Posts tagged with "Activism"

This one's for you, animal family

By Ari | Jun 22, 09 09:27 AM

I've realized recently that I don't speak up enough for animals. I fear bothering people. I know that for me, going vegan was a long and sometimes jarring process. I remember feeling afraid and guilty and very challenged and uncomfortable at times. I remember that the idea of changing my life in what felt like a very drastic and unpleasant way (I really loved eating animals and things they make) was very threatening. So, being someone who likes to be liked, who doesn't like to make people uncomfortable, I've moved away from more confrontational advocacy. I do a lot online, where distance eases discomfort, but in the brick-and-mortar world, I sometimes hold a lot back. I'll be in situations where someone will say something or do something that is so, so oppressive to animals, my cousins, my family, my kin, my friends - and I'll say nothing. Out of fear, I won't leap to their defense, I won't say what needs to be said. If someone says something sexist or homophobic or racist I usually speak up, but with animals - I'm sorry, animals. I sometimes am just not the best ally.

So, I think I should write more about it here. I sometimes don't want to barrage our few blog readers with too much animal rights stuff, but it's a daily part of my life, so I think I need to start being more forthright about it. Maybe through writing about it on our blog I'll find more of a voice to speak about it offline.

Why is this so important? Here is one reason. Right now Snow is in my lap. She's a tiny sweetheart, my baby, my furry little darling. She's not a pet, she's family. She's an individual, a person. I respect her and her needs as I respect the personhood and needs of human beings. I can see that she's not a plant, that she's nothing like one, not an object but a person - she has gingivitis, and her gums hurt, and eating is difficult for her right now. Because she's not feeling very well, she's rather low-energy and is sleeping a lot. And because she's a very lovey, cuddly person, comforted by hugs and other physical contact, she likes to lay on me and hold onto my shoulder.

Some folks might balk at calling an animal a person, but they're certainly not places and they're certainly not things. They are definitely thinking and feeling. They definitely have desires and needs and wants. They hurt, and they cry, and they get hungry, and they love, and they play, and they have dignity and silliness and dreams and games. They get bored. They have fun. They are not things, but people. They may be very different from us, but there is nothing at all about them that is so different from humans that they deserve to be treated differently. Fuzziness or smallness or a lack of ability to speak English or Spanish or do math, does not justify their oppression.

So Snow is a reason why it's important I be able to talk about animal rights. She's one very important reason, and Sid and Zora, our other cat housemates, are also very important reasons. But there are even more reasons - billions and billions of reasons. All of the animals all around the world who can't cry out in words that we can understand, whose cries are ignored because we can't understand them, all of those animals are reasons why I need to be a better ally, why I need to wear my solidarity on my sleeve.

I can't forget them, and I never do. When I'm sitting at a table with human friends, and someone is talking about some delicious eggs, how can I be silent? How can I not speak up in defense of my sisters, the chickens? When I remember every moment that billions of you soft, sweet, helpless ladies are captive, making egg after egg until you're too old and too weak and you're killed and turned into soup, how can I say nothing? How can I pretend that everything is okay? How can I smile at my friend and swallow my discomfort? My discomfort is nothing, nothing compared to the suffering that animals all around the world are experiencing because human beings still believe that might makes right.

So, I'll try to be better. I'll try to speak up for my furry, feathery, scaly family. I'll remember they have no way to speak up for themselves, not even the awareness that freedom from oppression is possible. I apologize in advance if I make my human friends uncomfortable, but as a friend said to me online recently, transformation is painful.

And beautiful. The lovely, amazing, delicious thing about stepping away from exploitation and toward solidarity with other species is that it is a joyous thing, a homecoming.

If you feel uncomfortable when you remember where your food comes from - when you recall that it is a dead body, or that it came from someone who is confined, not free, a slave to human desire - if you feel that way, try not eating that food item, replacing it with something healthful and delicious that came from the earth and the warm sun and a seed, something that didn't cry out when it died. See how you feel. I don't mean physically, though it does feel good, physically, to eat healthful plant foods. I mean morally, ethically. See how it sits with your soul. See how your conscience feels about it. See if you feel better when you know that your food came from the sun and the earth, and not from a living, breathing, feeling person, against their will. That you can be nourished without their suffering is a beautiful thing, freeing. This is the feeling that we and our family are at last at peace, reconciled. That is a homecoming.

Clouds and rain and sky and deer and music and freedom

By Ari | Jun 22, 09 09:00 AM

Shira drove us to Albany this weekend to visit Jesse and Nitya. It was a fun, relaxing time. The drive both ways was beautiful - we went around Binghamton by taking a more rural route, and were able to cruise along in almost zero traffic. It was raining on the way over, and I saw lots of deer outside: two does walking through bushes, the one in front looking back to check on her friend; a watchful doe and her fawn standing in a pond, drinking; and someone standing under bushes, craning her/his neck up to pull at the leaves.

On the way home, we were listening to a playlist Shira made called "Peace and Protest" and I was reading Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, a young adult novel in the Golden Compass series. The book is about reclaiming your soul from organized religion. The songs were about giving children freedom to be themselves, about getting on the peace train, about people crying for freedom, about the poor rising up to get what they deserve.

As we drove we went in and out of the rain. I could look up at the sky and see the clouds go on and on for miles - dark and heavy with water, with sun peering through; patches of blue sky, with thin wisps of cloud floating off high in the distance. I love looking at the sky like that - something about the vast scale of those mountains of vapor, pouring over this horizon and trailing off over that one, reminds me we're on this little round planet, swaddled in air and water.

The book had me crying. The music and the beautiful world helped the tears out, I'm sure. I looked around and thought, how lovely, this. How incredible and beautiful. How lucky we are to have the senses we each have, to be able to enjoy this extraordinary place. The words of the songs and the book filled me with hope and awareness of others, who for generations and generations have been waking to the world's beauty and to our own power and strength. The people are rising up. The people are seeing heaven is on earth and not through some locked door guarded by people with power and privilege.

Are they? Are we? I hope so. As we drove, my mind flitted from idea to idea, ways to spread the bliss I was feeling; how do you tell others that another world is possible - that is is here right now, and that all we have to do is claim it?

Can you just write it on your blog? It's a place to start.

Fresh websites, hot off the Wordpress

By Ari | Jun 19, 09 10:04 AM

Recently I've made the switch to Wordpress, where I used to use Movable Type. I like that they've been committed to Open Source from day one, whereas Six Apart, the company that makes MT, has always seemed more profit-driven to me. I was shocked at how easy WP is to install, and at how deliciously comfortable it is to use. I'm able to search for, install, and configure plug-ins from within the WP admin area. Same with themes.

Many of the folks we work with are on a very tight budget, or have no funding at all, so being able to create an inexpensive or free site very quickly is something I've been wanting to learn to do for a long time. With WP, I can make a beautiful site that anyone can keep up-to-date in just a few hours. Finally.

What this has meant is that suddenly I'm able to do much more work for many more people, much more quickly. Here are a few recent sites I've made or worked on. These folks are really cool, visit their sites to find out more about them!

Service Women's Action Network - SWAN needed a new logo as well as a new site that they could update easily and use to reach out to potential funders. This site is the result - it features a Vertical Response mailing list, Google Analytics and AddThis sharing. Before it was even online they were talking to Congress with their new logo printed on new business cards. Go SWAN!
Using Their Words - This site is an activist effort by a woman we've worked with over at NYCORe. I initially helped her polish a Google Site and created this new illustrated header for her. Then we found out that her radical web host, MayFirst (to whom Shirari Industries is now migrating!) wouldn't even support her domain pointing to Google, since they're so commercial. So we moved the site onto their server and installed WP. I set up the front page to look less bloggy since the site's primary function is serving up radical curricula - and I used tags and categories to help visitors find the kind of lesson plans they're looking for.
AEI Convergence 2009 - This site was particularly fun because it was a barter! In exchange for making my friend Emily's logo and putting together this quick WP, I got my bike fixed and she and Shira and I had a lovely meal together that she cooked and brought over one day. I love the little site, too - it's simple but it does what she needs it to do, and she can keep it updated easily, herself. And what a cool convergence she's planning! I love the photos she's adding to the site.
Share Tompkins - This one was particularly fun because I wrote the resources page, too. Well, the first edition. Now others have been invited in and hopefully the page will grow and evolve. The site is made using the free, hosted version of WP, in keeping with the Share Tompkins ethos of making life more sustainable and affordable through sharing resources. Using the free version of WP gives us less control over the site's appearance and functionality, but the important thing is to get this content out and usable - not to have it be 100% beautiful and customized. That might come later - this is only the beginning for this fledgling mutual aid network. Our friends Jason and Joe are working on an even more useful sister site, where members of the network will be able to list haves and wants, to facilitate easier sharing and bartering. In the meantime, folks can check out the many trade networks listed on the resources page, or they can come to our community swap meets.
freeDimensional - This site is still evolving, and has made some real progress lately! It's the only one here that's not a WP site - I built the splash page with some simple HTML, and the rest of the site is a Ning. Shira and I are very organizationally involved with these folks - we're both on their steering committee and we may soon have staff titles. Not sure - it's a horizontal network, and we're still discussing as a group how to best handle roles and responsibilities. But what all of this involvement means is that Shira and I have been intimately involved not only in the visual design of the site, but in creating the content on it, and even in making the organizational decisions that go into how the network presents itself and how it functions. It's an exciting process, with all of us volunteers and freelancers and staff people figuring out how to share power and how to talk about it. Mad props to Tricia Wang for her feedback on the site - I think we're making more and more sense, and becoming more and more easily navigable and comprehensible, and useful to everyone in the network that depends on the site.

That's it for now! Many more sites are currently in the works, and I'll share them when they're complete. Also on the table is a massive overhaul of this site right here, Shirari Industries. We're experimenting with a very new, flexible, open-feeling site navigation that we hope will be easier for us to keep up to date, and which will give a much better idea of all of our current projects. If there's anything you want us to keep or change or add as we do our redesign, please leave a comment with your ideas! We'd love to hear from you.

Stuff going on in Ithaca

By Ari | Jun 12, 09 12:37 PM

I just made two Google Calendars, for Ithaca events and for Ithaca Freeskool. Both are pretty empty right now because I'm hoping the folks I invited in start adding their own stuff - I didn't want to do the fun, easy part.

I hope that having collaborative, public calendars will help us all to avoid conflicts when scheduling stuff - and that this could be a useful place for progressives to post stuff, a one-stop shop. Right now it's hard to stay on top of all the progressive stuff happening in Ithaca - what calendar should you subscribe to, where do you look? Everyone has their own calendar but it's hard to find it all in one place. So maybe Ithacalendar can fill that gap. Thanks to everyone who thought of it last night at Shira's DIY filmmaking class!

If anyone wants to be an editor on either or both of the calendars, and if I haven't yet invited you (sorry, I'm doing this rather haphazardly, any omitted invites are not meant to be slights!), please let me know and I'll get you access.

Peanut tattoos

By Ari | Jun 12, 09 11:28 AM

lovebirds
Originally uploaded by picklepuff

Shira and I post a lot of our photography and art on Flickr with Creative Commons licenses so it can be used and shared. A while back I posted this sheet of tattoo art ideas that I sent to my brother Ant in Massachusetts. And then the other day I heard from picklepuff on Flickr; she wanted to know if she and her friend could use this little peanut guy I drew for matching tattoos! Ant said yes, so they got inked. Here's a photo. Eeee!

This is the second time that I know of that someone's actually gotten art by me tattooed on them. I've had some other art requests but I don't know if they panned out... I'm always too shy to check in. What do you say, "hey, did you get my goofy sketch permanently painted on your body?" Anyway, wow. I'm so happy to get this photo. Thanks to picklepuff and friend for bringing this peanut to life.

Check Out My Article About Food, Inc. at Documentary.org

By Shira | Jun 11, 09 02:44 PM

I had a chance to see a preview copy of the new documentary Food, Inc. and interview the Director, Robert Kenner. This is my first article for the International Documentary Association's blog, and I'm psyched to get a chance to write about a topic so close to my heart:

Here's an excerpt and you can read the full article online:
Change: It's What's for Dinner: 'Food, Inc.' Takes on Agribusiness

In a world dominated by corporations, it is no surprise that the American food system has been hijacked by the relentless drive for profit. Under the pretexts of affordability and convenience, modern industrialized agriculture has consistently ignored the unintended consequences of their "efficient" practices on our health and livelihoods, the environment and other species.
Equally implicated is the United States government, which simultaneously subsidizes and fails to adequately regulate the agriculture industrial complex. This reality, explored by Frederick Wiseman in his 1976 cinema vérité documentary Meat and more recently by Nikolaus Geyrhalter in the unnarrated montage film Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread; 2005), is more explicitly tackled in Robert Kenner's Food, Inc., which opens June 12 in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and nationwide on June 19.

The issue of food and the many ways in which it affects our lives is an enormous one, and the film is a broad undertaking, exploring everything from the health impacts of ever ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup (one out of three Americans born today is expected to develop early-onset diabetes), to water and air pollution caused by intensive factory farming, to human rights violations perpetrated against undocumented workers by mega corporations like Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer. Viewers are aided in processing all of this information by motion graphics created by Big Star NYC, which worked with Kenner to create an entertaining and helpful visual language for the film.

Ultimately, Food, Inc. is an examination of free market capitalism's disregard for anything other than the bottom line. "This is a film that's about more than food," says Kenner. "It's really about corporate consolidation and irresponsibility and about the relationship of these companies with government. It's not that different from what happened with the financial crisis. These companies have been totally irresponsible and at the end of the day, we're the ones who pay the price."

What is up, media?

By Ari | May 6, 09 09:33 AM

I think the more I read the news the more irritated I get with the media. I wish they were more critical. I wish they didn't just repeat each other endlessly. I wish they spent their time more wisely.

But then I remember that capitalism is probably the cause of these ills. If you're so focused on clicks or issues sold or your stock value, you'll do anything to get people to read you. Even that means you have to spend your time making slideshows like this one I just found while reading Google News, instead of covering, oh, I don't know, maternal health as impacted by economics, or US-led bombings in Afghanistan, or other issues of substance.

No bosses here: A book from the past to help us work more equitably today

By Ari | May 1, 09 09:17 AM

No bosses here: A manual on working collectively and cooperatively by Karen Brandow

My review

This book was published in 1981 but activists today would do well to read it. It touches on many aspects of working in collectives, cooperatives, and other non-hierarchical arrangements, from bookkeeping to running effective meetings, to dealing with feelings and working against power and privilege. It's a quick read, well-organized and full of useful examples from collectives around the US. I think it's appropriate I finished reading it on May Day!

View all my reviews.

Making stuff and doing things

By Ari | Apr 25, 09 09:49 AM

So much has been happening, and I don't think we've posted a general update in a really long time. So for those who are interested...

Shira and I went to Winter Camp in Amsterdam with our friends from freeDimensional back in March. The event was a convergence of networks held by an organization that studies network cultures. People from all over the world came together to work within their network (on whatever their network works on - tech manuals, volunteerism, women and technology, whatever) and the Institute of Network Cultures watched us work and engaged us in learning what networks really are, how they're different from other cultural institutions, and how networks can work together in metanetworks.

We learned a lot. I'm always so challenged and excited by meeting with activists from all over the world - it really shakes up my ideas and understanding and makes me open my mind to other ways of thinking and doing. The hackers and open source folks in particular really spoke to me. I love the idea of technology being free and for the people, and am realizing that I want to help make that happen.

Our freelance business has been booming, which is nice, because traveling costs money! We've been working on some amazing projects for some very cool clients. The people we work with are all non-profits, culture workers, activists, and other progressive folks, and sometimes when I'm doing layout I'm also reading the text I'm formatting and thinking, "holy shit this is awesome!" (I'm talking about you right now, Scenarios USA!) Our clients really are helping to change the world.

However, a lot of work also means tough scheduling - sometimes a project goes longer than planned or an event date changes and suddenly a production schedule that was manageable becomes insanely difficult to navigate. There are only so many hours in the day! Recently I had three long documents (a gala journal, a curriculum, and a tech manual) due on the same day, over and over again, the deadlines constantly shifting as the projects got drawn out with extra edits and last-minute content updates. That was rough. But as I said, our clients are awesome, and even late nights and early mornings and weekend emailing is cool when it's for such amazing projects. It's nice to not only get a check and some nice print samples at the end of a project, but to really feel like whatever you've contributed to is going to make life better for people.

Ahimsa, our vegan intentional living project, is going so well! It's a very exciting process, meeting with people to create sustainable and affordable housing alternatives - the coolest thing is that we have no idea what we'll end up with. This open-endedness is a hallmark of our project; everyone in the group has been so flexible about the final product, which is really freeing. It's life as a design problem: Here are our needs, here are our resources; now how can we meet those needs with those resources? Easy! You go step by step and you can't go wrong. Diana Leafe Christian's Creating a Life Together has been such a help to us. She's helped give us confidence that even if people drop in and out of the project, and even if the project changes and takes on new forms, or splits, that that is progress and that is forming community. (For instance, there seems to be a greater need in Ithaca for increased access to and understanding of mutual aid, so Shira held a meeting that built on other community efforts to help that to form. This is a totally separate project from Ahimsa but is in other ways very related and overlapping. It's cool to see the "multiple centers of initiative" that Diana says are an indicator of a healthy community, in action, right here in our town. This flexibility is more freeing and useful than thinking anyone can come up with a single, perfect solution that will meet all of everyone's needs.)

Where is the project at right now? We're in between meetings, which we've been having every 2-4 weeks in Ithaca. These are consensus process meetings where we've been crafting a shared vision statement and educating ourselves about our housing options. We're gearing up for a spring retreat, where we'll camp out, do some storytelling and make food and music together, and have a bunch of big dialogues that will further define what we're all creating. And we're looking at properties, in case we find something we could afford outright that will allow us to escape the rent race so we can all save some resources and work together more easily. We're thinking hard about whether we want to pay a premium to be downtown in closer physical proximity to the greater community, or get more for our money by living out in the sticks. I'm leaning towards living out in the woods somewhere, personally. I want to do some building! Also, I dig how cheap it is to do natural building and I would like to influence policy by making alternative structures and getting them approved by building inspectors. Every dent we can make in the industrial housing complex with livable, healthy, DIY alternatives, is a step toward equitable housing for us all.

Shira and I have both been very productive creatively lately. Shira played at a house show at Ghost Cat Collective, and we both had work in an Ithaca Underground art show at the Underground Pirate House. Thanks to Ithaca Freeskool, I led a two-session workshop on DIY web design, and Shira's been going to a great photography group. I've been so inspired lately by all of the self-publishing and activism and organizing I've seen around me. When I have ideas sometimes I just write them down and don't act on them - but lately, I've been trying to just act immediately. I made a little zine I've been meaning to make for years, and some Ithaca buttons, and have been passing them around, curious to hear what people think of them so I can make them better.

Finally, it's spring here in Ithaca! I'm taking great heart from the warm wet smells of earth and blossoming trees, and from the sight of green life coming up from the ground so effortlessly and abundantly. I love how the seasons change, and how each transformation impacts us. We've been able to go out in just t-shirts, no hoodies! We've planted seeds! The windows are open and the cats are joyously sunning themselves in windowsills!

This has been a long and rambling post and I've barely covered half of the things that have happened in the past few months, but maybe the above gives you an idea of how deliciously, marvelously, inspiringly jam-packed our iCal is. I feel so grateful every day that I live in such a vibrant (local and global!) community that's challenging me on so many levels to create a better society in the here and now.

Waterboard torture memo set to music

By Ari | Apr 23, 09 05:55 PM

Via Hugh Ryan.

Some good books: DIY media labs and culture, environmental sci fi, the origins of aggression, and tantric buddhism

By Ari | Apr 20, 09 09:13 AM

Grow Your Own Media Lab by James Wallbank

My review

I found this book tremendously inspiring and challenging, and hope that others who are interested in technology and communities give it a read. It's an accessible and engaging short howto to making technology more accessible to people regardless of class and abilities. It helped me to see the importance of embracing free and open-source software, and the huge potential of dumpster diving and recycling for meeting people's technology needs economically and in an environmentally sustainable way. It also helped me understand that the key to empowering tech users is not detailed instructions, but rather, to serve as a facilitator of their interaction with technology as they learn how to educate themselves and solve their own problems - basically, teaching others the value of the DIY ethic.

