it is a well hot day today here, you can't even stand out in the sun for too long, forcing me to cut short my digging up of weeds in my new little allotment plot. when i got it on monday (for free!) the groundslady was pretty skeptical about whether i would be able to grow anythign this late in the year, but we (me and tess, my co plotter) are thinking that some herbs will be hardy enough to survive the winter outside, and maybe also some pumpkins. i just have to work out how much manure and stuff to put on and where and when, and we are off. people in the plots next to us are growing peppers, tomatos, broccoli and all sorts of great things.
it is almost totally silent down on the allotments, which is a mindcalming change from the last few days, which have been mega hectic. as part of my UC and the bomb class, we had to do a 'creative project', either direct action, education or long term planning. so me and this girl raquel were the only ones that wanted to do DA, and decided to tie it in with a meeting of the regents, who are the uni of california's top brass (who will earn $$$ from contracts with weapons labs) and responsible for all sorts of social and environmental evils, aswell as being completely unnacountable and deaf to the students wishes. so on friday i visited raquel's turquoise camper van (there is a camper van park at the top of campus which seems the most ethical and community based living arrangement on campus, plus well cheap) to spray paint some masks and banners with 'UC nuke free' etc on them. while i was there this guy came who had been diving for like massive oysters (can't remember what they are called here) and would we like some? so we ate these oysters or whatever in fajitas with avacado and loads of salad and stuff, was delicious. they all cook communily there all the time and even have a communal BBQ, which is a far cry from the sterilised canteens that i have to eat in.
and we also went to a couple of tedious, frustrating meetings about the PLAN for what we were going to do when the regents came (first time in 12 years or something) which culminated in us deciding that we there were too many variables (viz no. or police, location, numbers of people, willingness of people to be human shields etc) to actually make a plan, so we all went home.
then the next day about 2 or 300 of us massed and marched to the building the regents were due to meet in. i had forgotten how much i feel at home in the demo situation. the idea was to not let them get into the building to have their meeting, because each person in the meeting only had 30 seconds to speak and the regents didn't listen anyway. the regents would be silenced liek we are silenced when it comes to their decision making. so we arrive at the building, everyone ( making lots of noise, and there are some speakers, then we hear the regents haven't arrived yet, which is good news, so we go to all the doors of the buildings but, alas, on one of the doors the police came and formed a human shield so the regents slipped in and we had missed our chance. so everyone grouped together and had more speakers, then everyone decided to not let them out of the building, so we formed a human shield around the building for a while, linked arms, but nothing seemed to be happening and everyone was sort of milling then the new plan was to just group up around all the doors, which we did, and then out comes a couple of coppers with the regents! so arms lock tight and a copper pushes me and shouts at me to get out of the way and i say 'no officer' and the wall stays strong and they retreat. the regents look passive, or try and pretend to be slightly amused by the situation (there are 4 of them here at this point, 2 more have got away). then everyone expects them to try to get out a different door, but 5 minutes later one of the regents, a bit tall grey haired man comes out like he has just been like 'a bunch of students cant stop me', and again it was me and my mate richie who were quick enough to get infront of them and then everyone linked onto us and the fucking regent leans down to me (he is very tall) and he is like 'excuse me, but i have a kid to be picked up from kindergarten' and i say to him 'well mate, if you are going to involve yourself in these types of things you are going to have to face the consequences' and he shoves me a bit more then they retreat again. but then the cops try and forcibly push us all out, waving batons, and riche gets pulled to the ground by 2 coppers and his tshirt gets ripped but then a mob of people drag him away from the cops, but then suddenly everythign has turned ugly and this girl adele, a slight build african-american anarchist was being dragged along the floor by a load of cops, so everyone dives in to try and grab her back but the cops drag her into the building, but keep the door open, and so a load of us charge at the door, and it is almost like a rugby scrum with 3 lines of cops and about 7 lines of protesters (i assumed the scrum position) pushing, and we were getting the better of it, and they were being forced back and back and we were screaming 'LET THEM GO! LET THEM GO!' and the cops started screaming GET BACK! GET BACK! and then BANG out come the extended batons and they start smacking people at the front, so a few people fall back and suddenly i am right eyeball to eyeball with this screaming copper and i am screaming at him and he is being pushed back and this lasts about 4 seconds until a shithead cop behind the cop i was pushing against gets out his mace and for a second i think 'wow, the line of the mace looks beautiful' and then suddenly i can't see and my whole face is burning like never before and i struggle back from the crowd and try and get some water in my eyes, and then people and cameras are crowding round and about 6 of us have been maced and suddenly all the energy has gone out of the demo because people are SCARED and shocked by everything.
so the mace really really hurt, it got in my contact lenses so i had to take them out which hurt even more, then someone in a suit brought a bucket of ice and there were terse thank yous and then suddenly i was feeling pretty chuffed that i had actually had a scuffle with an all-american cop and he had chicked out and pepper sprayed me. then eveyone was shouting 'calm down, calm down' and everyone sat down and discussed what to do next. most people were concerned for the 3 people dragged into the building by the cops, but then there was word that they had brought in riot police from berkeley (san francisco) who were massing in a nearby carpark. and then everyone really got quite scared and, to cut a long story short, a deal was done whereby we agreed to let out the 2 remaining regents peacefully and then our friends would not be arrested, only 'cited' (fined). soon after i couldn't see anything and was pissed off that noone wanted to continue to fight (surely the people arrested would not have wanted us to just give up, and be forced to bargain witht he cops, because we had the upper hand adn they were still inside!) and a few of us said we wanted to continue a sit down protest but everyone was like 'no you are jeapordising the safety of our friends!' and i was like 'this has shown that the regents don't listen, they just call in the physical authority of the state, this is the pivotal moment!' and everyone thoguht i was being stupid and insensitive, except richie who agreed. so we took a peek at the riot cops then i went to collect my long board (that isn't mine), IT HAD BEEN STOLEN, but just cos all the abovew had happened and i was still feeling a bit shaky i barely thought 'oh shit' and just walked home in silence (my MP3 player broke the other day when i crashed on aformentioned long board)
then yesterday it turned out i was on the front page of the santa cruz sentinal (http://www.santacruzphotogallery.com/gallery/protest) having my eyes washed out after being maced, with richie in the other photo (of the guy sprawled out among cops). Then in the evening i had my UC an the bomb class where most people thought the action was a bad thing! we had a heated but reasoned debate but i was very sad at the general attitude of the students. the thing is, the protest was a natural reaction to everyone being silenced and denied the right to be heard, so OBVIOUSLY people are going to be angry, and whatever happens after that is the collective decision fo the group, and if all these pacifist ney sayers had been there, and there were 2000 people instead of 200 then maybe things would have been different, but you just can't stay at home and then tell everyone after what SHOULD have happened. but we were accused of being a mob and fighting for the said of fighting and what were we going to achieve anywya? the sting int he tail is that one of the girls arrested has been charged with an offence that coudl put her in prison 'battery of a police officer', and she coudl be expelled, so all the people who wanted to negotiate with the cops have been sold down the river like they were alwasy going to be.
