Archive for September, 2008
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
How to crochet with reused plastic bags
Today I had the pleasure of meeting a friend of mine’s mothers. One of them pulled out a bag she was crocheting, and told us with pride that she had made it from reused plastic bags… in this case, newspaper bags (at the top) and grocery bags (forming the bottom). The thing is quite sturdy [...]
10 Comments » - Posted in Post-Civ, how-to by Magpie
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Murdered in Oaxaca *updated*
Sali, Marcella Sali Grace, was a young woman from Eugene that traveled the same circles I did. I’m not going to claim that I knew her well; we’d crossed paths, we’d spoken, and she’d been very dear to a number of my friends. She was found murdered, rather brutally, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The details aren’t [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Activism, Anarchism by Magpie
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
My New (old) Accordion!
In preparation for a return to a wandering lifestyle, I had to come to some decisions in regards to my accordion… namely, my old accordion—a full-size 120 bass monster with three voices (7 switches) on the treble side and and two voices (3 switches) on the bass side—was too large to travel with. I had [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Accordion by Magpie
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
The Dirigibles of [Pre-]Communist Russia
Over at English Russia they’ve got a great bunch of photos of pre-communist russian airships. But the real treat is to look at the site where those images are coming from. It’s in russian, so you can’t read most of it, but info.dolgopa.org has great pictures of communist and pre-communist airships, like the one above, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Airships by Magpie
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Indian CEO Gets Pwned by Workers
Okay, so I’m not usually one to revel in violence and/or bloodshed. I truly believe that you can’t blow up a social relationship. But in India just now, a CEO was shown why you can’t treat people as objects [
No Comments » - Posted in Activism by Magpie
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Told You So
Last year I wrote an article for SteamPunk Magazine describing various end-of-the-world scenarios. And of those scenarios, the one that scared me the most was the melting permafrost = methane gas that cooks us all in the atmosphere. And it looks like that has started to happen. Basically, since the last ice age there’s been [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Environment by Magpie
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Playing a show (my first one), in Seattle
I’ve been invited to play my first real gig as a solo accordionist/song-writer. I’ve been playing on the streets for almost three years now, as well as at various parties and bars, but this is my first bona fide “show”. I’m opening for Jill Tracy, who I saw and heartily enjoyed last year at Convergence [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Events by Magpie
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Financial Crisis/Opportunity
I’m glad to know that we anarchists aren’t the only ones a bit excited by all this financial melt-down. Author Douglas Rushkoff has written an excellent analysis of the financial melt-down and what it means in the way of opportunity to get beyond capitalism (but not necessarily beyond money).
No Comments » - Posted in Post-Civ by Magpie
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
Wood-Fired Hottub
I don’t recommend going out and paying $6000 for a wood-fired hottub, but Dutch Tub is a pretty genius idea for anyone looking for sustainable decadence. Works on simple convection: you build a fire inside the spiral of pipe, and the warmer water rises. Cooler water gets sucked into the bottom. You can insulate the [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Post-Civ by Magpie
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
Bill O’Reilly Makes Up Laws, Gets Hacked
In this delightful video, Bill O’Reilly says that WikiLeaks, the website that posted information gleaned by those who hacked Sarah Palin’s emails, should be held criminally accountable. The correspondent goes on to tear into him, and he refuses to listen in a remarkably textbook example of a man speaking over a woman who is more [...]
