Monday, May 29, 2006

my humblest apologies, update with pictures

i'm sorry for not responding to your comments! for some reason i couldn't read them on this computer. if anyone is reading this, please leave a comment. when someone drops me a line, it's like finding an orchid growing out of a sidewalk crack.

gosh, werebrock was almost eaten by the piranhas working at a corporate bookstore! it's not a very interesting story though

so here's a picture of the hut, worked on it with Beautiful Day and Johnny Tsunami for an hour, getting in that thatched spruce. maybe tommorrow we'll finish it

we also found, living under the cat tails, some springs! the project after the hut will be to excavate the spring a bit so as to have a bathing spot, a drinking spot, and maybe even swales to grow more cat tails, willows, horse tails, pond slime! this website has a good explanation of what that process will look like. http://www.wimmark.com/springs.htm

On another note, my co-op loving, liberation theology dad and I are listening to some anarchist speeches essays and having heated discussions. Real periods of growth (for him). ;) jk, jk. I invite you all to listen to any of them if you sample and find them stimulating.

Here's Bob Black's famous "The Abolition of Work".
http://www.audioanarchy.org/antiwork/05-The_Abolition_Of_Work.mp3

Here's Derrick Jensen's interview on Freak Radio Santa Cruz, in two parts.
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/anonymous@radio4all.net/16-1-20060411-DerrickJensen032906Part1.mp3
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/anonymous@radio4all.net/16-1-20060411-DerrickJensen032906Part2.mp3

Here's a great speech called "US Off the Planet" with Chellis Glendelling and Ward Churchill.
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=4265&nav=&

Keep it funky and feral

Saturday, May 27, 2006

queen city bike co-operative

dude handed me this flyer at critical mass yesterday. the url isn't working, so i'll retype it
_____________
To the people of Cincinnati: A new Bicycle Co-op is being created.

It is... a not-for-profit cooperative, spreading bicycle advocacy, practicing safe and legal bicycle riding and having fun.

With a purpose
-to provide training for bicycle maintenance
-to encourage a cycling community
-to provide an outlet for inexpensive bikes for all people
-to encourage bicylce safety in city riding
-to encourage the use of bicycles as transportation
-to encourage to all people

QUEEN CITY BIKE CO-OPERATIVE

We aim to share these benefits and services:

*Bicycle maintenance training
*Use of bicycle tools
*Access to new and used parts
*Acces to library of repair information
*Provide forum for bicycle advocacy
*Fun

Help keep the momentum going
Meeting every Wednesday 6 p.m.
and Sat. 2 p.m.
416 Livingston St. Cincinnati, OH 45214 (West End)

WWW.QUEENCITYBIKECOOP.ORG
Make donations online

Friday, May 26, 2006

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boom boom ditly dat dat scum


dud(ettes), checkin in! the hut is coming along, with the uprights and ribs in place. this saturday we shall collect the thatching materials, whatever we decide on. please join in the fun if you wish, cuz i wishit. check out the inspiration for our design here: http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/shelter/thatch/ryanleech.html pictures are forthcoming!

let me add that the hut is in La P.A.Z. territory (Permanent Autonomous Zone), meaning it's filled with good things like tadpoles, beautiful flowers, etc. noticably absent are the vicious domesticated pigs that i encountered last week when George Walker Bush Jr. came to speak at a local college. my statist friends were there (protesting?) and, not being really into the sign waving, i walked into the woods to get fiber for cordage. little did i know that there was some imaginary line (a particularly UNGUARDED one) between the woods and i, so when i came out the bobbies were waiting. and strangely enough, the secret service were a lot more chill than the local pigs. badges=sewage. i don't hate sewage, i don't hate people. but you know the best place for sewage? not in these fucking creeks. either a) in a hole or b) in a composting toilet thingie.

urban exploring is duh shit! werebrock went up to the highest point in all of losantaville during a lightning storm the other night, in a wicked decrepit structure. he wishes he could show ya'll pictures. if you know what he's talking about, go for it. the view's incredible. also, anyone who wants to freegan their way into a movie, with a soft drink, there's a limited time opportunity. think like a ninja and you'll figure it out

my buddy Pipigwan is almost back in town. together we'll be unstoppable. this is a season for the adventures of myth, my friends. blessed be our CrimeThinc. co-conspirators and thousands of other (hero)ines for inspiration

few last things: Critical Mass this Friday and every Final Friday in the Twin Cities and the nasty, nasty 'Nati. Twins, meet at Loring Park in Minneapolis at 5 p.m. to ride at about 5:30. 'Natians be at the little bit of Fountain Square that's left (right by Rock Bottom Brewery) around 5:30, we'll head off at 6.

