ATTN NIGEL: I've fallen, and I WON'T get up.

[Nast]

I live in a city, it's called Beautiful Santa Barbara. It's so beautiful that you could shit yourself. I mean, look: there are the mountains, and their is the ocean, and everyday is warm and sunny and delicious. And the people are beautiful. The people who drink the wine, who run the galleries, who sponsor the community. And those poor people? Ho-ho, them. Why, they just add a homey touch of authenticity! They have their little paleta carts, and they wash the dishes, and they clean your luxurious Mediterranean villa next to Oprah's. But don't bother talking to them, they don't speak a word of English, and they're dirty and poor and lazy and will steal your stuff.

And who are those people you ask? The man with the soup in his beard and the greasy windbreaker and is muttering incoherently? He's on vacation. You see, the beach is so beautiful he decided to stay their and even make a tent out of plastic bags, because he's living green. And that lady with the shopping cart? Or that person digging through the trash? Oh, let's not talk about them anymore. You see, those people didn't appreciate the art and the wine.

But please come visit. They're so many things to do in Beautiful Santa Barbara.

[LMNO]

Horrible Truth Time:  Read all these articles.  We all live in the same city.  The City.  There is only one, so you can't get out.

So why don't I have better neighbors?

[Richter]

I've lived in three cities.

The first was something that was a happening place 100 years ago, when we still made our own cloth, and water was cheaper to ship over than asphalt.  I grew up there, amidst repurposed industry and 3 floor tenements.  I accepted the urban decay, stagnant business areas.  I accepted the entitled grasping for welfare or advantage, and learned the cynical stare you give encroaching poverty.  It was my home, and I loved it.  I left there for college, and came back.  Even when my high school friends had gradually broken away, born of drama and strife stewed in the few entertaining places, I stayed a year longer.  I watched and helped keep the block, and the block watched me in exchange.  Preachers, drug dealers, and all, we were part of it, and watched out for our own.  I loved the city, but found no place in the few enclaves of culture, art or business around which the city tried to reinvent, so I left.

The second city was the city I worked in for years.  A metropolis, full of suits and students, culture and attitude.  It was the kind of place bands sing about, as if even the "bad" parts were some sort of down - home Shangri - La (no place there was REALLY bad, they exported it all).  Living there would have been good.  I could have found a few local groups to bum around with, intelligent women to court, and would never have wanted for a well kept avenue to walk or novel venue to drink in.  It would have been a trap.  I'd have settled into it, and never wanted to leave.  I wander, as much as time allows, and it's just NOT time off or away for me unless I'm throwing the kit bag in my ancient viking long car and taking off for something DIFFERENT.  That city does not easily give up it's dwellers.  It will either woo you back with exciting happenings, or rope you forcibly with horrible traffic.  I'd have loved that city, but I'd never be able to get away.  So I left.

City number 3 is my current place.  It has people I know and things to keep me occupied.  It's half run down, half coming back, half coming down again.  You can find intelligence here, but there's less pretention.  Cars still get broken into, fire engines still HOWL past my window nightly, and Tuesday is when the dump truck wakes me up at 6 AM.  The Indian joint next door reeks, and the "Bros" at the club across the street hoot and holler all night.  It's dumping ground for the USA's new surplus of Afgani heroin.  Everything is there, like my other cities, and damn if I don't love it too.  Depending how housing goes, I may leave, or I may not.  

Fire, power tools, swordplay, and wood aren't as well accepted by city dwellers.  I don't just want to KNOW things anymore, I need the space and buffer from other humans to DO them.  Either they'll kill or evict me, I'll scare away them, or the tension will eat up all parties.  I've got my eyes on a few places above the flood plain.  We'll see though.  

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

TO ALL!!  This is great work!!!


I live in a city that is rich with multi cultural heritage.  It is an old city, built by people who dreamed of making something better.  There are things to do, places to go and stuff to see everywhere here.  We have 3 professional sports teams to agonize over the wins and losses of.  There is a public transportation system in place that rivals even the largest of cities in ease of use and availability.  There is something free to do almost every weekend.

You have all the ups and downs of a large city, yet it is so rigidly divided that each area is a city within a city.  Neighborhoods locked down so tight that kids can't leave their block for fear of being jumped.  City street corners so explosive that schools have the busses pick the kids up at their front door.  They have cameras on the busses so they know who to suspend or prosecute when another kid gets beaten. Someone is killed or beaten here every day.  People are getting shot in highway drive bys that they always put off to a grudge or something.  Our youth is killing each other, picking each other off a person at a time.  Race has become an issue here again along the proportions of the 60's.  There are neighborhoods within walking distance of my house that I drive out of my way to avoid.  My children have a beautiful park 4 blocks away where they can go play.  It's the walk there that would kill them.

Our schools are not safe, our streets are not safe, and with the new fad of home invasions, our homes are not safe.  Our churches aren't safe; we had a killing during a service just a few months ago.  The stores, shopping centers and malls are relatively safe; it's the getting to them that will get you killed.

