Sep 4, 2008 0
Aug 29, 2007 1
Last week, after months of investigation, police arrested three teens, two 15 and one 16, and seized stolen jewelry, burglary tools, a map of the city and several black ninja suits with hoods and climbing spikes.
[...]
Lewis said one of the three indicated they had been active for a year and a half, and the pranks escalated from flights across rooftops and petty vandalism.
Lewis said the teenagers used a stolen credit card to buy, online, costumes and equipment such as hand-climbing spikes, metal throwing stars and utility belts.
(Thanks Danny Chaoflux)
Jul 9, 2006 Comments Off
Earlier in the week I met Taylor and Lupa at their home in Seattle. They’re good people, and while I still haven’t had time to crack open their books, I recommend reading Lupa’s latest contribution to Key 23 which falls right in line with some of the stuff I’ve been muttering about here.
Taylor summarizes some of what we talked about: the rift between the occult and pagan communties.
There are two threads on LJ about sexism in the occult community as well. Here on Ceilede’s and on Psyche’s as well.
I agree with Taylor that focusing on the similarities between the pagan and occult communties is better than focusing on the differences. Other than that, I’m going to remain silent on the whole conversation, and think about what has been said. I’m disabling comments here as well.
Update: Here’s a Barbelith thread from a while back.
Apr 19, 2006 0
Link-Soup for 2006-04-19
Green Scanner:
web2.0 consumer activism Keywords: activism, environment, politics, tech
Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration:
Keywords: business, tech, web2.0
Health Bloggers to Fill Dedicated Wiki:
Keywords: web2.0
Guide to Portland Neighborhoods:
Keywords: portland
America 2050: Planning Megalopolis:
Keywords: portland, rural, seattle, suburban, urban
Aug 9, 2005 2
You see them all along the side of the road. White crosses which mark where a drunk driver snuffed out a life. However, what of the bike riders taken out by irresponsible auto drivers? This interesting article discusses the burgeoning art project in Seattle and elsewhere which seeks to draw attention to the threat automobiles pose to those on bikes. It seems like a positive step toward the type of auto-free city I’ve advocated in other articles.
Aug 7, 2005 3
This entry has nothing particularly stringent to do with the occult, but more with beauty. I just spent the past two days north, past Athabasca (where Nightbreed, the movie based on Clive Barker’s Cabal, has its city of monsters, Midian, located somewhere nearby ? we’ve never found it) at a small lake called Baptiste, and all last night ? between drinking and fireworks mishaps (no injuries, though a few would’ve been funnier in retrospect) ? the aurora borealis were out, aka “northern lights.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacehutobservatory/sets/210704/
Because I’ve spent little time in the U.S. outside of my experiences staying in Seattle (and being attacked by what I swear was a leper, while attempting to purchase a tasty croissant), I have no clue whether as many people have the opportunity to witness this amazing fucking phenomenon first-hand? Two things to living this far north are that a) the sun is up till like 23:00 in the middle of summer, allowing for much more bare-clad women and drinking without stumbling over what you can’t see, and b) in the dead of winter we get maybe seven hours of daylight, if that, and it’s hard to explain how far my penis shrinks back inside of body when the temperature drops to -30?C on a regular basis (I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it’s freakin’ cold). Benefits, year-round I think, are that we do happen to get northern lights.
And it’s just impossible to explain how insanely cool it is to sit beneath a sky aflame in green and red plasma. It’s kind of like Star Trek or something. Some years ago, I was driving down a major road in Edmonton and traffic just stopped. The whole of the sky, literally a good 80 per cent of the sky had erupted into brilliant pink and deep reds. They light up everything, the city, forests, mountains, lakes, et cetera. The whole city stopped to watch, it seemed like.
We are all surrounded by beauty, and while I don’t have the fortune of aurora every night, I tend to personally lose myself in the cloud formations we get during summer here. I love the skies.
Perhaps next time you’re outside (or wherever) consciously see if you can actually find something you like to just lose yourself to. It’s a god-given gift to be able to see beauty, and I think so many of us forget that or take it for granted.
Aurora folklore, via Wikipedia:?
It is believed that during the first millennium AD, auroral activity was low. This might be the explanation as to why northern lights are never mentioned in the Eddas of Norse mythology. The first Old Norse account of nor?rlj?s is found in the Norwegian chronicle Konungs Skuggsj? from 1250 AD.
