Saturday, October 07, 2006

Show and Tell #2, pretty much as it is in paper

Show and Tell #2
by werebrock
fall ‘06













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Table of Contents
preface
paw paws
paw paw intro
atl atl intro
atl atl construction from a branch- by Dino Labiste
Sentinelese Strike BACK!
more on paw paw fest experience
apples
i dedicate this poem to apples
Maltus domestica in the way back time
Quotes and Reviews
Permaculture Intro
Back Cover
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Preface

Welcome to the latest issue of Show and Tell! #2 This is only the second, and the first one was lost and never published... so say hooray! You’re holding the first zine I’ve ever gotten out to anyone!

I’m really sick of asking permission to use people’s “intellectual property”. FUCK CAPITALISM, and fuck the free market if it means i can’t cut and paste your ideas. So there’s pirated stuff here, and if I don’t feel like giving someone credit for it, don’t assume it was my idea.

This zine is a result for the need for an outlet of personal expression. I must TALK TO THINK, and since writing is eternally editable, it can be a lot of fun to work with. So this is really a piece me and my thought process, and I hope you enjoy it. May reading it be a positive experience. If it dissapoints, smear it with something tasty and feed it to a goat.

Dedicated to an inspirer of nascent libertarians, and also to my brother Sea Serpent, and Marv.

Marv: There's no settling down. It's going to be blood for blood and by the gallons. It's the old days. The bad days. The all-or-nothing days. They're back. There's no choices left and I'm ready for war.

Lucille: Prison was hell for you, Marv. It'll be life this time.

Marv: Hell? You don't know what hell is. None of you people do. Hell isn't getting beat up or cut up or hauled in front of some faggot* jury. Hell is waking up every god damn morning and not knowing why you're even here. Why you're even breathing.

The author is too PC to use a term like that, but don’t tell please don’t tell Marv.

And actually I’m not.



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You might be exclaiming “What the bleeding stump is a paw paw?” or “What’s up with that logo?” We’ll quickly deal with answering those questions before going into context.

Paw paws are a fruit, indigenous to the Eastern United States. They taste a bit like a banana-y papaya, and they grow on trees that grow beneath really tall trees, in the understory. They’re very healthy, can be dried into fruit leather and harshly judged, as we’ll see shortly, and were so popular among canoeing First Nation folk that they planted paw paw groves along their water roads. More info on planting at http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/ppg.htm

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Spicebush and black walnut grow well with paw paw, like a jazz trio. And they’re all useful to humans as food. Check ‘em out when you get a chance. And if you’ve got deer and sassafrass trees nearby- an amazing place to hunter gather, am I right? And a very pleasent climate. CINCINNATI isn’t LAME!

Anyway, 4 of us drove to Albany, Ohio for the 2006 Paw Paw Fest. Aventure capitalist by the name of Chris Chmiel got this annual shindig rolling as part of a movement to bring paw paws back into our diet, and honestly feed his kids with his proprietary paw paw processing technique, which he uses to make all kinds of condiments, spices and pulps under the label Integration Acres. Very permacultury* operation he’s got goin’, and its gathering attracted anarchists, sierra clubbers, herbalists, potters, jewlery makers, rastas, yogi tea barons and pro atl atl throwers. Besides frolicking and napping down migraines with Dandilion, most of what we did was have encounters with these varied folks.

*Permaculture is explained in the last item in this zine.

Some of the most highly ranked atl atl throwers in the world were* present, letting us use their darts, atl atls and targets and coaching us as to how to improve our throws. A former world champion was there. Amazing fella, he had weak arms but his form was so good he outthrew everyone.

*There may be plenty of atl atl throwers out there who haven’t haven’t and won’t compete with this super man, but first an atl atl explanation is in order...

Making an Atlatl From a Branch
by Dino Labiste

The atlatl was used for thousands of years almost worldwide. It had the advantage of lengthening the throwing arm of the hunter, thus more leverage to increase the speed of the dart. Despite the worldwide variations in the design of the atlatl, the basic components are still the same. They all incorporate a handle connected to a shaft with a spur.
A simple atlatl can be made from a tree branch. Look for a straight branch with a smaller side branch extending out at an angle. An ideal angle for the smaller side branch would be 40 to 45 degrees from the main branch. Less than 40 degrees would work, but the smaller branch should not be parallel and lay flat to the main branch. The diameter of the smaller branch, which will become the spur, should fit the size of the notch hole on your dart. Also, be sure that the main branch is large and comfortable enough to fit in your hand. Too small of a size will be unstable during the throwing of the dart. The length of your simple atlatl is subjective, although I would not go smaller than 11 inches. Various type of woods may be used for your atlatl. Try not to get a branch that is too soft and too flexible.

