I’d heard of many successful Internet love connections and I pondered signing up myself. Late one night I was chatting with two of my friends on the west coast about online dating and they enthusiastically encouraged me to sign up.

So I did.

I decided to go with OkCupid! (Mostly because it was free.) On the form, I wrote something about how I had a terrible break-up and was giving this a whirl.  I sent it over to Angie and Andrew in Seattle for approval.

They quickly responded, “No offense. But that is fucking terrible.” They explained that I shouldn’t be negative because (1) that’s not a good first impression, and (2) I’m not a negative person, so why would I want to characterize myself that way? Both completely valid points.

One’s online persona is not often an accurate portrayal of one’s 3-D personality, but I wanted to make sure that the profile I created was spot-on.  I worked on it the next day and then started an email to Angie and Andrew. As I typed, I added more friends in the “To” line to get their perspective.

What started as running my profile past seven friends quickly evolved into my very own online dating support group. I wasn’t going to hide the fact that I was Internet dating.  As it turned out, the more folks I told that I had signed up, the more peers told me they had also put their love lives into the hands of Al Gore’s almighty invention.

Now twelve strong, my support group has members around the country–some in relationships, some online dating themselves, and some single friends. I also have an almost-even gender split . None of this was planned out, but it organically became a great sampling of 20- and 30-somethings weighing in on virtual love.

Typically the group works like this:

1)   Suitor sends me a message.

2)   I copy and paste the message and attach their profile picture and self-summary.

3)   Group members comment in rapid succession (mostly during work hours) of their approval or disapproval.

Soon other members started using the group to vet their own potential dates. It suddenly became everyone’s support group, not just mine.

I know what you’re thinking.

On a phone call to my friend John in Florida, I told him about the group.   He immediately responded “That’s horrible. That’s every guy on that site’s worst nightmare.”

I asked the members of the group for their input on the pros and cons. When I asked Andrew what he liked about the group, he described how helpful it is to have camaraderie in what is an often demoralizing situation.  “Having the group here for the occasional pep-talk and sanity-check makes the whole business much easier,” he stated, adding that “it’s also very entertaining, and I like the gossipy aspect.”

It’s true, there is a bit of fun going on. “Everyone is hilarious. Any endeavor that leads to haiku battles is worth pursuing,” said Allyson. “There’s a fine line between good haiku, and really really lame haiku.”

One suitor who sent me a message had written his profile entirely in haikus. Emailing it to the group lead to a morning haiku battle. Foxy, who ultimately won, added “I’d rather read your emails than do my job.”

Not every guy in the local dive bar has a heart of gold and neither does every guy on an online dating site. There are some serious creeps.

As Foxy put it, “Some dudes are fucking lazy.”

Laura added, “I am very lucky to already have a boyfriend. Ninety five percent of men are completely un-dateable.”

In one occasion, there was a gentleman that I couldn’t quite place why I didn’t like him. The group seemed pretty evenly split, when Angie brought up to me the striking similarities of a boyfriend of the past and how terrible that relationship ended.

It’s beneficial to have a group of spotters helping one weed out these un-dateables, these creeps, before meeting them in real life where the real trouble can start.

When I asked William if he thinks the group is fair to potential suitors, he responded that it’s complicated but his gut feeling is that it is not.  He explained that by this point people should be aware that anything on the internet can, in an instant, be everywhere on the internet, so online daters should proceed with caution.  However, the group serves a valuable service for its members: “When it came to encouraging or discouraging further contact with potential suitors, it seemed that most of the time, most of the support group was in agreement.”

Laura thought it was totally fair, “I don’t think we’re treating the guys any differently than we would if you met them in person, except now we get to critique their spelling and grammar as well.”

It’s not a 24/7 snarkfest. The group has had productive conversations and debates about dating in general. Our discussions have covered such topics as about the three-day rule (a la Swingers), the ethics of giving/receiving an unsolicited phone number and in today’s modern world, if it really matters if a guy doesn’t offer to pay for the first date.

Allyson said “I’ve found it rare to have a mixed-gender group of people to discuss dating issues with.”  She added that she’s been grateful to be able to run situations past a group rather than having to wing it.

