What to do with the blog?
I would like to see veganarchist.com turn into a more interactive community with maybe a few other writers besides just me. I’ve been pretty busy and unable to attend to the blog with the attention it deserves lately. I just don’t know what to do with the blog. Ideas? Suggestions? Resumes to write? I am open. I want to find other people who get it. People who don’t need laws because they are so conscious they would never do anything to violate universal law to begin with. Help?
Jess
Something is afoot… I don’t know what but something is.
I’ve been feeling…. something for the past week. I am not really sure “what” it is… something in the air, maybe? It is very unsettling whatever it is.
Last week or two ago, I had someone recommend me some music. I checked out the lyrics and it was all about chaos magick. I didn’t investigate it more as such things are of no interest to me anymore.
This week, I had someone talk to me about magick. In particular, Crowley. The last person who talked to me about Crowley – I never saw again. I don’t think that’s it though.
I also had a friend who had a “ghost” problem – I offered to help with it but they didn’t need it.
Also, this week I’ve started to get involved this local atheist group. Much to my dismay, some of the members of the group aren’t merely “without god” but wish to wage spiritual warfare against all religions. I am not down for that. I am neutral.
I can’t help but have the feeling all these things are related somehow but I just don’t know how. I feel as it something is on the horizon that I just can’t quite see.
Oddly enough, the idea of becoming a monk seems like a good idea. It is very possible to be a Buddhist monk with being an atheist.
I don’t know. I feel the need to teach compassion, kindness, and love. Not my version of compassion, kindness, and love – but the type that is align with what I call, “universal law.” I am just at a wall on how to and who to.
I am just stumped and the energy in the air is making me uneasy.
Bane and Ceremony Show Review + Punk Vest for Sale
I went to a hardcore show this weekend. I saw Bane, Ceremony, and Alpha and Omega. Bane was -amazing-. I was disappointed with Ceremony, I just wasn’t feeling it, I thought they would be more intense. But Bane had amazing energy. Alpha and Omega were good too.
At the show, I had some vegan donuts. I met some other vegan edge kids so it was pretty sweet. They were nice. I thought I was infinitely awkward as I discussed punk fashion: how hardcore kids don’t dress up and punks do. I always dress up for shows. I dress up for day-to-day life. Sometimes, I think it’s funny when I am sitting here at the computer wearing a patched vest and my studded wristbands with nowhere to go!
I got an interesting comment at the show. I was told I wasn’t like other vegan edge folks. I don’t really know what a sterotype vegan edge punk is like since I’ve been pretty isolated from that scene until recently. I think I am a standard issue anarcho-punk but maybe not. The speaker of the comment didn’t really elaborate much on what he meant but he said it was a good thing to be different. Right on.
I’ve been working on trying to get my little business going. I am also going to put in some more resumes. Maybe places will be hiring soon for summer. I also put up a punk vest for auction: here. Hoping someone will buy it. It’s worth about $500 and I am asking $250 – plus free shipping/handling and part of the profit is going to go towards Amnesty International. Fight the good fight and get something stylish for yourself. Win win.
I have a ton of reading to do. I know I made a post about it awhile ago and I haven’t been making much progress. Right now, I am in the middle of “The Primal Screamer” by Nick Blinko. It’s pretty good so far. Then I was going to tackle a copy of “The Haunted Head” also by Nick Blinko.
I think I might dedicate the next month to reading and then focus on doing art? Or maybe mix it up. It’s pretty awesome that people have been buying my designs especially in this hard economy.
Oh, anyone want a semi-custom punk vest? I have an extra brand new black denim vest – size xl – which is 46 inches at the waist/shoulders. It’s a little too big for me and I can’t return it because the vest was a jacket. So, I have a collection of patches that I was going to sew some onto it and see if maybe I could sell it. I love making punk clothing but my biggest problem is that I only have one torso. I think I’ll post pictures of all my vests in the near future. It’s kind of fun seeing the evolution.
Books, Books, and Books. What are you reading?
I have a small army of books that I have collected.
