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We’ve been super busy over the last couple of weeks and there are/will continue to be a lot of new developments coming out over the next month. Here are a few of the key ones:

We have left Etsy and are setting up a handful of new shops spread out over a few different sites to sell our wares. Our main clock site will be Artfire and you can find us HERE. We are also setting up shops with Dawanda (based out of Europe) and Shoply. We’ll be adding a few more as well…We’ll have a primary store for our buttons and for the remaining shirts and patches we keep. And of course we’ll be keeping CAEbuttons.com up and running

We have decided to dramtacially reduce our shirt stock, this means we’ll be having sales on almost all of our textile items. We are doing this to focus on a small handful of designs and to begin printing a wide variety of limited edition designs. We are still working out the details of this, but we are extremely excited about it and will post more once the details are ironed out.

We also have a few exciting projects in the works with Yellow Bike Press. more on this in the near future as well.

We will post more as we get stuff up and running and as our projects move from planning stages to actualization. In the meantime, we’d love it if you would take a look at our new Artfire store and help us get those items up in the Google search engines.

-CAE

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

http://occupywallst.org/

The great folks over at IGN.com were kind enough to feature my clocks today. IGN, for those of you who don’t know, is a website that covers anything and everything worth covering about video games and consoles. It writes reviews, finds interesting items (like my clocks), has cheat codes and hints, and tons more. If you’re at all interested in gaming and have not gone there yet, I definitely suggest checking them out. And when you’re done you can swing over to my Etsy shop and do some early holiday shopping (or at least add some things to your wishlist).

Race Manifest

Last night I was in Tallahassee for an awesome Harry Potter inspired alley cat race- the Diagon Alley Cat. The organizer put together an awesome route and checkpoints and a tremendous selection of prizes and goodies.  Despite the massive hills of Tally and the steady rain that continued throughout the race, it was easily the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

The race began at Krank It Up in Railroad Square. From there the 50 plus riders had to navigate their way through a manifest of eight Potter themed checkpoints using our Diagon Alley Cat Marauder’s Map.

Tasks at each stop included things like answering trivia questions for house points, drinking one of Snape’s potions, completing Quidditch based tasks using bike polo rules, and even picking up a small box from “Godric’s Hollow”containing a baby Harry Potter which had to be safely delivered to another location.

Hip Bag from Babybird Collaborations

The race, which totaled about 13 miles (or more if you took some wrong turns), ended at Hogwarts Castle (Westcott Fountain) which allowed for folks to take a dip and cool off in the iconic “bathing” hole. Once all the racers made it across the finish line, manifests were checked for completion, house points were totaled, and the prize ceremony commenced.  Among the prizes was a 53cm frame from Old Field Cycles and some awesome hip bags from Babybird Collaborations.

  In addition to the race prizes,  there was also a prize for  house cup (racers  could  answer Potter trivia  questions at various  checkpoints in an effort  to win the house cup). Gryffindor (my house) won and we were rewarded  with cupcakes, chocolate frogs, and PBR.

Delicious Chocolate Frogs

In all, the event was a high quality evening of celebrating cycling and Harry Potter (two of my favorite things). In honor of upcoming Harry film (out on Friday) I’ll be putting together an enormous selection of Harry Potter button sets which will be posted in my Ebay store in the next day or two, so keep your eyes peeled for the post about that.

Who wants to go to the School of the Americas protest this year?

What: you should just read about it here rather than me retyping a bunch of that stuff- www.soaw.org

Who: You and the Can’t Afford Em Crew (This year it’s me and Keegan)

When: Leaving Thursday November 18th in the morning; Returning Monday November 22nd at night

How: In a big blue van with captain seats

Other details of the trip: We’ll be leaving Thursday morning, driving to somewhere awesome to camp/hike/swim Thursday night/Friday morning, then will continue on to Columbus, GA. Once there we will proceed to hang out with various groups of good people and drink various types of good beer. This will continue until Sunday afternoon until the end of the vigil. At this time we will drive to Atlanta where we will stay with my brother and his family for dinner and a restful night before beginning the journey back to NYC. We’ll need about $100-$150 for gas money (exact costs will depend on gas prices outside of the northeast). We’ll also be camping/sleeping in the back of the van. However, there is no shortage of motel rooms that will have floor space. So if you want to come but don’t really want to sleep in a van we can find some folks that will let you crash on their floor.

Shoot me a message (either on the comment section here or at cantaffordem@gmail.com) if you are interested.

Basically you should be into all the above stuff plus awesome.

Also, please forward this on to anyone in the New York Area who might be interested.

Gold Zelda Clock from Can't Afford Em Clocks

…even when it’s a Zelda Clock.

Those of you who thought Can’t Afford Em Buttons was just about shirts and buttons and stickers and politics, should check out the Etsy clock page.  This serves as my main crafter outlet in which I recycle the things I love into new things for others to love.  Clocks made from old 7″ records and video game cartridges are the main attraction, but you’ll also find superhero inspired buttons, vinyl ashtrays and bowls, circuit board jewelry, and more. 

I hope to have most of our stuff up over the next week or two, so check back regularly and heart some items and our shop while you’re at it.

