Surely there is something in the world more exciting than news of a new Wendy & Lisa album. But I'm rather hard pressed to find it at the moment. ;-)

New single tomorrow via ye olde interwebs . . . Whee!

http://www.myspace.com/revolucian

You know what you're looking for.

Safe for work? Hell, no. That's why G-d invented headphones, my friend.

In other news, there is going to be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck. For the three of you out there there don't care about the Buffy aspect, it's also designed by the Tarot maven Rachel Pollack.

Out in August, yo.

Clicky clicky.

If you don't get the pictures, be sure to click through to read the essay. I wish I'd had this invisible knapsack / white privelege stuff top of mind when my dad was busy explaining yesterday how much better the world is now that there aren't colored seats in the theaters. Well, um, yeah but . . .

(No, I'm not kidding. He thinks he's progressive now.)

There is a coffeeshop that has no posted prices, and no cash register.

It's a true thing. You pay as much, or as little, as you want for that latte. You put your money in a little trust box, and no one asks how much you paid, or even if you did. Have no money today? That's cool. Put your money in once a week, if you like.

The coffeeshop was given not much time when it opened. How would it make the bills? How would it pay its employees? Last I checked, it was still in business and doing well for itself. In short, it offers a good product that people want, and it operates in a way that makes its customers extremely loyal.

So, yes. Capitalism. Guess what? I'm all for it.

What I'm even more for? Smart capitalism. The kind that achieves something more than making a buck and often -- to the surprise of some with shortsighted views of the world -- manages to be even more profitable and more sustainable in the process. Open source? Sustainable development? I don't just think these are good ideas because they have a warm fuzzy. I honestly and truly believe that they are also ways of building a strong market niche.

There's a lot of buzz right now that those who are unhappy with the LJ situation are just disgruntled -- we are unhappy that our free toys are being taken away.

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Here's my quick analysis. I'll even offer it for free. ;-)

LJ under its original owners, and to a lesser degree under Six Apart, functioned a lot like that coffee house. In the process, they built a community of extremely loyal users. Some were free accounts, others paid.

Anyone who's taken a Marketing 101 course can tell you that a company gains about 80% of its revenues from roughly 20% of its customers. It's a truism that's become nearly a cliche.

So what do you do about this? Well firstly: Do. Not. Taunt. The Twenty Percent. Seriously. Put your efforts toward your most loyal customers, and they will keep rewarding you. To my mind, those are the content-generating base of LJ.

Then, keep working with those other 80% to make them even more loyal, and more likely to reward you financially -- as that makes sense.

Finally, and only last -- figure out new revenue streams.

So, check it out. Among much other asshattery, SUP has closed new unpaid accounts. However, comma, they have done nothing whatsoever to change the status of accounts started before the cutoff date. What this means, in short, is that I have no incentive whatsoever to pay up my account for another year -- something I have done voluntarily for the last five years, out of sheer gratitude for this service. Personally, I see no reason that anyone else who's had a previous paid account should renew, either -- unless or until SUP takes the (somewhat obvious) next steps of shutting down unpaid accounts.

So, what does this mean? SUP has created a disincentive for their several hundred thousand current account to pay anything, in the interest of getting payment from the (presumably diminishing number) of new accounts. Am I missing something?

I am not a communist, and not a squatter. I contributed to LJ economically for five years -- not because I was forced to, but because I was grateful. I cannot think of a customer a company would want to offend less.

There's another rant in there about the clash between American open-source ideals and Russian legacies in content generation, but I'll leave that for another day . . .

Or, what to do when SUP wants to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

I've been on LJ now since late 2002.

I've really built this comfy little flat here. I furnished it myself, in my own funky way. The first landlord -- let's call him "Frank" -- was wicked cool, and let me do things pretty much how I wanted. I liked that a lot, and got pretty comfortable. See, Frank seemed to really get it -- the tenants were the ones who truly tended the property. We did most of the maintanence, at little or no cost to him. And so, he gave us a lot of leeway. Made space for low-income housing and extra green spaces. Things like that. It was a good synergy.

I remember when Frank first sold the complex, back in early 2005. It felt a little tense at first. And there were a few of those "don't bother the neighbors too much" notices, it's true. But nothing too bad. I kept on nesting. Most importantly, I've built tons of relationships with my neighbors here on LJlandia. The new owners didn't get in the way of that, and so I was happy.

Now, I'm not sure what to do.

See, there's the new owners.

First, they started putting up billboards. Like, everywhere. HP this and Gwen Stefani that. The funny thing is, it backfires. I like Gwen Stefani. Or, I did. But I ain't no hollaback girl, and I don't like her billboards at my entrance gate. They still kept pictures of Frank around, too, but the real Frank is no where to be found these days.

Oh yeah, gates. You know those "unsightly" notices that you get in overzealous HOA's? We started getting those. Be sure to put any content which might offend behind a gate, and lock it. Ah. Okay.

