itsyourfriendhere

[itsyourfriendhere]

REAL - FREE ZINE DOWNLOAD

Just released a FREE 8 page minizine about bodies, transphobia, and who owns what.

This is something of a personal piece. It comes out of, funny enough, a mix of childhood fears of inspection/dissection alongside the “joys” of certain wellness exams and the logical conclusion of some of the current political and legal climate. I’m sure it’ll upset some people for varying reasons. It’s not for faint of heart given its graphic nature, but to quote friend and fellow artist @idalwaves, this zine is “blunt and shocking in the way it has to be”.

The zine is free to download. There is also a printout file for home printing available for $1.00, and a physical mailed copy is also available for purchase.

I hope it resonates with you.

[itsyourfriendhere]

It's the season of the witch and until the end of October I'm offering Brainscan issues 33 & 34 by Alex Wrekk at a price where it will be about $10 including postage anywhere in the US! In these two zines Alex explores over a decade of building a secular witchcraft practice.

Brainscan #33 - DIY Witchery invites you into a deeply personal journey through the world of witchcraft. Over the course of a decade, the author has explored and practiced witchcraft, and this zine shares their unique experiences. It's not a how-to guide, but rather an insightful personal narrative. The author delves into their journey into witchcraft, the development of their secular and non-pagan practice, and the distinctions between their approach and contemporary witchcraft. They also tackle critical issues within the modern pagan and witchcraft communities, including discussions on racism, cultural appropriation, colonialism, and capitalism, reflecting their intersectional politics. For those interested in venturing on their own path, the zine offers tips and resources.

"Brainscan #34 - A Dabbler's Week of DIY Witchery is a zine born out of a challenge sparked by a cntroversial witchcraft book review in January 2020. The review suggested that modern witches were anti-vaccine and climate change deniers, leading a witch to question what it really takes to explore witchcraft for a week. The author, an experienced witch, takes up the challenge and presents their response in this zine.

Within these pages, daily activities are proposed, designed to shift your perspective and introduce you to their personal world of witchcraft. Activities include space cleansing, simple energy exercises, correspondences, animism, and basic spells. All of this is presented in a friendly, non-authoritative tone, making it perfect for those curious about witchcraft.

https://portlandbuttonworks.com/secular-witchcraft-zine

[itsyourfriendhere]

About surviving multiple climate catastrophes.

#twclimatedisaster #twalcohol

[itsyourfriendhere]

SMALL CONSOLATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE ANXIETY THAT KEEPS YOU UP FOR HOURS IN THE NIGHT

From my zine, Small Consolations.

(Made with support from The Canada Council for the Arts. A big thank you to them!)

[itsyourfriendhere]

Let me tell you a story. It goes like this: my father is the worst man alive, and i am his favourite daughter

— on fathers, mirrors, and unwanted inheritances.

[itsyourfriendhere]

Mahmoud Darwish (trans. Mohammad Shaheen), Like a Hand Tattoo in an Ode by an Ancient Arab Poet

[itsyourfriendhere]

The Mountain Goats — Sax Rohmer #1 // Neil Gaiman, The Sandman // @lucidloving // Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince // @kkiaikk_07 on tw // Madeline Miller, Song of Achilles // 墨香铜臭, 天管赐福 (Heaven Official's Blessing) // Shinou Ryo, Zetusbou ni Nake // Five For Fighting — Heaven Knows // Warren Zevon — Keep Me in Your Heart

[itsyourfriendhere]

but this body is home, my childhood is buried in here, my sleep rises and sets inside me, desire crested and wore itself thin between these bones - I live here.

Lisa Mueller, "A Nude by Edward Hopper," Poetry (July 1967)

[itsyourfriendhere]

postcards say IM HERE. IM HERE AND I LOVE YOU. IN THIS SPACE AND TIME AND WHEREVER AND WHENEVER YOU ARE. THERE IS A SPACE BETWEEN THOSE SPACES THAT CONNECTS US AND ITS FULL OF LOVE. I’LL MEET YOU THERE.

[itsyourfriendhere]

I HAVE MY MOTHER'S FACE AND HER GRIEF

Janet Fitch // Lady Bird (2017) dir. Greta Gerwig // Chen Chen // Youadan Teddy // Ocean Vuong Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong // Mitski Class of 2013 // 誰も知らない Nobody Knows (2004) dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda // Fatima Aamer Bilal days where my whole world is my bed. // death-born-aphrodite (tumblr) // Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous // Hieu Minh Nguyen Buffet Etiquette

[itsyourfriendhere]

It’s solar and wind and tidal and geothermal and hydropower.

It’s plant-based diets and regenerative livestock farming and insect protein and lab-grown meat.

It’s electric cars and reliable public transit and decreasing how far and how often we travel.

It’s growing your own vegetables and community gardens and vertical farms and supporting local producers.

It’s rewilding the countryside and greening cities.

It’s getting people active and improving disabled access.

It’s making your own clothes and buying or swapping sustainable stuff with your neighbours.

It’s the right to repair and reducing consumption in the first place.

It’s greater land rights for the commons and indigenous peoples and creating protected areas.

It’s radical, drastic change and community consensus.

It’s labour rights and less work.

It’s science and arts.

