virtual living without cerebral interference

this article had a great point, but for the life of me i can't think of a single related anecdote. i will likely forget this completely by the end of the day.

"Simply put, our culture is hostile to thinking and talking. About the only American environment where discussions are encouraged, or just made possible, is the university, but these are conducted mostly by people without dirt under their fingernails, hence the gross disconnect between the academy and the rest of us.

In Italy, there's a quaint custom known as the passegiatta. For a couple hours before dinner, people actually hang out or walk around their local square. This bonding and soothing practice embraces even foreigners. This is not possible here because we don't have the proper spaces. Our few squares are landscaped, with paths dictating traffic, unlike an open piazza that encourages congregrating and loitering, that allows free movement and wide vistas. In most American localities, there are no squares at all, only shopping mall food courts."

Marketers Made Me Into a Meathead

gallup poll interested in my banking experiences?

my bank was concerned about whether or not my teller was obsequious enough: if she laughed hard enough at my jokes, if she made me feel like 'one of us'.

"can i talk about the goons they sent to strangle kittens in front of my children?"

"sir, while your concern does seem legitimate, that's not in the scope of this poll..

now can you tell me on a scale of 1 to 10..."

she did get frustrated with me and let me go eventually. i felt just barely vindicated somehow even though this poor woman had nothing to do with banks really. hell, she probably had to take that job for one monetarily hamstrung reason or another too.

the fact that a board meeting takes place in a room with paid executives & marketing directors- they decide on this plan to search for just a narrow band of customer feedback to see how they're doing in our eyes:

-did the teller kiss your ass?-

shows such an obvious disconnect between corporate self awareness and everyday experience. they don't know that it's bad to kill kittens in front of children, and then they think that a good nose in the butt from a stranger will fix things right again & even make me loyal.

"does this office ever get cleaned? my wastecan is almost full."

you're changing the subject.

everything you can think about yourself is not you at all

when we get down to it, we are the experiencers of many thoughts or activities or feelings. many of these are disconnected little pavlovian circuits that we perform at given intervals or circumstances or stimuli- yet some are connected in intelligent, cultural or maybe spiritual ways. and in some of these matters we are given enough positive feedback to start to identify with these external things or concepts- and before you know it, we start to think we know what we're doing in this little personal, fictional, conditional, insular world.

it's a good thing to get back in touch with this experiencer, this detached witness- that will still suffer & hunger like the rest, but with less whining & self-absorption. these will be good traits to adopt because soon you're going into the first grade, and your little world is getting bigger & weirder. i made you these cliff's notes to get you up to speed:

No One Cares We Are At Perpetual War or that Our Government is a Corporation

emergency rations for wars that go nowhere in 2010: 33 billion. any rations for infrastructure, transportation, social services, green jobs, real public education: none sorry.

Cover Up What We Do in Afghanistan, etc-

dead bystanders & innocents are always much cooler in video games. remember to dehumanize your enemy. keep your military milestones vague & far enough out that they never materialize.

Seems Obama Doesn't Want to Mess Up a Good Thing

citizen wiretaps & indefinite detention become totally necessary once one becomes the president evidently.

Did Good ol'No Bid Haliburton Blow up the Deepwater Horizon?

the posterchild of F squad performances. let the market take care of the world. outsource intelligence. let us finally become a nation of boobs.

and yet i digress again, but see i told you first grade was going to be a shocker.

please remember that even though all of this happens in our name {USA}- whether by choice, apathy, or squirming regret- even though we are the richest and we use the most- even though our democracy has 30% voter turn out when it's lucky- nobody knows what a dollar is worth or what is really in our food or recognizes our institutional racism or classism- we don't even notice our growing wealth disparity. [is it not polite to mention?]

but as we were saying earlier, even though all of this is a caricature of you [of us]- none of this is you or even comes close. this happens to be the scene you find yourself observing on the first day of first grade: and here you have some ethics choices to make- the easy path is least rewarding. remember about the whining & self-absorption. i'll be back to pick you up after-

'drill baby, oh you've gotta be kidding me'

an oil rig exploded in the gulf of mexico last tuesday killing eleven. a serious leak on the gulf floor 5000 feet below currently spills 42000 gallons of oil per day. rough seas above have curtailed repair efforts.

