"One step towards unifying these struggles is to adopt the right to the city as both working slogan and political ideal, precisely because it focuses on the question of who commands the necessary connection between urbanization and surplus production and use. The democratization of that right, and the construction of a broad social movement to enforce its will is imperative if the dispossessed are to take back the control which they have for so long been denied, and if they are to institute new modes of urbanization. Lefebvre was right to insist that the revolution has to be urban, in the broadest sense of that term, or nothing at all."
"Nobody can know in advance when an epic historical-geographic performance will be enacted, nor are there preconceived formulas for what makes a successful encounter. What is clear, however, is that any moment of encounter will likely be a process without a subject, spreading like wildfire, a moment in which crowds become speedy ensembles of bodies, rested via spontaneous online and offline ordering; participants will simultaneously act and react, in a human kaleidoscope in which joy and celebration, violence and wildness, tenderness and abandon somehow get defined."
— Andy Merrifield, from “Crowd Politics” (as excerpted in Harper’s this month).
reading.am
i use it, and you should be, too. i want to see what you read.
"After President Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970, Alawites so prevailed as undercover agents that people feared naming the sect in public. The preferred euphemism was “the Germans.” Now, in a sign of both alienation and diminishing fear, some Syrians call them “mundas,” or infiltrators in Arabic. The government uses that word to describe the supposed armed Islamist gangs."
— Syria, Under Siege Inside and Out, Does Not Budge. The power of language.
"This probably wouldn’t help the problem you’re describing, but it sounds like Kickstarter is ripe for a blog dedicated to highlighting and bashing the absurd projects. Yes, Kickstarter needs its own version of what Regretsy is to Etsy. I’m really surprised no one has done this yet, actually."
— a comment from the “End Online Panhandling Forever” piece on Gawker today.
just going to leave this here.
amazing moments in project videos. brought to you today by The Four Dollar Fundraiser for “Housebroken.”
i am going to encourage you to watch this video. but just to cut to the chase, here is a screenshot of why it is important.
amazing moments in project videos. brought to you today by Art works! Great art is in the wallet of the beholder.
![Frederator [hearts] Kickstarter](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/5734473378_9fc9234df0_z.jpg)
"This last point, short and sweet, has struck me every time I’ve peeked in on a Kickstarter campaign in the last few months: here we are, keeping score. The amount of money pledged to a campaign is right there, and visible. All of us who are backing the campaign or considering backing it are playing in an MMO called Will This Make It?"
— c/o Yancey, from here.
