Memory chips: The podcast

Patricia Arnao is a multimedia visual artist who was one of the first artists -in-residence at our art space in Turkey.  Then I started a new one and I invited her to be first because she's Number 1!!!

Pat showed up in West Virginia fresh off her most recent trip to Sicily, where she was taking care of legal business

as part of her Italian citizenship application.   Over our Happy Hour Aperol Spritzes, we dove into why Americans are obsessed with Italy, Italian and American culture, and, of course, potato chips.

Cameo by my beloved, Árni.

Sibel Horada is an artist from Turkey.  She is also my friend.  A friend who calls me from the supermarket in Ankara (Turkey) to show me what kinds of chips they have!

Sibel has been making sculptures from found styrofoam that has washed ashore on Turkey's beaches.  In a nod to the Chips, she bought some Puffed Rice cakes because they are like styrofoam! 

And then we talked about the elements, her work, Turkey, and bad graphic design.  Like the design on this episode's bags from my collection:


I miss Sibel.  www.sibelhorada.com

Estrella "Cipso". Regional Flavors "Inner Anatolia Flavor--Pasturma"
Estrella "Cipso" Regional Flavors "Aegean Flavor--Yogurt and Aegean Herbs

Niech Żyje Polska! with traditional Flavors:

*Lay's Golonka (Ham Hock) and Spicy Horseradish
*WieskjieZiemniaczki (County Potatoes) brand Butter and Salt
*Wieskjie Ziemniaczki brand Dill
*Wieskjie Ziemniaczki brand Old Dried Sausage of Krakow
*Lorenz Polish Gulasz

Why did I think it was a good idea to collect potato chip bags?  I asked ethnologist, Charlotte Hagström about that, and she told me that it is a normal impulse . . .  if I were a child .  . . or an artist :)

As a Senior Professor at Lund University in Sweden, Charlotte has done research on Swedish Fredagsmys (Friday Coziness), bicycles and their riders, female railway conductors, and collectors and collecting!

She is currently a research coordinator at the Swedish National Railroad Museum

Quilling is the ancient art of paper rolling.  Quilling Mistress and painter, Josie Jenkins,, tells me I have it ALL WRONG when trying to 'quill' two bags from my Chinese collection:

We met as resident artists at the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, Fujian Province, PRC.

  Josie was with me when I collected several of the bags from my collection.  She paints landfills, scrap heaps, and garbage, and works with hoarders!  She loves people and chaos/order

Josie's Quilling site 
Josie's Painting and Project site: 

The last time I saw Holly Treddenick I was dressed in a nude leotard.  Things like this can happen when you take part in circus incubators, and other creative events that are concerned with communication between artists and audiences.

Also, the last time I saw Holly Treddenick in Toronto, I bought some bags of chips:
2 different version of Ruffles All-Dressed!

Creative incubators, face licking, and how the rest of the world can learn what circus people already know:  Communication is key.

t takes more than one onion to make a collection of onions.  Ludvig Ödman is a collector from Sweden whose favorite chip flavor is "Triple Onion" (because one isn't enough!)

Ludvig collects belly button lint, and various bodily sheddings--but his most recent and important collecting work involves selling prints of his drawings to collect money for Ukraine aid.  Then he takes that money and uses it to collect vehicles and supplies which he then transports from Sweden to Ukraine.

Last episode I spoke with the "Yes Lady" Lindsay Anderson in Taber, Alberta about the strange path that led to her starting a soup business.

Today, we get crackin' on writing our own obituaries, or at least talking about some of the obituaries in Lindsay's collection!

The first part in a series of conversations with Lindsay Anderson--the woman who likes to say 'Yes".

In this  episode, Lindsay tells the unlikely story about how she started her soup business--which sounds like it would be boring--but because it is Lindsay--it isn't!

https://lindsayanderson63.wixsite.com/my-site

Chatting over chips about the unparalleled Berea College with my recently graduated nephew,  Avery Fair,  his brother Silas Fair (a sophomore at Berea) and three of their friends: LaMonika Dent, Robert Emmill, and Yer Mama.  I mean Luke.
Commencement speaker Geoffrey Canada

Berea College makes promises:

Berea is the only one of America’s top colleges that makes a no-tuition promise to every enrolled student.

Based on the concept of educational equality--no student pays for tuition.  But how does this promise stack up in practice?  We unpack that.

My conversation with healer Orlene Carlos sparked an idea to create a real tarot deck out of potato chip bags--but that is for later.
Orlene Carlos the Healer
https://www.quantumhealers.com/orlenegentile
Piccolo Zoppe Boutique Circus
Wondercabinet Wellness ( Anne's health and wellness site)

For now, Orlene and I discuss our time in China training umbrella foot juggling, circus performers as healers.

