NE!L~
while you sleep
NE!L~
black square on red square
May 18, 2012 @ 11:55 · Normand Baillargeon
Original French text: http://voir.ca/normand-baillargeon/2012/05/18/je-porterai-a-present-un-carre-noir/
“When the truth is not free, freedom is not true.”
“The truths of the Police are today’s truths(*).”
- Jacques Prévert
From now on I shall be wearing a black square. [Update: without taking off the red one, of course. Together, they make a very nice flag.]
I shall wear it first in solidarity with the young people who were pitilessly humiliated, beaten up, clubbed, and gassed, and to never forget what was done to them.
I shall wear it to remind me that I mourn democracy, to say to all men and women the sorrow I feel at the sight of what now resembles more, and I weigh my words, to an association of evildoers than a Government, to a gathering of mafiosi gangrened with corruption and around which floats, infallible, the nauseating smell of scandal and contempt for civil society.
I shall wear it to remind me that I was lied to when assured that the debate on tuition actually took place: students and professors in fact withdrew from the bogus consultations organized by Liberals and during which the issue could not be treated serenely; and to remind me that this government later refused to discuss this question fully and seriously, something that only Estates General [on education] can achieve.
I shall wear it to remind me of the efforts [the government made] to dissolve the political into the judicial.
I shall wear it to remind me your too long maintained refusal to negotiate and, when that moment finally came, your unshakable refusal to address the questions raised by the students on strike.
I shall wear it to remind me that I mourn deliberative democracy, assassinated by opinion makers I cannot bring myself to call journalists and whose excessive language has far exceeded anything I have seen in all my life.
I shall wear it to remind me these non-probability surveys which have been, and it is a shame, the best that was offered to us as part of our democratic conversation on such an important issue.
I shall wear it also to mourn these words of language that have been abused lately: strike, democracy, accessibility, and to never forget that these perversions of language consisted in turning a collective and political issue into a private, mercantile and economic affair.
I shall wear it for the freedom of expression, association and demonstration that this iniquitous emergency bill stabs in the heart.
I shall wear it in solidarity with my libertarian fellows who are humiliated, beaten, clubbed, and gassed, like the others, but are also calumniated on top of it.
I shall wear it to remind me the great and noble hope that anarchism has never ceased to bear: that of a free, democratic and egalitarian society without illegitimate power, to remind me this ideal that I love infinitely and which the people who spit on it today clearly know nothing about.
I shall wear it finally and above all to remind me that young people, for a moment, here at home, have embodied this ideal: and that if governments come and go, this ideal will never die.
I shall from now on be wearing a black square.
And I invite you to wear one in turn: the reasons to do so are not lacking, unfortunately.
(*) “Vérites de la Police”, impossible to translate play on the words “vérités de La Palice”. A “vérité de La Palice” is a French expression for what constitutes a truism. Read about the origin of it here: http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/actualites/capsules_hebdo/citation_palice_20040603.html
Original French text: http://voir.ca/normand-baillargeon/2012/05/18/je-porterai-a-present-un-carre-noir/
“When the truth is not free, freedom is not true.”
“The truths of the Police are today’s truths(*).”
- Jacques Prévert
From now on I shall be wearing a black square. [Update: without taking off the red one, of course. Together, they make a very nice flag.]
I shall wear it first in solidarity with the young people who were pitilessly humiliated, beaten up, clubbed, and gassed, and to never forget what was done to them.
I shall wear it to remind me that I mourn democracy, to say to all men and women the sorrow I feel at the sight of what now resembles more, and I weigh my words, to an association of evildoers than a Government, to a gathering of mafiosi gangrened with corruption and around which floats, infallible, the nauseating smell of scandal and contempt for civil society.
I shall wear it to remind me that I was lied to when assured that the debate on tuition actually took place: students and professors in fact withdrew from the bogus consultations organized by Liberals and during which the issue could not be treated serenely; and to remind me that this government later refused to discuss this question fully and seriously, something that only Estates General [on education] can achieve.
I shall wear it to remind me of the efforts [the government made] to dissolve the political into the judicial.
