Canadian Elk Get Their Own Bridge

This photo shows elk crossing a specially designed bridge in Banff. Good work Canada.

Thanks for emailing this to me mom :)

The Bottom 1%

I'd like to see the richest 1% in the world handover their money to the poorest 25%. Personally, I care a lot more about the plight of the extremely poor than any of the folks in Middle America. I've been in debt my whole life, with plenty of food to eat, shelter, medicine, education, etc... My first 30 years have been quite a struggle, but my struggle has been filled with opportunity and hope. 

The US and Canada are still "the greatest" countries in the world to live in (we are the "lucky" few at the top of what appears to be a (virtually) global capitalist pyramid). I don't think my generation is as grateful for that as older folks think. Doesn't it sometimes seem like we're on the winning end of a sort of global game of three card monty? Like since we've managed to remain one move ahead for all of these years, we've been perpetually inheriting the dividends of a millennial-old scam?

I think, despite the current economic climate, that our minds should be on continually raising up the BOTTOM 1%, globally. Sure, this starts with toppling government corruption, slaughtering the greedy pigs at the top, reforming the banks, and all of that good Occupy Wall Street stuff. But ultimately, the only way we will have to ensure a just and productive future for humanity is probably a World Revolution. I'm not saying I want to lead it, I'm not even sure I want it, I just don't see our future unfolding any other way. Nature eventually finds a balance.

The rich will say it's human nature to play this capitalist game, that we have an intrinsic need to horde avariciously and to exploit (and even enslave) our fellow man. And to tear apart the planet ruthlessly for temporary profit. I call bullshit. Humanity has more potential than that. Our nature is ours to erect. The universe is not a zero sum environment, it's infinitely expansive. Nobody has to lose for you to win.

Tatlin's Monument was dedicated to revolution and planned to be erected in St.Petersburg in 1917. It has yet to be completed. 

Reflections On The Places I Have Lived

Ottawa - Everybody in this absolutely beautiful city supposedly loves arts and culture, but they all work for the government. I don't know what that means, but it's a bit strange. Super-cool, super-sophisticated pod-people. I'll never miss any other city as much as I miss Ottawa, the city where I was born and raised, but I don't want to live there.

Montreal - If you don't speak French fluently, don't move there. It's a great place to live for a French artist, or anyone who wants to have a fun life in a vibrant major city on the cheap (I think you can still get a huge 3 bedroom apartment right in the downtown area for under $900/mth). Bohemian lifestyles, bistros and cafes, music, nightlife, yeah yeah, all that shit. Definitely one of the absolute greatest cities in the world.

Halifax - So laid back that not much happens. Coolest people in world? Possibly. If you mean cool in the "hip and laid back" way, but not so much the "really interesting, really engaging" way. Nice long fall season.

Las Vegas - A city full of party animals and gambling degenerates. Even many of the otherwise intelligent and reasonable poker players I associate with there have strange bad habits like strip clubs, $12 cocktails, ____ and ____ ( I'll let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks). AMAZING place to visit, but it's like my 20yr+ Las Vegan father-in-law put it: "this is the armpit of America son". Burgeoning art scene in the old downtown crushed by corporate interests? Check.

Calgary - Sophistication, culture, a Calgarian craves not these things. The whiny spoiled teenager of Canadian cities. When people there talk politics they say the absolute dumbest things. It's like they never got the memo about what it means to be Canadian. They are all EMPIRE and no JEDI. Also, the people there are the least worldly people of any Canadian city I've lived in. They care only about Alberta, money, career, and getting wasted. If they are educated, it's in business management or something to do with rocks and oil... like engineering? It's the Yukon with more people. Ok, I'm being a little too harsh here, so I'd also like to mention that it's exciting to live in Calgary because things are changing so fast. Least interesting city in Canada? Maybe, but only temporarily. Is there a lot of opportunity there? Yes. The proximity to the mountains makes living there completely worthwhile for some.

