Month: March 2013

But I Was So Much Younger Then I’m So Much Older Than That Now

But I Was So Much Younger Then I'm So Much Older Than That Now — Building Science Information.

I couldn’t put the book down that night. It kept referencing the Canadian Building Digests. I read them too. The one guy, N. B. Hutcheon was some real smart guy. He headed the Division of Building Research of the National Research Council of Canada. The guy I wanted to punch out, G. O. Handegord was also real smart and from the same place. What was a guy like Handegord doing at a Home Builders Association meeting? I couldn’t believe I almost punched him out. They sure knew walls. Roofs, too. Windows. Airtightness. Energy. Everything. I had a mechanical engineering degree and I thought I knew stuff but I knew none of this. But I could understand the language. I read and learned. The buildings I was going to build and design forever changed that night. It pays to go to Home Builders Association meetings. Really.

Doug Christie: The Unauthorized Obituary

Doug Christie: The Unauthorized Obituary

On his website, Christie grandiloquently declared himself to be “Canada’s greatest free speech defender.” What nonsense. When did Christie ever defend speech with which he did not agree? He gained a national platform defending clients against hate-crimes laws and human-rights tribunals, but less well remembered was his own frequent use of the courts to stifle the speech of opponents.

You Look Like Shit: Fashion and Etiquette for Anarcho-bros

You Look Like Shit: Fashion and Etiquette for Anarcho-bros. I’m not down with this whole workshop description, but I am intrigued. I would go to this, if Berkeley and I were closer.

How are we supposed to trust our comrades when every day they are shoving cargo shorts and ill fitting t-shirts in our faces? In this presentation, we will be looking at one of the pillars of femme methodology—fashion—in order to critique some of the invisible authoritarianism inherent in typical anarcho-bro styles. In particular, we will discuss the black bloc and imagine alternatives to the supremacy of the all black uniform as the image of global anarchism. It is apparent that the black bloc has almost entirely eclipsed its role as a tactic and become nothing more than a symbolic gesture or a sign of affiliation and in this way is indistinguishable in its usage from any other nationalist uniform. How can we move away from these symbolic fetishes and apply the concept of direct action to our fashion choices? And is it necessary, as some have claimed, to hold a temporary moratorium on the black bloc in order to allow new innovations in anarchist resistance? Far from mere frivolity, we will see how fashion plays a critical role in the efficacy of your projects, actions, crews, collective houses, romances, etc and is imperative to the goal of abolishing capitalism and the state itself. A solid grasp of fashion will offer anarcho-bros a path out of perpetual douche-baggery and can potentially guide you from bro to boulevardier. I repeat, this event is a truly bro-friendly safe space; you will not be shunned, spit on, or scratched at any time during this presentation.