Prose

Contact

Benjamin George Griffin
58 Wentworth Ave
Unit 11 ‘Aspect’
Kingston ACT 2604
Australia
b.g.griffin@pm.me
m 0413 013 357
(+61) GMT+11

Sat, 8 Dec 2021

Hey there,

Likely you’ve forgotten my number and that’s why you’re here.

Update my details in one-fell-swoop by tapping HERE.

Seeing as you’re here, linger a moment and let me tell you about happiness and privacy.

I promise to make you less bothered, safer and (with your help) substantially happier with some simple, immediate and practical advice.

I’ve trusted you with my home address, trust me with 20 mins of your time.

Yours,

B. G. Griffin

A friend

Signal

Practical Openness

A Stoic Argument Against Privacy

No doubt part of you is mildly alarmed that I’m so open with my details. ‘Isn’t it dangerous putting all this information out there?’ The short answer is No. Take my advice and breathe free air friend! I hope, for your sake, to prove this to you. But first, I must put your fears, if not aside, in their proper place.

One should be closed to companies and governments and criminals and nuisances (sure) but not at the expense of closing yourself to friends, old or new.

The Anxiety of Openness

You are unconvinced of my philosophy, and rightly so, I have not proved anything. Before you can really hear me, I need to deliver you from your fears. So, let’s dispense with the worst of them with practicality and common sense.

A Stoic (like myself) would advise we take our fears seriously and consciously, lest they take control of us. This is almost common sense. We might imagine the worst, prepare for it and, that done, let go of our fear… The advice, and mine, is to be less afraid, less anxious and freer— we must first feel more afraid, more anxious and (briefly) trapped. Trust me, it will only hurt a little and you’ll be better for it after. Like ripping off a bandaid to avoid an infection.

For argument sake, let’s say there are genuine monsters out there. Really bad ones. Omniscient phantoms with infinite resources. The ghost of Christmas past is listening to your clicks and watching through your camera and has no intent other than to nudge your life slowly and silently and surely toward a tragic mistake and thence to misery. The situation could not be worse, most tragically because you are hopelessly unaware. Let’s say this is in fact the case. Such a spectre will find you without google search and find me without this page. Hiding my address or my phone number will not make a whit of difference to the great malign invisible, ever. The attempt to hide will only succeed in making life difficult for you, now my dear dear anxious friend. In between then and now, we will pointlessly worry.

The reality of our situation might be worse. It’s 2021 as I write this. Scammers, Advertisers and Vote Riggers are waist-deep in your data now, have been for years, and will continue to be so. Every time you have used a seemingly ‘free’ thing you gave it away. Nothing is for free. ‘free-but-for-profit’ is not free. If a product seems free, You are the product. You have been sold to one/some/all of the following: Sam the Scam(er), Al the Adman and Vlad the Vote (rigger). Wisdom says that to whatever degree this is true, you need to accept it, and deal with it.

It is at least silly, at worst dangerous, and certainly unwise to believe openness is the problem. I’ll sadly inform you that it’s too. late. for. that. It’s a silly thing to believe that in this day and age, you can hide these basic details from anyone mildly motivated. In fact, it’s dangerous believing that (say) your phone number is a fact about you that matters in the first place.

Perhaps this is not controversial for you. Perhaps I’m not telling you much more than you already know. Perhaps. I suspect you have not done much about this because you don’t know quite how…

WARNING: Protips ahead. Fear much now but Fear not again! I’m here, and here to help! The following are my recommendations for some easy fixes for your digital life.

Then with your fears and annoyances, as put aside, as they can be, I will argue with you, for your, happiness.

20 minutes to Freedom

Substantial Freedom from Spam, Scam and Surveilance

(1 min) First and foremost, help others and do your bit for democracy. Vlad the Vote Rigger is a dick and you should support the peeps keeping an eye on him: the Advertising Observatory has a thing for your browser. You can trust them. The Observatory is run by some nice engineering nerds at a University with support from a grab bag of non-profits you’d like, and the real-life Newspaper that inspired Superman/Clarke Kent’s The Daily Planet.