It’s theoretical academic thought and concrete practical action.

It’s signing petitions and campaigning and protesting and civil disobedience.

It’s sailboats and zeppelins.

It’s the speculative and the possible.

It’s raising living standards and curbing consumerism.

It’s global and local.

It’s me and you.

Climate solutions look different for everyone, and we all have something to offer.

[itsyourfriendhere]

Have you ever considered how fucking astonishing babies crying is?

The young of other animals don’t make noise, or if they do, barely any at all. Baby birds only start chirping when their parents come back with the food, kittens meow to their mothers because cat communication is extremely subtle and drawing your caretaker’s attention may require a sound when you have eight siblings. At this point, they can already see and walk.

 But human babies? Crying is essentially the first willful action that they learn. Months before being able to move on your own, or even hold your own fucking head up, or being able to choose when and where you defecate. Before anything else, a skill more valuable than anything else, is a distress call.

 A distress call specifically intended to be impossible to ignore.

 Before object permanence or theory of mind, without even an understanding of what help they need, who could provide it, and whether they choose to do so, a human being is capable of expressing that there is something wrong in the state they are in, that they are powerless to correct on their own.

 This is what was evolutionarily selected above silent babies that did not attract predators. This is what was selected instead of young who could instantly walk. This is what was selected as the ideal offspring for the human race. Not one that runs. Not one that hides. Not one that can fend for itself. A creature that can communicate, if only the simplest, most inherent message: I need help.

[itsyourfriendhere]

"Conclusions: reading, then, is a crucial act of resistance.

Not the only way, or the primary way, but a mode of literacy we must not negate or shy away from. Reading and writing are disciplines distinct from other forms of literacy: aural and oral proficiency (speaking and listening), media literacy (video watching, noticing), financial literacy, social literacy, numerical literacy (shoutout to the baddies with math anxiety rooted in the same oppressive upbringings). There are histories, blueprints, stories we can only access through the pages they’ve been printed on. If that was not important, we would not lock university libraries behind several hundred thousand dollars paywalls. If there was not agency and power to be found in reading, the empire would not work so hard to burn your hands away. If video learning is truly as harmless and neutral as we think, why are there screens everywhere in this world? Why are there so much advertisements, so much incentives, to spend all day looking at someone else making you feel?

—Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack (bolded italics my edit)

[itsyourfriendhere]

You're just a mammal. Let yourself act like it. Your brain needs enrichment. Your body needs rest. You feel hunger and grow hair. You need to pack bond with other sentient things so you don't become unsocialized and neurotic. You are biologically inclined to seek dopamine and become sick when chronically stressed. "Hedonism" is made up to place moral value on taking pleasure in sensory experiences. I am telling you that if you don't let yourself be a fucking mammal, as you were made, you will suffer and go insane. No grindset no diets no trying to be above your drive for connection. Pursue what makes you feel good and practice radial rejection of the constructs meant to turn you into a machine. You're a mammal.

[itsyourfriendhere]

Pantheistic Immortality & Afterlife

Honestly it’s completely natural to wonder for a creature who is aware of it’s own future death how to attempt to live forever in some sort of way. Many humans have chosen to pursue projects that would attain a historical status. Other humans have chosen to pursue the ideas of religion and the potential promise of an eternal afterlife that is literal immortality. Some other humans choose to fight the idea altogether and reject the very idea of immortality outright.

Pantheism has it’s own unique form of immortality. Let’s start by recognizing that Pantheism itself is a very ancient pagan “religion” that at its base recognizes that the closest thing to a “god” is the universe itself. Its founding principle is that all things are interconnected. That’s it. With that established, it’s important to recognize that cultures that practiced Pantheism in the past were small and often unrelated, therefore there is no creed or doctrine of this belief system. It’s important to recognize this because moving forward everything said should be recognized as neo-pantheism (modern day) and not rooted in the beliefs of any past cultures.

Many humans dream of some form of immortality to calm the natural anxieties of death and Pantheists are no exception. The key difference is the approach to the problem of death. Most solutions, even religious ones, are inherently individualistic in their visions of immortality through soul or reputation. Pantheism takes a different approach, one of a more communal based ideal that focuses on bringing a Pantheist the calm inner peace of a happy death and guiding ideal for a life well lived. Pantheists see immortality through their founding ideal, the interconnectedness of all things, and believe that immortality is inherent in their condition of living. The mere act of living a life reverberates throughout history forever through their day to day actions and in this way means their mere existence is influential for eternity. Through the belief of interconnection, Pantheists will use this principle to try to ensure that their actions create the most good in the world to reverberate around them and throughout history.

The very idea of interconnectedness at a Pantheistic level becomes the basis of living an ethical and immortal life.

[itsyourfriendhere]

More Solarpunk visions of a better future where human art and ecology meet as one :)

Be a little cheeky and send these to your local city planner. Be a tad punk and spam your local government with it.

[itsyourfriendhere]

Flower rings!!!!!

These were made by my mom, who does wire art and she made a fuck ton. So I have some and I twisted the stems into different sized rings! There are tutorials out there on how to make them if you want to do these yourself, it involves making wire frames that you then dip in glue and paint with nail polish once they dry

Sorry for the bad lighting but it's the best I could do for now lol