I'll post Seaweed's stuff some other time. and maybe you want to check out Julia while she's in town, a tree sitting friend of mine who knows her told me she rocks. and it'll be where all the cool kids at. peace

> Are Eco-Villages Our Future?
> Julia Butterfly Hill Presentation
> Northern Kentucky University, BEP 200
> Friday, June 9, 2006
> 7:30 pm
> Donations Welcome
>
> Eco-Village Workshop
> Imago, 700 Enright Ave.
> Saturday, June 10
> 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
> $25 per person
>
> Julia Butterfly Hill, noted environmental and social activist, will
> speak about the idea of Eco-Villages at Northern Kentucky University on
> Friday, June 9, 2006 at 7:30 pm in BEP 200. This event will be hosted
> by the Social Justice Studies Program and the Literature & Language
> Department of NKU. Donations are welcome.
>
> As a followup, Imago, located at 700 Enright Avenue, will hold a 10-4
> workshop on Saturday, June 10. This event will feature four local
> Eco-Villages and illustrate how Eco-Villages serve to bring ecological
> interests to our everyday lives. The workshop costs $25, lunch
> included. Please RSVP using the attached form.
>
> The workshop will include presentations by several Eco-Villages in
> various stages of development. It will be an opportunity for people to
> learn what an Eco-Village is and how they help preserve the planet.
> The workshop will also benefit those interested in joining or beginning
> an Eco-Village or just wanting more information about ways to make life
> more sustainable.
>
> Co-Sponsors Include:
> Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition,
> Cincinnati Earth Institute, Sisters of Mercy - Cincinnati Regional
> Community, Green Fire, Enright Ridge Urban Eco-Village, Berea College
> Ecovillage, Heartland Ecovillage
>
> Julia brought international attention to the plight of the world’s last
> remaining ancient forests when she climbed 180 feet up a 1000 year-old
> Redwood tree and refused to come down. Her historic 738-day protest of
> the environmental destruction caused by clear-cutting ancient redwoods
> culminated with a negotiated agreement that provided permanent
> protection for the tree (“Luna”) and a nearly 3 acre buffer-zone. She
> continues to stand on the front lines of environmental and social
> justice issues worldwide. Her message of hope, empowerment, love and
> respect for all life has inspired millions of people worldwide.
>
> For more information or to co-sponsor this event, please contact Kate
> Kinney or Jim Schenk at Imago at 921-5124 or by email to
> jschenk@imagoearth.org.
>
> Eco-Village Workshop Registration
> Workshop registration fee of $25 per person includes:
> Opportunities to communicate with each of the four co-sponsoring
> eco-villages,
> a vegetarian lunch, and free admission to the June 10th performance
> Under A Full Moon: A Summer Concert Series, presented by Imago.
> For more information about the concert, please visit
> www.imagoearth.org/fullmoon.html
>
> Workshop: Saturday, June 10
> 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
> Imago, 700 Enright Ave.
>
> Concert: 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> If you would like to RSVP for this event, please print this page.
> Then, fill out and return this portion and your payment to the address
> below. Please make all checks payable to Imago.
>
> Imago c/o Kate Kinney
> 700 Enright Avenue
> Cincinnati, OH 45205
>
> Are Eco-Villages Our Future?
> Eco-Village Workshop Registration
>
> Name:_______________________________________ Phone #:
> ___________________
> Street Address:________________________________Email
> Address:_______________________
> Number of Workshop Attendees:_____________ Will you be attending the
> concert? Yes No
> Total Amount Enclosed: $___________
>
> Concert tickets may be picked up the day of the event.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

la la i love you la

my vision quest is done. after spending only one day and night fasting and being still, the vision came. such things are very personal, but i'll tell you if you ask privately.

check out this poem, by Robinson Jeffers. it was brought up in the context of Edward Abbey's favorite literature, so it MUST be good! next time i'll show you some articles by Seaweed (one of my favorite authors), and the hut i'm about to build.

