chicken or no chicken?

is it ethical?

[ video]

[ www.youtube.com ]

[ /video]

good glob what is my problem. time is a circle.

... i say, give her a synth!!!!

[ news.bbc.co.uk ]

[ science.kukuchew.com ]
[ en.wikipedia.org ]








........"i am we" ... (?)

thanks! betty.

i love finding new docs. (good ones) i think i've realize through this thread that i am a fanatic, because now that i'm thinking of it, i've seen soooo many capitvating docs.


anyways here are some really mini docs, i like them because they make me feel weird and good and maybe sad all at the same time

The Compulsive Collecting Meth Addict


panties : about a woman who can't stop obsessing over her panties. h.


being homeless is hard work : Come meet the inhabitants of Jib Camp.




oh, and re: zeitgeist ... i have to fully agree that this film was not only a total waste time, it actually functions to serve a pretty dangerous facist political function. in sum, we are in a state of crisis, the world is FUCKED, yo, and its no secret the governments keeps secrets! if there is for some reason we are having trouble WAKING THE FUCK UP, it isn't because we haven't yet revealed the lizard people. we are so fucked right now, we can't afford to make totalitarianism more surreal than it already is ... (and if one wanted to actually learn of the criticisms about how the film feeds you lots of bunk, one might do some.. uh.. research.. [ en.wikipedia.org ]

documentaries for *you* to watch? hmm. let me think ...
how about....

the take :
..."The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.

Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale."...


[ video.google.com ]


...or..

zapatista :
"The definitive look at the Zapatista uprising, its historical roots and its lessons for the present and the future."


[ video.google.com ]

..maybe ..

a place called chiapas :

..."a Canadian documentary of first-hand accounts of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) the (Zapatista Army of National Liberation or Zapatistas) and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the south west Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army."


[ video.google.com ]

uhmm...
this is what democracy looks like :
" Shot by over 100 media activists, the narrative of the WTO protests in Seattle and how they changed our world. "


[ video.google.com ]

i can't help it basdini, there are just way too many great docs to suggest for someone skeptical of progressive political change (resistance is fertile!...)

the fourth world war [ www.youtube.com ]
[ video.google.com ]

Storm From the Mountain : (the historic three weeks in Mexico from Feb 24 to March 11) [ www.youtube.com ]

(about the revolution operated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez):
¿¡Revolución!? [ www.revolucionlefilm.com ] and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (a.k.a. Chavez: Inside the Coup) [ www.chavezthefilm.com ]

turn off channel zero [ www.poli-tainment.com ] [ www.youtube.com ] : Professor Griff, of legendary rap group Public Enemy (P.E.), is at war with mass media and is taking the fight directly to Viacom.

Black and Gold [ www.youtube.com ] : The Latin King and Queen Nation, once the most dangerous gang in New York City, face resistance from the press, the city government and the police in their struggle to escape crime and become a Black Panther-style street political movement.



a great resource for radical media from global struggles... [ www.bignoisefilms.com ]

and then: [ OneBigTorrent.org ] "is a new place for sharing material that deals with or is relevant to issues of social justice, progressive and radical politics, independent media, ecology. they typically remove obscure stuff dealing with UFOs, mind-control, secret societies, Black Helicopters and what have you. The net is full of this bs anyway."

PERVERS/CITE: the underside of pride

july 25th -- august 3rd :::: 25 juillet -- 3 aout

[ www.perverscite.org ]





SCROLL DOWN FOR ENGLISH VERSION
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PERVERS/CITÉ: LA FACE CACHÉE DE LA FIERTÉ! La Coalition de Montréal présente une Fierté alternative.

Tandis que la police sévit contre les jeunes des rues et qu'un essaim de sponsors commerciaux déroule le tapis arc-en-ciel en préparation du festival Divers/Cité de cette année, une coalition de queers de Montréal met en avant une vision différente de la Fierté. Du 25 juillet au 3 Août, Pervers/Cité propose une série d'événements répartis sur une dizaine de jours, qui abordent des questions qui sont de plus en plus marginalisées par les préoccupations du principal courant gay – et ce avec une tendance impudemment radicale.

« Il faut que quelqu'un le dise haut et fort : Divers/Cité s'est perdu en chemin. Il devient chaque année plus commercial et moins responsable envers ses racines puisées dans la libération queer, » déclare un des membres organisateurs, Doreen Gray. « Nous voulions élaborer une série d'événements qui ne se résume pas à des fêtes, mais qui réintroduise aussi les préoccupations politiques dans la Fierté pour permettre aux gens de s'engager activement dans un débat sur les questions qui concernent nos communautés. On n'a pas besoin de sponsors commerciaux pour y parvenir, et on n'a pas non plus besoin de tarifs d'entrée exorbitants. »

Steven Gordon, qui a participé aux événements des années précédentes, est attiré(e) par le principe de gratuité / prix-libre inhérent à tous les événements: « Quatre-vingt cinq dollars pour une party? Ce n'est vraiment pas de cette façon que je suis fier(e)! »

