~ okay, there still no access, so folks waiting for emails from us will still have to wait (emergencies can reach us on our private lines); we have colds from a spell of disorientation in a rainy chinatown; we have endured ‘blair witch 2’, ‘pushing tin’, and ‘requiem for a dream: the freaking edited version’. the man who told us that you can rot in l.a. without feeling it must come to new york city; the feeling is firing the end of every nerve at once.

~ this past week = more nothing.

~ with most of the staff gone for father’s day weekend, the offices at the angry red planet have been empty, yet busy:

~ the remaining staff took a break from the work and engaged in a session of dérives along henry hudson parkway which ended with an reminder of the distinction between rain in los angeles and rain on the east coast. next time, we can be more well-prepared, but no less ill-equipped.

~ the usual excitement over the bus trip to new jersey for home furnishings ended in the usual disillusionment and distaste upon viewing of the aforementioned home furnishings. minor crises of faith coupled with righteous indignation led to resignation, compromise, and, finally, physical submission.

~ a less demoralizing visit was made to the local bookshop, where we have been provided – at our own expense – with kindling for our continued summer of worklessness.

~ if it isn’t one thing… just when our offices are finally getting settled – here defined by the arrivals of desks – our connection is shut off by the previous tenants. it has taken us this long to find our way into the private labs in of columbia university’s student center. take our word on this, for we are saving mr. tschumi some embarrassment and humiliation by not spreading images of it here; he is shamed enough by having to see it every day. no one can say when our network might be back up; until then, find us hanging out on the corner in front of c-town [w], with a liter of jumex in each fist.

~ why are 4×8 sheets of plywood $38 in manhattan? if any lumberyards want to donate to the construction of the angry red offices, get in touch.

~ after a morning of backing up some of our video files, we made our first foray via train into spider-man’s hometown of queens. our primary intention was to visit one of the 10 coolest things in the modern world, the unisphere, but we were surprised to find it almost upstaged by a overgrown neighbor. the possibility of a queens scene report has arisen. perhaps.

~ now you can purchase zines from the angry red planet online with paypal. you know longer need to endure the archaic system of placing grubby cash into an envelope and wondering if it will ever get anywhere safely. if you aren’t registered with paypal, do so here, then proceed to fill your summer with our american – and beyond – tales.

~ lewis black claims that new york city is the loudest city on the planet earth. the angry red planet can sympathize with him; our atmosphere is filled with motorized scooters, screeching circular saw, dirt bike wheelies, wailing sirens, twins on razors, barking dogs, blowing horns, heaving garbage trucks, and everyone in the building shouting ‘freddie’ into the courtyard next to our office window, trying to draw out the elusive superintendent.

~ thanks to the few folks who sent birthday greetings; we’ll get back to you soon, time has been taken up with moving crates about the office, modeling furniture for an affiliate, and marveling at david mack’s work on daredevil. also, typing with the keyboards on out laps and the mice on stacks of phone books and coffee boxes is inducing symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. we need desks.

~ hot damn! after a weeks-long struggle to enter our new new york offices , we are celebrating our birthday today six floors above the streets of harlem. as we still lack many facilities, such as furniture and our network, we are updating the log from the break room floor. we have our books and turntables and a brand new val kilmer dvd, so the evening’s office launch party may begin immediately.

~ this is also the first day of our call for an absolute boycott of both envoy properties on venice boulevard in los angeles and u-haul rental on atlantic avenue in brooklyn. they owe us $550.01 and $23.70, respectively. they are scum; it’s people like them ‘what cause unrest’.

~ it looks like we were wrong about being allowed to settle into our new offices; the crooked landlords, after taking our deposit, are hesitating and fabricating reasons and excuses as to why we can’t move into the space. once again we are meeting to move in tomorrow, but this time there is no more time for us to wait in the space we are currently dwelling. either we get the space tomorrow, or the situation comes to an dramatically unfortunate development, such as the compromise of the angry red planet’s official doctrine of pacificism.

~ the news has not been updated in a while due to our state of transience, both across the nation – twice – and across the city – infinitely. tomorrow, after two weeks of delays and excuses, we should recieve the keys to our new upper west side offices. after this, the news will flow in the usual sluggish nature in which it occurs. in the meantime, check out the media with which we have been sedating ourselves.

~ from the angry red planet inbox, a new summer project:

ROLL YOUR OWN BLACK OUT THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER JUNE 21, 2001 THURS EVE,
7-10 pm worldwide, all time zones

   As an alternative to George W. Bush’s energy policies and lack of emphasis on efficiency, conservation and alternative fuels, there will be a voluntary rolling blackout on the first day of summer, June 21 at 7pm – 10pm in any time zone (this will roll it across the planet).

   Its a simple protest and a symbolic act. Turn out your lights from 7pm-10pm on June 21. Unplug whatever you can unplug in your house. Light a candle to the Sungoddess, kiss and tell or not, take a stroll in the dark, invent ghost stories, anything that’s not electronic – have fun in the dark.

   Read the 1999 book “Natural Capitalism” by Hawken and Lovins to learn that conservation/high efficiency technologies already ARE on-the-shelf. If implemented these revolutionary ideas would pay themselves off within five years, after which we’d be pumping far less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and saving bucks to boot.

   Forward this email as widely as possible, to your government representatives and environmental contacts.

   Let them know we want global education, participation and funding in conservation, efficiency and alternative fuel efforts — and an end to over-exploitation and misuse of the earth’s resources.

   Anyone knows that the Cheney-Bush team is blowing smoke when they tell us that “… conservation can’t help, it’ll just be too expensive to implement those technologies…” While on the other hand, technology to develop and deploy weapons to blow incoming ICBMs out of the sky are easy to come by.