[This piece first published at my newsletter “Weird and Deadly Interesting“ at May 5th, 2018. Slightly edited this part to publish it on my blog. If you’re interested, you can subscribe my newsletter here.]
There is something I want to mention, a project which I was a part of, called “Work in Progress”. It’s a zine project by Andrew Sempere and he was kind enough to include one of my writings from my newsletter to his project.
His project is all about how and why we should keep working and creating in these dark times, which something I’m thinking and writing a lot. And I believe many people around the world thinks about that too. World is not in a good shape, bunch of idiots doing their best to destroy the planet, climate crisis is already here, every day there are darker things on the news everywhere in the world and it’s totally normal to feel stuck in this mess. And yet, we have to find a way to keep working, creating and living.
And for me, that’s why projects like “Work in Progress” are important and we need more of it. Yes, we’re stuck in this mess but if we stop doing what we do, if we don’t support and motivate each other to keep going, we’ll be stuck here forever. If there’s any chance for a different world, it’s only us, people who think weird and create weird. Like Hunter S. Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, weird turn pro.” And we’re all pros now.
One thing we talked with Andrew was how he like the term I made up, “global frequency of weird.” When I wrote that, I didn’t think much about it but after talking with Andrew, I give it more time to grow in my brain. I think that’s part of what we need right now. A thing to connect and support all those weirdos. We can build it with many things; blogs, newsletters, messaging boards, Slack channels (yep even that), zines, books, music albums, you name it. And it’s kinda building itself too. If you look around, you can feel the potential. At least I’ve started feeling it. And that’s how I’m getting more motivated day by day.
I believe we should talk about it and start working on it. I’ll do my best to support any effort that goes in this direction. Because we should be sharing more good things happening and more weird stuff created around us and bury all that shit making our lives miserable under it. I think it’s worth trying, mostly because most of you know my name thanks to similar connections and support I’ve received as a weird human being lives in a country like Turkey. (Which is a story I want to tell one day.)
And if you want to learn how to get one of “Work in Progress” zines, keep an eye on Andrew’s blog. I believe he’ll soon find a way to make it available to everyone. And if you’re in İstanbul, I can give you one from the extra copies Andrew sent me.
Update (31.07.2019): Andrew put out the zine online for everyone to read. You can check it here.
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