Monday, May 31, 2010

food, punks and lasers

For school turns out I'm currently in fail standing, which means I need to get special permission to enroll and basically see if I can go back to school in Montreal or not...
Yesterday nothing special hung out with people and that's it. Today went to ABC No Rio for Food Not Bombs but it was locked and we ended up just bringing the unprepared fruits and vegetables to the park and leaving the boxes out. I'm gonna try again next week see if it turns out better or not.
Also went to a punk show in Tompkins Square which was good times. There wasn't much of a circle pit most of the time but it came on and off and was pretty cool. It was conveniently located close to where ctf was going to take place and where we would have served if we actually had cooked for food not bombs...
CTF was lame because it didn't happen instead we played laser tag which isn't nearly as fun, still fun but not as much as I was hoping for. We played and moved and played and ate and played so it was a good time in the end. For food I got some nuts and chocolate from a chain pharmacy (fo free) and someone passed me an extra taco, earlier in the day I found a grapefruit on the floor and I ate that before what was supposed to be CTF started.
Ithaca is supposed to arrive on Wednesday instead of Tuesday :(, it seems like it's taking forever-ish.

Friday, May 28, 2010

(re)discovering NYC

I've been up to quite a bit since I got here on Sunday and it hasn't even been a week yet. I have a bike, it broke a few times, I fixed it a few times and now I hope it'll be fine.
I went to the Bluestocking cafe on Monday to hear a talk about the summit that took place in Cochabamba on climate change and I learned a lot and a lot of issues that I knew existed became a lot more interconnected in my mind. A big idea I learned besides interconnectedness of issues is that the cause of probably the majority of problems is capitalism, yea maybe I'm a little bit late, but now I know...
At the Bluestocking I met a guy called Joey that told me a lot about the activism and punk scenes in NYC and what I should look for. From what I can tell and the protest I went to (more on this later) the scene here is docile and composed mostly of people older than myself, (I prefer/am used to a youthful militant scene; see Montreal circa now). We talked about anarchist groups and various issue groups and just politics and stuff in general, it was good to hit it off quickly after getting back into the city. Even found out about a free punk show going down Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
After leaving the Bluestocking I called Crisis since I knew he was in the area and we met up, he was riding long boards with his friend from out of town. We crossed the Williamsburg and got lost in Queens trying to get to downtown Brooklyn to dumpster, which was pretty lame but in the end I brought home some fruit from a dumpster that I ran into by chance. Crisis became pretty punk since the last time I saw him, long boards and mohawks.
I hung out with the old park slope crew a bit and it made me realize how much I've changed, M:tG and video games don't interest me nearly as much as they used to, I wanna do activist stuff and sneak around and mosh at shows and dumpster and share with my friends. I went to go see Cipher and he's doing okay, still playing WoW, lol. We talked about our summer plans and he isn't too sure about hitching and would prefer a car :-/. We've all experienced deterioration in our ninja skills since neither of us (or Crisis either I suspect) have been keeping nearly as sharp a vigil on our skills as we used to.
Yesterday I went to a protest against Pacific Rim wanting to mine (read: poison drinking water) in El Salvador, not being able to (because no one wants to drink cyanide) and suing the government because of that (I mean it's only reasonable to go after people who don't let you poison them, right?). I was disappointed when I first arrived and didn't even join the protest, I sat and watched as about ten protesters handed out pamphlets to passersby and spoke close to their table and held up a sign, FROM BEHIND A POLICE FENCE! In Montreal protests are so large that they could never be contained within fencing and I'm sure if police attempted to conflict would erupt. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Montreal scene, I hope I haven't been. As I as sitting to the side watching I saw a friend from high school and we talked about travelling and bikes for a bit then he left and I went to help with the protest, no point not helping, there was a little bit of street theatre towards the end but it was very cheesy and cliche, in the end before leaving I traded contact info with this photographer so I'll write him an email soon asking what's up and how did the photos come out (can I have the ones with me in them?). Joey from Bluestocking told me I should be organizing shit instead of joining it since I'm used to wilder things and I'm starting to think he's right, so far the things I've seen and heard about activism seem too tame in my view. I'll see what I feel after Sunday, and when I know more about my summer, I'm supposed to work for the month of June, I wanna travel to the west coast and squat beach houses with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia, Domin, and Rainbow's friend, they wanna hitch from Toronto after the G20 which I also wish I wasn't missing. Just found out I can't register for classes in winter and fall until I get "special permission" because I didn't do well in school :-/ so that may play a part in something as well.
The plan for Sunday is to do food not bombs at ABC no Rio and then head to a free punk show at Tompkins Square park afterward (ABC no Rio serves there anyway so I'll probably be able to go straight there after serving). It'll help me get a feel of the food not bombs and maybe find people who are down for something more invigorating than what's happening already...
We'll see what happens, either way I got some posters that I've passed to my mom to photocopy at her work, I'll wheat paste them around when she brings them back. I ordered Expect Resistance from Crimethinc last night and I'm excited for it to come and all the posters and zines and stickers that'll come with it :D. I'm also happy and curious to see what happens when Ithaca gets here, but I'll probably have to add more padding to the bed since I almost sleep on the floor and she'll probably want it softer.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Back home

