I wish we could quantify and visualize our emotional wounds the way our faces shrink, our skin discolors and our bellies enlarge when the liver explodes and the kidney powers down. I wish an arm would fall off after a divorce. I wish our ribs would shatter or our necks would crack and that we’d stumble around with braces and bandages instead of button-downs and stilettos, pretending to be whole.
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Life has been a bit crazy and stressful for me lately (hence, a lack of updates…even more so than typical). Between work, and side projects, and family, and relationships, and interviews, and ideas, and meetings, and financial issues, and being nomadic, and life decisions, I just have been non-stop moving, sometimes robotically, which is completely not my style.
I’ve been feeling especially disjointed these past few days. Waking up this morning was difficult because I was just drained — mostly emotionally and spiritually but a bit physically too.
Eventually, I got up from the slab of ice I slept on last night (no heat), went to my computer, and got on my grind. After a while of working, I checked my TweetDeck and saw more than one tweet about the Holstee manifesto (see below). Evidently, they launched a new a LifeCycle film of the manifesto.
It totally made my morning better and reminded me of who I am and what I believe (sorry if that sounds cheesy or dramatic or cliche — but there’s no other way to say it). You can read their manifesto below or just watch the video.
Back in May before I started my Tour de Asia, I moved out of my NYC apartment. Actually, I moved out of NYC altogether. For the first time in nearly 6 years, I have no real address in the city listed under my name! Bizarre.
Anyways, since I was going to be gallivanting across the globe, I stashed most of my belongings at my parents’ house on Long Island. Now I’ve returned and am going through my apartment items as well as cleaning through my past. My childhood and adolescent memories are all here in this house.
I came across a t-shirt that I made when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. It was at a t-shirt making birthday party for Danielle M, who was my best friend in elementary school and who lived a few blocks away from me growing up. I remember all of us sitting around her patio table armed in our smocks and with our fabric squeeze paints. Most of the girls were drawing dogs and cats on their plain white tees or writing their names across the chest and adding embellishments of crowns and flowers. One girl, I still remember, wrote “princess” on her shirt, which I think made even my seven-year-old self cringe a bit.
I also remember thinking that if I were going to make a t-shirt, it was going to be a meaningful one (as if it were a tattoo or something, ha). One that I would wear proudly even when I was in 3rd or 4th grade! I’m not sure why I thought this since my mom and I did t-shirt painting rather frequently when I was a child. But I remember thinking really hard about what I wanted to put on my shirt because I ended up being the last girl to start her shirt and finish too. I was still at the table carefully squeezing my paint tubes while most of the girls were on the swings playing. And when Danielle’s mom came around to check on me, I remember her reaction. She expressed something along the lines of the design being an interesting choice or being different — I can’t quite remember — and then, I remember distinctly, she kind of bent down, squeezed my shoulders, laughed, and said, “Oh, Gabbie Tang, you are a special child.”
Haha.
Thank you, Mrs. M, I was and still am, I think.
I don’t think I ever ended up wearing it outside of gym class because I didn’t feel that I had time to really decorate it properly (and as an aspiring artist, I couldn’t possibly display an art piece that was unfinished or didn’t adequately represent me as an artist!). But I kept it and I’m glad I did! Seven-year-old Gabbie had ambitions that I hope present-to-future Gabbie can fulfill one day, haha.
(Brian just said to me, “Oh, Gabbie Tang, some things never change.”)
New original song by Cheryl Chin…so beautiful 
Send her some love!
At the end of my last post about handouts, I asked if anyone knew of a socially conscious shoe company. Amazingly, this morning, Changemakers provided me with an answer!
BucketFeet is a Chicago-based shoe company that just launched in the past months. It was founded by Aaron “Bucket” Firestein, who began drawing shoe designs back in 2007 in his University of Oregon dorm room. A year later in Argentina (is that where all shoe entrepreneurs get inspired??), he met Raaja Nemani who became an early customer. In May 2010, Nemani reached out to Firestein again and together, they developed the plan for “Buy One, Build A Community.”
The BucketFeet model — which Changemakers’ John Converse Townsend renamed “Buy One, Give Some” — differs from the “Buy-One-Give-One” (BOGO) approach that TOMS and other current “social shoes” companies take on. Rather than handouts and drop-offs, BucketFeet donates 5% of every purchase to encourage and spread music, sports, and art to at-risk children and youth — locally in the States as well as overseas.
Among their partners in good are love.futbol (“empowers impoverished communities to build simple, safe, and accessible soccer fields for at-risk youth; they transform soccer from a game into a catalyst for youth development, hope, and inspiration”), MAGIC (“world-class stringed instrument program for kids in the South Side of Chicago”), and Children Mending Hearts (“an arts program for homeless children in the U.S. and in conflict zones around the world”).
And on an added level of interest and ambition, BucketFeet also seeks to build a global artist collective. Humble artists are offered a flat fee for contribute shoe designs as well as royalties on resultant sales. Firestein states that he wants to build a community among artists and consumers as well, utilizing the website as a forum for shoppers, followers, and supporters, and a showcase for artists.
“That’s a core value of our community concept – having a group of international artists with similar goals, all making the world a prettier, more thoughtful place. And doing it with a lot of talent and passion.” – Firestein
Yeah, BucketFeet is still a Vans-like slip-on shoe but Firestein and Nemani are working on expanding and developing new lines and designs. Regardless, it’s somewhat refreshing to see the BOGO model finally get booted out of the social shoe sector and replaced with a focus on development and community building. Thumbs up for now.
(Note: I’m still waiting for a company to source its shoes and materials from a local community directly — anyone have any leads there?)
I’m a huge lover of spoken word. I’m also a huge lover of the Gospel message.
G.O.S.P.E.L. by Propaganda from Humble Beast.
This is pretty awesome. Undoubtedly one of the coolest, most creative wedding invitations ever. Read the rest of Kelli Anderson’s post for details and pictures.