Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Awesome Company Takes Bold Step! Free Veggie Patties for Burger Chains That Take up This Challenge




from One Green Planet

What better way to convince a “better burger chain” to add a meatless patty to its menu than by giving away the veggies for free? That’s what Beyond Meat is doing in its new challenge to burger chains, in response to a recent Huffington Post article.

The article summarized the negative human health and climate implications of beef burgers, whether grass or feedlot fed. But Beyond Meat, who creates meat made from 100% plant protein such as beef crumbles or chicken strips,  has a solution. The company is offering a free pallet of their new Beast Burger to “better burger” chains if they agree to add to their menu. If the patty is free, then why not take a chance and see how customers respond?

“For any of the burger joints mentioned in the Huffington Post piece that put the Beast Burger on their menu before November 1, 2014, we will deliver a free pallet of Beast Burgers,” said Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown in a statement. “We stand ready to put the delicious, protein-packed, nutrient-dense Beast into the hands of burger artists across the country.”

The Beast Burger is made of 100 percent plant protein and has as much iron and protein as beef, more omegas than salmon, plus calcium, vitamins B-6 and B-12, antioxidants, and a special nutrient blend. It sounds pretty good to us!

We love hearing this news, because as Green Monsters, we know some scary stats. Get this: animal agriculture contributes to 51 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, while meat production is dominated by factory farms that use about 5.5 gallons of fossils fuels per acre. Plus, livestock already occupies about 70 percent of the Earth’s total usable arable land, and industrial agriculture sucks up 70 percent of the world’s fresh water supplies! That’s why we believe the time to Go “Beyond Meat” is now.

Beyond Meat encourages customers to ask their favorite burger joints to take the challenge by tweeting with #beastme to the companies below.

  • In-N-Out Burger : @innoutburger_
  • Burger Lounge: @Burger_Lounge
  • Five Guys: @Five_Guys
  • Shake Shack: @shakeshack
  • Smashburger: @smashburger
  • Bareburger: @bareburger
  • Yeah! Burger: @yeahburger
  • Black & Orange: @blacknorangedc
  • Bobby’s Burger Palace: @bobbysburgerpal
  • BGR: The Burger Joint: @BGRBurgerJoint
  • Elevation Burger: @elevationburger
  • Fuddruckers: @fuddruckers
  • McDonald’s: @McDonalds
  • Burger King: @BurgerKing

BTW. Don't get me wrong, i don't think this is an answer, but it's a starting place for people that I can appreciate

Sunday, September 28, 2014

12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story




Our lives revolve around stories. When told correctly, stories have the power to inspire, challenge, and organize ideas in an otherwise puzzling world. They often provide a framework for understanding ourselves, so when a story realizes its potential, it’s an absolutely transcendent event. Nick Gabaldon’s is one such story. Laden with superlatives, it strikes a deeper place where passion, risk, and iconoclasm intersect.

According to Matt Warshaw, author of The Encyclopedia of Surfing, Nick Gabaldon was the first African American surfer. He learned to surf at an informally segregated beach called “The Inkwell” in Santa Monica in the 1940s and regularly paddled twelve miles north to surf Malibu, one of California’s best waves. In doing so, Gabaldon defied conventions in an America that had institutionally prevented many blacks from accessing the ocean (and swimming pools) through a variety of latently racist legislation encouraged by Jim Crow laws, which weren’t formally dismantled until 1965 when Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act.

But that’s just context. Forget the racial boundaries he collapsed by simply standing on a surfboard. Instead, ponder the stroke-after-shoulder-burning-stroke that a 12-mile open ocean paddle demands. Gabaldon pursued his passion for surfing to an extent most would never consider, which stands alone as an impressive feat, magnified further by his tragic, yet poignant conclusion.

On June 5, 1951, Nick Gabaldon caught his last wave. During an eight-foot south swell, Gabaldon lost control of his board and struck a piling beneath the Malibu Pier. His board washed up on the beach shortly after. Three days later, lifeguards recovered his body and the small community of (white) surfers who had come to accept and respect Nick mourned.