I'm back home in NYC!!! I'm really excited to be home and see my family. I came home a day early and surprised my parents and sister, they were all really happy. I got a bike! My dad and I went to a bike shop and the owner is cool with my dad and gave me a free bike because my dad is gonna fix up his drum set, I put my mom's rack on the back and set up a crate and threw some duct tape on the seat, it's a master piece lol.
I think I got the whole me feeling weird in Homer thing figured out. Ithaca's house is full of tension (between her and her siblings and parents) and we had an interesting discussion last night about how she was raised and raising kids and family environments and her situation at home and it cleared up a lot for me and helped me learn a lot about both myself and Ithaca. Being in that stressful environment with all the tension between everyone and seeing Ithaca being treated like shit and giving everyone shit and just the general conflict that was common place combined with the boredom of being not in a metropolis got to me the last few days and I kinda shut down socially, being a lot quieter and reserved and generally being in a neutral state between happy and sad, it wasn't super shitty or uncomfortable but I'd rather be happy all the time like normal...
All's well that ends well and I'm well now, I hope that Ithaca doesn't stay negative after leaving her home and arriving because if that's the case I don't think I'll want to keep what we have going honestly. We'll see what happens when she's here.
I've been looking at things happening in NYC soon and I've found a lot of cool stuff to show up to; there's a protest soon, a lot of anarchist groups I wanna check out, THREE food not bombs, a environmental activist bike co-op and an activist cafe/bookstore among other things.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Homer, NY...