I shall wear it to remind me your too long maintained refusal to negotiate and, when that moment finally came, your unshakable refusal to address the questions raised by the students on strike.
I shall wear it to remind me that I mourn deliberative democracy, assassinated by opinion makers I cannot bring myself to call journalists and whose excessive language has far exceeded anything I have seen in all my life.
I shall wear it to remind me these non-probability surveys which have been, and it is a shame, the best that was offered to us as part of our democratic conversation on such an important issue.
I shall wear it also to mourn these words of language that have been abused lately: strike, democracy, accessibility, and to never forget that these perversions of language consisted in turning a collective and political issue into a private, mercantile and economic affair.
I shall wear it for the freedom of expression, association and demonstration that this iniquitous emergency bill stabs in the heart.
I shall wear it in solidarity with my libertarian fellows who are humiliated, beaten, clubbed, and gassed, like the others, but are also calumniated on top of it.
I shall wear it to remind me the great and noble hope that anarchism has never ceased to bear: that of a free, democratic and egalitarian society without illegitimate power, to remind me this ideal that I love infinitely and which the people who spit on it today clearly know nothing about.
I shall wear it finally and above all to remind me that young people, for a moment, here at home, have embodied this ideal: and that if governments come and go, this ideal will never die.
I shall from now on be wearing a black square.
And I invite you to wear one in turn: the reasons to do so are not lacking, unfortunately.
(*) “Vérites de la Police”, impossible to translate play on the words “vérités de La Palice”. A “vérité de La Palice” is a French expression for what constitutes a truism. Read about the origin of it here: http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/actualites/capsules_hebdo/citation_palice_20040603.html
Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.
*Translating the printemps érable is a
volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely
poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media
that has been published in French into English. These are amateur
translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and
coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be
desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we
would be very grateful if you would share them with us at
translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute
these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of
solidarity and the sharing of information.
spd's double standard
The SPD's Double Standard
As They Demand Protest Video, Police Are Fighting Release of Their Own Videos in Court
Ian Buck
The next day, SPD assistant chief Jim Pugel announced that his department was receiving "complete cooperation" in its effort to use local media materials—both published and unpublished—to investigate and prosecute the May Day protesters who smashed windows at Niketown and caused other illegal disturbances.
Holly Gauntt, news director for KOMO TV (and vice president for news at the station's parent company, Fisher Communications), said KOMO had received a subpoena and, in response, had provided the police with video that had already been aired. "But we are not giving them raw video," Gauntt said. Meaning, she wasn't handing over the original footage. "The shield law protects us from having to do that, and we are going to avail ourselves of that."
Further, Gauntt noted a frustrating irony to the current situation, given that KOMO has been trying for a long time—first through normal channels and then in court—to get the police to turn over copies of their patrol car dash-cam videos. "They want video from me, and I had to file a lawsuit to get video from them," she said.
The dispute over the dash-cam videos has already led KOMO and the SPD into King County Superior Court, and could soon take them to the Washington State Supreme Court.
KOMO filed a lawsuit only after it had invoked public disclosure laws "several times to try to get dash-cam video from police cruisers," Gauntt explained. "In light of all the police issues they've had with brutality, it seemed like a logical request from us— because we knew there were other incidents. But they stonewalled us, and stonewalled us, and stonewalled us, for two years. So we finally filed a lawsuit."
A month ago, King County Superior Court judge Jim Rogers ruled that the police can keep dash-cam video for up to three years after an incident before turning it over. The problem: Police retention policies call for the destruction of dash-cam video at three years.
All of which has caused KOMO to ask the Washington State Supreme Court to intervene.
"I'm really frustrated by it," Gauntt said of the current situation. "I don't think it's fair that the SPD can come and use our video to show that their officers were in the right, or that others did something wrong, but they don't afford the public the same opportunity."
The SPD did not respond to a request for comment.
occupy is dead ! now let's fight !
