millions for mumia, ten years later

the first time i ever came to this city that i now live in was ten years ago today. on april 24, 1999 a massive protest in march in support of mumia abu jamal was organized in philadelphia. the millions for mumia march was both a celebration of his 40th birthday and an impassioned plea for his freedom from death row.

this evening, ten years later, i will be attending another event in philadelphia for mumia who is still unjustly incarcerated after all these years despite an international movement of supporters. the "more than a book release" event tonight at the historic church of the advocate in north philly will celebrate mumia's latest book jailhouse lawyers and will feature a number of speakers and performers. there are a number of similar events happening around the country today, mumia's birthday.

for more info visit:
http://freemumia.com/april242009.html

the continued search for focus

sometimes it's hard figuring out where i want to focus my energy. i desperately need to cultivate a steady income, but go back and forth between looking into traditional wage jobs/temp work and dedicating all my time towards my own writing and other projects. passions and survival, indeed. i'm looking forward to talking to lv about our life goals, both short and long term. i think that will help me focus. i want to envision and articulate where i want to be a month from now, 6 months, this time next year, in 5 years, etc. it will be helpful but also fun to share these dreams together.

today, i find myself at a coffeeshop all over the place. i jump from researching freelance and proofreading jobs to feelings of guilt around not booking an early summer tour for one of my aid & abet clients. all the while, the impending may rent looms over every action and thought like a fatal illness. but i'm optimistic that i'll figure something out over the next couple weeks.

bright forecast

now that i'm back in philly, i'm try to harness the inspiration from my travels. i was hoping that i would be catalyzed after the nyc anarchist book fair and reflecting on my past life in northampton. but the first few days back have been a struggle. it's still sort of cold, dark and rainy. it's as if nothing happened and i just woke up from a dream. maybe i'm still 27? i wonder if i will ever be liberated from the shackled bureaucracy of financial institutions. i wonder if tomorrow will begin a new era of sunshine and creativity. the future is still hopeful. i just need to keep reminding myself why i'm here. what i'm doing. and where i'm going.

spring break 2009

i've been on the road for a full week now. it seems like months ago that lv and i were waiting for the megabus in philly for a weekend adventure in new york! now i'm heading back to the big apple for another weekend, but this time from northampton--where i have been all week. i was able to see friends and family in celebrating my 28th birthday and despite getting a little sick it's been great fun. i'm looking forward to the anarchist bookfair tomorrow, meeting up with my aid & abet co-conspirators again, and also returning to philly and my sweetheart sunday evening. i think when i return my mind will be fresh and inspired and i will be to appreciate the beauty of the full bloom trees even more.

april urgency

it's been a good week. one morning i woke up and was brought back 6 years, to my final semester in college. jolted out of bed with the realization that it was now officially april and my senior project was due at the end of the month. there was a similar urgency this week, with so many things going on and to look forward to in the coming weeks.

tuesday night i went to a fantastic zine reading at the wooden shoe with cassie j. snyder and al burian. cassie was hilarious and it had been about 4 years since i had last seen al perform. i enjoyed the thread connecting all of the pieces he read: what was it that initally brought us to punk and why are we still in it? why were we all there that night? i had really nice conversations with all the other wooden shoe folks afterwards as i got pumped up for the couchsurfing.com meet up i was heading to afterwards!

there's a japanese restaurant/karaoke club where local couchsurfers have been meeting every tuesday night for various specials and a private karaoke room. i was inspired to check it out this week with the temptation of visiting the philly pretzel factory at midnight when the 35 cent, fresh pretzels are available!

i had fun meeting all of these random people, some from philly, others couchsurfing from across the globe. over 30 of us squeezed in this room to sing songs accompanied by the cheesiest japanese karaoke videos that you could imagine. i bonded with some of them after my performance of "dancing with myself." ha! i biked down to washington after midnight beating the carpool to pretzels. it was great to finally experience the freshest, hottest pretzels in town before biking all the way back to west philly.

there's so much more to say about this week. mostly, that jen angel arrived via train on april fool's day and it's been great seeing her again. her event at the wooden shoe last night was a success and i had a blast hanging out with all these great folks afterwards that came out for it. jen's crashing at my house over the weekend while i'm in nyc with lv. then sunday i'll be heading back to western mass to celebrate my birthday and see all of the wonderful people in my life up there. see you soon!

springing forward for real

this was a tough week. for a few days straight, i felt paralyzed by stress and depression which is pretty unusual for me. things got better yesterday though. i spent the day with lv as she criss-crossed the city from appointment to appointment. then she provided me with support and focus before my event at the wooden shoe, a discussion about "radical change in the age of obama." the event went really well and i felt so much better and connected to the world afterwards.