Los Angeles - On the surface, people there are the friendliest people in the world. But it's kinda like everyone is an actor. They are so quick to be your best buddy when you know full well you'll be forgotten a nanosecond after leaving the room. But LA also has the undeniable quality of making you feel like you are at the center of something, and that the potential exists to start something great there (and I don't just mean an acting career). That's a powerful feeling I've never experienced as strongly anywhere else. Generally, LA people are pretty sharp cookies. 

Toronto - The biggest of the three great Canadian cities that really do live in the imagination of the world (the others being Montreal and Vancouver). Toronto seems to get a bad rap from across the country for some reason that I don't fully understand. Growing up in Ottawa and Montreal people said "Toronto sucks, blah blah blah", and they say the same thing out west. But the blahs are just blank, what do they mean? I never knew. Love it or hate it, Toronto is Canada's Paris, London, New York, or Tokyo. It's the only true Canadian metropolis, and a huge part of the voice of a country of 34 million in a conversation with a global population over 200 times its size.

Reabsorbing Myself

I'm moving soon and I'm going through some of my old stuff. I found this little 12yr old notebook with a some silly illustrations and one poem in it... It gives me a weird feeling to peer into these little fragments of myself I'd left behind, in a box in a closet. Anyways, here's the forgotten poem:

On Hibernating Selflessness

As sure as the grizzly was a bear
he always wept in spring
his dreams thawed and melted away
the bitter nauseating realities of the world
lay before him now
forwarded by the brutal sun's rays
how crude of our lord and master to summon us into action without warning
and how insolent are we to even care

CRE8TIVE ANARCHY | Media Abstractions #1

I'm pre-releasing this little short film I made the other day. I appreciate you guys checking out my blog. I had quit posting for awhile in the spring and noticed a HUGE drop in traffic. And now that I've become a little more active over the summer, I've seen a huge spike. I know you are out there, you fuckin' micro-audience you! So thank you for your patronage.

This film is part of an intended series that will abstractly explore the role of the media in 20th century culture. I have no commercial intentions for this project, so pls nobody sue me for highjacking their footage and reshaping it.

HOOK UP WITH THIS PRoJECT ON TWITTER and TUMBLR

On starting a creative project

I finally learned something about what a good approach is to starting a creative project. It only took me 30 years to figure out that: A - When people say they want to be involved, they actually mean it. You aren't as much of loser as you think you are. B - People need regular kicks in the ass, and C - You have to stick to your guns, or to put it more pretentiously your "vision", and believe. The train then will continue to pick up steam, so long as you offer partners / readers / fans / collaborators / etc. something that's gradually better and better to be a part of. The challenge then lies in never wallowing for too long in pessimism, drink, or lack of self-belief.

Screw The Status Quo R.I.P.

~~~~~{~~<@

excerpt from youtube:

This video memorializes the Screw The Status Quo Zine, which published creative content online from February 2009 to Sept 2010, and stayed live until Aug 2011. The images featured are of STSQ contributors, slogans, remnant website images, and a bunch of art from the zine. The first song was by The Flowers Of Hell, the second by Heroin And Your Veins.

STSQ editor SWAiL (a.k.a Salvatore William Delle Palme) decided to discontinue work on the STSQ zine after beginning a new project with a fellow STSQ contributor, writer and filmaker Jeff Campagna. This new project is called Zouch Magazine. Some of the original STSQ writers, including Meghan Clarkston and Kyle Gallagher have also joined the new posse.

The editorial duo agreed to carry forward Sal's original publishing philosophy, which is to work as a team, assisting indie artists and writers disseminate their work to a broader audience, ignore the mainstream as much as possible while building out of the creative energy of the team, organically and serendipitously. And to ultimately give indie creatives a powerful and global platform for amplifying their vision on the web.

STSQ received approx. 50,000 pageviews.

The 4 editions of the STSQ podcast are still available here:
http://www.nosoundmind.com/2009/10/iconoclast-podcast-episode-2.html

The relaunch video, an STSQ editor Q&A is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-vzo2hq-8

Thank You, and pls visit ZouchMagazine.com
___

A list of STSQ contributors and other artists who were featured in the zine:

Margaux Wosk
Jerry Grandiose
Jim Gaines
Jeff Campagna
Meghan Clarkston
Kyle Gallagher
Annie G
Skip Pollock
Heather Adair
A.J. Valadka
Andy Ristaino
Emily Ragozzino
Guido Daniele
Madison Brown
Christopher Conte
Rouge Lefevre
GANXTERVISION
Burke Mudge
Brain Fischer
Sadie-Avalon Culver
RKX
Chelsea Delle Palme
Amy Delle Palme
The Migrating Birds
Toykult
GOONSWOOD
Kris Gillis
Jill Zmud
Rachael Freedman
Liz Jukovsky
Eric J. Thompson
The Flowers Of Hell
Melodreama
Foad H.P.
Trisha Kendrick
and more...

Were you a contributor???
Pls drop a line to screwthestatusquo@gmail.com if you would like to be included on the list.

