Letters from Russia on WriteNow on Santa Cruz Freak Radio

Received a lovely note from DJ Snailmail who creates a show (with her colleague DJ Anon) on Santa Cruz Free Radio called “WriteNow! The Art and Action of Letter-writing” expressing an interest in reading my Letters From Russia project.

In case you missed it … LFR (Letters from Russia (.pdf)- war & love epistletory discourse) is written as a series of 14 letters and a “declaration” ostensibly by a cobbler in Napoleon’s army in Russia 1812, to his lover in Paris. It evolved into multi-medium art project with a series of illustrations, paintings and papercraft all bundled in a handmade book of hemp and wood and twine.

Anyhow, here’s more about the show – i’ll be on to talk about using letter writing a a literary device and the process i used and philosophical underpinnings and inspirations of the content.

“WriteNow! The Art and Action of Letter-writing.” The program explores the art, value and action of letter-writing, basically all aspects of letter- writing, specifically snailmail and handwritten letters. It’s on Tuesdays from 8-9pm on Free Radio Santa Cruz (101.1FM and streamed at Freakradio.org).

And i’m a sucker for civil disobedience, ergo:

In full disclosure, Free Radio Santa Cruz (FRSC) is a 100% volunteer collective and we do not make any money in this effort. FRSC has been on the air for over ten years without an FCC license. freakradio.org/about.html

A Choogle and a Postcard

Finally finished off the White Poppies for Remembrance series on Postcards from Gravelly Beach with moments to spare before Remembrance day (being a year since i recorded the content).  Tis a narrative on the go in London musing on the celebratory artifacts of wars gone past.  I enjoyed Remembrance day ceremonies on the Ceeb from a cottage on Sechelt inlet on the Sunshine Coast. Meandering Past Monuments of Remembrance – Postcards #49

And part three of my ongoing documentary of a rock n’ rol trio bound for adventures from their humble base in a distressed logging town (OK that all sounds too dramatic but whatever …), Choogle on rolls out more Numbskulz conversation and more pod-debuts of tracks including a revamped Lifestyles.  The post has heaps of links to bonus Numbskulz media. The Numbskulz Grow Up and Rock Out – Choogle on #55

Remembrance Day Activities in Vancouver 2007

For this Remembrance day, i will be posting the final chapter of the White Poppies for Remembrance podcast series on Postcards from Gravelly Beach and then hi-tailing out of town, bound for the Sunshine Coast for some relaxing and remembering.

photo by Gazoo on Flickr

For those of you asking, here are some Vancouver 2007 Remembrance Day events via Vancouver parks board – all on Nov. 11th leading up to 11:11AM:

Remembrance Day Run – Hershey Harriers @ Brockton Oval
Remembrance Day Service - City Legion @ Grandview Park
Remembrance Day Service - Royal Canadian Legion #16 @ Memorial South Park
Remembrance Day Service - Japanese Canadian Memorial Society @ Japanese War Memorial, Stanley Park
Remembrance Day Service - Royal Canadian Legion #179 @ Victory Square Park

Canadian Legion threatens White Poppies for Peace folks

This is a case of copyright gone wild. The Peace Pledge Union based in the UK sell white poppies to citizens around the world who wish to show their abhorance and refusal to support war for any purpose. You can read more back story about the white poppies and red poppies for that matter at Remembrance Day Activities in Vancouver.

But the Canadian Legion decided it owned the rights to sell poppies of any kind or colour and threathened the peaceniks with legal action. However, they aren’t giving up and surrendering to the bully who is claiming an absurd trademark right though a Canadian supplier has been forced to stop selling the wee plastic mementos.

Here’s Peace Pledge’s quick overview:

Last year The Royal Canadian Legion through it legal representative demanded that Canadian groups stop distribution them and that the PPU stop making white poppies available in Canada, or else. That was the gist, though expressed in more formal language. According to the RCL’s legal representatives, the white poppy infringes the Legion’s poppy trademark. The PPU replied at length; our central point was that we disagreed with their argument. We have not heard from them since but the Canadian shop at the centre of this complaint regrettably had to acquiesce. You can read more about this at http://tinyurl.com/2mc7pq where you can also find out about the white poppy project and the PPU.

Following the legal threats both the promoters in Canada and Canadians who bought the poppy from us hoped that white poppies would again be available in Canada this year.

White poppies in any quantity are available from us for dispatch anywhere in the world including Canada.

In case you missed it, i recorded a spoken word podcast series based around the White Poppies i received last year and my brother’s involvement in the conflict in Iraq (now home safe – wish i could say the same for the rest). Still one more episode to go – trying to get it all done in less than a year ;-).

You can also subscribe to Postcards from Gravelly Beach in iTunes.

Be sure to order white poppies early (shipped across the Atlantic) and read the loquacious discourse on this most critical of topics. Make no mistake, the way to honour ultimate sacrifice is to ensure no such future bloodshed is required from man’s inability to get along. And we (all of us) have a right to respect the fallen in a manner which suits our conscience and not a method prescribed by the Legion or anyone else.