and today actually felt like spring! i had the pleasure of meeting tyrone who does the really amazing website enough and our conversations inspired me to write about my experiences in philly...here. things are turning around and i'm excited for my favorite month, just around the corner!

the gaps in between my aspirations and my apathy

the line in that song really speaks to where i'm at right now. over the past 6 years i've been struggling with that balance of working hard on projects and the lures of complacency. as the gorilla biscuits once sung, "i like hanging out but who doesn't," but it's time to start truly living our lives and realizing our dreams instead of just sitting on our asses: "let's start today."

maybe sometimes i'm too hard on myself, but i really wish that i had worked harder and had more to show for it now. but i know it's not too late and that i am the only thing that is holding me back from making it all happen.

propagandhi show/prometheus update

"so...anything new?" i was asked recently by a friend; beyond my previous response of things being pretty good in philly. well, last weekend i had a chance to see one of my favorite bands (and biggest political/life influences) from high school play live. propagandhi are a punk band from winnipeg, manitoba that have been playing since the late 80's and made a stop in philly, accompanied by their fantastic new album supporting caste. it wasn't quite as much of a mind-blowing experience as the first time i got to see them back in 2000 in new york, but it was fun and important nonetheless. it was great just to be able to bond with some of my new friends here over this band that has meant so much to all of us; a thread connecting our collective experience as punks and activists.

the other thing, of course, was getting interviewed for the internship with prometheus. the update on that is that they decided to go with someone else for the position which, as evidenced by my previous post, was not a tragic blow to my life. they had tons of applicants for the position and even though i was one of the top 3 candidates, there was someone else that had a lot more fundraising and development experience. it seems like the organization is going through a lot of upheaval right now so i wish that person the best and hope that it's a fulfilling experience. i'm mostly pscyched that i can still come back to northampton for the entire week of my birthday, as i had planned, before the anarchist book fair in nyc!

that's it for now. more updates later...

internship dilemma

yesterday i had an interview at the prometheus radio project for a paid internship that would go through september. they're a rad organization that works with community radio stations all over the country and their main office happens to be 3 blocks from my house. the internship wouldn't pay much, but enough to for me to live on and definitely more than i'm making now. i have mixed feelings though because i wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to my aid & abet work. jen angel pointed out, though, that the summer is a slow time for booking tours (at least on college campuses) so maybe it would be fine if i got it. we'll see!

i'm trying to be better about structuring my time and being productive as a self-educator/employer, but it's still a challenge. i have a lot of ideas and projects and time i just need to be more motivated and focused. but this is nothing new.

i will be going back to massachusetts around my birthday next month which i'm really psyched about! of course, if i get this internship it will cut into my spring break time since it starts that week. hmmm...

daylight savings nyc

i woke up in brooklyn sunday. we sprung forward an hour overnight which was appropriate. my brief trip to nyc was definitely worth it. i got to spend the afternoon with my dad who had been on vacation there since wednesday night. we walked around times square and central park, enjoying the warm weather. i got to meet up with jesse for dinner in the east village after she got out of work. afterwards i took the subway to brooklyn where i met up with jon after an unfortunately pretentious panel discussion on photography he had just been on. we walked back to his apartment in greenpoint, where i crashed.

sunday morning we walked around the neighborhood and jon took portraits of me with his new camera. i had to catch a 1:30 bus back to philly but i had just enough time to meet cristy road for breakfast. she just joined the aid and abet roster and i'm psyched to work with her and set up some sucessful for tours later in the year.

during the bus ride i cleared my head and felt good about the trip. arriving right near philly's 30th street station i bumped into dave end who was taking a train up to nyc to rehearse for a big performance he's doing with kimya dawson at carnegie hall soon. he also informed me that kimya will be playing at the unitarian church in philly the next day and he might join her for a song or two.

i jumped on the subway toward 5th st. and made it with enough time to get a snack before the wooden shoe collective meeting which i was facillitating at 5:00. the meeting went well as we approved the restructuring of the collective's bylaws which we passed at a daylong retreat two weeks ago. it's the beginning of a new era for this radical institution and i'm excited to be part of it right now.

discovering the end of the rainbow!

i woke up this morning exclaiming "today is gonna be a good day!" it's been a good week. sort of unbelievable that today could be any better than the last couple but i have a feeling in my gut.

yesterday saw a pre-sunrise bike ride with lv to the upenn dental school. she put her name down to be seen later in the morning and we walked around a bit as the sun slowly emerged into our day. i got home around 9:30 am after they finally called her number. my housemate adam greeted me from the kitchen as i walked in the front door, reminding me that it was rent day and that i should put my check up on the fridge with the others. i nervously confirmed my awareness of this fact as i headed upstairs to check my bank balance online.