While negotiators meet today in Turkey to discuss a potential end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,  the world hopes for some progress.  And I remember a performance video I made in our neighborhood in Istanbul that played with the ideas of patriotism and nationalism and my discomfort with flag-waving.

"Perşembe Pazarı Pride Parade"
https://vimeo.com/76127398  

This episode's guest was supposed to have been Anastasia Polubotko from Ukraine--talking about mushroom-hunting in Sweden and Swedish and Polish mushroom-flavored chips bags.
http://www.anastasiapolubotko.com

But then a war rearranged our priorities, and instead I am talking about Nastia, about mushroom hunting with her, and how the Stoic philosophy can maybe help us deal with the funk and depression we are all feeling these days.

Slava Ukraini!

This episode's two flavors:  Gourmet Red Pepper and Feta and Lay's Burger King Flame-Broiled Hamburger have nothing in common except that I got them both in Turkey.  And also that they reminded me of Sevinç Gürmen Hall and her stage persona, Joy G. Wild.

 "Sevinç" is Turkish for "Joy"--as in the Joy of Pole--the studio where she creates an inclusive, supportive community of pole dancers, movers, acrobats, and fun people of all genders.

We became friends in Turkey where our paths crossed as a couple out of a handful of circus performers living and working in Istanbul, and we continue to be friends as a result of our common interest in mobility and movement training and a weird coincidence that we talk about in this episode!
Find her here:
joygwild.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f92oS3lmy5k
Turkey's Got Talent:
Insta:  @joy_g_wild (pole)
              @the.punk.barbie (tattoo)

Valentine's Day special (WTF?!)   Although this is the first time we decided to 'celebrate' Valentine's Day, we get really into it by talking about what surprises us about our relationship now as compared to what we expected at the beginning.

The conversation if prompted by three bags of Lay's potato chips that we collected together in Amsterdam, where Árni grew up.     All three bags were part of a contest called "Guess the Flavor" (Raad de Smaak in Dutch).  

We had grand ideas of winning a bunch of money guessing the flavors, but alas--we never got around to entering the contest.

One thing we DO get around to is delving into exercise guru, Bonnie Prudden's 2011 book,
Exer-Sex: The fantastic new fitness plan that improves your lovemaking. Excercises for sex, for love, for life.   And also eventually revealing what the mystery flavors were . . . 

My co-host this episode is Nia Pushkarova from Sofia, Bulgaria.  Nia and I met at the same artist initiatives meeting in Istanbul, Turkey where I met my husband.   Mine and Nia's friendship is no less enduring.  In fact, since 2015 the three of us have been trying to link together the cities of Pernik, Bulgaria and Charles Town, West Virginia through the bonds of art and culture, as well as potato chips!

Nia initiated and is responsible for the Water Tower Art Fest--first a festival, then an artist-in-residency program, always a socially engaged project.    In 2015 WTAF took place in Pernik, BG.    I had spent a great deal of time in Bulgaria prior to meeting Nia and participating in several WTAF projects, but this time was special, as you will learn during the episode.  Our project was/is called "Pernik, USA"

One of my favorite Bulgarian folk songs (even if the lyrics are a little church-y and nationalistic  for my tastes) starts out this episode:  "Malka Moma" sung by Neli Andreeva (from the band, Kitka)

We dance out of the conversation with Riko Band and DJ Krisi playiing something called "Pernik Kyuchek" .   Stay subscribed for future episodes when we go into why some Bulgarians may have a problem with this juxtaposition of traditional folk music with Roma dance music.

Infographic by Julie Upmeyer

If you really want to start a fight about what is and is not "Bulgarian", or to rile up West Virginians about our local opioid epidemic, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juuz3tM7Iuw

I met with Dr. John Flower--a friend of mine, who together with his wife , Dr. Pam Leonard, spearheaded the giant project of moving a traditionally-built folk house from Yunnan Province in China to Jefferson County, West Virginia.   You can read all about and watch video of the disassemblage and moving of the house here:  https://www.chinafolkhouse.org/

Weirdly enough--my family, my husband, myself, and various friends in this area of West Virginia all have ties to China.  Some of us have studied there, some have run businesses there, others have toured and played music there.  John Flower has done all of those things in addition to being the Director of the Chinese Studies Program at Sidwell Friends School. 

Because some of my bags are only in Chinese characters and I am illiterate in Chinese, John looked through my collection and helped me translate.  Not that is made much sense anyway!  He also reflected on the role of regional ideas of flavor and connecting people through food.

Glossary:
la:  hot/spicy
Yunnan:  region of China that borders Tibet, Laos, and Myanmar. The region is known for its large number of ethnic minorities such as Bai, Naxi, and Lisu  people.  Along the Chinese Han majority and Tibetans,
Sichuan:  A region of china known for its distinctive cuisine involving hot peppers and numbing peppercorns.