"The explosion came almost three weeks after President Barack Obama unveiled plans for a limited expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling. The explosion did not affect U.S. oil markets."

The Old Paradigm Works Just Fine for Now

.. howevermuch it could benefit the whole world to make some drastic changes. a funny parable i heard in a recorded dharma talk: a scientist's eminence is directly related to the amount & extent of obstruction he &/or his idea exerts on all other research in that field..

people believed in their hearts that the earth was flat at one point.

don't we have somebody checking on that kind of stuff? too bad we hate ralph nader now. too bad van jones questioned the intent of his government. too bad brainwashing populations has become so easy and commonplace.

maybe they'll find some more oil, but then what? less expensive flat screen tv's?

'what do we want? CLIMATE CHANGE! when do we want.. wait'

those little sissy countries that can't take a few degrees of net temperature gains or a few more feet of ocean can just have their little climate accord if they want. we'll stop sending aid to their poor little a**** & watch them cry about melting glaciers they depend on. yeah! USA! USA!

"the United States made clear that it didn't need small countries like Bolivia to be part of a climate solution. It would negotiate a deal with other heavy emitters behind closed doors, and the rest of the world would be informed of the results and invited to sign on, which is precisely what happened with the Copenhagen Accord."

Good Article by Naomi Klein on Climate Summit in Bolivia

'ah, forget about the people: you'll see, we'll just scare 'em silly'

nice 3 card monte game going on in national politics- and the rapt media is there to gloss over all the discontinuity- oh that's their job- alright then, these guys do it great:

Two Cheers for Obama's Nuclear Summit

'um well see, we're about to need another 34 billion in emergency military supplemental for the perpetual wars, so we wanna get you good & freaked out to make you forget you're too poor to keep spending like this..

on things that go nowhere. by the way, are the bankers good on pillows? oh- and watch out that bridge is falling on you.'

drill baby, oh crap- nothing to see here!

dang- there's a tanker grounded & leaking fuel oil near the great barrier reef- at least this sort of thing won't happen with Clean Coal- just click your heels three times if you don't know what that is.

Chinese Tanker Takes Unguided Shortcut

will musical chairs [with oil reserves serving as the chairs] be the primary energy policy of all sovereign [now rogue energy starved] nations? are we surrounding iran with military bases & arsenals with borrowed funds because they've got the second largest oil field in the world? who will profit from that conflict? will there be any clean air or fresh water for them?

who's taking the long view on this stuff?

community activism will knock you out!

of your fatalistic-chic neg-jadedness & challenge you to make something of your actual self and your community. what a gas, right?

right here in richmond, part of a lecure series titled World Changing on april 7 the lovely & talented Lisa Taranto will be presenting at Tricycle Gardens HQ- the topic of the lecture & discussion is Permaculture. for info & pricing call 804 231 7767 or visit

Tricycle Gardens presents World Changing Forum

then in the beginning of the summer, there's 2 big events being held in detroit:

june 18-20: Allied Media Conference has hands on lectures and workshops about how to start & even build your own radio station, wireless network, etc. from a budget-challenged community activist point of view.

Allied Media Conference 2010

june 22-26: U.S. Social Forum is a grassroots community grown vision of what globalism with a lower case 'g' can be about- using Detroit as an example of how it's being done.

U.S. Social Forum 2010

here's a good question: will Richmond [or the United States even] be able to create more 'good old days' for generations to remember, or was that it for us?

a whole lotta people holding their breath for a long long time

is not exactly a solution to our economic problems. will big gov just tell us to become austere & eat upholstery after the banks & health insurance bailouts? [at taxpayer expense]

Here's Hoping for a Magic Bullet

i'm not holding my breath.

new redplumjam website is squeezably soft now with 3X more portfolio!

from the trompe l'ouile main photo to the variety & quality of the content to the super-tight registrations & presentation of material- al schaub proves that too far is sometimes way the f- over there and damn if it don't look good still. come and get it.