but met some proper anarchist types who have promised to show me to sights (but were well secretive). apparently most of the good punk shows happen in houses rather than venues, which is cool too.
the reason i had a long board not a bike htat got stolen is another annoying thing- we did our usual guerilla cinema then music on the beach thing on friday, met some people but then i got a puncture so we went back to this girls house to try and fix it, but she didn't have the right type of pump, so she gave me her longboard so max could tow me to the bus stop and i left my bike there, but when i went back the next day to pick it up i couldn't for the life if me remember where her hosue was, because i was too pissed the night before to pay any attention to where i was.... so until next friday (if they come to guerilla cinema again) i am bikeless, and have to explain to her that i got her longboard stolen... shit.
only other big happenings of the week is that i have been allowed to move out, with no excess fees or anything (except $80 for the keys i lost), in a couple of weeks. this is really good news, gets me out of the campus bubble, cooking my own food, chilling with wider cross section of people, allowed to play music in my own space, cheaper, own room, garden, bike to the beach before breakfast etc etc. i went to visit last night, there were loads of people there (even though only 4 other people live there) and it was all quite rowdy, but i think that will make a nice and exciting change from here, even though i will probably get a lot less work done. they have huge plants everywhere, one of them is into jigsaws, they make homemade lemon and ginger ice tea and have a cat called parker (i hope the namesake of the thunderbirds character). everything there is just much more like a home and less like a hotel. my flatmates were ok when i broke the news to them- giancarlo already knew (was probably part of the decision making process), edmund pretend not to hear me and i had told max earlier, so all ok. max is thinking of putting in a tranfer request to a different room too, i don't blame him.
i am off to santa barbara for the weekend, 4 hours south (and HOT apparently) for a conference about nukes, there is a woman from yorkshire CND speaking i think which is quite funny. hope it is not another talking shop waste of time, but from the people i know who are going i don't think it will be. but i need to eat before i go- got a taco in the fridge- so will go.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Thursday
i am on another one of those literal losing streaks. in the past week i have lost my keys, my drum hoodie, my notebook, 2 pens and a pouch of baccy. the keys cost 80 bucks to replace! bastards. it is so frustrating, and i feel like as soon as i mission to find one thing i lose something else.
was vaguely searching the web for alternative living arrangements and came upon a house with a 'small room with big windows' that was only 450 a month (instead of 680 which i am paying to SHARE A ROOM with 2 other people) so i decided to go full swing to try and move out. but guess what? i have signed a contract saying i HAVE TO STAY on campus ALL YEAR unless i can prove i have suddenly become poor, or ill, or expelled. which is fucking bollocks. even if you have a morgage you can get out of it within a year. you could get out whenever you wanted at dinwiddy. BASTARDS. the more i find out (or rub up against) this university, the more it seems like a shitty corporation, which essentially i think it is.
so i went to visit the house that only costs $450 a month and WOW it is amazing! it is hard to find becuase it is surrounded by trees, it has a porch with a sofa, then a dog, a cat, a piano that belongs to the house, front and back garden, lots of instruments and 3 undeniably beautiful girls (and one not so beautiful girl) who are looking for a male roommate 'incase any shit goes down'. my room is about the same size as my room in dinwiddy, but with one of those raised (1 1/2 size) beds so there is quite alot of floor space. all the residents were well chilled, all in education, they 'try to limit parties to weekends', blaze and, judging by the short amount of time i was there, eat lots of avacados. and they liked me enough to offer me the room there an then, which i was chuffed about. so big emphasis on getting out of halls if at all possible. i think i upset max though, i told him earlier today that iw as thinking about moving out and he seemed quite sad (i would be well sad if he moved out- the people left don't even really add up to one persons worth of friendship) and then i got a call about htis house and went to see it straight away, btu couldn't be like 'yeah im off to view this house' cos my other flatmates were there and i wouldnt like to not be able to move out then have to live with them knowing that i want to. when i got back just now he was asleep, and we were due to go jam togehter so i woke him up and he didn't seem very happy and just went back to sleep instead of coming to jam. i will apologise and explain in the morning. also in the morning i am going to go and state my financial hardship case to the powers that be. i have put together a mostly truthful compelling case that can be backed up with mostly truthful evidence but after that night spent on york station platform i don't trust anyone in authority to trust or believe me.
perfect example of the climate of fear that is all around here: when people do their laundry(the room is right outside my front door) they sit and wait for it to be done, even though they live a minute away, incase it gets stolen, even though the washing machine doors lock!!!
