October 15 Book Launch / Musings on Media

Book launch to commemorate State Terror Raids - "All supporters, friends, fellow travellers and freedom fighters are welcome!" according to Valerie Morse, who edited the collection.

The launch will be on the 15th of October at 6pm, at Thistle Hall on Cuba Street.

"On Monday, October 15th 2007, more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on dozens of houses all over Aotearoa / New Zealand. Police claim the raids were in response to 'concrete terrorist threats' from indigenous activists. 20 people are facing charges under the Arms Act, in a trial that could take several years. On this site you can find out how to get involved in local support groups, dates and locations of solidarity events are happening and how to make a donation." - October 15th Solidarity

Reading first-hand accounts of what happened during the raids is important. They will go some way towards debunking the tediously predictable, fearmongering perspectives that get thrown around by big media.

The lies and inaccuracies that powerful people, through the media, would have us believe about ourselves, about our world, about each other, are truly ridiculous. Media literacy is so goddamn essential. Now more than ever. Recognition of the agenda at play is key to living a sweet life, I think.

Being media-aware has helped my happiness so much. It's waaay more difficult for those motherfuckers to dent my self-esteem these days and the key is recognition. Once I began to recognize propaganda it was like an avalanche of awareness: I started noticing the subtle framing of things, the small omissions, the cynical ploys.

The all-encompassing Western media-corporate-political web does not want you to be happy. It does not want you to believe that change is possible. It does not want you realise the knowledge your bones feel, the age-old quantum science that everything is interconnected.

For time immemorial, it has been this way: Powerful people trying to accumulate more power at the expense of everyone and everything else. This is the game being played.

I am refusing to play the game anymore by bolding loving and having immense faith in myself and the universe.

♥,

Accept, Let Go

Kittie spectacles!!!

Mmm:

♠ Sleepy early-early-morning coffee with Cam before he flew off to Sydney yesterday morning; kisses & iloveyous ♥ ♥ ♥

♠ Beginning book six of the Wheel of Time. I don't usually read fiction and almost never read fantasy so wasn't expecting to get sucked in! Robert Jordan is a wonderful writer

♠ Lush all over

♠ Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Eau de Parfum. Delicious. Mmm.

♠ Making giant to-do lists and beginning to cross things off

♠ The new season of Outrageous Fortune beginning next Tuesday night. Everyone has been waiting for sooo long. Mulled wine and uber-cheeses at ours once again :-D

♠ A warm little kitten sleeping on my lap as I type; Penny is so cool

♠ DRESSES. Specifically, Louise Black's 'marionette-inspired' black silk party dress that she has listed on Etsy. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous; eye-wateringly $995

♠ Opening the emotionbody to what the mindheart knows, maaan

♠ Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life

♠ Last month's copy of Juxtapoz for free. Sweeet.


via Yeryi's flikr

Joyously stumbled upon John Waters' 10 Best Pieces of Advice for Functional Freaks. Excellent!

"I’m a fascist about my work habits and I expect you to be, too. Never have a spontaneous moment in your life again. If you’re going to have a hangover, it should be scheduled on your calendar months in advance. Rigid enjoyment of planning can get you high. Militant time-management will enable you to ignore how maladjusted you would be if you had the time to notice it in the first place. Discipline is not anal compulsion; it’s a lifestyle that breeds power."

There is truth in there amongst all the irreverence!

One of the many good things to come out of my experiences so far in 2010 has been the realisation that organisation is key. In order to get the most out of your time, you need to plan plan plan the fuck out of it! Apparently this can actually be fun if you go about it in the right way and the vaguely obsessive-compulsive nerd in me suspects such to be true. Stay tuned to find out, haha.

At the beginning of the year, if you had shown me the above quote from Mr. Waters, I'd have thought it unhelpful and a bit silly.

So much has changed and grown since January! Many new things I feel deeply, the utmost perhaps being that you've got to just trust life and embrace it in your own way; and stay focused, which can be tricky, but is never impossible given conscious choice.

The last six months of working so incredibly hard to land a place in Pattern Design, and all of the heavy-duty planning, developing, laying of foundations for and changing/rearranging of goals lifewise that accompanied alongside, required a ton of emotional, mental and physical labour. It was exhausting&frustrating&awful at times but I got through it, stronger than ever.

Just like always, right?

Yes! But at times, against all previous evidence, I forgot that I would get through! Learning not to shift into a negative perspective when challenging periods arise is one of the keys to being a healthy and happy person but it is a difficult trick to master.

