Category Archives: International

Mushpa y Mensa Super Summer Update

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Hello Mushpa y Mensa Super Fans!

Yes, you see right, it’s Mushpa y Mensa’s Super Summer update, after a few months of silence. We are happy to say that in the last three months, Mushpa y Mensa have begun their “Gypsy Market Life”. Already, on this journey, we have met quite a few amazing people, like the folks at Seaglass Salvage Market, Brooklyn Arts Center, Beacon House Inn, and Satellite Lounge to name a few. We have also danced and tasted many sweet wines at the Duplin Winery’s Main Squeeze Music and Wine Festival, as well as met dozens of new, fun people at the annual Azalea and Strawberry Festivals in North Carolina. ;] We even partnered up with Wilmington’s Earth Day Alliance and enjoyed a wonderful Earth Day Celebration at Hugh MaCrae Park.

It’s been surreal so far.

It’s amazing what faith, love, encouragement, and a little help from our friends can do. In terms of our little cottage industry, we are, as you say, busting a hump. We are constantly checking ourselves on how we can make things better from our art, to our business, to our life.

We have actually just updated the “Photos of Our Peeps” page on Mushpa y Mensa’s site. We added a photo uploading tool, so you can upload pictures of you in our organic tees, wearing our amazing jewelry, hugging our lavender filled plush pets, or even just keeping your hands cool with one of our coffee cozies. :]

And in terms of our Art? Well we keep on bringing to life tons of ideas in our head. For example, we recently created 3.5 new shirt designs. A cool Octopus Olivia with an Anchor Tattoo on her forehead,as well as R6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish, Reflect, Reimagine inspired by Earth Day.

We also have new organic Pima cotton relaxed fit tops that are flying out of the truck. Here is an example of the Pima tops with one of our new designs, Argema Mittrei, a female moth. Lastly, we spruced up Robot Girl and added a cute heart. All these designs we print for the ladies, the gents, and of course the smallest people around.

Mushpa y Mensa have also been focusing on custom shirts that have been selling off Maya so fast we don’t even have time to list them on our Etsy shop!

Spread the art, spread the love.

A few questions answered…

Where can I find the Art Truck?

Follow us on Twitter @mushpamensa. We are constantly posting when and where we will be. There is also an events page on our site, www.mushpaymensa.com/events we keep updated, but Twitter is best for the most up to date information.

We are doing some art shows, markets and fleas, but are hunting to find good spots to park around town. We are partnering up with cool people like the folks at the Beacon House Inn on Carolina Beach and Satellite Bar and Lounge in Wilmington.

And for all the natives and people in the know, since we are new in town, feel free to hit us up at info@mushpamensa.com or our contact page with any ideas where to park, festivals to do or whether you’d like us to rock a party or event with you!

Are you going on the road anytime soon?

We want to explore the grounds of NC and the surrounding area, so we will keep the max to weekend trips. But worry not, we will definitely be making it into the mid-west and west-coast! Maybe even an occasional trip to NYC sooner than you think!

If you have any questions about anything, make sure to ask! We love to hear from you all.

Until the next super exciting Mushpa y Mensa’s and Maya, Magical Mobile Art Machine update we say good day!

With lots of love,

               Cara and Maria Emilia

                                                             a.k.a.

Freedom of Net

Activism, Government, International, Internet, Political, Politics, Woman Owned Business, World Wide Web, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Net Neutrality

I just took action to protect net neutrality. The FCC votes soon! Take action here: http://mzl.la/1K55aRm

In case you are unaware of what Net neutrality is all about read below.

Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging deferentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003 as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.

There has been extensive debate about whether net neutrality should be required by law, particularly in the United States. Debate over the issue of net neutrality predates the coining of the term. Advocates of net neutrality such as Lawrence Lessig have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g. websites, services, and protocols), and even to block out competitors.

Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise noncompetitive services. Many believe net neutrality to be primarily important as a preservation of current freedoms. Prominent supporters of net neutrality include Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, and Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web.

