in $250,000 Photos: Hot Art
(from Bloomberg) Sporting heavy makeup, wigs, fake nails and teeth, artist Cindy Sherman transforms herself into a cast of aging society matrons in her striking new works. The exhibition at the Metro Pictures gallery – her first in New York in four years – consists of 14 large-scale color photographs; each stars the chameleon-like artist disguised as yet another bejeweled, Botoxed dame. These unblinking portraits tackle themes of mortality, femininity and beauty.

My homeboy Gavin kicking ass on Rachel Maddow over the Pastor Warren controversy...please watch!

The Bush administration has released a rule that could allow individual health care providers who receive federal funding to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control — and then refuse to provide these basic services. A woman's ability to manage her own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology. Please sign the petition to urgently tell the Obama Administration to reverse this anti-choice measure.

It's been 40 degrees cold here at night and all I want to do is huddle in blankets and watch movies. Last night I watched the ravishing "The Last Mistress," which blew my mind. I felt the same about this film as I did about "There Will Be Blood..." the costumes were extraordinary and made me want to sink into every luscious erotic frame but even more so, the acting, particularly Asia Argento, the economy of word, the sex, the characters made me wish I could watch them the rest of their lives... like a good book you want to savor forever. It's not your typical period piece. And wait until you see the pillow lips of Fu'ad Ait Aattou (yes that is his name) crack a rogue smile for the first time...it's like a Botticelli dream spun into the naughtiest libertine. All this makes me continually ask...and why aren't there more women directors?

I love love love it. Did I mention that i love it? My downfall will always be a man who holds a cigarette like this. Ah I keep remembering that we're about to have a cool president for the next 4 years. Published in TIME magazine article (Obama's just been named Person of the Year), these photos were taken by aspiring photographer Lisa Jack, who claimed all she remembered about him was that he was "cute." To see all the photos go to the TIME site.

As reported by the AP and BBC News, a US State Department panel has recommended that Blackwater should be dropped as the main private security contractor for US diplomats in Iraq.

Rihanna, Taylor & Miley: Not their grandma’s type of feminism

I've always loved Karen Kilimnik's girly dreamy drawings of celebutantes and models like Kate Moss. They remind me of a teenage girl's high school binder doodles...or at least of mine. She's now doing video installation work with similar slumber-party flavor; her latest show in Berlin references the icon film Heathers...hopefully it will come here:

"Her latest video takes another iconic work, Michael Lehmann’s horror comedy Heathers (1989), and stretches it into a film more than six hours long—the artist rewinding and replaying scenes between actresses Shannen Doherty and Wynona Ryder like a gaggle of tipsy girls at a slumber party. The gallery’s sepulchral staging of the video echoes the many funeral scenes in the film, enhancing the original work’s black comedy edge."

I just discovered the strange and beautiful work of Australian photographer Petrina Hicks thanks to Drome Magazine. There's an eery detachment in these photographs that makes their beauty almost uncomfortable. Just lovely.

Clothing for walking on the moon wearing one's gas mask. Do I love it; it hate it? I'm still digesting...especially the fusing the arms onto the body...seems like the ultimate bondage clothing for women but then at the same time stitched up in the most beautiful nude package around. And the changing light effects..!These are my favorite comments from this youtube site: "прикольное видео люблю баленсиагу!!!!" and "little bootiful robots :D" and "fucktastic." I love fashion.

A bipartisan Senate report calls decisions made by the former Defense secretary a 'direct cause' of inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. Other Bush officials also are faulted...The document also challenges assertions by senior Bush administration officials that the most egregious cases of prisoner mistreatment were isolated incidents of appalling conduct by U.S. troops.
..."The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own," the report says.
...Instead, the document says, a series of high-level decisions in the Bush administration "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody."
...Those abuses "cannot be chalked up to the actions of 'a few bad apples,' " said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, referring to a line used by former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz in an attempt to downplay the scandal.
-LA Times report here...
--SO When does Rumsfeld go to prison??

Photographer and documentarian Lauren Greenfield of "Thin" fame has a new documentary out on HBO that I have to catch...Kids and Money...for showtimes click here.

...even in the 11th hour. Attempting to implement a new rule that will allow for individual health care providers to redefine abortion to include common forms of birth control–and then refuse to provide basic services!! Unthinkable. These people have have perpetual 1950s barefoot and pregnant fantasies that won't quit. Please sign petition here.

NYC-based photographer Jessica Dimmick's impressive bio is no match for her images. They truly speak for themselves. From heroin addicts to factory workers, she photographs a wide range of subjects with respect and grace. Check her out here.

I am happy to be blogging on such a wonderful site. My name is Vera and I can speak with artistic woodland creatures, make gourmet dinners from nothing more than a fridge full or condiments, I dream in color, and I like to eat sushi. With this said, I hope I can contribute the most tasteful of visual delicacies.

Jessica Lange was always my favorite while I was studying acting, she always seemed so fearless, like she was this blonde swinging from some type of wild tightrope...well now she's taken up photography it seems and has a book called 50 Photographs being published. I like this quote from nymag.com: “Showing them to people outside my family was a big step for me,” Lange says. “When I first showed them to [photographer] Brigitte Lacombe, she said to me, ‘Oh, Jessie. Why are you still so lonely?’ And I realized that I’m attracted to people in solitary situations that are evocative of lonesomeness.”

...just made my day! Go revisit her site and check out her editions shop! http://stellavine.bigcartel.com

I'm such a superfan because I have a soft spot and a kinship for pencil drawings...Mercedes has an upcoming show in Berlin. Go to her site for more info.

Ok, upon seeing her perform live recently at the CNN Heroes show and then reading the Rolling Stone issue of top 100 voices, in which Patti Smith said that she lost it completely when she saw this performance I had to revisit it...pretty amazing.

...has a show of new paintings at Project Room (Jeannie Freilich Contemporary), December 1st - January 4th,Opening December 11th 6 - 8; Jeannie Freilich Contemporary 530 West 25th Street 5th floor New York, New York 10001. I wish I could go!

Photographer Carolle Planque has a lovely moody photo diary that makes me wish I was in the french countryside right now...http://www.cutebone.net