Next, help yourself out and switch to software that is meaningfully free because it is non-profit. It is common sense that a for-profit will always have the temptation to sell out, sell you, and sell you out. So, switch to these Open Source options.

  • (2 mins, 4 clicks) They have your data, why give them more? #ComeToTheDuckSide young Jedi. Leave Google for the Anti-tracker Search Engine DuckDuckGo. Make sure you install their anti-tracker plugin for your browser to keep blocking Al-the-Adman.
  • (3 mins, 5 clicks) But they have so much already. Yes, yes they do. Why let them use it? Install this non-profit Advertising Blocker, AdBlock Plus. Why this one? I’ve used it for almost 20 years. This one has stood the test of time with only one concession: they allow text-only and un-intrusive ads. If you’re a purist you can even turn this off. If you’re a pure purist (with 2 mins more) you can use double down with uBlock (Firefox, Chrome, Opera). I use both.
  • (7 mins, 20 clicks, 40 keystrokes) You want your anonymity? Do it properly and disappear in the crowd with a VPN. Use this free swiss option, ProtonVPN. Why? It’s the safest, cheapest and fastest. If they have ulterior motives, it’s to do with giant magnets: Their day job is smashing protons together to see whats in them at CERN.
    • It’s not widely known but has always been the case that Physicists have the biggest-baddest internet connections. They need to trade Petabytes of data from their experiments and observations. Typically 10,000x of what would fill your laptop. So they have to have some big internet pipes nearby. So. Protonmail is fast.
    • They are also (IMHO) cool. As a claim to fame Proton comes out of the same labs that previously invented the web. If you want to support them to cover costs (for like $5) they also offer the worlds best secure email, calender and cloud-storage. You should do this. a) because Non-profits are not free to run, and b) you want them to have some kind of financial interest in you. At least as a principle.
    • As a kicker you can also unlock all the cool movies and TV from American/European on Netflix/Disney/Amazon/HBO et al
  • (3 mins, 10 taps) Secure your texts. Don’t send another SMS, send a Signal. It’s the gold standard and is widely used by diplomats, military, journalists, democracy activists, even terrorists. If it’s good enough to protect them against the world, it’s probably good enough for humble old us.
    *Also, the phone calls are much clearer than you’ll get from a phone company simply because it uses modern data and modern protocols. Get your nearest and dearest onto it too.
  • (5 mins, 15 taps) Secure your internet messaging and group chats with an actual and actually secure private messenger. Forget Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp/instagram which are neither secure nor private, no matter how much they protest. (How could they be, all three are owned and funded by Facebook advertising.) Instead use Telegram, “The messenger that stood up to the Kremlin– and won”, (Washington Post). Secure AF.
    *Also, has the best gifs and stickers.

There is one free-but-for-profit thing that I recommend. Screen out scam phone calls with Hiya. They aren’t as pure as the driven snow: they preference big corporates (boo!) however, they are pretty great at catching scams and spams (hurrah!)

On the Wisdom of Openness

That’s all the practical advice I have, and it will leave you less hassled and safer. This pleases me immensely. But, I don’t merely want you to avoid annoyance, or latent anxiety. I want you to be substantially safer and substantially happier.

There is a bigger and much more important question here, and perhaps the true source of your original discomfort at my seeming openness might be “Is it dangerous to live a life of openness?” To my mind, it’s the safest choice. I think Aristotle is right (if a little dark) that “the antidote to 50 enemies is one friend” If he is, in fact, right I’ll add that with those particular odds you should keep an open door to your life unless you think more than 2% of people you meet are actively out to destroy you specifically and personally.

I’ll further add there is a real feeling of freedom that comes with being open. It feels good.

