Happiness: A Rant

I just feel like so much of my emotional responses are dictated by artificial experience: drugs, anti-depressants, alcohol, nicotine, money, clothing, the amassing of material wealth. Sure my brain fires off the appropriate chemicals, but that happiness feels so utterly fake - I feel cheated. Rarely do I ever feel truly 'happy', and usually it's when I'm far removed from the plastic society we're all so indoctrinated in. So what is happiness? Is it chemicals firing off and making me feel 'good'? It can't be that simple. I think happiness is experiential; it involves the 'spirit' as much as it involves the mind. And I think the more I rely on the material of mass society, the harder it will be for me to experience true happiness.

True happiness enriches, true happiness is ethical, true happiness is shared.

Friends, music, the earth - the three things that truly make me happy (most of the time.)

Liberating

The last three days have been some of the most grounding, empowering, and fulfilling experiences I've had in a long time. I feel alive for once.

Radicals and Outlaws

I love playing radical shows. It seems like people appreciate you more as a performer. They're genuinely interested in the sounds you're playing. There's much more of a community mentality; the crowd interacts more, people share space. I love being an anarchist. The radical community is so diverse, and I think it saved my life.

Also, I am in love with folk punk (and the people who play it!)

Love and Anarchy

Touchups and fresh ink. Brrrap!

The Revolution Is Now!

Stimulator's recap of the Toronto G20:

Path of Raven

I am so sick of this culture. I don't belong here.

Anarchists

Because the media ignores us and the state harasses us.
Because if we talk about our beliefs we're dreamers but if we act them out we're criminals.
Because the right calls use communists and the left calls us bourgeois.
Because we will not be seduced by any creed of ideology.
Because we reject the glitzy amorality of consumerism and the grey conformity of statism.
Because liberal democracy is the tyranny of the majority and the dictatorship of the proletariat is still dictatorship.
Because the capitalist countries are mired in greed and the socialist countries are stranded in the past and the poor countries convulsed with famine and war.
Because all countries are obsessed with the state.
Because soon only the rich will be able to live in the cities.
Because men oppress women and the rich oppress the poor and the whites oppress the blacks and the strong oppress the weak and we all oppress the earth.
Because living creatures are born free and are everywhere in chains.
For these and many other reasons we are anarchists.

Privilege

So many people are quick to criticize but fail to realize their own privilege. Are you white? Are you male bodied? Are you heterosexual or queer? Are you middle class? Are you able bodied? Do you have health care? A roof over your head? Do you have dietary issues? Mental health issues? Addiction issues? Acknowledge your own privilege before you deny those without any. Solidarity to those resisting! Safety to those trying to get home!

A Historical Moment

Toronto will go down in history. We warned them in Vancouver, but they didn't listen. The movement is stronger than ever. Revolutionary energy is erupting around the world - Greece, Thailand, Pittsburgh, and now Toronto. We are winning.

Reset

It's exhilarating to swim in the ocean. You can feel how powerful she really is. It's amazing to feel so humbled. You realize how tiny you really are. We are only a small piece of the puzzle.

Resist, Rewild.

Diversity = Community

We have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion, rather than as forces for change. Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.

- Audrey Lourde

N.W.A. - Fuck Tha Police

Don't you have anything better to do than harass people?

Blackbird Raum - Honey In The Hair

One day this will all come down.
One day this will all come crashing right down.
So go on with your life; we will bring you down.

Mosh

Fuck that felt good - to be bruised and battered in the pit. It's definitely an interesting sense of camaraderie. Rape Revenge and Iskra stole the show for me. Need more punk shows!

The Coast

My dreads smell like campfire. Sand still permeates my clothes. The ocean waves welcomed us. We got drunk, sang to the stars, painted our names on the walls, argued the collapse of the world, and reveled in the companionship of our community. Acquaintances became friends. Strangers became the same. Time means nothing. The birds sang as I slunk to the floor and slept.

Last night excited me. The prospect of summer excites me. Friendship is anarchy. I am an anarchist.

Sweet Sensi

It's raining outside and the birds are beginning to chirp. I'm as lost as I'll ever be. Babylon is all around and we're still here chanting it down. Ganja for the healing of the nations. Solidarity.

A lick of Jah at 4:20AM.

Punk Film Fest

The punk rock film festival kicks off at Camas Books & Infoshop tonight. I won't be able to make the opening night due to exams, but I'll definitely be there for Thursday. Come by, support the infoshop, and watch some great films to boot!

Upside

You know it's been a good night when the birds are chirping outside and you haven't slept yet. I feel like I accomplished a lot today, despite not having much to show. I attended a protest against post-Olympic cuts, beat Metal Slug 5, cooked dinner, wrote and facilitated several interviews with DJs (most notably Paul Anthony), drank, toked, danced, bumped into a slew of old friends (and an old physics teacher), attended an afterparty, met up with more friends, made it home, and fed myself -- amazingly. Now I'm committed to several new projects. Life looks like it might be levelling out a bit -- before it gets rough again.

I'm just going to play it by ear.

Oh yeah, I finally grabbed a legitimate domain name for this blog: http://www.djokibi.com. Update your bookmarks (not that anyone bookmarks this site). Does anyone even read this?

KILL SOCIETY

The path of self destruction is all too easy comfortable.

http://www.killsociety.com
http://www.killsociety.com
http://www.killsociety.com
http://www.killsociety.com

Language

Words bespeak a sadness; they are used to soak up the emptiness of unbridled time. We have all had that desire to go further, deeper than words, the feeling of wanting only to be done with all the talk, knowing that being allowed to live coherently erases the need to formulate coherence. (Zerzan)