bah, zine, pictures, bah

I havn't been posting here very much lately. Between the book store and the zine and the other blog I've had my hands full. I've even had to take a break from playing guitar, but that's because my downstairs neighbours need their sleep at 2 a lot more than they need my bad Robert Johnson covers.

having problems with the pictures in this months issue, of course this is to be expected. Every issue brings with it fresh problems I need to solve in order to put something out, this is business as usual. I think I'm going to have to re-format all the photography from scratch (something I havn't had to do since issue 9) but This months photos are all from a night shoot I did and so the balance is totally different. I have to factor in the fact that at night it's dark out so a lot of things I could get away with in previous issues are not working like I'd hoped they would.

I think I can rectift this, and if worse comes to worse I did another shoot this evening before sunset and got some great photos I can use as my backup set.

Saturday I volunteered to work the book table for Amy Goodman's book tour stop here in Van. It was really cool to get to attend for free, get a copy signed and be able to boast that my book store (spartacus) got to do the merch at her gig. But the best part was much more unexpected. I got to meet Aaron Mate.

Aaron Mate was one of the main figures in a series of events at Concordia University in Mointreal back some years ago, involving a student uprising in protest against Israeli politician, Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the school. There was a documentary made about the whole affair and the terible reprisals, establishment suppression of all religious expression on campus and other fucked up reactionary bulshit. The documentary is called Discordia and I'd reccomend it to any one, anyway Mate was vice president of the Concordia Student Union at the time of the protests and I guess that since then he got a job working for Democracy Now. So it was a plesant surprise to get to meet him, I think he figured it was kind of cool that someone random recognised him for what he's done. I've had it happen when I was younger and still making film and reading publically, it's kind of an ego boost anyway it was a treat for me, he was one of the people from that documentary whom I felt the most for.

so that was my weekend. I got home last night from the gig and put four hours into a version of the zine that's fit for the recycling heap but I'm not upset as I might sound. The thing that buggs me the most is that outside my room right now is a full blown kegg party and I've got work in the morning. I'll probably be able to swing it with no real problem but it's kind of annoying. ever since I went straight edge I havn't been the house party sort. I would rather watch a few movies with friends or fo to a show... better yet play a show...

...I should start playing open mics

in this installment Chris Rooney bitches about losing his shit

Man am I glad that my day ended up getting better than it began. I know the title of this entry promises that I'm going to complain about having a crappy day but I'm kind of over that actually. Yah my day was pretty aggravating and I got shit all done except whining and stressing out over un important junk but it's really kind of cool how some people you can just talk to and it makes life better. I talked to my friend Brigit out on the Island and I'm not sure quite what it is, maybe just the way she is as a person but it's really nice and kind of grounding to talk with her. Also I talked to my Dad. I love talking with my Dad because we are both editors and writers so we can talk shop. He's going to e-mail me a bunch of photos of the Kootenays soon, I'm going to maybe do the Christmass issue on environmentalism.

hose pictures I took last night are great. I'm going to start re-sizing them tonight and putting words over top of them now that I got out of my shift at Spartacus and skipped my union meeting things are not so bad. I just needed a day to myself to rest up and take it easy. Tomorrow I hope to get my laundry done and find some good winter boots, maybe a solid pair of steel-toes. I havn't had a good pair of steel-toes in years. My last ones lasted me three years and then the leather started to break because I didn't take care of them. I'm going to have to learn how to treat boots right because this isn't something one should have to do more than a few times in ones life.

I'm actually really glad that it rained today, even though it sucked to be out in it it's always nice to sit in doors and write while the weather outside sucks.

I was giving my travel diary a glance a few days ago, perhaps I should think about typing it out and doing something with it. That pilgrimage I did this past summer was really something else and I was writing the whole time.

oh well, another rainy day perhaps?

City at night

I went out after work and took photos of the Downtown East Side tonight for the zine. I'm going to load them to my photobucket account soon and post some here. I'm really excited, this is going to be a really rad issue.

tired, I've been pulling a lot of late nights. Last night I got a lot of sleep though. I find that I get caught up with internet stuff and loose track of time. Perhaps limiting my online time would be a good thing to do. I'm sick of going to bed so late.

meh.

more tomorrow.

