SPCC A Casa Amarela

freely available, just not translated.

get it here: http://repositorio-iul.iscte.pt/handle/10071/4497

just to let everyone know: it's done! during the past 5 days, the crew demolished EVERYTHING. the problem was that we couldn't get in. we snuck in past security this past sunday and i got some pics on my cell phone.

and a video (trying it straight out of ubuntu one, see if it works, if it doesn't, download it here: http://ubuntuone.com/p/OmH/)

hello, i'm just letting everyone know that this website is slowly going to die. it's going to have updates until the demolition, then i guess none at all.

so for everyone that enjoyed my writing here's where you can follow me:
http://www.philosopherbagpiper.com - my new personal website for my personal stories and opinions
http://starstuff.collected.info - gathers all my feeds and what i share online. note that it filters some content (it filtered out one link about israel for example)
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/starstuffharvestingstarlight - gathers all the links i share
http://twitter.com/sshsl - gathers all i listen to at work (usually podcasts and audiobooks)

facebook, for example, is replacing content providers. note that most people don't leave facebook to go see other websites anymore. it used to be feeds, now it's facebook. but facebook adds a perverse twist to how we put content on the web: it acquires ownership of what you write when you aggregate, and the right to put advertising on it. this is part of facebook's plan to take over the web.

i don't want to be a part of that, so i'm not using facebook for content anymore. if anyone wants to add me anyway, you can add me at http://www.facebook.com/starstuffharvestingstarlight . since there are no pictures or anything there, it's unlikely that you'll be able to stalk me at all.

and then there's good old email: [email protected]

thank you for reading. i never thought this website would get so many visitors. i guess people still want to know how to build communities and how to make them work. there are a lot of books on the subject, i suffer from a lot of naivety in this matter, but never let it seem too big of a task. every journey starts with a single step.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

we went back, again. the big white warehouse is gone! new dates: it will be gone by the end of the month.

why didn't everyone who said "i'll resist" resist? why was it that from all the people saying they wanted to do all the amazing things they said they wanted to do (more concerts, more parties, more this, more that), nobody did shit? why is it that all the heroes that received compliments on the concert weekend (for work they didn't do, but i'm not complaining) ended up doing nothing but messing up, stealing and (lately) trying to get more out of me and T and being verbally abusive?

the cynic me would say it was because me and T left and stopped working for everyone else. i don't have any other story. as soon as we stopped working and moved on, the place became a wasteland. dog shit everywhere, everything broken. the supposed heroic anarchists were nothing but lazy opportunists. nobody helped to clean, nobody helped us to paint it up for the demolition. instead, we were left with little to take to our new place (even all cutlery was stolen!), were accused of breaking I's stuff, and were demanded "compensation" (for what i have no clue). our "kids" quickly changed sides, making us into the devil, and their new leader (R), the savior. the ingroup never included me. i was part of the resources, not the family. i was being made a fool the whole 7 months.

i guess when scarcity returns, and people go back to survival mode, rationality is the least of all concerns. i can't reason with any of the people i helped and (thought) forged friendships. if someone can turn me from caretaker to vandal in a week, there is little to do but leave. so i left, and cut all personal contact from the old crew. it's better to preserve my health i guess. but this is yet another ideological defeat for me, of many i've endured testing my political ideologies empirically. lies are more powerful than any fact.

what people have hated and criticized about my candidness when i write here, is how raw my portrait is of what goes on. several times i was asked not to write what i think and not to share. we're talking about people who live for social status (a strange one, true, but there is such a thing in a supposed underground scene), so publicly showing they aren't what they show they are means social embarrassment (and less groupies). realizing the old school punks that look cool all the time are nothing but opportunistic, selfish and arrogant is damaging for the status built on the streets.

what i predict will happen is that the story about this squat will be about them. not about me or T or A or L or even S. the story will be about how the punk heroes started a squat and fought to the end, and how the bourgeois betrayed them (me too, a big and ironic lie, since i'm the only one that's actually a proletarian). soon, the role of the creators of the whole thing will dilute itself. and my personal status on this scene will become null (i wouldn't be part of a club that would have me as a member?).