Les événements démarrent avec Faggity Ass Friday's Gayrobics night, une soirée de soutien où la recette est reversée au Projet Sens d'éducation sexuelle par les pairs, le vendredi 25 juillet. Parmi les autres événements qui auront lieu tout au long de la semaine, on compte La Fierté Emprisonnée, un débat sur les problèmes auxquels doivent faire face les prisonniers queers et trans au Canada, Une Visite Guidée Historique du Montréal Déviant, et un atelier sur la Justice Immigrante Queer et Trans. Sur une note plus légère, il y aura aussi une soirée de projection de films en plein air intitulée Homotopia Sous les Marches, un jeu de « Capture the Fag », et Plus Saoul, Moins Marié, un party queercore anti-mariage. Pervers/Cité se conclut le dimanche 3 août, avec l'édition inaugurale de Queer Entre les Couvertures, une foire aux livres qui présente des librairies, des maisons d'édition, et des distributeurs de fanzines de tout l'Est Canadien.

****

Pour plus d'informations ou pour un entretien, veuillez contacter TigerLily par email : nastysayuri@hotmail.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PERVERS/CITÉ : THE UNDERSIDE OF PRIDE!

Montreal Coalition Presents and Alternative Pride.

As police crack down on street youth and a bevy of corporate sponsors roll out the rainbow carpet in preparation for this year's Divers/Cité festival, a coalition of Montreal queers is putting forth a different vision of Pride. Running from July 25 to August 3, Pervers/Cité is a ten-day series of events addressing issues increasingly pushed to the margins by the mainstream gay agenda - and with a shameless radical bent.

"Someone just needs to come out and say it : Divers/Cité has lost its way. Each year it just becomes more and more corporate and less and less accountable to its roots in queer liberation," says organizing member Doreen Gray, "We wanted to put together a series that had not only parties, but also reintroed the politics into 'Pride' to actively engage people in a discussion about issues in our communities. You don't need corporate sponsors for that, and you don't need exorbitant entrance fees. "

Steven Gordon, a participant in last years events, is drawn by the free/pay-what-you-can principle underlying all of the events : "Eighty-five dollars for a party? I'm really not that kind of proud!"

Events kick-off with Faggity Ass Fridays' Gayrobics dance party, a fundraiser for the Sense Project, peer-led sex education, on Friday July 25th. Other events throughout the week include Imprisoned Pride, a panel discussing issues faced by queer and trans prisoners in Canada, An Historical Walking Tour of Bent Montreal, and a workshop on Queer & Trans Migrant Justice. On a lighter note, there's an outdoor film evening entitled Homotopia Under the Stars, a game of Capture the Fag, and More Drunk, Less Married, a queercore anti-marriage party. Pervers/Cité wraps up on Sunday August 3, with the inaugural edition of Queer Between the Covers, a bookfair featuring bookstores, publishers, and zine distros from across Eastern Canada.

black sabbath pancakes

]english below[

Ceci c’est le programme in-officiel du lancement de IL PLEUT DES GOUINES #10
(vendredi 18 juillet, au STE.EMILIE SKILLSHARE : 3942 Ste. Emilie Metro Place St. Henri)

Entrée gratuite! Bières pas chères ! Zines à gogo !

Tout l’argent récolté servira à financer le projet de la tournée Queer Zine () et le Ste.Emilie Skillshare [ snap.mahost.org ]

OUVERTURE DES PORTES : 20H
DEBUT DE LA FÊTE : 21H
OPEN MIC :
lecture par JAYDA KELSALL de son zine « Small Town Genesis »
- micro ouvert à toutes slammeuses et conteurs de la salle

IT’S RAINING DYKES PUPPET SHOW par LADYFEST OTTAWA: 21h45

CONCERT DE MILIE CROCHE : 22h30

PROJECTION DES FILMS PORNO + DJ DEGANE + DJ RO BYN dès minuit (avec la pleine lune !!!)

********************************************************************************************

This is the un-official programm of the IT’S RAINING DYKES #10 LAUNCH!!
(this Friday, july 18th from 8pm on at STE.EMILIE SKILLSHARE : 3942 Ste. Emilie Metro Place St. Henri)

FREE ENTRY !
CHEAP BEERS AND DRINKS!
ZINES A-GO-GO!

All money will go to the Queer Zine Tour [ ] and the Ste.Emilie Skillshare [ snap.mahost.org ]

DOORS OPENING SLOWLY BUT HAPPILY: 8pm

LAUNCH START: 9pm

OPEN MIC
- reading by JAYDA KELSALL from her amazing zine « Small Town Genesis »
- come talk and slam to the mic !

