I get most of the furniture I fix up for free, but this is a teak dining table by the Finnish firm Asko that I bought off Craigslist for my birthday last year.
Within an hour of owning it I destroyed all four legs by driving into a low garage door with the table strapped to my truck. Let's say I was disappointed. Meanwhile, it stayed in the garage for the better part of a year, directly beneath our apartment's shoddily plumbed bathroom. You can imagine where this is headed.
Anyway, I finally managed to swipe the still-intact legs off of another table that someone else destroyed, and adapted them to fit my special table. I sanded off some of the let's-just-call-it-water damage, did some spot staining, and polished the rest.
I won't say the hybrid is better than either of the tables that died to give it life, but I'm glad I didn't give up on this beauty. And maybe I now know how Homer Simpson felt when he carved his own chili spoon—from a bigger spoon!
[#]furniture #woodworking #midcenturymodern #suomi
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I dreamed that Craigslist added a bunch of new flashy features and woke up in a cold sweat.
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When you listen to people who have fled repressive regimes, in contrast, the narrative tends to be different. For folks with these life experiences, if they have a cautionary or critical word to offer, it tends to be along the lines of "It's very difficult logistically, financially, and emotionally," or "Don't go into it with an inflated notion of how safe you will be elsewhere." This is not the same thing as "Don't do it because it is your duty to remain."
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(I'm not necessarily referring here to the politics of Jews who emigrated to Israel, much less the Zionist boosters who campaigned for a new state of Israel—that's a whole other tangle of questions).
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Like, has anyone literally ever uttered the words "my grandparents fled Nazi Germany because they had bad politics and no sense of solidarity"? Maybe that is an argument people have made. If so, I've not heard it. But it has a substantial following among present day left-ish commentators.
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You don't hear a lot of people talking about the moral cowardice of people who fled Nazi Germany. Certainly, many who left had excellent politics, and many who stayed did so not out of solidarity, but out of an expectation (often erroneous) that their privilege would protect them.
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It's interesting how frequently one hears comparisons of the current moment in US politics to the rise of the Third Reich, yet often the same people making this comparison have very differing ideas about the relative merits of flight away from these regimes.
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This performance took place a year ago last week in Chicago, in the middle of a pretty fierce blizzard. I thought it was a good set. We made it available for free/pay what you can. There is also a link to video of the performance. Have a look/listen:
Elastic 1-18-2024 from Wilson Shook, Andrew Scott Young, Ben Billington
https://otherghosts.bandcamp.com/album/elastic-1-18-2024
[#]ImprovisedMusic #FreeJazz #ExperimentalMusic #ElasticArts @experimentalmusic
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The vibe is very "I met Gary Snyder once."
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I'm walking through North Berkeley and it's like 99.5% silver haired white folks in comfortable jeans drinking terrible lattes on the sidewalk with their friends. I'm legit envious.
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If your scarf isn't long enough to go out like Isadora Duncan, are you even wearing a scarf?
[#]scarf
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I published a newsletter today, reflecting on the Los Angeles wildfires, my impending move back to LA, and selections from the poet René Char.
Have a read:
https://wilsonshook.com/newsletter/2025/1/21/last-days-in-oakland-winter-garden-healing-arts
[#]BodyWork #ManualTherapy #ReneChar
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No one expects the Israeli govt to abide by the ceasefire deal, but a release of political prisoners is always worth celebrating.
Palestinian jailbreakers and life prisoners to be freed in Hamas-Israel swap | Middle East Eye
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-jailbreakers-and-life-prisoners-be-freed-hamas-israel-swap
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The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles would like you to know that identifying and publicly calling out real estate price gouging will not help to lower prices, and also that you should definitely not do it. Here's an article about how to get involved.
The spreadsheet brigade that's keeping LA's rental market from exploding | Alissa Walker
https://www.torched.la/the-spreadsheet-brigade-thats-keeping-las-rental-market-from-exploding/
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'Looking at the state of Palestinian society and standards of living today, it’s abundantly clear that the international development sector has failed in its mission. And yet a “resilience industry” has taken hold in Palestine, and the discourse of resilience is everywhere...
'By promoting Palestinian resilience instead of holding Israel accountable for its multiple breaches of international law, and its involvement in the destruction of Palestinian society, the international community is masking its own failures – and shamefully abdicating its responsibility to the people it claims to be helping.'
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Where else do we hear about 'resilience' in the face of avoidable—and more importantly, rectifiable—human tragedy?
Live from the resilience capitol of the world, where hospitals spontaneously explode, and humans regrettably find themselves shot by disembodied bullets, enter the resilience industry:
'Resilience, it seems, is the buzzword of the day. It’s particularly popular in the field of international development, where it’s used to evoke a capacity to “bounce back”, survive, or more optimistically “thrive” in the face of extreme adversity. International organisations have turned their attention to promoting “resilience” both individually and at community level, to better equip people to cope and overcome adversity.'
Stop telling Palestinians to be ‘resilient’ – the rest of the world has failed them | The Conversation
https://theconversation.com/stop-telling-palestinians-to-be-resilient-the-rest-of-the-world-has-failed-them-96587
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The precedent of Hurricane Katrina is important to keep in mind with regard to Altadena, as this historically Black community struggles to care for each other and looks at its prospects for survival.
I'm reminded of an essay by John Clark, looking at the ten year anniversary of Katrina, the narrative of resilience that has been forced onto New Orleans, the politics of that narrative and what it obscures. Get ready for next year's Rose Parade and especially the 2028 LA Olympics to heavily showcase the 'resilience' narrative, no matter how devastating the losses over next few years—no matter how complicit the politicians and corporate marauders pushing this narrative have been in those losses.
'The ideology of resilience ignores the extraordinary creative achievements and visionary aspirations of New Orleanians in the post-Katrina period, and celebrates survival, bare life. It focuses instead on the community’s continued existence as a site for imposition of corporate-state hierarchically-formulated development plans. All the complements to the people of New Orleans for being resilient are a bit condescending and demeaning. After all, it’s not the greatest tribute to people to complement them on their ability to survive. “Thank you for not just giving up and dying en masse. If you had done that would have been somewhat of an embarrassment to the greatest country in the world.”'
This essay appears in a few places online, but this one seems to be the most accessible (despite getting the title wrong). You can also find it in the Black Seed print anthology.
Against Resilence: The Katrina Disaster & The Politics of Disavowal, by John Clark
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-black-seed-issue-5#toc36
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'There is a precedent for this kind of financially-driven demographic shift following a natural disaster, often referred to as climate gentrification.
'One of the most stark examples... is what happened to low-income neighborhoods in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. About 100,000 Black residents were permanently displaced after their homes were destroyed and poor public policy and slow movement led to openings for development projects that favored the wealthy.
'“That’s why it’s important for our community and others to band together to build this back up. We deserve it. We deserve a safe place to thrive. We deserve a safe place for our kids to be.”'
[#]EatonFire #Altadena
Black residents hope to rebuild homes, legacy after Eaton Fire | AfroLA News
https://afrolanews.org/2025/01/black-residents-hope-to-rebuild-homes-legacy-after-eaton-fire/
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“ To the extent that these public officials will be enforcing these price gouging laws, it is only because of the pressure from below. It is only because people are making a big stink about it.”
How to report and organize against rent-gouging after the LA fires | LA Public Press
https://lapublicpress.org/2025/01/how-to-report-and-organize-against-rent-gouging-after-the-la-fires/
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Some context and commentary on Abubaker Abed's speech:
Gaza Journalists Demand End to Israel's Impunity for 'Genocide Against Us' | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalist-killed-in-gaza
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