NEW Genderqueer Seahorse and Feminist Fist necklaces!
Hey folks,
The first round of my designs are finally here! A percentage of the profit is being donated to charities that support human rights. Right on.
Feminist fist pendants –
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220648792601&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
Genderqueer Sea horse pendants –
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220648782678&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
Rock a sweet pendant and support the good fight!
🙂
Jess
Punk 101: The Black Denim Punk Vest
I know, I know. Punk isn’t about fashion. It’s about attitude. However, sometimes it’s fun to dress up. There are a few ways to get the mythical black denim vest. One way is to get a blue denim vest (either in vest form or by cutting off the sleeves) and dye it black. This method works okay – it’s not a solid, crisp black usually turns out blackish/gray but it does have a diy feel to it. The other way is to simply get a black denim vest. There’s a couple of websites that sells them. My favorite is Black and Blue. It isn’t the cheapest out there but it’s American made so you aren’t getting a vest made in a sweatshop. To me, part of being punk is being ethical about what you buy when you can. I own a vest from them and the only problem with it is the extra wide arm holes are too wide. I’m female-bodied so not that broad plus I am wearing it solo and not over clothing. If you were planning on wearing the vest over clothing it might be an advantage which is why it was designed that way. But, for my purpose it just looks baggy due to the big holes. So, if that’s a concern – just order the jacket (same price) and cut off the sleeves to make a vest with normal size arm holes. The fit for me, other than the arm holes, is just right and I highly recommend it.
Now that you got a quality vest – what are you going to do to it? The punk vest is a labor of love and can be very time consuming. The last vest I made took 30 hours which was relatively short. The next vest I am planning is going to take 60 hours at least. Unless you’re going to silkscreen your own patches – there’s lots of different sites to get patches from. It just depends what bands you are into – you can either browse a site like Angry Young and Poor, Interpunk, or Crustpunks. Or just google band names you like. Try to stay off of Ebay – there’s one guy on there who’s selling Contravene patches for $7.50 – for $7.50 I’d make my own patch but people are buying them. There are some really cool back patches at Punk Stuff and if you have a month to wait (they custom print all their orders so it takes a month to get it usually) – Night Gaunt Graphics has some awesome stuff. You can also get studs for your vest from Studs and Spikes. I don’t recommend getting spikes since they can hurt people in the pit or with any physical contact. Studding denim is really easy because you don’t need to poke holes through it first as with thicker material but it still takes a LONG time. If you want to learn how to stud, there’s how-to-videos online – just google or youtube them. Try to get brass based studs – they cost more but they don’t rust like the steel ones do with time and wear. Just be patient – with a punk vest, you get what you give.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Good luck!
Let's Talk Politics! Here's mine, what's yours?
I am an anarcha-feminist. I believe in freedom from all forms of oppression and hierarchies. Peace, love, unity, solidarity, and punk rock. I don’t want to rule and I don’t want to be ruled. I don’t believe in any nasty isms – such as racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, classism, and specism. I am against homophobia, xenophobia, and transphobia. I detest violence. I am a pacifist. I am pretty extreme – I don’t watch violent movies or play violent games. I believe violence creates violence. That any peace held with violence – is a false peace. I believe that health care, food, water, and housing should be a right not a privileged. I don’t pledge allegiance to the flag – I want no nations, no borders. No human is illegal. I want community and people working to help humanity. I believe we have a responsibility to take care of our planet so all species can live in harmony. I believe thou shall not kill. Life is precious and should never be taken for any reason. I can see a world with no war – where people won’t ever want to leave their home because everything they ever need is right there in front of them. A world free of rape, starvation, slavery, and bombs. This world is possible – if you want it. The system is made up of people – with changing yourself, you being a person, you can change the entire world.
With that being said, I took a quiz which I took a couple of years back. When I took the quiz for the first time, my politics were aligned with Gandhi.
Now, Gandhi looks moderate compared to me. See my results here.
What’s your politics? Take the quiz here. Post a comment with your results! I am curious to see what other people are. 🙂
Punk 101: Anarcho-Punk
I consider myself to be an anarcho-punk. Anarcho-punk is punk that promotes anarchism. The band Crass was the first anarcho-punk band. Many anarcho-punks support peace, equality, freedom from oppression, and hierarchies. I found a cool website dedicate to anarcho-punk and you can download some music from there.
Enjoy!
Punk Rock 101: Dressing "punk" verses being Punk
There are lots of people out there who dress “punk” but very few punks. If all the kids who talked the talked, walked the walked, the world would be amazing. But this is not the case. Most of the time these punks are little more than frat boys in leather jackets. My friend Alex suggested that I write about the difference.
First off, anyone who claims to be a “real” punk is a poseur. It is impossible to be a real punk in capitalistic America. From the clothes you wear to the food you buy to the gas that gets you around – someone is being exploited. No one’s hands are clean. We are all guilty by association or are we the mere victim of society? Anyways, the crust punks you see begging for change for money to do drugs: not punk. They are still living off the system by being leeches. They still depend on money and the system. Plus, they smell bad and are annoying. Most of the time, when they are done playing street rat, they have a trust fund waiting at home.
Drinking, doing drugs, and smoking: Not punk rock. The beer you drink is made by some corporation that is doing evil things to the world. The drugs you buy are transported and damage lives. The cigarette companies are terrible plus harmful to the environment and yourself. Putting chemicals in your body is self-destructive and irresponsible. Imagine if people stopped smoking, doing drugs, and drinking and put that money and time to changing the world: that’s punk rock.
Being punk is all about a mindset. It’s about thinking for yourself, being independent, and not a sheep. Most people who dress punk are assholes and violent – thanks to the media representation of punk rock to give punk rockers a bad name. A real punk is probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet because they know the world is a cesspool and the only way things are going to change is if the people change. Be that change.