I could justify it in all sorts of ways, right? But what about the guys I’m going on dates with? What do they have to say about all of this? Well, I asked one. He didn’t want to use his real name in this essay, so let’s call him Tyler. On our second date I spilled the beans to Tyler (after I had a bourbon and ginger in me) that a dozen of my friends were in an online support group and knew all about him. He laughed and had me email them on the spot that he said hi.

We’ve since split, but I spoke to him for this article, and he said he would be thrilled to have such a source of support.

“Friends have always tried to help give advice about the qualities, or lack thereof, of potential partners.” Tyler expanded that while the group is very helpful to its members, it also has a somewhat disingenuous facet–the subjects of our critiques don’t know that their information is being shared and rated by a group of strangers.  ”If you find out that has happened to you, there is a moment of fear and insecurity.  You feel very exposed.”  However, he echoed the warning that information on the internet is never secure, a warning which all online daters should heed.   ”Maybe that’s a good reason to not put anything stupid or shallow in your profile.”

I haven’t found my Prince Charming on the Internet just yet. But at age twenty six, I’m finding myself in the “Why not?” part of my life. Tyler didn’t work out. But let’s give it another go!

Allyson sums it up pretty well, “Since there’s no way to know if Mr. Right is chilling on OKC in his spare time, I think it’s definitely worth looking around for him.”  It’s a matter of putting yourself out there, of being open to both victory and defeat.

In the spirit of openness and adventure, here’s my profile: http://www.okcupid.com/profile/kiraface.  But be forewarned–any message you send me is potentially subject to review by a group of our peers.

The self-proclaimed “psychedelic erotic gospel music” was one of 141 performers that gathered March 6-8 for the inaugural Harvest of Hope Festival to benefit migrant farmworkers. The eclectic line-up included the likes of Girl Talk, Against Me!, Murs, KRS-One, Bad Brains, The National, This Bike is Pipe Bomb, the Bouncing Souls, Propaghandi, and Kool Keith just to name a few.

The weekend had all the components to make for an excellent festival. The line-up was insane and the weather was perfect for the weekend – in the 70s and sunny.

Todd Kowalski, bassist of Propaghandi, a veteran of the punk world said, “It’s the middle of winter in Winnipeg so here we are in Florida! Just like all the seniors from Winnipeg, which we’ll be in about two years.”

But the weather and the line-up weren’t the main reason for the festivities; the whole shebang was to benefit the Harvest of Hope Foundation.

Founded by Phil Kellerman, the Harvest of Hope Foundation gives direct financial aid to migrant workers and their families. There’s no bureaucratic red tape. There are no long processing applications and fees. Money raised by the foundation goes directly to those in need and it can be monitored by the expenditure sheet on their Web site.

Phil became an advocate of migrant farmworkers in 1989 when the former school teacher saw an ad for a job for a bilingual grants writer for Eastern Stream on Resources and Training (ESCORT) as the University of New York in Oneonta, NY.

“I just kind of fell in love with the field and the people I worked with were so progressive; so forward thinking,” said Phil. “In 1995 we set up the first national migrant toll-free hotline and we worked with AT&T for how the calls were routed depending on where the migrants were calling from.”

However, due to constraints from the grant received from the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., the money they had could not be used for direct financial aid to the people calling the hotline.

“Basically we soon became a referral agency like any other agency and I discovered there wasn’t much help out there — especially for immediate financial need that migrants have,” said Phil.

Inspired greatly by his grandmother, Dr. Helen Zand, the first female law student at Cornell in the 1920s and lifetime social activist, Phil decided in honor of her memory, to use some of his inheritance money from her to start the Harvest of Hope Foundation and in 1997 the foundation was officially born.

“[We now] have a vehicle to help the callers that were calling the hotline,” said Phil.

In 12 years, they’ve given out over $714,000 in emergency and educational aid to migrant farmers and their families all over the country.

Phil explained, “I get calls from migrant advocates and migrant social workers and migrants themselves and if I have the funds I try to help them out.”