My worry for you is that being too private will make you unhappy; at the very least you could be happier than you are without this hesitation and I intend to cure you of it. You see friends are a real joy in life, one of the greatest, and one that modern life has taken away from us piecemeal over the centuries. If being locked down has taught us anything, it should have taught us that our friends are important. My advice in this regard is that you should, at the absolute minimum, be easy for your friends to find.

The difficulty is, that it takes some getting used to. It is naturally discomforting to reach out to another person. This is a real, a genuine and a very substantial problem– for every person ever. There are all manner of reasons for this (e.g. bad personal experiences, or a historical/cultural trauma) but let’s not intellectualise to numbness and avoid the issue. It’s at least uncomfortable, but I will say that taking the task of finding our way through our feelings has the precious reward of a daily experience of lightness and freedom. It is a worthwhile project to set for oneself.

That being the case, the human all-too-human anxiety of reaching out being a genuine obstacle, I will not make it one moment harder, for anyone, including you to reach out. This is why my details are here, for anyone, and for you specifically. right. now.

More than the apps, I recommend this attitude: That of openness. It is not trivial to find, but I assure you that it is worth it.

If you’ve read this far, I’ll also ask you to practice. To reach out to me. Like…… right now. A postcard or a physical letter would make by day, (it truly would,) but anything will do. Take your pick. To make it just one wiggle more comfortable, I promise not to reply right away.

Reach out.

Essays

From: Benjamin Griffin
Sent: Tuesday, April 9, 2019 7:09:37 PM
To: J####
Cc: Z##### (other student rep.)
Subject: Re: POLS1002 GENERAL QUESTION

Dear J####,

I hope you’re well and enjoying the break! Mine is exhausting but looking up.

I think it’s great that you’ve jumped into your essay early.  Also, It’s great that you’re reaching out for help. Two gold stars for you! 

First, you should approach your tutor. They know you the best. Write them a general email now saying you’re stuck ‘finding the right tone.’ All the tutors are great and will get back to you pretty quickly. My tutor (####) recommends The Hamburger Method, that is taught universally in North American High Schools (i.e. where he and Dr ##### are both from). I’ve attached a flyer from (Canadian) McGill Universities‘ Political Science Department. ### added three points about research:

  • Begin by using the ANU Library Super Search.
    • Use the bibliography from a relevant paper to find more papers.
  • Also, use Google Scholar
    • As above, use the bibliography for further papers.
    • Make use of the cited by info and links to browse for ‘popular’ (i.e. frequently cited) articles.
  • Do not read everything
    • If a title looks relevant, open it and read the abstract. 
    • If, and only if, the abstract is relevant then read the introduction and conclusion.
    • If, and only if, it still seems relevant do you read the paper itself.
    • Frequently mover onto the next paper.

Secondly, You should absolutely make use of the Academic Skills Writing Centre. It’s brilliant, and not enough people make use of it. If you’ll take my advice, take a 15-minute drop in with a Peer Tutor. No appointment necessary, just go into the Marie Reay teaching centre  (you know, the one in Kambri with all the wooden structures inside) go up the orange stairs. You should do this as soon as possible because it will start a good habit. 11-1pm Monday to Friday

Thirdly, Write to your tutor again. This time with a no-more-than-one-page outline that Dr ##### has talked about in lectures. Do this before Friday Next, i.e. 14th April.

Lastly, use Grammarly. It’s awesome.

I hope this helps, feel free to contact me anytime!

B

erasure.

Time passes.
Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.
– Joan Didion, Blue Nights
 quoted in an LARB review

I’m thinking now of erasure. That way that you can disappear from someone’s world even though you’ve just met them.

I often felt like this. Invisible and ghostlike. That great passions, intimate dreams and rare inspiration can so quickly evaporate in morning light. This last time reduced to a text message.

I’ve evaporated. Like so much red wine left at the bottom of a glass… Given a week, where angsty recollection, dreamy midnight pauses and the soft stubbornness not to clean the glasses and clear the table leave that time spent together a rippled dry plum red at the bottom of a glass.