But wait, there's more. First they put up their own billboards everywhere, now they're taking down the little picket signs in my own yard. I went to my interests page and . . . some are missing. It's funny, too. The "bisexuality" interest sign is gone, but the "bisexuals are queer too" that I lifted from a friend? Still under the radar, and so still there. (Proving, I suppose, that it pays to be contrarian.)

And now, of course, there's the very public interview from the new landlord that he thinks the tenants are troublemakers and hooligans. Or something like that.

Onceuponatime, it was the neighborhoods that made this place somewhere I wanted to live.

I'm torn. I love this neighborhood. Or at least, I love my idea of what this neighborhood used to be. I built some real community here, for what it's worth. I have 176 people on my friends list, the vast majority of whom I know in person.

There's always that fantasy: Fine, let's just go and build that perfect co-op off somewhere. But where is that? How? I have no idea.

Succession Planting

The trees that we planted together
Have grown
Taller than me
Taller than us
Taller than we were meant to be

And of course,
That is the way things grow:
Weeds come in, colonize
Bare soil,
Repopulate, grow
Create a habitat

For birds, and snakes:
Diverse life,
And then, slowly,
Give way
To mature landscapes

Yes: this is the way
That plants grow,
Even these, smelling of
Grape Kool-Aid,
And growing tall beyond our dreaming.

Or, Soap, soap, water, water, soap and water!

Yesterday morning, I got to thinking about local.

It started with the soap, of course. For a couple of years now, I've bought the vast majority of my soap from local craftsfolk: South Austin People, mostly, but some others as well. It's one of those few areas in which I've made a decision to support the local economy, a trend I'm trying to increase.

The other night, it was Truly Texas Martinis, made with Paula's Texas Orange. (Sadly, there's no local tequila, yet.) Most nights, it's Texas produce -- sometimes as local as my own back yard. The pantry is increasingly stocked with local products: local honey, fig preserves from the Austin Farmer's Market, local sauces and pickles.

It's a process, but one that is really up for me right now.

The produce thing started as an effort to eat in season: to eat fresh, to celebrate the local landscape and support local farmers (including me!), and to support organic. It's become a bit more than that; I find that I'm tied into the turning of the year much more than I once was. Fruits and vegetables are not just something that "comes from the store" anymore, despite the fact that I still buy corn and other staples in cans. They are part of the wheel of the year, even more than evergreen boughs and May poles.

And, of course, it's more than that. Local veggies support local farms, and keep some green in the urban landscape. Local veggies reduce transportation costs. Local preserves and pickles keep these home crafts alive. Local honey is good for healing and allergies, not to mention magick.

And there's more than this, too. We talk a lot about fair trade. But as critical as fair trade is to increasing the standard of living in the developing world, there is also something to be said for fair trade in our own backyard. I don't know what the employees at a Cargill or ADM get paid for their contributions to large-scale food manufacturing -- but I imagine that the ratio of their paycheck to their C-suite execs doesn't amount to much. At South Austin People, I've met the folks making my soap -- just like I know the craftswoman that made my gorgeous obis, and the man that made my fig preserves. I know that when I give them money for their work, that the vast majority of it stays in their own pockets, to be circulated in the local economy -- rather than going to some distant chairman of the board and thousands of faceless stockholders.

I'm not advocating getting completely off the grid. I'm not even going to be one of those folks that does a year-long local food experiment -- and there are a few of them out there now. There are doesn't of areas in which I haven't or can't -- in which the I haven't found the basic products I need (say, shampoo or hair gel) or those products are completely out of my range compared to locally-made. And as a Whole Foods stockholder, I am one of those faceless beneficiaries of national and international trade. ;-)

But, I can make increasing choices about local. I can choose to buy locally roasted coffee, locally made wines, locally crafted honey, locally made soaps, local eggs, locally made compost and mulch, locally grown plants -- all of which I already do, although not entirely. But I'm pondering what more I can do, where I can make more intentional choices.

And, of course, the entrepreneurial part of me wonders where the gaps are. What could an enterprising young family add to the mix? It's a fun dream . . .

Well, the urban areas all went deeply blue. It looks like Travis County (Austin) went nearly two for one to Obama, and Harris County (Houston) over 55/45 for Obama. Which is, I suppose, the parts we had a stake in directly.

Looking at the CNN map, I have two thoughts.

One, it really doesn't much matter if Clinton took a narrow lead in the popular vote in Texas, because the most populous and delegate-rich counties went Obama (and the caucus looks to go that direction). Looking at the national results, so far Clinton seems likely to pick up net delegates in the single digits.

Two, whomever at CNN made it such that you have to click through the county results one page at a time never counted on a state with this many counties!

Caucusing is a lot like attending pagan planning meetings. Except, less organized.