“The power of the white poppy lies in its questioning of the dominant – and fundamentally dishonest – view of war. More than that, it carries the hopes and demands of the mothers, wives, daughters and girlfriends of the men who for whatever reason and in whatever way were diminished by their participation in war. Their hope was that we would find less brutal social institutions to solve problems and resolve conflict. It remains for us to fulfill the wish.”

White Poppies for Remembrance rolls on with HD Thoreau and Gord Downie + more tasty tunes

Thanks to some new found energy resultant from some very agressive acupuncture (fortified with electrical stimulation), I rallied out another (part 6) of the White Poppies peace and war series on Postcards from Gravelly Beach (my spoken word literature podcast – Feed - iTunes).  Really enjoying crafting these and still have at least 3 maybe 5 more to go in this series – then maybe move onto the trees and logging conundrums in Calyoquot sound series (featuring lots of Gary Snyder and other essays).  Anyhow, in case you are a non-violence advocate and literature enthusiast, check out my wee programme.

Awakening to the Dawn of Potential – Postcard #45

This one continues with me at the mostly empty Victory Park on the 3 day Remembrance Day weekend last November discussing human value and potential and perception with a poem by Gord Downie (hear Gord’s day job in “Hip Night in Vancouver – Choogle on #31“) from “Coke Machine Glow” and two stirring excerpts from Henry David Thoreau’s classic “Walden” plus a “Declaration” from my original Letters from Russia project (read in a hospital room in Logan, Utah).  Salty and missing sea captian Chris Jacobsen sings “Providence” and Rock Plaza Central sing “Children be Joyful” and me and Miss Sena lay down some percussion-scape from Steamboat Island to jam along with the city bus brakes and heavy thoughts.

Military service evaders seeking justice – Laying it all out on paper

You likely know i’ve been working on a series for Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast about war and peace called “White Poppies for Remembrance” recorded last November.

The most recent episode “Buddhas in the Trenches” discusses conscientious objection and military service evaders.  I wrote a “Pro” and “Con” argument paper while at Evergreen College in Olympia, WA in the early days of this ‘war on abstract nouns’  which (unfortunately) is still vitally relevant.

The essay titled “Should U.S. military evaders be extradited? Yes & No arguments (.pdf) 08/04” break down the issues and conundrums facing the (growing number of) men and women who are giving their humanity and conscience priority over their military service obligations/commitments.

Rather than rambling on, … please note the endnotes for both sides of the argument.  I encourage people to learn more about what is going on as decent people fight ffor refuge status and their right to not-kill and be killed for an illegal, immoral and unethical war.  The situation is vastly different than Vietnam era (no more draft and extradition treaties are in place) but eerily similar (particularly as the war continues to escalate out of control).

This essay is available along with many others at my Writing page at Uncleweed.net.

White Poppies for Remembrance podcast series at PfGB

In case you aren’t checking out the Postcards from Gravelly Beach spoken word literature podcasts i brew up (they ain’t for everybody i suppose), you may want to check out a wee series i am (finally) editing from last Remembrance Day (Nov. 2006).

Come on along as i start with a bowl of oatmeal and trek downtown to (ostensibly) congregate in some ceremony and end up hanging out reading the goods in Victory Park, at New Amsterdam cafe plus Gastown alleys and finally back on North Shore porch. Topics include white poppies, peace, non-peace, aggressions, human rights and human potential, art and culture, the conditions of the Downtown Eastside and life of a resistance fighter.

Not quite the regular Postcards from Gravelly Beach style but whatever, … check out the fist two episodes which sorta set the stage for the next half dozen episodes.

Here is Part One:
Vanquishing Grecian Warlords – Postcard #39 (12MB, .mp3, 13:06)

And Part Two:
White Poppies on a Rainyday Coat – Postcard #41 (9:29, 9MB, .mp3)

Subscribe to Gravelly Beach Feed and/or Chillaxin’ Podcast Syndicate feed and in iTunes

Kurdistan – The Other Iraq

My brother Lt. Magnum (USN) is in Iraq and recently traveled to Kurdistan and says,

“I am in Irbil (sometimes spelled Erbil.) It is Capitol city of Kurds (you know, in Iraq, they have Arabs and Kurds) – you should look for it on a map. Kurds have culture closer to Turkey. Also, Irbil is a lot closer to Turkey than to Baghdad. The camp is run by the Korean Army. Only about a dozen Americans here.

Kurdistan – The Other Iraq

I flew down on a Japanese Self Defense Force C-130 painted pastel blue. My Japanese buddy, Major Natori, hooked me up.  Today I got a tour of a vocational school and a hospital that the Koreans built here. I met lots of really friendly Iraqis who are getting an education. A lot of them speak English really well and even make jokes.

This place is so nice. Lots of hills and green grass. The air is very clean and clear. Maybe like North Dakota from pictures I’ve seen, or Mongolia.

It is fun being with the Koreans. I ate lunch and dinner at the Korean cafe. For lunch I had bulgoggi and the red hot spicy soup that Kaito likes. It has meat and tofu and big green onions. For dinner, it was mackerel Korean style, two types of KIMCHI, and beef with Toppogi mochi. And rice is sticky rice. It is delicious after all American in Camp Victory for 4 months!

Anyway, the adventure continues.