luckily, our journal will remain as a tribute to everyone that really helped build this place, and the accounts of the "other" SPCC, the one that made hundreds of people from all over the world happy and understand an open, free culture can work. this "parallel reality" remains unknown to most people that lived at the house, or visited, that never chose to know our story.

so my candidness is not a threat or a personal attack on anyone. it is my personal side of the story, my SPCC.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

i'm removing the countdown until we know more realistic dates for the demolition. they told us to leave in 2 weeks. it's been a bit more than that and the building is still there. as usual, things take longer than expected.

completely unrelated, got my bagpipe today. i'll post pictures or videos soon. check out the makers in concert:

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

here's a short follow up on what happened to our residents.

- A and L left to their respective countries;
- P and M are back on the street (and on the vices), no sign of P getting into rehab;
- S joined his family again;
- O, R and I started a new squat near SPCC;
- me and T are starting a new open place.

as for tribes, the ingroups and outgroups have been redefined from the original single ingroup. here's a timely perspective, first member of each grouping is perceived alpha male, different groups separated by a "+" sign.

- (J, T, A, L, S)
- (P, M, J, T, A, L, S, O)
- (T, J, A, L, S, O) + (P, M)
- (T, J, A, L, S, O, R, I)
- (T, J, S, O, R, I) + (A, L)
- (R, S, I, O) + (T, J)

new communities started:
(R,S,I,O) started a new squat, R as leader. i visited the place yesterday, got shouted at, arms waving, heavy drugs smell. see my post about power structures.
(P,M) started new squat, remain the tragically dysfunctional couple hard to live with.
(T,J) started a new space, undisclosed political system for now.
(A,L) went separate ways, each to their respective countries. not enough information on whether something was started or not.

i'm also fairly happy with the overall outcome for each personal life story. everyone is happy, and even though i ended up becoming somewhat of a demoniacal figure the last few days (ingroup/outgroup template behavior), i think overall we did an excellent job with the place, especially considering we only had 7 months in total.
this fits my prediction that people are happy anyway, no matter what happens. everyone that left made up a story that made it all seem like they are the hero, and that's how we move on.

i'm moving on too, see you on our next space.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

scavenging is finished. our building now looks like a complete wreck. everything was taken, even the pissed on fabrics and shat on mattresses. all electronics stuff, all usable clothes, furniture. everything that was of any value is gone. even the electrical wire, the sockets, etc. i guess it was a healthy mix of scavengers (old men from junkyards), junkies (copper for heroin, anyone?), and our past residents and us. in a way i'm glad i could get rid of all my junk gathered in e8. i'm not glad about some of the stealing that went on the last few days, especially the stealing done by the people that lived and were regulars at this house (i'm not happy about the bass guitar at all). but the irony is that i also got some stuff stolen at my dad's place when i left one of the boxes downstairs. overall, some stuff was safer at the squat than in a regular neighborhood. stuff gets stolen left and right. a modern obsession with useless stuff. books and CDs, on the other hand, weren't stolen, ever. i guess nobody likes culture.

as for the demolition, it's taking a while longer than they told us. we successfully had a paintathon, painted a lot of the building and color bombed it all the way, hoping we'd have the demolition today. we didn't. i think, as usual, it will take a while longer. the construction company brought all the big machines. maybe another week. i don't know. we'll be waiting to "crash" the demolition, or at least, see it happen.

meanwhile everyone's settled in the respective new place. me an T moved to the west of the city (back being part of society paying rent and what not), the guys squatted a great house near SPCC. they got permission from the owner, so they're set. everyone moves on fast, and once people move away from each other, the previous issues just dissolve and eventually disappear. it's a strange obsession, this one, of wanting to life with others but not being able to do it properly. homo sapiens does love a party or two, but can't help flinging shit around.