the naked run happened two nights ago, it wasn't when i thought it was before. it was actually really brilliant- at one point there were at least a few hundred people, all running right around the campus which is quite big. a few people from my classes were on it, and i feel that has broken the ice a bit. unfortunately max didn't come, he was dillying and dallying and in the end i just had to go without him, but he was a bit annoyed at himself for not doing it in the end i think. i got cold after a while and went back and put some clothes on, then heard there was to be a drum circle, so took my sax, and when i got there it was indeed a drum circle but a naked drum circle, with everyone huddled close togehter and dancing. there was a girl there from my jazz class and so we had a bit of a duet to the drums. then someone came round with white body paint. there were some 'militant' naked people on the run who shouted at all the bystanders to join in, and occasionally one would go up and hug someone and they would run away or scream. it was justified i guess, because people were gawping and taking photos, but aswell it is sort of elitist in a way, like 'i dare to take all my clothes off and you have loads of inibitions and i feel great and you don't even know how great and liberated i feel', which is entirely against the spirit of it. but i guess it only matters which stance gets more people joining in.
went to san francisco on sunday and monday to watch a free bluegrass festival called 'hardly strictly bluegrass'. it was in a massive park in the centre of the city with 5 big stages, one called the 'porch stage' and anothe rthe 'rooster stage', and saw some great music. a guitar player who played bass, rhythm and lead and great political lyrics all at the same time can't remember his name, then elvis costello, looking cool, then bob weir from the grateful dead playing grateful dead songs. i had never heard grateful dead before but apparently they were huge. loads of people here have tshirts of them. i had only eaten 2 bananas and some cereal all day and i fell asleep whilst everyone danced around me. it was good though. they played electric guitar solos on an acoustic guitar.
we stayed at max's friend aileen's flat at san francisco state uni (they have a university wide network of unis called UC that i go to one of, then each state has its own uni aswell), where some people dress up as somethign every day (we saw a doctor, a 20s frenchman or something, 2 nurses and loads of people who looked like the most stereotypical hip hop pin ups constantly adjusting the ridiculous position of their caps). we travelled with a russian girl called anna who lives nearby who ha other friends at the uni, one of whom turned out to be a poet, and who spoke over the Mbira and talked of feeling lost but being ok. anna says in russia they call newly arrived immigrants as 'FOBS', 'fresh off the boats', and share with them a collective hate of rich persians.
on sunday night max took me on a huge badly planned mission around the whole bay area to try and catch thetrain to go home,- the train left from near where we were, but he took us to the furthest connection on the other side of the city, and we missed all the connections. we hadn't eaten all day and ended up stuck in the middle of industrial zonage just outside the city, but then we took a deep breath and found a fajita shop and then took a long walk in a random part of the city, midnight coffee and doughnuts and then back to san fran state with apologies.
i have met a guy in a punk band from LA who wants to bring his band and play a gig here, so i am going to try and put a night on and raise some of the £4200 judith and mariah need for school fees (a IT college in Holloway) so they can get a good chance of a full 2 year visa and good chances of ok employment after. i don't really know if being deported will affect their chances of getting a visa, but the website www.joskos.co.uk (i think) promises 'employment in the field within 6 months or your money back' and also offer help with visa applications. they specialise in foreign students i think. the band sound cool and thrashy but i havne't the first idea how to market a punk gig here. i havne't even been to one since i got here, even though there are loads going on. maybe something for next term.
oh! this morning i woke up to my first shoot from the seeds lauren gave me; it is tiny but there none the less. it has two mini leaves. someone gave me a basil plant on tuesday when i enquired where she got it. it was looking a bit yellow and ill, and still is, but i think it just needed some love.
in my Uc and the Bomb lecture (for which i had a presentation today that went quite well- all about Bechtel Corp and influence of big business on US nuclear policy aswell as project for new american century and all that ) we have to do a 'creative project' to get a good grade, and from about 20 people we had to split into groups to do either 'education, long term planning or direct action'. there were only 2 of us who wanted to do direct action! and all my proposals were met with an arkward silence, either they didn't understand me or thought i was being too radical. but they didn't say ;your being too radical' they just sort of sidestepped what is aid. and my ideas weren't even that bad, just stuff like having loud noises of war (bombs, planes etc) in the regents (managing board) meeting, or doing a sit in of the stage or a die in or whatever. so we are just going to fuck about wearing masks and handing out flyers and writing letters.
tonight alice showed me the hidden away studios, and played me some the tunes she is making. she has a truly exceptional voice, and can write much better tunes and words than i expected. got a bit of confidence back playing clarinet with her, you really don't have to do much to make the clarinet sound beautiful with piano, and it put into perspective all the worry i have about being substandard and not progressing musically. but anyway, going to try and record a song a month. i have even found a nice female vocalist (it is hard asking someone who already sings so well like alice to sing my songs, cos i always feel like they could just be singing their own songs instead).
ok, enough rambling. my flatmate edmund has been bitching about how the kitchen is 'always messy' and makes a point of washing up things i have alredy washed up up when i get in to make a point. so now i am going to wash up a bit.
was vaguely searching the web for alternative living arrangements and came upon a house with a 'small room with big windows' that was only 450 a month (instead of 680 which i am paying to SHARE A ROOM with 2 other people) so i decided to go full swing to try and move out. but guess what? i have signed a contract saying i HAVE TO STAY on campus ALL YEAR unless i can prove i have suddenly become poor, or ill, or expelled. which is fucking bollocks. even if you have a morgage you can get out of it within a year. you could get out whenever you wanted at dinwiddy. BASTARDS. the more i find out (or rub up against) this university, the more it seems like a shitty corporation, which essentially i think it is.
