Saturday, November 24, 2012
Life in Brooklyn
Hello Friends,
I have been super busy and have been working so much that it makes me want to travel around the world again.
Since I left off, I have been living in Bed-stuy in Brooklyn, NY. I came to NY in January and joined the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and started learning how to play Trombone.
I have had wonderful experiences being in the band and have made most of my NYC connections through the band.
I also started working at the Ali Forney Center
I work as a Youth Counselor at one of the housing sites here in NY. The work I do is really important to me and has changed my life in positive ways. This is the first work place I have been in where I can be as queer as I want and dress the way I want without being ridiculed or harassed in anyway. I get to speak about LGBTQ issues with the folks I work with and speak about my experience as struggling with my gender identity and orientation and listen to others experiences from the LGBTQ community. I feel so safe around all the residents and my co-workers and am really happy that there are workplaces like this that exist.
Aside from work I have been practicing the accordion on a regular basis and have started to get pretty good and am working on my technique and am learning lots of new songs. I will start posting videos soon with some songs I have been working on.
I want to start writing on a more regular basis and start uploading photos from my life.
I have traveled to Montreal 4 times already this year and am starting to fall in love with it. J'aprende Français et je practique avec Rosetta Stone. I am thinking about staying there for a little while to play with another marching band Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble.
They also have about 7 or 8 Bicycle Collectives/ Cooperatives that are community oriented.
My mind is all over the place and I needed to write a little bit right now to keep my mind focused, But I am not really focused because I am trying to do 5 things at once.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!
-Joss
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Living in the Big Apple
Hi all,
Its been so long since I posted anything. I wanted to update you all on my life adventures.
Since my last post I have done so much traveling and exploring on my own and figuring out what I want to do with myself in this world of ours.
In November I stayed in Machias, ME with the Beehive Design collective. I helped them out with work that needed to get caught up with after the busy summer festivities. I discovered that I like to run distro orders online and its a thing I can really get into. I got to go to Boston with them for a book fair and to present their poster The True Cost of Coal at MIT. I helped run the distro table and tried to answer peoples questions as the Bees were presenting.
Then I went with them in December to Virginia to be supportive and help cook and run the distro as they had their yearly retreat. You can check them out at
During all of this Occupy Wall st was shut down by mayor Bloomberg which was upsetting in all sorts of ways to me, but I knew that is wasn't over and it isn't over. The fight for systematic change will still happen and is still happening.
Here are some personal views about OWS that I have and would like to share.
First of all I would to say that I have become more open minded politically because of OWS [Occupy Wall st ]. When I first heard of it I was very skeptical about what it was all about. Then as I arrived there I started to meet people from all different political backgrounds and started to have interesting conversations and productive arguments that made me realize that everyone isn't a radical minded anarchist who wants to overthrow the system and live off the land and be nomadic in autonomous communities. Which is totally reasonable and fine now that I look at it. I realized that these are dreams I have of a utopia and drool over the idea of it all. I also realized that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I am happy and excited about that. If everyone wanted the same thing then life would be somewhat boring, wouldn't it?
OWS has also made me realize that there are all sorts of people from all walks of life who are radical organizers/ protesters/ revolutionaries/ awesome people, etc.I did notice a huge presence of White, young Cis-Male dudes who like to be organizers and get attention and be in front of large crowds or on media, etc. But they are definitely only 1 little group that happen to exist in the movement. They just happen to get a lot of attention because of privilege that they obtain.
Now I don't want to turn this into anything negative but these things are real and these are things that lots of institutions don't talk about or teach. I am a white, young, male assigned person and I am still learning so much about these topics. I am not letting it get me down and I am not guilty of it because I am figuring out ways of how I can be an ally and be involved without taking up too much space.
I went through an anti-oppression training that changed my life which has lead me to the life I live today. Which is totally different from 2 years ago.
I have been living in intentional communities since 2009 with lots of people from all parts of the world with all different kinds of experience and skills and talents. It has made me so aware of what is happening around the world just by spending so much time with so many people.