A third of all expenses go towards transportation issues. Being a migrant farmworker family often requires a massive amount of driving from state to state depending on which crop is harvesting in any given month. Harvest of Hope helps out with gas money, new tires for safe traveling and basic car repairs. Another third goes to housing related issues. For instance if the fields aren’t ready yet and a family needs help with rent. Or if they are falling behind on their utility bills aid is provided.

“If there are kids involved and the families are trying to do the best they can, I don’t want to see the gas or electricity cut off so we’ll provide aid for that,” said Phil.

With only a third remaining about 10% goes to medical expenses, another 10% for food and clothing and another 10% for scholarships and the rest for things like funeral expenses. Harvest of Hope doesn’t have any organizational rent and utility costs because the small operation is ran out of Phil’s home.

An example of where the money goes:

“A couple days ago I got a call from the National Center for Farmworker Health. They called me to say that they had a 34-year old migrant farmworker from Georgia whose parents had died when he was 15 and he had traveled to several different states working as a migrant farmworker and apparently he hit himself with a hammer inadvertently last year and developed testicular cancer,” explained Phil. “The doctor contacted NCFH and said this guy needs immediate surgery. So this is how we work the system. The doctor said, ‘I’ll give you my minimum cost with is $3500.’ So we got him to agree that if we could come up with half he would do the surgery and then bill the patient after that. NCFH said they could chip in $850, and asked, ‘What can you chip in?’ I said we can chip in $900. So together we chipped in the $1750 so he could have the surgery and afterwards, if we raise enough money from this festival, we’ll pay off the bill. That’s what we do.”

In terms of the actual festival, the name that came up time and time again through talking to various people throughout the weekend was Ryan Murphy.

Murphy has two worlds he’s heavily involved with – one, through his masters in bilingual education at the University of Florida, he does literacy outreach with migrant families; two, he is one of those crazy punks at No Idea! Records.

“I met Phil Kellerman and was blown away by how amazing all the work he’s doing is and how amazing the foundation is. So I was thinking what can I do to help more than literacy outreach and what can I do to help the foundation? And I realized well one half of my world is crazy punk rock No Idea! world and the other half is this; so what if I put the two together?” said Murphy. “I started doing benefits for them and Against Me! played a bunch of those and they’ve raised over $18,000 so far.”

What originally started out with having Against Me! play a sixth benefit show in St. Augustine quickly turned into a full-weekend festival. With Ryan representing the No Idea! Camp, Tony Weinbender from Southern Lovin’ PR and Ryan Dettra from the St. John County Fairgrounds the three pitched to Phil, “Why not make it a whole weekend thing?”

The county supported the idea and gave the non-profit a $50,000 grant to make it happen.

“So once that started rolling I said, alright, I’m going to call all the bands that I’m friends with and say, ‘Please you have to play this thing,’” explained Murphy. “Once bands started jumping on, especially when Propaghandi signed up, everyone was blown away and we just got the craziest acts to come together.”

Over 500 bands applied to take part in this inaugural fest.

Ed Kellerman, a senior lecturer at University of Florida and Communications Director of Harvest of Hope Foundation (and also Phil’s brother), described the selection process of narrowing that list to the final size of 141 performers.

“Number one, they have to be good and Ryan Murphy is the ultimate decider on that. Number two, you have to be available the date of the festival. And number three, you have to be into the cause,” explained Ed.

Andrew Seward, bassist of Against Me! said, “This is very intense. This inaugural fest is fucking great so far. It’s a little overwhelming. And our friends are running it, so you know it’s good because I’ve seen Ryan Murphy and how stressed he is, so you know it means something is going right.”

Richard Minino, aka Horsebites, designed the logo for the festival. He too was tagged by Murphy to get on board. He previously has done work for the past two Fest’s in Gainesville and two of his bands were also on the roster – None More Black and Gatorface.

“I wanted to make it clean and simple because it wasn’t all punk bands, there are indie bands and rap bands too, so I decided to make it a little more professional looking and put some grains in there to get that whole vibe going. It’s pretty simple but bold,” explained Minino.

It was simple yet bold enough for two concert goers’ to get it tattooed on their bodies at the on-site tattoo tent by a local shop based in St. Augustine Beach.

Brian Fallon, guitarist and frontman of the Gaslight Anthem, was also feeling the good vibes of the weekend.