Eerily, just six days before he passed away, Gabaldon, who was enrolled at Santa Monica City College, submitted a poem entitled “Lost Lives” to the school’s literary magazine. The poem praised the power of the sea and foreshadowed the events of June 5th. Nick wrote:
TThe sea vindictive, with waves so high,
For me to battle and still they die…

Scores and scores have fallen prey,
To the salt of animosity,
And many more will victims be,
Of the capricious, vindictive sea.
We can’t pretend to know what Nick was thinking as he glided towards the Malibu Pier on his final wave. And we’ll never know the exact relationship between Nick’s poem and his end. But we can salute the depth of his passion and its cultural import.

As Director Richard Yelland told me, Nick’s story isn’t about surfing. It’s about humanity. It’s about sourcing inspiration from extraordinary ambitions and obstacles like those that Nick confronted and applying them to your own life, whatever that may mean. For Nick, surfing was a vehicle to improve his world. The ocean was his medium, which is fitting because the sea knows no prejudice; it’s the ultimate equalizer. As is a basketball court. Or a soccer pitch. Or a football field. Or, especially, a great story. - Zach Weisberg, Founder, The Inertia

Saturday, September 27, 2014

FUCKTARDS on the Climate,
Jon Stewart sheds some solar on 'em


Friday, September 26, 2014

NO-NO : A DOCKUMENTARY
FREE screening in LA tonight!


The Dock Ellis Documentary I worked on will be playing tonight near where Dock grew up, It should be a very colorful evening with some of his friends and family expected to attend as well. I hope to make it down with a few friends.




(click to enlarge flyer for details)


.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Rolling Jubilee Announces Abolishment of Nearly Four Million Dollars of Student Debt, Launches New Debt Collective

from our friends at Sparrow Media



On the third anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Rolling Jubilee has, for the first time ever, bought and abolished student debt: $3,856,866.11 of student debt owed by 2,761 people across the United States.

With the aim of building a broad-based debt resistance movement, the Rolling Jubilee relieves debtors by buying debt for pennies on the dollar. The project highlights the injustice of having to go into debt for things that should be publicly provided, like healthcare and education. This is the fourth announcement by the Rolling Jubilee, which has abolished over $15 million of medical bills for thousands of people across the United States since the campaign was launched and went viral in November of 2012.

While medical debt is widely available to debt collectors on secondary markets, most student debt is not, because it is guaranteed by the federal government. The debt purchased by the Rolling Jubilee is private debt from Everest College, which is part of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a nationwide system of for-profit colleges that receives approximately 90% of its funding from federal student loans. Corinthian has been subject to numerous investigations by state and federal authorities for fraud. The company is on the verge of collapse and the Department of Education is aiding Corinthian in its quest to find a buyer for its over one hundred campuses and online operations. Strike Debt member Luke Herrine explains: “The Department of Education needs to stop acting as a debt collector for a predatory lender, and start discharging the debt of these students. It is fully within its statutory powers to do so.”

“Debt is the tie that binds the 99%, whether you are a student delinquent on your student loans or a parent struggling to pay healthcare bills,” says Strike Debt member Ann Larson. “Being forced into debt for basic social services is a systemic problem and the only solution is to respond collectively to create a new, equitable economy.”

To that end, this announcement also marks the launch of The Debt Collective (debtcollective.org), which will create a platform for organization, advocacy, and resistance by debtors. “Just as the labor movement demands jobs, higher pay, a safe work environment, and time off, The Debt Collective will challenge the 1% creditor class by empowering members to renegotiate, resist, and refuse unfair debts while advocating for real solutions including free education and universal health care,” says Thomas Gokey, a Debt Collective organizer. “Alone, our debts overwhelm us. Together, they make us powerful,” says member Laura Hanna. “We invite everyone to join us at debtcollective.org and become a part of this unprecedented effort to unite debtors. You are not a loan.”

For more information visit http://strikedebt.org, http://rollingjubilee.org, and http://debtcollective.org

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

TONIGHT I'll Be in Brooklyn Signing Books and Talking Shit with Y'all


Actually my friend and incredible performer/writer/band leader/conversationalist extraordinaire will be moderating between anyone who shows up and Myself, There will also be incredible Vegan Burgers served up by another friend Brooks Headley, the infamous punk rock drummer/five star chef. And for those of you who actually buy a book at the event itself you'll be included in a raffle for a DogTown skateboard signed by Jim "Red Dog" Muir and Jeff Ho!

For more info and or directions check this link:
MY RULES Tuesday September 23rd 7-9pm

Spread the word! Thank you!