Thank you to bluegrass band, Magraw Gap, and John Flower for singing "Kangding" so beautifully.

On December 30, 2011 my husband Árni Guðmundsson and I were married in Round Hill, Virginia.  On the occasion of our 10th anniversary, we recorded ourselves telling the story of the night we met in 2009!

This story features three bags of potato chips from Turkey, but you won't find out which ones until the end of the story.

For up-to-date relationship status, listen to our Valentine's Day episode:


Trigger warning:  This episode includes descriptions of graphic physical violence and injury.

This episode is dedicated to our departed friend, Cristian Rieloff .  Cristian played a large part in this story as well as in our lives.  He was Árni's dear friend and artistic collaborator whose presence is sorely missed.

We would also like to thank the painter, Mehmet Ekiz for kindly helping us out when we needed him the day after we met!
Artist Árni Guðmundsson
http://www.artandvikingvax.com
Stina Pehrsdotter
https://www.pehrsdotter.se/Stina_Pehrsdotter/home.html
A Description of the Tarlabaşı Neighborhood
https://balkanstories.net/import-export/tarlabasi-a-slum-quarter-in-istanbul/
Historic German Hospital
http://www.intmedtourism.com/en/companies/german-hospital-istanbul/

Julie Upmeyer and I are artistic collaborators who ran an art space together in Istanbul, Turkey (Caravansarai).  We also both had jobs collecting data for a market research company called Datamonitor.
Sound boring?
Well, does a Turkish-Swedish Meatball Eating Competition sound boring?  Or a fake charity supplying much (not really) needed black hair dye to Swedish artists?  How about a photo display of empty shampoo bottles for the Tehran Biennial?  All of these art works, and more, would not have existed had it not been for our Datamonitor jobs.

In today's episode, Julie and I discuss these things over a bag of Migros (store-brand) Sucuk Flavored potato chips.

Julie Upmeyer:  https://www.julieupmeyer.com/

Plas Bodfa:  https://www.plasbodfa.com/

Anne Weshinskey:  https://v4larts.com/

Danish "hygge" (coziness) is sooo pre-pandemic!  A new cozy marketing trend making is its way to the U.S.  from Sweden and it's called, "Fredagsmys"-- The Friday Cuddle . . .   and it involves lots of potato chips.

I spent a Fredagsmys with my "plastic sons", Oskar, Adriaan, and Julius -- who grew up and live in Sweden -- and made them explain to me what it is all about . . . 

Thank you to ethnologist, Charlotte Hagström at Lund University, for providing me her research into Fredagsmys!

Richard Bartle is a fantastic artist and exquisite host who stuffed us full of heavy British delicacies when we went to visit him in Sheffield, England--where he runs Bloc Studios.   During that trip, I acquired the following crisps bags:
Mackie's Turkey and Stuffing
Walkers Turkey and Stuffing
ASDA    Turkey and Stuffing
Marks and Spencer Turkey, Stuffing, and Cranberry
ASDA    Pigs in Blankets
Tesco's   Succulent Pigs in Blankets
Walker's Prawn Cocktail
REAL Handcooked Ham and English Mustard
Tyrrell's Black Angus and Mustard
Yorkshire Crisps Roast Lamb and Mint

I caught up with Richard while he is living and working in Istanbul (where we originally met),  and we ended up making up meals  out of other bags collected during other trips to the UK:

Walkers Sprout Lovers Pack:  Brussels Sprouts, Turkey and Stuffing, Cheese and Cranberry
Walker Sprout Haters Pack:     Turkey and Stuffing, Roast Ham, Cheese and Cranberry
Taste of Game Wild Duck and Plum Sauce--Smoked Pheasant and Wild Mushroom-- Grouse and Whinberry--Wild Boar and Apple

I'm full . . .

If anything good comes from this podcast, it is that it gives me an excuse to meet and chip out with one of my personal talent crushes--Sarah Cohen of Route 11!

In this episode, Sarah unleashes the roundabout origin

story of my favorite local potato chips, and we go off on how chips companies develop their flavors and how large snack companies are so good at distracting your from the chips you would really rather be eating!
www.rt11.com

"Xi" (Dr. Jessica Kendall, PhD) and "Nan" (me) together again!  The first ever bag  of chips in what ended up being a collection of chips bags gathered from shops, grocery stores, gas stations and (in this case) an abandoned gift shop in a train station in the small town of Wuqiao in Hebei Province,  PRC.

Wuqiao is known as the Birthplace of Chinese Acrobatics and home to Wuqiao Acrobatics World Theme Park.

Xi is an acrobatic trainer and director,  anthropologist/academic, and single mother of 3 gorgeous and amazing humans in Montréal, Canada.