Ok, Now I realized I am going off on a rant that does/doesn't relate to what I spoke about before. But HEY! I can do and that and it feels great.
I also wanted to mention that education is a privilege, I might be dropping down some key words here but its because its easier to explain what I am talking about. I didn't even know what oppression meant til I moved into Eliconia/The Burrow in Allston in 2009. It was only a word I heard get tossed around every now and then.
Then I learned what it means and am now totally against it and try to live an oppressive free lifestyle by the way I act,speak, am, etc.
Anyways....
I came to New York City on New years to play with The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, live in The Big Apple and take a bite out it, and meet all sorts of folks who are doing awesome things in the city and around the world.
I have been learning how to play trombone, playing Accordion with a band called Glittered and Mauled but the name might change soon.
Ok, Theres always so much more to write but that can happen another time.
Take care y'all
Its been so long since I posted anything. I wanted to update you all on my life adventures.
Since my last post I have done so much traveling and exploring on my own and figuring out what I want to do with myself in this world of ours.
In November I stayed in Machias, ME with the Beehive Design collective. I helped them out with work that needed to get caught up with after the busy summer festivities. I discovered that I like to run distro orders online and its a thing I can really get into. I got to go to Boston with them for a book fair and to present their poster The True Cost of Coal at MIT. I helped run the distro table and tried to answer peoples questions as the Bees were presenting.
Then I went with them in December to Virginia to be supportive and help cook and run the distro as they had their yearly retreat. You can check them out at
During all of this Occupy Wall st was shut down by mayor Bloomberg which was upsetting in all sorts of ways to me, but I knew that is wasn't over and it isn't over. The fight for systematic change will still happen and is still happening.
Here are some personal views about OWS that I have and would like to share.
First of all I would to say that I have become more open minded politically because of OWS [Occupy Wall st ]. When I first heard of it I was very skeptical about what it was all about. Then as I arrived there I started to meet people from all different political backgrounds and started to have interesting conversations and productive arguments that made me realize that everyone isn't a radical minded anarchist who wants to overthrow the system and live off the land and be nomadic in autonomous communities. Which is totally reasonable and fine now that I look at it. I realized that these are dreams I have of a utopia and drool over the idea of it all. I also realized that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I am happy and excited about that. If everyone wanted the same thing then life would be somewhat boring, wouldn't it?
OWS has also made me realize that there are all sorts of people from all walks of life who are radical organizers/ protesters/ revolutionaries/ awesome people, etc.I did notice a huge presence of White, young Cis-Male dudes who like to be organizers and get attention and be in front of large crowds or on media, etc. But they are definitely only 1 little group that happen to exist in the movement. They just happen to get a lot of attention because of privilege that they obtain.
Now I don't want to turn this into anything negative but these things are real and these are things that lots of institutions don't talk about or teach. I am a white, young, male assigned person and I am still learning so much about these topics. I am not letting it get me down and I am not guilty of it because I am figuring out ways of how I can be an ally and be involved without taking up too much space.
I went through an anti-oppression training that changed my life which has lead me to the life I live today. Which is totally different from 2 years ago.
I have been living in intentional communities since 2009 with lots of people from all parts of the world with all different kinds of experience and skills and talents. It has made me so aware of what is happening around the world just by spending so much time with so many people.
Ok, Now I realized I am going off on a rant that does/doesn't relate to what I spoke about before. But HEY! I can do and that and it feels great.
I also wanted to mention that education is a privilege, I might be dropping down some key words here but its because its easier to explain what I am talking about. I didn't even know what oppression meant til I moved into Eliconia/The Burrow in Allston in 2009. It was only a word I heard get tossed around every now and then.
Then I learned what it means and am now totally against it and try to live an oppressive free lifestyle by the way I act,speak, am, etc.
Anyways....
I came to New York City on New years to play with The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, live in The Big Apple and take a bite out it, and meet all sorts of folks who are doing awesome things in the city and around the world.
I have been learning how to play trombone, playing Accordion with a band called Glittered and Mauled but the name might change soon.
Ok, Theres always so much more to write but that can happen another time.
Take care y'all
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