IT’S RAINING DYKES PUPPET SHOW by LADYFEST OTTAWA: 9.45pm

MILIE CROCHE SHOW : 10.30pm

QUEER PORN FILM PROJECTION + DJ DEGANE + DJ RO BYN : from midnight (there’s full moon tonight!!)

haaaa i fucked up

tik tik BOOM~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey gamos, is that your face, or did your neck barf?

agreed. it is so those totally cool fucking weird things that are heartbreakingly so inspirational , helps me breathe when it feels like its all airless spaces...

http://

canonball heart to ntk and zone33, i fukkin love you guys. cruz control et al., thanks too. i even liked all the rainbow pants, even if i said otherwise. maxxx, i respect that you throw things. special mention goes to green cup. meek, you're the best, for ever and ever. petra - thanks for trying to get us there, if even with a straightedge, tarot-card reading camper in mourning who turned out to be not so dependable... karin i wish i saw more of you, maybe it is because we are both short.

overall : giant rocket enormous thanks and space love slime to all people who like to hang loose and shake a leg to some good choonz.

(candy twizzler sorries for any of my double-headed bastard moohk-monster bratty-ness that caused any discomfort that went beyond the 'it feels so good because its so bad' , eg., flakie especially ... i know it doesn't save me to say i didn't mean anything but sunshine and lollipops, but i am kind of like a t-rex in a tutu, you know? i ham what i ham)...

oh yes. somehow i lost my cross, without it i feel less holy and i think it is less credible when i try and baptize people or do my exorcisms, so if anyone knows where it is, say 3 hail mary's and pray it back to me, please.

i hope no one tells me i lost it where i lost my virginity ...

i think this is what you look like when you do too much coke

thanks flo!

hey basdini! i have a theory about why you find it hard to argue with me. its totally an S/M thing, right? i was thinking about how you have a tendency to irrationally go off on anti-communist rants that you frame in response to complete fabrications of anything i've actually ever said. it's kind of weird - it's like you're acting out some version of a post-cold war era fantasy in which you're the rugged individualist and i'm the pinko spectre of the red scare. i wondered, what's with this 2D insistence on oppositional designations of abstract power positions? and then it came to me- this is like one of those teacher/student roleplay dramas, isn't it? you're the capitalist libertarian, and someone has to play the big, bad commie, threatening to punish and humiliate you with socialist reforms!! kinky. or is it the other way around... does the champion of the free world need to teach the insurgents a lesson because they've been very, very bad... ?

well, whatever floats your boat when it comes to the erotic imagination, i guess. but i never consented to this particular role play. please stop mythologizing me as a statist when you go off on your hysterical free-world rants, because for the record, i reject any vision which reduces the idea of revolution to the authoritarian seizure of power by a centralized party believed to be acting in the name of the masses - i know that this vision has led to bloody dictatorships and has nothing to do with real socialism. also, i really do not share your ayn rand fetish, nor do i think it's sexy to polarize ideas into either 1 of only 2 preconceived categories and collapse issues so they conveniently fit into a simplistic, dualistic scenario of the left-right political axis.

and if i really only have one line in your script, couldn't it be "cry me a river, white boy"? (although "you fucking facist pig" is pretty hot, i'll admit)





i think you missed what i was trying to say. i used the word eurocentric, not european/western POV because i have an issue with eurocentrism qua ethnocentrism, in particular an imperialistic attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over foreign people - not unrelated to the history and implications of colonialism that rapid_filter keeps bringing up and explaining..

POV are infinitesimal. the inequalities of different social groups create differences in their standpoints. there is no a priori hierarchy of difference, so i'm not suggesting that a western POV should be negated and permanently replaced. contesting dominant knowledges makes sense because identity is defined differentially, which makes fixed boundaries suspicious - so, there is no such thing as a "purely" african, european, or american identity. using the subjective 'how i perceive the world' interchangeably with 'how things are', and disallowing either question asking or competing subjectivities is how hegemony functions.

I guess I’ll just say what I was initially feeling when I first read this post. I know I had strong feelings about it, and I know that this issue is hardly simple- I guess part of me didn’t want to come down on people about what is, at heart (because I do trust the good intentions behion it), compassion. So, I’ll preface my thoughts with – I know you mean well… it’s just not that easy, and I think it is just as legit for me to say – even if you meant well, I think its harmful, and I hope you can hear what I have to say.

Hey- if you are okay with global capitalism and how it looks now, not to mention what it is built upon on, and what it is fucking growing into day by day –well then, sorry, saying you’re sad about what’s going on in ‘africa’ doesn’t have any corn that you can actually eat. what’s going on in ‘africa’ is so tied to what is going on right here and how YOU are living right now. neoliberalism, free trade, and mainstream economic THEORY are what enabled, and and are what continue to support and maintain this situation.

If you’re not okay with violence and oppression, and you’re not okay with what is going on with the so-called 3rd world, then, let’s be okay with asking ourselves some deeper questions.

