A Toast

I was recently digging around in some papers and found this toast that I recited at a party some time ago. Thought I'd put it here for posterity's sake.

Where e're with friends I drink,

Of one I often think.

She's pretty, she's witty, and so true;

So with joy and great delight,

I'll drink to her tonight.

Za vas Chloe, to you!

this is how it all begins

"We stop buying our music from corporate-owned stores, our food from supermarkets and our clothing from malls. We become bottom-feeders, always foraging at the lowest levels of consumption. In every purchase we make, we obsessively search for the wisest, most enlightened deals. We punish the big, the super  and the mega. We reward the small, the slow, the local, the personal.

Size is our enemy.

And once we have shrunk our world, narrowed our focus and imposed some much needed discipline of self, we start networking with other activists to launch coordinated global attacks. A million people a day drinking indie coffee instead of Starbucks. Another million boycotting Exxon Mobil. And thousands more every day choosing indie sneakers over Nike.

In this way we become true cultural creatives... playful resistors... catalysts for change. We become dispensers of bottom-up cool. A growing mass of people driving the evolution of capitalism, transforming it into a healthier, more just, more grassroots affair.

In this Year of the Ox, let's turn megacorporate capitalism on its head.

for the wild, Kalle"

Back page of Adbusters magazine. January/February 2009.

Fuck the man. Power to the people. Viva la revolution!

Two Thousand Nine

So it's a new year. Time to take stock of the year gone past and make plans for the year to come. It's really all arbitrary anyhow...

2008:

I went through the worst winter I've ever experienced. 

I made an appearance on stage at my alma mater for 2 nights only.

I was perpetually cold for the first 5 months.

I had surgery.

I got to travel for fun.

I went through some body changes.

I quit two jobs.

I wrote many many letters.

I packed my car and moved across the country.

I was completely alone for 5 days straight.

I camped in my car twice.

I moved into an apartment with an almost complete stranger.

I learned what it meant to be truly isolated.

I was unemployed for several months.

I made new friends.

I fell in love.

I went to a queer nude beach.

Every weekend for a month.

I got frustrated a lot.

I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

I went broke.

I sold my car and bought a bike.

I knew what unrequited love felt like.

I cried.

A lot.

I got a new job.

I got a raise.

I cried some more.

I received a love letter.

I went on a date.

I got another raise.

I worked through a holiday.

I cried again.

I renewed a relationship.

I got a promotion.

And another raise.

I worked through another holiday.

I spent a week alone.

I drank a lot of tea.

I spent a weekend in bed.

Not alone.

I cried.

I decided that things needed to change some more.

I felt deeply happy.

I was held tight in loving arms.

I fell asleep that way.

On many nights.

2009:

More friends.

New homes.

More travel.

Quiet.

Weekends.

Dates.

Beaches.

Vacation.

Music.

Nights out.

Camping.

Hiking.

Tea.

Unplanned spontaneous happenings.