I feel strange being so close to NYC, to home, friends, family, a new scene to discover, yet I'm here in Homer with Ithaca, it's not bad per say, but the anticipation combined with a lack of excitement is getting to me. Here's what I've been doing since I got here:
hitched into Homer and met most of Ithaca's immediate family. Her parents are split so we checked out both houses and we stay at her mom's in a room upstairs.
The weekend Ithaca worked at a bakery doing catering, I worked on Saturday but not Sunday, both days I went into Ithaca on a bike and checked that out, it was alright, on Sunday I had an alright time, dumpstered some donuts for lunch after getting told off for trying to table dive some lunch. Bought a book, yea with money and all that, cause you know it was a local store and all (Resistance: The Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side). Other than that just biked around, met a parkour guy at Ithaca University and we talked a bit but didn't jam. Other than that I've just been hanging around with Ithaca in Homer, it's getting to me, I want to be in a large city again wear I can dumpster all the time, and ride a bike around and do parkour and interact with a much larger amount of people.
Went canoeing today in the morning with Ithaca and her grandfather, I always feel weird around him because he's a proud republican guy and I never really talk politics around him but I have my political (read:anarchist) patches all over my shorts and my anarchy bag on my shoulder all the time, whatever...
Either yesterday or the day before I'm not too sure Ithaca's dad dropped us off in Syracuse a bit and we got to hang around there. We (read:I while Ithaca walked away nervously) wheat-pasted some anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff up randomly along with two small anarchist posters. We also checked out the Syracuse Peace Council which seems to be the activist scene there, it's strange for me, I'm used to a youthful militant activist scene slightly associated with punk rock, students and sub/counter culture and definitely associated with bikes, but these people were all older, strictly non-violent and very formal, it was nice to see a different type of scene with different types of people and all that but I feel much more interested in a youth scene that's more fast paced and on bikes and all that. Got some pins, got some condoms and dumpstered bagels, not much else happened. Ithaca is contemplating staying in Syracuse and working there a bit, if she's down with that she should go for it but I couldn't pull that off in a small city with no youth scene, but then again I don't know the city like she does so I can't see it how she does...
I'm anxious to get to NY and see all my friends! Originally we were supposed to hitch to NYC on Monday, but a lot of work opportunities have come up and Ithaca is gonna stay another week, I'm on some "fuck that" because I honestly can't stay here much longer without going crazy or become really docile and passive. So I had planned to take a greyhound on Monday, there's a ska show in Syracuse on Sunday night anyway so I could just go with my back pack and sleep outside and hit the train the next morning. When Ithaca told me that she wasn't gonna hitch with me I decided forget it I wanna hurry home and decided to leave on Sunday morning if she thought I could go with her to work on a farm in the morning (some drama with a clingy ex and potential drama if I'm around while he's there and alla that, bleh), I didn't mind missing a ska show if it meant surprising my parents and being home faster, but I just checked online about 2 minutes ago and the buses for NYC are all on Monday...
I guess I'm gonna have to ask Ithaca if I can go to the farm and try to avoid drama (which I already do, you never see me involved in bull like that) because staying at her mom's place and doing internet and books all day won't cut it. I'm kinda happy to be sleeping outside though especially in a city I don't know I just hope the weather is dry, waking up to rain isn't the most fun (but it's still pretty fun).
I miss NYC, I miss my friends, I want more interesting things to happen around me. This summer I wanna go to punk shows with Crisis, travel with Cipher or TKJ, play urban games with Shorty, dumpster with everyone, go to the beach, get in trouble, climb roofs, do parkour with the whole NY crew (both of them). ugh...
I'll be home soon though.

Also: with Pagoda I think stuff is gonna be finished, I saw her before leaving MTL and we hung out at a drawing club which was super boring. We biked back to her place in St Henri and went to bed. we made out a bit before she told me that lately (the last six months) she's been much more into girls then into guys (which I understand since I feel the same way, unfortunately I'm not bi:( ) so we just slept and nothing happened. I wanna stay friends and will probably try to stay friends when get back to MTL, I mean, bikes, dumpstering and agreement on a lot of political and social issues is till great even if there isn't sex involved.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Hitching to Homer