GEF



Monday, September 22, 2014

RUSH HOUR


Directed by Fernando Livschitz - Black Sheep Films


Sunday, September 21, 2014

PEOPLES CLIMATE MARCH TODAY 9/21 in NEW YORK CITY


This is an invitation to change everything.
In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary­ General Ban Ki-­moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.

To change everything, we need everyone on board.
Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Join us.

go here for more info: http://peoplesclimate.org/march/

Disruption is an unflinching look at the devastating consequences of our inaction in the face of climate change -- and gives a behind-the-scenes look at a part of the effort to organize the People's Climate March.







THE FULL FILM:

"DISRUPTION" - a film by KELLY NYKS & JARED P. SCOTT from Watch Disruption on Vimeo.


.

Friday, September 19, 2014

LL COOL J on SOUL TRAIN circa 1985



classic!



I was here this day and included this photo in the "Hip-Hop" collage towards the back of the new book MY RULES

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

EVENT SIX DAYS FROM TODAY
I will be doing a book signing in Brooklyn at the PowerHouse Arena


Mark you calendar! Come on down! Ian Svenonius will be moderating if any special guests show up besides him, and if not he'll moderate between your questions and myself! Infamous punk rock drummer/five star chef Brooks Headley will be hooking us up with his renowned mini vegan burgers, and for those of you who actually buy a book at the event itself you'll be included in a raffle for a DogTown skateboard signed by Jim "Red Dog" Muir and Jeff Ho!

For more info and or directions check this link:
MY RULES Tuesday September 23rd 7-9pm

Spread the word! Thank you!

GEF



Tuesday, September 16, 2014

MY RULES
NEW BOOK OFFICIALLY RELEASED TODAY!




MY RULES, The book, is officially being released on the 20th anniversary of FUCK YOU HEROES original publication. TODAY!

This book is being released by RIZZOLI international publications – our first ever collaboration with a major publisher.

It's a mother fucking, ass kicking, monster!

Hard cover – 11.5″ tall by 13″ wide – 324 pages

You are going to LOVE IT! Of this I am sure.

It will contain the best of both FUCK YOU HEROES (out of print for almost two years now) and FUCK YOU TOO (out of print for over three years now).

But it won’t just be a rehash, because the images will be larger than ever! 
Many as full bleed, and up to 300% of the there originally published size,
with scans better than ever, for more detail than ever,
 for many of the most classic photographs GEF has ever created.

PLUS over 30% of the book will be never before published work (over 100 never before published photographs)!

There will also be essays from many of my favorite and most respected and interesting subjects over the years,
 speaking truths that will inspire you, without a doubt.

Contributors include:

TONY ALVA
IAN MacKAYE
ICE-T
LANCE MOUNTAIN
HENRY ROLLINS
LL COOL J
DUANE PETERS
KEITH MORRIS
CHUCK D.
RODNEY MULLEN
RAKIM ALLAH
JAY ADAMS
MILO AUKERMAN
DARRYL McDANIELS
ALAN “OLLIE” GELFAND
JELLO BIAFRA
RICK RUBIN
JEFF HO
TONY (CADENA) BRANDENBURG
ADAM HOROVITZ
GARY “DR. KNOW” MILLER


Introductions by
C.R. Stecyk III and Shepard Fairey

Afterwords by
Lisa Fancher and Gary Harris

GO CHECK IT OUT!!!!!












Monday, September 15, 2014

Walking for 5 min/hour prevents negative health effects of sitting


In "Effect of Prolonged Sitting and Breaks in Sitting Time on Endothelial Function," forthcoming in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers from IU Bloomington report on a study that holds out hope for anyone worried about the health effects of prolonged sitting.

If you've heard that Sitting is Killing You, you probably have some low-grade continuous anxiety about the fact that you still end up sitting at a computer for most of the day, most days. But a five minute/hour slow walking break was shown to guard against the worst circulatory effects of sitting.
The study involved 11 non-obese, healthy men between the ages of 20 and 35 who participated in two randomized trials. In one trial they sat for three hours without moving their legs. Researchers used a blood pressure cuff and ultrasound technology to measure the functionality of the femoral artery at baseline and again at the one-, two- and three-hour mark.

In the second trial, the men sat during a three-hour period but also walked on a treadmill for five minutes at a speed of 2 mph at the 30-minute mark, 1.5-hour mark and 2.5-hour mark. Researchers measured the functionality of the femoral artery at the same intervals as in the other trial.
Short walking breaks found to reverse negative effects of prolonged sitting

(via /.)

