Swear On Our Friendship
SOOF
[sōōf] -verb (used with object in unexpectedly
life-defining
moments); to swear on our friendship [not to be
confused with soof as
defined at www.urbandictionary.com
as "Derived from 'So fucked up'" or
"avb. 'of the
highest order' From 'so fcuk'"]
Swear On Our Friendship
(SOOF) is a labor of friendship between two
friends, one in San
Francisco and the other in Brooklyn, NY. It was
concocted
during a late night IM session, borne out of a necessity for
the
two friends to communicate with each other across 3,000 miles
of
strange country and an indeterminable and inexplicable
virtual
distance by working on a project together--FOR REAL THIS
TIME!
The founders of SOOF grew up in the San Francisco Bay
Area and went to
a rather nondescript high school in the South
Bay. You better believe
they were weird. And awkward.
Actually, one of them (let's call him
FRIEND 1) was pretty
ahead-of-his-time, taking cues from Max Fischer
and founding the
Aquarium Society. He liked Stereolab and
skateboards. And
he hated FRIEND 2. Because she didn't know anything
about
"neo-traditionalism" or David Lynch or good electronic
music.
Instead, she spent all her time attempting to build
(unsuccessfully)
mousetrap cars for the Math Engineering and
Science Achievement club,
going to journalism camp and trying hard
to fit in at the Fishbowl
(R.I.P.) and Cactus Club all-ages punk
shows, never knowing what she
was doing or talking about. But
somehow, they bonded when they both
signed up for a new video
production class [founded in 2001
for an unknown reason
by the school's Junior Varsity Wrestling Coach]
during the second
semester of their senior year.
Shortly after, FRIEND 2 moved
to New York to attend "college"--and 10
days after this,
something we all know happened, happened. Two
airplanes
crashed into a very tall building and the world, as we knew
it,
was fucked in a way we never expected (or hoped for) it to be
fucked.
Like many other people, FRIEND 2 felt hopeless and
helpless.
Trapped in a dorm room, unable to communicate by
telephone, and yet to
have made any real friends in New York, she
signed on to the good ol'
instant messenger and was relieved to
see FRIEND 1 waiting online, at
her service. FRIEND 2 asked
FRIEND 1 to call her dad for her to tell
him that she was okay.
Because she was okay.
During the last five years, the
place we live in has oftentimes been
dark and scary and corrupt
and injust and very very sad and fucked
(this is not to discount
the same sort of vibes that were sure to
exist prior to this five
year time period being referred to). But
check it: people are
doing things and making things (organizing,
voting, art, babies,
solar panels, hello--the WEB 2.0 and rising,
etc.) to show that
they care, that they don't like these dark and sad
feelings and
corrupt and cruel policies.
This project,
www.swearonourfriendship.org,
is FRIEND 1 and FRIEND 2
daring each other to care--to care about
each other by caring about
what is going on in our crazy world, in
our countries, our cities, our
homes. We don't claim to know
much about art or global politics or
even necessarily, what is
right and wrong all the time. But we are
swearing on our
friendship, and hoping to inspire you to not be afraid
to swear on
yours.
-January 9, 2007