~~~~{~<@
R.I.P. STSQ

Megwetch To Grandfather William Commanda

I received an email today from Circle Of All Nations coordinator Romola telling of how Grandfather William Commanda, former Kitigan Zibi Algonquin chief (from 1951-1970) has departed on his next journey. He passed away peacefully this morning at dawn, in his sleep, in his home. He was 97.

In lieu of flowers, please look for ways to support his vision for the National Indigenous Centre at the Sacred Chaudiére Site.

Former Governor General Michaelle Jean invests Elder William Commanda as an Officer of the Order of Canada. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

A few years ago I created the artwork below, framed it, and gave it as a gift to Commanda on the Victoria Falls site. There's a picture of us together somewhere. I want to help the building get built if I can, because I believe in Commanda's vision to unite all of the nations of the world under one flag. The wisdom I took from him was that we must respect each other first so that we can then work together to protect the land. 

Also, I would like to urge all First Nations' to embrace their identity as Canadian or American or Mexican, etc... while you continue to embrace your history and traditions. And I would also like to urge all the people of the Americas to embrace their identity as First Nations'. Our culture consists of elements from all sides now. We are all people of the same earth, we share the same air and the same water and the same dangers. We all have broad backgrounds, extending all the way back to the beginning of life on earth. We all have stories, troubled and glorious. We have the same desires and wants, and we must unite more and more as we move forward, not let disputes or anger get in the way of our greater destiny. All of the power to do good comes from working together :

{Fiction} Fourteen Girls

I decided late one night that I wanted to know again what it felt like to meditate. The coffee I'd consumed was wearing off, but I wasn't tired. I didn't want to watch television. I didn't want to work, or read, or play guitar. I didn't really want to do anything.

Actually, I experimented with meditation before, as a teenager. Ever since I equate that experience to the highest level of purity I've ever felt in my body. It's strange but I don't relate it much to the mind. I used to think I was close to having one of those out of body experiences you read about. I don't much believe in those now. Yet I feel like there could be something to gain by closing my eyes and taking deep breaths, over and over. Relaxing the gaze, peering inwards, focusing on my yantra.

A lot of people have mantras, but I don't. All I've got is this strange image of circle inside a triangle inside a triangle. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but I think if I focus on it long enough the shapes might start to move around, and get more complex. I'm not sure though, I haven't done this in years.

The scene is set, and I'm on the floor with my legs crossed. I've shut the window to cancel out the whistling of the wind. That's all you can hear out here in the suburbs at this time of night. It seemed like when I was sixteen there was all kinds of activity out there. Young people partying, smoking drugs in the park, and even playing guitars on the grass until the wee hours. I used to do things like that, life used to be so interesting and feel so new. My concentration is broken by my worry that there isn't enough milk left in the fridge for me to make pancakes in the morning.

I thought I might get married once. There's a great happiness to be had through commitment. It's nice to have someone to rely on, and it generally motivates me to be accountable to someone. The thing is, everyone said not to get married because the divorce rates "just keep going up" and the world population is too high, the earth is too poluted, and so on. I guess I believed them and decided to live with several women instead of just one.