The Wounded Planet by Roger Elwood

My review

Awesome different ideas about the future, written from an early 1970s viewpoint. Scary to see how little has changed about our behavior, especially considering how much has changed about our understanding of our impact on our environment.

On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz

My review

This book, though it's very pre-identity politics, had a lot of excellent takeaways for me, as a peace activist. It shows how human behavior and animal behavior (humans being animals) reveal patterns that can help us understand how to break free of self-destructive and socially-destructive behaviors like war.

Introduction to Tantra: A Vision of Totality by Lama Yeshe

My review

This book is written in an engaging style which is meant to approximate the voice of influential Lama Yeshe, who died in the late 1980s and was reincarnated to parents in Spain. The text explains how someone can use tantric (Tibetan) buddhism to reach enlightenment efficiently, which theoretically will allow you to, like Lama Yeshe, control the process of dying and rebirth so that you can help others and create a more compassionate world. It includes detailed descriptions of meditations and other exercises one can do in this pursuit, and serves as an overview of the first stages of tantric practice, encouraging readers to find a Lama they like so they can pursue further study in community.

Personally, I enjoyed the style and content and found the ideas very intriguing - but I shy away from organized religion and power hierarchies, and tantra as outlined here does seem to depend on such things. It also seems somewhat heterosexist. I hear that not all followers follow plans like Lama Yeshe's to the letter, though he does speak with such an authoritative voice that one would think that his plan is the tried and true method to attain enlightenment.

These criticisms aside, I did love reading the book, and felt many of the techniques outlined in it really are useful and do contribute to the practitioner's experience of bliss and wisdom.

Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore

My review

This book made me reevaluate my relationship with money and has challenged me to figure out how to make a living while really retaining my integrity as a culture worker. I mean, I've been working on that for years, but the author of this book and the many interesting people she interviewed are helping me see that I could go even farther. Good stuff - and an excellent primer on the punk movement, as well as on street art's evolving relationship with commerce.

View all my reviews.

Imagine all the people

By Ari | Apr 19, 09 10:51 AM

I was just reading this article about tweens in love with the Obama girls, and I was glad to read that the Obamas are really trying to minimize media contact and coverage of their daughters - despite the awesome cuteness of so many kids obsessing over them like they're pop stars. I think people being in love with the Obamas is 100% great. I mean, yes, we should be critical and we should demand good policy and decision-making from Obama, but if tons of people love the First Family and want to be friends with them, I think that bodes well for our country. It sure is nicer than the atmosphere during the Bush presidency. Those were an uncomfortable eight years. I'd rather feel love than contempt for my elected leadership, personally.

However, love that finds its end in consumerism (the article suggests that concert tickets or DVDs are usually the outlet for kids' celebrity obsessions) or in oppression (the media spotlight and the paparazzi can be incredibly unhealthy) is not just love, it's become something else. I dream of a day when humans can love ourselves and other humans for who we all really are, without regard for artificial hierarchies and power structures. We put some people up on pedestals and obsess about them, lionize them or demonize them, over-analyze every gesture and purchase they make. Even if we love them dearly, we may be setting ourselves up for sorrow or for disappointment, depending on how their media image and their life (separate things!) pan out. Or we may subject them to such scrutiny they self-destruct (sorry Britney). This is why I don't believe in heroes.

Continue reading "Imagine all the people..." »

Going Green, One Film at a Time

By Shira | Apr 15, 09 08:56 PM

My interview with Larry Engel, Co-Author of the recently released Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking, was just published on MediaRights.org and featured in their newsletter to over 20,500 members:
Going Green, One Film at a Time

Here's a choice excerpt:

Shira Golding: Do you think documentary filmmakers have a particular responsibility to be sustainable?

Larry Engel: Yes. Those of us from Filmmakers for Conservation and the Center for Environmental Filmmaking, are very much in the forefront of contact with the most exotic and fragile environments. We’re in the face of animals who are threatened and near extinction, and we make stories about them. It’s important to do that so that the public sees how beautiful and precious our world is, and exactly how fragile it is. Yet, for many many years, it didn’t matter how many Land Rovers you had – it didn’t quite matter what imprint you made on the land or the animals. And that didn’t make any sense.

This came to me many many years ago when I was working with a dear friend of mine and Co-Producer, Tom Lucas, out in Yellowstone. We had done an hour-long film for the National Wildlife Federation and PBS called Wildfire. We were tracking the ‘88 Yellowstone fires, and in the winter we went back to see how the park was doing, and we witnessed many many elks starving.

One of the researchers with whom we were working said, “You know, we’ve been doing studies about the caloric impact of human contact on animals from the back-country, and we learned that one contact can burn up hundreds of calories. Even if the animal doesn’t run or leave or do anything, just the stress and awareness, the adrenaline, consumes calories. In a marginal year, human contact could make the difference in the life and death of individual animals.”

At that point Tom and I looked at each other and we said, “Well you know what? We don’t really want to film anymore of these animals.” And she said, “You can keep filming them, but back off. Let’s make sure to use blinds and work in the trees so we minimize contact, instead of clomping around among hares and elks and buffalo. Let’s change our behavior.” Tanya really emphasizes that we have to change the behavior and sensitivity of the whole filmmaking world, from distributors, to programmers, the filmmakers, the manufacturers, all through the line.

Because if we can’t come around to figuring out how to create a sustainable lifestyle as filmmakers, then we’re doing a disservice to our subjects and therefore also to the audience.

Take a read and let me know what you think!

Weddings and freedom

By Ari | Apr 15, 09 08:40 AM

So, I kind of can't believe this, but I agree with an article in the New York Daily News. And it's called In Vermont gay marriage law, a hidden victory for religious freedom. At first I saw that headline and thought, oh damn, there's some loophole that will make it legal for the Pope to eat gay newlyweds. Or something else similarly creepy and oppressive. But it's actually really sensible: Author David Benkof is happy that the new legislation in Vermont specifically provides an out to any religious groups that have issues with same-sex marriage: They don't have to provide gay couples who are getting married with goods and services.

I'm totally okay with that. This is not a pharmacist denying the morning-after pill to an unintentionally pregnant teen. This is not life-threatening, and it's not violating some "first do no harm" mandate. This is just reason to choose a different florist, one who doesn't believe you're going to hell.

Why force people to do things they feel are wrong? I care deeply about peace, justice and sustainability - so I don't take design work that promotes zoos, "happy meat," sweatshop labor, and other things I find objectionable. People make decisions like this all the time, don't they? So why, as the author of this article points out, was eHarmony forced to create a queer dating site, if they found queerness so odious that they wouldn't allow same-sex searches on their primary, heteronormative dating site? And why would any gay folks actually use the new site by eHarmony? Why not go to any one of the many, many sites out there run by and for queer people who love queer people? If we force everyone to provide services to everyone, aren't we losing the usefulness of the niche audience - the self-selecting community? Personally, I like patronizing those I can stand behind ethically. And not everyone has my ethics.

When Shira and I got hitched, we paid our favorite vegan restaurant to cater it. We rented space from a progressive, arty Brooklyn hangout. We're not into organized, hierarchical religion, so instead of hiring an officiant to approve of our union, we asked everyone in the room to marry us with a toast to fun and love. And so on. In short, we made it our own. We made it something we could believe in, something we loved.

I just can't imagine how much it would have sucked if we'd hired people who think our love is an abomination - and how much worse it would have been to then pay lawyers to sue them, if they didn't do what we wanted. Aren't weddings supposed to be about love? I think Vermont has figured this one out, and I bet their efforts will make this legislation very hard to challenge: Everyone wins.

Health and wealth: The downfall of capitalism and the uplift of humanity

By Ari | Apr 4, 09 10:40 AM

Read this excerpt from Jobless rate bolts to 8.5 percent, 663K jobs lost (AP):

Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending a six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there was better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales. And last week a report showed that consumer spending — an engine of the economy — rose in February for the second month in a row — after a half-year of declines.

Note that in this article, the authors and the economists they're quoting say that the following are indicators of health in an economy:

orders placed in factories
construction spending
home sales (presumably with mortgages attached)
consumer spending

All of these things involve people spending money. That is, the indicator of a healthy economy does not appear to be, "are people's needs being met?" but "are people spending enough?" But then, who knows, maybe spending a lot of money is somehow meeting people's needs. Is that so?

Continue reading "Health and wealth: The downfall of capitalism and the uplift of humanity..." »

Capitalism is dead: London Protests G20 (photos)

By Ari | Apr 2, 09 09:02 AM

Yaaaay, we're not the only ones wondering how making bankers and other capitalists richer is going to help everyone else. Check out this amazing slideshow showing London protesters clashing with police at the G20 summit, courtesy of ABC News.

While I wish that all of the protesters had remained nonviolent, it seems most of them did. What a turn-out. Seeing the huge crowd gives me hope that a world made for people and not for profit is just around the corner.

(Top photo by PA/AP, bottom photo by Andrew Winning/Reuters. Please don't sue me for using these without permission.)

The Coen Brothers Take on Clean Coal

By Shira | Mar 12, 09 02:02 PM

Gay Rights at the Oscars

By Shira | Feb 23, 09 05:10 PM

Thanks Sean Penn!

No, bringing animals into the world to die is not humane

By Ari | Feb 21, 09 10:42 AM

Village Voice writer Sarah DiGregorio asked, "Is Foie Gras Torture?" and decided that she was okay with what she saw when she visited a foie gras operation. Since I am not okay with the death machine we call "animal agriculture," regardless of how "humane" it tries to be, I had to write her a letter protesting her findings. My open letter is below; I urge others to follow suit.

Read the article
Send an email to the author
Send a letter to the editor

Read on for my letter.

Continue reading "No, bringing animals into the world to die is not humane..." »

Sometimes Green Building Makes Me Cry

By Shira | Feb 12, 09 05:25 PM

Granted, the voice-over and music are heavy-handed, but I must confess to weeping tears of joy throughout this video.

Via Puppetgov/Rebuild Green /GroovyGreen

Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities

By Ari | Feb 11, 09 09:15 AM

Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I found this book, I jotted down, "looks like the way to go if you're working on an ecovillage or intentional community project and don't want to doom it to failure." Two careful reads later, I'm pretty sure I was right, and we're using the book to guide our own ecovillage project as it forms. This volume is jam-packed with insights into the many legal, financial, social, and other issues surrounding the complicated but world-changing subject of intentional community. There are sample agreements, vision documents, financial arrangements, and other useful tools. The author is a member of Earthaven community, and her book draws on interviews and research into many communities all around the world.

View all my reviews.

The Group House Handbook: How to share your kitchen without going crazy

By Ari | Feb 11, 09 09:05 AM

The Group House Handbook by Nancy Brandwein

My review

This book is really, really useful for anyone considering sharing a house, either to live in, or as a common house in a cohousing situation. It's a bit dated but provides a fun window into sixties counterculture - and it's surprising how much of the content is still totally appropriate for today. It includes sample budgets and other useful documents, and is full of goofy cartoon art of group house residents alternately delighting and bothering each other.

View all my reviews.

A Mini Ecocity

By Ari | Feb 9, 09 10:49 AM

mini ecocity
Originally uploaded by arimoore

I often imagine cities and towns reclaimed, made greener, augmented by natural building and alternative energy and water and waste systems. I'm trying to get better about turning ideas into sharable, useful things. Here's another such illustration, with a Creative Commons license so it can be used and remixed. Whee! More to come I hope.

Best viewed large - there are lots of details. Feedback appreciated!

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #6: Economies

By shirari | Feb 4, 09 02:33 PM

Tune into the Wednesday, February 4th edition of our podcast to check out our snappy new format! We've broken the show into three segments to make it easier for folks to selectively listen to parts they're interested in:

Local Updates, in which we tell you about wonderful and exciting new developments in our local area, the Fingerlakes region of New York. You'll hear about permaculture organizing, the new Ithaca Freeskool calendar, and a new vegan group. (We can't wait to go to their pizza party on Friday!)
Be the Change, in which we give you two tips, both of which, now that we think about it, are pig-related. (And yet, somehow, relevant to a general audience. We think.)
Discussion: Economies, in which we look briefly at some issues with non-profit funding, venture capital, microlending, and global capitalism, as well as with socialism and other isms, before giving an overview of different interesting alternatives (featuring copyleft, coworking, freeganism, CSAs, relocalization, and other awesomeness).

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Links mentioned in the show:
Hook up with other Fingerlakes Permaculture folks at flxpermaculture.net
Ithaca Freeskool
Ithaca Zine
Ahimsa Ecovillage
Ithaca Vegans Yahoo Group
Vegan Chai is so over bacon!
Ari's Twitter
Find a local CSA at localharvest.org

If you listen to our podcast, tell us what you like about it, and what could be improved! And if you don't listen to our podcast, why not? Tell us what you might like to hear, so we can do a better job of it. Thanks and peace to all who tune into this edition!

Previously:
Previous show notes

Dissection on Valentine's Day: Where's the love?

By Ari | Feb 3, 09 10:27 AM

There will be an event at Ithaca's Sciencecenter on Valentine's Day, during which children will be shown a variety of hearts taken from dead animals, and will watch a dead pig's heart being dissected.

If you too think that this is an inappropriate event for children - or anyone, especially the animals who have to die for it to happen - call 607-272-0600 and ask to speak to Executive Director Charles Trautmann at extension 26, or Associate Director Lara Kimber at extension 12. You can also email them at: info@sciencecenter.org. Please be polite. My email is below.

Hi,
I just heard you're doing a program that involves dissecting animal hearts on Valentine's Day, and I thought I'd let you know my response to it, since I'm an Ithacan, a science fan, and a future parent.

This event seems to me to teach children something very disturbing - that animals are not worthy of our compassion, that these sentient beings are somehow so fundamentally different from humans that it's morally acceptable to kill them and cut up their bodies as a form of education and entertainment. The fact that you're doing it on Valentine's Day just makes it that much more creepy and sad. Animals feel pain and pleasure and sorrow; they have families, interests, lives of their own. They do not exist for us to treat like objects, to mutilate and eviscerate - but to live their own lives. We should respect them, not teach our children to disrespect them as we have for so long.

We relocated to Ithaca because we wanted to start a family. Our little nephews come to visit us, too, and we know many people with kids. When I heard of the Sciencecenter I remember at first thinking it would be a lovely resource. However, I saw an ad for a live bug program you were doing, which gave me pause. I usually don't patronize businesses or organizations that promote the use and abuse of animals. Hearing of this Valentine's Day event has helped me make my decision. No kids I know will be going to Sciencecenter; these values you're teaching do not work for my family.

I thought I would send you this email so that you could understand where folks like me are coming from. Maybe folks who love animals aren't an important part of your audience - but maybe they are. If so, I think you should know what message this event is sending to people like me.

Because I care deeply about animals and my community and know that transparent dialogue is what helps culture change, I hope you don't mind that I'm posting this email as an open letter on my blog:
http://www.shirari.com/blog/2009/02/03/dissection_on_valentines_day_w.html
Please feel free to post your response as a comment if you would like it to appear publicly, or just email me back (I may post your response unless you object). I'm very curious as to your response.

Thanks for reading, and peace!
Ari Moore
Shirari Industries
Ithaca, NY

"The important thing is to never stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein
Why vegan? http://tinyurl.com/2xkmc

UPDATE, 2.11.09: Received on the vegan wire: "The Valentines Day 'I Heart Science' event that involved dissecting a pigs heart has been replaced with examining the chocolate, strawberry and vanilla plants and talking about the foods that come from them. A much more appropriate activity for Valentines Day, or any day!!!" Yesss!!

Our Friends at The Dacha Project Are Awesome.

By Shira | Feb 1, 09 05:20 PM

Our friend Lea makes videos for About.com. She's also part of The Dacha Project, "An unlikely band of six, creating a more sustainable and autonomous existence somewhere in upstate New York." These awesome instructional videos were made on their sixteen acres...

On Gaza

By Shira | Jan 15, 09 01:34 PM

A good friend of mind asked me to explain the current crisis in Israel/Palestine. Here are my (unedited) ramblings...

israeli schizophrenia - "free tibet"/"we will win"
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

i think a lot of people are confused and torn about this issue, including me. the situation in israel/palestine is a cycle of violence in which the game of "who started it" is meaningless and counterproductive. the basic facts are that jews and muslims (and christians, and druze...) all have historical and religious ties to the land. the problem is that extremists within these populations believe that these rights are exclusive to their people and that they therefore have the right to kill anyone who threatens those rights.

enter modern warfare and politics. after the holocaust, the united nations, which should have stopped violence against european jews before world war II and earlier, was convinced that the jews deserved a homeland of their own. the british had control over palestine at the time, but it was mostly populated by arabs. there were also jews living there, including my father's mother's family, who have lived in jerusalem for generations. the proposition at the time was to create two states - one arab and one jewish, each autonomous. the arab population didn't want to give up what they felt was rightfully theirs. the jewish immigrants and the jews that had been coming to settle the land and established kibbutzim (agricultural communes) starting in the late 1800s were willing to fight. hence the "war of independence" as the israelis call it.

sabba and savta, my mother's parents
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

from the establishment of the state of israel in 1948, this cycle of violence has continued. (my mother was born there in 1949 after my grandparents survived the holocaust and met in cyprus, where they were imprisoned until the british let them in to the country). israel, surrounded by arab countries was attacked over and over again. these same countries did little to help the palestinian refugees that lived in camps in their borders. after the 1967 war, israel gained control over the west bank and the gaza strip, and continue to have complete control over the flow of people and resources in and out of these areas. at the same time the israeli government has actively encouraged jewish settlements within these regions. for the most part, jews who choose to live in the settlements are the most orthodox and extreme and see themselves as being on the frontlines. by the way, a lot of them are also american jews.

my mom in the israeli army
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

there are arabs who live in israel who don't identify as palestinians. they are second class citizens in many ways - their communities are generally underfunded and they rarely have high positions in the corporate sectors, but they are allowed to vote and have political parties. many of their palestinian brothers and sisters are economically dependent on israel for jobs, so they come into israel every day, crossing through checkpoints, with notoriously long lines and humiliating searches.

savta in a gas mask during the first gulf war
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

most palestinians feel that they are occupied and want freedom. they want their own country, and they are willing to fight for it using any means necessary. since there is no palestinian military, they use small cells and guerrilla tactics, and are embedded within the civilian population. they send rockets and suicide bombers into israel, targeting civilians. the israeli military fights back with many more resources, thanks largely to the alliance with america. hamas, both a political party and a militant movement, in turn is supplied with weapons by iran, which hates both the u.s. and israel.

disturbing postcard for sale in jerusalem
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

it is my belief that when violence is involved, neither side is right. israel has made some very meaningful attempts to create peace and even move towards a two-state solution, but extremist palestinians continue to use violence to call attention to their suffering. in the meantime, most israelis are living in a modern democratic state with all the amenities of western culture, while palestinians are living in much poorer conditions in the west bank and gaza. it's hard to tell an occupied population not to fight for their freedom, but israelis, at the same time, feel like they are defending their own freedom.

soldier playing the flute
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

there are amazing people on both sides working for peace. many of them are secular, but some are religious. personally, i think that nation states are inherently violent entities, and unless one side or the other is willing to give up, this conflict will continue for a very long time. as a jew, i feel a tie to the land of israel and its people and i do think that jewish people should be able to live there. but i don't think that we are any more entitled to a jewish state than the palestinians are entitled to return to their homes and sacred places. i think the best solution would be one, secular, nonviolent, democratic (or perhaps even socialist) state. will it happen? not anytime soon.

in my family's neighborhood in haifa
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

there is so much more to say, i could go on and on. my cousin amir just entered the israeli army, and i worry about him everyday. most of my family lives in northern israel so they are not in immediate danger, but there are of course, random suicide bombings that kill jews in haifa and jerusalem and elsewhere. one of my cousin tal's close friends was killed in a bus bombing in haifa, and she was scared to leave the house for months. if i were them, i wouldn't live in israel, and i think that maybe when they get older, they will leave. on the other hand, israel is the only home they've ever known and it's where their parents, grandparents and friends all live. maybe by the time they have kids, there will be some meaningful peace. we can hope.

hatikvah
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

there are some really good documentaries on the issue. i recommend promises and encounter point, both available on netflix. there's also a really good film about palestinian hip hop called slingshot hip hop. you should also check out the music of invincible a.k.a ilana weaver, a queer rapper from detroit who raps about social justice issues and does a lot of work with palestinians. her song "people not places" is amazing. you should also listen to mirah's song "jerusalem." for alternative news coverage of the current crisis, check out link tv and al jazeera.

i hope this is helpful. feel free to ask more questions. knowledge is power.