“It’s awesome. We’re on tour so much that we never get to see anybody, and you get to meet people from all over different walks of life and I think that’s the coolest thing. You’re all here for the same reason, no matter what you think in your own life on any particular subject, the fact that you’re all here for one reason kind of puts a friendly vibe to everything,” said Fallon.

The Gaslight Anthem is pretty selective with who they do benefits for. Other than Shirts for a Cure benefitting the Syrentha Savio Endowment (SSE), Harvest of Hope is its other main beneficiary and they’ve been involved with them for two years now.

“My father worked in a factory and it’s a little different, but it’s still working with your hands and doing what you can to get by,” Fallon explained, “This is a worthy cause and there are a lot of causes out there that are just blind and you don’t ever see where it goes, you don’t see the people that it affects and you don’t know anyone involved. It’s just a corporation asking for you to donate this much and you’re like okay fine, but you don’t ever really know anything.”

In addition to doing shows as the Gaslight Anthem, Benny Horowitz, the drummer, throws shows in New Jersey to benefit the foundation even when he’s not playing.

“For us it’s just like, of course we’ll do it. We would always do it,” said Fallon.

Other bands such as Gainesville’s the Grabass Charlestons also felt compelled to get involved.

Dave Drobach, bassist, said “There are 1000s of people out there that do care and this weekend people are getting together without giant multi-national corporations telling them what they should be doing, people can think for themselves and have their own brains and operate for things as simple as paying people who harvest your food.”

Dina Sevayega, who is a former migrant worker and sits on the board of the Harvest of Hope Foundation with the Kellerman brothers, came down from upstate New York with her son Mario, a musician who was performing, for the weekend’s festivities.

Growing up, by the time Dina was 6-years old; she had already lived in about 32 different places.

“It’s very hard sometimes for families – and I know there are laws about children working – but if you’re trying to feed your family, the whole family works together. Although I was 6-years old I could take care of the baby under the tree while the adults were picking the cherries or the cotton or whatever. It is a family that has to work together in order to survive,” she said.

Throughout her childhood, because of the constant moving, she had a hard time keeping up with her studies.

She explained, “I was Arkansas, I was all over Texas, I was in Michigan. Part of the problem was that if the work wasn’t done or if there wasn’t enough money to cover expenses to return home to the valley of Texas [I couldn't get back] to start school on time. I failed the sixth grade because of this. We got back late and I could never catch up. It’s hard work, it’s moving a lot and never knowing how your children are going to do education wise because you’re busy working to survive.”

One of the biggest challenges for the Harvest of Hope Foundation and for migrant workers everywhere is the plight of misconceptions.

Dina said, “It’s interesting because yesterday we were talking about the disconnect between farmworkers, migrant families and those of us that sit everyday at a table and enjoy all the harvest that these migrant families have worked so hard to provide for our nation.”

Mario added that a huge difficulty, “[is] that migrant workers are often fighting the belief that they are taking these great jobs away from the American labor force. I was just talking to a farmer here in Florida that has a 600-acre potato operation and he was saying that can’t get Americans to work, nevermind anything that you’ve heard — they won’t do the work. In upstate New York, I knew a woman that owned a blueberry orchard they were trying to pay high school kids up to $9-$10/hour and none of them would even take the job because it was too hard for them. They said they physically cannot get most Americans to do these jobs. So when people say that migrant workers are taking these jobs, they’re taking the jobs that nobody wants to do.”

“We wouldn’t eat without their labor,” responded Dina.

“Or a salad would cost like $25,” concluded Mario.

In addition to raising funds, the weekend was also a great chance to raise awareness.

Ed explained, “As you can see, actually, you don’t see them. You probably came in on US-1 or I-95 or 207, you go by the fields but you don’t see [migrant farmworkers] because they’re working the fields in the back and if people would just be more aware and spread the word and counter some of the misconceptions that all migrants are illegal, or involved in crime, or destroying the economy – no, they’re helping the economy, without migrant farmworkers our economy would be even worse than it already is.”

Of course, migrant farmworkers are not just limited to one area of the United States.