OCCUPY WALL STREET IS NOW DEAD
May 1 confirmed the end of the national Occupy Wall Street movement because it was the best opportunity the movement had to reestablish the occupations, and yet it couldn’t. Nowhere was this more clear than in Oakland as the sun set after a day of marches, pickets and clashes. Rumors had been circulating for weeks that tents would start going up and the camp would reemerge in the evening of that long day. The hundreds of riot police backed by armored personnel carriers and SWAT teams carrying assault rifles made no secret of their intention to sweep the plaza clear after all the “good protesters” scurried home, making any reoccupation physically impossible. It was the same on January 28 when plans for a large public building occupation were shattered in a shower of flash bang grenades and 400 arrests, just as it was on March 17 in Zuccotti Park when dreams of a new Wall Street camp were clubbed and pepper sprayed to death by the NYPD. Any hopes of a spring offensive leading to a new round of space reclamations and liberated zones has come and gone. And with that, Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland are now dead.
The task ahead of us in Oakland and beyond is to search out and nurture new means of finding each other. We are quickly reaching the point where the dead weight of Occupy threatens to drag down the Commune into the dustbin of history. We need to breathe new life into our network of rebellious relationships that does not rely on the Occupy Oakland general assembly or the array of movement protagonists who have emerged to represent the struggle. This is by no means an argument against assemblies or for a retreat back into the small countercultural ghettos that keep us isolated and irrelevant. On the contrary, we need more public assemblies that take different forms and experiment with themes, styles of decision-making (or lack there of) and levels of affinity… Most of all, we need desperately to stay connected with comrades old and new and not let these relationships completely decompose.
THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT HAS BARELY BEGUN
Occupy Wall Street was at the pinnacle of its power in October 2011, when thousands of people converged at Zuccotti Park and successfully foiled the plans of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg to sweep away the occupation on grounds of public health. From that vantage point, the Occupy movement appears to have tumbled off a cliff, having failed to organize anything like a general strike on May Day – despite months of rumblings of mass walkouts, blockades and shutdowns.
The mainstream media are eager to administer last rites. CNN declared that “May Day fizzled,” the New York Post sneered “Goodbye, Occupy,” and The New York Times consigned the day’s events to fewer than 400 words, mainly dealing with arrests in New York City.
Historians and organizers counter that the Occupy movement needs to be seen in relative terms. Eminent sociologist Frances Fox Piven, co-author of Poor People’s Movements, says:
“I don’t know of a movement that unfolds in less than a decade. People are impatient, and some of them are too quick to pass judgment. But it’s the beginning, I think, of a great movement. One of a series of movement that has episodically changed history, which is not the way we tell the story of American history.”
May 1 confirmed the end of the national Occupy Wall Street movement because it was the best opportunity the movement had to reestablish the occupations, and yet it couldn’t. Nowhere was this more clear than in Oakland as the sun set after a day of marches, pickets and clashes. Rumors had been circulating for weeks that tents would start going up and the camp would reemerge in the evening of that long day. The hundreds of riot police backed by armored personnel carriers and SWAT teams carrying assault rifles made no secret of their intention to sweep the plaza clear after all the “good protesters” scurried home, making any reoccupation physically impossible. It was the same on January 28 when plans for a large public building occupation were shattered in a shower of flash bang grenades and 400 arrests, just as it was on March 17 in Zuccotti Park when dreams of a new Wall Street camp were clubbed and pepper sprayed to death by the NYPD. Any hopes of a spring offensive leading to a new round of space reclamations and liberated zones has come and gone. And with that, Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland are now dead.
The task ahead of us in Oakland and beyond is to search out and nurture new means of finding each other. We are quickly reaching the point where the dead weight of Occupy threatens to drag down the Commune into the dustbin of history. We need to breathe new life into our network of rebellious relationships that does not rely on the Occupy Oakland general assembly or the array of movement protagonists who have emerged to represent the struggle. This is by no means an argument against assemblies or for a retreat back into the small countercultural ghettos that keep us isolated and irrelevant. On the contrary, we need more public assemblies that take different forms and experiment with themes, styles of decision-making (or lack there of) and levels of affinity… Most of all, we need desperately to stay connected with comrades old and new and not let these relationships completely decompose.