"You are brilliant and the world is hiring!" – Paul Hawken

By Shira | Jan 14, 09 07:21 PM

Here is first part of Alex Steffen's keynote at the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival. You can watch the rest at Worldchanging. I especially like when he talks about transportation and mutual-aid. Good stuff!

Two new Feminist Reviews

By Ari | Jan 14, 09 12:06 PM

I've had two more book reviews published by Feminist Review. Both of these were awesome books. Ain't I a Feminist in particular really expanded my horizons and pushed me to think about privilege and identity in new ways.
Argentina: Stories for a Nation
Ain't I a Feminist? African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom

Yay Feminist Review! Contact them if you're interested in writing reviews - you get to keep the book (or movie or album) in exchange for your review.

Thank you, Al Sharpton

By Ari | Jan 13, 09 06:18 PM

Al Sharpton on Proposition 8:

It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being delegated into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners... There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people’s bedrooms and claim that God sent you.

freeDimensional: Birthing a web 2.0 child

By Ari | Jan 12, 09 06:44 PM

I hope executive director Todd Lester of freeDimensional doesn't mind if I quote him with the title of my post here, but this is how he described the collaborative experience of launching fD's new site this weekend, and I think it's particularly apt: We all birthed a web 2.0 child. You can go meet it here: freeDimensional.org.

freeDimensional is an organically-growing, partnership-based organization that links activist culture workers (journalists, artists, writers, and the like) who are facing repression and censorship with support services, including safe haven placements in artist residency programs. The power of the organization is in its social networks around the globe. These programs, these services, these people, are all out there - the challenge is only to connect everyone so we can all engage more effectively in mutual aid.

I met Todd way back at the end of 2005, through Shira and their work around the Media That Matters Film Festival. He needed a site, and at the time, I remember seeing that they'd need something much more interactive in the future, but that for now, I could make a small, informational site to give them a web presence while they built their organization. For a long time I thought that in the future we'd hire some big web design firm to come in and create some perfect glittering website for them that would magically fulfill all of their many needs.

In the interim, I had a bit of an awakening about the internet, via my understanding of web 2.0 (collaborative, online) technologies. The internet can be an extension of our physical lives, a way for us to transcend space and time. Our blogs and Flickr photostreams and Tweets and Delicious links and Facebook updates are extensions of and aids to our imperfect human memories. Email and messaging and Skype and the like allow us to connect with each other across great distances, often instantly. We're all learning how to use the internet most effectively to meet these great needs, and in the process, I believe we're gradually realizing our commonality, and creating new solutions to age-old problems that formerly seemed unsolvable. (I have a theory about web 3.0. If anyone reads this and is interested, comment and I'll write about it!!)

So when fD finally outgrew their little site and was ready for something new and more useful, Shira and I were ready to craft a solution for them. It was time for them to clarify what they were all about, explain it well, and then provide an online platform for the incredible social networking that had been happening in the real world. fD was ready to go web 2.0.

Shira made a short video intro for them and helped them rework and refine their mission statement and other organizational copy. I helped them look at their many technology options and to select free services that will allow them to grow and extend their reach with minimal cash outlays. The site is built on the Ning custom social networking platform (the free version for now). We're transitioning the mailing list to Vertical Response and their lovely nearly-free non-profit program. Shira chose the beautifully high-res-capable video service Vimeo to host fD's intro video. We integrated Twitter, Flickr and YouTube feeds into the site. We'd settled on Network for Good to collect donations a while back. fD also has accounts on other social networking sites, which we've been using to meet and collaborate with even more people around the world.

These free and low-cost services have limitations - you're fitting your own complex self into a sometimes-imperfect template, and you don't have the same level of control over your content that you'd have if you were hosting the whole thing on your own server. However, they make an extraordinary array of sophisticated communications features accessible to organizations that don't have tens of thousands of dollars to drop on a new custom-crafted interactive site every few years. The internet is changing so fast that production cannot keep up with the technology if we follow old models of design and interaction. This solution can and will grow and evolve, flexibly adapting to and taking advantage of new technologies as they come.

This project would not have been possible if Shira and I, or fD, worked in a more mainstream and less openly collaborative way. Shira's and my cooperative approach to design problems and fD's trust and willingness to experiment made for a very organic design and production process that drew on the strengths and knowledge of everyone involved. This web 2.0 child we've birthed together reflects that process, and is stronger for it.
freeDimensional.org »

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #5: Top 8 Activist Strategies

By Shira | Dec 16, 08 05:51 PM

December 16, 2008 - 71 minutes - 95.5MB

After an update about Ithaca, Shaleshock and our vegan ecovillage project, we discuss our top eight best practices for changing the world and conclude the show with some ideas for a d.i.y. anticapitalist holiday season.

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Show links:

Some Places Worth Donating To (there are so many more, here are just a few):

Arts Engine supports, produces, and distributes independent media of consequence and promotes the use of independent media by advocates, educators and the general public. Donate
East New York Farms! is a collaborative project whose mission is to organize youth and adult residents to address food issues in their community by promoting local and regional sustainable agriculture and community-based economic development. Donate
freeDimensional is an international network that advances social justice by hosting activists in art spaces and using cultural resources to strengthen their work. Donate
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. Donate
Just Vision is a nonprofit organization that informs local and international audiences about under-documented Palestinian and Israeli joint civilian efforts to resolve the conflict nonviolently. Using media and educational tools, they raise awareness in order to encourage civic participation in grassroots peace building. Donate
Scenarios USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that that uses writing and filmmaking to foster youth leadership, advocacy and self-expression in under-served teens. Scenarios USA asks teens to write about the issues that shape their lives for the annual "What's the REAL DEAL?" writing contest, and thousands have responded with their raw and revealing insights. Donate
Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance is a grassroots group of Finger Lakes residents who are concerned with understanding and protecting our communities and environment from exploitation by the energy industry with regards to drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. Donate

Previously:

Just Seeds - Cheap and lovely art

By Ari | Dec 13, 08 03:58 PM

Just Seeds has a new sale page and it's awesome. If you're looking for something to give someone for the holidays, they've got some great prints up there, and they're really affordable.

Radical solidarity - an artist's statement

By Ari | Dec 11, 08 01:05 PM

It looks like Socialist Party USA is going to publish some of my more activisty artwork in the upcoming International Women's Day edition of Socialist Women. I've done some custom illustration for them and even laid out the whole magazine several times, but this is the first time they'll be publishing the art I make for my own activist purposes. Since it's heavy on animal rights and sustainability and the issue (like most issues...) didn't have any content along those lines, the editorial collective asked me to write an artist's statement to go with the work. I sometimes have a hard time asserting myself as an earthy-crunchy animal-loving hippie in the socialist community, and people have a tendency to get pissed when one draws connections between the oppression of humans and animals, so writing this was a challenge! I really welcome comments from folks - let me know what you think.

In progressive activist circles we often talk of solidarity, and with good reason - unexamined privilege and blindness to the oppression of others makes social change difficult. If we come to activism with open minds and open hearts, we'll find allies everywhere, and our unity will advance the causes of peace and social justice. Fortunately, over time, the circle of compassion has widened further and further. People really seem to be learning to look beyond our differences and understand and identify with each other's struggles on an international level. And finally, activists working in all areas are realizing that this compassion needs to be extended not only to all humans but to the home we all share, our earth.

However, many people are still reluctant to open the circle of compassion to non-human animals. Even in the most radical queer or feminist or socialist spaces, mentions of animal rights are often met with ridicule or patronizing requests that we stick to "real issues" like human rights. Though animals feel pain and pleasure, are sentient enough to have families and desires and agendas of their own, and there are vegan alternatives aplenty to their exploitation, animal rights, we are told, will have to wait until after the revolution.
This pattern is an old one, repeated time after time throughout history. Sojourner Truth was told that black women's rights had to wait until after white women's suffrage had been secured. Bayard Rustin was denied credit for organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom because he was queer. Every time we disregard one person's rights to advance someone else's rights, we may think we're being strategic, but we're also oppressing someone and holding back their struggle.

The means are the ends. We need to be the change we wish to see. It's time for a radical new solidarity that acknowledges all oppressions and all struggles as interconnected. Believe it or not, there are no limits to compassion. Perfection might not be attainable, but it is entirely possible for each of us to begin to abstain not only from the oppression of other humans, but from exploiting animals as well.

Animals may not be able to communicate in a language we can understand, but they have many allies in their struggle: vegans, finally coming to accept and move beyond our species privilege. We may be part of the "circle of life" but our species is capable of great things, including forging new paths that don't include the strong preying on the weak.

I'm an activist / artist living in a progressive town where my partner and I are organizing a back-to-the-land vegan housing collective. I work with local groups and folks online to do community organizing and create art and outreach materials around issues of sustainability, radical solidarity, nonviolence, and economic justice. You can see my work, find out about my current projects, and check out our blog and podcast at shirari.com.

R.I.P. Odetta (1930-2008)

By Shira | Dec 8, 08 12:22 PM

DIY Holidays

By Ari | Dec 7, 08 05:53 PM

he needs help sitting up
Originally uploaded by arimoore

Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolás Boullosa wrote an article called Holiday shopping guide? 15 tips, and used this photo of this little tofu guy I made for Shira to illustrate it. Thanks Kirsten and Nicolás! The gift guide is fantastic, all about creating a joyous holiday with a sustainability-oriented, "buy nothing" ethos. Yeeah!

Exuberant nudity

By Ari | Dec 7, 08 08:56 AM

I've been catching up on my reading, and have encountered two incidences of happy nudity that I just had to share.

In Carbusters #36, at the end of a report on the World Carfree Day events in Curitiba, Brazil: "Finally we began our bike march: 300 cyclists swept the streets of the city. The feeling of freedom and happiness was so intense that a few riders couldn't resist, and took off their clothes."

And, in Communities Magazine #138, in Anissa Ljanta's story of the shock of moving from an intentional community to a mainstream neighborhood: "I missed being naked, and the ease with which people were naked at Twin Oaks. People made an effort to appreciate beauty of all kinds, not just the skinny hairless women validated by mainstream media. I got to live in a culture that embraced me for who I was, where body image and dress were not fraught with tension."

Ljanta's story is sadder - she goes on to express her resentment at being asked to wear clothes while swimming; she describes her run-ins with sexism and the very real possibility of sexual violence which requires women in mainstream neighborhoods to be careful when walking alone at night, something she didn't fear at Twin Oaks. However, both of these stories offer glimpses of a kind of happy nudity that sounds like something that should happen more often.

Seriously, how often do you feel happy and free enough that you can revel in the body nature gave you? If we're all born with a naked body to enjoy, and we like looking at naked bodies, and all other species are running around naked all the time, what exactly is up with us that we have so many hangups about nudity? Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where nudity was not only safe and socially acceptable, but viewed as a healthy expression of joy?

Shale Shocked

By Shira | Dec 6, 08 03:05 AM

There are many factors that contribute to the fertility and productivity of land that are beyond a landowners' direct control. One of the major issues we need to consider in New York State is natural gas drilling. Ever since the development of more commercially-viable drilling techniques around 2000, major oil companies have been going to town on the Marcellus Shale. One of the main ways they get access to the land is by leasing land and drilling rights from local landowners. While this can be a good source of income for struggling farmers, there are numerous environmental impacts including the distribution of toxic chemicals into the soil and water table.

We've been getting involved with Shaleshock, a local resistance group, and we recently designed their logo and a new website. Check out the site to get up to speed on the issues and take action. One thing you can do now is comment on the DEC's draft scope...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has released a draft scope document that outlines how they will regulate natural gas drilling of the Marcellus Shale. In addition to commenting at public hearings around the state, you can submit your comments via letter or email by December 15th.

Submit comments to:
Attn: Scope Comments
Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources
625 Broadway, Third Floor
Albany, NY 12233-6500

Or email to dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us with "Scope Comments" as the Subject

Download the pdf of the scope

Tortillas and Cider, Delivered to Our Doorstep

By Shira | Dec 5, 08 12:43 PM

A lot of people have been talking about eating local, and the arguments are pretty straight-forward: when you eat local you save energy/fuel, build community, and develop your local economy. Not to mention, your food is a lot less likely to be processed with preservatives and other nastiness.

Eating local in Ithaca is pretty easy and it seems to be getting easier every day. The Ithaca Farmer's Market is open April through December and has amazing produce - plus local crafts, live music and hot food. A lot of the stands are organic and there's even one place where everything is veganically grown - Unexpected Farm from Watkins Glen.

the glorious ithaca farmer's market
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

live music, local food
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

veganically-grown!
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

breakfast at the farmer's market
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

We've been getting most of our produce from the Farmers Market since we moved here three months ago, and supplementing from Greenstar Cooperative Market - where we're members. Greenstar is definitely not 100% local, but they have really great signage, which makes it so much easier to know the distance food has traveled. But as winter sets in, the Farmer's Market closes up shop and buying local produce at the coop gets too expensive, so we decided to join a winter CSA. We just picked up our first share last week and it was an amazing bounty - carrots, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, turnips, garlic, kale, squash, radichio, bok choi, and salad greens.

ithaca chocolate!
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

The cool thing about the CSA model, is that it enables the farmer to get paid up front so that they have the money when they need it most for buying supplies, paying laborers, repairs, etc. And usually, by paying a fixed price at the beginning, the individual CSA member gets a really good deal on a lot of fresh, local food. It is probably the best way to eat seasonally, if you're not growing your own food.

What's really exciting right now is that all these small grassroots distributors are popping up to fill holes in the local market. A couple of months ago, it wasn't uncommon for us to go for a walk and pass by an unsupervised produce stand in front of a house on a quiet residential street.

there's a can where you can leave a quarter
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

Recently, our friend Emily was thinking about how there are no local tortilla makers, so she started making vegan, organic, wheat tortillas and delivering them to people on her bike. And then Travis and Ellen announced on the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute's email list that they had pressed a huge amount of cider and could deliver a half gallon or gallon to any one who wanted some.

beach or tortilla?
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

gaia tortilla
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

sunrise apple cider - delivered to our door!
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

And these projects are inspiring new ones. A couple of guys who got Emily's tortillas one week, made some hummus to put on them, and it was such a tasty combination that now they're planning on making and delivering hummus. I sampled some of their recipe at the hat band party and it was amazing. I can't wait for them to start distributing!

All this activity has gotten us brainstorming like crazy, especially whenever we meet up with our new friend Joe. He's a true renaissance man - a guy who knows how to build his own house, convert engines to run on vegetable oil, code websites and play death metal. We've been talking about collaborating on a vegan baked goods enterprise in the future.

But with all these microbusinesses launching, it seems like we could take this whole thing a step further. What if once a week, we all met up in one centralized location (maybe a rotating potluck at different people's houses) and we just swap stuff - no money involved. So Emily could bring her tortillas, and Travis brings his cider, and Ellen brings tea, and Dusqkee brings hummus, and Ari brings vegan cookies, and Joe brings vegan muffins, and Danila brings garlic, and Mer and Uriel offer massages, and Rachel teaches yoga, and I bring knitted hats and cozies etc. etc. And instead of paying each other, we would just swap in a mutual aid, take as you need kind of way. And maybe it's one big coop and we all put in cash when we can and take it out when we need it. And there's a local community center with an industrial kitchen and craft studios and workshops. And before you know it, we're a totally self-sustaining community.

This is where we are heading!

Prop 8: The Musical

By Shira | Dec 3, 08 01:21 PM

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

The Scenarios USA 2008 REAL DEAL Film Premiere - Dec. 10, NYC

By Ari | Dec 3, 08 11:38 AM

Shira and I have been working with an incredible Brooklyn non-profit, Scenarios USA, for years now, and are currently helping them to promote their 2008 premiere. If you'll be in NYC on December 10th, this is your chance to meet the award-winning teen writers and Hollywood directors of the organization's three new sex-ed shorts - and to see the new films. You can catch Scenarios USA's earlier films online at the site we designed for them, scenariosusa.org.

Cool folks we're working with in Ithaca: Ithaca-Area Vegan Meetup Group and Shaleshock

By Ari | Dec 2, 08 03:05 PM

Are you in the Ithaca area, and either vegan or vegan-curious? Come check out the Ithaca-Area Vegan Meetup Group - we have a weekly coffee and tea hour at Autumn Leaves Cafe, 3pm on Sundays. Lately folks have been talking activism, which is awesome! Come over and get involved if you're in town and love animals. Whoo! If you want to help promote, here are handbills and a poster. (Designed by me.)

Another project Shira and I have been participating in is Shaleshock - the site was hacked before we arrived in town and so they haven't had a very good online presence. We're helping to get content up there and organized. It's my first time working with WordPress (I'm usually a Movable Type girl), and it's a lot of fun. Big thanks to Joe for setting this thing up!

Support an Ithaca war resister on Wednesday

By Ari | Dec 2, 08 10:45 AM

AWOL War Vet Seeks Support from Ithaca Common Council, December 3, 2008, 6:30 pm, public meeting, Ithaca Common Council, City Hall, Ithaca, NY. More info - come if you can!

World AIDS Day 2008

By Ari | Dec 1, 08 03:46 PM

World AIDS Campaign
ACT UP
Keep a Child Alive
National HIV and STD Testing Resources (USA CDC)
AIDS.ORG
HIV (Wikipedia)

Happy Thanksgiving with Love

By Ari | Nov 24, 08 10:32 AM

Thanksgiving approaches, and if you celebrate it, please consider celebrating it compassionately this year! I've met turkeys at Farm Sanctuary, and let me tell you, they are good people. Sweet, kind, lovey - one little guy made purring noises when I petted him, I'll never forget that - and every bit as hungry for holiday food and holiday love as the rest of us are.

There shouldn't be any room for cruelty on the holiday table - it's just too sad to spoil a celebration by eating a helpless, tortured animal. Instead, try a Tofurky from your local health food store, or just leave out the bird / bird facsimile altogether and chow down on pie and mashed potatoes and all that other good stuff. Use soy margarine and rice milk and egg replacer instead of dairy and eggs, and cows and chickens everywhere will thank you, too.

More info on and recipes for a compassionate Thanksgiving:
Turkeys at Poplar Spring: The Luckier Ones [change.org]
Adopt-A-Turkey Project [Farm Sanctuary]
Gentle Thanksgiving [FARM]
Menu: Vegan Thanksgiving [Serious Eats]
Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes [VeganBits.com]

Taking names and remembering history: Poor little Mormons and the big gay menace

By Ari | Nov 15, 08 09:20 AM

The TIME article What Happens If You're on the Gay "Enemies List" reports that some queer folks have responded to people of color and Mormons who voted down marriage equality in California with some bigotry of their own. I don't know how wide-spread or real these acts of racism and religious intolerance are. I wish we queer folk could all commit to taking the higher ground and using only peaceful, respectful means to get equal rights. But it's not a perfect world, our country obviously has issues around identity politics, and some queer people are bigots, too. I'm not excusing these folks' behavior whatsoever, just pointing out that they're the exception, not the rule, when it comes to activism for queer equality.

This article also calls out queer folks for organizing efforts like Anti-Gay Blacklist, wherein the details of individual donors to the Yes on 8 campaign are posted on the internet so those who support marriage equality can boycott them and send mail to the companies they work for. Let's think about a few other times in which such lists of people have been used, which might point to whether this practice is acceptable. Right Wing Christians have posted lists of their own, which have made it easier for, say, Right Wing anti-choice activists to hunt down and murder doctors who give women abortions. The McCarthy-era blacklists destroyed people's lives. Some militant animal rights groups have used lists to target those who imprison and torture animals in labs for sidewalk demonstrations and harassment in front of these people's homes. None of these seem like good ideas to me. None of these strategies are respectful of people's space, privacy, and families. Some of these strategies are outright violent. Are the lists in California any better? Well, yes. They don't include home addresses and phone numbers, so far as I've seen. It seems their primary purpose is to facilitate boycotts, and to help people know where they can send letters. This is public accountability. This is putting faces on the oppressors. This isn't a call for violence, and this will not destroy people's lives. It might, however, mean they get less business and more mail from people they're oppressing. If that's uncomfortable for them that's too bad - they, after all, pulled together millions of dollars to oppress queer families, which I think is a little more egregious than encouraging letter-writing and economic boycotts. If they really had courage in their convictions, they'd welcome these lists put on the internet by gay people - after all, if they're on the moral high ground, why do they want to hide their faces?