Blood. Dead and dried, two metres away clinging to glass like the memory; but when approached still have the scent of that initial romance. Still, in it’s deadness when breathed recall that rarer time.

I have five poems.

But I know from too much experience that any effort to recall this time- To fix it in words, is its end. That drawing a mask from the feminine mystique constitutes a definitive symbolic violence– driving real love away with a symbolic replacement. Is it too much to turn a real moment into forms? Or is it never enough?

modern new wave

Those of you who know me might know that i have an unnatural attachment to mixtapes, whatever form they turn up in. Here is a find. I stumbled across this playlist rolled together by a guy(girl?) that calls him(her?)self ‘Datasuck‘ … I love being rewarded when I click blithely around, and the serendipity of this little find endears me to it all the more: The only reason I wound up discovering their cute sense of humour, and delicious sonic tastes was that it included what is now my favourite track from the new Smashing Pumpkins album.

This mix is wonderfully put together, passing through cute almost self effacing almost 8bit, through a driving polished house remix’, then reaching a sad creshendo in the final few tracks, finising on that new SP favourite of mine. I has left me simultaneously elated and nostalgic.

I don’t know if it’s ‘New Wave’, but if it is then it’s definitely more ‘modern’ for all the extra texture there wasnt in 1989.

And I love it.

It’s well timed. For me at least. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for me (or months? or years?) so it’s particularly pleasing to be reminded, right now, of how I adore the witching hour, and all these dreamy droning tones.

I’m wondering if I shouldn’t put up a little listening station with a microfm transmitter somewhere…

Consume

Rom:  …Then love-devouring death do what he dare;
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Friar:            These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

– W.S. R & J 2,vii 

i flipped on Baz’ version of R&J
and half paid attention
treating it more like background radio
not having a radio here

these words leapt out
for some fairly obvious reasons

and reminded me of every old love
(and one or two)
(particular painful)
(in particular 

fire and powder
as they kiss
consume

The second line of final couplet
strikes me as forced

(but i’m probably just resistant)
(to restraint)

Vindication for Jupiter, best and greatest

IOVI OPTIMO MAXIMO VINDICTA
(word by word) to Jupiter, the best and greatest, vindication

QUOD LICET IOVI, NON LICET BOVI
that permitted to Jupiter, is not permitted to the ox

– Latin Proverbs

I get bombarded with “love and light” messages and posts, particularly on the theme of “forgiving and letting go” of negative experiences, interactions and emotions as the path to happiness. Superficially, that seems like a lovely idea – but does it really work in a practical sense?

– ‘Negative’ emotions and how to use them, Kate Douchkov, Inspire Achive

Too often our laid-back country we are held hostage to the idea that ‘She’ll Be Right’, or a downright English notion that we should just wear a stiff upper lip in the face of our troubles. Inevitably life, or fate, or God, or the great absence of God… Life, laughs at such cliché. For all of us there comes a day when we are called to face the true depths of our humanity. To question our faith, if we even had any to begin with.

In these times, the platitudes offered by common-sense, pop-psychology or a pseudo-Christian subservience fail us. They hurt us. And when they do, they do it a lot.

I approve wholeheartedly of the sentiment in the above-quoted article in this regard.

Deep feelings can’t be dealt with so shallowly, they must be met with depth.

Continue reading →

Mixtape µRadio

Summary.

We want to make Radio as intimate as a gift, as social as facebook, as mobile as a phone and, as local as a corner store.

We do this by merging the mixtape, mobile and radio in a very low cost, series of very local projects that we call Mixtape µRadio.

Motivation.

We care about our music, and we care about the declining quality of our musical culture, not just in Australia but around the world. We care that our culture and our communities have been slowly rent apart by identity politics, and the commercial forces that foment and profit from these divisions.

We believe it all starts with a song, but can end with a mixtape.

Concept.