so i went to visit the house that only costs $450 a month and WOW it is amazing! it is hard to find becuase it is surrounded by trees, it has a porch with a sofa, then a dog, a cat, a piano that belongs to the house, front and back garden, lots of instruments and 3 undeniably beautiful girls (and one not so beautiful girl) who are looking for a male roommate 'incase any shit goes down'. my room is about the same size as my room in dinwiddy, but with one of those raised (1 1/2 size) beds so there is quite alot of floor space. all the residents were well chilled, all in education, they 'try to limit parties to weekends', blaze and, judging by the short amount of time i was there, eat lots of avacados. and they liked me enough to offer me the room there an then, which i was chuffed about. so big emphasis on getting out of halls if at all possible. i think i upset max though, i told him earlier today that iw as thinking about moving out and he seemed quite sad (i would be well sad if he moved out- the people left don't even really add up to one persons worth of friendship) and then i got a call about htis house and went to see it straight away, btu couldn't be like 'yeah im off to view this house' cos my other flatmates were there and i wouldnt like to not be able to move out then have to live with them knowing that i want to. when i got back just now he was asleep, and we were due to go jam togehter so i woke him up and he didn't seem very happy and just went back to sleep instead of coming to jam. i will apologise and explain in the morning. also in the morning i am going to go and state my financial hardship case to the powers that be. i have put together a mostly truthful compelling case that can be backed up with mostly truthful evidence but after that night spent on york station platform i don't trust anyone in authority to trust or believe me.
perfect example of the climate of fear that is all around here: when people do their laundry(the room is right outside my front door) they sit and wait for it to be done, even though they live a minute away, incase it gets stolen, even though the washing machine doors lock!!!
the naked run happened two nights ago, it wasn't when i thought it was before. it was actually really brilliant- at one point there were at least a few hundred people, all running right around the campus which is quite big. a few people from my classes were on it, and i feel that has broken the ice a bit. unfortunately max didn't come, he was dillying and dallying and in the end i just had to go without him, but he was a bit annoyed at himself for not doing it in the end i think. i got cold after a while and went back and put some clothes on, then heard there was to be a drum circle, so took my sax, and when i got there it was indeed a drum circle but a naked drum circle, with everyone huddled close togehter and dancing. there was a girl there from my jazz class and so we had a bit of a duet to the drums. then someone came round with white body paint. there were some 'militant' naked people on the run who shouted at all the bystanders to join in, and occasionally one would go up and hug someone and they would run away or scream. it was justified i guess, because people were gawping and taking photos, but aswell it is sort of elitist in a way, like 'i dare to take all my clothes off and you have loads of inibitions and i feel great and you don't even know how great and liberated i feel', which is entirely against the spirit of it. but i guess it only matters which stance gets more people joining in.
went to san francisco on sunday and monday to watch a free bluegrass festival called 'hardly strictly bluegrass'. it was in a massive park in the centre of the city with 5 big stages, one called the 'porch stage' and anothe rthe 'rooster stage', and saw some great music. a guitar player who played bass, rhythm and lead and great political lyrics all at the same time can't remember his name, then elvis costello, looking cool, then bob weir from the grateful dead playing grateful dead songs. i had never heard grateful dead before but apparently they were huge. loads of people here have tshirts of them. i had only eaten 2 bananas and some cereal all day and i fell asleep whilst everyone danced around me. it was good though. they played electric guitar solos on an acoustic guitar.
we stayed at max's friend aileen's flat at san francisco state uni (they have a university wide network of unis called UC that i go to one of, then each state has its own uni aswell), where some people dress up as somethign every day (we saw a doctor, a 20s frenchman or something, 2 nurses and loads of people who looked like the most stereotypical hip hop pin ups constantly adjusting the ridiculous position of their caps). we travelled with a russian girl called anna who lives nearby who ha other friends at the uni, one of whom turned out to be a poet, and who spoke over the Mbira and talked of feeling lost but being ok. anna says in russia they call newly arrived immigrants as 'FOBS', 'fresh off the boats', and share with them a collective hate of rich persians.
on sunday night max took me on a huge badly planned mission around the whole bay area to try and catch thetrain to go home,- the train left from near where we were, but he took us to the furthest connection on the other side of the city, and we missed all the connections. we hadn't eaten all day and ended up stuck in the middle of industrial zonage just outside the city, but then we took a deep breath and found a fajita shop and then took a long walk in a random part of the city, midnight coffee and doughnuts and then back to san fran state with apologies.
i have met a guy in a punk band from LA who wants to bring his band and play a gig here, so i am going to try and put a night on and raise some of the £4200 judith and mariah need for school fees (a IT college in Holloway) so they can get a good chance of a full 2 year visa and good chances of ok employment after. i don't really know if being deported will affect their chances of getting a visa, but the website www.joskos.co.uk (i think) promises 'employment in the field within 6 months or your money back' and also offer help with visa applications. they specialise in foreign students i think. the band sound cool and thrashy but i havne't the first idea how to market a punk gig here. i havne't even been to one since i got here, even though there are loads going on. maybe something for next term.
oh! this morning i woke up to my first shoot from the seeds lauren gave me; it is tiny but there none the less. it has two mini leaves. someone gave me a basil plant on tuesday when i enquired where she got it. it was looking a bit yellow and ill, and still is, but i think it just needed some love.
in my Uc and the Bomb lecture (for which i had a presentation today that went quite well- all about Bechtel Corp and influence of big business on US nuclear policy aswell as project for new american century and all that ) we have to do a 'creative project' to get a good grade, and from about 20 people we had to split into groups to do either 'education, long term planning or direct action'. there were only 2 of us who wanted to do direct action! and all my proposals were met with an arkward silence, either they didn't understand me or thought i was being too radical. but they didn't say ;your being too radical' they just sort of sidestepped what is aid. and my ideas weren't even that bad, just stuff like having loud noises of war (bombs, planes etc) in the regents (managing board) meeting, or doing a sit in of the stage or a die in or whatever. so we are just going to fuck about wearing masks and handing out flyers and writing letters.
tonight alice showed me the hidden away studios, and played me some the tunes she is making. she has a truly exceptional voice, and can write much better tunes and words than i expected. got a bit of confidence back playing clarinet with her, you really don't have to do much to make the clarinet sound beautiful with piano, and it put into perspective all the worry i have about being substandard and not progressing musically. but anyway, going to try and record a song a month. i have even found a nice female vocalist (it is hard asking someone who already sings so well like alice to sing my songs, cos i always feel like they could just be singing their own songs instead).