Another article in the New York Times quotes Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church, who donated one million dollars in support of the oppression of families like mine. He calls our protests (including, presumably, the vast majority of our protests, which are peaceful and not marred by bigotry) "off-putting." He says, “I think that shows colors... by their fruit, ye shall know them.” Mormons and other religious groups have been showing their colors for generations. What is the fruit of homophobia? Queer teens are committing suicide. Transgender people are being raped and murdered. People born intersexed are being surgically altered and given drugs that change who they are without consent, in their infancy and childhood. Queer folks are shouted at and hurt in the streets. So many queer people are so crippled by internalized homophobia, or so wounded by the homophobia of their families and communities, that they can never self-actualize and be honest about who they are. Ashton and his millionaire friends might try to paint themselves as the victims now that we queer folks are finally lifting ourselves out of the ashes of history, but I'm guessing they're more afraid of us gaining full personhood than they are of our "enemies lists" and boycotts.

UPDATE, 11.18.08

Editorial: Vandalism, coercion are counterproductive to fight for gay marriage mentions the vandalism of Mormon churches and says of other incidents, "One ugly case was the boisterous protest by dozens of gay marriage supporters outside a small Los Angeles restaurant where the owner's daughter had contributed $100 to Proposition 8. The loss of customers threatened the livelihoods of employees, some of whom were gay and opposed the initiative." This is such a shame. It might not be home harassment but it's still harassment, and I don't think it will make this restaurant owner's daughter any more sympathetic to the idea of gay marriage. We can't bully people into seeing us as their equals.

Recycling...The Least You Can Do

By Shira | Nov 13, 08 01:23 PM

Did you know that November 10-16 is International Recycling Week? Neither did I, until it showed up in one of my RSS feeds. Recycling is a good thing, but really, it's the least you can do. If there is a recycling system set up in your region, how could you not wash out your cans and bottles and put them curbside? In Ithaca, recycling actually saves you money because it's free, whereas you have to pay for garbage collection by weight. The problem is that so much public campaigning goes into promoting recycling, and very few people know that there are much more drastic ways to reduce your waste.

For the past month, I've been participating in the Ithaca freeskool reading group on permaculture. We're reading David Holmgren's Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. In Holmgren's chapter on waste, he outlines that in an ideal system there is no "waste" - only material that can be repurposed for food, fertilizer or some other utility.

Most people have heard "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" in which the first is preferable and recycling is only what you should do after you've exhausted use, but Holmgren adds a couple more key Rs to the list - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. To refuse is paramount, especially in the United States, which is disproportionately responsible for resource consumption and carbon emissions. To refuse is pretty easy when you start asking yourself "Do I really need this?" before purchasing new stuff.

Repair is another key step. Do you always get holes in your jeans in the same place - how many times have you patched your pants and kept wearing them? It might be easier to get a new DVD player when yours breaks but why not get it repaired - even if it takes a little more time and maybe even more money? The problem with our culture is that we're focused on convenience and money and have lost our understanding of true cost and true wealth.

Recycling is great and definitely something we should be doing as a society, but it is still very expensive and frustratingly limited. Even in a green oasis like Ithaca, there are only certain containers that can be recycled and the rest go to landfills. And don't even get me started on Tetra Paks.

So, while it's International Recycling Week, and I have your attention, why not think of some significant ways you could reduce your waste before recycling? Here are a few things we're doing:

Buying very little and whenever possible, getting stuff for free or stuff that's been owned and used by someone else first. We're planning on building our future home from mostly salvaged (and natural) materials.
Buying local to reduce the amount of resources and waste that go into transporting goods across the world.
Using tote bags instead of plastic/paper bags and buying food in bulk in reusable containers. The Greenstar coop has an awesome bulk food section, including shampoo and cooking oils!
Fixing stuff. Ari has a knack for sewing and has breathed new life into many pieces of clothing. When the cassette tape part of our stereo broke, we found a shop in Brooklyn that could fix it. Now we can keep listening to our cheesy tape collection from the 80s and 90s and there's one less piece of electronics in a landfill.
Composting. We're looking forward to having our own land and building a composting toilet. My dream is to convert methane gas produced by our poo into energy. In the meantime, we compost all of our organic material. We drop off our food compost at the coop, but in the spring, well put it into our garden.

So yes, recycling is good, but it's still a compromise when it comes to consumption and waste. Don't forget to first refuse, reduce, reuse and repair!

Previously:

Keith Oberman's Book of Love

By Shira | Nov 11, 08 04:51 PM

Keith asks us to spread happiness and protect the ember of love by defending the gay right to marriage...

Same-sex marriage and caged chickens: Human freedom, animal rights

By Ari | Nov 11, 08 04:30 PM

I just read a piece on the Huffington Post, Shaun Jacob Halper's Why Some Americans Don't Have Reason to Celebrate, and found it interesting from an animal rights perspective. It reads in part:

This past Election Tuesday, Californians turned out in droves to recognize the rights of caged-chickens while denying the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. Passing Prop 2 and Prop 8, Californians secured a chicken's right to "extend its wings, lie down, stand up, and turn around" in confinement, while revoking basic democratic rights from gays; rights like equal protection under the law, the ability to pursue happiness, and the freedom to worship religion without state interference (that's right, there are Judeo-Christian confessions that view same-sex marriage as sacred). In short, Californians sympathize with chickens but not with gays.

Isn't he minimizing the plight of chickens, and saying one oppression is worse (more worthy of concern) than another? I agree it's tragically sad that so many Californian voters have made such an unjust and oppressive choice. But why compare it to their vote to treat innocent chickens with just a little more compassion, as if that decision is somehow silly or less important?

I too am queer, and I too want my partnership, my family, to be legally recognized and not discriminated against. But though I'm oppressed as a queer woman, I've got all kinds of privilege that make my life about a million times better and more free than that of almost any animal of almost any other species. The way that we treat domesticated animals like chickens is absolutely unconscionable - we literally bring them into the world in huge numbers, expressly to suffer and die for our benefit. That voters have made a tiny step toward treating living, feeling animals with just a little more kindness is a beautiful thing. I don't begrudge my feathered sisters their political win. Maybe the folks who care so much about chickens will one day open their hearts a little wider and extend some kindness to queer folks as well. Denigrating their love of animals will not help them to open their hearts.

Maybe Halper is on his way to this realization already, though he's yet to see the connection between the oppression of non-human animals and the oppression of human animals. He writes,

It is the gay community who has failed to build coalitions with other groups. Wake-up call to gay leadership: We must form institutional alliances with other minority communities and start supporting each others interests. We are not going to see these groups support our right to marry if we do not make an active effort to support them as well.

We need to start seeing allies everywhere, and treating everyone as our brothers and sisters in a universal struggle for peace and justice. Maybe some of those we treat with respect and love don't have the power or capability to give us anything in return - but it's not about reciprocity, it's about doing the right thing by our neighbors. A win for the chickens is a win for us all.

Art for feminist, socialist healthcare

By Ari | Nov 11, 08 04:07 PM

Thanks to Liz Henry of Composite: Poetics and Tech for using an illustration I did for her excellent post, Argentinian feminists in the early 1900s.

You can also see and comment on the art here: "socialist heath care" on Flickr. This art was originally an illustration for an article in Socialist Women, about a woman's struggle in the U.S. healthcare system. If anyone out there is still afraid of socialists, read about Socialist Party USA's wonderful healthcare campaign.

"The role of trust in high tech work- The case of Freelance Web-Designers in NYC"

By Ari | Nov 10, 08 03:36 PM

A while back I participated in a study by a Columbia sociology student named Matthias Thiemann, who has written a 120 page thesis in German based on his research. He's translated a four-page section of it which may be published as a chapter in an upcoming book, which I really got a kick out of and wanted to share here: The role of trust in high tech work- The case of Freelance Web-Designers in NYC (PDF)

Some highlights that I really identify with (and I guess I should, since I was part of the sample):

In sending away clients to cheaper, better suited competitors or building little devices free of charge, freelancers establish a reputation of putting the clients’ welfare first, generating trust. Such acts of gift-giving then can lead to overcome the volatility of market-demand by generating referral networks for the freelancer and binding the gift-recipients for the long term.

I totally do this! I learned this from Tekserve, where I first worked when we moved to NYC - and it's not something I do to get something out of people, with the expectation of returns. I do it because, like Tekserve, I care about the people I'm working with, and about their projects, and if I can do something that's perhaps small and easy for me, but of great value to my clients, I'll do it in a heartbeat. This is also why Shira and I sometimes refer clients to other designers - if we know someone who can do a given job better or more economically for some reason, we pass it on, because it's in our client's interest. And rather than losing us clients, often those same clients come back because they know we did them a good turn.

In the sample, the more successful freelancers deserve special attention to the communication process, attempting to include the wishes of the customers and providing them with the feeling that they are in command. This strategy does not only bind their clients to them and leads to several referrals due to the pleasant process of cooperation, it is also a lucrative strategy in itself. The increased trust into the interaction partner seems to arouse the desire to actively engage in the process of production. This not only increases the satisfaction with the final product, it also increases the amount of work time spent on a project which adds to the income of the designer.

Here too, we don't use this strategy so we'll spend more time and make more money, though of course those are nice side effects which do happen on some projects. Shira and I treat every design job not as merely a service for pay, but as a cooperative partnership - we specialize in helping to give form and reach to our clients' ideas. The result is that the client is usually very, very happy with the product, and the product is very, very useful to them. We do give advice and make calls as designers, because we often have a deeper understanding of communications strategy and visual design principles than do our clients (which is, after all, why they hire us), but we don't steamroll our clients into accepting things they don't dig. We like to work with people to make things they love, and which will last. It's good for the client, and Matthias's study is helping me see how good it is for us, too.

Click here to read the paper, and let me know if you too are a web designer who'd like to talk to Matthias. His research goes on...

Lioness in the New York Times

By Ari | Nov 6, 08 10:17 AM

The documentary Lioness has been featured in the New York Times. We did the website, branding, posters, and other outreach materials for the film, and are happy to see it getting out to a wider and wider audience. It offers a rarely-seen glimpse into the lives of female combat veterans, and the challenges they face when they come back home. Read the article, and visit the film site to get involved and take action on the issues.

A great animated film about Critical Mass

By Ari | Nov 6, 08 08:44 AM

Shira and I saw a simple, beautifully-done animated short a while back, about Critical Mass. I just found it online and wanted to share it. It's by filmmaker and Brooklyn bike commuter Nick Golebiewski, and you can see it in Quicktime format here. It's 2.5 minutes long - give it a looksee.

If you want it on DVD, you can get the short as part of a larger collection of media about Critical Mass, Still We Ride, from Microcosm Publishing.

Countering the badness with peace and love: No on Prop. 8, yes to equality

By Ari | Nov 6, 08 08:06 AM

My good friend Josh has written a beautiful, positive call to action for equality in California. Read it, and get excited!

Hey folks,

Damn I'm jazzed!

5 Great Things YOU can do about Prop 8!

1) Start feeling good!

The vote on 8 won't be certified until next month. Start visualizing and Secret'ing it to lose! The trick is to visualize it to the point where you feel REALLY good, like it's REALLY happening!

Also, remind yourself that while if Prop 8 does pass, it will be but a momentary setback in the civil rights movement... while at the same time, we are celebrating the groundbreaking civil rights victory of having for the first time a black President! Civil rights moves forward inexorably. We will prevail!

(If you don't understand how people of color and queers have more in common than less, talk to me.)

2) Feel REALLY good!

Novel lawsuits are already being filed, on the grounds that Prop 8 misused the amendment process to undermine the constitution itself. Other lawsuits are also being filed. It might be even MORE FUN if Prop 8 wins and then gets struck down in the courts! Hah! So if that feels even better to you, Secret that!

3) Fight FOR your equality, not AGAINST Prop 8, conservatives, or anything else... not even in your mind.

What you resist, persists. Fight FOR your equality, your right to be treated equal under the law, and your acceptance in our culture for who you are.

4) Shift to not fighting at all.

Resist the urge to see this as a war, an us versus them dynamic with winners and losers.

This is what many conservatives actually want. If your head is making war, then you are actually participating in the global war machine they support.

If you want peace on this planet, do not expect it until you can figure out how to assert your equality in peace.

Take action, certainly... but do it in a way that does not divide you from others. Stay connected to your friends and family members that are so wrapped up in their own fears that they could vote Yes on 8. Be an agent of change in their lives.

Create this change through love and unity, not war and separation.

5) Know what Prop 8 is really about and respond to that.

Realize that this is not really about marriage at all, but about keeping queers invisible, discriminated against, oppressed. So, be visible... be yourself, fearlessly, powerfully, and encourage others to do the same.

Examine your experiences to see if there are any ways, even little ways, that you still hide who you really are AND/OR allow others to express their homophobia without letting them know how their actions affect you.

Do you refrain from talking about your relationships at work even though straight coworkers do? When was the last time you let a homophobic joke go without saying something? Are you still hiding from any of your family members to some degree? Can you meet new people, spend any significant amount of time with them, and make it so they leave without really knowing you're gay/queer/trans/etc?

Even if you're "fully out", do you modulate it down sometimes? Under what circumstances? Are you living as queer as you actually are? If you're heterosexual, are YOU living as queer as you actually are?

Remember, if someone has to be uncomfortable or unhappy, it doesn't have to be you. :-)

BONUS! 6) Forward this message on!

Please feel free to mail, email, or repost this text. All I ask is that you include the original link: http://bunnykitteh.livejournal.com/155593.html

}{ugs,
Josh

Ps. In my rush to excite and empower you, I forgot one little thing... you may not be ready yet! (Thanks Ben, for reminding me!)

If you are feeling angry, sad, hurt... going through the stages of grief... or whatever process you're in, stick with it! Those feelings are sooo important. They are messages that your needs are not getting met.

It was through my own process of getting deeply in touch with the pain of being seen as less-than-a-person by people I grew up with, really getting what that means, that I was able to take back my power and choose my response.

Know that you are loved and surrounded by good wishes for your well being as you go through whatever you are going through right now.

Transgender Day of Remembrance and TransAction!

By Ari | Nov 5, 08 03:36 PM

My being born genderqueer has come with a dose of oppression, from psychologically-damaging pressures to conform to the binary gender system as a child, to having people shout at me in the streets. Throw in being a woman and being queer and I'm never sure what part of me people are shouting at. I don't know that I can complain, though - many people have experienced far, far worse, and even lost their lives.

Coming up on November 20, 2008 is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day for us to remember and honor those folks who have been killed due to anti-transgender bias, hatred, and prejudice. See participating groups or organize a commemoration of your own. GLSEN and TDOR offer the following ideas:

Candlelight vigils / marches
Visual representation of the number of deaths with:
- Cardboard tomb stones of remembered people
- Paper cutouts of remembered people
- Body outline chalkings of remembered people
- Art / photography displays

Also, save the date: on February, 27, 2009, GLSEN is holding a student-driven event in support and celebration of trans and gender non-conforming people, TransAction! Visit their site for info on workshops and speakers - and to set up your own event.

If you want to know more about us folks with interesting genders, check out Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, the Transgender Law and Policy Institute, Gender.org, and good ol' Wikipedia.

"President Obama" sounds soooo good!

By Shira | Nov 5, 08 10:14 AM

Feeling Patriotic

By Shira | Nov 4, 08 03:49 PM

I've been crying tears of joy off and on for weeks now, just thinking about today and Obama being president. I just got back from voting and I'm feeling patriotic.

I can't say that I've ever had a lot of American pride. In fact, in the past eight years, I've often wondered why my immigrant parents didn't choose a more socialist European country to settle in, and yes, I seriously considered moving to Canada for gay marriage and healthcare.

It hasn't helped that I turned eighteen in '98 and the only presidential elections I've had the right to participate in were mired in fraud and disenfranchisement. From the looks of it, the electoral system is still broken. Did you hear that Tim Robbins wasn't on the rolls today? But despite the broken machines and long lines, something big is happening. Something "historical" is happening. Something is changing.

Sure, Obama's hands will be tied on a lot of issues. And he's definitely more conservative than me in many respects. But I don't have any illusions that nation-states will dissolve, and people will work cooperatively for peace across the globe anytime soon. Pragmatic change is still change and I am ready to embrace it.

The day's not over yet, so who knows what will happen for sure. The difference is that this time, if there is a conspiracy to steal the vote, we're not going to take it, and neither is Obama.

Obama bringing out the love

By Ari | Nov 3, 08 10:40 PM

From Tears for Obama, a very touching slideshow of photos on Huffington Post, showing people crying at Obama rallies.

See also: O-Bama Faces, The Obamas' Greatest PDA Moments, Campaign Trail PDA: The Obama/Biden Edition, The Obamas' Greatest Family Moments, and the rest of the slideshows. They're all pretty heart-warmingly fantastic.

Ari's Early Animal Rights Influences

By Ari | Nov 3, 08 10:01 AM

I was sitting here in our cute little library (our new place in Ithaca has a tiny room just right for books) and I looked up at our shelves and thought, a lot of books here really changed me as a child. Somehow I went from eating animals and wearing their skins to thinking of animals as my brothers and sisters. It took a very long time and I'm still working on it (I think I always will - species privilege is really hard to work against), but I know that even as a kid, I was starting to form that consciousness. So, I figured out the titles that I think had the most impact on me early on, and I put them into this GoodReads shelf: Ari's Early Animal Rights Influences

Was anyone else out there spurred to a more developed social consciousness as a result of childhood readings? What titles had the most impact on you?

Read on for the reviews / notes I posted in GoodReads, on each title - or visit the shelf to read them on GoodReads, and write your own reviews.

Continue reading "Ari's Early Animal Rights Influences..." »

Thanks, Errol Morris

By Shira | Oct 31, 08 11:35 AM

Errol Morris has made a series of ads to promote Obama to "people in the middle." Take a look and pass it on to anyone you know who might be undecided.

Coincidentally, last night we watched Morris's documentary Standard Operating Procedure, about the torture and abuses in Abu Ghraib. Morris is definitely the king of the documentary interview. While I generally am annoyed at the overuse of "talking heads," there's something so intimate about his interviews that I could stare at the faces in his films all day and not get bored.

Breast cancer: Prevention is the cure

By Ari | Oct 15, 08 05:31 PM

I did some animation work a while back for a documentary called No Family History by filmmaker Sabrina McCormick. Unfortunately the animations didn't make the cut; the film has been restructured into more of an advocacy piece about the need to focus on prevention in the fight against breast cancer, and so it no longer required animated explanations of chemotherapy and other scientific details of cancer and its treatment. (Prrrrobably for the best, all things considered. They were pretty technical.)

Sabrina's written a piece about the film and the prevention approach for MediaRights, where Shira used to work. Check it out: Reframing the Fight: Why Prevention is the Cure for Breast Cancer. We can't wait to see the film - keep an eye out for it!

Ellen's PSA against California's homophobic Proposition 8

By Ari | Oct 15, 08 02:25 PM

Ellen Degeneres has made a PSA against Proposition 8, the initiative coming up in California to rob queer folks of the right to marriage. Bravo, Ellen!

Also, I hear her mom has joined Bradd Pitt and Steven Spielberg in giving money to the campaign against Proposition 8. Way to go, Ellen's mom!

Cool vegan travellers

By Ari | Oct 15, 08 02:04 PM

Milo Likes the Bus
Originally uploaded by fourvegans

We've met some awesome people through our vegan ecovillage project, including Sugati and Chris, who are about to travel the U.S. in a bus converted run on waste veggie oil. It's got solar power, and they're going to run workshops on mobile sustainability as they go. These are their kids hanging out with a friend, whose parents are hosting the bus while it's parked, pre-journey.

You can follow their odyssey on their blog, and here's a link to their Flickr photoset about the bus.

It's Ally Week

By Ari | Oct 15, 08 12:50 PM

It's Ally Week this week, a nationwide chance for straight allies to speak up for their queer friends and family at school and in their communities. I know that as a queer person, having straight allies has always been a very warm and fuzzy feeling. Thank you for all that you do, straight but not narrow folks!

I helped design GLSEN's Student Organizing site as well as MySpace and other materials for Ally Week. The Ally Week materials themselves were designed by someone else - not sure who but they look great!
Ally Week Website
Sign up to participate - GLSEN Student Organizing site

Now here's a place where I could work out...