Vulture
I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheelinghigh up
in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit narrowing,I
understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight-feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.
I could see the naked red head between the great wings
Bear downward staring. I said, "My dear bird, we are wasting time here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for you." But how beautiful
he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the sea-light
over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten by that beak and
become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes--
What a sublime end of one's body, what and enskyment; what a life after
death.-Robinson Jeffers, 1962

love is in the air

I was on the roof of my new house with a solar energy consultant when the cries of two red-tailed hawks surrounded us. They played throughout the afternoon over the forest, back and forth, first so high you could hardly see them, then down almost at treetop level. It was mating season and they mate in the air, so the pheremones must have been flying, too.

mamacita

Saturday, May 20, 2006

talib kweli, vision quest

last night was a free talib kweli and common show. after indulging in some particularly mind altering substances, i finally came to understand what hip hop is, hooray!

tonight i begin a vision quest. this entails meditating, fasting and quieting for a few days in the wilderness. i hope to come out ready to go forward with my plans. at the same time, i must be open for whatever i may experience, however it will change me. see you later friends, blessed be

Thursday, May 18, 2006

cordage making, catching up, running around late at night





howdy. lemme lay out a few things:

the season for eating pokeweed has passed. it develops a strong toxin after getting a red/more than 6 inches tall. the plant in the picture is toxicly mature, for reference.

one night there was a treehouse we slept in. early in the moring i thought it was collapsing and relocated to Carrot Man's couch, where i dreamed of flying around the campus of a NYC school, like a puff of cottonwood fluff

werebrock had an adventure. hearthee: after running a few miles to rendezvous with friends, he was faced with the fortress of a rich neighborhood. it lies on a steep mountain, with jungle creeping through the alleyways and behind secret gardens. by stealth he scaled walls and skirted sleeping giants; tip-toed through high-security areas, and smelled a precious spice hidden behind a veil of darkness... no pictures, sorry

i became fascinated with making cordage, and began peeling the park from the omnipresent amur honeysuckle. it renders useful fibers, and after a bleary and party-wearied evening we have what's in the picture!

now, on to a first attempt at primitive cooking vessle making. tan tan

Monday, May 15, 2006

goodbye for a bit

aight, i'm going into the woods today. camera, knife and bicycle ready.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

some FUCKED UP shit :(

study study study, but I've got time to relay a poignant vignette. read a hard copy in the latest issue of Clamor Magazine's (http://www.clamormagazine.org/) Uproar section.

"Half of the forest was gone, the machines sat idle but the grass was awash with snakes. Opportunity was on us but we had no containers. The black pilot snake wrappedand wrapped itself around my wrist. I spied the discarded paint can and thrust it in and pressed the cap down.

A boy ran to me with a garter snake and pushed it into the can. I was in the machine-torn area and the snakes moved over the brown earth looking for what they once knew. Three in the can, four, five now seven.

The men came back to the machines laughing and yelling as the roar of the engines made the dust spray us like rain. The snakes moved over our feet as the dozers razed the ground.

The trees at the edge of the forest came down and the men hollared at us to go. We ran with the paint can of snakes. The field and forest vanished.

A short time later we let the snakes out of the can. They were covered with paint and could not see. Some of them did not move. The others fled blind leaving green lines on the cement."

Marc D Goldfinger
Belmont, MA

skeletons in my closet, and in the fucking office of Fischer homes


i'm practically bedridden with this bleeding lump on my knee. fucking god in hell. i can't wait to get out in the woods!its like all the skeletons i left behind were just chillin in my head, waiting for a second in their stomping ground to pop back out. this house held me during depression, obesity, anorexia, divorce, and BAM. shit. i'll call the ghost busters tommorrow.