— Read the rest of the this article, by anonymous West Coast anarchists, at Bay of Rage
THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT HAS BARELY BEGUNOccupy Wall Street was at the pinnacle of its power in October 2011, when thousands of people converged at Zuccotti Park and successfully foiled the plans of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg to sweep away the occupation on grounds of public health. From that vantage point, the Occupy movement appears to have tumbled off a cliff, having failed to organize anything like a general strike on May Day – despite months of rumblings of mass walkouts, blockades and shutdowns.
The mainstream media are eager to administer last rites. CNN declared that “May Day fizzled,” the New York Post sneered “Goodbye, Occupy,” and The New York Times consigned the day’s events to fewer than 400 words, mainly dealing with arrests in New York City.
Historians and organizers counter that the Occupy movement needs to be seen in relative terms. Eminent sociologist Frances Fox Piven, co-author of Poor People’s Movements, says:
“I don’t know of a movement that unfolds in less than a decade. People are impatient, and some of them are too quick to pass judgment. But it’s the beginning, I think, of a great movement. One of a series of movement that has episodically changed history, which is not the way we tell the story of American history.”
— Read the rest of Arun Gupta’s What Happened to the Occupy movement?
fight for a life worth living
The Fight for a Life Worth Living: A Statement on Seattle’s 2012 May Day Events
Note:
the following statement is being released on behalf of a group of
organizers of Occupy Seattle's May Day event who have chosen to speak as
a group regarding the events of May 1st and the controversies in the
media narrative since.
The Fight for a Life Worth Living:
A Statement on Seattle’s 2012 May Day Events
We are organizers and participants involved in this year’s May Day events. Many of us also participate in Occupy/Decolonize Seattle. We conceived the events of the May Day General Strike as a celebration of life in solidarity with the global uprising against economic oppression and the 1%. May Day is a day of pride for migrants and workers everywhere. It is a day of remembrance for the anarchists executed in show trials after the world’s first May Day in 1886, fighting for the 8-hour work day. Most powerfully, it is a day of struggle—of celebrating freedom and striking out against what hurts us.
Reports that May 1st was “hijacked by anarchists” are inaccurate and insulting. May Day was an inspiration to us all. The crowd was multiracial and multigenerational, and included many working class students who walked out from multiple high schools and colleges. Over 40 local artists took the stage during the day of music and community Hip Hop Occupies to Decolonize planned at Westlake Park. Organizers also scheduled three marches over a month in advance: a No Borders March, to join the May 1st Coalition march to the Wells Fargo Building; an Honor the Dead, Fight for the Living March, in honor of Trayvon Martin and all those killed by police and by white supremacist culture; and an Anti-Capitalist March. Thousands took the streets during these actions and disrupted commerce in downtown Seattle.
During the Anti-Capitalist March, participants in a black bloc smashed windows and damaged businesses and cars. Among the businesses targeted were a Wells Fargo branch, a Niketown, an American Apparel, and a Bank of America. There is tremendous anger worldwide directed at these institutions. Each of the corporations and banks that own the damaged stores inflict real economic and social violence on the planet and on poor people everywhere. Wells Fargo, for one, is complicit in enormous direct and structural violence through its 3.5 million shares in GEO Group, the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons. The same corporation lobbied aggressively for SB1070, Arizona’s racist anti-immigrant legislation, to profit from the “enhanced opportunities” the law provides for immigrants’ incarceration. The rage expressed during the Anti-Capitalist March extends beyond the black bloc. No one should be surprised that people are angry enough to destroy the property of the 1%. Regardless of differences in practice, we share that anger.
Economic refugees and people of color everywhere are treated as exploitable labor. Media depictions support this exploitation. The media selects representatives from immigrant rights organizations to speak for all migrants and economic refugees, and silences the migrant workers marching in the Anti-Capitalist March and those of us organizers who are people of color, economic refugees, and indigenous people. Similarly, accusations that undocumented workers were put at risk on May Day conceal the truth: the only danger to participants in May Day activities came from the police themselves.