By Shira | Oct 13, 08 12:55 PM

Eco-Gym @ Yahoo! Video

Spreading the Word About Ahimsa Ecovillage

By Shira | Oct 6, 08 04:03 PM

On September 20th, 2008, we presented our idea for Ahimsa, a vegan ecovillage, with members of Club Veg Southern Tier and the Ithaca Area Vegan Meetup. The discussion took place at Smart Monkey Cafe where the group convened for a delicious vegan meal. Thanks to Ben Bristoll for video taping the event and to Bill Huston for taking photos!

Ahimsa Ecovillage Discussion from Shira Golding on Vimeo.

I love this photo of us. Doesn't Ari look like a visionary?

Photo by Bill Huston

Check out more photos from the event on flickr...

A new vegan cat community

By Ari | Oct 1, 08 10:31 PM

I've been frustrated for sooo long by my inability to hook up with other folks who have vegan cats. I mean, I've met a few people online, but it's hard to really share information in any kind of organized way. Where can I ask people for advice on how to talk to our vet without getting instant judgement? Where can I share tips on how to best prepare Vegecat homemade vegan cat food?

Well, I finally decided (as if I don't have enough to do), that I should just go ahead and start a community and see what happens. Maybe I'm the only one out there looking for this kind of thing, I don't know. But it's worth a try!

You can visit the community here: vegancats.ning.com

Please feel free to fire questions at me if this is the first time you've heard of vegan cats! And be sure to check out the always adorable Sid, Zora and Snow, our own dear vegan cat housemates.

This is my first time setting up a Ning from scratch, rather than just customizing an existing one, and I've got to say, it's awesome. Very easy to set up and integrate with third-party services. This one is a bit of a practice run for me because I may be setting one up for our friends at freeDimensional in the near future. Go Ning.

Flickr: "popularity" and social change

By Ari | Sep 28, 08 11:31 PM

Ah, Flickr. I spend waaaay too much time on there. But you know, I consider it a form of activism - and there are some amazing activists on there spreading some beautiful ideas, so I'm not the only one with an agenda. I can be very shy in person, but on Flickr, I can have meaningful dialogues with people from all over the world, many who help me to learn and change, and many who I hope I've helped along a bit as well.

I think that Flickr's measures of "popularity" are very compelling measures of what works and what doesn't in doing advocacy on Flickr. Here are the four measures of popularity (according to Flickr), and some notes on how each measure is useful from an activist perspective.

Most interesting
Mostly my art, at this point - which is encouraging! But then, the whole "interestingness" thing on Flickr is a bit of a mystery so I'm not sure what this says about my art. Some of my more political stuff is right up top in this list, and by keeping track of what Flickr calls interesting, I can adjust my ongoing work to see if I can tweak the results. Yes, I literally make art that I think might get into this queue. If I can get Flickr to call activist art interesting, that means more people see it when browsing Flickr.

Most views
If a photo has anything remotely sexy in it, tag it with "sex" and "sexy" and you too will soon be posting photos in the "5,000 views" and "10,000 views" groups. Some results break this mold though - like this snap of a sidewalk installation by De La Vega. The upside of the ridiculousness of sexy tags' popularity is that you can use this to create dialogue. Yay stealth feminism!

Most faved
Also a lot of my art, and my more arty photos. Yaay! This is why I love Flickr - honestly I never made so much art before I started posting stuff on here and getting feedback. By keeping track of what folks like about my work, I can adjust what I post and get more challenging ideas out there more effectively.

Most commented upon
Somehow, I've been fortunate enough to get some really great dialogues going around speciesism, sexism, sustainability, and other issues - many of which go on for some time. I've learned a lot over the years and have gotten pretty good at keeping dialogue going. If I get worked up or push radical ideas on people too quickly or too forcefully I find that I come off as pedantic or holier-than-thou and the dialogue sputters out quickly. I find that asking questions is more useful - if folks reach conclusions on their own they'll be more engaged and will want to keep talking with me. It's fun to see other activists join in to help me out - and I've even purposefully posted my photo in relevant groups to get activist help on occasion! But it's even more fulfilling and enjoyable to see folks coming around to compassion, just by having the space to ask questions and challenge my ideas.

Does anyone else do this kind of thing? How do you get conversation going on difficult subjects?

Previously: 6 best practices: Engaging in social networking for social change

13 changes we've made to help the earth

By Ari | Sep 26, 08 09:38 AM

Here's a photo of a card in our last set of little outreach materials we distributed around NYC before leaving for the greener streets and gorges of Ithaca. We used the little cards that we have left over from when we had our wedding invitations printed up, pasting handwritten and printed bits of paper over the parts with text. Presto - new outreach cards, less waste, and no printing costs. Yay!

I thought I'd post about some of the things Shira and I have done to reduce our environmental impact. We've been trying a lot of things and have really reduced our footprint in tangible ways - and we're still living just as lush and happy a life as we were before we started making these changes. In fact, reducing our impact on our planet not been an experience of deprivation or bother - it's actually enriched our lives and brought us a lot of happiness and relief and fulfillment. Read on for some ideas, from quick and easy things to bigger lifestyle changes, that you too could try on for size. The earth, the animals, and the next seven generations will thank you!

Continue reading "13 changes we've made to help the earth..." »

It's gay week - and I love Ian McKellen!

By Ari | Sep 25, 08 01:05 PM

McKellen promotes gay tolerance:

Actor Sir Ian McKellen is to visit schools, giving talks about gay tolerance. The star, best known to youngsters as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, hopes to end bullying of gay pupils... "I said that we are all part of a minority group - be it for being short, or tall or fat or thin, or having red hair or whatever. I said hands up who thinks they are part of a minority group and all the hands went up. I had Gandalf's sword with me and I knighted a pair of children Sir Minority and Dame Minority and it went down very well... It is essential to talk to 12 and 13-year-olds because they absorb what's thrown at them, whether it be homophobia or tolerance - and we have to make sure it's the positive stuff."

What with Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg donating money in support of gay marriage, and Lindsay Lohan and Clay Aiken coming out (congrats and thanks to both of them!), and now this, I feel like it's gay week! What a beautiful new world we're making for queer youth.

A while back, a hater dissed me on Flickr for my veganism, and also took issue with me calling myself a "queer vegan" in all of my online bios. I admit at the time I actually felt hurt and a little embarrassed. But then I took a step back and remembered why I describe myself in that way, and felt a little more self-assured. When I was growing up queer people were largely invisible - this was pre-Ellen! Even though I had supportive queer people in my own family, I did grow up with a lot of internalized homophobia and massive gender issues. It's taken me a long time to finally accept who I am and to be honest about it. Becoming vegan too was a huge step for me, a big break with family tradition and a very hard struggle, to acknowledge speciesism in myself and to change my actions to be in line with my ethics and my heart.

So here I am, finally, a queer vegan - and I can't help but wish that as I was growing up, there had been more visible, out and proud queer folks and vegan folks around in the media and in popular culture and in my community. So when I put that right up front it's because I want to be visible, obvious. I don't want anyone to guess or have to ask. I want little queer kids, and little kids who love animals, to immediately know that I'm like them, and that it's okay to be like this. I sure don't have the visibility or profile of Sir Ian McKellen or Lindsay Lohan, but every little bit counts, right?

Anyway, happy gay week.

Al Gore says it's time for civil disobedience

By Ari | Sep 24, 08 10:04 PM

Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants:

If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration... I believe for a carbon company to spend money convincing the stock-buying public that the risk from the global climate crisis is not that great represents a form of stock fraud because they are misrepresenting a material fact... I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that.

Thank you, Brad!

By Ari | Sep 19, 08 07:48 PM

Brad Pitt donates money to support gay marriage:

"Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8," Pitt said Wednesday.

Trevor Neilson, Pitt's political and philanthropic adviser, told The Associated Press that Pitt was surprised that his colleagues in the entertainment industry had not donated more money to support the battle against Proposition 8.

Biggest political rally in Canada's history: Alaska Women Reject Palin

By Ari | Sep 19, 08 06:03 PM

My friend Diana, an activist in NYC, sent me an amazing email about an anti-Palin protest in Alaska that drew record crowds on September 14th, but which is getting snubbed by the media.

A group of women organized the protest over coffee; they wanted to show the world that Sarah Palin does not stand for all Alaskans, and arranged a rally at their local library. Local right wing radio talk show host Eddie Burke gave out organizers' phone numbers on the air, making a public call for harassment that sure enough resulted in the women getting threatening phonecalls. He's been suspended a week for that, but his station has no problem with his calling the organizers "socialist, baby-killing maggots." The protesters persevered and the result was an incredible turnout - the biggest political rally in the history of the state of Alaska.

Here's a video. Keep in mind that Alaska doesn't have a lot of people - apparently a rally is deemed successful when 25 people show up. So this 1400 people is a big deal.

The story has hit some blogs, but hasn't gotten a lot of media coverage. Here's the Washington Post's campaign trail blog post about it, and a piece on gaywired.com. There's a brief mention in The Independent and some coverage on the Huffington Post. Please help spread the word - and ask your local media why you aren't hearing this story from them.

The same activist, known on her blog as AKMuckraker, also wrote it up as a blog post, but the email was a little longer and is probably better to use if you want to send emails about this to folks. (Also, the blog post seems to be getting a lot of traffic so it's loading very slowly. Do visit it though - she has lots of photos!) Read on for the full text of the email version.

Continue reading "Biggest political rally in Canada's history: Alaska Women Reject Palin..." »

Quote of the day: How to have huge dreams

By Ari | Sep 18, 08 09:15 AM

"Community has made everything in my life easier and has allowed me to have huge dreams, inconceivable without community. The skills I've learned, practical and human, seem infinite. My love for humanity has thrived and expanded. Nothing about community has been easy, but it all has been fun. This is the work for political activists who want to live their solutions. If we are to survive as a species we will do so learning the ecstasy of community. We do have to get together."
- Patch Adams, in his Foreword to Diana Leafe Christian's Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities

If only there were more Garbage Warriors

By Shira | Sep 17, 08 02:12 PM

My friend Jolene from Arts Engine just told me about this movie. I haven't seen it yet, but the trailer looks great. Hopefully Ari and I won't face as many governmental challenges as we move forward with our natural building dreams...

While Michael Reynolds has focused on the earthship approach, which makes perfect sense for New Mexico (and perhaps post-Katrina New Orleans), it looks like strawbale might be a better technique for upstate New York, where we recently moved. We've got a lot to learn about building, but we have a community vision. We're giving a presentation about our ideas for an Ahimsa Ecovillage this Saturday at 6pm at the Vegan Meetup at Smart Monkey Cafe in Ithaca. RSVP and come!

Matt Damon Disses Sarah Palin

By Shira | Sep 11, 08 10:59 AM

The best line is at the end...

Jonathan Safran Foer Tells It

By Shira | Sep 10, 08 10:55 AM

He never uses the word "vegan" so I'm not sure exactly where Mr. Safran Foer stands, but he makes some great arguments for going vegetarian, especially if you're a Jew who keeps Kosher. I particularly like this bit where he quotes Tolstoy...

For some reason I hold in the back of my mind that everybody I know is going to be a vegetarian in twenty years, it's something I really believe... Tolstoy once said that if everyone were vegetarian, there wouldn't be war anymore. And it sounds like a very silly statement on the surface because what on earth does one have to do with the other. But I thought about it a lot, and I believe in it - not because the meat industry itself is causing wars, but because if we became the kind of people who were regularly choosing our reason over our hungers, being more deliberate, more willful about our sense of what's right, we'd be living in a very different kind of world.

Living with Solar and Wind Power in Ithaca: Lessons from an Energy-Efficient Lifestyle - Sept. 24th

By Ari | Sep 10, 08 10:42 AM

Another event we're excited about in Ithaca: Living with Solar and Wind Power in Ithaca: Lessons from an Energy-Efficient Lifestyle, coming up on Sept. 24th, 7-8:15 pm, at Greenstar Coop. It's 100% free and... 100% awesome? We hope so. Visit Greenstar's Community Calendar for more info or call 607.273.9392 to register.

Read on for the full event description.

Continue reading "Living with Solar and Wind Power in Ithaca: Lessons from an Energy-Efficient Lifestyle - Sept. 24th..." »

The Grandmothers Speak - October 5th, Ithaca

By Ari | Sep 10, 08 09:51 AM

We're going to this event on October 5th, The Grandmothers Speak. Thirteen indigenous grandmothers from all over the world will do a prayer of healing for the earth, something even this 1/64 Cherokee atheist is excited to see and hear. You can visit the grandmothers online here.

More info and tickets. Read on for a longer description of the group and the event.

Continue reading "The Grandmothers Speak - October 5th, Ithaca..." »

An update on Ahimsa, our vegan ecovillage project

By Ari | Sep 9, 08 10:35 AM

Club Veg Southern Tier has invited us to the Smart Monkey Café outing they've planned with The Ithaca Area Vegan Meetup Group. If you're in the area, please join us - you can RSVP here.

We've just updated and improved the project webpage and ic.org listing. We hope that it now provides a clearer and more useful way to get involved than our previous request that people email us (which we always took waaaay too long to respond to). It also provides some guidance as to where to go from here, once you've joined the list. And finally, it now answers a lot of questions that kept coming up in our discussions.

If you're interested in community living and would be willing to live in a sustainable, cruelty-free way in or around Ithaca, we want to meet you! Check out the page for more info and to get involved.

Previously:
A community can look like this
Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #2: Housing
Ahimsa Ecovillage

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

By Ari | Sep 9, 08 10:02 AM

'In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,' said [Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize]. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian. (Read more)

Warning: The article has a big gross photo of a chunk of cow flesh right up top.

When we were in India we loved seeing the streets lined with vegetarian restaurants, and found delicious cruelty-free dosas and thalis just about everywhere. Unfortunately avoiding dairy can be a little tricky due to the widespread use of ghee and cream. Kerala, the beautiful Socialist area in the south, uses coconut milk instead. So any vegan Socialists headed to India, now you know where to go. Though if we're reducing our impact, we shouldn't be flying anymore! Does anyone know a good eco-friendly steamship service?

What do vegans eat? See photos of delicious vegan food and Some recent vegan deliciousness. See our map of NYC picks, and our 8 Vegan Restaurants We'll Miss When We Leave NYC.

(Via The Ithaca Area Vegan Meetup Group)

Bird Peace illustrations

By Ari | Sep 8, 08 08:24 AM

So, I did some drawings the week before we moved to Ithaca, in the mornings. Each morning I did one and posted it on Flickr. I got a surprising amount of positive feedback - yay Flickr! I cannot recommend Flickr highly enough for any budding artists / visual experimenters / photographers out there. If positive reinforcement is something that drives you, Flickr's community has got it in spades. Thank you, Flickr friends.

Anyway, here are the four pieces. Each one is about peace, and each one is kinda birdsploitation. I really dig birds. There's an immediate association with peace, because of our friend the Peace Dove. But birds are good inspiration in other ways. They, like us, sing songs and decorate nests. They, like us, seek heights but come back down to the creature comforts of food and sleep and family. I think we have a lot to learn from them.

Teach Peace. The tiniest bird can teach us peace. She lives in her ecological niche, in sustainable equilibrium with the other species around her. She never takes more than she needs to survive, allowing her neighbors to thrive and support her in turn. In turn, we can learn to act with such peace that no animal needs to fear us any longer. We need to improve how we fit into our own ecological niche, to begin to help our neighbors to thrive.

The means are the ends. This one is taken from a quote by Gandhi, who said, "the means are the ends in progress." Basically, no, violence is never justified, because if you want peace, you need to use peaceful means to get it. That's where peace comes from. That's what peace is.

Might does not make right: This one is just a reminder from one of our small, sweet cousins. Did you know chickens score higher on cognitive tests than do dogs or cats? Or if you prefer scripture over science, doesn't god hear every sparrow fall? The tiniest, downiest chick deserves nothing less than compassion, and the right to be let alone with his loving family. (Sadly, commercial egg production involves unspeakable horrors done to chicks. Please read about it if you aren't yet informed - and go vegan!)

Everything will be OK (no really). This one is another reminder. If we look at the long arc of history we can see how much better things have become over time. I believe another world is not only possible, but is being built right now. Join in! Read Nowtopia or The Great Turning if you need evidence or more encouragement than these birds can give you. Everything will be OK!

For more of my work on Flickr, please check out my i made this photoset. Comments (here and on Flickr, negative and positive) are always welcome.

"Bee-Boys" ask us to save the honey bees

By Shira | Aug 21, 08 08:25 PM

...but I have to ask, why does Haagen Dazs want to save the bees, but not the dairy cows? And where are they getting their honey?

Here are some original B-Boys and the woman who documented them when hip-hop was born:

"Shira Golding - Sex Icon"

By Shira | Aug 14, 08 07:09 PM

Well...not exactly, but that's what the email read when I got the assignment to create the graphic for The Macktivist, the new sex advice column in The Indypendent. The first installment by R. Alvarez is a pretty awesome read.

Some recent vegan deliciousness

By Ari | Aug 11, 08 07:13 PM

I post a lot of food photos on Flickr and I thought I'd share some recent good ones:

AMAZING vegan pastry!

Brussels sprouts, gnocci and quinoa at Lauren's place - she's a very good cook.

Bananas, strawberries, vegan ice cream, and Ahlaska! chocolate sauce.

Fancy vegan food at Fressen in Toronto with Dante.

Vegan udon noodles.

At Organic Heights vegan restaurant, Brooklyn. Really good food, and really sweet people. It's a new one, check it out if you're in NYC...

Check out my vegan food photoset for more cruelty-free food. Go vegan! (PDF)

The Great Turning: The world getting better, already in progress

By Ari | Aug 11, 08 11:06 AM

If you read one book this year, please make it David C. Korten's The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. I really think this book has the potential to change the world. Actually, I think this book is only one small part of the movement it describes - not only is another world possible, it's being built right now. This book explains what's happening all around us clearly and with compassion, and invites us to take part in the great turning of human civilization from age-old patterns of domination and exploitation, to cooperation, partnership, and peace.

Korten comes from a mainstream U.S. background - he worked for years trying to help folks around the world improve their lives through the application of global capitalist strategies. He discovered that this didn't help but rather hurt people, and over time turned instead to more progressive means. Today he is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network and YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, and works on a host of other amazing projects aimed at creating a better world right now. The Great Turning is Korten's careful explanation of where we've gone wrong, what's happening right now, and how we can turn it all around for the better.

Continue reading "The Great Turning: The world getting better, already in progress..." »

6 best practices: Engaging in social networking for social change

By Ari | Aug 9, 08 03:56 PM

as a vegan lesbian, i find this doubly gross
Originally uploaded by arimoore

I'm a Flickr addict. I have nearly 450 contacts and am in over 280 groups; I admin or moderate an additional 8 groups, two of which I started. Sometimes I worry I'm spending too much time on the site, but I get so much out of it I think the effort is more than worth the return - I've gotten feedback on my drawings that's been a huge motivator and inspiration for future work; I've had dialogues with activists and others that have gone on for days and changed minds all around (including my own, many times); folks have found my work and used in their own projects or published it with their articles - and even an upcoming book - while I've found images to use in pieces for our clients, in lieu of stock photography. All in all it's been a very positive experience, and I've picked up a lot about how to be more effective as an activist and as a member of the Flickr community. I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.

Continue reading "6 best practices: Engaging in social networking for social change..." »

A community can look like this

By Ari | Aug 9, 08 10:47 AM

a community can look like this (color version)
Originally uploaded by arimoore

Shira and I continue to do research on our future housing options. The drawing here is me puzzling over certain house types and just messing around with pretty shapes. (I feel like I'm getting better at drawing trees freehand thanks to all of my tree drawings! I guess that's what happens when you don't draw much else for a couple of years.)

Making these drawings, and reading about natural building and the owner-builder concept, is liberating and empowering. Reading through Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter and Shelter, you can see how capable and powerful ordinary people are at creating beautiful and livable solutions themselves, without any help from "professionals." You begin to see that folks have been making their own homes and workshops and such for as long as we've been able to improvise tools and manipulate our environment. Over time we've come up with better and better ways of housing ourselves. Strawbale, cob, stone and other natural building materials are safer, easier to use, more energy-efficient, and far less expensive than the chemical-leaching, wasteful drywall and vinyl siding and asphalt shingles and other stuff that so many of us use in new houses today.

