Shady's Port-O-Pulpit

smiling on the void: obamafied america and pronoia

shadygrove — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:40:19 GMT

http://blotterati.com/portopulpit/2009/01/23/smiling-on-the-void-obamafied-america-and-pronoia/

a solution?

shadygrove — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:34:15 GMT

rather than continually log on to belabor the point of how much i miss all the crazy fucked-up "safety third" fun i became accustomed to finding on tribe, only to realize i'm hollering into a vacuum, i have created a wordpress blog -- http://blotterati.com/portopulpit/ -- and have linked it via my facebook profile -- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505149490 -- and then link all of this data into a friendfeed.com profile -- http://friendfeed.com/shadygrove -- with the objective being, well, maybe somewhere at the end of all of this web 2.0 social networking nonsense, i'll have some semblance of the vibrant interactive online community i had in 2005 -- before tribe.net shot itself in the foot with a new TOU, a new look, a new "authoritarian" overlord, etc... "don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got 'til it's gone..." 'cept, of course, we all knew what a treasure tribe was when it was vibrant. most of us just didn't anticipate how quickly it would implode into obscurity and irrelevance... *sigh*... stay in touch! and post comments to my wordpress blog if you feel inclined! i've kept everything as "open" in terms of security options, as possible to allow for anonymous reading, anonymous posting of comments, etc. i'll even tolerate "flames" if they stop shy of threatening to put me in a wood chipper. hell, i'd even tolerate that one if it was more original and not just straight from the script of Fargo.

hollering down the well...

shadygrove — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:10:26 GMT

i haven't logged in to tribe in what feels like ages. i've blogged even less. tragic, since it seemed like i was popping in here half a dozen or more times a day a few years back. it just feels like the site fell and never fully got up... i don't even feel inspired to blog on here, much less poke around on old discussion pages to see if anyone's still lurking. and i have gotten approximately one friend request on this site in about five months. and it's from someone i don't know. no real reason to belabor the emptiness. it hurts enough without having to pour salt on the wound. sure, it feels like "just keep clicking here 'til everyone returns" would seem to be the answer, but, alas, that doesn't seem to have proven to be very useful. or entertaining... anyway, i just got back from jam cruise, year three of working merch. it was exhaustive and a blast. and exhaustive. and i'm gearing up to attend and vend obamaroo, the big hoopla in dc. and i'm wondering if the dollar is going to crash in spite of his good rhetoric and ability to inspire. and that is all i have to say on the matter right now. i'm going to go back to reading the "clusterfuck nation" blog: http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

the future of tribe...

shadygrove — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:16:27 GMT

first, does it have one? seems like everyone has a page on facebook now, but doesn't know what the hell to do with facebook because it's so flat and doesn't really consist of much more than twitter with a few extra features... second, let's say tribe gets a much needed injection of venture capital but doesn't do the "shoot itself in the foot" move that it did last time it tried to get a new buyer with vc... can we get the PEOPLE back? i mean the only thing that really made tribe interesting was that it was a hub for every weirdo we knew... third, lets say it can do the first and slowly starts to get the attention of the second, what kind of new features will it have? will we be able to port in all kinds of feeds and use it to be a hub for all of our interesting weird diverse projects? if so, yay! if not, well, the twitter feature on facebook is banal as hell, but it does provide a modest amount of amusement. (if anyone wants to friend me over there, my facebook page is under matthew rick, not shady backflash, because that's where i have connected with so many alumni friends.)

yes we did. now what?