* This branch from the Toyon tree (also called Christmas Berry) has the potential for becoming an atlatl.


A completed atlatl made from an oak branch. The handle may be wrapped to provide a better grip. The handle of the oak atlatl was wrapped with split pine root. You may also use buckskin or willow bark for the handle wrapping. Experiment with different materials.

Another alternative for the handle, besides wrapping, would be to shave or cut the top side of the handle flat. Leave the bottom side in its natural rounded shape. The flat surface will provide a better gripping surface than a rounded surface.


The dart ready to be launched using the oak atlatl.

When looking for that atlatl branch, be mindful of the environment and the tree in which you will be harvesting the branch. Will the tree survive the cutting? Is that branch providing shelter for other plants growing nearby. Am I gathering on private property? In the excitement of looking for that perfect branch, don't let our own desires overpower our common sense.

I wouldn’t cite this, ‘cept that I’d be depriving you of such a jolly good aboriginal skills site I’d have to flog myself for penance. http://primitiveways.com/

Anyway, ‘member where we left off? Dandilion and I, throwing atl atls? Here’s the news about atl atl throwers that probly didn’t compete. It’s a SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE, found on Voice of a Native Son- Intelligent Aboriginal Commentary, angryindian.blogspot.com

6 February 2006
INDIA: WORLD'S MOST ISOLATED TRIBE KILLS INVADERS

Members of the world's most isolated tribe, the Sentinelese of the Andaman Islands, killed on 26 January two fishermen who had illegally approached their island. The Sentinelese, who were photographed after the December 2004 tsunami firing an arrow at a helicopter over their island, have resisted contact with the outside world for up to 60,000 years. They are under threat from poachers illegally fishing and diving for lobster around their island.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'Contact with the outside world could very quickly wipe out this unique and vulnerable tribe. The local administration must ensure that the Sentinelese are left alone as long as that is their wish - and what happened last month made it very clear that it is. These tragic deaths could have been avoided if the authorities had been enforcing the law.'

The tribe killed the two men, Sunder Raj (48) and Pandit Tiwari (52), after they had slept overnight in their boat near North Sentinel Island. It is illegal to go within five kilometres of the island, in order to protect the Sentinelese from exploitation, violence, and diseases to which they have no immunity. But increasing numbers of people from neighbouring islands visit the island to dive for lobster close to the shore and to hunt pigs on the island, depriving the tribe of essential foodstuffs.

The Sentinelese tribe is thought to number between 50 and 200 people. Wreckage salvagers killed many in the late 1980s and early 1990s when they visited the island with guns to try to salvage iron and other goods from a shipwreck.

The related Jarawa tribe stopped resisting contact with outsiders in 1998. They are now plagued by intruders on their land stealing the animals they hunt, bringing in alcohol and sexually exploiting Jarawa women.

Samir Acharya of local environmental organisation SANE said today, 'The Indian Coast Guard and Police must be commended in this case for resisting local pressure to retrieve the men's bodies, thereby avoiding further contact with the Sentinelese.'

Sigh...

After leaving there, we went an entered my key lime and paw paw fruit leather in the paw paw dish competition. The wanking punks didn’t like it. O well, more for us.

There was somebody with the mannerisms of a Yogi, who just started a tea business, importing and packaging really healthy and wonderful teas. They were also giving samples of home made saurkraut and flax seed crackers. Does anyone have a recipe for those? I’m sorry to say I seem to have lost their card.

I stayed pretty well clear of the Society for Creative Anachronism, as I didn’t need that superstitious lot deciding I was an ogre that needed putting down. I also stayed clear of the jewlers, cuz I wear too many bawbles and clothes for complete freedom of motion allready.