we'll be posting our new location. it will be nothing like the previous ones. personally, i'm done with most of the models tried out at e8 and SPCC. we're moving on to deeper things.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

the concert and party was great. the workshop had many attendants (about 20 people i think), many more than i expected. same thing with the movie, but unfortunately there were no people around to moderate the debate, so not much of a debate happened.

as for the concerts, they were great, nothing failed exceptionally (just the usual chaos of concerts), no failed electricity, no failed bar supplies. everyone at the house, once they started seeing the things getting done, realized what it was going to be, so they asked sorry and made up. the stage also got moderately destroyed. it ended, obviously, with the police shutting it down with guns. overall, there were 15 calls that night. i guess the "neighborhood" doesn't like us (big surprise).

i was also very happy with the bar behavior. no money was lost and all the money was divided with reasonable and just rules. it was also clear who were the people who wanted to participate and work for the house.

overall, there were maybe 170 people at the house plus bands and friends. on the chill out area, vegetarian dumpstered food was given away (donation based), and the entry was also donation based.

i was wrong on the behavior part. everyone made up and there were no conflicts. the conflicts were only behind the scenes, but those are part of our every day. as for the organizers, i think they were very happy with the result.

as for the day after, well, that's where i think we're not dealing with a constructive scene, and especially, now with the demolition coming, there's no more care for what we built. we got up early to start moving our stuff to another place, and when we came back, someone (i think O) had spent a lot of time throwing our furniture out the window. what the fuck. he broke a lot of stuff that was not only useful, but made with care by T. this lead to a final decision of abandoning the house. we took the rest of our stuff and left. nobody showed up to clean, in fact, since T stopped cleaning last week, dog shit started piling up to a point where the stink is unbearable. the fabric walls are torn, pissed on and broken. there is broken glass and broken furniture everywhere. stuff is now being stolen too (that's why i moved out). my aria bass is gone (if everyone sees a punk with a jazz aria bass, like this one but matte gray, you know where he got it), with some tools and electronics stuff. a lot of stuff was taken from the free shop, but that's fine, that's what a free shop is.

in the morning, there were still passed out punks on the floor. i think that's a great symbol of the decadence that is going on now.

once me and T stopped providing and nurturing, everybody started moving on. i think they found another squat, and wish them all the best. what i don't really enjoy is how i was made a fool all the time i was providing for the building.

everyone compliments me and thanks me, because i provide. once i go to work, everyone makes fun of me and insults me behind my back. these are the same people you (audience) complimented at the squat. me and T, who built this with help of many of our guests and mostly against the punks that lived with us, are being removed from the story progressively, and demonized for our openness and up front opinions.

essentially, everyone makes up a story where they are the leading character with super hero qualities and everyone else is just someone that stands in their way. it's easy to point out flaws in others, and i'm just as guilty of that. but i want everyone to understand that i don't see myself as a hero in any of this, and that the facts alone are enough for everyone to decide who and what made things work, and didn't.

there is very little "us" in what we do. the words we use, the clothes, the houses, the air we breathe and the animals and plants we eat, they are all here outside and beyond us. in us is just a tiny story and representation of a bigger "we". the only way to honor this "we" is to understand that it requires stories too. and it requires being a villain in some stories, a hero in others, but overwhelmingly, unknown, uninteresting or entirely invisible and unknown.

to cope with this fact, people choose to abandon truth and facts and believe they are better, or super. every single person that abused our place had this feature. and the more fucked up the situation, the bigger disconnect from reality.

have no doubt or uncertainty. ignorance is not bliss, drugs do not make you happy, living on the street is no fun. it means a fucked up life of permanent depression, violence, and inability to deal with aversion. small happy moments are all that is achievable. drugs, concerts, easy fixes for someone escaping the hard facts of life. life is beautiful, but only if you are open enough to allow its complexity to overwhelm you. most street life isn't for the search of truth and enlightenment, it is a permanent battle for sufficiency and inconsequential indulgence.