On Thursday Ithaca and I hitched to her home town of Homer, NY. It took a while we started at around 8.30-9ish and arrived about 12 hours later. We got there in six rides. We started at an onramp in the old port which sucked because the only peeps driving around were yuppies and business people so no one there picked us up. After waiting around for a while we called a friend and found out where the close onramp was going west and went there. It seemed much more promising and the cars there had to stop at a light before hitting the ramp so we had time every red light to run around with our sign ("PLEASE" on one side and "we are awesome" on the other) and smile at people. After maybe 30 minutes we got our first ride from a college student/painter who was on hit way to pick up some paint. I rode up from and since it was a van Ithaca rode in the back with the paint, he was pretty chill and we talked about hitching and school and just stuffs in general. He drove us maybe 15-20 minutes and dropped us off at a nice onramp.
At this onramp I ate a bit of snacks and we thumbed and signed at everyone for maybe 20 minutes before getting picked up by a Quebec trucker/motorcycle driver who traveled the US and Canada on his bike and had a ton of crazy stories. He really thought we were brave to hitch around though, and said he would never do it himself, which we thought was pretty strange. He told us a bunch of stories and dropped us on the side of the highway near an onramp.
We waited there a bit where I changed into a red t-shirt to look less sketchy and after a short wait we got picked up by some guy in a red car blasting metal. He only drove us about 5 or 10 minutes before letting us off at a deserted onramp, we had seen some guys with backpacks hitching while we rode with him. The spot he dropped us off at sucked, there were no cars and the ones that came didn't even pretend to care about picking us up. After a while we decided to walk down a bit. We walked and stopped and walked and stopped a lot then had lunch and kept it up, the whole time cars didn't even slow down for us, but Ithaca took a few naps and got some free sunburn...
After walking and thumbing for probably a few hours we got close to a gas station but it was closed, luckily there were a few houses nearby and we knocked and asked for a ride to the nearest gas station, the woman at the house was really nice, dressed kinda funky in all black and had a bunch of dogs. She agreed to drive us even though it wasn't too far according to her (half hour walk, we weren't feeling that). At the gas station Ithaca used the bathroom and we checked out he map a bit, then we started asking people filling up for rides.
After maybe 20 minutes an older guy agreed to give us a ride after we told him we were trustworthy, although he did mention that he wouldn't have picked us up on the side of the road. He agreed that hitch hiking wasn't what it used to be. He was driving towards Toronto and could take us really close to the border which would save us a ton of time. We loaded our stuff into his pick up (I kept my big bag on my lap) and were off. He had a ton of stories, about his children and grandchildren and traveling and hitching around, it was a fun ride. Ithaca took a nap a bit and then we we're out.
We walked along the highway towards the border flying the sign whenever a car came toward us and we caught a ride that agreed to take us all the way to around Syracuse where Ithaca could get us picked up by her mom. The guy who gave us a ride was really quiet and straight forward, he didn't talk much. At the border the guards were assholes, they seemed super condescending towards our ride about picking up hitchers and they made us all get out the car and wait around while they searched all out bags. They put everything back in the wrong bags when we were able to get into the car an hour later, not to mention that the waiting room we stayed in was full of only Muslims and Asians with a few black guys and younger people, *cough* profiling *cough*. After that though it was smooth sailing, we go dropped close to Syracuse, Ithaca called her moms and she picked us up about half an hour later and took us to her house where we ate some, visited Ithaca's father for a while and then hit the sack.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Food not bombs and planning to leave

I've been sleeping at the coop for the last few days, it's pretty chill, just hanging with Ithaca and TKJ and Australia. Before yesterday me and Ithaca and a friend of ours dumpstered and prepared a meal at the native friendship center. On the way after dumpstering me and Ithaca stopped at the anarchist bookstore to ask for hitching advice and to see if I could trade pastries for some patches, the girl behind the counter wouldn't trade me but she gave me a patch for free so I gave her food for free (which is the same thing in the end).
At the friendship center (a place where Ice Cream went a lot apparently), we cooked up a stir fry and a fruit salad. While we ate we all socialized and our friend got hit on awkwardly by this guy...
We started a movie but left a bit in because we felt like heading and our friend had to go meet some friends. Ended up at the coop and hung there. That night Ithaca pour an awesome bath with oils and mint and stuff to get me healthy and we sat in the dark with candles. it was pretty great.
We have a concrete plan to leave and get to NY now. We're going to hitch to Ithaca's home town which is of course near Ithaca and stay there a bit and work some. Afterward we're gonna hitch to Brooklyn and she'll stay for a bit. We're not sure yet but we may come up to Montreal again and attend an event about living locally that she helped plan, but it's iffy and depends on some outside factors. Either way I'm excited for the trip.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Jimbo's, departure and free stuff