People who are activists are punk rock. People trying to make the world loving, tolerant, equal, and free from oppressions are punk rock. People wearing a punk uniform and doing what they think they should do rather than what they know they should do: not punk rock. People getting an education to change the system from within: punk rock. Someone dressing punk who listens to punk music but remains ignorant: not punk rock.
Listening to punk music doesn’t make you punk rock. Dressing in punk clothes doesn’t make you punk rock. Being DIY (do it yourself), learning, growing, and sharing are all punk rock. Just being a good human being is punk rock.
Alternative Rock Isn't Really Alternative – Show Review
I went and saw a concert called “WreX the Halls 2009” with a handful of bands, notable: 30 Seconds to Mars, Rise Against, and AFI.Ă‚Â I was disappointed with 30 Seconds to Mars because they played a song called “Kings and Queens” and they claimed it was “about you” which it clearly wasn’t as it was enforcing a gender binary.Ă‚Â The show was filled with heteronormalivity and the crowd was eating it up.Ă‚Â It probably all went unnoticed by the people in the audience who claimed to be alternative.Ă‚Â They’d go to a show about being against the establishment but work and live within the system with being the servant not the master.Ă‚Â How do they expect anything to change?
30 Seconds to Mars released a new album called, “This is War” and the title track talking about battle and believing in nothing but the truth of themselves.Ă‚Â I don’t think they can even begin to know “truths” being so caught up in illusions, gender roles, and maintaining social order.Ă‚Â It was like going to a show filled of Hot Topic punks.Ă‚Â It was corporate punk with corporate sponsorship trying to pass itself off at alternative.Ă‚Â You can’t fool me.
Rise Against is a good band and I appreciate their music but the show seemed almost as a joke.Ă‚Â At $39 dollars a ticket – it wasn’t a diverse audience with it being mostly white males in their 20’s and 30’s with their girlfriends.Ă‚Â It was white men playing for white men.Ă‚Â Rise Against is a bit political but I was surprise they had a song for the soldiers called “Hero of War” which is pretty violent and sounds almost patriotic of supporting war and not being given the support back home.Ă‚Â They sing of the hungry and the poor to the middle class which will never do anything to change things.Ă‚Â The show was full of a bunch of liberals who are useless.
I was wearing my sweatshirt with sheeps being abducted by a UFO and I had a pretty good response to it.Ă‚Â However, one girl came up to me and was like, “That sweatshirt is gay.”Ă‚Â I was like, “No, it’s not.”Ă‚Â She was like,”Yeah, it is.Ă‚Â I mean gay like absurd.”Ă‚Â I just kind of stared at her blankly and was like, “I got to go.” It was neither the time or place to explain to her that gay doesn’t mean absurd.Ă‚Â It either means homosexual or happy.Ă‚Â The sweatshirt was silly but wasn’t gay.Ă‚Â It might have been queer because I was wearing it but it was odd that the girl felt the need to stop me and use the wrong words to explain things.Ă‚Â I also had a moment of gender confusing the ticket lady, “Ma’am… Sir…” I was tempted to say “Call me ze” but it really wasn’t a genderqueer safe space in the middle of lots of straight males who are angry at the establishment but are mere sheeps and pawns.
So, the reason I went to the show to begin with was AFI.Ă‚Â They were amazing and put on a great show.Ă‚Â I know, I know, AFI isn’t punk rock anymore but I am still a fan. One of my favorite albums of all time is The Art of Drowning.Ă‚Â I go to hear their old music.Ă‚Â Their new music isn’t bad but not as good as their old music.Ă‚Â I rocked out the entire time.
I just wished the alternative scene was really alternative with radical politics instead of supporting a liberal agenda and pushing faith in the system.Ă‚Â The system was and is working for the angry people at the show who are just angry at their own banality.Ă‚Â They are boring.Ă‚Â Going to shows and having to drink to have fun.Ă‚Â It’s like dude, you are at a show, you should be able to have fun without alcohol.
I was surprised at how much the music was about being broken inside with no solution how to fix it or make it better.Ă‚Â Or how they didn’t want to make it better.Ă‚Â Like being broken is okay and feeling nothing or pain is the way life should be.Ă‚Â Experience, learning, is painful but life is joyous if you find the beauty in small and large.Ă‚Â There was just a lot of hollowed shells of people, like the living dead, it was almost overwhelming.
I know I’m not perfect – but I am working on healing myself from past hurts so that I can be as productive in the world and help society.Ă‚Â In order to heal the world, you first need to heal yourself.
Punk Rock 101: Wearing Bullets
I have a tendency to wear bullets (empty shell casings). I have a few bullet belts, a bullet wallet chain, and bullet on a chain necklace. The idea of wearing bullets is to make people think. When something is out of sight, out of mind, like war being an ocean away it’s easy to pretend it doesn’t exist. The idea is to confront people and make them think about what their tax dollars are doing. It’s a protest. I am an anarcho-pacifist punk – so war is the last thing I want being served.
Today, I was confronted by airport security guards about wearing my bullet chain – a chain with some bullet shells on it. They didn’t like it because it might make people feel “uncomfortable.” Here, in captalistic America – it’s not PC to make other people uncomfortable and think. Being that I was in a zone with zero rights, I wasn’t about to explain my position that making people uncomfortable is kind of the idea so maybe they think about what’s going on in the world. That war is real and not just something you hear about on television. Anyways, the guards let me go with my chain as long as I agreed to be censored and keep the harmless bits of metal in my pocket since someone might be upset by it. What happened to my freedom of expression?