If I have room to be honest here, I’ll tell you that my first feeling on reading the first post in this thread was- oh great, some more insidious racism. Demonizing the DR of C, in a way that is guised as ‘humanitarian’ – I could already predict (and was fearful of ) the racist commentary to follow. Like, how free people feel about commenting on a part of the world they really know nothing about, especially without making connections about how we really relate to that part of the world. Yeah, I think that not only is it pretty fucking suspect when mainstream media chooses to ignore certain GENOCIDES, then all of a sudden draw attention to it. Yeah, it makes me ask why, all of a sudden?. Do I condone this kind of viciousness? Give me a break! Of course not! It makes me fucking ill. But rather than respond to spoon-fed media in a way that is so obviously how they want the response to be shaped to such moralistic, 2-dimensional moral propaganda- I need to think deeper than agreeing with stereotypes that only propagate the exact (Eurocentric/ imperialistic) perpective and that focus attention on the actual victims of such heinousness, while at the same time, not only conceal the ones who are really responsible (which include us), but leave us, ultimately, to feel good about feeling bad about the situation at hand…

my beef with ‘the economist’. the recent article about the DRC that we are discussing is but one example in particular that exemplifies the hypocrisy of liberal-democratic humanitarian undertakings that insidiously feed on the suffering of others, assigning guilt to victims whilst managing to remove their white selves, their corporate money and power from any responsibility in that suffering.Eurocentrism is so embedded in everyday life, it often goes unnoticed. The residual traces of centuries of European domination inform the general culture, the everyday language, and the media, engendering a fictitious sense of the innate superiority of European-derived cultures and peoples. It is pure Western white supremacist propaganda serving to underscore the accepted narratives of ‘Central Africa’ and assist in the consolidation of power over the region, but this is not the story we are told by ‘the economist’. In terms of media coverage of


Economic terms do not exist in a vacuum outside of socio-political forces. Economics has an ideological function. Implicit in the mainstream economic model espoused by ’the economist’ is a colonial agenda. Eurocentric discourse embeds, takes for granted, and normalized (and normalizes, therefore regulating- read: MAINTAINS) the hierarchical power relations genrated by colonialism and imperialism, without necessarily even thematizing those issues directly; as is this the case in espousing mainstream


a privilege is a right, an advantage, favor specially granted to one; especially a right held by a certain individual, group or class, and withheld from certain others or all others. true power is never having to wonder how the world is perceived by someone different than you, having the luxury of manipulating that someone’s experience in whatever way you deem appropriate, and sitting pretty amid a status that is far better than those who don’t have your same privilege. too many people believe that sexism, racism, homophobia, and antisemitism are only problems when some event prompts discussion of them on the nightly news. they don't see that people's daily lives are constantly affected by intolerances and prejudices that are still very real in our society.Too often we become blind to the experiences of others, and that can have horrible consequences. Within capitalism, economics plays an important ideological role. Economics has been used to construct a theory from which exploitation and oppression are excluded, by definition.

So you appreciate the higher standard of life you live in? constitutional human rights mean next to nothing as long as we are living in a world which thrives on the violent exploitation of the masses by a ruling minority, a system in which the majority of the population - the workers and poor - are divided from each other by means of sexism, racism, nationalism and religion. as long as we live under the threat of starvation and imprisonment, oppression and exploitation, our human rights will never be safe. It is impossible for the workers and poor, for women and oppressed minorities to live in dignity under capitalism. As long as there is a price on our labour, as long as we are under threat of attack because of our identifies, and as long as we live under threat of unemployment, hunger and disease, our rights to live with dignity and free from violence will never be realised. mainstream economics takes the class structure of capitalism as a natural, eternal, fact and builds up from those assumptions.
At the forefront of such claims is , and what plays its usual role of ideological cheerleader for the ruling class the Economist magazine...

The accepted wisdom of the age is that the road to prosperity and international acceptance is "economic liberalisation" or some of euphemism for opening economies to foreign investment. What this really means is that authoritarian regimes that allow their subjects to be exploited by international capital rather than state bureaucracies will find apologists among those who profit from such transactions or get paid by them. That this involves violation of the freedom of working class people and the labour "market" does not seem to bother them for, they stress, in long term material benefits this will create outweigh such restrictions on the eternal and sacred laws of economics. That "freedom" is used to justify this just shows how debased that concept has become under capitalism and within capitalist ideology. The key role the mainstream media plays in manufacturing public consent for elite decision makers has a history that seriously messed with progressive aspirations for the development a truly democratic global polity. The neoliberal market ideology which dominates our political economy is based on the same kind of twisted anti-human logic and value system which has legitimised colonialism over the centuries. he Anti-Colonial Revolutions fought the key battles of the twentieth century in terms of human slavery and liberation. Colonialism was the defining way in which capitalism came to most of the world, and anti-colonialism was the necessary negation of this. The anti-colonial struggle was the most important struggle of the twentieth century in terms of numbers mobilized, the stakes being fought for, and the reverberations into the future.

In terms of using gender inequity as a social barometer; not only is it problematic to universalize the female experience so as to define ‘oppression’ from a completely Eurocentric POV, but you totally miss the implications of first-world privilege. if oppression is something that puts others at a disadvantage, what about the corollary aspect, privilege, which puts us at an advantage? Yes, we live very well in the occident. In the western world, the privilege of being born a free citizen is an unearned entitlement, and I hardly dispute this as an ideal. But since globally, only a few have this privilege, it is also an unearned advantage, conferred through dominance.

