long long ago
Illustration to the Bhagavata Purana, Kangra School
we lived in paradise
'The Tortoise', from al-Qazwini's The Wonders of Creation
the world was full of wonder
a painting of a woman pouring milk
and we were so glad to be alive
The Starry Night
then the fucken logic freaks
a column of blue bars
came along with their cold calculating mindsets
a constructivist composition of black bars and a red square
bit by bit
a sculpted leg sticking out of a wall
the thrill was gone
Julie Blackmon, Olive & Market Street, 2012
we lost empathy … the very essence of what it means to be human
and then — a Paul Klee angel

from adbusters #186 ↗

I am cockroach

I want bold change . . .
I’m sick of nibbling
around the edges.

Join our movement
join the collective

from adbusters #187 ↗

Page 46 of Adbusters #187: “vibeshift” written in raised white puffy paint across a thick swipe of bright blue paint over black scribble. Below, a photocopied black-and-white photo of a shoulder tattoo, a bandana-wearing jolly roger skull over crossed katanas with the hilts picked out in yellow highlighter, a white towel draped over the shoulder, and “& flirt” in the same white paint across a black smear.

from adbusters #187 ↗

The Machine

It’s whirring faster every day. Cooking the planet. Bleaching the coral. Mowing the trees. Filling our oceans, our forests, our lungs with plastic.

Its algorithms scramble our minds and turn children into addicts. It captures any semblance of humanity and turns it into a product.

Now, with AI, it’s found a way to our souls.

from adbusters #187 ↗

Imagine a new way of being

imagine suddenly becoming
a founding member
of a new political party

Page 18 of Adbusters #187: on a scuffed royal-blue binder cover scratched with black marker, “wake up” is scrawled in dark marker and “PSYCHO” is piped underneath in thick, drippy white paint. Below, a black-and-white portrait of a young man with hand-coloured purple hair and blue lips, one side of his face covered in kids’ stickers: hearts, diamonds, stars and sweets.

from adbusters #187 ↗

A cut-out pirate skull in a bandana on a crude crayon body, with “I stopped going to supermarkets” scrawled across it

The meaning you crave is not out there. It’s not in the memes you stream, not in the democracy you inherited, not in the communities we’ve blown up.

The world you want is not waiting for you.

You have to build it.

from adbusters #187 ↗