(Image: ...and go (cc), Martin Fisch, CC-BY-SA)

Friday, September 12, 2014

People are happier when they live near public transit

from Salon.com

Arrive at your subway station just as crowds of people exit — a sure sign that you’ve missed your train — wait around in the crippling heat, then squeeze in a crowded car, praying there’ll be no delays, and you’ll be forgiven for thinking that public transportation is a particularly nasty form of torture meant to punish commuters.

Not so, says University of Minnesota transport policy scholar Jason Cao. In a small study, Cao found that proximity to good public transit is significantly associated with increased well-being: People who live near rail lines are happier with their lives.

Cao’s research was based on questionnaires sent out to residents along the Hiawatha light rail line in Minneapolis, which he compared to responses from people in other areas of the city. All participants were asked about the quality of their public transportation system: What was the service like? How accessible was it? Then, they were asked to evaluate the overall quality of their lives. The Atlantic Cities interprets the results:
Cao believes this high quality of life emerged primarily through the quality of the light rail. When he controlled for transit service and regional access, for instance, the advantage in life satisfaction disappeared — a clear sign, to him, that service and access were responsible for this satisfaction in the first place. Contentment with travel was leading to contentment with life.

The reasons for this finding may vary. Perhaps residents enjoyed the train itself, or perhaps they enjoyed the access to great social and cultural destinations it afforded them. The distinction doesn’t much matter. What’s clear is that much of the satisfaction derived from living in the Hiawatha corridor comes from the high level of mobility that good light rail provides.
Even without knowing much about the rail line, it’s easy to seem why the rail line’s ridership characterize their lives as “excellent” and “ideal.” They have cheap and easy access to sports stadiums, an entertainment district, an international airport, and the Mall of America. All that’s enough, it seems, to keep people smiling.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

A skateboarding spectacle

from Vimeo's staff blog:

Cy Kuckenbaker makes documentary videos that seem downright impossible. His latest, created in collaboration with Vimeo (that's us!) and a company you may have heard of called Microsoft, takes skateboarding as its subject matter.

The scene is familiar: there's sun, concrete, and California vibes. But the uncanny choreography of grinds, airs, and flips will have you questioning the signals that your eyes send to your brain.



As you may have suspected, Cy didn't use magic to create these incredibly intertwined moving images. Rather he employed a time-collapse filmmaking technique that requires careful camerawork, painstaking editing, and pure patience to pull off convincingly. And for this video, he shot all the footage on a Nokia Lumia 930 smartphone, which makes the result all the more impressive.

Learn how Cy made this skateboarding spectacle and see what drives him to create in this behind-the-scenes video:



Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Deep math of the folded pizza slice

from Boing Boing:

Why does a flat pizza slice flop over unless you bend it into a curve? Thank Gaussian curvature, the 19th century mathematical principle that underpins everything from corrugated cardboard to eggshells to Pringles chips.

Wired's Aatish Bhatia uses the pizza-slice as a jumping-off point to explain one of the most elegant and fascinating parts of geometry, and once you read his work, you'll never be able to look at a curved surface again:
Well, the pizza slice was flat before you picked it up (in math speak, it has zero Gaussian curvature). Gauss’s remarkable theorem assures us that one direction of the slice must always remain flat — no matter how you bend it, the pizza must retain a trace of its original flatness. When the slice flops over, the flat direction (shown in red below) is pointed sideways, which isn’t helpful for eating it. But by folding the pizza slice sideways, you’re forcing it to become flat in the other direction – the one that points towards your mouth. Theorema egregium, indeed.

By curving a sheet in one direction, you force it to become stiff in the other direction. Once you recognize this idea, you start seeing it everywhere. Look closely at a blade of grass. It’s often folded along its central vein, which adds stiffness and prevents it from flopping over. Engineers frequently use curvature to add strength to structures. In the Zarzuela race track in Madrid, the Spanish structural engineer Eduardo Torroja designed an innovative concrete roof that stretches out from the stadium, covering a large area while remaining just a few inches thick. It’s the pizza trick in disguise.
How a 19th Century Math Genius Taught Us the Best Way to Hold a Pizza Slice [Aatish Bhatia/Wired]


Monday, September 8, 2014

The Pale Blue Dot


from THE SAGAN SERIES

Sunday, September 7, 2014

10 Reasons to Hate Capitalism

from Dangerous Minds



 

10. Capitalist corporations suffer from a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and are rewarded by shareholders for acting that way. If corporations could be sent to a criminal psychologist’s office they’d be diagnosed as psychopaths and locked away forever.