Our schools are no longer accredited; our city is so in debt that some schools only have tissue and soap in one bathroom per floor.  The teachers are over worked and subjected to threats and hostility every day.  We have some of the lowest test scores in the country.  Our kids are graduating with basically an elementary education if that.  Children are encouraged to quit school and get their GED or a job.  More and more children leave the public education system to enter the charter or private sector, just to get the basic education that we have come to expect our public school system to provide.

Is there a cure?  Is there a vaccine for the virus that has spread across our country one city at a time? 

I hate this city with a passion that burns through me, yet I love this city and want to see it thrive.  But, if to just survive is the only option, then maybe death for the city is the answer....

[Payne]

Stonehaven. It's a little town with little to recommend it. The guy who invented the pneumatic tyre was born here (yeah, that guy). They dropped a Mars Bar into a deep fat frier at one of the many local chip shops and in an instant summed up Scotland's health and cuisine. That was in the old town, where there is still the old toll house, the old town hall, the old market. My favourite pub is there, and if I step outside to smoke a cigarette, by the time it is finished I can have walked past six churches, all of them Christian, but only one of them right. Right?

The old town is home to those unfortunate "people" who could trace their ancestry back to when there was still an occupant in the ruined castle overlooking the harbour. All of them could trace their ancestry back to one fisherman, likely, and I don't (even can't) imagine that the gene pool has become any more diverse in that time. The old town is home to people who are still outraged at certain ...events that took place at all but one of the churches over a period of several months a year and a bit ago. [The church that escaped was an oversight on my part, I only went for the churches that actually had their own building. I didn't realise the Baptists met every Sunday in the gymnasium of the local secondary school]

The new town... Ah, the new town. The preserve of Jaguars, flashy BMW's and ostentatious Mercs. The commuters and permanent tourists from England. Aberdeen, the "Oil Capital of Europe", is a short drive up the coast. Close enough that the light pollution is comfortably visible on the horizon, far enough that these Very Important men and women need not fear being stabbed in the neck for a cigarette by some desperate, disturbed and homeless junkie. There are hills with sheep on them, a "quaint" harbour. No one ever gets stabbed (at least not by junkies, anyway). The natives are polite, deferential eve. The Very Important people are too stupid to realise the natives are too stupid to be anything else.

A little old town kid on a bike was mowed down by one of these Very Important people, in their Very Nice cars recently. Everyone blamed the parent of the kid. They put a sign up, to tell people to drive slower, and life went on.

And on New Years Eve, when the Ye Olde Traditional brigade swing their Fire Balls around there head as they walk a circuit from the harbour through the old town and back to the harbour again, before they throw the Fire Balls into the harbour, I want to grab one and burn this place to the god damn ground. I want to leave no trace except a scorch mark on the ground, the ruined castle and the (apparently intentionally) unfinished war memorial.

I may leave this place, and go on to other, more gruesome parts of the world. I could run as far as I can, and still never be rid of this stain.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

This city, this city by the sea is ancient. There have been inhabitants on the land the city now covers since the Stone Age. We have Tudor Houses, Medieval walls, and the worlds oldest surviving lawn bowling green.

I have lived here my entire life. The sea is in my consciousness, I sicken and pine for it inland. We are a port town, a Cruise Liner town. A Uni Town.  The student population is about 20% It feels like this town is just a place connecting places, The Mayflower and the Titanic left here, The Titanic sank. I have worked on this city's docks, I have worked in its shops, bars, kitchens and offices. I always wanted to leave. Other people come through here on their way to somewhere else, I stay, i watch.  I die a little. Here are my dreams and my nightmares, pain, learning, memory, Tidal. i am like a rock here, being eroded into pebbles.

We have some of the cleanest CO2 emissions in the country, 4 free art galleries, Museums, We are one of the greenest city centres, in terms of park space, and have the only geothermal power station in the UK heating our nice shiny new shopping centre.

This city, however, is the third most dangerous in the UK. This city has honed my instincts, I can shift from nice polite possibly middle class to a rough street level in seconds. I know the points to kick in order to escape being cornered and outnumbered. Dont leave any shit in your car, for fuck sake, some crackhead will steal your stuff and piss in it. I know its streets like the lines and blemishes on my hands and my face.

I narrowly avoided a gang of kids weilding knives and screwdrivers taking a dislike to me when one of them realised i used to help an older sibling of theirs score weed.  When dressed up, for years i have used chopsticks in my hair, for offensive reasons. This city is paranoid, divided. Registered unemployment has gone up 100% since 2007.  Student population has a massive effect on the jobs market, so in the summer, we are a ghost town. I've befreinded little oiks, all feeling abandoned by their city, tear around and fuck it up, get tagged, go on community service, can't or can't be arsed to get jobs, so end up in the darkest parts of Saint Marys, smoking crack around weirdos in old terraced houses in the red light district.

they have no role models, no schemes, no fathers, no hope, just a want. For drugs, trainers, booze, "that ipod you bumped from that matey," dealing, stealing, shouting at the smackheads who come up to "their park".  It seems the ones trapped here, born here, get sucked into the sea of drugs and violence and the paranoia.