the day before, after a little research, i figured out how to find the status of my tax refund on the irs website. my refund was due to be directly deposited on march 5th! with that knowledge, i took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the page displaying my balance loaded. this has become a routine over the past couple weeks, an act i have performed many times each day with the hope of newfound riches at my disposal. but this time i was more optimistic. i opened my eyes and gleeful discovered two additional digits in my checking account! enough to cover this month's rent and maybe even next month's too!

i wrote out my check to the landlord and posted it on the fridge with the others. everything is going to be okay. spring is almost here.

marching ahead

march is always a wild card. the snow that arrived in the middle of the night during the final hours of february, and the initial hours of this new month, began to melt in today's bright sun. something shifted today. i busted out my review of the new thermals album for jesse's website sadie, and finally figured out how i will cover my rent this month. what a relief! inhale. exhale.

now i have returned to my new favorite cafe on 43rd and locust where you get two free refills, the sun shining through the big windows facing the street. i am determined and focused now to finally finish this article i've been working on about our new president and the challenge of social movements to develop strategies to navigate this new political climate. things are starting to fall into place. i think spring is afoot...

formula for focusing

nearly 6 years after graduating college i am still struggling to figure out how to focus and get work done. deadlines are meaningless. i need urgency to accomplish anything. i'll wake up early with hopes of having a productive day and then before i know it the sun is setting and i have nothing to show except a headache. but i know it's a process of a larger process. trying to finish an article today a couple weeks past when it was originally due. now it's urgent. time to focus.

free at noon

in philly, you can see a free concert every friday at noon. sponsored by npr affiliate wxpn (based at upenn), the world live cafe hosts premium live music each week for free--usually touring bands playing in the city that night.

i discovered this the week i moved here. an increasing popular northampton band called the winterpills just happened to be playing there my second day in philly. lv and i walked the 15 or so blocks before arriving at this venue that feels more like a museum when you enter it than a music club. there is a little stage in the street-level restaurant where smaller, mostly acoustic acts play, but the free at noon bands perform downstairs in the music hall replete with full bar and the biggest sound board i have ever seen.

it's always disorienting walking in to this dimly-lit, windowless space from the sun of high noon, in addition to being at a concert in the middle of the day with a few hundred other people who are either unemployed or skipping work. but once your eyes adjust you can begin to appreciate the siutation.

at the end of january i had the pleasure of seeing devotchka who were so fun to see live with their vast array of instruments. i returned again yesterday for a concert featuring two songwriters i had never heard or seen before: john wesley harding and m. ward.

i use the word concert very consciously. i enjoy going to see free live music in the middle of the day on fridays as much as anyone else, but there's something detatched about the culture that stirs up an awareness and pride of my punk roots. it's a strange dichotomy: watching free music in a deeply commercial (even if xpn is "member supported") space. on the wall next to the stage where the bands play, the logo for comcast is projected underneath the xpn call numbers. the majority of musicians fall under the oxymoronic "commercial indie" genre, which for me is sometimes a guilty pleasure. i love devotchka's music but what is the significance of a band gaining noteriety from a movie soundtrack? and i know not every band can be fugazi, but i just feel like integrity is important. of course this won't prevent me from continuing to go to the free at noon concerts it's just things that i can't stop thinking about while i'm there...

in defense of joel kovel

this week my alma mater, bard college, decided that it would not renew the contract of one of my mentors, professor joel kovel. this is undoubtedly a result of the college's unfortunate allegiance with the state of israel and joel's outspoken, principled critique of zionism and the escalating oppression of palestinians in the occupied territories. read his statement about the situation here.

the following is a letter of protest that i wrote to the president and vice president of bard:

Dear Leon and Dmitri,

As a Bard alum, I am writing to express my shock and disapproval of the college's recent decision to terminate one it's finest professors, Joel Kovel. Not only did I learn a great deal from Joel's classes, I considered him a mentor and a friend. He was an amazing resource for his students and was extremely supportive of those of us committed to political organizing on and off campus.

It is outrageous to me that Professor Kovel never received tenure during his 20 plus years teaching at Bard. Your decision to not renew his contract is an insult to those of us that gained so much from him. Furthmore, this unfortunate action undermines the values of academic freedom that the college was founded on and that both of you have claimed a committment to during your time there.

As similar letters pour in from around the world in support of Professor Kovel it should become uncomfortably clear what an egregious mistake you have made. I urge you to reinstate him immediately or to at least issue a public apology.