Conflicts in the DRC are scarred by innumerable documented incidents of rape. The inherent violence and terror of rape finds its most barbaric realization during war, especially under conditions of modern total war. The analysis of global or local oppression- and exploitation- mechanisms was always blurred by economics, making the existence of patriarchy and racism "invisible". It divided struggles into primary and secondary contradictions and covered the world in a white, Eurocentric mold. the world one takes for granted as "everyday life" is in fact riddled with privilege of which we are unaware. the personal is political in its most profound sense...

maybe my 'inner activist' and your 'inner activist' should get together and .. go bowling (or something). hehe

forgive me my typos, grammatical errors, incomplete sentences, and many updates. maybe i could say it is hysteria- i think i'm just frustrated, i hope that i'm still coherent- i tried.

sorry i wasn't clear. hysteria doesn't really make for a succinct critique on capitalist hegemony, does it. sometimes, its just like, if you're not laughing, you're crying, and the line blurs between making a joke and making commentary.. as well it should, i think, however i don't need to be unintelligible. i'm sorry dears, its just a bit painful what goes for 'common sense' .. eg., the overwhelmingly propensity for people to assume western-centric worldwiews as given ... thereby securing (arguably) oppressive theories as 'truest', all the easier to keep the gears greased, and the wheels of colonialism turning..



oh man..

FYI, "truest form" is NOT = to "how 'the economist' uses the term".

i think we probably come from different schools, so to speak, but with all due respect, i ask you to check yourself. its one thing to believe what you think, (or believe that you are thinking), but isn't assuming your dominance kind of arrogant? i think this is what is called 'economic indoctrination', and this is exactly the problem i have with 'the economist'. newsflash: economics is not a unified discipline committed to the neoliberal agenda. claiming that any non-keynesian perspectives about what economy is, could and should be, come from terms used 'out of context' and/or 'misunderstanding' is a pretty cheap rhetorical technique, don't you think? and at best, it oversimplifies economic theory and leaves out the ways in which markets can degrade human well-being, undermine societies, and threaten the planet.

"Economic Globalization can be defined as the process of increasing economic integration between two countries, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market[1] . Depending on the paradigm, globalization can be viewed as both a positive and a negative phenomenon."
[ en.wikipedia.org ] (i don't mean to imply that wikipedia is an omnipotent source for describing 'how things are', and most likely, stalwart proponents of 'the economist' would argue its credibility, just as i argue 'the economist's... point being, more power to better acknowledgment of the diversity and complexity of economic thought, if we really want to think and say anything relevant to real world problems...).

when you say i won't 'find too many' competing political/economical analysis, well, i think this is statement is consequence of the effectiveness of neo-liberal agendas, not least of which 'the economist' appears to set out and suceed in achieving... just because things are invisible to you doesn't mean they don't exist. visibility is convenient to a position of privilege, and being blind to the margins/peripheries is a strategy in seeking command of what seems to be true, objective, normal, valid, just or simply topical -- and this is how dominance functions...

you're saying that like it's .... ironic n shit, right?

....like... ironic , like not in the 'alanis-morissette-unfortunate-song-to-make-a-come-back-to-in-its-ironic-lack-of-irony' sense, right? like - you mean the vomit coming up, wuz like, cuz like, you were reading the economist. right? an you don't really miss it, and you won't pick it up any time soon, so you can avoid , like, feeling nauseous .. n shit.. right?

ironic, like : [ stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com ] ...

yeah, irony .. for sure that's what you meant, right? and like, not giving a real citation for the source [ www.economist.com ] was , like, your statement that you don't consider this 'real' news, right? cuz like... a few things about this are making me feel sick, too... i mean .. like ... the heavily pro-gobalization editorial stance of the economist, so blatantly assumed so as to forgo what i think are pretty basic qualities necessary in using a term such as (responsible) journalism - oh yeah!!.. i think the newspeak for this particular type of propaganda is 'advocay journalism', (a genre of journalism that intentionally and 'transparently' adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose), ergo somehow it is acceptable to say 'news' when referring to colonialist rheotoric/advertisement ...

... come to think to think of it ... so much damn hypocrisy, not only in the media coverage, but also in western foreign policy, which also dictates to a certain extent the way we look at issues (...or don't look at them, therefore perfectly - and strategically, of course - absconding genuine altruism and responsibility). oh, if only the haziness (to put it lightly) of the West's 'free press' were ironic, if even it were a little bit funny-haha, and not such a painfully distressing, depressing disappointment, with such violently dire consequences...

not only did this kind of strategy lead me to speak to god on several occasions, i was always graced with some super-fantastic tan lines. (almost as nice as the nes you get from wearing fish net stockings). my acupuncturist had to ask : "why does your back say .... oh .. "

oh man, if i had any shame, i'd maybe be a bit embarrassed. it looks like i've really grown and matured over the years, doesn't it.

i don't even know if i've come down yet. i'm quite sure the experience(s) were formative.