We’ve tried this twice before and both times the upkeep of the blog has fallen wayside to shirt and button orders, craft fairs, videogames, and general laziness.  But not this time!  This time, we are committed to keeping a blog that is up to date and chalked full of info about Can’t Afford Em, what we’re working on, what’s inspiring us, where we’ll be, specials/sales, and all kinds of other good stuff.  We shall call it out 3/4 of the year resolution. 

We’ve just spent the last couple of months completely revamping our website. Our Etsy apparel site and our Etsy clock site are running full steam ahead.  Best of all, everything is now interconnected in a super-user-friendly way, so you’ll be able to glide from one spot to another as effortlessly as downing a beer on a warm spring day. 

So take a look around, shoot us an email if you’d like, subscribe to the blog and get ready for the awesomeness on the horizon.

After a long break from posting due to vacaction, half of CAE taking an insanse summer class schedule, and other general summer craziness we are restarting our blog. 

********

We are well into tdsc06111he days of summer by now, and in New York (along with weird weather and hot days) this means the farmer’s market…seemingly endless tables of the freshest and tastiest produce, milks, cheeses, meats, and fish.  And the best part is, it’s all LOCAL!

If you’re ever around Union Square on Wednesdays or Tribeca on Saturdays, you should stop by and visit Patrick.  When he’s not slaving away printing shirts, he spends his days as a fish monger. 

 

To celebrate summer and warm weather and fresh vegetables and local eats and all those other good things, we thought we’d feature obina%20know%20your%20rootsur awesome Know Your Roots Shirt.  Now you can wear a soft shirt, perfect for summer that also puts the word out about healthy food choices.

Alice's recycled journal is fun + functional!

Alice's recycled journal is fun + functional!

Can’t Afford Em Crafts–the bastard child of Can’t Afford Em Buttons–is the collective effort of several radicals-cum-artists living in the South Bronx. We make our various crafts, including decoupaged record & Atari clocks, hand-bound books and journals, and handcrafted jewelry, from recycled materials, and then sell them on Etsy so we “CAN afford” rent (har dee har, get it?).

One of our resident artists, the delightful Alice Orman, had her work featured on the Seattle Examiner’s blog, in an article about what to get your oh-so-fickle-yet-environmentally-conscious mother in these economically distressing times. Her design, a simple-yet-functional journal, upcycled from discarded cardboard and hand-bound, features a whimsical hand-drawn beet and many blank pages just begging to be jotted on–and all for only five bucks!  Think about how many different ways you blow five bucks in a day.  And then think of your mom.  Presto!  Instant Mother’s Day present.  You probably didn’t need that third organic-fair-trade-shade-grown coffee with organic-non-GMO-soymilk anyways.

To find more exciting, local, and affordable crafts, take a gander at our Etsy page at CantAffordEmCrafts.etsy.com.

eviction1With the recent wave of building occupations–from the New School to NYU to Picture the Homeless–the spotlight has been on housing rights, anti-gentrification movements, and community ownership of property.  Of course, in the absence of any reasonable response from the city–you know, like using some of those swank, vacant new condos to house folks who don’t have any place to sleep at night–the people are ready to fight back.

Take the case of Mr. Jeffrey Acea, a resident of Boriquen Court–a real estate tax-exempt specialized housing facility for the disabled and senior citizens–on East 138th Street in the Bronx  While living there, Mr. Acea has suffered repeatedly less than standard living conditions, including leaking ceilings, falling plaster, rats, roaches, and no functioning bathroom.  One need only check the NYC Department of Buildings and HPD to see the laundry list of open violations on this building.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Acea was paralyzed from the waist down.  As of 2004, he was diagnosed with Leukemia and has been undergoing chemotherapy.  Because of his health issues, he has been unable to work and has a $14,000 annual fixed income.  At times, Mr. Acea was in and out of the hospital, causing him to fall behind on his rent payments.  Recently, he was taken to court for rent arrears by Foxy Management–less than one month after Jeffrey reported the conditions of his apartment to HUD.  The lawyer representing Foxy unconscionably persuaded Jeffrey to agree to a stipulation of paying half his annual income–nearly $7,000–by April 29.  (As predatory housing lawyers do, when preying on the financially insecure.)  The lawyer indicated that under no circumstances would a payment plan be accepted.

As such, Jeffrey Acea faces imminent eviction if we do not act promptly.

Jeffrey is a fundamental pillar of the community.  For decades, he has been volunteering his time by teaching children art at the Mott Haven Public Library as well as at Haven Art Gallery.  He has organized and led dozens of trips for children from the South Bronx to museums, art galleries, and historic landmarks around the city.  He gives everything he has to those who have less.   Now is the time to give back.

THE SOUTH BRONX STANDS WITH JEFFREY Solidarity Party

When | Saturday, April 25, 6pm until…

Where | 335 East 140th Street Bronx (6 train to 3rd Ave/138th Street, exit at Alexander Ave, walk two short blocks north to E. 140th Street, take right and we are the first house on the left)

Join Us | Please join us for an evening of fundraising for Jeffrey. There will be music, food, marshmallow roasting in the garden, a silent auction of Jeffrey’s art work and a report back on where Jeffrey’s case stands. We need your support – together we can stop the eviction!

Contact | Mychal Johnson, 212-810-0562


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