Erik Ruin is a printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, and occasional maker/editor of various publications, including the anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art against…
The Power to Stay: Magical Realism from SF’s Mission
Daily life in San Francisco frequently involves bearing witness to yet another suddenly-shuttered local business, mostly the ones that don’t…
Google Will Never Be a “Good Neighbor”; We Need to Be Our Own Best Hope
Pictured here is some of the dark side of the Star-Wars-themed demonstration, “Google: Don’t Be Evil,” on Wednesday, June 25,…
Organizing Social Spaces as If Social Relations Matter
The Four Rs Throughout the history of resistance, rebellion, and revolution—the three Rs that should be taught alongside the traditional…
What Silence Might Say
On the one hand, we need a certain amount of faith in life in order to keep moving through it…
Anarchism
Note: This piece is a reworked extract from my book Anarchism and Its Aspirations (IAS/AK Press, 2010, http://www.akpress.org/anarchism-and-its-aspirations.html) for the Lexicon…
Homes Not Games
There is this game that landlords play in San Francisco. They write all the rules, of course. And they break…
This Heart of Mine, This Heart of Yours
My heart is torn in too many directions today, not able to keep up with those I love or be…
Talk to Neighbors, Not Cops
This image, copied on to an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, now wrinkled and worn, has been tacked up…
This Life That Should Be Eros
I don’t think I’ll ever quite get this thing called “life,” or what passes for it in this social structure…