... as long as i'm not wearing rainbow pants, and a sad, scraggly beard, i think we can say i am an lsd survivor, not an lsd casualty.

lsd changed my life ...

aeriel: werd. i feel like we are pretty much on the same page. you sound totally conscious, caring and loving – and I think the real radical force of revolutionary change begins at ‘home’. like you said, whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. this is the interrelated structure of reality. (even 'aesthetics', as a value, is only meaningful through relation. there is no relation without power, and this is political...). politics is the total complex of relations between people living in society. refusing to acknowledge the responsibility that comes with existing as a human individual does not omit a political existence.

i didn't call anyone selfish or apathetic. the thought does strike me that genuine indifference is impossible, and any so-called apathy during these times is a misnomer - not even a euphemism, but maybe an excuse and/or even disguise for a stark prevalence of complacency. not everyone will admit it in the same capacity, but we do all know that our ancestors did some messed up things, and we also know that things today still aren’t right. what i was trying to emphasize was that 'thinking about things' isn't always about having the *choice* to think. and when we do have choices to make, this is a privilege. freedom is the power of choosing. it is not a 'non-choice' if we don't want to think about what choices we have and what choices we make, as we are still exerting the act of choice. politics is about power. freedom (or lack of) is inherently political. we all relate differently to the social structure, and people are disproportionately forced into positions in which 'thinking about things' is less a matter of choice, and more a matter of survival. so things are not the same for everyone -some people have air conditioning and a university education, and others are displaced from their country of origin, some are in jail, some are sick and surrounded by killing and dying - and these are all related to each other in unjust ways created and maintained by systemic oppression.

which doesn’t mean to say that it makes sense to brush off nearly 2500 years by coming to such a narrow conclusion as ‘nothing has changed’ with such a gross overgeneralization as ‘we’ve been fighting over the same things politically’. i agree that it makes no sense to ‘beat ourselves up’ - guilt is nonproductive, and it is nonsensical to apologize for being birthed into a situation we had no part in creating and no choice in joining. likewise, it is absurd to relinquish each our own personal responsibility by appropriating 2500 years of history as your own excuse. i’m no utopist, but i am a believer. and i have reason to believe in life, because the fact that ‘freedom fighting’, in infinitesimal shapes and forms, exists outside, beyond my belief system. what do you mean we haven’t ‘gotten anywhere’? where is it you want to go? beliefs are an unavoidable part of participating in 'reality'. so maybe that makes us all 'suckers'. maybe that's what being a human is? i don't claim to know different. but what is a sucker, if not someone who is a loser - but what competition is being lost? and whose game is it anyways?

and, (if i could just drag out my extremely irregular and uncharacteristic use of a sports reference a bit further...) apparently you have your reasons for feeling totally legitimate in telling me what it is that i think, labeling me as a 'those people on the left', prior to asking me how i myself identify. but why stake out the title of 'art maker' for yourself in opposition to defining me as politico? if that is where you see a dividing line between you and me, then we aren't so different. me too, all i want to do is make art and laugh, even if i define and manifest it differently. my art is my politics, and vice versa.

being a human being, whatever our worldview (or self-proclaimed lack thereof) isn't a sports game. we're kind of all on the same team here, you know? and whether it is true or not that calling oneself apolitical is just another form of collusion, in being human, we are complicit with humanity - whether we 'care' about the threat of our total extinction (which carries with it at least the potential threat of annihilating the planet simultaneously), or not.

-- on approaching political topics, in a public forum : i know that if i keep talking about politics, and i let people know what my positions are, it can become a possibility that everybody who doesn't share the same positions as me will feel alienated. but i know it is politics on my mind. my intention, and what i strive for is to say things in a way that makes it clear that i respect everyone's views, no matter how different they are from mine. i would like to express my opinions without alienating the people who don't have the same opinion as me. participating in a conversation only really makes sense if the intention is to engage. i know that we all deal differently with the things we think of as the most important in our lives. what we think isn't the same as who we are, and ultimately, i think we always have a lot more in common than what separates us..

.... is it typical and/or is it cowardly for people to project any anxious self-conscious inherent weaknesses onto others and/or (maybe less cowardly) face the fact that their identity is made up of these weaknesses -- but then grandiloquently label this condition 'the Human Condition', post their nothingness problem, which horrifies them, as a philosophical dilemma, thereby giving stature to their (so-called) animalism, and proceed to prattle on pompously about the `Essence of Being', etc...

besides :
a) killing yourself, and/or
b) suggesting or encouraging others to kill themselves, and/or
c) (only if you have the privilege of, muffin) *deciding* not to 'keep thinking about all that kinda shit all the time'-

it seems like you could also :

d) keep thinking about stuff, make connections and form an analysis, and make efforts to change things that you feel are unjust. eg.) linking the struggle against police brutality to the struggle against the criminalization of immigrants -- and, in addition to justice for sean bell and other specific cases, you could try and articulate, organize and call for an end to racist & militarized policing of our communities; the creation of a permanent independent prosecutor for all cases of police brutality in NYC (or perhaps more pertinent, your own local community); and increased efforts for community control of our safety through creation of community cop watch patrols and 'know your rights'-type work.