Continue reading "A community can look like this..." »

Rev Billy on Fox Business Happy Hour

By Ari | Aug 8, 08 01:32 PM

Check out this incredible video of Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping dropping some science on Fox News. The host really gets into it, though she's a little shocked by his indictment of capitalism. On Fox! He dissed capitalism on Fox! You have to watch it. Oh, and stop shopping!

Via the Stop Shopping Monitor
Previously:

Announcing Lionessthefilm.com

By Ari | Aug 1, 08 02:36 PM

Just launched today, Lionessthefilm.com. We worked with filmmakers Daria Sommers and Meg McLagan, along with consultation from Working Films and Matt Syrett, to craft a comprehensive online outreach tool for this exciting new documentary. The site was built on Movable Type 4 (open source, baby!), uses Google Analytics to track traffic, and dovetails with accounts on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Google Calendar, to provide soldiers, veterans, and those providing support services with ways to engage with the film and with each other - and to help get their stories heard. We also designed the film's branding, as well as posters, postcards, email graphics, and other outreach essentials.

Through beautiful footage shot by our friend Kirsten Johnson (Farenheit 9/11, Deadline), Lioness tells the story of the first women in American history to be sent into direct ground combat. The interviews with the Lionesses are gripping; as anti-war activists we found watching the film to be an invaluable learning experience that really helped us identify with soldiers who are putting their lives on the line in armed combat. It movingly shows both the combat experience and the impact of it on people's lives, after they've come home.

Visit the site at Lionessthefilm.com to view the trailer, find screenings, get involved, and sign up for updates.

Jack and Jane - Environmental Pioneers

By Shira | Aug 1, 08 02:30 PM

Yet more Uncle Samantha sightings...

By Ari | Aug 1, 08 01:37 PM

Thanks to F.O.R.C.E. - Feminist Organization Reclaiming Consciousness and Equality for using Uncle Samantha to get out the vote! F.O.R.C.E., a student-run organization at California State University, Long Beach, writes:

Our purpose is to bring dialogue to stimulate an understanding of feminisms by raising consciousness of women's issues, which include but are not limited to personal experience, agency, and the understanding of women's differences and similarities. In order to reach these goals we plan to educate and inform the campus community through activities and workshops. Lastly, F.O.R.C.E. will support the WRC, other campus organizations, and various departments that believe in the enrichment of women's lives.

Right on. They've got an awesome web presence, too:

Uncle Samantha appears on both the MySpace page and the blog. Don't forget to register to vote!

Previously:

An Anti-Capitalist Blockbuster?

By Shira | Jul 30, 08 05:28 PM

Support healthcare for all - TODAY, NYC

By Ari | Jul 30, 08 12:37 PM

Via our friends in the Coalition Against Privatization:

Wed. July 30: Rally to Stop Healthcare Privatization

As the healthcare crisis deepens, people are searching for alternatives to a corporate-driven system that leaves nearly 50 million Americans uninsured. Not surprisingly, the healthcare industry's solution is even more privatization. GHI & HIP are two of the latest targets of this privatizing campaign. But what if the solution - or a partial solution - to this dilemma already exists?

Continue reading "Support healthcare for all - TODAY, NYC..." »

Radical Change Design for Green Earth Design Competition

By Shira | Jul 23, 08 04:03 PM

I just submitted this design to the green earth
international graphic design competition.

Here's my little artists statement. I'm not used to doing these!

Being "green" means living sustainably with the earth and all of its inhabitants. To do this, we must reconnect with nature on a deep level. As we become one with the earth, radical change will happen.

rad·i·cal 1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference. 2. forming a basis or foundation. 3. existing inherently in a thing or person. 4. Botany. of or arising from the root or the base of the stem.

Resistance is Fertile: It's Time to Start Guerrilla Gardening

By Shira | Jul 15, 08 05:38 PM

My latest article is up on MediaRights.org. Here's a taste:

In more recent years, guerrilla gardening has exploded in cities like Chicago and New York where waves of development have too often ignored the need for green space. In neighborhoods on the cusp of gentrification, like where I live in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it is very common to walk down a block and see three or four empty, fenced-in lots that have been bought by developers, but which are just sitting there, collecting trash. For this scenario, guerrilla gardeners have come up with the perfect weapon - the seed bomb.

And a great video on the topic...

Reverend Billy: Americans Stop Shopping

By Ari | Jul 15, 08 11:28 AM

Tell it, Reverend Billy!

A headline in the papers said: Americans Stop Shopping. Can you believe this? It goes on to say: Discretionary retail spending is down six quarters in a row, big boxes in receivership, independent shops springing up...

So, the market is no longer a great shadow up in the elevator shaft that crashes down on us every time a rich person needs to leave home. The President told us that shopping was how we fight for our country - that we deserved this nationwide hypnosis - but then Americans Stop Shopping, and oh the freedom from that pain throws us forward into a delicious waltz of little everyday gestures, oh this feels good. Americans Stop Shopping, did anyone see this coming?
Yes, the corporations did. They were afraid we might stop at any moment but then we kept shopping for years and they started buying homes in the Hamptons, oh but feel that? Feel that shopping stop? Could we be fascinated again with the pharmacist couple that survived the chains? Were they Tony and Mary? Are the old first names returning to our shouts? Look at that! It’s a miracle. Our hands are changing - ungrabbing - returning to us from the credit cards and plastic-lid to-go cups...
Americans Stop Shopping and why does it make no sense to sit in traffic now - is it really just the gas? Because - see that? We are leaving our cars and trucks up on the interstate and wandering off across fields, suddenly I meet you after all these years! I remember you and I remember myself - from before all the shopping started. You know what? I’ve got a question for you.
Can you believe this headline? Americans Stop Shopping? We shopped too much because we were afraid of death but now that we stopped - the forests rise through the super mall roof and birds cry “I am here! I am here!” Americans Stop Shopping? Can we believe we are consuming less? - if we believe it then we can do it. Amen?

Amen! Find out more about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Uncle Samantha at Capitol Pride 2008

By Ari | Jul 14, 08 03:47 PM

Jonathan & Laurel with Uncle Samantha
Originally uploaded by bcvflickr

Burgundy Crescent folks using a character I drew, Uncle Samantha, to reel in volunteers at Pride in Washington DC. Apparently she's good at her job - they got a lot of volunteers!

Previously: Uncle Samantha

I Met the Walrus

By Shira | Jul 9, 08 06:45 PM

Hope for the future: The power of the positive

By Ari | Jul 2, 08 10:01 AM

I'm really happy a lot of the time. I'm also very hopeful about the future. Seriously, I sit around thinking and drawing and writing about all the wonderful things human beings are doing, how beautiful the future could be, and how glorious and resilient our environment is, all the time. Like for hours every day. This happiness and hope is what keeps me actively working for peace and justice - it's a huge motivator. It's also just really nice to feel happy and hopeful, which can be hard when you're educating yourself about injustice (which can be depressing).

I could focus on the horrors happening today and work against them or to stop them, and that's what I've done for years. This is a very negative, painful way of operating though, in my experience. It makes me worry if I'm even having an impact, and focusing on the bad stuff all the time can make me feel hopeless and helpless. It's also not a very attractive life, the tortured, self-sacrificing activist living a life of deprivation, with a burden of horrible knowledge - who wants to join in on that? "Join our struggle" doesn't sound like much fun.

So instead I look to successes, read about other activists and activist history. I begin to see how our action today is part of a long legacy of human movement toward peace and justice; I begin to see I'm not alone, that the world is full of folks who aren't only striving for a better world - they're building it right now, and we can all join in.

Here are just a few organizations and books and online communities who are working around these ideas of positivity and looking at the big picture. Every time I discover another group like this I feel another spark of hope and happiness, and I hope they do the same for you:

Anyone else out there into the power of the positive - or have other strategies for keeping motivated? How do you keep hopeful and happy in a changing world that still needs a lot of work?

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel

By shirari | Jun 30, 08 06:26 PM

Get ready for an hour and twelve minutes of non-stop queer vegan rambling! Wait, that didn't sound particularly attractive. Rest assured it'll be worth a listen - in this third installment of Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast we talk about our recent trip to Israel, Amsterdam, and Iceland, and how we attempted to take best advantage of the fuel used to have a experience that was as low-impact and culture-rich as possible. You'll hear about a kibbutz that turns soda cans and other trash into eco-friendly buildings, bikes by the boatload, naked showers with Europeans, friendly ducks interrupting breakfast in a tent, a town where street art is loved and not hated, and delicious, delicious falafel.

Shira's voice is kinda quiet in this one, sorry about that! We're still working out the technical kinks here. If you're actually downloading and listening to these, please comment and tell us what you think! Thanks to those of you who've written to us or commented already, we're so happy folks are giving these a listen.

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel »
June 30, 2008 - 72 minutes - 32.9MB

Show links:

Previously:

Gogol Bordello and the oldest Roma settlement in the world, Sulukule

By Ari | Jun 30, 08 01:01 AM

Gypsy band Gogol Bordello supports Sulukule [Turkish Daily News, via Gogol Bordello Mailing List]:

Gogol Bordello's soloist Eugene Hutz, in the Sunday concert, said, "The incidents happening in Sulukule happen in many places around the world. Do people want more McDonalds' and hotel chains? Or is it more logical to protect a country's culture and historical structures? The choice is yours." (Read more)

"Chickens are decent people." - George Carlin

By Shira | Jun 29, 08 07:06 PM

About four minutes into this amazing monologue about a woman's right to choose, Carlin asks, "How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelette?" While Carlin was not a vegan (or vegetarian), he was an astute observer of American society, including its schizophrenic attitudes towards animals.

Carlin died just as I started reading Lenny Bruce's autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Carlin has cited Bruce as an influence many times and was actually at the famous Lenny Bruce performance when Bruce was arrested for obscenity.

While America has a long way to go in the struggle for social justice, I've got to give props to these comedians for moving us forward in significant ways and paving the way for today's politically progressive comics. After all, could Stephen Colbert be named the 3rd most influential person of the year by TIME Magazine readers if Lenny hadn't pushed the envelope in the '50s and '60s? Nope.

Camp it up with Rude Mechanical Orchestra - Party tonight, NYC!

By Ari | Jun 27, 08 02:18 PM

Folly Day 2008 - RMO Horns Advance
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

If you've never seen an activist marching band perform, and you're in NYC, tonight is the perfect opportunity to catch an amazing show. Our friends in the Rude Mechanical Orchestra are having a big benefit party, and we're bringing along some hand-drawn peace and love buttons and a poster in a hand-made frame for auction. We'll post photos of the stuff we made later on Flickr, or you can come see it in person tonight! For more info read on:

CAMP IT UP! with the RUDE MECHANICAL ORCHESTRA
Friday, June 27th at DCTV
87 Lafayette Street, NYC (just south of Canal)
$0-$20 suggested donation - $20 gets you a special gift!
Doors open at 7pm
Wear something CAMP-y!
HELP US GO PROTEST THE RNC! ***
Bike valet! Silent auction! S'mores! Stripes! Khaki shorts! Fun!
Buy a raffle ticket and win your chance to have the RMO perform at a personal event of your choosing! Yes, we're serious. 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 10 for $20. Available now until the party. Your event must take place after our tour and be in one of the five boroughs.
Also featuring:
Veveritse
Inner Princess
Melora auf Rasputina
Frank London
Jennifer Miller of Circus Amok!
DJ Dusty Walker
And, of course, the RMO
*** In August 2008, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra is taking our show on the road - in a low-impact, environmentally-friendly manner (no stretch SUV limo for us). We will be converting a school bus to run on waste veggie oil and traveling cross country for a two-week adventure -- to cross-pollinate with progressive grassroots organizations and other amazing movers and shakers, and to loudly register our dissent at the Republican National Convention. Along our journey, we plan to raise awareness about and support groups and individuals fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, war and violence in all its forms. So come party with us and help one of the hardest-working bands in town send our rabble-rousing brassy selves to speak music to power!

Previously: Send the Rude Mechanical Orchestra to the RNC

More photos from Reykjavik, Amsterdam, and Israel

By Ari | Jun 26, 08 10:41 AM

shira and a troll friend
Originally uploaded by arimoore

Better late than never, here are my photos from our recent trip, finally all organized and described and tagged on Flickr. You'll find cute animals and magical forests, street art and graffiti, beautiful architecture and ancient ruins, macro experiments and lens flares, geologic wonders, funny and strange signs and art, and lots of ecological sustainability and animal rights stuff. Comments highly appreciated!

Previously: Two and a Half Weeks in Israel, Amsterdam and Iceland (Photos by Shira)

Bushwick Open Studios

By Ari | Jun 24, 08 12:26 PM

ladies looking at our art
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

This June 6-8, we participated in Bushwick Open Studios 2008. We had some art up in the Mighty Tanaka group show at Nut Roaster Studio (see photo), and Shira performed at Bushwick Open Studios Musicfest '08 on the 8th, at Don Pedro's Bar and Lounge. We got favorable responses and met a lot of cool people - and of course saw some awesome art and heard some great music, despite the heat.

The stuff we put up at Nut Roasters was a combination of photography and posters, much like what we put up last year at Office Ops - some choice photos, and some activisty posters you might be familiar with from our shop.

You can see some of my recent work on Flickr, as well as Shira's photography (also on Flickr), and Shira's got some music tracks up at myspace.com/shiragoldingmusic. Her complete first album is downloadable for free/donation right here.

Among the stuff we saw were giant subway photos by Daryl-Ann Saunders, a small lightbox/photography installation by Ryan Frank, photography by Lensflare, detailed drawings by Denise DeSpirito, paintings by Mishel Valenton and David Cahill, and some great prints by JeeYun Lee, probably our favorite work at the Mighty Tanaka show. I also seem to have picked up a card from a Mr. Nicolas A. Forker, and while I can't remember where on earth I saw his work, his site is pretty cool. Finally, we met a dude with a fun beard-and-hat combo who I believe is this very same Johnny Bubonic I've just hunted down - though I'm not 100% sure that's his link. He had stuff up at Ad Hoc, which we somehow ended up missing. (Odd, because that's usually our #1 art destination in Bushwick - sorry, Johnny.)

Thank you Arts in Bushwick for another great arts and music festival!

Live Mermaid Cam - Save Coney Island!

By Ari | Jun 24, 08 11:25 AM

Coney Island is still in danger of being creepily redeveloped, and the Mermaid Queen (who also happens to be Reverend Billy's wife, Savitri D), is on a hunger strike in protest. Chat with her above by clicking the "Enter Chat" button. If you're a Stickam member you can add her as a friend or video chat with her: stickam.com/coneyislandmermaid. Visit Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping to get your own Mermaid Cam embed code, for your own blog - it's super-easy.

Support your Queen's quest to save Coney Island! Come to the Community Scoping Meeting TONIGHT June 24th, 6:00pm at Linclon High School, 2800 Ocean Parkway. (NYC.)

UPDATE: Unfortunately the chat seems to be mobbed by creepy sexist asshats (at the time of this writing, 12.20pm) demanding to see the Mermaid's "fish taco" and such. So um, yeah, not such a good chat. But it's a cool idea! Who knows, maybe some of the people coming in via Digg and so on will at least think to look up the Coney Island situation after seeing this, even if the chat itself isn't so helpful.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

By Ari | Jun 23, 08 11:13 AM

Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who successfully prosecuted 21 convictions including Charles Manson without a single loss, author of Helter Skelter and Outrage, has penned a new volume, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. He argues that after he leaves office, Bush should be put on trial for the murder of the nearly 4,000 American soldiers who've died fighting the war in Iraq.

For a great interview with Bugliosi, read The Nation:

What similarities, if any, would you expect to encounter in preparation for the trial of President George Bush compared with someone like Charles Manson?

Well, with Manson we're talking about seven murders. With Bush it's hundreds of thousands.

Rustie, the Fluffy Interruptor

By Ari | Jun 18, 08 12:11 PM

I first got to know the Socialist Party NYC when Shira and a friend and I went to their screening of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Halfway through the screening a big friendly orange cat came wandering in to watch with us. During the follow-up discussion, he was dissatisfied with the amount of attention he was getting, got up, walked right over in front of Tommy, who was facilitating, and plopped down - rather cutely and awkwardly, on his back or butt if I recall correctly - right there in the middle of the conversation. That helped get our attention where he wanted it.

Here he is! I was introduced to him properly at my first SP-NYC meeting, and ran into him many times afterward. This shot was sent to me by the amazing activist David McReynolds, who I also met at my first SP-NYC meeting, and who writes, "here is Rustie (named after Bayard Rustin), the War Resisters League cat (he lives in the office)." Thanks Rustie, for helping me become an anti-capitalist.

Anti-capitalist / environmentalist / tech news mashup

By Ari | Jun 14, 08 03:33 PM

MySpace is redesigning and I am so not excited. Sorry, MySpace. You've been too ugly for too long. I'm just biding my time until the current internet evolves into a wonderful free-culture free-software filesharing hive mind. C'mon people. Drop the profit model. Let's abandon the waste of competition and move onto cooperation, see what we can come up with then. My prediction: Awesomeness.
Vinyl shower curtains are deadly and may be banned. We bought an organic cotton one a while back and have been using it with no liner. We throw it in the wash every month or so. Works like a charm, doesn't require regular replacement like a plastic one, and doesn't leach 100 toxic chemicals into our bathroom like PVC ones apparently do. Yaaay.
McCain has declared the ruling on Guantanamo "one of the worst" in US history, and in so-doing, I hope he's turned off millions of potential voters. That is, if Americans like justice. I like justice. But then, I've seen time and time again that the American people don't always vote in ways that make any kind of sense to me.
Here's further evidence of McCain's unsuitability for leadership: Dude is all about the exploitation. To stimulate the economy, he plans to "extend the Bush administration's tax cuts, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and slash corporate taxes," which to me sounds like "make the rich richer and the poor poorer." What little tax we do pay goes toward fighting oil wars instead of taking care of basic necessities like healthcare and public transportation. Maybe with more cash to spend we can buy more DVDs and sneakers, but why pour our hard-earned wages back into the pockets of global capitalists exploiting animals, workers and our environment for their own profit?

Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement?

By Shira | Jun 13, 08 04:11 PM

Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement?

In other words, animals can't organize, so we humans have to speak up on their behalf. I love the Onion, especially when they make fun of PETA.

Thank you Kucinich: 35 articles of impeachment against Bush

By Ari | Jun 12, 08 06:41 PM

Click here to see the Resolution by our favorite (vegan!) peace-loving politician.

New and wonderful things from Lavender Diamond

By Ari | Jun 10, 08 10:15 AM

Becky Stark and the adorably wonderful peace-loving folks of Lavender Diamond are working on a new video project, Imagine Our Love. Click for info, beautiful film stills and production photos like the one above, and art for auction, proceeds to support the video.

Also, look: Ron Regé, the band's resident illustrator (of Peace Comics fame) now has his own blog.

I learned all of this from Lavender Diamond's mailing list, which I just joined. Yesterday an email arrived, the first message I've received on the list, apparently written by Becky Stark herself. It's probably one of the more awesome mailing list postings I've ever received. It begins:

hello everyone!
i hope you are well!
it is a beautiful day here in los angeles at the beginning of june-
i hope that wherever you are you feeling well and whole-
i'm writing to you today with some news!
and- also a little reminder-
remember: the power of love is infinite! Reading this email and visiting these links made me really happy, so I had to share. I listen to Lavender Diamond and I'm filled with hope for the world. I think that's a great effect for music to have.

Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World

By Ari | Jun 6, 08 01:12 PM

We've mentioned Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World a bunch of times but never blogged it properly, so here goes. Read it! It's amazing. It was written in 1970 but is still all-too-relevant today. The cover of our awesome 1973 Bantam edition (pictured here), reads, "Why the Things You Buy Are Expensive, Unsafe, and Usually Don't Work! With some startling practical alternatives -- like a radio that costs 9¢, a $6 refrigerator, a television set for $8, and much, much more! Design For The Real World by Victor Papanek: Human Ecology and Social Change With an Introduction by R. Buckminster Fuller; Completely Illustrated". Papanek adorably refers to his friend and introduction-writer as Bucky throughout the book, and relates stories of visionary design teams doing what the two men refer to as Anticipatory Comprehensive Design.