Mayor McGinn, the SPD, and the Seattle media have tried to split May Day participants between “good protesters” and “violent anarchists.” As organizers and participants, however, we reject all attempts to divide us, and stand together in defining our own message. We value people above property. The corporations attacked, and these institutions that protect them, are not on the side of the working class or the 99%. The lives these businesses destroy are more important than their windows. We remain in solidarity with those everywhere who fight for a life worth living.
The Fight for a Life Worth Living:
A Statement on Seattle’s 2012 May Day Events
We are organizers and participants involved in this year’s May Day events. Many of us also participate in Occupy/Decolonize Seattle. We conceived the events of the May Day General Strike as a celebration of life in solidarity with the global uprising against economic oppression and the 1%. May Day is a day of pride for migrants and workers everywhere. It is a day of remembrance for the anarchists executed in show trials after the world’s first May Day in 1886, fighting for the 8-hour work day. Most powerfully, it is a day of struggle—of celebrating freedom and striking out against what hurts us.
Reports that May 1st was “hijacked by anarchists” are inaccurate and insulting. May Day was an inspiration to us all. The crowd was multiracial and multigenerational, and included many working class students who walked out from multiple high schools and colleges. Over 40 local artists took the stage during the day of music and community Hip Hop Occupies to Decolonize planned at Westlake Park. Organizers also scheduled three marches over a month in advance: a No Borders March, to join the May 1st Coalition march to the Wells Fargo Building; an Honor the Dead, Fight for the Living March, in honor of Trayvon Martin and all those killed by police and by white supremacist culture; and an Anti-Capitalist March. Thousands took the streets during these actions and disrupted commerce in downtown Seattle.
During the Anti-Capitalist March, participants in a black bloc smashed windows and damaged businesses and cars. Among the businesses targeted were a Wells Fargo branch, a Niketown, an American Apparel, and a Bank of America. There is tremendous anger worldwide directed at these institutions. Each of the corporations and banks that own the damaged stores inflict real economic and social violence on the planet and on poor people everywhere. Wells Fargo, for one, is complicit in enormous direct and structural violence through its 3.5 million shares in GEO Group, the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons. The same corporation lobbied aggressively for SB1070, Arizona’s racist anti-immigrant legislation, to profit from the “enhanced opportunities” the law provides for immigrants’ incarceration. The rage expressed during the Anti-Capitalist March extends beyond the black bloc. No one should be surprised that people are angry enough to destroy the property of the 1%. Regardless of differences in practice, we share that anger.
Economic refugees and people of color everywhere are treated as exploitable labor. Media depictions support this exploitation. The media selects representatives from immigrant rights organizations to speak for all migrants and economic refugees, and silences the migrant workers marching in the Anti-Capitalist March and those of us organizers who are people of color, economic refugees, and indigenous people. Similarly, accusations that undocumented workers were put at risk on May Day conceal the truth: the only danger to participants in May Day activities came from the police themselves.
Mayor McGinn, the SPD, and the Seattle media have tried to split May Day participants between “good protesters” and “violent anarchists.” As organizers and participants, however, we reject all attempts to divide us, and stand together in defining our own message. We value people above property. The corporations attacked, and these institutions that protect them, are not on the side of the working class or the 99%. The lives these businesses destroy are more important than their windows. We remain in solidarity with those everywhere who fight for a life worth living.
the city of Seattle forces local business to destroy art
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| this wall on 14 Th and Fir had been the target of the cities war against art~ {After photo~] |
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| forcing the tenants to paint over this mural or face fines~ strong arm tactics to frighten landlords and citizens into submissive art destroyers ~ when did the city grant itself the right to deem what is ART ?! what will be destroyed and painted filthy grey ! |
BEWARE !
Seattle Free Universe-ity
Great meeting, Food 4 Everyone + Free Learning!
Free U Organizing meeting went well yesterday, thanks so much everyone who came out for your enthusiasm!
For people who want to participate in continued organizing for this project, please go here (https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/freeuseattle) to register for the internal listserve. If you are just interested in facilitating/participating in learning activities but you don’t want to be involved in more structural organizing of the project, don’t sign up for the list serve.