This city has taught me how to be invisible when I need to be, to look bigger when i need to be, My painted leather jacket I have had since i was 14 is like armour. I have learned when drunk and lost, never look drunk, or lost. This city is my training ground,   Industry is dead, and on the Itchen bridge across town, your bus can be delayed and the main route across the city jammed if someone decides to jump. I have heard of more "bridge closures" of this type since the recession hit. There are so many new buildings and luxury apartments, but a six year waiting list to get a one bedroom flat with the local authority, all the manufacturing and tobacco plants are gone, no more shipyards, the places that my grandmother helped build spitfires are gone.

if the trade by sea dies, this city dies, I for one am going to take the road i should have taken at 18. In the next 2 years I am intending to be on a path to University. Just to get the hell out and stop being so bored.

If I dont get out soon... this city will swallow me alive. I shall drown here, if i cant escape.

[rong]

for what it's worth, i was thinking about this thread this morning whilst having my morning smoke and i realized that the thing i don't like about all the hustle and bustle is all the hustlers and bustlers.

[Rumckle]

169% agree with you there, rong

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You know what the best thing about this thread was?  The OP wasn't supposed to be about the city I live in, but the enormous stresses on those around me as a function of unemployment and the worries thereof.

But I really, really liked the direction this took.

[Triple Zero]

You guys should post these, one every day, on the Verwirrung blog. The rest of us will pimp these on twitter and IM. See how much exposure that gets us. Maybe some of them will see that something is very wrong indeed.

We're doing something different.

Details later, when I have something a little more firm from the interested party.

Cool. You could always do the blog thing afterwards, to promote the result of the project (which I assume will be a PDF of some sorts?). Although posting one per day would be a bit odd, if the full edition is already floating about the internet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You guys should post these, one every day, on the Verwirrung blog. The rest of us will pimp these on twitter and IM. See how much exposure that gets us. Maybe some of them will see that something is very wrong indeed.

We're doing something different.

Details later, when I have something a little more firm from the interested party.

Cool. You could always do the blog thing afterwards, to promote the result of the project (which I assume will be a PDF of some sorts?). Although posting one per day would be a bit odd, if the full edition is already floating about the internet.

No, it won't be a PDF.  It may very well be a series of print comics.  I am talking with a publisher next week.  If they are interested, I will be contacting the relevant authors with release forms and compensation arrangements for their approval.

Mind you, this is only an interest demonstrated by one individual in the biz, not a firm proposal of any kind.

[Iason Ouabache]

You guys should post these, one every day, on the Verwirrung blog. The rest of us will pimp these on twitter and IM. See how much exposure that gets us. Maybe some of them will see that something is very wrong indeed.

We're doing something different.

Details later, when I have something a little more firm from the interested party.

Cool. You could always do the blog thing afterwards, to promote the result of the project (which I assume will be a PDF of some sorts?). Although posting one per day would be a bit odd, if the full edition is already floating about the internet.

No, it won't be a PDF.  It may very well be a series of print comics.  I am talking with a publisher next week.  If they are interested, I will be contacting the relevant authors with release forms and compensation arrangements for their approval.

Mind you, this is only an interest demonstrated by one individual in the biz, not a firm proposal of any kind.

Holy shit, that is awesome, Roger! I hope it doesn't fall through at the last minute as these things tend to do.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You guys should post these, one every day, on the Verwirrung blog. The rest of us will pimp these on twitter and IM. See how much exposure that gets us. Maybe some of them will see that something is very wrong indeed.

We're doing something different.

Details later, when I have something a little more firm from the interested party.

Cool. You could always do the blog thing afterwards, to promote the result of the project (which I assume will be a PDF of some sorts?). Although posting one per day would be a bit odd, if the full edition is already floating about the internet.

No, it won't be a PDF.  It may very well be a series of print comics.  I am talking with a publisher next week.  If they are interested, I will be contacting the relevant authors with release forms and compensation arrangements for their approval.

Mind you, this is only an interest demonstrated by one individual in the biz, not a firm proposal of any kind.

Holy shit, that is awesome, Roger! I hope it doesn't fall through at the last minute as these things tend to do.

Um, I have a serious answer for that, but I gotta ask if that was a shot.

[rong]

i'll understand if you have this more fully lined up, but if you're interested in an artist, i know a guy in detroit that is a)a sweet artist and b)might be interested in illustrating said comics.

i think the artist being from detroit would be appropriate. 

i also hope this ties into the "mask" thread.

he lives very "off the grid" i will try to see if i can dig any info up on him online and PM it to you if i find anything.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

You know what the best thing about this thread was?  The OP wasn't supposed to be about the city I live in, but the enormous stresses on those around me as a function of unemployment and the worries thereof.

But I really, really liked the direction this took.

THIS!