(Français ci-dessous)

PERPETUAL TALENT SHOW! NO AUDITIONS! OPEN TO ALL!*


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geek love, katherine dunn : a carnival family mom has ingested pesticides, radioactive materials, and a variety of drugs in order to produce children who are special: piano-playing conjoined twins, the bald albino hunchback dwarf, chick, (who has telekinetic powers), and arturo the aqua boy, who was born with flippers instead of arms and legs. arty establishes an arturan cult, whose members lop off parts of their body in order to become more like him. arty swims and frolics in an aquarium and then preaches dark, enigmatic sermons to his assembled admirers. "if i had arms and legs and hair like everybody else, do you think i'd be happy? i would not!" ... "because then i'd worry did somebody love me! i'd have to look outside myself to find out what to think of myself!"

pure trance, junko mizuno : following the 3rd world war, humankind left the toxic surface of the earth and built an underground city to survive. a serious social problem has emerged in this new society: hyperorexia, or severe overeating, a side effect of the "pure trance" life-sustaining pill.



101 alternatives to sucides for teens, freaks and other outlaws, kate bornstein : a controversial guide to surviving 'outside the box', "for marginalized youth who want to stay on the edge, but alive". ranges from “#2: take a deep breath and touch yourself” to “#22: moisturize!” to “#79: take drugs” to “#81: starve yourself.”designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "don't be mean."

the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven, sherman alexie : anthology of short stories which are totally despairing social realism - brilliant dark humour full of heart... somehow, each time you laugh it is like ripping a bandage off wounds centuries old..

night-vision: illuminating war and class on the neo-colonial terrain, butch lee & red rover : “a book that should be read by anyone who gives a damn about a non-racist, non-sexist, non-homophobic future.” breaking it down, how it all fits together, & how to break it apart again.

the dispossessed, ursula k leguin : anarchist science fiction

i love this show and i think it is brilliant.

when i don't like american tv, it's not only b/c of the underlying, never-ending WASPy moral themes and values (i.e. propaganda), but how blatantly obvious they are. everything from characterization, casting, soundtrack, product placement, etc., ... it feels like getting hit over the head (again and again and again) with what is RIGHT and what is WRONG. just in case the plot wasn't transparent enough. prime time tv makes the everyday banal. and, whether it is true or not that we are in a particularly bad moment in history to be unconscious of social issues, and/or to be sustaining the social structure as it is, i like the wire because it portrays life as more complex than the overly-simple and absolute morality of most american television. i agree that the wire does feel much more true to 'real-life'.

crime shows, esp. police dramas seem particularly set up to validate a certain set of values. the simplistic 'good guy vs. bad guy' theme is so tired it was always dead to me. i don't want to see police portrayed as heroes, i don't want to see criminal (racist and classist) stereotypes, and i can't (and i don't want to) identify with simple moral judgements. in the wire, the characters are not so easily identifiable into opposing categories of good/evil. whichever side of the law, the people in this show are all entangled in existence, and all have human qualities (confused and complex).

also, i totally think they've done an incredible job with the production and artistic direction, which seems pretty innovative and bold to me ; the majority casting of african americans reflects the demographics of baltimore in an accurate way, which is rare in tv drama. it took me awhile to notice what exactly about the soundtrack was different- besides the opening theme and closing theme songs (eg.tom waits), there is only diegetic music (all music emanates from a source within the scene). there is no muzak to cue you when to feel sad, glad, mad, scared or horny. the plot is not easy in that there are many different stories going on at the same time, and characters, stories and context is highly developed. this show doesn't feel formulaic, nor gimmicky, nor predictable. the pacing of the show definitely feels slow, as compared to other tv drama. but not slow-boring. slower (than other pop culture), with more dimension.





(obviously, this show has had little commercial success).

that's no way to appreciate my performance art.

but maybe you were performing art yourself.

Nobumichi Tosa came across the personal question, "Who am I?"
He adopted the following methods to try to solve this:
Compare oneself to a fish, and the world to a small sea where a fish lives, then, ask oneself "Who am I?" to find the answer from the point of a fish.
With the theme of "one item=one message,"create a product to express the answer.
Give each one of 26 products an alphabetical model number.
Examine the results as a whole and feel the total image of one’s self.
This process is just like fishing. The fish (=the idea) swimming in the sea (=chaos in one’s brain) is landed onto the real world with the fishing technique (=reason) and fishing tackle(=mechanical engineering skill).
Nobumichi tried to understand the undersea world (=himself) by analyzing 26 fishes caught from the sea.