ok, enough rambling. my flatmate edmund has been bitching about how the kitchen is 'always messy' and makes a point of washing up things i have alredy washed up up when i get in to make a point. so now i am going to wash up a bit.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
attached
it was 'first rain' here (of the autumn), when generally people here go running naked. about 9pm there was a big siren that went off, but i didn't go to it. i was busy. tit is getting quite chilly here, more so than i thought. the forest smells so different and lovely now though.
the most productive things i have done all week are buy a bike, some honey to go with my frozen yoghurt, and done an hour of volunteer work for the food coop. i was like 'can i volunteer for the coop?' and the girl was like 'take out the trash' and then 'sweep up' and then 'do the washing up' i was well chuffed. who says anarchists never take the bin out?
had a pretty great night the other night. it was friday, and me and max both had bikes (i got a bike!) for the first evening and we were going to head down to the guerilla cinema then maybe jam on the beach, so strapped sax to back and rode off, but didn't get far before saw man with drum, so had a jam with him, then a adrenaline pumping ride down a long fast hill(at loeast 2 or 3 km) with no lights int he pitch black and cars whizzing by. then i tried to use my fake national railcard id to buy some wine, didn't work, so we went into the safeway car park, got out instruments, and played until a random norwegian guy came and agreed to buy us some wine. then down the train tracks to the cinema, it was 10pm by now and it was meant to start at 8, but you know what anarchists wer elike, and we were just in time for the beginning of the feature, called 'life and debt', all about the IMF and WTO effects on jamaica. it was really eye opening; ever time i hear about the IMF i remember how TOTALLY and holistically they fuck over countries and leave them with no options. it was done by starting off with US tourists and it took you through their bubble existence and then would spin off to the issues, so the tourist eats a banana and it goes off on one about how the banana trade has been destroyed etc etc. but some intense images- beautiful milk being poured down the drain by the gallons because of US subsidised powdered milk (the us subsidise it 134%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) whilst down the road rastafarians go through the open cast rubbish.
an old bearded man called 'the mule skinner' started talking to us, i think primarily because we had some wine, and he had some weed (i had left mine at home by accident) so all were happy. he told us stories like a proper american, "i was the fastest mule skinner north of santa rosa", and i was like 'are you a travellin' man?" and he was like 'ahhh, i need to git me a mule, then we can go up to the north country! hahaha i ain't never left here before" and then for ages when he figured i was english he was like "hahahahahaha!!! you from eeengland!!! hahaha, well ain't that something". all this time most of the people watching the film could hear him, and i am sure were getting pretty pissed off with him, so eventually iwas like lets go to the beach after this and talk but now lets watch the film etc etc and then another hobo came called bruce, and when the film finished (i woudl really recommend the film) me, max and bruce went to the nearest beach (one straight road away) nd by now i was rushing and excited by the sea and sang a song abotu the sea
and bruce got int he spirit and sang along, and then had some really lovely (but slightly impatient) moments playing the sax loud to the sea and dodging waves whilst still playing, was amazing, then max played some gypsyish guitar and i danced and realised i hadn't dance for ages and had missed it without knowing and then we spoke, and then we were meant to be meeting one of maxs friends who had a beach hut and was a having a bit of a do and he rang them and they were heading to another beach up the coast, but bruce knew wehre it was, and then i was like 'so are you coming bruce?' and he was like 'do you feel comfortable me coming?' and i was like 'well, ofcourse i do, cos we are having a great time, and so does max, but we both know that when we get there the preppy punks who are there weill be like 'who is that hobo?' and might not be top class' and he was like 'yes... i know when to say goodnight' and he was going to take us fishing and we said goodbye. then we headed int he direction we were told, biking and feeling free on the quiet coast road and then this stupid 4 by 4 drove past and someone shouted out of the window 'I LOVE YOU!' and i shouted back 'GET A SMALLER CAR!" and then we chased the car and then we lost it and then it was behind us again and it stopped and we asked them where X beach was and they were like 'do you want a riattade?' and so we put our bikes in their ample boot and got in. and anyway it turns out these people are sort of in a way the people i have been waiting to meet for a while- one of them was JUST LIKE commie cath, looked like her and was an artist but younger and less cynical and without a cackle. and can't remember the names of her two friends but anyway, they were all about telling everyone they met that they were beautiful and went on 'vision quests' where they go out into the desert and fast and have thoughts, and live in a buddhist commune (which has space and is really cheap and is close to campus...) and have medical cards for medicinal amrajuina and it was lovely chilling with them on the beach etc. we went for a spontanious naked swim!! and long chats. but even in that situation i was a bit cynical with all their hippie chatter, not that i doidn't agree with an of it, but i dunno, i guess maybe i am just more conciouos of all the shit outside (and inside) of the lovely beach town. maybe just anger at myself for being troo politically inert. but anyway, every event of the evening seemed to conspire together to make for a wonderful evening
but then max lost his bike lock so our bikes are still at the beach till his mum mails him the spare! bit of a shitter. we were meant to go today but he didn't pick up his mail in time.
on friday daytime i had made a 'decoupage flowerpot' (i think decoupage is the act of sticking things together with half pvc glue, half water) out of an old big tin can and a few copies of the new yorker and other papers. then put the paper-with-seeds-in that lauren gave me in the pot, and soil, and poked some holes int he bottom, and now i am just waiting for flowers
but anyway, i digress. the people we met on friday invited us to a birthday party near campus for the next day.. got there, and was treated like a wierd smelly party crasher by the people int he room that opened the door to me. was a bit wierd, but then went into the garden where the people who we met the other night were at, and it was really great, met some really top class guys and gals. there was a guy with a tshirt saying 'save dafur' and i asked him 'how would you save dafur' and he said somethign like 'well, the UN won't do anything and the arabs are too unruly to sort themselves out so america should take unilateral action " and i was like 'do you want america to invade dafur" and he said 'well, the word /invade is a /bit troublesome...' and i was like 'are you jewish' and he was like 'yeah and also a zionist'. but at least the conversation was stimulating. i met a guy who i had previously met at a bike coop, and we chatted about music when we met again and then i went and chatted with someone else and sparked a fat spliff, and he tapped me on the shoulder and said 'do you know that gives you cancer?' and wow, i didn't smoke again at the party i got a bit noiad. then later am Mbira jam with 2 beatboxers and 2 really great MCs, possibly the most intelligent, relaxed MCing i have ever heard from this guy who just looked and behaved like a sort of skinny tall george. he rhymed rasputin with disputin'.
