From http://blog.etsy.com/article/11032/:
Canadian native Catherine Thompson, a self-proclaimed semi-nomadic musician, makes many things from the remains of animals. This episode of Etsy’s Process video series takes you on a journey with her as she transforms a deer’s leg bone into a flute amidst the prairies of Saskatchewan.
Above: A CTM-designed sticker, easily adaptable for re-use by you.
APPLIED MAGIC(K): Hex Files
by the Center for Tactical Magic
Originally published in Arthur No. 30 (July 2008)
The Center for Tactical Magic is no stranger to controversy. Even when we’re not actively setting out to conjure a bit of mischief, the imps often make the effort to conjure us. Since our projects frequently trespass into different cultural territories, it’s not uncommon to encounter an occasional cold reception or heated debate. Typically, these center around what the Center is or isn’t. Activists? Occultists? Conjurers? Tricksters? Contemporary artists? Martial artists? Con artists? Most of the time we feel that these debates are more productive for everyone when we stay out of them and let folks figure things out on their own. However, we recently received some paradoxical antagonisms via email regarding one of our distribution projects and thought it might be helpful to clarify a few misunderstandings.
To begin, the project in question is a curse. It is a curse in the form of a sticker that is specifically designed to target corporations, institutions, agencies, and the like. And the ire that we raised from two different people couldn’t be more divergent. The first, a self-proclaimed “activist” wrote:
I like a lot of what you guys do, but some of it doesn’t seem very productive. I mean, curses? I just read your article in Arthur about the difference between “magical thinking” and “wishful thinking” and then you suggest “cursing” people in power? This seems hypocritical and/or delusional. I’m open to different people’s spiritual viewpoints, and I don’t mean any offense, but I don’t really see how a curse can be as effective as a protest or a petition.
The second critic, a self-proclaimed “Wiccan High Priestess” wrote:
I have long-admired the Center for Tactical Magic for your innovative interpretations of ancient magickal wisdom. However, I am deeply disturbed and taken aback by your “Diagrammatic Hex.” This curse clearly defies the Wiccan rede: “That ye hurt none, do what thou wilt.” Further, it beckons doom. “That which ye sendeth out, shall returneth three-fold!” This hex you have devised is of the darkest magick, and can only reap darkness in return. It is not only dangerous for you, but irresponsible towards those who would follow you down the Left-hand path to their own demise.
Before we directly address either of the aforementioned concerns, we should set the stage with a short history lesson. The origin of curses is ill-defined; yet, it’s certain that we find hexes, whammies, jinxes, the “evil eye” and all sorts of maleficia in cultures spanning time and geography. More often than not, curses have been cast over personal disputes, vindictive rages, and petty jealousies. However, there have also been instances where curses have been deployed in collective struggles.
In the Middle Ages, the peasant class had no easy avenue of representation through which they could air grievances against their feudal lords. So somewhere between total subjugation and full-scale revolt, curses became a tactic of dissent. By discretely attaching hexes to the property of the feudal lord, the ruling authorities could be made aware of the growing social distemper. While the nobility might be quick to dismiss the hexes as mere foolishness, the laborers of the manor, who belonged to the “superstitious” peasant class, could be relied upon to take the hexes a bit more seriously (and perhaps melodramatically). And unless the feudal lord took steps to remove the curse, the manor and the fief would slip into a dysfunctional mess. Of course, the way to remove the curse would involve rectifying any prevailing injustices.
It’s not too difficult to imagine that similar dramas were no doubt enacted hundreds of years later on plantations across the colonized globe. A bit of well-placed Hoodoo or Voodoo could serve to amplify the collective concerns of house slaves and field slaves alike. Even if the plantation owner took little heed of the “mumbo-jumbo” the workers would certainly make a fuss until things were set right.
Based on these precedents, as well as on our contemporary context of corporate neo-feudalism and wage-slavery, it seemed only fitting that we should revive and update this bit of mojo. As such, we suggest that the modern sticker-hex might produce several positive results:
Continue reading
To Be a Danger
by C.G. Hanzlicek
Just once I’d like to be a danger
To something in this world,
Be hunted by cops
And forced into hiding in the mountains,
Since if they left me on the streets
I’d turn the country around,
Changing everyone’s mind with a word.
But I’ve lived so long a quiet life,
In a world I’ve made small,
That even my own mind changes slowly.
I’m a danger only to myself,
Like the daydreaming night watchman
Smoking his cigar
Near the dynamite shed.
We’re desperately seeking a copy of BE NOT CONTENT: A Subterranean Journal by William J. Craddock, published in 1970 by Doubleday. It is long out of print and original copies are going for $300-$400, which is well beyond our price range. We just want to read the darn thing. If you can help, please let us know via Comments or email. Thank you.
For the curious: here’s Rudy Rucker writing on Craddock.
Accident, Mass. Ave.