shadygrove — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:51:37 GMT

hmmmm... ok, so election day came and went. the sky didn't rain down sulphur or frogs or anything. the election was able to happen and the GOP only stole a few percentage points of the vote, just barely enough to not make the complete wipe-out seem like a complete and utter repudiation of all GOP agendas for all of time... there were apparently SWAT teams on alert in seven major cities, including chicago, on election night... if the election hadn't been called for obama i think the country would have become a powder keg. i went to ten rallies in about two weeks... albuquerque, denver, cleveland, a few in virginia, vegas the day after halloween (which included wandering strip on halloween night), some college in north carolina, pittsburgh, and, of course, the final rally in chicago, which became a victory party... fun, exhaustive, emotionally frying on so many levels, but strangely gratifying. the buzz at these rallies was incredible. in many, many ways i am much more enthusiastic about the populist movement that obama represents than i am about the prospect of what the obama presidency will actually be. my friends got tired of hearing me say i am wary of obama because of his FISA reversal. he ran an amazing campaign, and his insistence that the campaign was not about him, but, rather, was about "us" was brilliant. every time he spoke he said "we" need to remain strong. and persistent. and the words he spoke rippled out into the crowd and translated as so much restored faith. not faith in government or washington, but, rather, about restored faith in the ability of groups to come together with a shared sense of purpose and be catalysts for positive change. personally, i'm very wary of what's coming down the pike. i think we've hit the wall with peak oil and climate change. i think that we've gotten to a point where we can no longer simply use budget lines for guns and use guns to prop up opec and have favored status with opec to keep our dollar from collapsing. i don't know if the economic collapse was a "controlled demolition" that will usher in one world currency and a one world police force, but that seems to me to be a very high likelihood. the world may crumble around obama, and the right wing can say he's the front man for an al qaeda sleeper cell operating out of the white house, but what i think will really happen is that we'll see a dramatic push for a new energy economy. and we'll still be left wondering if it will be enough quick enough to address the massive challenges put forth by peak oil and the expanding worldwide demand for oil. and the dollar will still be in the toilet. and the bail-out will still be lining the pockets of the crooks who set up the house of cards. but this is all to be expected under any administration. cynicism is the easy way out. if nothing else, bush and cheney permanently put to rest the argument that there's little difference between the two parties. it *does* matter who is president and what the governing ideology of the president is. restoring clinton era levels of "sell out" would be a welcome relief after bush-cheney sacked and pillaged the treasury. i'm planning on going to the inauguration in january. why not? i went to both of george bush's inaugurations. (i even had front row viewing for when the egg hit the presidential limo.) it'd be nice to go to an inauguration where i'm actually glad that the candidate won. and, besides, i miss the buzz of the crowd. so many smiling happy people (of, yes, all races, a true chromatic melting pot of american smiles) hugging and feeling reassured that "yes we can." peak oil is massive and i think it's at the root of all that we're contending with. now that oil is down to $2.00 / gallon i think the impulse will be to ignore the problem and hope it resolves itself, but the reality is that it will overshadow every other political challenge facing the world and be the subtext of every major political move on the global stage.

in the wake of the victory...

shadygrove — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:19:53 GMT

i'm back in california... sebastopol at present. pondering my next move. well, not really. my next few moves are pretty well figured out. kinda have a planned trajectory up 'til about, oh, obama's inauguration. after january 20th my future is anyone's guess. and, of course "anything could happen" between now and then. chicago was truly amazing. inspirational and amazing on so many levels that it's nearly impossible to try to document them all. and not just chicago, but every one of the ten rallys that i hit on "obama tour"... five of us travelled together from denver 'til the end and had a series of completely unforgettable adventures. it was exhausting and unnerving and just plain wrong on so many fronts, and yet, what it was most of all was exactly what obama promised -- a blast of hope in a sea of political cynicism. no, i don't put a lot of that hope in obama. yes, he's a "transformational figure" and, yes, he can talk like nobody's business... but he's already started to sell the constitution up the river and if his vote on the "bail-out" is any indication, he's going to be completely beholden to the monied interests that orchestrate the direction that the economy takes... but what's given me "hope" is the people. the sheer mass of "power to the people" populism at these rallys is impossible to understate. these rallys were massive and they were simply radiant. obama's moment is here and he's got his work cut out for him. the peak oil site that i'm reading says that there won't be a "recovery" from the "economic down-turn." it says to brace ourselves for a massive downturn and a realignment of all the implications of peak oil... why at the end of the bush era? well, seems like another controlled demolition. seems like they did a controlled collapse of the economy before leaving office, with one more excuse to loot the treasury and funnel the money to the caymans or wherever dick cheney's reptilian layer may reside... but even with all of that, the hope exhibited by the obama campaign is the hope of the people to overcome division and realize that not only "yes we can" and "yes we did" but also that we can really push the line and start to demand so many things of government that are much more needed than just another hand-out to a bunch of rich pirates.

