Posted on July 4th, 2008 in activism, collaboration, musings, peripherals
Last week in Philadelphia, PennPraxis and the newly rebranded Central Delaware Advocacy Group (of which I have been a member for the past 2 years and have written in support before) publicly unveiled a 10 point action plan for implementing the nominally citizen-driven planning vision for the Central Delaware Waterfront. The event included commentary from city planning professionals and bureaucrats that also featured a climactic endorsement from Mayor Nutter, who pledged to begin implementing some early action items within the year. No small victory for many of us was Nutter’s reiteration of the fact that the proposed big-box casinos are antithetical to the kind of waterfront many of us are working to build.
Yet, for all the plan’s championing of public access to the river, bike trails and parks, mix of commercial and residential uses, I felt a certain sinking in my stomach. From my reserved perch in the second row, I turned around to my left and my right to scan the standing-room-only crowd, and I saw energized and enthusiastic citizens, many of whom have devoted hours of time towards crafting the vision for the waterfront. I saw a lot of people who appeared to be like me—white, educated, professional class—and, while my survey was not scientific and while it would be imprudent to place to much emphasis on the demographic of one isolated event like this, the lack of a significant attendance by either people of color or the working class in a city with overwhelming percentages of such folks is alarming when observed through the broader lens of the neoliberal vision of the city. The “rediscovery” and “redevelopment” of Philadelphia as a desirable place to live will tend towards the homogenous; economic, cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity must be actively sought after and guaranteed if such a value is to be sustained and physically manifest in the life and form of the city.
As I listened to rhetoric in the remarks from those speaking at the event—those speaking in some respects for me as a participant in the waterfront planning process but also speaking to me as a citizen and constituent—I was thinking about David Harvey’s recent lecture on the “right to the city” (see video below), as well as the recently formed coalition of anti-gentrification and anti-displacement groups united under the same name. I’m currently working through Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity which adeptly tracks the political-economic shifts that have occurred between Fordism/Modernism and Late Capitalism/Postmodernism over the last century. Of course, as a trained geographer, Harvey’s particular strength in this research is in how he ties it all back to a discussion of spatial practices and the transformation of the city under these conditions. (I also highly recommend another lecture by Harvey from a couple of years ago entitled “Neoliberalism and the City.”
Harvey’s critique was playing through my mind in the form a series of basic questions about this waterfront plan and the process by which it came to be… For whom are we making this waterfront and this city? Who shows up? Who participates, and why or why not? What, specifically, are we doing to ensure the inclusion of under-served and under-privileged residents? How is the quality of life raised for all Philadelphians? Hidden among the mantras of “civic engagement” and “community participation” are those missing from the program, those I didn’t see at the event last week. We have to work diligently to bring all strata of the city into the planning and making of the next era of Philadelphia. The level and attention to community involvement I have witnessed over the last few years here is admirable and should not be dismissed. However, our under-served communities often remain in the shadows and require much more outreach in order to build understanding, trust, and the kind of relationships that engender empathy and mutual respect across longstanding economic, racial, and cultural barriers.
Posted on July 29th, 2007 in musings, of interest, peripherals
Every 6 months or so, a wonderful thing arrives at our house unexpectedly from Spain. It’s a zine (perzine, to be precise) called Extranjero and it’s made by two smart, dear friends, Kris and Lola. Kris, a self-described “Yank” ex-pat and Bucks County native, is the husband of Lola, a bonafide “Yurd” (Spaniard, get it?), and they live in the region of Extremadura in Western Spain. Their zine (numero seis pictured below) is a hilarious and informative snapshot of life in Spain—part quotidian journal, part “official” history (presented a bit tongue-in-cheek), part linguistic romp, and entirely vernacular. As with most zines, several pages are devoted to readers’ letters as well, many of whom also publish zines. To read one zine is to enter into a vast network of underground publishers.
So how about an excerpt. Here, Kris is in the middle of recounting a trip to a nearby village of Garrovillas for a festival, which for the Spaniards means a day of stuffing one’s face and sucking back wine:
By the time we reached the square the rain had subsided but that icy wind was blowing full force, making being out of doors extremely uncomfortable. We found a scruffy bar & continued with the liver damage. The bartender had a massive supply of “pitarra” on hand in badly corked old whiskey bottles. There was a calendar on the wall next to the cash register of a blonde bombshell in a bikini, the top half of which she seemed to have misplaced somewhere on the way to the photo shoot.
Our friend Bego leaned over & she whispered in my ear, “Es la virgen del pueblo.” (“She’s the town virgin.”)
A loud cackle escaped my mouth & suddenly there was quite a commotion at the far end of the bar. A young guy, couldn’t have been more than 15 or 16 years old, had burst into song. He was trying his hand at a bit of flamenco. His girlfriend watched him with eyes full of admiration as one of his buddies clapped out the beat & occasionally stomped his feet. Customers added passionate “Olés” here & there at appropriate moments. Lola turned to me, “This is the kind of thing you Yanks pay tour guides hundreds of dollars to see!”
“Yep.” It was quite an “authentic moment.” Another one down the hatch.
An old man with an unlit stub of a cigar in his mouth coughed up an enormous wad of phlegm right there in the middle of the bar. Nobody blinked. I swear, if you hadn’t actually witnessed the old fella in the act & just happened to look down you’d wonder who the hell dropped a raw egg on the floor.