Redplumjam Redesign March 2010

honest to goodness art made by hardworking [sometimes very dirty] hands.

now even more exquisite redplumjam propaganda

new rehash from the minister of unusual services:

so do we have too many nukes to fail?

as a unit- us- our country flails with a corporate owned government making ridiculous foreign policy decisions for myopic short term gain for certain businesses- with bloated military/contractor appropriations & increased arms deals, normalizing obvious human rights violations & leaving irradiated battlefields- while at home wealth disparity is on the rise- we have failing banking/infrastructure/education/social services/viability- eating very ill sterioded animal flesh and other pesticide laden factory farm foods so that every third kid born [in the U.S.] after 2000 is slated to be a diabetic- all of this amidst a climate crisis that we had a large hand in creating.

is it a wonder that the rest of the world might see a chink in the armor?

Pushing Our Buttons

do we want war and its accoutrements to be our main export? what can we sustain & why?

U.S. Weapons at War

while i agree that the absurd level of citizen-apathy and dearth of resolve that one encounters standing in line or sitting in traffic can be a real buzz kill for any citizen-activist: i do assert that a strong citizen driven grassroots movement propelled easily/inexpensively/democratically/transnationally online- could be the thing that saves more than just the world's richest 1%.

remember: wake up america! means go to sleep

liberty means buy stuff, and more than you can afford. become mesmerized [or better yet be glazed over] by the dramatic presentation of a democracy-like process that governs us. when you're done with your nuk-nuk we've got an iphone for you.

why aren't the democrats any different?
a cool blog about becoming our government

maybe it doesn't seem that crazy yet. but to live sustainably in the next 50-100 years, life will sure be looking a whole lot different very quickly. the successful people will have a strong grassroots foundation, right?

the few, the scarred, the old-timey vert skaters

jay henry [jim shezlick] is in town from DC this weekend- last night larry glover, bubba martin, the two of us & some friends went to see SUZUKITON at gallery 5 last night-

sure there were other bands playing, but we there to soak up some bill rose. afterward we sauntered over to cous cous for their skate nostalgia bingo nite- where the MC even bought us drinks & introduced us as great heroes from another era. it was not difficult to pick up inertia or entourage from that point on. i even got a checkerboard vans velcro wallet.

so then some poor fella had a grand mal seizure right there in cous cous- [larry & bubba took charge & the paramedics came fast], but our mood could not be shaken. so perhaps before the rest of the room was ready- larry made a wisecrack that didn't go over well with some- & then [holy crap] jay got thrown out for defending his right to be a smart ass. awesome- we were getting warmed up.

we took that show over to patrick henry pub for night caps & actually had a good [behaviorally socially acceptable] time in that crowded little place too.

these guys are my heart & soul. to whatever degree i possess any useful or desirable traits, all of them had their beginnings in that unlikely crucible of Quality we created together riding skateboards. that community is my generous heart, creativity, perseverance & wisdom. learning the little wheel saved me from the mediocre. it made all other lessons easier to learn & manage-

what are you doing & why? just staying on the line & falling off of it. paying attention to physics lessons. what's important? being in the flow of the universe.


it's about coming of age-
it's about learning how to experience things
the way they ought to be experienced.
it's about learning how to do it.
it's about picking your shit up off the floor.
it's about being a butthole surfer-
it's about doing promotional work.
it's about what we are- all these things.
it's about loving yourself
loving your mum
going to the go cart track.
your kitty
the catfood
the little bits of crayon
the melted pieces
the loving friends
all the things you wish you had-


yep- thanks for the memories guys.

fearless americans herded & united by fear of wind up toys

sorta like factory farming with people's wills instead of livestock's flesh- with this built in irony: as we stand behind a certain line, empty our pockets, get our belongings searched, scanned, some of it discarded or thrown out, pee in cups, go without healthcare for lack of funding, etc- we're told that we're #1, and most of us believe it at face value. how much do you sacrifice for fear? do we fear shedding light on the topic? could we consciously fight against our 'culture' as it is marketed to us?

The Underwear Bomber's Amazing Superpowers

is it the stress of living in a shell game of a physical & ideological existence that makes us crazy enough to hold all of this up & call it continuity? commentator? hold for commercial.

time for work anyway.