The nature of the mixtape is that it is a gift. More than this, it is perhaps the most accessible art form to non-artists that doesn’t involve finger-paint. Everyone has been involved in mixtaping at some point. A Mixtape is this: A CD given to a grandmother by a granddaughter: a brother collecting some songs on a memory stick for his sister; A lover composing an iTunes play-list for an ex with the dreams of winning their object back. A tape you found underneath the seat of a car you havn’t cleaned in years.

The gift of music.

This is our content.

The stuff of real lives.

Continue reading →

A Place to Stay

(Prose! Who thought i’d sully this with that. It’s almost a journal entry ffs!)

They keep moving. Always moving. All these places to stay. And I, with them.

Nicci and Nicky think I’m a wanderer, and had a song, and some vino, and a bed that we all shared– though not all at the same time. It wasn’t like that. Nicole thinks something else entirely.

They’re wanderers, all three of these three Νίκης. They are. Maybe in the Tolkienesque way, that ‘not all who wander are lost’. They’re searching for something.

I’m not.

I’m different. I don’t wander. Or wonder. I wait. I’ve been known to drift. Waiting for the wind to come. I know where I’m going. I have my compass and the stars. It’s just a matter of time, and who will be on the boat with me, and what clothes or whose uniform I’ll be wearing when I get there…. After all these uncountable and unaccountable roadblocks. Or the wind.

Continue reading →

Complicated Women

‘When I am good I am very very good
but when I am bad I am better.‘
–Mae West

Just read a wonderful little book review that I was led to by this quote I found on Anne Sutherland‘s wall.

Complicated Women:
Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood

 a review by Steven C. Scheer

“… the female stars who dominated the years between 1929 and 1934, the year the censors struck. “The best era for women’s pictures,” he tells us, “was the pre-Code
era. . . . Before the Code, women on the screen took lovers, had babies out of wedlock, got rid of cheating husbands, enjoyed their sexuality, held down professional positions without apologizing for their self-sufficiency, and in general acted the way many of us think women only acted after 1968″”

The review gets better after this. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the book. Read the review if you like the top quote, the book title, the above review quote … love complicated women … or are one.

An Open Invitation

Fearing no-one, one may Love everyone— and so, The Vampire Mercury, Master Benjamin George Griffin, esq. cordially invites you to his 300th Birthday.

Thank you to all who came, for making this years Halloween. It was my favourite of all time– particular gratitude to all the new people I met for making me feel at home in my new home.

For those of you that couldn’t make it, I can only offer my pity. You should have been there.

As consolation, I’ll be doing it all again exactly two weeks later, for my birthday. And you’re invited.

BLACK FRIDAY XIII DAYS AFTER ALL SAINTS DAY, NOVEMBER MDCLXXXI ANNO DOMINI, WHILE THE DEMONS OF THE HALLOWS EVER WERE WALKING, AB VITA CON FIDES. NIHIL TIMORE, OMNES AMANDA.

Saturday 12th November, 730pm sharp at Chez Cocoon 8/56 Paradise Island, Paradise Island, QLD 4217

Dress is Formal attire, 18th Century
I, myself, will be in my usual black three piece suit with an Asian Collar, and my fangs proudly on display.
You, yourself, will be dressed to match– I was born on black Friday, so for christs sake try and work in with that.

In lieu of gifts or costume, you may supply Brandy or Foreign Currency. No worthless Australian Dollars please, Australian Pounds are acceptable.

The night begins with Champagne, Cognac and Cocktails. I will be mixing, so bring your favourite spirit, fruit or herb.

