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the following are notes i have taken after observing a conversation at a local coffee shop/bookstore run by a radical/activist element.

to sum up: a discussion arose between the cafe staff-person and a table of conversing guests.  they were discussing some of the issues related to them living in the city, but longitudinally all signs point to them being eventually priced out of their own artist enclaves.  whether they were concerned about the welfare of the city itself or themselves and their own personal condition wasn’t clear; i was unable to stick around long enough to find out all the details.  but it did stick with me, and i wrote down the following phrase:

“wherever you go, gentrification follows.”

the rest of these notes is not a true essay, but more a stream of consciousness regarding white flight/black flight, gentrification of Western urban centers,  planned shortages, my personal role in city life and gentrification, planned communities, and so on. [Read more →]

Tags: baltimore, day job, economy, personal, writing by editor
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this post is related to the day job.

here’s the situation. suppose you know a guy who…

–is physically disabled, and cannot work a ‘normal’ job;
–resides in subsidized housing (”section 8″);
–receives a disability payment through the city government where he lives;
–has his wages garnished by child support.

the guy is not making enough money to pay rent, and is feeling threatened with eviction.  he has not received an eviction notice yet.

apart from the 12+ agency referrals that he’s received from us, i’ve repeatedly told him that solid, simple ways to ease his financial burden are to reduce his expenses, or increase his income.  to this, he replied:

–he has cut back on as many expenses as possible;
–after stating his case to the office of child support enforcement, they reduced his payment to just over $150 per month
–he is unable to take on a full-time job because, if he does, his disability payments will be cut;
–he’s disabled in the first place, or else he would be working a steady job already;
–any job he has seen to work in does not pay enough for the time he would work, which would result in the net income to his household reducing to a lower amount
–city or state public assistance is active only after he receives an eviction notice…but he wants assistance before the eviction notice arrives

a serious question is: how serious is an eviction notice?  how badly will this reflect on him at this point?  also, as the client is receiving disability benefits, why isn’t DSS delivering the benefit directly to the child, as opposed to reducing the client’s funds after payment is issued?

apart from this being a strange and convoluted system, it appears that something isn’t right with how child support is being garnished.

Tags: baltimore, day job, economy by editor
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spring has officially sprung here at let-off studios.  in this picture, our beloved editor poses with the easter bunny at a local shopping mall.

Tags: cycling, holidays, photos by editor
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from the editor:  in a second website update notice, also in development is let-off studios’ first-ever collaborative video game project.

guests at a recent gathering of friends in late february 2010 contributed sound effects and drawings to be used in an undetermined software project.  in the following week, the staff of let-off studios worked to digitally-transfer all the data into the multimedia fusion 2 software, and somehow come up with a working video game concept.   in PIGEON POWER, Esther the pigeon embarks on a mission of adventure and self-discovery that changes her life forever, and even alters the destiny of all pigeon-hood for eons to come.

PIGEON POWER is scheduled for release in late march 2010, marking roughly a month of full development time: all resources, game concept, and software development and testing.

crappy screenshot (actually a digital photograph of a gameplay screen) attached.

Tags: baltimore, free stuff, game-making, illustrations, personal by editor
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soon to be released from let-off studios is a series of notes based on daniel quinn’s novel ishmael.  it is a fiction novel widely touted as a “life-changing book” by many of those who read it.  the editor of let-off studios took it upon himself to take copious notes, not just on the summarization of the book, but also on its thematic and cultural content.  this zine will present these notes, serving not necessarily as a cliff’s notes version of quinn’s book, but more as an accessible, expansive companion to the work with an undeniable personal touch.

principal writing and composition is complete; this zine is slated to be published by mid-spring 2010, and will be a free publication available via download from let-off.com, as a hard copy distributed to various locations in baltimore, md, u.s.a., or delivered through postal mail by request.

Tags: books, free stuff, writing by editor
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