I currently have:
Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner
Sit Down and Shut Up by Brad Warner
To Meet the Real Dragon by Gudo Nishijima and Jeffrey Bailey
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
The Complex: How Military Invades Our Everyday Lives by Nick Turse
Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From An Angry White Male by Tim Wise
Off the Map by Crimethinc
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Dottie the Sock: How I Found My Pair by Christine Gayle
Welcome to the Ark by Stephanie S. Tolan
Fight of the Raven by Stephan S. Tolan
Element of Refusal by John Zerzan
Behold the Pale Horse by William Cooper
This Country Must Change: Essays on the Necessity of Revolution in the USA by Craig Rosebraugh, Editor
So, I really want to get to reading these. It’s getting a little out of hand. What books are you reading or what would you recommend?
Edit: I also wrote another article for The New Gay – Pink and Black Attack: I am a Radical Queer. Check it out!
How to Build Community.
Currently, I am living in the middle of the bible belt in Southern California. There isn’t really any place to go to meet people – as alternative/counterculture doesn’t really exist out here. I’ve been trying to change that. I’ve been working on organizing a handful of groups to find like-minded people. I started a veggie group, a queer group, and am also working on trying to form a chapter of Amnesty International.
How do you organize without having a central place to organize? The answer is the internet. The internet is a great tool for connecting with people. One of my favorite websites to network is meetup.com. I’ve had mix results with meetup.com – I’ve had some groups that no one showed up and had other groups that people did. I think my biggest problem was trying to organize in New York City. There is so much going on there, that it’s hard to connect. I’ve had more success out here just because there isn’t anything else around.
Another way to connect with people on the internet is forums. Forums are a great way to find people who share a common interest with you. I go to a couple of forums and have made some great internet pals. Some I am hoping to meet in person eventually.
I had a meetup on Saturday for the LGBT group and about five people came. It was a good first meeting. Everyone was a little nervous. Or at least I was, I was shaking a little bit. I am hoping the people will come to another meeting so we can get a core group going. It was nice to meet some other queers!
I am trying to get active again after a few months of inactivity. I still have no idea where to move to that would be a place I’d like. So, for now, I’ll try to make the best out of what I go. We’ll see what happens.
Disclosure of Information + 3d Printing: A New Age of Production To Come?
Sometimes saying less is more. Sometimes people need to learn to keep their mouths shut. We’ve all had traumatic experiences but there’s no need to blurt it out to every stranger you meet. It’s like a mental assault on someone – weighing them down with what they really don’t need to hear.
I’ve had people who I talk to for the first time disclose everything. It’s like being assaulted with all this emotional baggage. Like do I really need to hear about your your past drug addiction, your crappy job, or your abusive partner that you love so you won’t leave. It’s inconsiderate to the other person who probably has their own things they are going through but aren’t blabbing to the world.
Most of the time, the things a person goes through is because of poor choices they made in the past. Sometimes, there’s things beyond your control, but most of the time it’s people doing it to themselves. Plus, the past is an illusion that only exists in your mind. It means nothing in this moment unless you give it meaning and control over you.
I am a sweet, caring person but there is only so much my poor heart can take. Plus, if the problems that you have are the problems that you make – I am not going to feel sorry for you. You are doing it to yourself. If you don’t like your job, quit it. If you have past histories of drug abuse, go to therapy or a support group to talk about it. If you have an abusive partner, leave them. It’s not that hard.
The worse, is when someone asks my advice and they don’t like the response they get. Please don’t ask me just what I think because you don’t want to know. They want a sugar-coat fairy tales non-real outlook on things or pity or condolences. They don’t want reality to smack them in the face.
Apart from not wanting to hear your life story right away, please don’t ask me for things if we just met. It makes me think you’re a user who’s going try to suck me dry. If I offer, that’s one thing, but I owe you nothing. I’ll treat you with respect and kindness – just how I would like to be treated, but it doesn’t mean I am going to give you things. It also doesn’t mean I want to sleep with you if I am nice. I have this problem all the time, just because I am very friendly, people assume friendliness means I want to bed them. It is not the case. I am also not flirting when I am being nice, it’s just me being me. Also, don’t always assume everything is about you. That’s being really vain. If I had something to tell you, I would tell you, not send cryptic messages by blogging to the world. No one is psychic.