chicago is elated!

shadygrove — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:35:24 GMT

grant park was the best place on earth to be tonight. i think i may just table my wariness & take this guy at his word(s)...

obama tour

shadygrove — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:21:18 GMT

yes, i'm actually selling buttons on obama tour. after all my skepticism about obama's FISA vote, i went to a "deadheads for obama" gig at penn state and wound up meeting this guy who said he was looking to send a crew to obama rallys to sell shirts and buttons. after a week of sitting in sf waffling i said "count me in." the money has not been all that it was made out to be but the crowd enthusiasm has been OFF THE CHARTS! it feels like if they steal this election from the people, the people will not just roll over.

fiscal conservatism made easy

shadygrove — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:53:08 GMT

even glenn beck is sounding like noam chomsky

shadygrove — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:32:06 GMT

when so-called "conservative" talking head glenn beck says "we are privatizing gains and socializing losses" i know something's on the verge of a major shift... this "deregulate everything" ideology clearly seems to have come to an end. (noam chomsky would be the first to say that "privatizing gains and socializing losses" is pretty much "standard operating procedures" in the united states. after all, what is halliburton's role in the iraq war if it's not "privatizing gains and socializing losses"? the "private sector" reaps the reward and the "public sector" foots the bill...) beck's column quotes another conservative, george will: "Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism." so much for milton friedman and the Great Dream that The Market Knows Best. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/24/beck.bailout/index.html CNN.com column: "Financial meltdown is an absolute disaster." but before the witchdoctors who rigged these voodoo economics do their final curtain call, they need to draw one last massive severance check...

naomi klein contemplates wall street's shock doctrine

shadygrove — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:03:13 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/now-is-the-time-to-resist_b_128433.html some interesting perspectives on the collapse of the investment banks by the author of shock doctrine.

a quick lesson in how eight years of "fiscal conservatism" has changed america

shadygrove — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:23:43 GMT

http://www.cbpp.org/9-12-08bud.htm

just got two tickets

shadygrove — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:29:59 GMT

for the gd reunion "deadheads for obama" show in state college, pa on october 13th. not sure if i'll make it. if i don't, i'll just give the tickets to friends who'll be there. i'm tempted to make a deadheads for obama blotter print... use the gd steal your face with the obama sun in it, and put the words CHANGE the drug laws under the image... the trade off -- it'd mean leaving the sf burning man decompression party early and flying all night to pittsburgh and catching a ride from there to the show. also, an historical tidbit... october 13th is the "original" friday the 13th... the day in 1307 when the knights templar were burned at the stake.

raising the bar...

shadygrove — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:25:49 GMT

well, it ain't quite as sexy as the mission accomplished action figure -- http://www.newsfromme.com/images2/gwbushtoy.jpg -- but those republican toy manufacturers sure know how to use sex appeal to help boost morale... <props to drusilla on the freebooters tribe for alerting us to the palin action figure.>

tribe.net's impending doom? plus random gibbering on what i've been up to...

shadygrove — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:02:30 GMT

it's been depressing watching this site spiral to its doom, but it may, in fact, get worse... according to a recent post on the bm tribe, tribe.net's only full-time developer just quit... http://bm.tribe.net/thread/b30e2634-a43f-492d-91a5-b3a17dc38865 so, yeah, i think i'm gonna work on that word press blog that i've been thinking of focusing on, and linking that to popeshady.com... and, in the meantime, anyone who doesn't want to lose touch with me completely can try me via email -- merlinswheel@gmail.com -- or type that email into facebook and check out my profile over there... this really sucks, 'cos tribe.net really had a beautiful angle a few years ago and it's been depressing to watch it dwindle into inactivity... such is life... *sigh* on other topics... i'm up in sebastopol... pretty nice up here. hard to know if i'll stay. a friend that i met at earthdance via two good buddies from antioch lives about seven or eight miles up the road and she told me that fort knox five is playing at the bar here in town tonight. i first saw fk5 at the freek factory's "bassnympho's ball" in nyc and really liked 'em. have seen 'em since at the love parade (now called lovefest) in sf... they're fun and funky and i'm looking forward to seeing a little more of this town... still don't have a place to live here, but am really interested in finding a niche and figuring out how to stick around for a while...