Dead quiet is better. I feel alone for the first time in years. No one's asking me to take out the trash, or change the channel, or let them know how their makeup looks. I get tired. Perhaps that's why I'm sitting here trying regain the purity of youth. What has happened over the years? I should be found by now, I should feel more complete. The younger staff members at work having been calling me an old man lately, and I'm only thirty. It's really starting to piss me off because I feel young. But I suppose I still long to feel like I used to, at sixteen, when the mind was a scattered dream that could so easily be mellowed.

They say that when you meditate you should focus the mind on NOT thinking. That's supposed to be the little trick. Isn't it funny, people always say: "You have to think about nothing... but it's sooooo hard to do!" It wasn't hard to do when I was sixteen. I wonder if it used to be easier for people to achieve a state of peace warranting the label of a meditative state, back before the world became this overbearing constant stream of information.

When I was sixteen the internet was this brand new thing. There were personal computers everywhere, but it was a big deal to "go online". That's a funny thought. A thought that wraps my contemplation of why I am sitting here thinking, and not not thinking.

OMMMMM......

OMMMMM......

The "OM" is supposed to do something. It's a symbol in ancient Sanskrit or some other dead Indian language. The symbol is really complicated, way more complicated than my yantra; yet the word is so smooth and simple, a nice mantra unto itself.

OMMMMM......

Fourteen women live in this house with me. Some of them treat me like a king, other treat me like dirt. The honest truth is that I try my best to treat them all the same. It just seems that no matter how hard you try there will always be a little something in your character that rubs some people the wrong way. I should be thankful that at least three or four of them seem to think I'm great, and that many of the rest treat me with dignity. But one of them in particular just can't ever seem to leave a conversation without making me feel like a complete dick. I've deduced that we can all go in different directions with our personality. We shift a little each day, and it depends on what we perceive other people think they want us to be. For the most part this must keep some balance in the world. The things is, it's hard to tell sometimes what people want, and everyday it seems there are so many more people involved in the equation.

The door just opened. A few of the girls are home. Shucks. I was just starting to see my yantra spin in through the endlessness or the nothingness, or the void, or whatever word appeared more fashionable on the day they translated those ancient Sanskrit texts I'll never get to read.

Why Are We Here?

Last night I sat in contemplation of one thing. If we can presuppose that there is a conscious effort on the part of life on Earth to “get somewhere” or to do something in particular (if you believe in God then I don't have to convince you of this, if you're an ardent atheist then pls bear with me, I'm a sort of an atheist myself as I “only believe in science”), then I propose that we are close to the greatest achievement in the history of earth. We are about to gain the technology that will take us into space, and secure the safety of the planet to an exponentially greater degree. This will be the greatest achievement ever known, in a category of its own, and it's already started. But before space travel, or Galileo, or Euclid, or even the day a primitive human stared up at the sky and wondered how to get up there. Could it be possible that this specific goal existed? 100 million years ago, or a billion years ago, somewhere out there in the mind of some little creature, could this goal have existed? It's seem ridiculous to think that it could have, yet I believe it could be more plausible than it seems on the surface.

Natural selection seems a simple yet accurate version of the way things have been coming together for the past three billion years. So taking this model to be accurate, it appears that beings chose their mates based on attributes that they deem most valuable. But is survival at all cost the only thing of value? Who can say that. In other words, I propose that it's very likely that beings choose their mates for a variety of reasons, including being physically well-adapted to the environment of course, but also for any number of reasons that are unknown. Some of these reasons could be that beings sense an intellectual void in the culture of their group. Perhaps, once a primitive creature learned to exist in its local environment it stared over the mountains and into the sky and wondered. Then it shared this wonderment with its kin, and chose a mate who might produce offspring who might wonder better, and continue to lead this arcane, yet potentially evident crusade to the stars in search of answers, and survival in a greater sense. This could explain how evolution has been accelerating over time, because we are getting better at this primary objective of protecting the planet. Also, it would explain a huge portion of what it means to be human, and that we may be the end result of a long line of these skygazers.