if you choose to think you can understand and predict everything, you will be acting like a super hero. "i know", "i will", etc, etc. i heard countless conversations from fucked up punks saying they would've done a much better job at SPCC. maybe it's true. but the guys who did it were nowhere to be found, and mostly, working during the concerts.

people talk too much and do too little. too much about how awesome they are, how amazing the things they did and will do are, yet everyone reverts to the same selfish, egocentric chimp every time. and the few workers that supply for everyone else are nowhere to be found and honored.

we are better than this. but we cannot educate brainwashed adults, and children educated better would only be trampled by the current system. that's why i'm no longer doing any mandalas with social centers as a central part. there is little to no possibility for regeneration. most violent and abusive patterns are too ingrained and require full professional help. but since everyone is the "hero", they won't ask for help. the only people we could help were the humble homeless people that got fucked over by life. not the arrogant street punks. these, unfortunately, are just another stereotype of a decadent post post modern west.

it's not that i don't like the people i lived with. i do. but i do not want to coexist and support people that make fun of me behind my back, when i'm feeding them every day. i'm done with it. i'm done with exploitation. it's as if it's becoming human nature to exploit.

ideologically, there are many things to be taken from this. but it will leave the courses of action for later. for now, we have a mandala to finish and clean up. join us and make it beautiful.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

one of the reasons why we started this website this way (with personal blogs and open access, versus a public website with private access), was to sample objectively the irrelevance of fact and the multiple realities phenomenon in human groups (or stories).

even though most participation was mine and T's, now, to the end of this, we are starting to get more data points. from rants to raves, we now have some good comments on what goes on. if we add to this our data on guests, their length of stay and some of the comments, we end up with a huge dataset. so thank you everyone for posting (even the angry posts). they are essential for our study.

the facts have been objectively documented, and this blog has been my story about them. to date, we now have maybe 4 or 5 different perspectives on this page of what goes on and of the same facts. the facts themselves will be described on a full report later, for analysis.

but the stories themselves are the greatest bounty of this. take any fact. the stories around them are not only incompatible, but contradictory. but the thing is each individual's perception (and story) represents the /reality/ of the house for that individual. therefore, there are N+1 houses, where N is the number of observers, and the 1 is the "factual house", unknowable by definition, but observable using the scientific method (i don't want to go into deeper philosophy about this now).

what i wanted to sample, and i did, successfully, was how that "factual house" has little to no place in the politics of the house, whereas the N stories do. the stories are so important, lies can take over and become real. let's take analyze this case study.

observers: {P,M,O,R,I,A,L,S,J,T,Ma}

the facts:
- {P,M} argued every day, loudly, even during the night (waking up everyone), P cheated on and beat M on several occasions, but M was trapped in this loop so never broke free, P also pulled a knife twice on people and beat up O once. on the other hand, they were excellent workers, active every day in making the house a better place. their issues were psychological, but their skills and capacities were above average.

the stories:
- {P,M}, their story, as interviewed by me, was that it wasn't important, that it was their private matter, and that what mattered was what they were contributing to the house. P's account of his violence was one of helplessness, of a traumatized, violent youth, so fucked up he couldn't bear the facts that he was repeating the very same abuse he suffered. despite that, according to their stories, this was a minor issue, not a major issue, and what mattered was how well they worked for the house;
- {L,A}, were heavily supportive of them, endeared by M and in their story, they were excellent people, even though, by for {A}'s standards, not fully aware of their own political ideologies. {L,A} were also moderately unaffected by the violence, and had a supportive opinion throughout the process, to which i think not speaking the language contributed ({L,A} couldn't understand what the arguments were about);
- {T,J}, were also heavily supportive, but in hope that the house and its positive setting would help regenerate them. when violence became too much, T stood up to P and as the trust was broken, so was T and J's stories about P and M, the story became they should go;
- {O}, was, as always, very positive and accepting of P and M, despite having a knife pulled at him and getting into a fist fight one night with P. but as violence continued, his story became that they should go;
- {S}, wasn't happy with any of the situations, but as usual, refrained from any commitment to an opinion, so his story was neutral, until the majority ruled, taking the side of the majority;
- {R,I}, were also tolerant at first, but when violence began, their story also changed from housemates to they must go;
- {Ma} was always critical of them, and never liked their participation in the community, but since he didn't share space with them, he refrained from any issue.