I have the next two days off.

2007 Slingshot Organizers are here!

2007 Slingshot Organizers are here!

Once again Black Cat offers you the best radical Organizer and daytimer available! Organize your life, your activism, your pleasure and your parties with these highly-informative books!

The 2007 Organizer comes in two sizes!

The pocket version "classic" is a 160 page pocket planner (4.25 inches X 5.5 inches) with radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, menstrual calendar, info on police repression, extra note pages, plus much more. Choose from a world record 51 cover colours printed with either black or silver ink (depending on how dark the paper stock is - you get to pick the cover colour, not the ink color).

The large-size desk calendar version is bound with a spiral wire binding and is twice the size of the "classic" pocket organizer (5.5 inches X 8.5 inches) with twice as much space to write all the events in your life. It is 160 pages. It has similar contents to the classic: radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, menstrual calendar, info on police repression, extra note pages, plus much more. You also get some bonus stuff in the spiral version. The spiral version is available in 16 colours printed with either black or silver ink (depending on now dark the paper stock is). BONUS: This year the Spiral Organizer cover is LAMINATED with heavy duty 3 mil glossy plastic to help it survive the year.

Check out all the cover colours at http://slingshot.tao.ca/organizer.php. When ordering please tell us your first, second and third choices in case we've run out of what you want.

Black Cat is the official Canadian Slingshot mail-order distributor!

Prices (all prices listed include postage)

Pocket-size Organizer

single copies - $10
2 copies - $18
3 copies - $25
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10 copies - $75

Larger-size Organizer

single copies are $16
2 copies - $30
3 copies - $42
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5 copies - $65
10 copies - $120

Canadian orders are payable in Cdn. dollars, U.S. orders are payable in U.S. dollars. For overseas orders please write us for a price quote.

To order, send a cheque or money order (an "International Money Order" if you're outside of Canada) or well-concealed cash to:

Black Cat Distro
P.O. Box 229
Roberts Creek, BC
V0N 2W0 Canada

For more information or to check the status of your order email <blackcat@resist.ca>

hot damn!

So the city of Vancouver has some serious explaining to do when it comes to road safety on bike streets.

I decided to take an alternate route home from work today (up Cyprus to Ridgeway and east to my home) and I was going a pretty good clip up Cyprus when this car came up in the opposite direction. It was really dark and most of that bike route has very inadequate street lighting. Anyway I took my bike closer to the curb to get out of the car's path when I started riding through something. At first I thought it was a big puddle and I put on my breaks to slow myself down, but as I flew over my handlebars I realised that the something I had hit wasn't a puddle at all but a very long and rather large pile leaves brushed into the gutters by some rich folk's ladscaping service; I hadn't even seen it until I was flying headlong into it.

The woman who had been driving towards me was kind enough to stop and call an ambulance as I was seriously scared that I had broken or dislocated my knee from the fall. As she dialled another driver came past and lucky me, the other driver was pre-med. She sat with me and asked me various first aid questions as we waited for the ambulence to arrive.

By the time the paramedics showed up it was apparent to me that I had neither broken or dislocated anything, I was able to walk without pain so the ambulence guys drove off to more urgent cases and I got back on my bike and rode more cautiously through the monster houses and the dark poorly lit streets until I got to 37th and was back in the land of street lamps.

This event has me really steamed up. The City of Vancouver, such as it is, has a responsability to it's citizens and to their safety on the public roads. Many people who commute by bike do it because they can't afford to operate a car and still live with any level of reasonable comfort. Still more of them ride because they can't afford public transit or because they don't have homes. No one should have to buy things like good bike lights if they can't afford to and the City has an obligation to the safety of all commuters, including people who can't shell out the money for bike lighting.