“To village life!” Another round down the hatch.
Bueno, bueno. Anyone interested in acquiring a copy of Extranjero (recommended!) should send a few bucks or a zine for trade to:
Kris & Lola
Calle Obispo 4 bajo
Plasencia 10600
Cáceres
Spain/España
Usually coinciding with receiving Kris and Lola’s zine, my interest in the world(s) of zines is renewed and I make vague plans to produce a zine. My first introduction to zines came in high school through friends, which led to my own short-lived production of a couple of zines: a micro-format skate zine called Zine X (horrible title) and then an arts and literature zine, the name of which escapes me (some day I’ll dig these up…). A long time ago John Freeborn and others published a skate zine called Media Locals, which chronicled the exploits-with-skateboards of our small suburban Philly crew. John continues to be a prolific zine publisher and has also created a fine online archive/network at zinebox.org. Another high school chum, Jeff Wiesner, published several issues of Double Negative, a high-quality zine of visual and literary arts.
The political implications of a vibrant underground press are as relevant now as they were when Martin Luther published and disseminated his 95 Theses in the 16th century that resulted in the poitical-theological coup that was the Reformation. The broadsheets, newsletters, independent newspapers and zines of radicals, activists, artists, amateurs, connoisseurs, fans, and misfits have transmitted “improper,” under-acknowledged information, initiated sub-cultural networks, and undermined hegemonic culture and authority (and not without retaliation to be sure). In spite of (or because of) the aestheticization and commodification of DIY culture by Madison Avenue, zine publishers continue apace, eking out autonomous spaces for their interests, causes, ideas, and artworks and fostering the spirit of generosity and openness that really does seem to characterize the zine world(s).
An obvious connection exists between zines and blogs/web sites in terms of self-publishing, yet for all the immediacy and potential readership of a blog, a zine always asserts that pesky quality of tactility and objecthood—the flip of pages, the texture of papers, the unexpected folded insert, the type- or hand-written text. The finiteness and digestibility of cover-to-cover, as opposed to the unlimitless expanse of everything-all-at-once. It’s difficult to say whether such tactile tendencies are borne of nostalgia or neurologically programmed (maybe a mixture), but the attraction is real nonetheless. And as there seems to be a general, if fractional, shutting down of the Internet’s glorious openness, one wonders if ISPs and governments will further collaborate to monitor the Net and place political, economical, and moral restrictions on our ability to use the Internet freely for self-publishing. In this possible future the hand-to-hand transmission of zines may have renewed urgency and significance.
Posted on May 12th, 2007 in musings, peripherals
Painted the awning high-gloss red, rode my bike, went to work for the Man, ate breakfast at Ida Mae’s with Gimp, worried about the state of things, drank beers on the stoop with Aaron and Meredith, read about McSorley’s, designed a bunch of materials for Casino-Free Philadelphia and the Philly’s Ballot Box campaign, built a prototype, presented my work for an unstated reason, got rejected, read the paper(s), recorded some music (with aforementioned Gimp), visited Deborah (and Barbara) in Maine, had a stroll in Arlington, VA with my grad school chums, planned a riverfront, got an invitation to go to Montreal with the Think Tank, talked shop with the Action Mill, learned how to make a pocket-sized portable radio transmitter from Red76, had champagne brunch at the Bass, missed the shad festival, looked at del.icio.us a lot, walked through the city, watched V-Mars, discovered a beach made of bricks, cleaned out the basement, paid Ed to side the house, missed the kids, rode the El, listened to the same music, lost interest in the mayoral election, wondered what to do next, visited Grandma et al in Ankeny, IA, connected with the Pedagogical Factory, thought about calling all of you.
Posted on September 3rd, 2006 in of interest, peripherals, project news
Nat King Tron (aka the band) has just self-released our second record entitled “In the Presence of Peasants,” an off-the-cuff document of two days of improvised musical experimentation. The tracks were culled from about 10 hours of material, all recorded, engineered, and mastered by our friend Peter Richan at his Buckeye Recording Studio in South Philly. Many thanks also are due to Kara Schlindwein for creating the packaging design with absolutely no direction from us (talk about your difficult client).
The other players in the trio are John Schlicter (aka Sarge), long-time collaborator, Six Acre Lake co-founder, guitar and effects maestro; and Matt Lee (like the General) who wails on alto saxophone, effects, and the bleeps and blips. “In the Presence of Peasants” explores a pretty diverse range of territory, shifting genres and dynamics: indie/math rock, electronic, experimental, metal, jazz. At moment we’re developing our live set to encompass equal parts composed and improvised material.
Easter Bunny is available for download, or you can stream some other tracks from the new release at our page on Mr. Murdoch’s MySpace. Up to date info on our movements can also be found at www.natkingtron.com.
Posted on January 9th, 2006 in peripherals
Dude, we finally got the band back together. It’s been a long hiatus, but it’s true. Presenting Nat King Tron, a rock-based improv quartet featuring myself on drums, Matt Lee on amplified saxophone, John Schlicter on guitar, and Andrew Tomasulo on drums and madman vocals. We’ll be playing or debut gig tomorrow night, January 10, 8pm at the Khyber in Philadelphia.