adn they had 2 kegs of newcastle brown ale!!!! hahahaha that was all the alcohol there was, great eh? tasted great. but the best thing there was the conversation, it reminded me of how bubbled up campus is;because they were in a stimulated environment the conversation was just so much more significant.
and there was talk of a buhhdist coop just outside the campus, and also two coops in the town, both of which are dirt cheap and have spaces... i think maybe i will move out of my campus bubble at christmas. it is ok here, but i had a bit of a revelation last night remembering that i was here to experience AMERICA aswell as uni life in america, and i have seen plenty of uni life here and it isn't THAT cool, even thoguh it is very beautiful and easy. and i thought if i had the same militant attitude as 2 years ago when i properly was intent on smashing the system then i would be actively seeking out somewhere else than a campus to live on, i would be trying to be in a coop from day one, and i think i have been a bit blinded by convenience here. the only drawbacks to living in the town would be thats its a mission to get into uni every morning and i might do less work, but i will be in a town with a proper social structure not an imposed, artificial one. so i am going to get someone to take me to one i hope. what do you think? it will be difficult to say goodbye to max and a fewothers, but i think he will understand and it makes social if not logistical sense. i was thinknig last night this is my first chance to do the proper alternative living thing, and it has taken so long to be in this position that i have forgot i wanted to do it!
then , sunday, alice and her flatmate tess cooked a delicious sunday dinner. tess's thing was to cook her flatmates sunday dinner back in dublin where she went to uni so it was all carrot and cream cheese, chicken stock, sausages, roasted veggies , apple crumble and cream. tasty to the extreme. it was so nice to eat a meal around a table with good quality food and drink and pride taken in the cooking. then some Mbira with alice, then went home and cleaned the bath (as according to our new cleaning rota, as part of our 'living agreement', where we had to decide by what time of the evenign our chores would be done, and how long we can leave things in the drying area and for fucks sake man, there haven't even been any issues since we got here!!! stupid.)
then practiced john coltrane's mr PC on guitar and clarinet, then went off to the piano at the nearest dining hall but it was pitch black and we didn't have light so we just played in the pitch black improv, not coltrane, and it was going nicely and then these two guys appeared and asked if they could jam, and we said yes, and then a minute later like 8 people came dancing down the stairs, one with a flute and one with a violin, and it was all very dark so we couldn't really see each others faces so i just went over and was well intense with the flute player and she was into it and we swapped ideas and managed IT at times and all the others danced and sang and whooped and max kept banging out the chords on the piano and it was AMAZING!!! and it went on and on.
most common questions people ask me - 'where are you from' england 'which part?' yorkshire... in the north east. and generally peopel don't know ANYWHERE in london except for london and manchester united, so why do they bother asking?.
so that was class, then they had classes int he morning, so did max, but earlier i had given $10 to some people visiting a flat furthur down who worked for UPS to get me some wine. so went to pick it up, and we headed down to the 'meadow', where everyone gathers on a night but where i have never been to yet, and there was noone there cos it was 1am on a sunday, but we sat down, 4 boys and 3 girls who all knew each other and me sort of, and they smoked a BLUNT ala kids and the north bay, and i smoked, and there were only 3 of us smoking and i got SO STONED, like very very stoned, and then we were walking and i was suddenly like 'who the fuck are these people who i am with, i cna't remember what i am doing here at all' and noone was talking to me, and then they did and i was so stoned i could only say yes and no and so they left me alone and i withdrew into muself fast and it was proper all encompassing paranoia but i didn't know where we were and didn't have a torch of my own so i had to stay with them and walk behind them and then left at the first opportunity, but it was HORRIBLE. and then i came back to my flat and fortunately giancarlo had gone to bed, and i really battled hard not to be noiad with my flatmates, and once i had managed to tell them what had happened it was ok and we watched cartoons then slept, but SHIT MAN i was so stoned, i was lying in bed tripping for about an hour. all the signs are pointing to me just stopping smoking (lots of) weed.
and now it is tuesday and another day full of music. jazz today was excellent again, i feel inspired every lesson, but music of india is a bit slow. this evening we had a lecture on 'how to make an atomic bomb' in our UC and the bomb lecture. we are going to los alamos, where they design all the US bombs, to have a look around, should be quite good. someone walked past me outside the music centre in a tshirt with 'ISREALI AIRFORCE' and the crest in big letters on the front.
what is the point of itunes? i only realised recently that when you convert a song on your laptop to itunres format or rip a cd in itunes, it doesn't let you share it freely, and you can only give it to a certain amount of people. what a load of shit!especially at a time when music is becoming freer and freer. why do people not just boycott itunes and use any of the other thousand ways of playing music on cd players, computers and mp3 players and just use MP3s? i guess it is something to do with the aesthetics of the ipod. mayube one day it will be impossible to sell music because it will all be on the internet, so musical artists and groups will have to earn their money by PLAYING music live to people. having said all that, it is possible her (if you have itues) to listen to anyone elses itunes collection in our college who is on the network, which at any one time is massive. that is cool.
so another week has passed by, and i do feel more settled and with purpose. once again there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things i want to do, and i think i prefer it this way. i do want to get off campus more though and meet a more diverse group of people. i am going back to san francisco this coming weekend to a free bluegrass festival, so that will give me a weekend away.