Don't get me wrong here, I personally can afford to buy a light and I'm damn well going to have to because this city isn't going to fix the problem unless someone runs over the premier while he's biking at night. This problem is bigger than me, indeed it should concern us all. road safety is important, God forbid someone else does a header into a pile of leaves on an unlit city street only to discover a broken bottle or a couple of used needles hidden amongst the leaves.

Many bike stores give out reflectors for free. If this city were honestly concerned with the wellbeing of more than it's wealthiest and the most docile, then street lighting would be such that front, rear, and wheel reflectors would be all one would need to ensure proper safety on public bike routes.

man that buggs me, but thank God I can still walk.

my internets connection: now with 50% more reliability

wich basically I now theoretically have internet in the house. this is theoretically because the wireless signal is pretty weak in my room. I am thinking about finding a cable modem and just plugging into the wall because the house wireless connection is prone to cutting out and it only really works well when my neighbour's wireless network is on as well to suppliment the signal.

things progress well out here. I'm happy that I now have a modicum of controll over the crappy wireless connection and I have a new bed, one which doesn't mangle my back. It's raining, I wish it were foggy and not raining. I want to go for a bike ride but not in this deluge. maybe I'll get my shit together enough to buy proper rain gear for bicycling. I am also in the unenviable position of having to find a way to afford winter boots and pay down a loan from my mom on a second hand photocopier.

that's right I'm going indy! I'm getting a xerox machine to start a zine press and hopefully break close to even therefore making it possible to print the Christian Radical for free and avoid asshole printshop owners. Of course this is the dream. I might discover to my horror that printing zines myself will become a horrible money pit that will only destroy me and keep me in crippling poverty.

Only time will tell.

I went to Divine Liturgy at Saint Nina's Orthodox mission here in Vancouver this morning. I am friends with the priest of the mission and one of my close friends also goes there regularly. It's a nice place, it's a congregation which began as the Orthodox Chaplaincy at UBC so it's small young and very theologically educated all of these things are great things to have in a parish. There's also a girl there I'd like to get to know better...

Orthodox mass is a really beautiful thing to participate in. there are no hymns, rather the entire liturgy except the creed is chanted by the whole congregation so in a way the whole mass is one big song. It also has many elements in common with the Old Catholic liturgy.

They have Holy Vespers on Saturday nights followed by discussion, I went last night and was really amazed to find a place where people are actually discussing theology on their own time and in an inteligent and inclusive way.

I think I'll be going to that fairly regularly.

PASSIONATE EYE SHOWCASE
(Sunday October 8 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)
NOT IN OUR NAME
There is no question that the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 changed the face of America. It not only created a climate of fear of future attacks, but also a fear of speaking out against the U.S. government's policies and the mass media's representation of the facts. Not In Our Name explores the state of opposition to the war in Iraq, through the voices of the leaders of the anti-war movement, and its growing supporters.
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_081006.html

PASSIONATE EYE SHOWCASE
(Sunday October 8 at 11pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)
SIR! NO, SIR!
The Vietnam War has been the subject of numerous films, but the story of the rebellion by thousands of American soldiers has been a well-kept military secret. Using candid interviews from Vietnam War veterans and never-before-seen archival footage, Sir! No Sir! reveals the untold story of the GI Movement.
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_081006_2.html

Carleen Pickard
BC-Yukon Regional Organizer, Council of Canadians
#700-207 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7
(Toll free)1.888.566.3888 or (Phone) 604.688.8846
(Fax) 604.688.5756 www.canadians.org
Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada's largest citizens' organization, with members and chapters across the country. If you believe that our social programs and public services should be strengthened, not privatized; that our foreign and trade policies should be independent, not subservient to the United States; and that our water and natural resources should be protected, not exploited, please join us as a member.

the moving continues!

so I've got most of my stuff into my new place. I'll be here for the next six months at the least, maybe longer but my lease is for six months. my room mates seem like good folk though I don't have internet of my own for a little while yet, I've spoken with my landlord about going in on wireless for he, myself and one other person, I hope to get that asap. Until then it's all about finding free wireless cafees and hot spots.

un packing is fun, I like my new room. also Sun Ra is terriffic