 



 

9. Capitalism encourages greed. But greed is only good for capitalists. For normal people it is anti-social and soul destroying, not to mention very bad for our communities, which rely on altruism, compassion and a generalized concern for others.

 



 

8. Capitalism is a system of minority privilege and class rule based on the private ownership of means of livelihood. This gives a few rich people the power to buy and sell jobs, which means they can build or destroy entire communities that depend on those jobs.

 



 

7. Capitalists praise freedom and individualism, but they destroy freedom and individualism for everyone but themselves. The vast majority of us who work for a living are daily asked to uncritically follow orders, to act as if we are machines, and limit our creativity to what profits our bosses.

 



 

6. Capitalists denigrate cooperation and collectivism, but create mass production processes that rely on both from workers. Their system requires us to be cogs in a giant profit-making machine, but because they fear the power this gives us we are told working together for our own interests is illegitimate and bad. Thus capitalists undermine unions and other organizations that encourage workers to cooperate with each other and act collectively.

 



 

5. Capitalism requires the largest propaganda system the world has ever known to convince us it is the only system possible. It turns people into consumers through advertising, marketing, entertainment and even so-called news. Millions around the world are employed to use their creativity to twist our feelings of love, desire, human solidarity and fairness into tools of manipulation, so that ever more profits can flow into the hands of a tiny minority.

 



 

4. Capitalism is a system in which the principle of one dollar, one vote, dominates that of one person, one vote. Those who own the most shares (bought with their dollars) control giant corporations, many of which are more powerful than all but a few governments. Rich people also use their money to dominate the elections that are supposed to give us all one, equal vote. Under capitalism those with the most money are entitled to the most goods and services as well as the most say in directing our governments and our economy.

 



 

3. Capitalism proclaims the virtue of naked self-interest, but self-interest without regard for morality, ecology or common sense leads to environmental degradation, destruction of indigenous communities, colonialism, war and other forms of mass destruction. Self-interest leads capitalists to seek profit absolutely everywhere, regardless of the damage done to other people and the health of the planet’s ecosystem. Self-interest leads capitalists to destroy any rival economic system or way of thinking (such as indigenous communal land use and respect for nature) that can be a barrier to their endless quest for profit.

 



 

2. Capitalism is not a friend to democracy but ultimately its enemy. When pushed, capitalists choose capitalism over democracy. If people use democracy to weaken the power of capitalists the rich and powerful turn to various forms of fascism in order to keep their privileges.

 



 

1. Capitalism is a cancer taking over our planet. Capitalists make profits from global warming, from destroying our oceans, from pumping ever more chemicals into the atmosphere and from patenting everything they can, including life itself. Only by getting rid of capitalism can we rescue our environment.


This is a guest post from Gary Engler. Engler is a Canadian journalist, novelist (The Year We Became Us, about the Saskatchewan Doctors Strike) and co-author of the recently released The New Commune-ist Manifesto: Workers of the World It Really is Time to Unite. You can find more of his work at the New Communeist website

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Clever Ikea ad treats print as a new technology: 'Experience the power of a bookbook'




"At only 8mm thin, and weighing in at less than 400g, the 2015 IKEA Catalogue comes pre-installed with thousands of home furnishing ideas."


Thanks, Boing Boing

Friday, September 5, 2014

The Internet of Things
(video from NYTimes)


very interesting thoughts on simple uses of complicated technology.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

"No-No" A DOCKUMENTARY opens this weekend (and next) Nationwide. Be sure to Go See It!




This is a film I spent several years working on with the Director and Producer, as a Creative Consultant and Associate Producer. I have posted about it several times since the beginning of the project as well as posting about my personal relationship to the subject, Dock Ellis.

I think the film came out great and is a fitting tribute to my old friend and inspiration as a kid. Can't forget to mention, the original score was done by none other than softball team mate of mine, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz.