Basically that means looking at real-world problems and trying to solve them in an ecologically-sound and efficient, forward-thinking way, with the help of the stakeholders, the people who are actually affected by the design problem and its potential solutions. This is opposed to the more common practice of profit-driven design, which uses planned obsolescence and the vagaries of "fashion" to sell the same old crap year after year, dressed up in fancy new skins or even just different marketing. For every cool new low-cost, low-impact tool that's accessible and useful to folks who really need it, there are a million new expensive, ugly and possibly dangerous items put on the market simply to make a profit, Papanek says, and his message holds true today. The design world, for all of its improvements, does continue to churn out useless junk and endless repetitions of bad ideas.

Here's part of the flow-chart illustration with which Papanek ended the book - you'll have to read the book to see the rest of it, including his suggestions for how to get around the problems outlined here. But he doesn't give us all the answers - the flow-chart only goes so far as suggesting possible solutions to the world's problems; he puts it on us to fill in the rest of the chart as we move onto creating those solutions.

Since Shira and I are all about creating sustainable solutions in every area of life including the design work we do for clients, we found the book's message right up our alley, and the suggestions for improvement just as relevant today as they were when they were written nearly 40 years ago. It's encouraging to see that when Victor wrote this book he and Bucky were really trailblazing a new approach, which today has many adherents, with dozens of books and websites now dedicated to designing for the great majority of people instead of the privileged few who pay big bucks for pretty new designer chairs and the like. But we've still got work to do. So, read this book, and act on it!

Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical (going back to the roots) in the truest sense. It must dedicate itself to nature's "principle of least effort," in other words, minimum inventory for maximum diversity... or, doing the most with the least. That means consuming less, using things longer, recycling materials, and probably not wasting paper printing books such as this.

Fortunately, Design for the Real World has been in print for many years, and is available used from many freecycling / swapping networks as well as libraries and used bookshops, so no new materials need be used today in learning from this beautiful and clever and useful book.

Utopia now

By Ari | Jun 5, 08 08:29 AM

We're reading Chris Carlsson's Nowtopia, and just happened upon Real Utopia. Good stuff! No matter how fast we read, there's always more amazingness out there we've never even heard of.

The basic premise of these books is that not only is another world possible, it's actively under construction, right now. If you're worried about peak oil, despairing about politics, or fearing the end of capitalism will never come, I highly recommend reading books like these for a healthy dose of hope and happiness. Nothing can restore your will to act and create change like reading accounts of many other people who care about this stuff and are working to build a better tomorrow today.

Join Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping for a Final Fabulous Worship this Sunday - NYC

By Ari | May 29, 08 01:18 PM

We're going to a cohousing workshop at Ecovillage at Ithaca this weekend, so we can't make it, but I wanted to give a shout out for Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping and their big party this Sunday, 2pm, at the Highline Ballroom. (Tickets $12; scholarship tickets available - contact Reverend Billy.) It looks 100% awesome, and a fantastic opportunity to wear crazy clothing:

We'll celebrate Mayor of the Sideshow Dick Zigun and Bearded Lady Impresario Jennifer Miller. We'll promise to Take the Devil out of Developer and Put Free Speech back in the Parks! Save Coney Island! DRESS UP FOR CHURCH! Embracing our inner Freak-a-lujah! and always creating the beyond-organized-religion approach to theFabulous Unknown, please, come to church wearing YOUR SUNDAY BEST! Faeries, Rubulads, Amoks and side-show specialists – Put the ODD Back In Your GOD!

Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary: Letter from a Vegan World

By Ari | May 22, 08 12:16 PM

Letter from a Vegan World, a blog post by the abolitionist folks at Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary:

At a time when most animal rights organizations are actively promoting, advocating and rewarding "humane" animal products and farming methods, I am writing to you on behalf of three of the recipients of that mercy.

To the industry, they are known as production units #6, #35, and #67,595. To the "compassionate" consumer, they are known as feel-good labels: "organic dairy", "rose veal", "free-range eggs". To welfare advocates, they are known as "humane alternatives". To each other, they are known as mother, son, sister, friend. To themselves, they are simply what you and I are to ourselves: a self-aware, self-contained world of subjective experiences, feelings, fears, memories – someone with the absolute certainty that his or her life is worth living. (Read more)

Toul Omri: A new queer Arabic film

By Ari | May 21, 08 11:49 AM

Our friends at freeDimensional let us know about "the first gay-positive, unapologetic and uninhibited feature movie in Arabic," Toul Omri (or "All My Life"). It's premiering at Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco on Sunday June 22nd at 8:30pm. (View trailer)

To help the independent filmmakers meet their post-production expenses, please send any donations to one of the 2 addresses below:

Tax-deductible donations: Please write a check to "Al-Fatiha Foundation" (and write "All My Life movie" in the memo) and mail the check to: *Mike Karim*, PO Box 3422, San Diego, CA 92163.
If you prefer to send your donation to the filmmaker directly (not tax-deductible), please send a check to Maher Sabry, 584 Castro St., Box # 378, San Francisco, CA 94114.

If for any reason you do not wish your full name to be to listed as a donor in the film's credits, please provide a partial name for the credits or mention that you prefer to stay anonymous.

Congratulations, California!

By Ari | May 17, 08 10:03 AM

In case anyone missed it: California's Supreme Court has ruled that queer folks can get married now.

I had the good fortune to grow up in a very queer-friendly community (though with my gender issues, I obviously didn't emerge unscathed), so I think the importance of this event doesn't hit me so hard as it does many folks who have struggled much longer and harder than I have. I found a friend's reaction to the news helped me get my mind around it: "It's been 10 years (today!) since I packed up my life and moved across the country without a job, without a friend other than the man who loved me and believed in taking a chance... I'm crying at my desk while they are trying to install a new phone system."

Thank you, trailblazers, fearless family, leaders of the queer pack. I think we northern coast-dwellers sometimes forget how hard it's been - and very much still continues to be for folks elsewhere. Marriage isn't just icing on the cake of Greenwich Village and Pride and all of our other queer freedoms, it's a Big Deal. It's another vote for us, a step closer to full citizenship. We can have legally recognized families now, in one more state.

Personally, I'm looking forward to a day when I can check "married" instead of "single" on my tax return. (Though I'll miss writing in defiantly beside that check mark: "GAY".)

Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate

By Ari | May 17, 08 09:29 AM

Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate is a new book edited by Josh MacPhee & Favianna Rodriguez for Just Seeds Visual Resistance Artists Cooperative (published by Soft Skull Press), and is a must-have for any activist group who needs to give their posters and handbills more visual punch: $18, 196 pages, 100 artists, 25 countries, 500 public domain political graphics. It's bilingual (Español/English).

I'm not usually a fan of clip art, but I make a lot of posters for activist groups, and I really see the need for this collection. Grassroots groups are more likely to have to make posters in a pinch, very quickly, for events that are hard to find high-quality images for. Ever tried to throw together a quick broadsheet for a screening of an extremely indie feminist slideshow about imperialism in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and The Philippines? Try finding photos for that online. (Seriously, if you search photo sites for Hawaii and women all you get is hula girls. It's depressing. And part of why we should be talking about imperialism in Hawaii.) Now what if you're not an designer, illustrator or otherwise capable of turning grainy JPEGs or phone camera snapshots into decent printable graphics? This book has the potential to make life a lot easier for groups with limited means.

My only critique is that the book apparently doesn't come with a CD. Which I guess is good because it means less waste. But it does mean a lot of people will likely take messy scans of very pretty graphics. Or maybe folks prefer photocopiers, though I think there's a lot of waste involved in cut-and-paste photocopier-aided layout. Perhaps a companion online download area would have worked well? Anyway, despite being anchored in the material world, this book is pretty awesome.

Send the Rude Mechanical Orchestra to the RNC

By Ari | May 15, 08 02:13 PM

DSC_8744.jpg
Originally uploaded by dogseat

Our friend Hugh (the gentleman in very short shorts in this photo) is part of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, which is AWESOME and currently raising funds for a wonderful project. Check it:

After 4 years of inspiring political work in New York City, this August the RMO is taking our show on the road - in a low-impact, environmentally-friendly manner. We are collaborating with the students and faculty of the Brooklyn-based Automotive High School to convert our recently-acquired school bus to run on waste veggie oil. Our goal is to go across the country for a two-week adventure, to cross-pollinate with progressive grassroots organizations and other amazing movers and shakers and to loudly register our dissent at the Republican National Convention. Along our journey, we plan to raise awareness about and support for the groups and individuals who are fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, war and violence in all its forms.
Every penny counts, and we have raised almost half of the money we need to go on our tour! The government is investing in a temporary "solution" to systemic problems; the RMO is investing in the long-term fight against them. Please help us in reaching our goal! Please go to our chip-in page at http://rmo.chipin.com/rmo. For more information please see our webpage www.rudemechanicalorchestra.org or our Myspace at www.myspace.com/rudemechanicalorchestra.

Guerilla Girls meet Barnstormers - Saturday, NYC

By Ari | May 15, 08 12:19 PM

We just heard about a cool event happening on Saturday at the Bronx Museum: A "Collaborative Day of Performance" that goes 12-6pm and includes, among other wonders, a collaborative "Satiric demonstration" by the Barnstormers and the Guerilla Girls. If you don't know the folks in question yet, check out the video below of the Barnstormers in action. Now imagine it crossed with feminist art activism. I think this is not to be missed. More info can be had here: Bronx Museum Events.

(Via the Bluestockings Feminist Book Club)

Ahimsa Ecovillage

By Ari | May 13, 08 12:53 PM

Our ecovillage idea continues to gather steam - a bunch of people have been emailing with us about it! We're evolving the "radical solidarity" idea into an ideology of sorts so we renamed the ecovillage Ahimsa for now, instead. (Ahimsa, or non-violence, was the idea behind veganism back when it was first defined by Donald Watson in 1944).

To help get the word out about the project and to document its progress, we've put up a simple webpage for it at shirari.com/ahimsa/. Even if you're not vegan, or never thought you had the money for home ownership, there's room for you at Ahimsa - check it out.

Helping Myanmar

By Ari | May 9, 08 12:35 PM

Looking for an effective way to help the people of Myanmar deal with the recent cyclone devastation? Their military government is blocking and intercepting aid, and as we know from 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami debacle, some aid organizations are more effective than others. So how can we best help?

Our friends at freeDimensional report:

Jay Koh, who runs NICA (Networking & Initiatives for Culture & the Arts ) based in Yangoon (Rangoon), and I have been in close email contact this week. His organization is currently accepting donations to be distributed to local relief organizations within Myanmar, the first being the Health and Death Assistant Association, which is managed by a monastery in Yangoon.

I can vouch for Jay: his commitment to his community is incredible, but he is desperate for help right now. With the UN cutting off aid, this is one way to get funds to Myanmar almost instantly. NICA has a PayPal account set up (visit www.paypal.com; send to ifima-at-gmx-dot-net). Please consider making a donation.

Another friend knows someone who works at the Burma Project at Open Society Institute, who suggests folks who want to give aid do it through Avaaz.org, a global online movement with millions of members. Avaaz.org is concerned that the junta can easily delay, divert, or misuse aid. They are partnering with the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO) and other local organizations to aid people directly through local networks.

Stop 'N' Swap on Saturday - NYC

By Ari | May 8, 08 09:59 AM

Build It Green is having a Swap Fest Block Party this Saturday in Queens, 11am-4pm. Like a Really Really Free Market, this is a great opportunity to get rid of stuff you're not using anymore (and maybe pick up some stuff you need), in a really local/community-centered and environmentally-friendly way.

Build It Green is a very cool place to wander around any day. If you need any low-cost salvaged building materials (or even furniture), this is the perfect time to get to know these guys and to check out the warehouse. Good stuff!

March to Save Our Healthcare this Friday - NYC

By Ari | May 7, 08 05:01 PM

Every Teacher, Transit Worker, Librarian, and Public Worker will be impacted!
5/9 FRI, 4:30 pm - Protest: "March to Save Our Healthcare."

Join the fight to prevent GHI-HIP from converting to a for-profit company & jeopardizing the healthcare of 4 million policy holders, including 500,000 NYC workers (93% of the workforce) & retirees. Mainstream politicians & union leaders support the change, hoping to benefit from the nearly $3 billion windfall profits of such a sale. Help send a "no privatization" message to the NYS Sup't of Insurance & GHI-HIP. Bring friends & signs.

At Office of the NYS Superintendent of Insurance, 25 Beaver St
(4/5 to Bowling Green, J/M/Z to Broad St , R/W to Whitehall St,
1 to Rector St, 2/3 to Wall St, A/C to B'way-Nassau).

Info: (718) 869-2279, noprivatization-at-yahoo-dot-com (request flyer)
http://www.consumersunion.org/conv/
http://www.metrohealthcare.org/html/hcoa080116.html [video]
http://www.myspace.com/saveourhealthcare
http://going.com/saveourhealthcare
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/96895.html

Spread the word!

Day of Silence

By Ari | May 7, 08 02:23 PM

Check out GLSEN's new Day of Silence Blog, designed by Shirari Industries. This year's DOS fell on April 25th and drew record numbers of participants. Hundreds of thousands of students from more than 7,500 middle and high schools took a pledge of silence to bring attention to the bullying, name-calling, harassment and other violence that silences queer folks every day.

This year's DOS was held in remembrance of Lawrence King, a 15-year old California student who was shot and killed because of his sexuality and gender expression. We had the honor of designing a quick skin for Lawrence's MySpace page, another GLSEN project.

Save the date - the next DOS is on Friday, April 17, 2009. In the meantime, anyone can take action year-round to create safer schools and communities for queer youth. Visit GLSEN for information and ideas.

Travelling the land and opening the mind

By Ari | May 7, 08 12:49 PM

A friend of ours is traveling to a jungle in Peru to take ayahuasca and is getting ready for the trip in his usual thoughtful style:

What helps us plug in, and stay plugged in, to stories of reality that disempower us? Certainly all forms of media, including advertisements and billboards. But I'm guessing that on a deeper level the very structures of our lives, the very things I'm supposed to miss such as electricity and toilets, keep us plugged in to a "modern American" reality that is simply our story, a story not shared by everyone on the planet.

I really identify with this idea. I found that the trip Shira and I took to India was eye-opening in ways I never expected. There's something about flushing your toilet with a bucket, taking cold showers, and being sold handmade items in bags made out of recycled newspaper instead of plastic, that makes Western environmental activism and "conservation" look woefully inadequate. It was that trip that made Shira and I get into low impact living, waste reduction, and drastically reduced consumption with more depth and enthusiasm and understanding than we ever had before. Today these practices are a huge part of our lives, but it was traveling and seeing different ways of living firsthand that turned everything around for us.

Combine a trip like that with ayahuasca and I imagine the effects must be even more profound. Keep an eye on Bunnykitteh's blog for updates.

Voices: Queer Palestinian women

By Ari | May 7, 08 12:15 PM

My friends at freeDimensional have introduced me to ASWAT, an organization of Palestinian gay women based in Haifa. ASWAT (Arabic for "voices") provides a range of services and opportunities for interaction and support to queer Palestinian women, while raising public awareness and fostering tolerance in the greater community. They're online at aswatgroup.org.

Their words remind me of the awkward (but perhaps essential) position of Bayard Rustin, whose efforts in the American Civil Rights movement have been largely marginalized and/or "forgotten" because he was also a gay rights activist. ASWAT's working statement reads in part: "As long as we women participate in the struggle for national liberation, we are welcomed and our efforts are appreciated. The moment women want to focus their energies in establishing independence from the male occupation and structure, we are transformed instantly into enemies."

For yet more voices of feminist women, this time from Muslim women worldwide, many of them from Palestine, check out Sarah Husain's Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith, and Sexuality. And stay tuned to our blog here for more on Israel-Palestine - Shira and I are just back from a trip that included about 10 days in Haifa, and thanks to many Big Discussions there, have a much better understanding of the politics in question, which I hope we'll have time to comment on in a future blog post or two.

Vermont Commons: The Decay of Capitalism

By Ari | May 6, 08 11:05 AM

Richard Davis's short opinion piece, The Decay of Capitalism, sums up how I've been feeling about the state of world affairs for a long time. Back when I read (parts of) Marx's Capital in school, I remember this graph showing capitalism's inevitable crash - there are only so many workers and resources to exploit before you run out of room for profit and the whole thing has to come tumbling down. I think this article does a good job of tying it all together, from fuel prices to the mortgage crisis to the healthcare industry's problems: "How did we get to the point where we replaced ethical principles and a sense of common good with profits at any cost? It is the natural evolution of the capitalist system in societies without a soul."

Lest this post sound too depressing: let's not forget that people are (and have been for some time) constructing socialist alternatives all over the world. Read Zapatista Encuentro: Documents from the Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism, La Realidad, Mexico for just one glimpse of the new worlds being forged to take the place of the old.

Hawai'i Needs You: An open letter to the US left from the Hawaiian sovereignty movement

By Ari | Apr 13, 08 08:47 PM

The Nation has published an open letter from the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, addressed to us in the U.S. left: Hawai'i Needs You. We're with you, Hawai'i! Via Jesse Lokahi Heiwa of the Hawai'i Solidarity Committee.

For more info, meet some of the folks in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement:

My Feminist Review: Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men

By Ari | Apr 12, 08 01:13 PM

My review of Lori B. Girshick's Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men is up at Feminist Review. This was a really good one! I'm genderqueer and have read quite a bit on this subject, but I learned a lot. I loved reading the words of the people Lori interviewed for the book, and seeing their photos - I found it really made me care for all of them, identify with them, want to be in unity with them, to change things so we all have a safer, happier world to live in. Any book that can do that is a good book, I think.

Our Eutopic Vision at Forbes.com

By Shira | Apr 11, 08 06:08 PM

Ari's rendering of our eutopia

When Ari and I posted our vision of a Radical Solidarity Ecovillage to the Intentional Communities Directory, we really didn't know what to expect. So far, we've gotten a couple of email inquiries from potential members who we're going to connect with in Ithaca, and we're eagerly awaiting more interest.

One thing we certainly didn't expect was to be contacted by Forbes.com. After Elisabeth Eaves interviewed us for her article Ecotopia we were kind of nervous. She had never heard of Community Supported Agriculture, not to mention Freeganism or an assortment of other strategies that we discussed. Considering that Forbes is entrenched in capitalism, we worried that maybe our earnest ramblings might be used against us.

Luckily that was not the case! In fact, we're right up at the top of the article, and we don't sound (too) crazy:

After six years in the city, Shira Golding and Ari Moore want to try something new. The two 27-year-old artists came to New York after college, but now yearn for less urban and more affordable living. Rather than retreat to suburbia, the two are trying to recruit like-minded souls to join them in an artistic, vegan commune, which they plan to form in upstate New York.

"The number of people doesn't matter so much as shared values," says Golding, who then elaborates on a philosophy of animal rights, ecological sustainability and "freeganism," in which "you abstain from capitalism by getting things for free or [by] barter[ing]."

Golding and Moore's utopian vision is in its infancy, but they aren't alone in their desire to build their own self-contained community.

If we're going to be picky, freeganism doesn't really include "bartering," as much as giving and taking freely, and we prefer "intentional community" over "commune." But what really matters is that the mainstream media is paying attention to alternative visions for sustainable living. If Forbes.com, whose tagline is "Home Page for the World's Business Leaders," is doing a whole feature on utopias, who knows what's next!

Which brings me to the word "utopia." As our friend and wordsmith Orion pointed out at our Peace and Justice Passover Seder last year, “utopia” comes from the Greek for “no place” or “nowhere.” In other words a "utopia" is a better society that does not and cannot exist. That's not very optimistic. Orion suggested "eutopia" as an alternative spelling, meaning a "good, happy place." The article Visions of Utopia or Eutopia? at CommonDreams.org, puts it this way: "Eutopia is a vision of a preferable place - but one with a bridge that gets us from here to there. Visions of a better society don't attract a critical mass of people. Only future visions with a visible, viable bridge can do that - a lesson many progressives have yet to learn." Let's start building those bridges!