not that this site is ever online to maintain a blog, but...

shadygrove — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:35:29 GMT

i'm up in sebastopol now. gonna be at earthdance in laytonville this weekend. no certain plans after that, but definitely california dreamin'... burning man had some fun moments, but was definitely not the party of the century for me. guess i coulda guessed that the "american dream" wasn't going to be a life-changing experience for me, but i went with some hope against odds that it would. *sigh*.... "next year"...

facebook?

shadygrove — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:58:36 GMT

hmmmm... yes, well, with tribe.net being so unpredictable and all, i've found myself on facebook a bit... no, i'm not blogging on there, and don't really have all that much love for the site... it's less nauseating to me than myspace... less invasive, less spammy feeling, and not owned by rupert murdoch... plus i seem to keep finding people on it that i actually know... and, well, i like when tribe is in full swing and people are posting a lot because these are my favorite weirdos on earth... i love that there's this huge vortex of burner energy, but more and more it seems like tribe has run its course... most of the people left on the burning man site are curious newbies, crusty negative old-timers or folks who somehow have endless energy to argue with crusty old-timers... boring... i've had a LOT of fun with theo's tribe, the freebooters of the undecided lands, and am gonna keep popping in on that one, and maybe keep blogging on here because i can say hello to a bunch of people at once, but it's interesting to see how people seem to migrate from one social vortex to another after a few years online, and it seems like tribe.net really shot a big hole in its foot with the "new look" a few years back and never fully recovered... too bad, 'cos this was quite a fun place for a while there... oh, i'm on facebook as "matthew rick"... which says alot, both about the site and my perspective on it... i'm hearing from antioch and naropa classmates and enjoying staying connected to lots of them, but definitely not having the rich zany interactions that i had / have on tribe... well, by next weekend i'll be out in san francisco making my final plans before launching to the playa and will hopefully get my weirdness fix out there... if anyone wants to connect on the playa, i'll be at easel park -- 2:50 on the esplanade... ask for me as "shady" 'cos no one will know who the hell matthew rick is out there...

gearing up for the playa

shadygrove — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:18:36 GMT

well, looks like i've done my final shows of the summer and my focus is now on gearing up to head out to the playa. i fly to sf next wednesday morning and will spend a couple days in san francsico at the blotter museum getting my latte and mission thrift fix and then head out to the playa for the annual event. i've had so many strange thoughts about this year's event. something about last year really struck a nerve. the guy paul addis burning the man on day one, and then chris radcliffe from cacaphony posting his bail seemed to really strike an interesting nerve. addis seemed like some disturbed attention getter who was "crying out for help" but he also seemed to infuse the event with the first real burst of spontaneity in YEARS and, i dunno... arson is bad, burning other people's art is bad, all of that was true enough, but i couldn't help but see the early burn as being in many, many, many ways, in keeping with a spirit that the event had lost long ago. especially since i've always found burn night to be the lamest night of burning man... the only night where i actively try to find something to do that doesn't revolve around sitting up in front for hours being told to "sit down!" by thousands and then, ugh, watch some dumb fireworks spectacle and some boom... bleh... better to just torch the man on monday every year when everyone's attention is elsewhere and just be done with it... so, yeah, i found myself growing a bit jaded, but then they announced this putrid excuse for a "theme"... "the american dream"... and my stomach just churned and churned with disgust. so i was tempted to just skip it. fully planned to just skip it. saw no reason to lose my head over it... but that was before crash insisted i make it out there. and who am i to deny crash? well, today's her birthday. well, her birthday ended fifteen minutes ago, eastern standard time. so happy belated birthday crash!