I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics from a nearby pharmacy (along with some free condoms, I was running out). It's good I've been improving and don't feel nearly as sick and useless now.
Me and Green Boots went to Jimbo's to sleep a few nights ago, we watched "The Decline of Western Society III" up there until the laptop died. TKJ and Rainbow (they're together now, awwwww) met us up there a bit later with some food they dumpstered at the pharmacy. We ate and talked and listened to music after finding the right electrical outlets then slept.
We were awakened by the rain, me and Green Boots packed up our stuff and hid under the lip of the ventilation shaft until the rain got better than we all went down and ate a dumpstered breakfast at Concordia. Afterward TKJ and Rainbow headed to the coop. I met them there after stopping a bit at Kunoichi's place first.
TKJ was headed to Wal-Mart and Value Village I went with him because I'm an opportunist and he was going to find a pair of pants and return scam a U-lock. We took public transportation there which I thought was strange because I hadn't rode anything other than my bike for months. We got there and I was going to left hand a tarp but the cashiers were set up in a 3 by 3 square so there was no way to really pull that off so I aborted and decided to just take some halls for my throat instead. We went to Value Village after that, TKJ didn't find anything he wanted but I swiped a Splinter Cell book. We headed back to Wal-mart so TKJ could return scam a U-lock with his receipt while I read outside. It didn't work out security guard was on his ass and watching him trying to be discreet (good thing he sucked at that), so we bounced and decided to come back another day dressed clean cut.
We also went to sports experts and got a really good bike lock and tabled a small lunch in a mall before heading to the coop.
Ithaca was at the coop and we hung out a bit and then went over to Ice Cream's place to have dinner since it was Ice Cream's last night in Montreal, but not before hanging out in a playground and playing tag with Ice Cream's roomie as well. We dumpstered real fast and then cooked up a nice dinner and then hung around and slept.
Ithaca and I woke up to loud footsteps stomping around. Ice Cream had left early in the morning, we realized it was the guy who lived there who used to have a thing with Ithaca. After stomping around for a while while we were half asleep, he bitched at us about squatting (because you know, if you sleep over at a friend's place to see her off you're a squatter...) and kicked us out, wtf I don't even know this guy, but Ithaca has been telling him they should be just friends for a while now.
Whatever, we went to the coop and finished sleeping there and then messed around and showered. Not much happened in the day except we all went to the playground, it's fun now that Australia and TKJ live at the coop, everyone is around all the time. Rainbow showed up later and brought a friend with her who was visiting Montreal. They drank a bit and we hung out outside in the alley, when Australia went to get more beer I went with and brought back some free chocolate for everyone. After hanging out a bit I headed back to Kunoichi's place and dumpstered a ton of random stuff from the pharmacy on the way.
Honey
AAA batteries
an iPod Case
a bunch of juice boxes
some chocolate
various coffee stuff
pretzels
cookies
mixed berry apple sauce
brown rice
nuts
lip shimmer among other things...

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Internal Failure, fire and relocation

I'm still sick, this is shitty and is becoming frustrating. I've been resting at the coop a lot with Ithaca, she was taking care of me for a few days. I feel super useless when I'm sick I don't do anything productive or help anyone. I know by resting I'm helping myself get better again, but I still feel super unproductive and everyone time people ask me to help them out I have to say no and feel selfish :(...
I tried to see a doctor today but showed up too late I'll try again tomorrow. I've moved out of my old place, I'm gonna be homeless until I get back to NY, right now I'm staying at Kunoichi's, when I get better and the weather clears I'm gonna sleep at Jimbo's a lot. Kusa and I need to do parkour together soon.
I had a fire again but it wasn't comparable to the last ones, not nearly as good of a turn out and not as fun in general.
Ithaca and Ice Cream are in Oka, Ithaca is camping there and visiting Ice Cream who is there to learn wilderness first aid. Ice Cream is gonna be leaving Montreal soon :(
We've (me and Ithaca) have decided to hitch to NY instead of biking because we're too broke to fix up our bikes and it would give us a lot extra time to do other things.
The day I was moving I was really tired, so tired in fact that I stayed home from the anti-capitalist protest/march. I felt pretty shitty about that because everyone went to it and cops didn't even get violent which is pretty good.