a bunch of greenspace the city said would never get developed is slated for two subdivisions. 67 acres. hills chopped up, ravines filled. kids growing up without woods to play in, in my birth town. this is indecent. and this same group just got busted for employing 80-some questionably legal latin american immigrants. not that I have any problem with them. but the Fischer Homes spokesperson called his company "moral" and acted like the uniquely Northern Kentucky douche that i had almost succeeded in forgetting at college. fucking asshole

on a lighter note, i finally stumbled on (1 of?) my brother's stash. it was labled as "South Park - 906 - Miss south park". hahahahaha. he's growing up!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

i recollect so little


after a long and harrowing trip, i finally have a moment to recollect my wits.

i practiced songlining, which is this navigation tool where you remember landmarks as you pass them and incorporate all of em into a song to find your way back. i hear this is how Australian Aborigines used to navigate across the Outback. "At the pines, pass the stone and come to the Gentlemen's club". it had a great beat

it turns out last semester i was THE grimiest person on campus. (you can't count the few arboreal sasquatch Dave Foreman released on campus as in the same species. they have their own genus.) yesterday when i sat down after a run, there was a dirty stain left on the seat. being so dirty for so long has its stern consequences, i'm afraid, including a visit to the doctors office to get an infected patch of skin operated on. as primitivist as i'd like to be, i've finally come to the conclusion that i should bathe and wash myself on a regular basis...

i got a lot of books at infoshops along the journey. a little Volterine de Clerye, a lil Fredy Perlman, a lil CrimeThinc. this rocks my socks and underwear so hard, i may never feel comfortable wearing them again

here's a really cool skills website http://tions.net/CA256EA900408BD5/vwWWW/outdoor~03~000#intro

there was a huge bird nesting on a lakeside in Wisconsin. it may have been a female whooping crane.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

one of the priciples of permaculture...

is that there is no waste. but there can be filler!

since i have no camera right now, and i'm on the road in a stuffed car, wait a few days and you'll have another post about my adventure. till then,

with all due respect (fuck authority),

werebrock

Sunday, May 07, 2006

hippies flock to giant puppets, and good times are had by everyone!

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Saturday, May 06, 2006

green living expo report and then some




geora elm invited me out of bed, and together we sauntered over to the living green expo. there were lots of recycled wares on display, as well as community supported agriculture groups and big-health food reps offering samples. iz decent. the real highlights were:

the Bioneers. a network of breathlessly idealistic tree-huggers. their tagline is something like "visionary and practical solutions for restoring the earth and people". they seemed pretty cool, and my California permaculture companeros (including Starhawk) vouch for them. a conference of some kind is being cooked up for this fall in Minneapolis, so if your in the TC ya should check 'em out http://www.bioneers.org/

wicked awsome treehouse kits by "o2 sustainability". basically they are pimped out (and by that i mean made of recycled plastic) geodesic domes that you build and tie up in a tree. the one in the picture is selling for 8 grand. it has a manual elevator-platform built in.http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/o2_sustainabili.php and http://o2sustainability.com/

we saw prof. t wage slaving at a booth, and he was so sketched out by the "green capitalism" around us that i zanzabarred him some oatmilk.

upon arriving home, i napped and listened to a wicked cool pipe concert. there was one song with a cello, two small pipes, three didgeridoos... smokin.

last thing: fuck the hypocrisy of smokers who ideologically bash anti-depressants!

let's hook ourselves up with some Fun-Edge

sup y'all? today agent x and i went spelunking, philosophizing and had a fine time in the sunshine. if you like urban exploring and you're in st. paul, check out this one catacomb we did.

directions: be on the pig's eye side of the mississippi, just a bit bit before the obsolete ford factory. if you get down on the bank, you'll run into this big exposed swath of sandstone.

penetration achieved!

this is looking up into the hole of a giant wet worm, who fortunately or not was not at home at the time of this picture taking.

here's agent x, who like all good zapatistas keeps her face covered at all times

we found an etching in a wall from the '40's, and some strange brown crumbly stuff with outgrowths of unidentified life... "That's the most beautiful shit I've ever seen!"werebrock ... i don't know, i think he roled around in his skivies and hung with geora elm. some chocolate was extralegally extricated and enjoyed somewhere along their way.

that's it y'all, over and out!

Friday, May 05, 2006

testing... is the fuse lit?




mmm, technology. i hope this works.... let's try some pictures...

bwah it's getting light out, so i'll retire now. cheerio