The evening will, after the exchange of witticisms and outlandish boasts, a poem or two performed by myself and, almost certainly a lengthy speech Continue reading →

Ezek!el 25:17

Different from the Pulp Fiction version, the original Hebrew and KJV versions are, infact, more brutal linguistically. This is the one and only, and my favourite Old Testament Prophet, Ezekiel, who near Tel Aviv in about 230BC wrote this after hearing words in a vision—

וְעָשִׂ֤יתִי בָם֙ נְקָמֹ֣ות גְּדֹלֹ֔ות בְּתֹוכְחֹ֖ות חֵמָ֑ה וְיָֽדְעוּ֙ כִּֽי־ אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֔ה בְּתִתִּ֥י אֶת־ נִקְמָתִ֖י בָּֽם׃ ס

And I will execute great vengeances upon them with furious rebukes, and they shall knowe that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

By comparison, the speech in Pulp Fiction, though followed with gunshots and a gangland execution, is (if taken purely textually) of distinctly christian character though just as vengeful and, in this regard is entirely more open spirited and political than the pure venom of the original Desert Prophet. This is Jules, the assassin, rendered by Samuel L. Jackson–

“‘The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the LORD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.'”

<gunshots>

 

 

The Imperfectionistic Advices of Kid Sigma

The Breakup; the Makeup.

All for one, one for all? The Makeup; The Breakup? A gift I gave to a Great Lover? I Memory I took from a Bad one? -- Pair IV, John Stezacker

<snip!>

break-ups are awesome. my friend said that all relationships are different, but all break-ups are the same. I’m pretty sure I believe the opposite; after all, Tolstoy said, “all happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” her break-up with her boyfriend, Kyall, is vastly different to mine with Rob. we are different people, all of us, & Rob & I were dating for months, then long-distance for a year, then living together, & we continued to live together after we had those series of all-out door-slamming, name-calling arguments where we couldn’t stand to communicate with each other or even be in the same room together. but we still love each other now, & we always will. if I cannot be with him, I’m honestly not sure what I will do. write, I suppose, like always, & be successful, & live my life of boats & cats. I will rent a houseboat on the Hamsterdam canals for a week just to taste heaven.

please, just follow your mind & your heart, not your dick or your stomach. wait two years. love waits. tattoos wait. newcastle waits. the rest of the world does not. never ask someone to do for you what you can do for yourself, don’t fucking get anyone fucking pregnant for a good ten years, & try to avoid joining the circus for any real length of time. good men go with good men; good women, too. education is the key to better living! poetry can save the world! Obama For President of the Universe! never! say! die! & so on & so forth. be good, is what I’m saying, & always do your best. trust & respect yourself & others & I’m pretty sure you get like good karma & whatever.

<snip!>

-Σ

(Australian) National Cultural Policy Submission

There is still a week to go if you want to Have Your Say on the mooted National Cultural Policy, due out 2012 sometime. And you should, reading-type-blogger-person that you are… you should have your say.

  • Take just (6) minutes to fill out the quick survey, then when ticking boxes and writing three sentence responses infuriates you…
  • Submit a fuller response to the 5 or so questions below.
  • If you’re exceptionally lazy, feel free to crib my submission for ideas. I know that imitation is the highest form of compliment, but try to resist the urge nakedly plagiarize, it will make my efforts look bad, and baby Jesus will cry.
  • N.B. You don’t have to be part of, or represent an organisation to respond. They want to hear from individual artists, and (more to the point) I want them to hear from individual artists… *Ahem*

Continue reading →

A Privileged Transgression

ENJOY SMALL PRIVILEGES, IGNORE LARGE TRANSGRESSIONS

Image from OBEY 'manufacturing quality dissent since 1989' as part of their support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. OBEY (aka Shepard Fairey) has a pretty big claim to fame: that he invented Stencil Art. Think about that. Read the manifesto. Click through on the image or just remember OBEYGIANT.COM

“Your tone-deafness and utter disconnection from the rest of the country has produced something extraordinary – You’ve managed to awaken one of the most indolent, lethargic and apathetic populaces in the history of the world.”

– Joshua Brown, The Reformed Broker in his article…

This is Why They Hate You
and Want You to Die

I for one am glad that people are getting sick of things, are doing something about it, and that it’s coming from America. It easy to Yankee bash, particularly in a Chip-on-the-Shoulder country like Australia.  For those of you that have only ever been there through the telly, watch them work: Yankees don’t fuck around. They’re optimistic, and they’re rebellious by nature. More of that here please.