Mario added, “Migrant workers are all over. They’re in Maine, New York; anywhere there are farms they are working. Any kind of agricultural going on, they are there working. ”

But after the dust settled on Sunday night, the four stages rang silent and the 6000 plus people make their way back home, there is still work to be done.

“The problem is with a lot of benefits is that the cause and the reason to do a benefit are remaining after the benefit is over. That’s a tough thing for people to remember. People in need don’t go away after a festival shuts down and the campgrounds get cleaned up,” said Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem.

Kowalski and his band (Propaghandi) are no strangers to politically fueled themes and causes. He personally does a lot of work with refugees from Africa in Canada in his hometown of Winnipeg. But to him, the most important thing he thinks you can takeaway from them is to, “Think about things as much as you can and not just accept them. Try to always imagine what it’s like on the other side of things.”

His band mate, David Guillas added, “Whatever interests you, just get involved. But make sure it’s a true interest, like if you like drawing; someone was making benefit posters for women from Afghanistan because they like to draw.”

Phil’s biggest advice to people once they get back home is to “Get out there and try to make a difference in the world for whatever interests you. Open your eyes to who harvests their food and be a little more connected.”

For more information on the Harvest of Hope Foundation please visit: http://www.harvestofhope.net/

I’m intrigued.

Extracting the truth or uncovering some hidden meaning from a movie or book is not always the easiest thing to do. I hate to be a hater, but when you’re in the business of writing reviews it happens. This collection of essays is quite frankly sophomoric; filled with far-reaching musings by what I picture in my head to be a group of film undergraduates wearing horn-rimmed glasses. References to Lord of the Rings and The Matrix are abundant. One writer waxes on about their theory on the motif of soap. Others attempt to analyze Palahniuk as a writer. Again and again I kept reading summarizations of the plot to a numbing degree.

I thought what better way to talk about this collection than to contribute my own essay on the book/movie. To save you guys from what you probably already know, I’m not going to summarize the plot. If you’re interested, you can read the plot synopsis at the IMDB.

What is the appeal of Fight Club? Why almost ten years after the release of the movie and almost 15 years after the book came out are people still talking about it? Why was I intrigued about this collection of essays to begin with?

In talking with some friends in Seattle about this piece I was working on they had a few anecdotes to share of their own. One guy said when he was in high school around the release of the movie and a kid in his class had a Fight Club themed graduation party. The invitations all said something like “You do not talk about Bobby’s graduation party.”

The same guy who is working on his masters in atmospheric sciences told me one of his peers is starting a group for aspiring scientists to learn and practice the art of arguing because “scientists don’t have these skills” and naming said group “Fight Club.”

So again — what’s the appeal?

It’s edgy. The one part of the collection I actually really enjoyed with the foreword written by Mr. Palahniuk himself — “The Future is in the Fringe.” I know it sounds like a cheesy title, but in it he writes that about how the appeal of this is all because the characters in Fight Club and their antics are outside of societal norms.

I believe that these characters offer us an escape. They are about living outside of our everyday selves but not in a completely fantastical Lord of the Rings fantasy-world kind of way. It’s more feasible. Just on the brink of being possible. These are the characters that push boundaries and are where we often daydream our lives to be. Who doesn’t wish that they had a little Tyler Durdin in their step? That’s the appeal. That’s why we’re all so into it. The idea of freeing yourself from your everyday self is a nice thought to have.

Despite how great (or not so great) the essays within the collection are You Don’t Talk About Fight Club are, it’s still noteworthy because people are obviously still talking; and that’s saying something.

What brings you to Japan?

My wife got a Fulbright grant to research architecture here. Since I am able to work pretty much anywhere, we decided that moving to Japan would be a nice change of pace (which, we were right!).

Are you going to be permanently bi-continental?

Nope, just for a year. While there will definitely be things I’ll miss, there are certainly some things I’m looking forward to about being back in the U.S. Burritos and more space are at the top of the list.

Tell us about your latest project – travels.

I’ve been really lucky to have had the opportunity to travel a lot in the past couple of years. I felt that if I created something inspired by the trips, my time in these new locations would feel more meaningful to me. So, I created a set of 4 screen prints based on 4 places I’d visited recently. They were really enjoyable to work on, as it really allowed me to think about each place again. I’m considering doing a second set, once I have a few new places stamped in my passport.