All I ask is for you to be considerate of my feelings and treat me like a human – not objectifying me as an object. I am not a prize to be won or a trophy to be displayed. I am really sensitive and have no desire to be mentally assaulted by your negative energy. Think before you speak. You never know how what you say and do affects another person.
With that being said, I was browsing a veggie forum, and found an awesome link about 3d printing. Will 3d printing make our production system obsolete? Watch the video here, it’s pretty awesome.
Designs and Punk Gear on Etsy
So, I thought I finished my jewelry designs. I have four done so far. But inspiration struck and I am trying to figure out this design. It’s going to be something great and iconic. It’s a logo for something that has yet to be define and needs definition to represent itself to the world at large. I can do this. So, my brain is currently in logo land.
I’ll share my work once they are made/copyrighted and all that fun stuff. The pieces have anarchist/feminist/queer/vegan themes to them. The idea of the project is to donate some of the profits to charities to support the different causes. So, you get a cool piece of jewelry plus help fight the good fight.
So, I’m an artist or I pretend to be. I am still working on some awesome paintings that I’ll post pictures of them when they are done. I have very little of my current work online but you can see it on my etsy if you want.
I have a patch I made and a few vests I worked on for sell online. For stuff, here at etsy.com. The Riot Grrrl vest has about 2,000+ studs on it. They aren’t the cheap studs either, they are steel with bronze. Which means if you are daring like I was, you can wash it without it getting rusty. I hang dried it. It’s really clean though so I don’t think it needs to be washed again. It’s really awesome but it’s like 8 pounds of studding. The other vest is really cool and a lot lighter. It’s a classic punk vest. It’s a little ironic with the band Conflict being painted on leather. It has about 1,000 studs on it. It’s pretty easy to repaint over the bands if you don’t want those/want different ones. I used Tester Acrylic Paint Markers.
Queer Zine – Call for Submissions
I went looking for the underground – the place were queer punks, anarchists, and free thinkers hide. A place free from hierarchies and oppression. A place where people could be themselves and be accepted. I found the underground but I didn’t find what I was looking for. But, somehow along the way, I became what I was seeking. I am the revolution. I can’t be the only one. I want to find the others.
*****
In a world treated like a machine; where everything is a commodity to be bought and sold, there lives a human who dreams of something more: community, solidarity, and connection. Can what they seek be found in such a world?
*****
Basically, my idea for the zine is two-folds: writing of an ideal underground that doesn’t exist quite yet almost like the groundwork for such a place; a manifesto of sorts, and the journey of a person to find if such a place exists. Part fact, part fiction, and queer as queer can be.
*****
So, what do I want from you? Poems, vegan recipes, drawings, gay shame theme material. Not looking to have it be anything beyond PG-13. I haven’t set the idea in stone yet – so it’s all just brewing. I have some jewelry designs I need to finish up this week before I start working on the zine. I haven’t decided how I am going to publish it yet – I might even make it a small book/pamphlet – maybe color if you have color works. We’ll see what comes of it.
I just read two issues of J.D’s last night from QZAP and I am fairly confident I can do an awesome job of putting together something that’s radical, queer, punk, and interesting.
Contact me for more details. You can leave a comment here or email me – kale.and.glitter (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks! Hope to hear from someone. Don’t be shy. This could be an awesome project. 🙂
Victim or Culprit? Life in the Matrix.
I found an old vest I covered in patches and painted on the back, “Victim or Culprit?” It’s something I think about sometimes, “Are we a victim of society or a culprit for perpetuating the system?”
