San Luis Valley

Late last week I took a couple days of comp time. Friday, Hillary and I headed down to the San Luis Valley. We climbed around Great Sand Dunes National Park, drove through the valley dividing the Sangre de Cristos and the San Juan Mountains, and experienced the untold beauty of that harsh, wild land. We stopped at a sanctuary for alligators, a small tilapia farm where they used ex-pet gators to eat their dead fish. We relaxed at Valley View Hot Springs in small pools of warm water looking out over the valley at sunset. We drove through the incredible landscape in a car I rented back here in Denver and soaked up the natural beauty of this state. As the earth teeters on collapse, its incredible to take the time to look at places that have not been radically destroyed by suburbanization, industrial economies, and the violence of human beings. Funny, we needed to use a car to do it.

Nuclear Power: Obama and McCain Creep Me Out

Remember Chernobyl???

What the hell is wrong with these creeped out, freaked out, late-capitalist politicians dragging our country and our world into environmental and economic collapse?

Why do we have two candidates who are for energy that will leave us ecologically destroyed?

Presidential Debate?

Our country is pathetic. We help the rich, screw the poor, and have candidates whose policies appear nearly identical. What is it other than stupid faith that compels me to vote for Obama? This debate, this year, this country is sick with greed and pandering.

Let Wall Street weep.

I want a reasonable political debate without nuclear power, bombing Afghanistan, phony environmentalism, and a race towards death taking the priority.

Documenting the Sublime

For the past week I have been documenting my life as often as possible, the people I love, their images, their possessions, our lives together. I am working to piece together daily video diaries that show whatever beauty I find. Our economy is in decline, our government is corrupt, and I can think of no better protest against the grim violence of capitalism than to document those things I find beautiful, connected, and inspirational. I want to document the sublime in the every day, all the possibility we represent.

For The Dying American Empire

Goodbye Capitalism. Goodbye USA!

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Dylan Thomas








Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Melancholy Renewal

Last night after picking Jessi up from the airport, I talked late into the night with Emily, my old friend, sometimes sweetheart, and sometimes collaborator about everything from her experiences squatting in Barcelona to the ethics of remaining in cities verses going to rural areas and learning practical skills. Both of us tend to be fairly argumentative, particularly when it comes to intersections of art and activism. Nonetheless, speaking with her felt good. She is an old friend who knows me at my best and my worst and challenges me in both states to higher levels of action, creation, and thought. It is wonderful to have her in my life.

It is wonderful to have so many people in my life.

Its strange to have so many friends in so many different places, people I love and people that love me too. While we are all working on amazing projects and learning new things from new people, I often wish I could have a slightly simpler existence where the people I loved were together and our experiences were shared. I imagine a party where all the people I love come together and enjoy each other late into the night.

I am settling back into Denver after an incredible weekend shooting interviews at Critical Resistance 10. My heart aches with the absence of missing friends, lovers lost and lovers found. Autumn feels strong this year. So many projects, so many acts of love withering as the first days of fall chill. The highs of a relationship, an 8 year project, production around two political conventions all ending in late August-early September have made the past few weeks a trying month. But as night comes on earlier and the moon blazes sharply in the sky, I feel connected to the earth, its return to the dirt. I feel ready for the renewal that comes in completion and loss and eager to see what grows through the winter and the spring.

I have spoken at length to my friends about our collective desire to find room for creative projects, art, culture, and experimentation. The fall and winter will be good for this.

CR10 and Me!

I'm super excited about heading out to Oakland with bad-ass producer Malia Bruker to shoot interviews with the incredible activists who will be attending Critical Resistance 10. I am happy Free Speech TV will be dedicating resources to this important prison abolition conference that his been going on for the past 10 years!

Lots of love to Denver!