Andre Breton, c. 1930
Everything, in fact, happens for a reason. No coincidences. Some would say this line of thinking is a cop-out, is wishy-washy, isn't dealing with any real issue - not so! The lessons reveal themselves.

Is it not a fact that out of many of your dark moments have come threads of light weaving themselves in unexpected, necessary ways? Is it not also a fact that those threads have moved your life forward in a wonderful, useful way? Not immediately, of course, sometimes days or weeks or months or years or decades later, but it has happened. "If x thing didn't happen, then all of these amazing yz things big and small wouldn't have." You know it!

"There are no coincidences" is not a crazed new-age statement at all; it is advice requiring action. While we have little control over the actions that affect us, we absolutely always have control over our reactions. Focusing on goals, dreaming big and trusting the cosmos. Conscious, positive practice. Everyday. One step forward and things start falling in to place.

Coming right back around to John Waters again, I also really like this quote on fashion:

“You don’t need fashion designers when you are young. Have faith in your own bad taste. Buy the cheapest thing in your local thrift shop — the clothes that are freshly out of style with even the hippest people a few years older than you. Get on the fashion nerves of your peers, not your parents — that is the key to fashion leadership. Ill-fitting is always stylish. But be more creative — wear your clothes inside out, backward, upside down. Throw bleach in a load of colored laundry. Follow the exact opposite of the dry cleaning instructions inside the clothes that cost the most in your thrift shop. Don’t wear jewelry — stick Band-Aids on your wrists or make a necklace out of them. Wear Scotch tape on the side of your face like a bad face-life attempt. Mismatch your shoes. Best yet, do as Mink Stole used to do: go to the thrift store the day after Halloween, when the children’s trick-or-treat costumes are on sale, buy one, and wear it as your uniform of defiance."

YUSS!

John Waters, people. An eloquent, interesting man.
The only movie of his I've ever seen is Serial Mom, heh!

♥,

GothNet 2000

Sites stumbled upon in the course of googling for this post:
The Cabinet
County Asylums

Also, I notice that Divaluxe.com is currently, rather than being home to a purveyor of uber dreadfalls, host to Murder City Nights, a sweet-ass rock n roll podcast!

Indeed, onwards...

I am so disappointed to discover that Darklinks doesn't exist as a database anymore. Lame! That was an amazing resource! There is now an associated awesome blog, however: Dark Side of the Net.

Darklinks loomed so large during my goth internet years (also the heady days of camwhoring and AOL instant messenger, but I digress). Good times, they were. Good times.

Countless hours were also spent building "spooky" Angelfire pages with cheesy animated gifs and an abundance of htmlgear add-ons.





Seriously.

Ten years ago. Wow. I was also likely be found reading the alt.goth archives; giggling at the expense of people, who were probably no more tragic than I was, on Goth Goose; dreaming of the ultimate goff wardrobe via Batgear Beyond; obsessing over Batty, Sinnocence and Goddess of Freak; tracking down everything Sexbat ever published on the net and pouring over image galleries of elaborate outfits and gravity-defying hairstyles.

Wouldn't have had it any other way!

Lady

If you haven't seen the amazing GRITtv interview with Kathleen Hanna yet: Do it!

I fucking love and respect her so much.

Bikini Kill revealed a world to me that my life is so much the better for knowing. Six or seven years ago, nineteen years old, I was confused and depressed and bewildered and pouring half of the attention I was supposed to be giving studying into listening to music and losing myself in thoughts (a familiar story, no doubt!). One day, flicking through discs at one of my favourite stores, I picked up an album by a band I'd heard a little about and been meaning to check out:




My mind was blown the first time I heard Pussywhipped. It was like this incredible, heart-soaring piece of aural evidence that empowering alternatives can and do exist. I was still a confused, depressed, bewildered nineteen year old, but one that had forever had a part of herself strengthened by the knowledge that it is possible for women and girls to live creative, unapologetic lives despite the shit society gives them.

That album, band, the incredible fuckedupfreeflawedfantastic movement they helped start, seemed so much more real and powerful and helpful than sitting in a class and tip-toeing through the Feminist Canon. It still does.

Every turn lately, something reminds me of Riot Grrrl. I've been thinking a lot about how truly grateful I am for that movement. It lit sparks, and is still lighting them, within so many people.

Every girl and boy needs a riot grrl education!



(Pic via First 3 Songs)

Pussywhipped is still one of my favourite albums ever.