At the organizing meeting yesterday, we decided to have our first official Learn-in (or Learnin’) this Sunday at Food for Everyone at 3pm (on 24th and Cherry, in the Central District). People will each have 2-5minutes to facilitate a learning activity directly representing a subject that they want to start a learning community around this summer. Consider this as a broad and active sampling of the things we will be learning together this summer, if you are going to facilitate something, consider it your opportunity to pitch the importance of learning that particular subject.Also, if you still have not filled out the survey, please do so! It will be closed on May 25th so we can publish the results and get longer term courses going by the end of June: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/lestecs/168147
NE!L~
the city of Seattle declares ~ Destroy Art Day !
 |
| this is what the wooden wall on Rainier ave. looked like for months and years~ before the Decolonize mural was created |
 |
| the city of Seattle has officially declared open warfare on ART / or has chosen to paint the city generic grey / let's form the GREY BLOC and paint everything grey !!! |
 | |||||||||||||
| the Before shot of the most beautiful DIT* project ever / where a small band of free writers travel the land making/ transforming what was once heinous urban crap and creating and brightening our landscape / but the city wants the free form arts destroyed and forced into galleries small unseen walls / a hidden world of ownership and monetary attachments/ the city wants advertizing dollars to tell us to buy lottery tickets beer and packaged lies / which is why we scream and paint ~ DECOLONIZE |
*do it together~DIT ~ Seattle painters / writers / dreamers NE!L~
Dropped
Charges dropped against Seattle photographer in May Day arrest
http://www.alexgarlandphotography.com/
Prosecutors
announced Tuesday afternoon that they will not pursue charges against a
Seattle photographer arrested during Seattle's May Day protests. CHS reported on the charges brought against two men with Capitol Hill connections -- Joshua Alex Garland and Bobby Ditrani --
in the wake of the protests. The county today said charges were being
dropped against Garland because prosecutors "no longer believe they
could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt" following his arrest for
allegedly assaulting a Seattle Police officer.
Garland, 28, works as a photographer and has done freelance work for CHS as well as working as a barista on Capitol Hill.
Prosecutors say they are continuing to purse a case against 23-year-old Capitol Hill art student Ditrani who police say spit on an officer and two other people arrested that day. SPD has formed a task force "to identify and bring charges against demonstrators" participating in property damage and violence reported from the May Day protestes. No additional charges have yet been announced as a result of the task force.
Garland, 28, works as a photographer and has done freelance work for CHS as well as working as a barista on Capitol Hill.
Prosecutors say they are continuing to purse a case against 23-year-old Capitol Hill art student Ditrani who police say spit on an officer and two other people arrested that day. SPD has formed a task force "to identify and bring charges against demonstrators" participating in property damage and violence reported from the May Day protestes. No additional charges have yet been announced as a result of the task force.
The King County Prosecutor's Office has dismissed charges against a protester who was accused of assaulting a Seattle police officer during the May Day protests in downtown Seattle. Joshua Garland, 28, was charged with one count of Assault Third Degree for allegedly grabbing a police officer's hand and twisting and pulling his arm. After reviewing video provided by Garland's defense attorney showing the alleged incident, prosecutors no longer believe they could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The charge was dismissed today. Three other protesters are charged with assaulting police officers during the May 1st protests. Paul Campiche, 23, is charged with two counts of Assault Third Degree for allegedly throwing a bottle at an officer and then kicking a second officer who was attempting to arrest him. Robert Ditrani, 23, is charged with one count of Assault Fourth Degree. He is accused of spitting on an officer. Maria Morales, 30, is charged with Assault Fourth Degree for allegedly hitting an officer in the chest. The incident involving Garland occurred moments after the arrest of Ditrani. The three remaining defendants will be arraigned on May 17 at 8:30 a.m. in courtroom 1201 at the King County Courthouse.
there are places devoted to nothing but wounds and blood
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| places to see |
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| how to drive |
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| I'm a bleeder |
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| the tunnel of childhood |
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| stretches forever |
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| my newest blog~ block ! |
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| take working objects and reduce them to rusty parts |
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| recycle stash |
NE!L~
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A sorta-kinda reenactment11 years ago
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