An old Scandinavian name for northern lights translates as herring flash. It was believed that northern lights were the reflections cast by large swarms of herring onto the sky.
The Finnish name for northern lights is revontulet, fox fires. According to legend, foxes made of fire lived in Lapland, and revontulet were the sparks they whisked up into the atmosphere with their tails.
The Sami people believed that one should be particularly careful and quiet when observed by the guovssahasat.
In Inuit folklore, northern lights were the spirits of the dead playing football with a walrus skull over the sky.
Other older theories speculated in that aurora borealis were the fires of the purgatory mountain on the reverse side of the globe; that the sun flares could reach around the world to its night side, or that glaciers could store energy so that they eventually became fluorescent (because of the midnight sun, northern lights can only be observed during winter in the polar regions).
Jul 25, 2005 4
I should be arriving in Seattle on Sunday August 7th and leaving Portland a week later. I won’t have a lot of time, since it’s going to be a short trip and I have a lot of people I want to catch up with. But if any readers live in the area and want to get together, let me know.
Jul 25, 2005 0
I’ve started another blog (just one more after this one, and my blog network will be complete, for now).
Protest is broken. I gave up on protesting after the Iraq war protests. They were the biggest protests ever, held all over earth, and they accomplished nothing. I remember hearing some radio DJs on a Seattle ?alternative rock? station complaining about how protesters were blocking Interstate traffic and how protesters ?just want attention? and ?need to grow up.? I think that?s a pretty common interpretation of protest, no matter how big or for what reason.
Edward Bernays said ?The job of a public relations counsel is to instruct a client how to take actions that ?Interrupt? the continuity of life in some way to bring about the [media] response.?
The same can be said of protesters. The problem now is that protests, no matter how big don?t interrupt the continuity of life in any meaningful way anymore. They?re too common place. Even huge protests like the Iraq war protests and the RNC protests seem indistinguishable from other day to day protests to the average media consumer.
I do believe that protest should be an important part of civil life. Protesting is not dead: it just needs fixing. This blog will highlight the efforts of creative activists, working not only in protest but in any sort of activism. It will hopefully also motivate me to come up with some new ideas myself. I also hope this site will grow into a useful resource for activists, lobbyists, and political campaigners who want to try new ideas, regardless of their political alignment.
Mar 14, 2005 1
The word biopunk has been bandied about for some time now. Google already has over 1,000 results for a search on the term. R.U. Sirius wrote a piece in Rolling Stone a couple years ago about the possibility of garage biotechnologists, a movement he called biopunk. But I’d like to throw a new meaning for the concept out there: the near future (already here?) biotechnology black market.
The biotechnology market has already captured the imaginations of the business world. For the past few years it’s been hyped as the next big thing, the new dot-com bubble. For instance, Paul Allen wants to turn a neighborhood in Seattle into a biotech industry fueled urbanist utopia.
Ample private and federal investment is being poured into biotech research, but I expect U.S policies banning cloning research and limiting funding for stem cell research will effectively limit the U.S.’s role in biotechnology development. Less restrictive policies and/or cheaper labor will give Europe, Russia, and Asia advantages in the global biotech industry.
But other factors will drive an underground biotechnology market: the crippling expense of prescription drugs, health insurance, malpractice insurance, and student loan debts.
Chemistry students have been making money manufacturing LSD, MDMA, and other illegal drugs for years. But the demand for black market prescription drug clones could create a new use for the college chemistry lab. Imagine thousands of undergrads manufacturing HIV meds and other expensive drugs for cheap underground resale.
Meanwhile, medical school students, un-licensed doctors, or even licensed doctors trying to keep up with insurance payments will be performing a myriad of unauthorized procedures. Genesis P. Orridge could be at the forefront of a movement again. Sex changes are nothing new, but P. Orridge and Lady Jaye’s sex change as installation art project is on the forefront of the body modification movement, which constantly grows more extreme. Face transplants are about to become a reality. But these black market surgical procedures won’t be limited to weird body art projects. Uninsured Americans will be seeking all types of surgical procedures on the black market, and finding students and doctors to perform them will become increasingly easier.
Of course, those policy restrictions will create another biotech black market: clandestine cloning research labs and illegal human testing projects. Illegal human testing is almost certainly already a reality. And even with recent improvements in the job market, there are still thousands of desperate unemployed people to be taken advantage of.