When I lived in New York City, the closest grocery store to my apartment was Whole Foods. Whole Foods is corporation that’s not very sustainable. To the consumer, it’s pretty awesome that they have fruits and vegetables from all over the world so nothing is ever out of season. However, it’s not so cool all the energy used to transport the goods. Was I a mere victim of the corporation for having to buy my food there or was I a culprit that was continuing the system?
I try not to support sweatshops and slave labor but sometimes it’s unavoidable in this Matrix. I’d say about 75% of my clothing is from the United States and European Countries. The remaining 25% is from questionable origins. I try really hard to be ethical with everything I consume but sometimes things slip through the cracks. Am I a victim or a culprit?
Choice is a very limited commodity. Sometimes the choice is left up to the lesser of two evils. For example, I am an anarchist but I helped the Obama campaign because I didn’t want McCain to win. I don’t believe in the corrupt political system we have, however, just because I don’t believe in it isn’t going to make it go away or stop affecting my life. If things are going to change, it is going to because people work for it. Apathy is never the solution. But, it’s really hard when given two choices with almost the same agenda.
I usually go for independent and handmade over mass produced and corporate. People who are living on very tight budgets don’t really have the luxury of making that choice. They need to go with what’s available. I watched the movie Food, Inc. and the movie followed a family on a tight budget. When only having a dollar to spend to feed their hungry kid, it’s easiest to go to a fast food chain and get the dollar menu items to satisfy their hunger. Fruits and vegetables are more expensive than meat because of how the government subsidizes the food supply. The family out of need would go with the unhealthier options because it’s cheaper because money is the deciding factor. Are they a victim because of financial restrictions? Or are they the culprit for supporting the system?
Nothing is really black and white. There is a system of control that built up making the world how it is now. There’s so many systems within systems within systems that it’s mind boggling. With the structure of society that we have, living a hunting and gathering lifestyle just isn’t an option in the modern American city as even the trees aren’t from the city. They are planned and developed. With the absence of nature and being born into this system to begin with, from birth to death we aren’t given a choice as to the way we should live. Are we victims in the Matrix or the culprit who makes it?
What do you think about the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill?
The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill would be a violation of humans rights. The spirit of the bill is undemocratic and would be a blow to the progress of democracy in Uganda. It also isn’t a bill just against homosexuals – it’s a bill against everyone. A new draft bill includes a provision that could lead to the imprisonment for up to three years of anyone, including heterosexual people, who fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.
The existing law, Section 140 of the Ugandan penal code, penalizes “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” with imprisonment of up to 14 years. This legacy of British colonialism was introduced to punish local practices of what the colonial powers deemed to be “unnatural sex.” The laws stand as proof that same-sex sexual practices and gender diversity are, and always have been, part of Ugandan culture. The draft bill tabled today seeks to imprison anyone convicted of “the offense of homosexuality” for life.
Paragraph 3 of the draft bill sets out provisions on what it names as “aggravated homosexuality,” which will incur the death penalty, contradicting the global trend toward a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
The final section of the bill provides for Uganda to nullify any of its international or regional commitments that it deems “contradictory to the spirit and provisions enshrined in this Act.” As both the African Commission and the UN Human Rights Committee have held, a state cannot, through its domestic law, negate its international human rights obligations.
Over recent months, there has been increased campaigning against homosexuality in Uganda, led by churches and anti-gay groups. The media have joined this campaign, and have publicly pointed to individuals they accuse of being gay or lesbian.
People suspected of being gay have faced death threats and been physically assaulted. Many have been ostracized by their families or faced discrimination, including dismissal from their place of employment.
“This inflammatory bill will be taken as further confirmation that it is OK to attack or even kill people perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender,” said Victor Mukasa, of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “It is the government’s responsibility to immediately withdraw this dangerous proposal.”
It is a dangerous proposal for everyone. It will affect the lives of everyone of every sexuality because anyone can be accused. It’s like a war on human nature – it’s perfectly natural to be homosexual. They might as well outlaw breathing. I am appalled that in 2010 – this is even an issue.
What can you do to help? You can take action by going to the Amnesty International web page and send a email to your representatives to stop this violation of human rights.
