Steve A. Becker

Hit a hornets nest mowing today and took 5 angry zingers. Probably schadenfreude for the pushy pest control salesman whose service I was adamantly not interested in last week.

The hive mind may suggest the fields be watered with Brawndo long before all that

The cover spread from a one page zine printout. The left (back cover) features images of a scale and gavel, with notes on First Amendment and filming rights, and the advice to “shut the fuck up.” On the right is the cover, a megaphone with the title text “PROTEST SAFELY.” Behind it are faceless protestors. The subtitle notes, “A brief collection of tips from around the internet.”

A spread from one page zine printout. On the left is an illustration of a protestor with the title “What to Wear,” including a helmet, goggles, ear plugs, gloves, a mask, a backpack, and layers/long sleeves/pants. Each have additional notes explaining their use. On the right is “What to Bring,” featuring illustrations of a backpack, money, water bottles, a mask, a granola bar and bag of trail mix, a first aid kit, folded shirt and pants, and an ID, with “DIY Defense” listed underneath it showing one protestor using a luggage case, one holding a trash can lid, and one using an open umbrella as a shield.

A spread from one page zine printout. On the left is “Protect Your Identity,” advising to cover up identifying features, avoiding photography of protesters, deactivating biometric phone-unlocking tools, and writing emergency contact and counsel numbers on your arm. On the right is “Be Like Water,” the motto of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and the text “BEWARE THE BAIT” with images of a palette of bricks and a masked man holding a crowbar toward a protestor with a sign, “Psst, free crowbar?” encouraging the reader not to engage with traps and undercover agents.

A spread from one page zine printout featuring the hazards of protest opposition, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and LRAD sound cannons and flash bangs. Caution tape images accompany the text explaining the dangers of each, how to flush out eyes that have been maced/etc, and how to extinguish a gas canister with a traffic cone.

I did my best to compile as many protest safety notes as possible into a one page foldout zine! Coincidentally…it seems the file has breached containment…like it’s available for anyone to print or hand out 👀⚖️

toonyart.com/s/PSZine.pdf

Highlighted text form THE NEW YORKER The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.

Reminds me of this eternal Ted Chiang banger-

I grew one from a pit for about 4 years. It got ≈3ish feet tall with multiple branches, huge leaves, inch-thick trunk with bark. Then it just didn't last in the house over winter a year ago. I guess this mid-Atlantic climate wasn't conducive.

The only inaccurate part of that dystopian Elysium prediction is that our new regime they would have the courtesy to acknowledge Spanish speakers with something other than Amerikan English instructions printed on the robot.

It's true, it can be a case of apples to oranges for sure, but I've also seen competent illustrators exist in both worlds, a lot of MTG artists also do comics covers. I'm not suggesting what you should do, just suggesting that you may have more purchasing power than you think!

most Marvel variant cover artists barely make that now from Marvel, and that's definitely a rate I've seen pros cop to for indie work. You might be able to get yourself some pretty nice illustrated covers from people in the comics world for what you are currently offering.

I will forever be a huge fan of Real Genius! Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was a good one too

For sure, gotta take them wins where you can get them! Aside from Lancaster city and a few small towns it's very rural here, and very conservative christian, so if this area can go blue it can happen anywhere.

Yeah, Lancaster City is district-13 and even with the city it's still red. Scott Martin is the republican state senator here.

Must have been E-town, school board out there is like a christian nationalist cult. There's been national mainstream news coverage about how extreme they are. Northern Lanco farmlands out in the boons are all red but not quite as bad as the PA-11 congressional district. Never gone dem in US history

2025 Lancaster County General Pennsylvania State Senate 36 Special Election General DOHQ Last Updated: Mar 25, 2025 at 9:57 PM > 95% est. reporting Candidates Party Votes Pct. James Malone DEM 26,518 50.3% Josh Parsons GOP 25,721 48.8% Zachary Moore LIB 473 0.9% Total 52,712 * Incumbent Election Date: 3/25/2025 View Full Results >

uhhhh it looks like Dems just flipped a R+17 Pennsylvania State Senate seat in Amish country…

I'm in the area and I'm surprised the dems won it at all. It's one of the most blood red areas in the county with most of school boards across those towns being 8 and 9 to 1 red. The Amish vote republican 100% and this area was a lot of Amish and none of Lancaster city.

But did you bring enough tchotchkes imbued with luck to curry the favor of the bingo gods of fortune?

Totally! I've scanned tons of different marble tiles to use as texture on low fill as a diffusion layer under my digital colors. They always hit that x-factor that's missing when the digital is too crisp.

I also know that saying it is way easier said than doing it! Definitely takes some time to make it happen.

For me backgrounds got exciting when I stopped thinking of them just as places the characters were, but as another performer that the characters were interacting with.

@empireofice.bsky.social

One of our supporters shared this with us—people are getting creative tonight!

I always understood loss leading in the way Starbucks puts 4 stores within a quarter mile of a competitor to drive their ability to turn a profit down to zero, ultimately causing them to close. Then they jack the prices up to recoup their losses once competition is no longer an option.

I believe that's called the Loss Leader Strategy.

It doesn't have as many of the foreboding quiet moments as the first one and Benicio Del Toro's character is the lead.

Right? It's been on a couple times over the last few days and I've watched it twice. The sequel isn't bad either, but it is different.

Sicario is one of the movies I will watch every time I see it's on cable

90% may be high hopes but I kinda think about 75% actually are. sometimes in rage I go scout the more hyperbolic supporters profiles and most times those accounts look empty or long abandoned.

🚨UK People🚨

1/7 Your government is proposing a HUGE change to copyright law, where they give away YOUR works to Tech companies to profit from for FREE!

A disgusting overreach that will cause irreparable harm to ALL creatives and beyond .You have one chance to stop it, read how below👇

I always find that nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. There's a ton of studies on the psychology of choice and advertising that was helpful on how to get people to linger at the table for the right amount of time to draw more people in without being in the way.

can people stop telling me to let ai in the arts go??? if we shut up now, there's no controlling it, no regulating it, artists and authors will keep having all their works cannibalised and reshaped for profit they don't see.

so, no. i won't shut up.

fuck ai.