I stopped at a red light on Mass. Ave.
in Boston, a couple blocks away
from the bridge, and a woman in a beat-up
old Buick backed into me. Like, cranked her wheel,
rammed right into my side. I drove a Chevy
pickup truck. It being Boston, I got out
of the car yelling, swearing at this woman,
a little woman, whose first language was not English.
But she lived and drove in Boston, too, so she knew,
we both knew, that the thing to do
is get out of the car, slam the door
as hard as you fucking can and yell things like What the fuck
were you thinking? You fucking blind? What the fuck
is going on? Jesus Christ! So we swore
at each other with perfect posture, unnaturally angled
chins. I threw my arms around, sudden
jerking motions with my whole arms, the backs
of my hands toward where she had hit my truck.
But she hadn’t hit my truck. She hit
the tire; no damage done. Her car
was fine, too. We saw this while
we were yelling, and then we were stuck.
The next line in our little drama should have been
Look at this fucking dent! I’m not paying for this
shit. I’m calling the cops, lady. Maybe we’d throw in a
You’re in big trouble, sister, or I just hope for your sake
there’s nothing wrong with my fucking suspension, that
sort of thing. But there was no fucking dent. There
was nothing else for us to do. So I
stopped yelling, and she looked at the tire she’d
backed into, her little eyebrows pursed
and worried. She was clearly in the wrong, I was enormous,
and I’d been acting as if I’d like to hit her. So I said
Well, there’s nothing wrong with my car, nothing wrong
with your car…are you OK? She nodded, and started
to cry, so I put my arms around her and I held her, middle
of the street, Mass. Ave., Boston, a couple blocks from the bridge.
I hugged her, and I said We were scared, weren’t we?
and she nodded and we laughed.
—Jill McDonough
Jill McDonough also writes the best jail blog not only because people in jail can’t blog that much, but because she teaches english to the Ladies in Lockup.
Yes, I am blogging about a blog called Jail not Yale but it’s better than this stuff you are reading right now because it’s wrote better.
Besides teaching English Jill also learns the prisoners a new type of pointing for on the “low low” like this:
Secret pointing technique step one
Please read Jill McDonough before the authorities find out about these subversions.
this is when the thumb indicates the pointee
Over the past decade Brian Chippendale and CF have reinvigorated the action-adventure genre and with their unique mixtures of personal politics, humor, fantastic worlds, sex, and visionary drawing. Now these two acclaimed Providence-based artists are embarking on their first book tour in support of their new works If ‘n Oof (an 800 page graphic novel) and Powr Mastrs 3 (the climactic volume in this multi-part graphic novel series).
Chippendale and CF will present slide shows about their work, answer questions, and sign books. At Floating World in Portland we are also honored to welcome local writer, Matt Fraction, who will interview the artists about their work. I’m anticipating the comics crossover of the century.
About the books:
If ‘n’ Oof (Flexibound, 800 pages, $30) focuses on the misadventures of the mismatched eponymous duo Chippendale’s very own Laurel and Hardy. Chippendale allows the two to explore his landscapes and alien beings. Comedy, horror, and out-and-out adventure in a story-driven, manga-style adventure, replete with the frenetic linework and concise, witty dialogue for which he has become known.
Powr Mastrs 3 (Flexibound, 112 pageas, $18) This latest installment continues C.F.’s Dune-like science fiction/fantasy epic featuring a misguided scientist and the race of beings he has created, who inhabit a surreal world called New China. Powr Mastrs overflows with graphic innovation, from the intricately designed costumes each character wears to the exactingly drawn architectural detail, all rendered in C.F.’s distinctive pencil line.
About the authors:
Brian Chippendale, who also performs in Lightning Bolt and Black Pus lives and works in Providence, RI. His previous graphic novels include Maggots (2007) and Ninja (2006), both published by PictureBox.
C.F., a contributor to Kramers Ergot, among other books, also performs under the monikers Kites and Daily Life. His first two books, Powr Mastrs 1 and 2 were published in 2007 and 2008 by PictureBox. He lives in Providence, RI.
NOVEMBER 2 — GEORGES SOREL
French anarcho-communist, theorist of “Direct Action.”
NOVEMBER 2 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
ALL SOULS DAY.
Cheshire, England: SOUL CAKER’S PLAY, featuring King George, The Dragon, An Old Woman, The Turk, Doctor Quack, Hobby Horse, and Beelzebub.
Brittany: Beginning of “THE BLACK MONTHS.”
Sicily: Good little girls and boys get sweets and toys from their ancestors on DEAD RELATIVES DAY.
SADIE HAWKINS DAY.
DEBUNKING DAY.
ALSO ON NOVEMBER 2 IN HISTORY
1811 — Weavers and knitters smash machines at Sutton and Ashfield, England.
1847 — Direct Action theorist Georges Sorel born, Cherbourg, Normandy, France.
1950 — British socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw dies, Ayot St. Laurence.
1961 — American humorist James Thurber dies, New York City.
1979 — Political bank robber Jacques Mesrine machine-gunned by flics, Paris.
Excerpted from The 2010 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective
Arthur Magazine 