Audio – Page 108 – Citizen Reporter

Generation Debt

One of the reasons I left the united states had to do with debt. No – I didn’t owe any. No I wasn’t in trouble with the mob (hell, I was their favorite reporter). But the mere fact that I didn’t have any type of debt made me an exception – a weirdo. Everyone around me, neighbors, friends, strangers – all had debt.

The kind I knew about was the credit card kind. Tons of friends had it, I almost felt left out. At university there were always tables set up offerring students crack in exchange for a new mastercard with a picture of a forest on it. I was tempted by the forest. I had friends who just needed a new tshirt, so they filled out the paperwork. But for some odd reason, I never accumilated debt.

To me it was inevitable. If I stayed around, in this environment, where debt was a way of life, I would ultimately get some. Which some people would tell me, would be a good thing. – I admit, I’m no economist – but I still didn’t want any, and I worried at how normal it was.

So bam — I moved to Europa. Portugal first, where most transactions were paid through my bankcard (debit). If I didnt have the money, I wouldn’t buy it. No choice in the matter really. Then here in Amsterdam, again – the beautiful bank card. Admitedly, I’ve tried to get a credit card here, but aparently my laughable salary isn’t enough to have the right to get one. Makes me laugh at those college years, where all I needed was a pulse.

But I’m known to be crazy. Where are you all in relation to debt? Me, Im 25 and I feel lucky, I still have none. Course some things don’t change, like so many – I barely get by.

Broke the internet

Much of the internet has been broken today. Funny how that can happen. Servers overloaded. Websites down. Feeds getting pounded. Hooray for chaos.

As you can tell, I’m one of those old time Anarcho-Syndicists. I’m lazy so I won’t check on the spelling, but they’re the working class people who fought Franco and his fascist army in the Spanish civil war. Thats right… I dream of having been a part of the Lincoln brigade. Me and Hemmingway, and those others guys. Cept I would have tried not to shoot any guns. I’d be in charge of printing the anarcho-syndicist newsletter. Everyday we’d have a political cartoon where Franco would look like an insane moron. Our people would look forward to that cartoon. Specially since many of them can’t read anyway, but don’t remind me about that, cause I feel all-proud for writing my newsletter. And aye those revolutionary nights in Barceloca.

Like I said, the internet is broken today. Much like Nixon’s tape recorder, even dead, the man’s as fun as 2-pac. And it’s good to know Canada isn’t insane, and people who love each other can go get married there.
Meet my new friend and her Cul-de-sac on the information super highway.

AudioComm #47 – Time to Fight

AudioCommunique #47(mp3)
27min+, 64kbps, 12.5Mb+

This podcast is a call to audio-arms! Seize the air… stop worrying about being —-safe. I take a bite out of apple, like a flea on a fat dog, with lots of my own half-assed mixes. Audio in this one includes stuff from Yeast2 and the Overnightscape, neither with permission, but with plenty of respect for those two great podcasts. I also found the time to insult the geriatric supreme court and the cowardly recording industry. Other excerpts include the great Howard Zinn, Robert McChesney, and the war criminal Donald Rumsfeld.

Need to Step Out

I’m feeling that cabin fever. While the ‘dam is a wonderful place, and I still walk down the canals everyday loving the sounds and smells – I haven’t left town in ages. Beyond that I’m in a mental rut, and I just thought I’d share that with you instead of trying to hide behind some political rant. I’ve got plenty of political rants, of course, but there’s definitely something deeper that isn’t sitting right for me.

Maybe it was the fact that yesterday was my brother, bigdaddyj’s, birthday. Being across the ocean from him, it definitely gets to me that time is passing and my life is elsewhere.

But maybe it’s more than that. – You know how priests say they have a calling? Like whatever higher being called them to do this bizarre task involving a white collar and serving red wine to the masses. I have one of these feelings as well. NOOOO, not to serve a god, but to do SOMETHING GREAT… but which I still can’t identify. You follow me? I feel like im equipped mentally and emotionally to do some very important things, but I can’t see what they are yet. Or if I can identify them – for example: to be a independent podcast journalist in the tradition of Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, and the legendaryJack Newfield. Even if I know that’s what I wish to do, the path hasn’t materialized – and it’s frustrating, to say the least.

For the time being I soak up the wisdom, from you the readers, from blogger-podcast friends like the mindcaster, who offerred me the reminder this sunny afternoon at Nieuwmarkt, to take a few risks, make a few demands, and not be so easy going in relation to things going on around me. I’m thinking thats true professionally as well as personally. Thanks bro.

AudioComm #46 – Fly me to Senegal

AudioCommunique #46(mp3)

23min+, 64kbps, 11Mb+

1 #46 – Fly me to Senegal
2 Update on the squat.
3 Airbus, I was watching a cool documentary about the A-380
3.1 Largely underreported landmark,
3.2 What it SHOULD mean, even though it doesnt.
3.3 Benchmarks, 747, Concord… very few since then. I look at planes and I think — what an old idea.
3.4 A criticism of capitalism, we only invest if its “profitable” so instead of advancing after, say, going to the moon, we instead focus on missiles and corperate tax breaks and stupid shit.
3.4.1 Money holds our society back, and thats pathetic.
4 Briefly on Iran and Iraq
5 Podcast developments; Adam Curry’s latest was great.
5.1 History repeating itself, pirates getting mainstream attention.
5.2 My addendum, lets not cooperate TOO willingly.
6 Will I finally do a show in French this week? J’ espere bien.

Wrong Place Wrong Time

There was a time when I was always in the middle of it. The demonstrations, the political discussions, the cool mob-related scandles… THOSE were the days. I even had my Israeli manufactured gas-mask shipped to me in Europe, to be prepared for all those protests and other rebellious events, I would be attending over here.

But four years on – nothing. During an EU summit in seville, I missed the activist bus, which was turned away at the border with spain anyway. For all the anti-war demos I attended in the Netherlands, it was so calm and organized, I don’t remember seeing any police. Add to that, the general feeling of skepticism that has set in, for anything related to the democratic process and the masses; its clear I haven’t attended a crazy event in ages.

And then I hear about meetings like What the Hack, which will take place in the south of the netherlands next month, while Im in portugal, and I think to myself… dammit. I want to camp for a weekend with international hackers, and make networks out of coconut shells and that sort of thing. But then, just to pour salt on my boring wounds, I read about the Hack-Train they’ve rented, which will be travelling through Germany to the NL passing through various conventions relating to technology and rebellious society…. a TRAIN! dam dam dam. I’m never in on the action anymore.