sf gets to vote on whether to name a sewage plant after g.w. bush

shadygrove — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:09:13 GMT

if you're a san francisco voter and you're disgusted with obama for the fisa cop out and need a little extra incentive to get you out on election day, this might be the issue that will get you down to your local polling place... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25735046/ thanks / props to kinnari who posted the story on the freebooter's tribe...

bringing burning man to bonnaroo

shadygrove — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:24:32 GMT

this idea was inspired by a recent post on the freebooters tribe *and* a post on the burning man blog... because burning man has instigated this whole "bringin' it to bonnaroo" nonsense (not kidding... read here -- http://blog.burningman.com/?p=1937 ) we can have a "safety third" style theme camp at the 'roo and really "bring" the playa to the people... build a giant dangerous roller coaster that can potentially give someone a concussion, set up a few cage dancers twirling fire in revealing attire, play loud electronic music and when people scream they can't stand "techno" proceed to educate them that you are not playing "techno" but, rather, are playing a cutting edge new style of "electro-glitch breaks" that they couldn't possibly be hip enough to get, electrocute ourselves (by accident or on purpose) building some large dangerous interactive toy... have loud public sex acts in the midday sun, and, of course, keep an open coffin full of broken kid's toys around to "gift" to random kanye west fans who wander by... original thread: http://tribes.tribe.net/freebootersoftheundecidedlands/thread/863cfea4-a10e-41e8-874b-54ff18285a62

sign of things to come on the campaign trail

shadygrove — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:20:08 GMT

it's starting to look like john mccain's talking points are taking shape... his central talking point: that obama would have withdrawn troops before "the surge" and lost the war, while mccain supported the surge and "would rather lose a campaign than a war." now, says mccain, the surge is working, the troops can start to come home and the united states can chalk this war in the victory column rather than the loss column... USA! USA! USA! watch olberman dissect the train wreck if you have the stomach for that sort of thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEcQ1BYCsVY

who'll love a lad hussein?

shadygrove — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:36:38 GMT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66048309@N00/2693965018/

shock doctrine: naomi klein on the rise of disaster capitalism

shadygrove — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:06:42 GMT

theo told me recently that he was reading naomi klein's book "shock doctrine" and he attempted to relay to me some of the primary ideas in the book, which pertains to the manner in which a small cadre of ideologues have been preparing themselves to use major crises (9/11, iraq's "shock and awe", katrina) to railroad through not only massive agendas, but also giant economic markets, most of which are the privatization of previous "public sector" economies... (example: the privatization of security systems after 9/11 or the privatization of the school systems in louisiana and mississippi after katrina.) yesterday i came upon a rolling stone magazine article by naomi klein on china's high-tech surveillance culture. it is posted online here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye after reading the article, i began typing klein's name into youtube to see if there was some interesting footage available. there is. lots of great footage of her describing the techniques of shock doctrine to various pundits. the material ranges from the intense but lighthearted appearance on bill maher -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENGvjLZYAAA&NR=1 -- to her attempt to lay-out the blueprint for disaster capitalism to a couple of fox news economics pundits -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlEt86dMFTE -- to open discussion of her ideas on KPFA -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReLtC5FZbos -- and a thoughtful sympathetic interview on The Hour -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT4Fy-K8mWY -- she definitely strikes me as a voice worth paying very close attention to...

excellent "open letter" to obama

shadygrove — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:33:29 GMT

http://www.truthout.org/article/dear-senator-obama "Let's assume the time has come to limit the scope of your campaign signs to the word "Change." The tag line "... we can believe in" has outlived its credibility. You may indeed change some things, but there won't be much to believe in. It will pretty much be on a case-by-case basis from this point forward. The difference is trust. Before you had it, now you don't. "The problem is that what was at stake in the FISA legislation vote was more than a political ideal; it was the rule of law. You ratified an unconstitutional and egregious degradation of the Fourth Amendment. That won't go away easily. The United States's Constitution is not merely the security blanket for "civil liberties groups." It is the birthright of all Americans. It is our national treasure."

please don't vote for a democrat!

shadygrove — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:10:59 GMT

linked from: http://wonkette.com/401226/horrific-song-will-defeat-democrats-terrorists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUWVu-pL7v8