Not really something we typically think of when we use the term vampire, but our friends in Brazil have added a new twist to the application of the vampire archetype and symbol by creating the Day of the Vampire to promote, among other things, desperately needed blood donations for blood banks in Brazil. Culturally speaking, there is a lot of discrimination against the practice of donating blood, as well as gothic lifestyles, etc. The Day of the Vampire helps combat that, and helps save hundreds of lives with their record-breaking donation collections.
It's an interesting idea, and one I'd really like to see take off other places. Given the vampire-happy American population, I can see running vampire-themed drives around the US being extremely successful. Perhaps something for next year...
A more "official" blurb:
13th of August there will be a Vampire Celebration of the Avenida Paulista (those from São Paulo).
The clinical blood drive will start at 10am, at the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP).
Artists, makeup artists, and supporters will be present.
August 13 is Day of the Vampire,in São Paulo and additionally officially celebrated at events in several cities of Brazil and even from abroad.
This day was created by filmmaker, writer and actress Liz Marins (LizVamp).
It's a way that she found to use the fiction of vampires to help our poor reality of blood banks, and encourage attitudes essential for other causes she believed in.
The causes being raised (for) are:
. Incentive to Donate Blood (It's the day when the vampires donate instead of eat)
. Fighting Prejudice and Discrimination
. Encouraging Diversity Art.
People confuse the clothes, the outside of someone with your spirit. The surface is not tattooed the physical nature of a being.
Liz has hosted the original Blood Donation Campaign since 2002, differently and creatively. It often shocks/surprises people, but it has beat the record in voluntary blood donations blood in Latin America.
Each year that passes the campaign gets more fans, artists and several important people, including many icons of the underground scene.
Rough video translation:
You have seen them appear all over, the sexy ones in black. On the 13th of August, the Day of the Vampires, find your local blood donation center. With one donation, you can save various (many) lives. To be a Hero you dont need have a symbol on your chest - Just Donate Blood"
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The VVC, Vampire Google, and Community Chats
I realized I haven't updated this blog in far too long. There are a number of reasons for that, most revolving around that I'm incredibly busy and have been focused on other things. Not that that's particularly any sort of decent excuse, but it is what it is. I did, however, want to update some things for anyone who does either stumble on this blog or is oblivious to the rest of the Vampire Community (as a good majority of it is plastered across every corner of the VC, as well as sent as mass tons of spam emails).
First, a little about the VVC. The full name of the group is the Voices of the Vampire Community...which is all nice and flashy, but what's it mean? It means we're a group of people from around the community who've come together to talk about things, try to network, etc. We're not some mass leader group, or any sort of authority group, but we do have a number of the more prominent members of the community (though not all) in our ranks. Because of that, we get noticed, both inside and outside of the community. If you want to learn about the VVC, the link is http://www.veritasvosliberabit.com/vvc.html. Bios and list of members, and a huge links section, etc, can be found there. If nothing else, perhaps consider it as a resource for finding some of the mass tons of more legit sites and people.
Which brings me to my next topic, which is a project I kind of started on a whim and is slowly gaining some popularity and use...a custom-designed Google search engine, specifically for the Vampire Community. Basically, how it works is a long list of sites have been added to the engine, all community and real vampirism sites, plus handy things like thefreedictionary.com and thesaurus.com. The custom engine then searches /only/ those sites for the results it returns. Basically...it's a giant filter system for Google. I tried it just out of curiosity, and found it actually works incredibly well, better than most of the individual sites' search engines. I'm still in the process of adding more sites to it, but the thing is handy, and can be found at http://tiny.cc/vampiregoogle or on a few of the sites around the community.
The other reason I've been less than faithful about updating here is compliments of helping organize and run the new global Vampire Community Discussions. Now if you're fairly new to the community or have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, you my not have heard about them. Otherwise, you know that they're monthly giant scheduled chats, hosted by the VVC, and held via irc on Dalnet, in #vampirevoices. Each chat has a topic that's announced ahead of time (along with the day and time for the chat each month). Transcripts of the previous chats can be found on the VVC site and throughout the community, as can updates as they come out about when the next ones will be. Also, there's also the VVC's Vampire News feed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vampirenews.
While I know this is fairly atypical as far as my posts go, it gives people things to read and interesting information. Also, I'd love to see anyone reading this blog come to the global discussions.
~Is
First, a little about the VVC. The full name of the group is the Voices of the Vampire Community...which is all nice and flashy, but what's it mean? It means we're a group of people from around the community who've come together to talk about things, try to network, etc. We're not some mass leader group, or any sort of authority group, but we do have a number of the more prominent members of the community (though not all) in our ranks. Because of that, we get noticed, both inside and outside of the community. If you want to learn about the VVC, the link is http://www.veritasvosliberabit.com/vvc.html. Bios and list of members, and a huge links section, etc, can be found there. If nothing else, perhaps consider it as a resource for finding some of the mass tons of more legit sites and people.
Which brings me to my next topic, which is a project I kind of started on a whim and is slowly gaining some popularity and use...a custom-designed Google search engine, specifically for the Vampire Community. Basically, how it works is a long list of sites have been added to the engine, all community and real vampirism sites, plus handy things like thefreedictionary.com and thesaurus.com. The custom engine then searches /only/ those sites for the results it returns. Basically...it's a giant filter system for Google. I tried it just out of curiosity, and found it actually works incredibly well, better than most of the individual sites' search engines. I'm still in the process of adding more sites to it, but the thing is handy, and can be found at http://tiny.cc/vampiregoogle or on a few of the sites around the community.
The other reason I've been less than faithful about updating here is compliments of helping organize and run the new global Vampire Community Discussions. Now if you're fairly new to the community or have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, you my not have heard about them. Otherwise, you know that they're monthly giant scheduled chats, hosted by the VVC, and held via irc on Dalnet, in #vampirevoices. Each chat has a topic that's announced ahead of time (along with the day and time for the chat each month). Transcripts of the previous chats can be found on the VVC site and throughout the community, as can updates as they come out about when the next ones will be. Also, there's also the VVC's Vampire News feed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vampirenews.
While I know this is fairly atypical as far as my posts go, it gives people things to read and interesting information. Also, I'd love to see anyone reading this blog come to the global discussions.
~Is
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