The Shirari Update: Recent Work

By Ari | Apr 11, 08 08:00 AM

So we're gearing up for this trip, and churning out a LOT of work before we go. In the past couple of months we've done quite a bit, much of which we've already written about. But here are some projects we haven't blogged about yet:

I worked with GLSEN to design a new look for StudentOrganizing.org and put fresh skins on their Day of Silence and Remembering Lawrence King MySpace sites.
We co-created a brand and launched a placeholder page for the new documentary Lioness, currently making the rounds at festivals. Posters and a full site are on the way... follow this film, it's a good one.
I made posters and other collateral for the freeDimensional / Casa Frela production OFF THE WALL.
Shira designed the DVD for the doc Innocent Until Proven Guilty, soon to be available for purchase at Arts Engine.
I handled the International Women's Day and May Day issues of The Socialist, the magazine of the Socialist Party USA. The May Day issue inaugurated our brand spankin' new redesign.
We designed a new film distribution brochure for Scenarios USA and rebranded (and re-designed and re-authored) their DVD collection. We also handled the collateral for their 2008 REAL DEAL Awards and Gala. (I made their site, too - though that was a few years back!)
I did a launch postcard for The Plant Republic's new site.
Shira's been a pre-screener and has been coordinating the jury process for Pangea Day, a project of TED Conferences.
I designed a guide to US citizenship and naturalization for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and a fresh cover for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), through the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
I made invitations, posters, programs, and a million other things for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center's Broadway Backwards 3 and Center Dinner 25th Anniversary Celebration.

I'm sure I'm missing a million things, so if we worked on your project and haven't mentioned it, apologies! We really love all of our work, though it can be hard (I got up at 7am and am currently running on empty...), and we've been very lucky in that we can choose to work only on projects we really want to stand behind politically and ethically. It's a good life, this. Thanks to all of our clients and friends who continue to bring these amazing projects to us.

E-waste recycling event at Tekserve Mac shop - NYC

By Ari | Apr 10, 08 03:55 PM

Our favorite Mac shop and my one-time employer Tekserve, who recently sold us our new and amazing video editing system (THANKS!), is having their second annual Electronics Recycling Event, together with the Lower East Side Ecology Center. These sorts of environmentally-friendly shenanigans are just what I'd expect from Tekserve, home of "Fair Weights and Square Dealings." The event will be April 26th-27th, right here in NYC.

More tips on recycling things you just don't know where to recycle:
GrassRoots Recycling Network
EcoCycle
GreenDisk

Uncle Samantha

By Ari | Apr 10, 08 03:25 PM

I've been working for New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center for a while now, and a little job I did for them has recently gotten some new life, being put into use by Burgundy Crescent Volunteers in the DC area. Here she is! Uncle Samantha (or Aunt Sam) was meant to be a drag queen but is frequently mis-identified as a hot lesbian. Either way, she seems to be a crowd-pleaser. I originally drew her for the Gay Center's Volunteer Program and she appeared on the cover of the Center's newsletter, Center Happenings. Now the folks at Burgundy Crescent are using her to recruit new volunteers for DC Pride events. You can even get her on a shirt or mug!

Anyway, had to post this - I'm so happy to see Sam getting out there and hopefully bringing in some new recruits for the Gay Agenda. If you're queer and looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend volunteering with a local organization like the Center or BCV. They can always use people with skillz and are, I've found, generally full of really awesome people doing great work for people who really need it.

My Feminist Review: Bipedal, By Pedal!

By Ari | Apr 5, 08 11:47 AM

My review of the great critical mass zine "Bipedal, By Pedal!" is up at Feminist Review. Anyone out there done a critical mass bike ride? I'm embarrassed to say I haven't yet gone on one - I'm afraid of cars when on a bike. But this zine made me want to join up...

Earth Hour, Blackout Sabbath, and other symbols of sustainability

By Ari | Mar 29, 08 10:37 AM

Today I was happy to see Google blacked out in support of Earth Hour, tonight's hour of energy awareness (8pm - 9pm). Turn out your lights to participate, if you're into it.

However, reading about Earth Hour, I couldn't help but think Rufus Wainwright's Blackout Sabbath - 12 hours of no energy use at all, on the summer solstice, June 21, along with setting personal goals for sustainability - is a lot more hardcore. The World Wildlife Fund, who's behind Earth Hour, should have talked to Rufus and set their sights a little higher, pushed people a little harder!

On Rufus' short sample list of actions one can take for the environment, he even includes going vegan (my fingers are SO crossed right now that he'll join our vegan ranks... c'mon Rufus, you can do it...). Veganism is such an obvious step toward sustainability that it gets a little infuriating when I see Treehugger and WorldChanging and the like continually ignoring it as an option and suggesting people find "sustainable fisheries" and "happy meat", as if that solves much else besides making people feel a little better about oppressing animals.

I don't think I'm going to participate in Earth Hour, but I do think I'll do Blackout Sabbath. I loved the blackout too, and I think it could be magic to spend that time making art about the earth and the future, or writing by (vegan!) candlelight about the times to come and how we can make it beautiful. I like setting goals for myself, and I like participating in consciousness-raising events like fasts and the like, because I like, well, raising my consciousness. These events are symbols, but important ones: They're fissures in the wall of separation we put up between our energy-consuming, self-centered, here-and-now lives - and the future, our children's future, the future of the earth. We don't like to look over there, to see what we're actually setting up for ourselves. If it takes an hour (or 12 hours) of reflection and awareness to really take a good look at what we're doing and how we can change, then that symbolic act is a very useful one.

But in the end, we need more than just temporary observances and symbolic acts, right? If you're out of a room for over two minutes, there shouldn't be a light on in there. If you've got appliances with power indicator lights on them that are plugged in all day, they're just sitting there sucking up energy, and should be unplugged until they're needed. If your home just doesn't stay cool in the summer or warm in the winter, maybe you need to fix your insulation so all of that energy doesn't just fly our the window. In every situation we have the power to make decisions that add to the problem, or that make the world a better place. There are easy little things we can all do every day, all day, to go beyond symbols and toward true sustainability. What do you do? And do symbols help, or distract from this larger, deeper movement?

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast... #1?

By shirari | Mar 25, 08 06:32 PM

We've been talking about doing a podcast for a really long time and today we actually recorded one! Well, call it an experiment - if people are interested we'll record more. In the meantime, it's just a link to an MP3 file that you can download and play. Whee.

We talk about how we got into activism back in college, and how our veganism and anti-capitalism and sustainability activism are all related. Also features trash talk and an interruption by a kitten. Basically it's about living in line with our ethics, and having a very good time doing it. We've really loved learning from others' podcasts and hope someone will find something here that's worth listening to.

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #1: Who we are and what this is all about
March 25, 2008 - 17 minutes - 20.3MB

R.I.P.

By Shira | Mar 25, 08 01:55 PM

rip - 3.08.08.jpg

When people die around the same time, are their souls somehow interconnected? I'm not sure that I believe that we have a "soul" and I'm pretty certain that there is no after-life, other than a slow reunion with mama earth, and yet when people pass away in close succession, I can't help but searching for common threads. (Remember when James Brown, Robert Altman, Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford died in November/December 2006?)

So what do filmmaker Anthony Minghella, author Arthur C. Clarke and musician Israel "Cachao" López have in common? They were all creative visionaries.

Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a beautiful film that captures the conflict between external and internal identities in a way that I have never seen before or since. It also shows how totally destructive homophobia, especially the internalized variety, can be.

Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was written concurrently with the production of Kubrick's film and published after its release. The film, the book, the whole of Arthur C. Clarke's work, is an example of the best of what science-fiction has to offer the world - a glimpse into the future that shows us what we need to do today.

I actually hadn't heard of Israel López until a few days ago, when his death was announced. On NPR he was described as the "inventor of Mambo music." While I'm sure that, as with any artistic movement, López had many collaborators and co-inventors along the way, it's still pretty amazing to be known as the creator of anything. It's time to listen to the Buena Vista Social Club Soundtrack again (López composed a number of the songs).

So rest in peace Anthony, Arthur and Israel. If there is a heaven, I hope you're all up there working on a mambo/sci-fi/cinematic mash-up.

OFF THE WALL - Opening tonight in NYC

By Ari | Mar 21, 08 02:13 PM

I've had the privilege to work with freeDimensional on an event called OFF THE WALL: Celebrating Arts and Human Rights, opening tonight at Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem. Click here for more info and be sure to check out freeDimensional. They're a growing non-profit that's doing some very important work for artists in need of asylum, all over the world.

Vegan Treasures from My Mom

By Ari | Mar 17, 08 06:05 PM

My mom runs an online business selling vintage women's clothing: Vintage Lucy. I wanted to help her make the leap from eBay to her own shop, and I thought I could make her a PayPal shop using Movable Type - but I don't usually do jobs that involve animal exploitation, and Mom's amazing collection happens to contain some wool, leather, and feathers. I did end up making the site, and am now helping her do some outreach.

I have to admit that I'm really glad that I compromised my ideals to work with her on this site! 100% vegan though it may not be, it can help my mom make a living. And it so happens that Mom has become increasingly open to animal rights ideas over the years. She dabbles in vegetarianism and veganism and is constantly educating herself and changing; she cares for and loves many animals, and recently has done a little animal rights activism. She added a new category of items to her site called Vegan Treasures - as she points out, "wearing vintage & pre-worn is recycling, saving precious animals & the Earth." Check it out - there's some very beautiful stuff in there (all of the photos above are from this category): Vintage Lucy Vegan Treasures (No animal products used in these beauties.) Who knows, maybe this is only the tip of the vegan iceberg for my mom...

"Conscious consumerism"

By Ari | Mar 16, 08 03:05 PM

A little while ago, Brooklyn activist/art collective Change You Want to See / Not an Alternative banned Raw Revolution products from their gallery space, issuing a kind of anti-greenwashing/consumerist manifesto along with the announcement: The Real (Raw) Revolution:

A line is here drawn against alternative capitalist products. Revolution is not a candy bar or an energy drink. Don't get us wrong, we recognize good intentions, but good intentions alone are no solution for avoiding the road to hell. All products that represent themselves as "sustainable solutions" are hereby banned from The Change You Want to See Gallery. Creating an economy where fairly traded, organic, vegan, healthy, (and even free) products are the norm rather than an anomaly is something we encourage. We believe however that to achieve this, a stand has to be taken against any commodity that is packaged as the embodiment of an alternative or a revolution. Consuming "Raw Revolution" will never be a meal replacement for actual revolution. Please... continue to invent, build, create, fight, force the limits of the capitalist system. Bring the results of your work to the Gallery, we want to and will continue to help you promote your work. However we will no longer provide a cover for a guerilla marketing campaign. If "false revolutionary", "fake alternative" "politically correct" "do-gooder" products are brought to the Gallery their packaging will be removed at the door.

(Via Stop Shopping Monitor)

Here's the video version:

I really dig the sentiment behind this move. We've been trying to figure out what we can possibly put in our own shop that would pass our ethical muster. We don't like using new materials or toxic art supplies. We don't want to ship things all over the place, requiring shipping suppplies and fuel as well as causing pollution. And we don't really like having money relationships with people anymore, either - though that's hard to avoid when you live in a capitalist society and sell your skills for a living. All of this rather limits what one can sell in a shop, if one decides to keep the shop at all.

There's such a fuzzy line between people working for social change and trying to make a living at the same time - and people who are more in it for the money, but who may do some good along the way. Where do you cross the line into exploitation, or are you always there, so long as you're participating in capitalism?

On the other side of this equation is consumerism of different sorts. In our ongoing efforts to reduce our impact we've found that there are certain things we've needed to buy that require shipping. You can find used books on alternative energy at a local bookstore, for example, but what about that washable shower curtain that requires no plastic liner (or other hard-to-find but highly efficient replacements for conventional housewares)? You'd think in our massive city we'd find it (and yes, if we were craftier, we'd make it), but no luck. But buying online from a company like Simple Family Living Homegoods or Gaiam has a broad impact (supporting capitalism; using packaging material; and polluting the air, using up fuel and clogging up a highway, during shipping). At what point does it make more sense to just buy a damn curtain that requires a liner, imperfect a solution though it might be?

I know we can't be perfect, but we can do our best to do the right thing for the planet and our neighbors. In the society we've set up for ourselves though, it can be hard to know what the "right" decision is.

UPDATE, 3.26.08
Lest I sound too negative about Simple Family Living Homegoods and Gaiam, I wanted to put in that these two companies - and Simple Family Living Homegoods in particular, which is much more indie than Gaiam - are both really great places to get things that will help you move toward a lower-impact life. Reusable, washable mesh produce bags will help you avoid using plastic ones, reusable cloth gift bags and handkerchiefs will help you avoid the use of wrapping supplies, soap nuts and a collapsible drying rack will help you avoid detergents and use less power when doing laundry, and so on. If you can't - or won't - make these things yourself, and if you can't find them locally (which is all too often the case, hence this post), these are indeed very good places to find them.

Vegans feeding people

By Ari | Mar 2, 08 04:05 PM

I was just doing some research into overlaps between veganism and mutual aid, and was a little shocked at how few programs for hungry folk are run by vegans. It's too bad, it seems like a really good idea! It's safer to prepare and handle than animal-based food, and can be cheaper, too - and giving cruelty-free food to people who need it seems like a natural extension of the vegan ideal of ahimsa (most good / least harm).

Here are a few organizations that are vegan or vegetarian - anyone know of any others?

Food Not Bombs - freegan, anarchist free vegan food movement
Vegfam sustainable, vegan agriculture projects aimed at reducing hunger and providing disaster relief
Food for Life Hare Krishna-run lacto-vegetarian food aid and disaster relief program
The People's Potato worker-owned vegetarian soup kitchen
Freegan.info freegan feasts, trash tours and community meals

Fight Military Recruitment in Schools

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 07:21 PM

The New York Coalition of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) have recently released a curriculum that helps teachers educate their students about military recruiting tactics. The goal is to empower students with concrete information and to make sure they know about alternative ways to access education and career-building tools after high-school.

Ari and I had the pleasure of designing the cover for Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community, which you can preview and buy online through Lulu.com.

If you're a teacher who want to get involved, you should come to the meeting this week...

NYCoRE's Counter Recruitment Project Meeting
Thursday, March 6, 5:30-7:30
CUNY Graduate Center 34th St. & 5th Ave., Room 5489
Please bring ID

Topics of discussion include:

Bringing teachers together to develop a workshop for other teachers around unpacking military recruitment in New York City Schools and across the country
Outreach to bring teachers and administrators from Upper Manhattan neighborhoods to the workshop
Strategizing ways to share the ideas developed by New York City teachers in NYCoRE's recently released curricular guide Camouflaged
Developing ways to be a voice in the events acknowledging the anniversary of the war in Iraq

If you are interested in attending or getting involved, email Edwin at NYCoRE.

And here are some great videos about recruiting and the impact of war on veterans from Media That Matters: No Child, All That I Can Be and Night Visions

Radical Solidarity Ecovillage

By Ari | Mar 1, 08 03:57 PM

Hey, any activisty, creative vegans out there interested in cohousing, intentional community, or ecovillage life? Shira and I just posted a listing for a forming community, Radical Solidarity Ecovillage, in the Online Communities Directory.

We're relocating to Ithaca, New York, at the end of this coming summer, and are talking about buying a house, seeking freedom from rent - but do we really want to lock ourselves into a 30-year mortgage on a conventionally built house, is that freedom? We're very attracted to intentional community, co-housing, ecovillages, and other alternatives, but no matter how cool they are, we just can't stomach the idea of putting our labor and money into animal exploitation. (Unfortunately most communities incorporate some form of "animal husbandry".) So we thought we'd put a listing out there, see if we can find some kindred spirits. Check it out and let us know if you or anyone you know would be interested in something like it.

For a great overview of a family's experience building their own earth-friendly, mortgage-free house, check out A Low-Impact Woodland Home.

And for a glimpse at what ecovillage life can look like, check out The Farm's Ecovillage Tour:

If Only All Capitalists Were Ed Begley, Jr.

By Shira | Feb 20, 08 05:29 PM

Go, Ed Begley, go!

Loving mama earth, one day at a time

By Ari | Feb 16, 08 02:00 PM

There have been a lot of locavore for a year / vegan for a week / freegan for a month projects going on lately, usually resulting in a book or article. I worry that rather than inspiring lasting change, these sorts of projects frame these actions as extreme (and temporary, limited) experiments by extraordinary people. As Vegan Freak Radio says again and again, there's nothing extreme about living ethically and with compassion. Our individual actions do affect the future of our planet, and each of us has the power to reduce our negative impact and even make our impact a positive one.

I think the secret is to make changes at a pace that's sustainable. If you rush it and try to go vegan or zero-waste overnight, odds are, your plan will backfire. But if you can identify an area in which you want to improve your actions, make a change and see positive results, that change is more likely to be a lasting one - and you'll be more likely to go on to work on another thing you want to improve.

For example, by making small changes over a period of over a year, Shira and I have gone from throwing out a big bag of trash at least once a week, to throwing out a tiny bag of trash every two weeks or so. Where did all that trash go? Well, it wasn't "trash" in the first place - it was compost, recyclables, and reusables. And in many cases, because we've been working on reducing our consumerism and choosing items with less packaging, it no longer comes into our apartment in the first place. And this wasn't a temporary experiment - it's just what we're doing because we love our earth and want our future children to be able to enjoy it, too.

Want more perspective on why sorting your trash is worth the effort? Long before The Story of Stuff came Jorge Furtado's Ilha das Flores, a Brazilian documentary short that shows how one person's trash becomes another person's food. Here it is with English subtitles.

Here are some resources and groups working toward a zero-waste / low-impact future:

The art for this post is from a Shell ad that was pulled because it was deemed misleading - since Shell is, after all, an oil corporation and not an envrionmental activist organization. But damn did they make a pretty image - and they're right, don't throw anything away - there is no away!

The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto

By Ari | Feb 10, 08 01:42 PM

I'd somehow never seen this before, and had to share it. You can get it here. Bread and Puppet made it. Find out more.

Via Green Mountain Collective's Catamount Tavern News, reachable at greencollective(at)chek(dot)com or via snail at CT News, PO Box 76, Montpelier, VT 05601.

Vote Gogol Bordello

By Ari | Feb 7, 08 09:45 AM

One of my favorite bands, Gogol Bordello, has been nominated for Best Punk Album and Best Live Show in the 2008 Plug Independent Music Awards. Voting is open until February 15th, so if you're into them too, vote now!

If you don't know them, check them out. Gogol Bordello is an international punk-dub-gypsy party. When we saw them live a while back, the audience was so excited before the show that spontaneous hora mosh pits broke out when a Fanfare Ciocarlia song came on. And during the show... let's just say there was drag, wine, an accordion, and some premium dancing. Most endearingly, GB's multilingual lyrics criticize US immigration policy, capitalism, globalization and organized religion, tell the stories of the oppressed, and point at a future in which we all recognize each other as family instead of competition. Good stuff.

I am a foreigner and I'm walking
Through new streets
But before I want to I see the same deeds
Inherited by few a power machine
That crushes you and strangles you
Right in your sleep
But be it me, or it's you, the leisure class
I think we all know:
That be it punk, hip-hop, be it a reggae sound
It is all connected through
The gypsy part of town..
Let's go!
It's the underdog world strike!

(Via Gogol Bordello Mailing List)

The Indypendent Printed My Illustration for "Revolutions: Read All About ’Em"

By Shira | Feb 3, 08 06:22 PM

I had fun working on this piece to accompany Chris Anderson's review of the new "Revolutions" series from Verso Books.

I'm really looking forward to checking out the series. I'm especially excited about Slavoj Žižek's intro to Mao's "On Practice and Contradiction."

Simulated stupidity

By Ari | Feb 3, 08 02:05 PM

Recently I saw a big ad for EA's "Sim City Societies" that shows three (fake) people and the societies they've built, one of which is obviously meant to be an earthy crunchy green city and another that's insanely capitalist. Curious what options the game would actually give you (can you make a sustainable anarchist community, for example?), I checked out their site.

The game does seem flexible, poking fun at both capitalists and utopians and hinting at the idea of creating a balance. ("Mix and match societal values — productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority, and knowledge — to determine the core attributes of your city... Witness the evolution of your city as its appearance and sounds adapt to reflect these values.") But right up at the top of the home page is a prominent "Learn more about alternative energy" link that leads to a BP-branded site explaining that this game is the result of a partnership between the oil company and EA.

While I appreciate that BP is apparently doing a lot of work in green energy development, and that this game will allow users to experiment with wind farms and other green technologies, this looks like a massive greenwashing campaign to me. BP paints itself here as a green energy company, with nary a whisper of its record as one of the ten worst corporations in the world.

With BP so intimately involved in this game's development, my guess is that folks who want to set up oil-guzzling societies will be conveniently prevented from causing the oil spills and oil refinery explosions that characterize oil's real-world impact... which sort of negates the whole point of a game that supposedly serves as a mini experimental laboratory for various energy options, doesn't it?

Related: Games for Change: Serious Fun