Sincerely,

Matt Dineen, Class of 2003

back in philly (part II)

since i've been back in philly it's been like this: new room, up and down 48th st. in between here and lv's place two blocks away, applying for paid internship with the prometheus radio project, back to volunteering at the wooden shoe, starting to work with cristy road for aid & abet, crossing my fingers for tax refund to arrive before march rent is due, feeling more like i actually live here, grateful for the lack of ice or snow, no money but lots of love, can't wait for spring...

r.i.p. tj

when i visited my mother in new hampshire last week tj, the cat that's been in our family for over 22 years, wasn't doing to well. her health had gone down since my last visit a few months ago. her fur looked pretty ragged and her hind legs were wobbly. i'll spare you the more digusting details.

i talked to my mom today and she shared with me the bad news: she found tj dead earlier in the week, curled up in the closet with the cat door, tongue sticking out. so sad.

tj stands for tigger junior. my brother's cat tigger was hit by a car when i was 5 years and we got tj a few months later from someone that my mom worked with. i remember the night tigger died. paul was really devastated and he sat on the living room floor listening to "every rose has it's thorn" by poison on the radio:

every rose has its thorn
just like every night has its dawn
just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
every rose has its thorn

i feel grateful that i was able to see tj one last time before she passed away. as my mom pointed out, "she's been such a thread connecting our family all these years." she had her cremated and will bury her ashes in the spring under a forsythea bush.

rest in peace, tigger junior...

little glimpses

when spring actually arrives, for real, it will be so extrordinary. we're not there yet--not even in temperate, ice and snow-free philadelphia. when it does get here, everything will become alive again. it's the greatest feeling in the world. i've found that it's necessary, although frustrating, to have these little glimpses of the possibility of spring throughout the final months of winter. it keeps me going until the real thing makes it.

after a nice visit to boston i am back in philly, slowly moving into my new house. the possibilty of early spring is fueling everything right now. it's good to be back.

february visit

i've been back in new england for a week. when i left philly it was sunny and warm. spring was in the air and i was feeling good. soon after arriving in northampton the "snow showers" predicted by the weather channel started to fall on my old town. my nose started running within an hour of being back. sniffle. sniffle. emily opened up her apartment to me and let me use her car the next day to drive to evolution. i worked the lunch shift and got paid in cash. it kind of felt like i had never left, like the month of january had never happened. despite drinking heather's amazing conconction of raw garlic, ginger, lemon juice and cayenne, i felt sick and wiped out when i got out and just went to bed early instead of going out dancing at the basement. didn't sleep well that night, waking up dehydrated and blowing my nose.

wednesday morning i walked through town for the first time since december, but just to stop by the bank and then straight to the bus station. i made it just in time to hop on the 10:30 bus to brattleboro where my mom was meeting me. she could tell i was sick before i even got in the car and i basically spent the next two days relaxing at her house and taking care of myself. the first night there i realized that one year ago i was in the same place, surrounded by snow, house-sitting for her while she was on vacation in the dominican republic. one year later, i listened to a certain album that i associate with that week, filled with mixed feelings. it was all too weird and appropriate.

i felt a little better when i took the bus back to northampton friday. i got in just in time to work one more shift back at the cafe. i was reunited with austin and we trudged through a crazy night featuring a concert that made my head pound. it was all worth it for the free food and money. definitely my last shift ever though!

saturday was the first day that i was actually able to hang out and be back in northampton for real and it felt good. it was great seeing old friends again that i have missed a lot and i had so much fun dancing and running around town again.

i woke up early and walked to my old apartment building to make sure my bike still existed. it was securely locked up and even had plenty of air in the tires! my mom drove down before work to meet me for breakfast and paul came up with lee and her daughter too. it was really nice to see them all before i went back to philly.

this morning i returned to valley free radio as a guest on tony and keely's show parapolitics. we talked about the new administration and the forging of new activist strategyies with obama in office. i'm trying to write an article about it all using the inauguration as a metaphor for this dilemma and the lack of visible dissent at his swearing in, particularly compared to those of bush in 2001 and 2005. that's what i'm doing now with my last day here.

tomorrow, amanda and are going on a field trip to boston. i'm excited to see tyler after so many months since our last visit. then back to philly on wednesday. i'm looking forward to feeling like i actually live there, after a month of just visiting, as i will move into my own place. also can't wait to see my sweetheart who i miss so much...see you soon!!

divided psyche

pour me a glass of paralyzing bad habits and distractions. pinch my nose and force it down my throat. every. last. drop. dreams colonized by the existence of reality tv. but not tonight. wrap me up in kleenex soaked in nyquil. fold my clothes on top of piles of pet dander. two days of being in elementary school again. press hard on the remote control. my desires are drowned out by static and commercial breaks. it's over now. i'm surrounded by hardcover books i will never read. let's crash the art show. pretend we enjoy photographs of sunrises as much as the free grapes and crackers. everything is in hibernation-mode. but still, they call this a warm front. here's a patch of my skin. keep it somewhere safe for the next time i leave. trust me. i'm not stranded. not yet.