Examples of net neutrality violations include when the internet service provider Comcast, intentionally slowed peer-to-peer communications. In 2007, one other company was using deep packet inspection to discriminate against peer-to-peer, file transfer protocol, and online games, instituting a cell-phone style billing system of overages, free-to-telecom value added services, and bundling. Critics of net neutrality argue that data discrimination is desirable for reasons like guaranteeing quality of service. Bob Kahn, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, called the term net neutrality a slogan and opposes establishing it, but he admits that he is against the fragmentation of the net whenever this becomes excluding to other participants. On 31 January 2015, AP News reported the FCC will present the notion of applying (“with some caveats”) Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to the internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015. Adoption of this notion would reclassify internet service from one of information to one of telecommunications and, according to Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, ensure net neutrality.

[Source]

We have few freedoms left and people seem to be unaware of what is happening in the background most of the time. Don’t be distracted by static while our puppet government works for large corporations instead of their constituents. They are here to listen to the majority, so say no and push for the little people of the world. We only have the power together as cheesy as it sounds it is the truth.

Much love!

– Mushpa

Funny Che

Activism, Clothes, Cuban, Fashion, Gay, International, Political, Politics, T-shirts, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I see advertisements like these, a couple of things happen…

1. I laugh-cringe which is not giving me any joy particularly, but rather has the same effect as when you see someone hurt themselves really bad in those funny home video shows….it sucks and it’s not funny, but the human being sometimes handles it with laughter.

2. I get angry, because this is not a joke. Holy shit, this is real.

3. And finally I get scared…because the “activists and revolutionaries” are getting 15% off the entire store, and they are buying it…….

Ironic and funny che

Let’s keep fighting against this surreal funny home video until the end.

Hasta la victoria siempre…

Mensa

Blood on His Hands

Activism, Art, International, News, Poetry, Political, Politics, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Obama Blood on His Hands

American “Citizens” being killed overseas?

By our own government. No trail. Just Boom. It’s a dirty war.

This Big Bro is watching you, me, and us. 

Sometimes I really just don’t know.

And that is what scares me.

We don’t know.

Today in the news, 10% of elementary schools

(the Separate but Equal Blacks and Browns)

in Chicago are closed down. No funds.

Mo’ Money for the Duurty wars.

Money for a little Gitmo, in a little island will keep them shut.

No law, no man’s lives. And 100 days of hunger? Force fed like foie-gras.

Mr. President Hussein, may I call you by your Middle Name?

You have a dark stain in you slacks. 

That law. That pen. Just Exploded in your pants.

Why do you use red ink? Phew! No worries Administrators!

It blends in.

And the stain in your hands?

It’s permanent ink.

——————-

This is how I feel.

-Mensa

We Are Moving in the Right Direction

Ecuadorian, Environment, guatemala, International, News, Political, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I want to dedicate this post to Guatemala, and all the people who have celebrated and achieved justice. Never has a former head of state been charged and convicted of genocide and abuse of human rights, and now in Guatemala history is being made.

Rios Montt is sent to jail for the torture of thousands of innocent and unarmed civilians in Guatemala, and it just shows me that even though progress is slow, we are moving the right way. This is amazing.

Part I

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5ay-L2xfM&w=560&h=315]

Part II

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Mp9ytIX-c&w=560&h=315]

Felicitaciones Guatemala!

Check out this DemocracyNow! Special, that covers a bit of whats going on.

It also, like many times in Latin American history, poses questions of how the United States and the CIA’s role influenced these genocides. Because the Guatemalan government didn’t arm itself.

But to leave in a more positive note, indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchú, was also involved and fighting along side all people there. I really like a quote by her that says that “Peace is the daughter of co-habitation, of education, of dialogue. Respect to millenary cultures give birth to peace in the present”. Respect to our own humanity will make this Earth a more beautiful place.

La paz es hija de la convivencia, de la educación, del diálogo. El respeto a las culturas milenarias hace nacer la paz en el presente

Rigoberta Menchu Guatemala

Por la justicia,

Much love to all humans,

-Mensa