attached is a photo of my three flatmates, from left edmund, giancarlo and max. their expressions are to an extent reflective of their personalities.
it is late.
sam sent me an email about his first throes in Dinwiddy, and i wanted to be there with him. when i read emails sometimes i am back in england.
the most productive things i have done all week are buy a bike, some honey to go with my frozen yoghurt, and done an hour of volunteer work for the food coop. i was like 'can i volunteer for the coop?' and the girl was like 'take out the trash' and then 'sweep up' and then 'do the washing up' i was well chuffed. who says anarchists never take the bin out?
had a pretty great night the other night. it was friday, and me and max both had bikes (i got a bike!) for the first evening and we were going to head down to the guerilla cinema then maybe jam on the beach, so strapped sax to back and rode off, but didn't get far before saw man with drum, so had a jam with him, then a adrenaline pumping ride down a long fast hill(at loeast 2 or 3 km) with no lights int he pitch black and cars whizzing by. then i tried to use my fake national railcard id to buy some wine, didn't work, so we went into the safeway car park, got out instruments, and played until a random norwegian guy came and agreed to buy us some wine. then down the train tracks to the cinema, it was 10pm by now and it was meant to start at 8, but you know what anarchists wer elike, and we were just in time for the beginning of the feature, called 'life and debt', all about the IMF and WTO effects on jamaica. it was really eye opening; ever time i hear about the IMF i remember how TOTALLY and holistically they fuck over countries and leave them with no options. it was done by starting off with US tourists and it took you through their bubble existence and then would spin off to the issues, so the tourist eats a banana and it goes off on one about how the banana trade has been destroyed etc etc. but some intense images- beautiful milk being poured down the drain by the gallons because of US subsidised powdered milk (the us subsidise it 134%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) whilst down the road rastafarians go through the open cast rubbish.
an old bearded man called 'the mule skinner' started talking to us, i think primarily because we had some wine, and he had some weed (i had left mine at home by accident) so all were happy. he told us stories like a proper american, "i was the fastest mule skinner north of santa rosa", and i was like 'are you a travellin' man?" and he was like 'ahhh, i need to git me a mule, then we can go up to the north country! hahaha i ain't never left here before" and then for ages when he figured i was english he was like "hahahahahaha!!! you from eeengland!!! hahaha, well ain't that something". all this time most of the people watching the film could hear him, and i am sure were getting pretty pissed off with him, so eventually iwas like lets go to the beach after this and talk but now lets watch the film etc etc and then another hobo came called bruce, and when the film finished (i woudl really recommend the film) me, max and bruce went to the nearest beach (one straight road away) nd by now i was rushing and excited by the sea and sang a song abotu the sea
and bruce got int he spirit and sang along, and then had some really lovely (but slightly impatient) moments playing the sax loud to the sea and dodging waves whilst still playing, was amazing, then max played some gypsyish guitar and i danced and realised i hadn't dance for ages and had missed it without knowing and then we spoke, and then we were meant to be meeting one of maxs friends who had a beach hut and was a having a bit of a do and he rang them and they were heading to another beach up the coast, but bruce knew wehre it was, and then i was like 'so are you coming bruce?' and he was like 'do you feel comfortable me coming?' and i was like 'well, ofcourse i do, cos we are having a great time, and so does max, but we both know that when we get there the preppy punks who are there weill be like 'who is that hobo?' and might not be top class' and he was like 'yes... i know when to say goodnight' and he was going to take us fishing and we said goodbye. then we headed int he direction we were told, biking and feeling free on the quiet coast road and then this stupid 4 by 4 drove past and someone shouted out of the window 'I LOVE YOU!' and i shouted back 'GET A SMALLER CAR!" and then we chased the car and then we lost it and then it was behind us again and it stopped and we asked them where X beach was and they were like 'do you want a riattade?' and so we put our bikes in their ample boot and got in. and anyway it turns out these people are sort of in a way the people i have been waiting to meet for a while- one of them was JUST LIKE commie cath, looked like her and was an artist but younger and less cynical and without a cackle. and can't remember the names of her two friends but anyway, they were all about telling everyone they met that they were beautiful and went on 'vision quests' where they go out into the desert and fast and have thoughts, and live in a buddhist commune (which has space and is really cheap and is close to campus...) and have medical cards for medicinal amrajuina and it was lovely chilling with them on the beach etc. we went for a spontanious naked swim!! and long chats. but even in that situation i was a bit cynical with all their hippie chatter, not that i doidn't agree with an of it, but i dunno, i guess maybe i am just more conciouos of all the shit outside (and inside) of the lovely beach town. maybe just anger at myself for being troo politically inert. but anyway, every event of the evening seemed to conspire together to make for a wonderful evening
but then max lost his bike lock so our bikes are still at the beach till his mum mails him the spare! bit of a shitter. we were meant to go today but he didn't pick up his mail in time.
on friday daytime i had made a 'decoupage flowerpot' (i think decoupage is the act of sticking things together with half pvc glue, half water) out of an old big tin can and a few copies of the new yorker and other papers. then put the paper-with-seeds-in that lauren gave me in the pot, and soil, and poked some holes int he bottom, and now i am just waiting for flowers
but anyway, i digress. the people we met on friday invited us to a birthday party near campus for the next day.. got there, and was treated like a wierd smelly party crasher by the people int he room that opened the door to me. was a bit wierd, but then went into the garden where the people who we met the other night were at, and it was really great, met some really top class guys and gals. there was a guy with a tshirt saying 'save dafur' and i asked him 'how would you save dafur' and he said somethign like 'well, the UN won't do anything and the arabs are too unruly to sort themselves out so america should take unilateral action " and i was like 'do you want america to invade dafur" and he said 'well, the word /invade is a /bit troublesome...' and i was like 'are you jewish' and he was like 'yeah and also a zionist'. but at least the conversation was stimulating. i met a guy who i had previously met at a bike coop, and we chatted about music when we met again and then i went and chatted with someone else and sparked a fat spliff, and he tapped me on the shoulder and said 'do you know that gives you cancer?' and wow, i didn't smoke again at the party i got a bit noiad. then later am Mbira jam with 2 beatboxers and 2 really great MCs, possibly the most intelligent, relaxed MCing i have ever heard from this guy who just looked and behaved like a sort of skinny tall george. he rhymed rasputin with disputin'.
