About Undertheconcrete.org: For a few years, prior to the start of this website, I maintained a blog at www.culturaldissent.com, where I wrote mostly about political, social and environmental issues. It was my first experience as a blogger, and during this time I met a lot of really cool people from all over the world.

After my webhost went south, I decided to take the opportunity to make some significant changes. First of all, I wanted to localize myself a bit and get more involved in my own community rather than the illusion of one. There are a lot of fantastic people in Northern Arizona doing a lot of fantastic things and there can be no forum large enough to showcase these things. There is, robothouse.org, for example, that does a fantastic job with the local music scene and their practices are so inconspicuous that cops rarely catch wind of where and when shows are. Norazpoets provides information on local poetry slams and other literary events. There are, of course, many more, which can be found on my side bar under “Northern Arizona.”

So, the niche that I’d like to fill with undertheconcrete.org will consist of localized political, social, and environmental issues, sprinkled with national and global issues that I find interesting, important, and relevant.

The name of this blog obviously came from the column I write for The Noise under the same name. Though I’ve only received exactly two pieces of “fan mail” for the column, I really enjoy writing it…enough to begin a more mature approach to many of the ideas I present there, hence this site.

As I have become more involved in the MARS Project (men against rape and sexism)and some other organizations, I have learned that any significant meaningful change must first occur on a local level, whereby people can become more directly involved. I’ve known too many people who try to do this, as I did with my old blog, on a national level. This is an easy way to become frustrated and burned out. I, for one, began running out of things to say or felt like I was repeating the same ideas over and over again. With a localized slant, I don’t have to sit at my computer searching BBC, ENN, and CNN to find something to write about….I can simply walk outside, look around, and talk to people face to face (you mean actual interspecies communication? NO!). I think that by focusing my efforts, the impact will be greater and more tangible. I’m also assuming that it will be more fun.

The subtitle of this blog/website is, “Dismantle Globally, Renew Locally.” I got it from Derrick Jensen. He mentions it as one of his favorite ideas for a bumper sticker. I think he actually printed it up on a t-shirt. I believe it calls for a need to rebuild and renew locally, even as we work to dismantle global systems of oppression.

I’d like to print up some stickers for this site, though I’ve been saying that for a while.