Those YouTube'rs are tricky in how they label things sometimes.

It's worth watching through the speech part. Really for real. If you're me, at least.

PS.

I heard them for the first time on TV last night.

No, no -- not Wendy & Lisa.

Better. The words: "Keating Five".

The official election season count is at one.

My inner 14-year-old is delighted. Go, wacky Arizona politics -- you've hit the big time! This'll be fun . . .

And, yes, I should say that I actually think that McCain has done nicely to learn from this. I really do. McCain-Feingold was a major step to get past this, and assuming there really were no improprieties with a young, blonde lobbyist, I'm willing to say this is a great example of 'lesson learned'. )If there were, that count's going to spike sooner than I expected.)

I donated.

It was small.

But I did it.

I'm not sure it matters much if I say who I donated to (although you might be able to guess). I think it's more important that if you feel passionately about this race at all, then get out. Donate, volunteer, vote, caucus, whatever.

I'm frustrated by all the punditry suggesting that the primary season "shouldn't" be going on this long. They have no idea what it feels like to have my primary vote matter for the first time since I've moved to Texas. I'm extremely excited to have a say in my candidate, to be able to vote (and to caucus -- weird) and have it matter.

I'm almost more frustrated by the punditry that suggest the Democratic party is divided because of this. Huh? Divided, to me, is what the Republicans are right now: fighting over the most ideologically correct of the bunch, with one bunch (the religious right, G-d bless 'em) feeling divided amongst themselves to finally choose Huckabee as their smiling Jeremiad while still feeling marginalized by a post-Goldwater fiscal conservative in McCain. That's division -- I've been watching that party attack itself for weeks, and it's fairly sad.

I don't see the Democratic party as divided. The statistician in me says there's another way to read the data, and the story is this: people care in huge numbers about both of these candidates. And, the data is weighted, with certain districts counting more than others (and balancing out a popular vote that is so far nearly a million votes in Obama's favor). But I don't see "division" in that. I see passion. I see engagement. I see a lot of people getting out to vote because they think they have two valid choices. A truly divided party would stay home. Like, oh, the Republicans seem to be doing right now.

So, yeah. I donated this morning. Not much, but I'm okay with that. We'll call it "small change". ;-)

Or, "I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter . . . "

Okay, I don't get it.

Pagans. My flist is filled with Pagans. Pagans who celebrate crazy random holidays all the time because, well -- they're holidays, right? We're equal opportunists who will party at the drop of the hat. New Years? We get several of them from September through April, depending on how many you want. Eight sabbats. Thirteen esbats. Krishnamas, Buddhamas, Candlemas - yo gusto mas mas, we say! If we get really eclectic, we start having holidays for the Virgin and celebrating Jewish holidays because, really, who doesn't like a good drunken Purim? Oh, and then there are those crazy Thelemites with their greater feasts and lesser feasts and three days of the writing of the Book of the Law and feasts for rides that didn't even work out for their beasts.

And even the big social ones. Pagans generally have no problem hooping it up for Mother's Day (because, ya know, we're into Mama Gaia and our ancestors) and Father's Day (more with the ancestors), and heck even some of us do Christmas because the kids like it (and we're down with the decendants, too).

Holidays? You want holidays? Pagans and magickians got yer holidays right here baby.

Except this tricky issue of Valentine's Day. Hoo, boy. Some of y'all get downright curmudgeonly 'round Valentine's Day. "Hallmark holiday," grumble grumble. "Just made up," blahdeblah.

Well, you know what? Mother's Day is just made up, too. And yet I don't hear the same backlash. Why is that?

Me? I want to stick with Ye Olde Pagan Tradition O' Hoopla. Bring on the Valentine's Day, sez I. Even this year, when my girl inconveniently lives in another city, and my boy inconveniently flew to one for the weekend. Who doesn't like a bit of decadence for the sake of it? And so for Valentine's Day I had a lovely candle-lit bath and thought about all the reasons I love . . . well, me! (Because I am a Leo, you know.) And drank champagne, and read the book my boy partner thoughtfully gave me, and thought about my loves fondly and did some heart chakra stuff and . . . yeah. All that.

It seems to me like we have a constant opportunity: to open, to heal, to grow. We can choose every chance we have, regardless of who offers it -- the ancient Romans, or the Thelemites or, yes, even Hallmark. A group of people that can celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day can surely choose to leverage this time for celebrating something as worthy as yummy, juicy, romantic love -- self love, love of others, love of the gods, whatever.

And so, I raise my virtual champagne glass to the curmudgeons of the world and say (perhaps a day late): I love you. I am madly in love with you. I wish you all the love you want, and the capacity for even more. I am delighted at being here, in contact with each and every one of you -- the celebratory, and the curmudgeonly, and everyone in between. I toast you, and adore you.

And yes, of course, you may flame me despite that. ;-)