Skip to main content

Be what you want.

Hey Mike, So, after listening to a bunch of (ok, a few) old songs (Asexuals, Sham 69, DOA, Angelic Upstarts, Special AKA, 7Seconds) I leashed up the dog and headed out to check on the kids in the CHAZ. Not gonna lie: it did my heart good to see what amounted to the seeds of a squat (they don't have an actual building to occupy - they are asking for the city to hand over the East Precinct, and I'm honestly not sure how that will go) all over 11th & Pine. And it was pretty damn cool. Sloppy, but cool. Easily 50 tents parked in the park, loads of tents with free supplies, medical help, saintary supplies (tp and paper towel, for free! people had been lining up for hours just weeks ago to pay jacked up prices for that stuff!). I roamed around, taking in the graffiti, the art (the BLM painted down Pine street, honestly, it was really great) I talked briefly to a girl setting up a free book exchange/library, I went up to the precinct and listened to people talking aobut plans, a woman who asked about KC and I chatted briefly and I mentioned wondering if the people involved in this movement knew about squats & that movement, but she was clearly not in on it, Walked to another barricade and found a white guy about our age with an definitely arty vibe, and asked him if he knew if any of this was motivated or fashioned on euro models, and had any of them ever been there? Lo and behold a black woman ambled up and she was one of the organizers and yep, they were familiar (don't know if they'd been there, but still) and we had a spirited discussion about how things could move forward. And we were treated to an older white guy (and his equally older woman passenger) drive up to the barricade (not sure how they got in to go along the spot, since it seemed closed to traffic to me) but he started rampaging about how was he supposed to drive through this? We all chuckled and said "you're not" but offerred that the barricades were movable, so he could just move them if it was really that important. Hilarious to watch the entitled wealthy man LOSE his shit over not being able to drive down 12th ave. As if that doesn't happen with city permits several times a year. I mentioned as a pedestrian, I had no sympathy for self-important car drivers. There are tons of streets available with just a one block detour, but no, this guys had to be a dick. But, as always, it provided a bonding moment for us. It started raining more heavily, so we seperated, but it was cool. I'm envious of the kids, but also not sure they have enough focus to make this stick. But, if it gives them practice for next time? Cool.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's all coming apart.

Mike. This bunch of white-power Christian zealots is not even pretending anymore. We are actively deporting residents from other countries who have lived and worked here for decades, students who have been protesting the invasion of Gaza, AND....AND frigging British tourists and Uber drivers who take a wrong turn on a bridge and end up in Canada because there is no turnaround, and when they re-enter they are being detained. And then yetsterday the vampire Nazi Stephen Miller announced they are "looking into" suspending hebeas corpus and...and allowing Afrikkaner "refusgees" (you know, rich, white people who exploited Apartheid and now hate the fact that they are required by law to pay taxes and share land ownership) to "seek asylum" here. I fucking cannot take this. They have undone Roe, they are purging the population, and the Supreme Court is about to also make Christianity the only religion (apparently) with any right to freely practicing. I fucking hat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Note to self.

Here's the thing Mike, Now that you are gone, I find being the keeper of Agent86 history awkward at best, because to be honest it should fall to GL right? Especially since she actually visited Arcata with you and I haven't been back to that vortex of weirdness in decades. None of the people in the Humboldt Punk group on the FB mayhem-generator even know who the fuck I am. Well, except for Dario. That's right, I said (wrote) Dario. Yer pal, my on-again, off-again buddy (I thought we were on the skids again because I mistakenly sent him a link to what I thought was an online sale on L&R merch, but instead was a link to online books and he was, as is sometimes apparently still a thing with him, pissed off). So I had assumed it'd be a while before I heard from him - and I guess it has been about 6 monthes. Anyway, every now and then he pops up in my FB feed, which I don't really patrol much. To my surprise when I saw the alert, he is a member of the Humboldt County ...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's not great, Mike.

Hi. So, this is just bullshit. I can't keep doing this. Maybe it's because I'm immature or unable to cope with reality, or whatever, but fuck this bullshit of people dying, especially when they seem to be finally pulling their shit together (I'm definitely not talking about you, obviously, though maybe, sorta?). So, there I was mindlessly flipping through fb on my phone at the dogpark because the pup was doing her dogyy thing, and I was seeing all these posts about Bircho, and I didn't read them, I just noticed they were people posting old pictures, and saying nice things and tagging him. I suppose I blew it off thinking it was his birthday or something. Flash forward 5 hours and I dip into the fucking kool-aid again, and there it was: fucking Bircho died in his sleep last night. Heart attack maybe? Not clear yet. But still. It's some full-on bullshit. Our generation is small and getting smaller by the goddamn minute. I'm not gonna lie Mike, this is horrib...
Post a Comment
Read more