as a group, the decision emerges from each final story. depending on the political system, so will be the result. in this case, we were using anarcho syndicalism and assembly vote (majority vote, direct democracy). so, we have the set of stories: {P,M,L,A} see no issue, {T,J,O,R,I} want them out, {S,Ma} don't participate but have a negative bias. the final decision was that they had to go. they also rejected my help in getting them psychological help and housing (for free). following up on them, despite promises of getting treatment, they still live the same way, repeating the old habits.

now the same set of stories could have different outcomes, depending on the political system. for example, if this was a lawful democracy with a judicial system (and police), the mere fact of P and M violence would be enough for disciplinary action and probably exclusion/expulsion. this would keep the rest of the citizens "unaffected" by the weight of the decision, and would have the same outcome.
if this was a street anarchist system, there would be no expulsion at all, and eventually people uncomfortable with the situation would leave.

depending on the political system we choose, so the stories will be accommodated and dealt with. also, each political system exhibits different bias towards facts or stories.
an anarchist system, shows a clear bias towards stories in decision making, and can only work if stories are representative of facts. in P and M's story, there was no fact. in that sense, conflict will always imply some stories being trampled, but fake stories win too.
a lawful system, on the contrary, shows more bias towards facts and enforcement, and will therefore have a bias towards the "truthful stories". the honest group wins. this would guarantee that, for instance, since {S,L,A,J,O,T} are peaceful, they would end up being the only residents of the house. this requires, however, enforcement of some sort.

politics, in my opinion, is an algorithm applied to the N stories and 1 fact that generates a decision (and possible enforcement) for group decisions. it can be described mathematically, as long as stories are documented.

but if one chooses facts as a main decision tool, then enforcement is a requirement, since there is no guarantee that stories will be representative of facts, or anywhere near the "truth".

facts, as i said, are knowable using the scientific method. so in order to have a fully rational political system, there must be some kind of lawful enforcement system. as for the stories, depending on this enforcement, they can be preserved or trampled.

in the case of capitalist democracy, stories are instead "standardized", so that they differ little from a main "story" (note that this story is, usually, not factual, but promoted by propaganda). stories that are too different become outlawed and eventually are turned into criminal offenses. street art, dumpster diving, squatting, etc, are examples of stories being eliminated by such political systems, even though factually they might be better for the community.

these are some conclusions i can take, just by using the scientific method in small scale politics. by participating and analyzing community behavior, i have matured several of my naive ideas of political systems. i think it's essential to turn away from idea (or story) based political discussions, and turn to factual political discussion, as in many other sciences. this has several nasty effects, as the template "left" "right" are no longer meaningful as a metric or category (except, obviously, as categories for personal stories).

i'm very happy to have gone through all of this, this house has been a source of tremendous political understanding (along with many other things).

i know that with this whole project, i made many enemies and friends, that range from hatred to love and anywhere in between, that the stories about me are as diverse as the ones about the house. but the fact, itself, remains unknowable, even to myself (me, like the house, has N+1 existences, my story of myself is just another story).

therefore, all i can say is thank you for making my existence bigger, in any form or fashion. every story made up increases the N+1 i'm made of by 1. i don't really care what kind of story it is, and i'm just happy i can make your reality a bit richer, and be another story in your collection, no matter how it turns out.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

how about painting the shit out of the building until demolition? and then filming it, photographing it: the bulldozers of the state tearing it down? how fucking cool would that be? let's fucking do it.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