"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Hiphop and Politics

This weekend I did a panel with several Hiphop activists and the one and only KRS-1. I also took in some of the new stuff that's coming out of working-class and suburbia caucasia. I wrote it all up on my MfA blog. More will come, but read that for now.

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Hastings/NoisePop

I'm over at Hastings for a conference. I wrote up the first panel for my MfA blog.

My panel was good. I don't think I was imagining it that the audience was fullest for us, being that we had the massive star power. I was sitting between Krist Novoselic (bassist for Nirvana) and Fat Mike of NOFX, with Jenny Toomey (Director of the awesome Future of Music Coalition) sitting in and moderating. Nervous! I think I did ok though. People had positive feedback for me, and I'm hoping to get some constructive criticism tomorrow. It was kind of a rush.

Lawrence Lessig is a-fucking-mazing. I've been a fan of his work for a while, but I'd never seen/heard him live. His presentaion was one step shy of genius theater of the mind. His pacing; his use of visuals and music; his messge which is down-to-earth and intellectually as close to bullet proof as it gets... I want to put this man on tour all over the nation to promote Free Cultre, or at least rip off his act and get enough people excited that we can stick The Man Himself on the Supreme Court. I'll try to find video of that if I can.

In all it was an interesting day. I was surprised at how many misconceptions were floating around. The notion that filesharing cut into music industry profits was gospel, when in fact it's highly debatable. The technology community was also somewhat underrepresented. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the keynote of State Senator Kevin Murray. I was called away from his work in-progress to prep for my panel, which was a good thing because half way through it I was almost in full rant mode. I took notes during his speech and I will send his office a message with some far more laid-back responses than I would have given in-person. I don't know if any attention will be paid, but I'd like to educate the man.

Anyway, it was a great experience. There were a lot of smart, good-looking, energetic people there. I got to tag-team-transcribe one panel via SubEthaEdit and Rendzevious (my new favorite way to know who's definitely "in the know" about tech at these things). I got to shmooze a little later. It was fun to talk in front of folks. If I can keep this up without getting hooked on Hubris (good luck, comanche) I might get to make it a more regular thing.

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Change for America

Trippi's new org is taking shape. According to this there will be a localized meeting in SF, which I will probably attend. See you there?

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Another All-Nighter In Redwood City

I'm in the office. It's 2am. I'm stuffing envelopes, working on a dvd, and setting up some mailing lists. I'm fairly confidant that in four or eight years this will be more commonplace experience. As it is I feel a little like a pioneer.

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Bearing Down

This next week is going to be a doozy. I may find the jangled energetic fortitude to make dispatches from the front; maybe I"ll take that scene over to MfA. Dunno quite yet.

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I'm Not Down

Hey. Sorry for leaving that mopey post up for so long. I've been busy and things are better. My bike seat's been stolen twice, but Frank is moving in and MfA is taking off. I've got all kinds of things to write about, but no time for anything at the moment. I haven't even called my mom!

I feel good about a lot of things; things are still moving.

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On Several Personal Notes

I'm down in my spirits lately; flipping through my iPhotos on the caltrain and wondering what happened. Looking back on good friends, good times. Ren Fayre. Realizing that was a long time ago, almost two years. Nostalgia is a gloss, I know, but still. Even though I'm well aware that my inner monologye is often rife with angst and pathos, this latest turn feels somehow different, more severe.

I look back on what my life used to be like; 20 or 30 hours of work a week and almost limitless hours for creativity and fun, realize I'm profoundly tired of fighting.

But I'm not loving either. That doesn't seem to happen to old me, captain of inertia, newly hewn heart of stone and all that jazz. My limbic system is quiet; my blood sluggish. I couldn't get baccinalian if I tried it seems. Running low on the old outlandish swagger. I am tired/I am weary/I could sleep for thousand years.

This worries me. Will I become one of those tight and nervously bound creatures; the kind who sieze up and shy away when you tickle at their root? I used to be more brazen and thirsty when it came to seeking pleasure, but as of late knotty tension has become my albatross.

In the grander scheme of things there's plenty of hope. I still get excited with the wheeling and dealing; would that I could write more openly about all that, but suffice to say you'll know all about it soon. I still get a thrill from solidarity, still enjoy goofing off. The world is still arousing, just in a more whistful and less full-bodied way.

I miss the old network, the old support, the old goals and magic. Childhood's end, and I miss my Peter Pan jive. But something big is still going to happen, and I don't trust the course of human events to work themselves out. I hope we can win, and I hope if we do I have the presence of mind to start playing again.

What would Allen Ginsburg do? Breathe deep. That's a good place to start.

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Rockets Fall

Swirling malcontented winds of impotence; it's hard to watch the ship go down. Like having your testicles in a a cold vice. First a shinking and then a crushing. There's a proven correlation between winning and testosterone, something to do with vigor and vitality. I'm a little bit hollow lately; not beaten by any stretch, but empty of a great many things. Nobody likes loosing, feeling like a looser.

Everyone wants a piece of something. I'm not sure what it is that people think we've got here. I seem to have lost some of my bearings -- don't know what I want anymore. What to believe. And where the hell is this going? Can you tell I'm confused? Need to go up on a mountain or something, get my shit sorted out.

But there's no time for mountain climbing at the moment. We're getting into a big push for music for america. Time to dig deep and find some inner veins of fortitude for the next two weeks. Then strike a more equitable balance in life. I'd like to have fun again. You can't beat fun; but it's a lot easier said than done.

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Drive

Feel like a dick after laying into two of my friends over long but silently held differences of opinion. It's in my genes to argue, to try and drive the knife home. You should see family get togethers on my mom's side. However, this isn't conducive to respect or understanding or growth or progress and I aught to knock it off. I aught to be able to discuss things rationally with people and try to draw them out rather than beat them down. I aught to be able to listen and learn as well.

My own stress level, general loneliness and frustrations... they don't help to curb the roll you get on when you're attacking someone. It's an ugly little power trip; I hope apologies will put things in order. I also hope the topics I breached will remain alive as well.

Upcoming Gigitry: Future of Music/Noisepop panel.

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Everybody Knows

While I'm in the business of promoting friends' sites out there, here's one that might turn real interesting real soon: changeforamerica.com. I don't know what the plan is organizationally, but I think it would be cool if a whole plethora of "foramerica" sites and organizations started popping up.

I got to see Joe up close at the Digital Democracy Teach-In, which I want to write about. I have too little focus at the moment to create quality content, so I'll spare you my pithy ramblings. The short and sweet is that the tech community has a ways to come yet politically, and that the political community has a ways to come yet technically, but the two are moving closer together. This is good. While I get frustrated from time to time I also think what's going on is really exciting, and it's only the beginning too.

I believe that the intersection of network technologies and politics will be part of the Next Big Thing for humanity, because it presents us with a the first radically different way to organize ourselves since the invention of metropolises and mass media made facist nationalism possible. It could still go all wrong -- which would really be a 1984 situation -- but I think the odds are that enough people involved in decision making and tool building are non-evil to prevent dystopia. My only worry is that it won't go right quickly enough.

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