Ever since I started SteamPunk Magazine two years ago, the internet has been full of sharks, hungry to tear apart every single word we wrote. Before we went to print, when steampunk magazine was a splash page on a domain asking for contributors, there were posts across the web about it. As a random example, “You say you don’t want pro-colonial fiction. LOL, how can you be steampunk without being pro-colonial?”

It was a bit better once the magazine came out. The number of haters increased, to be sure, but we finally had appreciators. Still, in the end, the internet hate is a large part of what drove me away from steampunk. There are people out there who are very, very bitter about the idea that steampunk could have political and social meaning. And those people are very vocal. “OMG, we just want fiction. Stop talking about politics.”

But the political crowd is no better. It might be worse. Since many anarchists defend shittalk as being “critical thinking”, they go about it as self-righteously as they go about everything else they do. I’m frustrated, honestly. I’m tempted to give up on the internet. Could you imagine it in person?

Could you imagine walking up to a table at a bookfair, picking up a book, reading the back, and then attacking the author to their face? What if that was the norm? (Granted, people have actually done this to us at bookfairs before, but it is certainly the exception).

So this week I’ve had steampunks yell at me for being political, anarchists yell at me for watering-down their politics, red anarchists critique me for being too anti-civilization, green anarchists yell at me for being pro-civilization. I’ve been chastised for my choice in publisher (since, despite employing less than 10 people and being entirely anarchist run, they aren’t enough of a small press).

Yeah, I know. We all know the world is ruthless, and you’ve got to have thick skin to keep it up doing anything public. I’m not going to stop doing what I’m going to do. It just wears on you, that’s all.

*addendum* The thing is, posting comments rather than communicating directly with someone is saying “I’m saying this and I want everyone to see it.” When you see someone with food in their beard, do you say “hey everyone! that man has food in their beard!” or do you tell them directly? (As a side note, no longer metaphorical, don’t tell me I have food in my beard till I’m done eating. Thanks.)

• I did a mini-tour as a drummer for Ego Likeness.
• I published SteamPunk Magazine #4, which will be my last SteamPunk as primary editor.
• I tabled anarchist bookfaires and the portland zine symposium, always fun.
• I apprenticed as an offset printer with anarchist publishers Eberhardt Press.
• I had my first art show as a photographer.
• I traveled the southwest, saw the grand canyon and death valley. I visited Seattle for the first time, and then went back repeatedly, making awesome friends in the process. I ended a long relationship and moved from Portland to Baltimore.
• I played my first (and second, third, fourth, and I think fifth) show as a solo accordion player.
• I released two albums: We Are Not In The Least Afraid of Ruins, with my industrial band Attack Attack Attack, and Demo 08, a solo accordion thing.
• I finished a comic book that will be coming out soon.
• I wrote and published a number of small zines.
• I found out that a project of mine on anarchist fiction writers will be published by AK Press: my first book deal.

Next year? I don’t really make resolutions, but I will say I will be disappointed if I haven’t finished a longer form fiction work by the end of it. But yeah, more shows, more zines, more photography, more books, more traveling.

Also in the “lol, I told you so” category, Obama gave a wonderful little speech about how Israel was right in blowing the hell out of their prison colony:

If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

From a CBS article.

The irony, of course, being that it is somehow okay for the Israelis to respond violently to being attacked, but when Palestinians do it, it’s terrorism.

Indymedia reports that the EU and Russia, among other countries, are calling this out as bullshit. Only the US and the UK remain standing behind Israel.

Maybe it’s been done, but I’d love to see a craft/hardware store run by and for DIY folks. Bookstores (and I love bookstores, don’t get me wrong) offer mostly the exposure to theory, but what if we had a place that offered an exposure to craft? Homebrewing supplies, fabric and thread (kevlar is cheaper in bulk, by the way), metalworking tools… available from a worker-owned place. Hell, if it’s a downtown kind of location, you could also do consignment selling of crafts, offering local artisans another outlet to earn a living. Let’s re-invent the infoshop.

Now, I’m just throwing this out there. I don’t see myself really working on it. I would just go there a lot if it existed. If anyone knows about projects like this already in existence, please let me know!

Earlier on Birds Before The Storm, I posted about Big Dog, a military-friendly quadruped robot that is kind of frightening. But fortunately, our attention has been brought to Lrry-1, the video of which appears above, by the boulevardier: (from our comments)

we have our own robodog too! and it is bigger and scarier than theirs and made entirely of scrap metal… i wasn’t savy to mutoid waste until kanye west (of all people) introduced me to this video and they are fucking rad! They were organizing illegal parties in the 80’s, fleeing from police raids in the 90’s and now are building giant monsters, i sort of have a crush going!

So yeah, this is where it’s at. Scrap-metal DIY monsters that spit fire, ridden by mohawked mad scientists, and in real life. Yes.

Lrry-1 is the product of Lyle of the Mutoid Waste Company. A bit more information about them is available on their wikipedia entry and through a documentary on youtube. Other videos of Lrry (including LRRY2 or possibly 4!) are available on youtube as well: 1, 2.

When I lived in Amsterdam, I got a glimpse of some the european activist design aesthetic, which was beautiful. A little hip for my tastes, to be sure (not everything can look like it came from the 19th century, I suppose), but my friends there sure knew that aesthetics can be important. I’m gonna be honest… I think one reason that it’s hipper to be radical in Europe than in the USA is because, well, the radicals know how to design. (yes, I know, there are many good designers in the US scene. I’m just talking about the level of average flier/poster, which is admittedly going up.) So yeah. Anyhow, I found a website, the Radical Activism Visual Archive, that appears to be dedicated to collecting and presenting the awesome posters, covers, fliers, etc. that come out of radical activism all over the world (yes, the USA too).

As I’m certain much of the world is aware, Greece has been alive with riots these past two weeks since the police killed a teenage anarchist. It’s hard to keep up with it all, being over here in the USA, of course, but Crimethinc has come out with an excellent analysis of the uprising. One major point they propose is that, contrary to what the mainstream press has supposed, the riots are about more than just the economy, they are about the existence of the police, of the state. These protests, after all, were started with anarchist momentum.

But it’s not just the economic hardships accompanying times of recession—the resistance in Greece is also a revolt against the exploitation, alienation, and hierarchy inherent in the capitalist system, that set the stage for police to murder teenagers whether or not a significant percentage of the population is unemployed.

For a blow by blow of the action, I suggest The Center for Strategic Anarchy.