And let?s not forget R.U. Sirius?s frightening prediction from his Rolling Stone article: garage production of germ weapons.
Sep 11, 2004 1
Before I head out, I wanted to give a heads up: my friend Pagan Moss has a piece in Lit Kick’s first book Action Poetry.
Another friend from Seattle Kirsten Anderson has a book coming out called Pop Surrealism: The Rise Of Underground Art which you can pre-order on Amazon.
Jan 5, 2004 0
I got back to Seattle yesterday, it’s nice to be back.
This year didn’t start out well, something pretty bad happened in my family on Friday. I hope this isn’t how things are going to go all year.
On the other hand, the new year’s party I went to was a blast. I saw a bunch of people that I pretty much only see on New Year’s. It’s weird to think that that party might be the last time I see a lot of them. I’m guessing most of us won’t be around Sheridan for New Year’s anymore. This realization drives home the fact that I really need to make a stronger effort to keep in touch with people from now on.
What I did last year:
Recognized the one year anneversary of Jon’s disappearance/death.
Got my heart broke. Bad.
Interned for the Washington State Arts Commission.
Graduated from college.
Got a new car.
Saw Brad for the first time in 3 years.
Moved to Seattle, lived in the same city as Brad for the first time in over 4 years.
Went to Burning Man.
Started my “career” as a temp worker.
Also: I joined Stare and Margin Walker, and mets lots of cool people through them.
I met some really cool people from the blogosphere in meatspace: Dr. Menlo, Pagan Moss, Kirsten Anserson, Molly Wright Steenson, and Adam and Nurri.
I drank too much, and excercised too little.
So what’s on the agenda for this year? Going to Europe this spring. Maybe finally getting a real job after that (maybe not, though). I’ll probably drink less, but I doubt I’ll get any more excercise.
Most of all I just want to be in a better headspace than I was last year. Last year my life was written and illustrated by Peter Bagge, with a soundtrack by Modest Mouse. This year my life will be written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Philip Bond with a soundtrack by Gold Chains
Sep 3, 2003 2
I’m back. I’ll be posting some thoughts about Burning Man on my personal blog, as well as on Margin Walker in the near future. In the mean time, I’ll be posting some BM related links here… first off, check this:
Two full-time employees of Black Rock City LLC are helping develop regional spinoffs beyond those already growing in places like New York, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Austin, Tex., ? and making sure they adhere to the philosophy of the original.…
Black Rock Arts Foundation, meanwhile, has been set up to raise money and to bring radical art to communities nationwide. Organizers also just distributed what they call a ?Burning Man film festival in a box,? a do-it-yourself kit that they expect will promote avant-garde cinematography.
I think this is a great idea, as long as it is handled properly. I don’t think the Burning Man community is going to take it well, though.
Link (via Abstract Dynamics).
Aug 4, 2003 4
Philip Shropshire of Three River Tech Review, Majic 12, and Better Humans is joining us as guest editor for a couple weeks while I look for housing and work in Seattle. I can’t wait to see what he posts!
May 6, 2003 0
An interesting thing about Meetup, a web site for organizing local interest groups, is that it ranks cities by number of people signed up for certain meets.
What’s big, city by city?
Apr 28, 2003 1
One of my favorite spots in Seattle – Polygraphic, the experimental electronic night at Thee Aurafice Coffee Bar – has a write-up in the Seattle Times.
I shouldn’t be telling you about Polygraphic. Honestly. You see, to publicize this splendid weekly happening also violates one of those unspoken rules among ink-stained newspaper curmudgeons: Write about things we would be irresponsible to ignore, but keep the really great gems to yourself. I probably shouldn’t have revealed that either.
Will this ruin the scene? I doubt it, though it’s crowded already. Oh well, I rarely go anyway, it’s quite a commute to make on a Tuesday night.
Link
Aug 26, 2002 2
I’m sitting in front of a sound stage in the middle of a horse pasture watching robotic kids shift and rotate to electronic music. A computer thumps out crunchy, mechanical melodies over the funky beats oozing from turntables. Neon drawings float under the black light from the plywood dance floor. Off to the side of the stage, a guy sits cross-legged and meditates. I’ve been up since 6:30 in the morning, it’s 2:30 at night now, I’m freezing, and have no plans of going to bed. Fatigue has given way to fascination. I feel great.
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