I now have a facebook. My name on it is Margaret Kiljoy (one L). I have no idea how to use it or what to use it for yet. But I’ll probably figure it out.

This morning I got a text at 5:30am telling me that #occupysantacruz was being raided, so I drove down to the courthouse to film. I crossed the street (it could be argued that I didn’t cross the empty street at the corner) and turned on my camera. Immediately, a cop detained me for jaywalking. Here’s the interesting part: he told me that I didn’t have to get a ticket if I would just leave and not come back for two hours. He told me he had no interest in debating what was and was not public property. I argued with him for awhile and then acquiesced.

It was clear that he didn’t care about my jaywalking and was only using it as leverage to clear me off of public property.

Besides, I had no idea what to do with google+ anyhow.

Nicholson Baker does not look like a dirty-book writer. His color is good. His gaze is direct, with none of the sidelong furtiveness of the compulsive masturbator.

In addition to a wonderful breakdown of the fucked up premises implied by that opening, she’s asked for authors of erotica to post pictures of themselves defying this stereotype.

I don’t know if I’m good at making eye contact in general, and I’m pretty white, but, here’s my attempt:

or if you’d prefer, here’s my furtive glance:

Just sayin.

Okay, I’m on Google+. No idea if I’ll end up very active on it or not.

I got my knuckles tattooed. I’ve never been one for subtlety.

(portishead – machine gun)

The other night I went to a release party for a queer zine (with the translated title of “fags and disaster”) at a squat in Athens. One reason that I’m not looking forward to going back to the USA: the anarchists in europe listen to good music. I’m well known for my disinterest in the current fad of US anarchists listening to mainstream pop and hiphop. Nothing against pop or hiphop… I’m quite fond of both. I’m disgusted that we set up countercultural spaces, occupying warehouses or at least finding a modicum of liberty in rented spaces, and then infuse those spaces with what mainstream culture would prefer us to listen to. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there is a higher instance of youth radicalism in Europe, where countercultural tendencies exist in more or less every music genre.

I got into this whole “anarchy” thing looking for a beautiful way to live my life and to question the fundamental assumptions put forth by our society. I didn’t get into it so I could dance with hipsters to songs with misogynist lyrics.

Anyhow, at this wonderful party in a giant abandoned apartment building in Athens, they played such good music: lots of dark wave, danceable noise, a bit of techno, a bit of gothic. Actually the above song was almost the mainstream thing I heard. I had never heard it before, though I listened to an awful lot of Portishead in the 90s. It’s so good. Industrial as hell but mixed with the kind of current dark pop sensibility one might find in The Knife or iamamiwhoami.

So I’m in Italy at the moment, working on some editing projects. (I used to travel as a volunteer activist, now I travel as a volunteer editor. Go figure.)

Anyhow, I don’t speak Italian. The other night I watched this mediocre crime/romance/europe-as-exoticism movie called The Tourist. In it, Johnny Depp is a tourist in Italy and doesn’t speak any Italian. So, being an American, he gets flustered and speaks Spanish to people. This amused me because I identified with it.

More photos after the cut.