Day Nineteen:
Thursday the 6th of August

This coming Monday is a holiday that only Rhode Island celebrates as a state holiday... Victory Day.
To be more specific, it is Victory Over Japan day. Sure, Mr. Truman established a Victory Day for all to enjoy as a federal holiday... but he never was specific about the victory over Japan vs. the victory over Europe.

In Rhode Island state and local government offices are closed next Monday. Because of this, we processed our paychecks for all the Workforce Recovery participants today. And because of this, we did our best to figure out how we would celebrate V-J day.

The day in Japan is called Shuusen-kinenbi. Translated that means "memorial day for the end of the war". The official name has evolved to "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace."

We did our best to explain Victory Day and the surrender of Japan that effectively ended World War II. But there is no explanation without the inevitable retelling of the dropping of the atomic bomb. So today we set about trying to make movement that showed the vibration and progression of an explosion.

It is not pretty. Chalk this video up to an experiment gone horribly wrong. It did inspire a video we will make later. But, for now... here is Victory Day Take One.

Victory Day-Take One

iPhone Version | Big Screen | YouTube Version

Workforce Recovery

As contributors to the Workforce Reinvestment Act, Trummerkind artists Michael Townsend and Colin Bliss have taken on twelve employees ranging in age from fourteen to twenty. As professional artists Townsend and Bliss hope to impart their own experiences and introduce the participants to a wide variety of applicable job skills.