I went to Switzerland in late 2006, so that was the first print I did. The second print was Egypt, which I visited last summer. Third was Thailand, which I went to in March. And the fourth print is Japan, which is where I currently am.

Where were these printed/created?

They were created in Tokyo and printed in Seattle. I took a short trip to Seattle a month or so ago, and figured it would be good to do a new print while I was there. That way, I could avoid international shipping charges/hassles and have something new available, since it’s been a while since I’ve released any new prints on my site (ANOTHER benefit of moving back to the U.S.).

For several years you were the art director at Sub Pop; would you ever work in a record label environment again? What are the perks of that kind of gig?

Although Sub Pop was a dream job in many ways, I’m MUCH happier where I’m at now. There are a few perks that I do miss though. The free CDs were nice. My co-workers were terrific. And health insurance certainly doesn’t hurt either. Now that I’m self-employed, I buy my CDs, work alone, and I’ve quit skateboarding to remedy my lack of health insurance.

In general, how do you come up with concepts for your work?

I typically just think about a given project for a couple of days. Once I come up with an idea which I think might work, I start drawing. If the drawings take shape relatively easy, I’ll stick with it. If it feels forced, I’ll abandon it for something that feels more natural. Most often, if a sketch is forced, the final will be exponentially more forced. It’s best to start with something I’m excited about, as that excitement will typically carry through to the end of a project.

Do you draw freehand and then scan or draw all on the computer?

Most often, I’ll do the drawing with pen and ink. The only times I’ll draw it entirely in the computer is if I want something really clean looking–which doesn’t happen very often at all. Actually drawing something by hand gives the work a warmth that you just don’t get otherwise.

Can you share some quick tips for the DIY screen printer/designer?

Besides practice, practice, practice? Having a strong desire for experimentation is definitely a plus. Just because you haven’t seen somebody else use a certain technique doesn’t mean it won’t be completely successful for you. Try something solidly wrong, as it might lead you down an avenue that is perfectly right.

Last February you did a workshop in Maryland on screen-printing – do you plan on doing more workshops? Where? When?

Every workshop/class/lecture/speaking engagement I’ve done is because someone liked my stuff enough to invite me out to give the workshop/class/lecture/speaking engagement. I don’t currently have anything lined up, though I’ve had discussions with a couple of organizations that will most likely lead to me doing something with them in the future. It’s still a ways off at this point right now as plane tickets to/from Tokyo are a bit of a deal breaker.

Last February you also were part of a huge rock poster art show at the University of Maryland – tell us the fateful tale of a cotton candy forest.

The University of Maryland gave me their large back gallery to use as an installation space. My idea was to do a 3 wall mural and create a forest of cotton candy trees. Little did I know that the slight humidity of the gallery would cause the cotton candy to disintegrate. Fourteen hours of spinning cotton candy had transformed into a horrible pink catastrophe overnight.

With one day before the show was scheduled to open, I had to think of a back-up plan. My initial idea was to find a furry fabric and sew some fuzzy foliage onto the tree shapes I’d created. However, after going to every fabric store within a 30 mile radius and not finding a fabric remotely close to what I had in mind, I knew I’d better come up with a back-up plan for my back-up plan. That’s when I had the idea to create giant paper bags to cover the trees. Once the bags were made, I painted faces on them, creating two armies of giant dueling paper bag puppets. Although the end result was conceptually much different than my initial idea of a forest of fluffy strange trees, I’m really happy with how the paper bags turned out.

What are you working on next?

I recently wrapped up a series of posters for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Target hosts four large celebrations each year, and they commission posters, T-shirts, and commemorative photo frames for each celebration. J. Otto did the series last year, and this year they asked me. It was a lot of fun.

I’m also working on stuff for a couple of upcoming gallery shows, working on a couple of CD packages, doing a new animation for Nickelodeon’s Yo Gabba Gabba T.V. show, and preparing for an upcoming trip to China.

To see more of Jesse LeDoux’s work and to order pieces from his latest collection “Travels” visit his website at www.ledouxville.com.