Learned something interesting from the potters. Nice, nice folks. All their stuff was oven ready. For once, an artisan recognized me as a kindred spirit (sometimes I come on to people too fast or something when I want information) and told me that yes, I could make a clay pot for cooking w/o using any glaze. All i needed to do was shape the vessle from local stream clay, let it half harden w/o firing, and “burnish” it. This means I need to just rub the whole thing, with a bit of elbow grease, and its molecular structure will become much less porous.

Folks from the The Wire were there, distroing and giving away literature. The Wire is an anarchist community center in the nearby town of Athens. They were sad, because a huge multi fuel pipeline had been put through their wonderful woods recently, their efforts didn’t stop it. Actually, there were two pipelines that they couldn’t stop. Where the fuck was their backup, their solidarity? I wish I’d been on the scene earlier. There’s virtually nothing about this on the internet.... except the title of the perpetrators: Carlton Oil Corporation.

I saw a cluster of people, looked like families, all white people, all slim, all with dreds. “?” I went over to inquire about their identities.

Rastas, all of them. They (I think) invited me to go to a show, and recommend I check out the venue at Cincinnati’s Annie’s, apparently some pretty hot reggae gets spat there. Someone had told me that the Rastafarian hair tradition was rooted in mysogeny. I asked these folks about it, and they didn’t know what I was talking about. Reflecting back on it now, it was probly the girl’s way of saying that she wanted to break off our brief romance- (I was wearing dreds at the time). Ja Love, baby.

Another thing that deserves mentioning is Stevia. It’s 5 QUADRILLION times sweeter than sugar, may be used in recipes similarly (as a sweetener), and you can grow it as an annual in this area.

Dandilion got a migraine, so we layed down for a few hours and sporadically blocked the sun from each others faces. She got better, than I got sick and decided to throw in the towel. Got a ride home with the gang instead of staying on another day, volunteering, than hitching home.




**I have been noticing a lot of derelict apple trees, putting out fruit on the edges of fields and old lawns. Nobody seems to appreciate them anymore, cept me. They go very well in porridge, out of hand, etc, why aren’t people loving their apples anymore? I dedicate this little ditty to you, abandoned apple trees. My heart goes out to you

we come to each other in the mornings and evenings
better than anything in a pill
skill improves till we can fly at each other forever
like an inverted sisyphean challenge

(and then more melodically)

Yeah we rut in the mornings and evenings
lots of exercise, she’s sucking on my chest
& I’m wriggling like I’m exorcized

who knows what comes next, but how could i care?
i’m here right now
i was right there
and nothing will pull me away from my lover

Mythology strikes me as being very much like Vitamin C, your body takes in as much as it wants when you have enough, and you piss out all that you don’t need; when you don’t get enough for too long, you’ll get pain-stricken, depressed and eventually die. So here’s what the dear old wikipedia says about Apples in the way back time.

Apples in mythology

The Greek hero Heracles, as a part of his Twelve Labours, was required to travel to the Garden of the Hesperides and pick the golden apples off the Tree of Life growing at its center.

The Greek goddess of discord, Eris, became disgruntled after she was excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In retaliation, she tossed a golden apple inscribed Kallisti ("For the most beautiful one"), into the wedding party. Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris of Troy was appointed to select the recipient. After being bribed by both Hera and Athena, Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. He awarded the apple to Aphrodite, thus indirectly causing the Trojan War.

Atalanta, also of Greek mythology, raced all her suitors in an attempt to avoid marriage. She outran all but Hippomenes, who defeated her by cunning, not speed. Hippomenes knew that he could not win in a fair race, so he used three golden apples to distract Atalanta. It took all three apples and all of his speed, but Hippomenes was finally successful, winning the race and Atalanta's hand.

In Norse mythology, the goddess I©£unn was the appointed keeper of apples that kept the Æsir young forever. I©£unn was abducted by ®≠jazi the giant, who used Loki to lure I©£unn and her apples out of Ásgar©£r. The Æsir began to age without I©£unn’s apples, so they coerced Loki into rescuing her. After borrowing Freyja’s falcon skin, Loki liberated I©£unn from ®≠jazi by transforming her into a nut for the flight back. ®≠jazi gave chase in the form of an eagle, where upon reaching Ásgar©£r he was set aflame by a bonfire lit by the Æsir. With the return of I©£unn’s apples, the Æsir regained their lost youth.

Celtic mythology includes a story about Conle who receives an apple which feeds him for a year but also gives him an irresistible desire for Fairyland.