I’m not surprised that in Australia, the movement is being led by members of ANONYMOUS (“Knowledge is Free. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not Forgive. We do not Forget. Expect Us.” – 21/1/08 4.5 Million Views on Youtube), a whole generation in age, style and experience away from University-Leftist, Union Bureaucracy or the Labor Party. I’ve been a big fan of this younger generation, and this particular layer circling around Anon, which has successfully politicised itself outside the existing structures, and (get this) before they turned 18 had organised global protests in 120 odd cities and half as many countries. Wonderful Stuff. Amazing Stuff. Also HILLARIOUS.

Overview

For an overview, I love the engaged and thoughtful thoughts of Sky Croeser ‘Occupy Wall Street: movement’s and manifestoes‘,  or this critical article ‘Occupy Together: Who’s the 99%’ … She’s wonderful and serious at the same time, and has excellent instincts and a long memory for how these things can go – or rather, should go. She’s also pretty hot. That helps, right?

Aesthetics

If you (confused reader) find the aesthetics of protest movements and propaganda offensive because you’re used to having all your information delivered to you through a slick marketing machine, or the artifice of Professional Journalism™, then maybe you should read this manifesto on Street Art, The Street and, The City by the guy that drew that thing up there. P.S. He also did the most famous HOPE poster of Barack Obama, an art piece of which hangs in the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston. It probably wont change your mind, but I think it’s great and it left my little brother spinning for a bit.

Anarchist Pleas

If you’re engaged already, and just figuring out what this all means and what you can do, this is an open letter to the occupiers by Cloudfront an action of the ArtAnarchist’s from the Crimethinc ex-Workers Collective (CWC) who publish some of the most wonderful words and art of any anarchist group around. This is no exception.

 Socialist Analysis

If you’re like me, and you want a bit more meat and organisation around your activity, then I strongly recommend the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS.org) I have my problems with them, but they’re largely personal, and I cannot fault their commitment, intellectual rigour or independence. A complete and current list of their articles on Occupy Wall Street is here, or check my selections below.

I want a Democracy not a Plutocracy

  1. Protests spread across the US and globally by Kate Randall, 8 October 2011 — Anti-Wall Street protests continued to spread yesterday to cities across the US, with protests also being planned globally in more than 15 countries.
  2. “Occupy Chicago” protests continue into second week by James Nykvist and Kristina Betinis, October 8, 2011 — Under the banner of the “Occupy Together” movement, the city of Chicago has seen small protests continue into the second week.
  3. Occupy Wall Street and the Democratic Party  Editorial by Bill Van Auken (Office Holder and Ideologue of the American ICFI), October 8, 2011 — As the Occupy Wall Street protest enters its fourth week, the movement confronts increasingly sharp political pressures and choices that center on what its relationship will be to the Democratic Party.
Until we meet again, I wish you peace and fucking, or as my Montreal Quebecker friend JS says …

With Love and Rage,

Benjamin

The Death of a Violinist 

Multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus
adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad īnferiās,
ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis
et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem,
quandoquidem fortūna mihī tētē abstulit ipsum.
heu miser indignē frāter adēmpte mihi,
nunc tamen intereā haec, prīscō quae mōre parentum
trādita sunt trīstī mūnere ad īnferiās,
accipe frāternō multum mānantia flētū,
atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque valē.
- Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carmina CI

A note died in my ear, here, at your … funeral.
I need to call it that, a funeral, even if the program here says Celebration.
It is a sad day for me. And for H. And I want to feel it all.

A note died in my ear today. My left ear. It hummed to a singular pitch, just moments ago. This note held itself there, in this ear, sharp and clear, a direct line to my brain… then died. A hair in a cochlea sang its last song, and hummed to a tremble, then ….

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