Hey, Hive! It’s been a long day. I ended my night with a delicious yellow lentil soup that came out perfect and now I’m winding down in bed. I have a short film shoot for Students for Justice in Palestine tomorrow morning but between now and then, I thought I’d try and get a blog post on the blockchain. It’s just going to be a freewrite so I’ll be all over the place. Just a few moments from the last few days. I caught up with @roadscape yesterday and he mentioned that Hive was just listed on a big exchange. Congratulations to the community and leaders for that achievement. This place is still one of the most cherished gems of my life. It has been absolutely pivotal in the 8 years I’ve been on the platform and I’m always grateful or that we exist. The Hive story is saga itself and I’m so glad @mada and @lovejoy introduced me to it almost a decade ago.
First things first — I hit Mythic on Magic: The Gathering Arena. No one cares! I know. I’m still saying it even if @tarotbyfergus is the only one that appreciates the milestone. I’ve only hit Mythic in ranked game play four other times. It’s a big deal.
Alight. With that out of the way, we recently had some students arrive to Minnesota from Gaza. This was incredible for us because it was part of an exhaustive effort at negotiating terms with the University Of Minnesota during the protest encampments that we set up during the fall. They administration agreed to three tuition free enrollments of Ghazawi’s that were given alyssum because of the genocide and after painstaking efforts by a non-profit called GSI, along with the help of EJP here at the UMN, they finally arrived. We had a huge banquet to welcome them. I shot video and as we were leaving I saw a few of my closest friends. 2025 doesn’t seem to be off to a great start with the LA fires but this was January 1st and had the energy that I’d like to see more of in the months to come.
https://issuu.com/intifadazine/docs/intifadazine
I’ve been wrestling with the prospect of doing another zine for the Palestine liberation movement and to document the genocide. Zine culture had an immeasurable impact on my life as a young punk kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I was exposed to subjects I wouldn’t have discovered until much later in life otherwise. Beyond great hardcore bands and labels, this was how I came to learn about veganism and Free Tibet. I’ve done dozens of zines throughout 20’s and 30’s and after October 7th, while many of us felt helpless as we watched the most brutal of western Imperialism and militarism in Gaza, I and a few other friends did a zine called Intifada. We made a thousand copies or so and sent them all over the world. It was a small effort, but one day when Palestine is free, it’ll be because of all of those collective efforts; big and small.
I’ve had several friends try and convince me to do another one. I can’t believe that 15 months later, I’m still seeing the horrifying images and heartbreaking videos in my feed. Things have changed since the last issue. I’ve become friends with some potential contributors who bring relevant voices to a second issue from the political, social, cultural and spiritual point of view. After a lot of thought, I’d decided I am going to do a second issue so I’m beginning the cover art now while I confirm Palestinian artists and writers along with a prominent anti-Zionist Jewish politician, an Islamic revert nurses currently saving lives in Northern Gaza and a few other remarkable activists. Here’s a look at the early sketch.