Legends, folklore, and traditions
* Swiss folklore holds that William Tell courageously shot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow, defying a tyrannical ruler and bringing freedom to his people.
* Irish folklore claims that if an apple is peeled into one continuous ribbon and thrown behind a woman's shoulder, it will land in the shape of the future husband's initials.
* Danish folklore says that apples wither around adulterers.
* Apples are said to increase a woman's chances of conception as well as remove birthmarks when rubbed on the skin.
* According to a popular legend, Isaac Newton, upon witnessing an apple fall from its tree, was inspired to conclude that a similar 'universal gravitation' attracted the moon toward the Earth as well (this legend is discussed in more detail in the article on Isaac Newton).
* In the European fairy tale Snow White, the princess is killed, or sunk into a kind of coma with the appearance of death, by choking on a poisoned apple given to her by her stepmother. Later, the princess is jostled into coughing up the piece, miraculously returning her to life.
* In Arthurian legend, the mythical isle of Avalon’s name is believed to mean "isle of apples".
* In some places, bobbing for apples is a traditional Halloween activity.
* In the United States, Denmark and Sweden, an apple (polished) is a traditional gift for a teacher. This stemmed from the fact that teachers during the 16th to 18th centuries were poorly paid, so parents would compensate the teacher by providing food. As apples were a very common crop, teachers would often be given baskets of apples by students. As wages increased, the quantity of apples was toned down to a single fruit.
* The Apple Wassail is a traditional form of wassailing practiced in cider orchards of southwest England during the winter. The ceremony is said to "bless" the apple trees to produce a good crop in the forthcoming season.
* In Ancient Greece, a man throwing an apple to a woman was a proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted .
how off topic, except my imagination’s the topic, so it’s not! mwa ha ha ha
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Quotes and Reviews
I’m one of those types that is halfway through a bakers dozen of novels, shows, graphic novels, zines and always feels like they’re not getting anywhere with any of them. What I’ll do is give you a few quotes, then review the latest issues of GA, the Match!, The Tragic Treasury.

“O, come on- he’s old and weak and small. We can do whatever we want to him.” Dr. House, joking about a man who has illegally requested assisted suicide.

“There is a profound truth to the notion that "lovers need no words." The point is that we must have a world of lovers, a world of the face-to-face, in which even names can be forgotten, a world which knows that enchantment is the opposite of ignorance. Only a politics that undoes language and time and is thus visionary to the point of voluptuousness has any meaning.” John Zerzan, final paragraph of his essay “Language: Origin and Meaning

“As I have admitted before I’m intelligent, as contrasted with the orthodox. I haven’t the aristocratic disregard of a New York curator or an Eskimo medicine-man.” Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned

“We tend to associate firearms with the iron age, thinking that only a metal barrel could withstand the ‘explosive’ force of gunpowder. I have seen published directions, however, describing how to make a .22 caliber zip gun entirely from wood -- barrel and all. Admittedly, the barrel was wrapped with wire for reinforcement, but it was only a 1” square piece of hardwood to start with.
I can envision an extremely primitive firearm that employs no metal whatsoever. The barrel could be made from a drilled out baseball bat. All wooden bats are seasoned hardwood, but hickory is the toughest and would be the best choice.
Instead of wrapping with wire for reinforcement, it could be wrapped with rawhide. I understand that woodchuck hide is one of the toughest leathers going. It’s recommended for shoestrings, for example.
To make rawhide from woodchuck hide, first skin the chuck, then scrape all fat from the hide, remove the hair as described below, and cut into a long, continuous strip. Soak it in water overnight, wind tightly around the wooden barrel while wet, and allow to dry and shrink in place.
To remove hair from a hide, cover the hair with a 2” thick layer of wood ashes, dampen with water (the water and ashes react to produce lye), and roll the hide up tightly, hair side in. Cover it with wet cloths and leaves four days, then unroll it and scrape off the hair.
A wooden barrel thus drilled out and wrapped with rawhide, loaded as a muzzle loader, firing stones for shot, and set off with a fuse, would be a firearm employing no metal at all.
Just an interesting idea. I’m not recommending it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Aborigines could have firearms if they wanted. Such a weapon would be immune from metal detectors. The only problem I forsee is getting the target to stand still long enough to get a shot off.” -Ronald B Brown, Homemade Guns and Homemade Ammo
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I’m a real fan of Lemony Snicket’s series of elementary school level novels. They’re called “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. Every time I’ve dipped into them, I see a lot of what I value in the actions of the 3 young orphan protagonists. They are passed off from incompetent guardian to incompetent guardian by their legal overseer, while a band of murdering extortionists tracks and attacks them. One of them is really into DIY inventions, one saves the day again and again with the extraordinary strength in her jaws, and the other one is super book smart. They’re all hardened by their horriffic experiences, having had to be accomplisses in killing lots of people in order to save many more lives. They’ve had to abandon and shun “the authorities”, who originally were supposed to be on their side. The press turns their story around so the general populace hate, fears and attack them. The End, book the 13th, comes out October 13th. There’s a sort of soundtrack to the series, done by Lemony on the accordion and Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields on vocals and synthesizer. That comes out Oct 10th. If you might be into it, check it out: http://www.nonesuch.com/thegothicarchies/player.html

"Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it might be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it." -- Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

* go for it dude *


I like (some of) what I see in GA, though I was dissapointed not to see something major on Permaculture in this issue, which was specifically focussed on strategies and tactics. seaweed, an activist author from denman island (or is that Ron Sakolsky, whom I also adore) had a good piece called “permenant subsistence zones”, which basically says we need to get some of our calories from off the grid, and since foraging is so fun and shit, we should all try and get involved with community based rewilding to meet some of our needs. Another good piece was on the failures of the affinity group model, and the returning appeal of the lone gunmen approach. I give it 4.5/5 black and green stars.
The latest issue of Green Anarchy was wonderful, but the crew who puts it out seems to be overworked. They take months to answer emails, and seem to have a substantial backlog as far as getting the wonderful rag out to subscribers.

Send well-concealed cash (US currency),
postal money orders or checks made out to:

$19 cash concealed in an envelope for 4 issues
Green Anarchy
PO Box 11331
Eugene, OR 97440

The Match! was very interesting, my first time reading that particular rag. It’s all done on antique, DIYed printing presses and shit. He hates primitivists, yet he’s sort of a Luddite. I’m still getting over that.
He had an absolutely marvelous piece on the brutality of the former Tibetan Theocracy- torture chambers and dungeons under the monestaries, reincarnation used to justify class division, a lot of ugly moralistic stuff shoved down everybody’s throat. I give it the same rating as the GA, because so much work went into spiffing it up and such valuable content was contained therein. You can order it from Microcosm Publishing: http://www.microcosmpublishing.com/



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Permaculture Intro

from wikipedia
“Permaculture is a design system which aims to create sustainable habitats by following nature's patterns.
The word 'permaculture', coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is derived as a contraction of permanent agriculture, or permanent culture.
The idea of permaculture is considered by Australia's Powerhouse Museum to be among "the [100] most significant innovations developed by Australians in the century since Australian federation". [1]
Today permaculture can best be described as an ethical design system applicable to food production and land use, as well as community building. It seeks the creation of productive and sustainable ways of living by integrating ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agroforestry. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture is also about careful and contemplative observation of nature and natural systems, and of recognizing universal patterns and principles, then learning to apply these ‘ecological truisms’ to one’s own circumstances.
Though the general principles seem to be sensible, early texts promote the use of non-native invasive species or environmental weeds e.g. many acacia species.”

me, that sounds good enough to eat, so i’m going to go live and apprentice somewhere next summer. but where should i go?
i checked out this place in Florida, it’s with one of the original instructors and his wife. Barking Frogs, it’s called. they do Chinampas, which are human constructed biomass islands, used to grow food. sounds really cool.
but the barking frogs outfit is pretty isolated, and Dan Hemingway described he and his wife as a pair of grouchy recluses (my words), so for someone who likes people it didn’t seem like a good fit.
there are all sorts of intern gigs, scattered across the planet, just search for it on the internet to learn more.




1 result for: jabroni
back cover
View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | the Web
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source
Main Entry: jabroni
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: in professional wrestling, a wrestler who loses in order to make another wrestler look good; also called jobber
Usage: slang
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
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werebrock@riseup.net

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i'm right there with you on a number of points, though not all; i would address them, except you did not bother to customize your message to the blog. so- may meteors perforate your home, bitch. R-E-S-P-E-C-T