adn they had 2 kegs of newcastle brown ale!!!! hahahaha that was all the alcohol there was, great eh? tasted great. but the best thing there was the conversation, it reminded me of how bubbled up campus is;because they were in a stimulated environment the conversation was just so much more significant.
and there was talk of a buhhdist coop just outside the campus, and also two coops in the town, both of which are dirt cheap and have spaces... i think maybe i will move out of my campus bubble at christmas. it is ok here, but i had a bit of a revelation last night remembering that i was here to experience AMERICA aswell as uni life in america, and i have seen plenty of uni life here and it isn't THAT cool, even thoguh it is very beautiful and easy. and i thought if i had the same militant attitude as 2 years ago when i properly was intent on smashing the system then i would be actively seeking out somewhere else than a campus to live on, i would be trying to be in a coop from day one, and i think i have been a bit blinded by convenience here. the only drawbacks to living in the town would be thats its a mission to get into uni every morning and i might do less work, but i will be in a town with a proper social structure not an imposed, artificial one. so i am going to get someone to take me to one i hope. what do you think? it will be difficult to say goodbye to max and a fewothers, but i think he will understand and it makes social if not logistical sense. i was thinknig last night this is my first chance to do the proper alternative living thing, and it has taken so long to be in this position that i have forgot i wanted to do it!
then , sunday, alice and her flatmate tess cooked a delicious sunday dinner. tess's thing was to cook her flatmates sunday dinner back in dublin where she went to uni so it was all carrot and cream cheese, chicken stock, sausages, roasted veggies , apple crumble and cream. tasty to the extreme. it was so nice to eat a meal around a table with good quality food and drink and pride taken in the cooking. then some Mbira with alice, then went home and cleaned the bath (as according to our new cleaning rota, as part of our 'living agreement', where we had to decide by what time of the evenign our chores would be done, and how long we can leave things in the drying area and for fucks sake man, there haven't even been any issues since we got here!!! stupid.)
then practiced john coltrane's mr PC on guitar and clarinet, then went off to the piano at the nearest dining hall but it was pitch black and we didn't have light so we just played in the pitch black improv, not coltrane, and it was going nicely and then these two guys appeared and asked if they could jam, and we said yes, and then a minute later like 8 people came dancing down the stairs, one with a flute and one with a violin, and it was all very dark so we couldn't really see each others faces so i just went over and was well intense with the flute player and she was into it and we swapped ideas and managed IT at times and all the others danced and sang and whooped and max kept banging out the chords on the piano and it was AMAZING!!! and it went on and on.
most common questions people ask me - 'where are you from' england 'which part?' yorkshire... in the north east. and generally peopel don't know ANYWHERE in london except for london and manchester united, so why do they bother asking?.
so that was class, then they had classes int he morning, so did max, but earlier i had given $10 to some people visiting a flat furthur down who worked for UPS to get me some wine. so went to pick it up, and we headed down to the 'meadow', where everyone gathers on a night but where i have never been to yet, and there was noone there cos it was 1am on a sunday, but we sat down, 4 boys and 3 girls who all knew each other and me sort of, and they smoked a BLUNT ala kids and the north bay, and i smoked, and there were only 3 of us smoking and i got SO STONED, like very very stoned, and then we were walking and i was suddenly like 'who the fuck are these people who i am with, i cna't remember what i am doing here at all' and noone was talking to me, and then they did and i was so stoned i could only say yes and no and so they left me alone and i withdrew into muself fast and it was proper all encompassing paranoia but i didn't know where we were and didn't have a torch of my own so i had to stay with them and walk behind them and then left at the first opportunity, but it was HORRIBLE. and then i came back to my flat and fortunately giancarlo had gone to bed, and i really battled hard not to be noiad with my flatmates, and once i had managed to tell them what had happened it was ok and we watched cartoons then slept, but SHIT MAN i was so stoned, i was lying in bed tripping for about an hour. all the signs are pointing to me just stopping smoking (lots of) weed.
and now it is tuesday and another day full of music. jazz today was excellent again, i feel inspired every lesson, but music of india is a bit slow. this evening we had a lecture on 'how to make an atomic bomb' in our UC and the bomb lecture. we are going to los alamos, where they design all the US bombs, to have a look around, should be quite good. someone walked past me outside the music centre in a tshirt with 'ISREALI AIRFORCE' and the crest in big letters on the front.
what is the point of itunes? i only realised recently that when you convert a song on your laptop to itunres format or rip a cd in itunes, it doesn't let you share it freely, and you can only give it to a certain amount of people. what a load of shit!especially at a time when music is becoming freer and freer. why do people not just boycott itunes and use any of the other thousand ways of playing music on cd players, computers and mp3 players and just use MP3s? i guess it is something to do with the aesthetics of the ipod. mayube one day it will be impossible to sell music because it will all be on the internet, so musical artists and groups will have to earn their money by PLAYING music live to people. having said all that, it is possible her (if you have itues) to listen to anyone elses itunes collection in our college who is on the network, which at any one time is massive. that is cool.
so another week has passed by, and i do feel more settled and with purpose. once again there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things i want to do, and i think i prefer it this way. i do want to get off campus more though and meet a more diverse group of people. i am going back to san francisco this coming weekend to a free bluegrass festival, so that will give me a weekend away.
attached is a photo of my three flatmates, from left edmund, giancarlo and max. their expressions are to an extent reflective of their personalities.
it is late.
sam sent me an email about his first throes in Dinwiddy, and i wanted to be there with him. when i read emails sometimes i am back in england.
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