A few of my past DOCK posts below:

For Dock Ellis On His 67th Birthday:
LSD Memories, Celluloid Dreams


My Personal Dock Ellis Story (Pt. 1)

"No-No A Dock-umentary"
premiering at Sundance Film Festival this week


Here's a photo of myself with Director Jeff Radice and Associate producer and another fellow softball team mate of mine Carlos "Chili" Cañedo at the "Montclair Film Festival" premiere.



trailer:


Theaters this weekend:

5-Sep New York, NY Village East (I'll be here opening night)
5-Sep Los Angeles, CA Laemmle Noho 7
5-Sep San Diego, CA Reading Gaslamp 15
5-Sep Pittsburgh, PA Harris Theater 2-week min. run
5-Sep Seattle, WA Northwest Film Forum
5-Sep Dallas, TX Texas Theatre Fri-Sun weekend run
5-Sep Houston, TX Drafthouse Vintage Park
5-Sep Austin, TX Drafthouse South Lamar
5-Sep Burlington, IA Capitol Theater One Night Only
5-Sep Pelham, NY Picture House
5-Sep San Francisco, CA Roxie Theater
5-Sep Boston, MA Coolidge Corner Theater

next weekend:

12-Sep Chicago, IL Facets Cinematheque
12-Sep Denver, CO Sie Film Center
12-Sep Cleveland, OH Capitol Theatre
12-Sep Amherst, MA Amherst Cinema Arts Center
12-Sep Washington, DC West End Cinema
12-Sep Bellingham, WA Pickford Film Center
12-Sep Philadelphia, PA PFS Roxy
12-Sep Bryn Mawr, PA Bryn Mawr Film Center

after that:

13-Sep Portland, OR Hollywood Theater Saturday, 7:30pm one-night screening

19-Sep Santa Fe, NM CCA
19-Sep Albuquerque, NM Guild Cinema
19-Sep New Orleans, LA Zeitgeist Arts Center TBD
19-Sep Tyler, TX Liberty Hall One Night Only
19-Sep Omaha, NE FilmStreams TBD
19-Sep Milwaukee, WI Union Theatre
19-Sep Kansas City, MO Drafthouse Main St.
19-Sep Columbus, OH Gateway Film Center
19-Sep Phoenix, AZ Harkins Shea 14 TBD
19-Sep Tucson, AZ The Loft Cinema TBD

26-Sep Oakland, CA New Parkway One Night Only

8-Oct Gloucester, MA Cape Ann Community Cinema One Night Only

17-Oct Tallahassee, FL All Saints Cinema 3-day engagement

6-Nov Olympia, WA Capitol Theater (Olympyia FS) One Night Only

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

People in crowds do not spontaneously de-evolve into subhuman beasts

via Boing Boing


The viewpoint that humans in large groups are dangerous has informed the policies and tactics of governments and police forces for more than a century, and like many prescientific musings, much of it is wrong. David McRaney investigates in the latest episode of You AreNot So Smart.



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

HANDS UP

from HandsUpUnited.org:
As a global week of action demands justice for Mike Brown, young people from Ferguson, MO and their activist allies detail what #handsup means to them.

We are striving for a world where we deal with harm in our communities through healing, love, and kinship. This means an end to state sponsored violence, including the excessive use of force by law enforcement. We are committed to an America that comes to terms with the trauma of its painful history and finds true reconciliation for it. Mass incarceration and the criminalization of black and brown people must forever end, leaving in its place a culture that embraces our histories and stories. This means an end to racial bias and white supremacy in all its forms.

Our dreams are directly linked with those resisting militarism, war, and state repression around the world. We will achieve this new beloved community hand in hand, step by step, in global solidarity with all people committed to lasting peace and full justice.



Via my friends over at Sparrow Media

Monday, September 1, 2014

Mimi Pond: "MAD was our communist manifesto"

from Boing Boing:





In the 1980s Mimi Pond was a cartoonist and illustrator for such publications as the National Lampoon, the Village Voice, The New York Times, Seventeen Magazine, Adweek, and too many more to mention, as well as writing and illustrating five humor books, beginning with the national best-seller, The Valley Girls’ Guide to Life. She wrote the first episode of the animated series, The Simpsons, and has written for other television shows as well.

With her husband, the artist Wayne White, she moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and since then has continued to write and to draw cartoons for numerous national magazines.

In 2014, her graphic novel, Over Easy, a fictionalized account of her post-art school waitressing career in Oakland, California in the late 1970s, was published by Drawn & Quarterly and has been on the New York Times Best Seller List.