"’Why do I make things?’ That is a big question," he explains. "But to me, this question is equivalent to other big questions: ’What is life? What is God? What is space? Who am I?’ For me, if I can understand myself, I can make myself."



shun the mundane and the mass produced



human face fish

your momma

no need to be apprehensive about hanging couches. in fact ; reJOYCE and float

sound sizzlers too, zzzZAP. what nice sounds, lights, creatures.

hmmp. grouchy neighbours and facist p-opos should take more long walks off short bridges.

zzzzZZZZZZZTTTT

[video]www.youtube.com/v/Yw4qklgNIxI[video]

february party beings NOW·it's never too late for february.

february is difficult and maybe we can romanticize together how its the toughest month, but really, isolation and debt and fear, confusion, disorientation, loss, grief, absence, alienation, dislocation, depersonalization, separation and sorrow are every day. every fucking day. right now. yeah, i like to holler for february for something to cry for, but that's just cuz i'm trying to holler in a way that it feels like someones' hollerin back.

hello, how do you do, it hurts, yeah , and all that... awake, though. awake and making meaning like i don't take it for granted cuz empty don't serve me nothin but more cages , and goddam i want liberation

physically impossible. the impossible 's hope , hope like heart bursting, bustin out . my emergency february sentiments were always "year 'round", it is a state of mind ....

not just a state of mind. socio economic status trap nothing boxes, too . nop, i don't think we can just hold hands and meditate and hold hands and plur it out.. some people can afford to eat and some people can afford to think and speak but some people be condemned, invisibilized and dispersed in such ways into oblivion , worse, self-negation ...

cuz this year is leapy, february grew an extra day. does it feel like mediocrity is smothering you? DEFY DEFY DEFY!!!!... dream, wish and make magic ...




EMERGENCY FEBRUARY PARTY

The great grey beast february is trying to eat us alive. It is a monstrous month, a dire and dreary month. If this month smothers us, how will we ever find our way out its intestines of dark and despair? Don't get so depressed you take a sailing trip in your bathtub with only razor blades packed. Don't get so hopeless you enroll into business school or decide to vote liberal. Don't get so boring you start watching romantic comedies. Don't get so bored you forget how to breathe. Rather than wither away in the belly of the beast, what we need are tall tails of triumph and victory. FEBRUARY PARTY. Believe in something extraordinary or at least force someone else to. It needn't be comfortable. So that our hearts are bursting instead of breaking, let's tear ourselves from ennui like an incompetent surgeon ripping out vital organs and gush like our aortas would into a bloody, pulpy mess. It's going to hurt, let's face it, it's our lives. But let's make it hurt so good. That 2-headed bastard february has our backs against the wall but we're gonna show that fucker. The great grey beast February is bloodthirsty, but before you offer your wrists, try having some fun.


EMERGENCY FEBRUARY PARTY

·february party runs for the entire month of february, every february
·february party beings NOW
·it's never too late for february ·to celebrate february party, give cards, letters, gifts, greetings and feasts to others
·february party has no religious affiliation, does not commemorate victorious battles and focuses on no one person or reason other than festivity and carnival
·handmade/ home-made DIY is preferred
·february party is anti-capitalist; february party is a FREE PARTY
·participants only, no spectators


Far from fun, February. But why? "Because it feels like outside is loathing me". And it is, outside wants you dead. In the face of such vehement opposition, only one course of action can save us: a party. AN EMERGENCY FEBRUARY PARTY. If it's kill or be killed, kill winter first. Party is a fight for life, and anyone who plans on surviving the winter is invited. Attendance is mandatory. Now, since you are going to be at a party, you had best get your shit together so that you don't look like some socially inept crusader of lost and forgotten causes, pathetically peddling postfunctional propaganda in a sea of the happy, healthy and hip, like some bad suit wearing lunatic waiting at the outlets of mass transit to distribute dubious documentation and being laughed at. No one likes to be laughed at, especially at a party. No, if you are going to get through this you better have a plan, you must be ready. Fortunately, FEBRUARY PARTY is free of fixed formalities such as dress codes and discussion topics (not to mention locations or timelines or fees), so just by staying alive at least until March you can join in on the fun. Fortunately, any number of things beginning with the letter F make for fun and exiting activities that will make you a hit at February Party, such as: Filming. Frothing (be it in cups or from the mouth). Fires. Firing weaponry. Fieldtrips. Fucking, (or alternatively if you are a bit of a prude but still do like a little bouncy bouncy now and then). Fornicating. Forming (clay perhaps, or even your own religious sect). Fishing (nothing makes you feel alive like making something else dead). Freezing. Freeing. Formulating mathematical equations. Frog Farming. And that's just the letter F, and F isn't a very good letter. You see, you could do anything. The trick is making sure the party keeps on rolling, and then before you know it, it will be March. You could even bring it along into March too if you are having too much fun...

DIAMANDA GALAS

oh, and FLOSSIE AND THE UNICORNS. obviously

mrquintronandmisspussycat