like, call me back in the morning when I might know if we still *have* a roof!

Parts of our city had big hail around 5pm. I just answered a random cold call to our land line that nobody uses and it was somebody offering to do a roof inspection. It’s 7pm.

The storm is still an ongoing concern. Literally tornado sirens went off right before the phone rang.

I print with hand-set letterpress type. I have sometimes taken to calling this “analog” printing to contrast it with “digital,” even though the way I print makes extensive use of my fingers, and so is much more digital in the original sense than the computer-driven process that is analogous to it.

Poster screen printed in a single color (reddish brown). It shows a factory at the top with a line of people existing out the right side to the bottom of the poster where they are cared for by a conveyor belt of women, then the enter the left side of the factory.

See Red Women’s Workshop, Capitalism Also Depends on Domestic Labor screen print, London, 1975
⁠
In 1974, a group of feminist artists founded the See Red Women’s Workshop to address gender issues such as capitalism’s reliance on unpaid homekeeping and childrearing.

#IWD #InternationalWomensDay

Every now and then I think to myself, “*cool ranch* triloritos” and then I have to go reread this story again.

Ok, here’s a proof of the 2nd layer, which adapts a broadside published in April of 1854 to warn Black residents of Boston about slave-catchers in the city, following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act www.nps.gov/articles/000...

If you do, I recommend doing two very different point sizes so there’s no risk of mixing them up if your subdivisions fail (or you just get sloppy redistributing)

I’m donating 75% of the sales of these prints through Feb. 14 to community support efforts in the Twin Cities (the rest will help keep me in ink, paper, and necessary supplies to keep printing). Use coupon ICEOUT to get $9 off any 3 of them.

Three letterpress posters on a slightly snowy sidewalk, they read “Ice is a safety hazard and must be removed,” “Remove ice promptly to prevent dangerous build up,” and “If you are unable to remove ice in front of your home ask your neighbors for help”. All three say “A Public Safety Message” at the top and “We Keep Us Safe” at the bottom.

These Public Safety Messages were inspired by the messages I get from my city after every snowfall, and from the community care demonstrated all across the Midwest by neighbors helping each other dig out after winter storms, and the amazing ways Minnesotans are extending that care right now. #iceout

otherwise I like val’s method, especially for smaller point sizes, although honestly most of my cases are in the same jumbles that I inherited.

I tried using chipboard cut to fit across the diagonal to sub-divide compartments when I am double-stacking a case, or when there is a font that has alternative sorts for some letters (looking at you, Kabel/Sans Serif Light), but I was unsatisfied with the result. This seems like a better method!

[Michael Stipe voice]: Here’s an ICE stop inside of St. Peter

The Minnesota Center for Book Arts is an amazing place, and a core institution supporting & promoting letterpress printmaking in the Midwest. I know there’s a lot of need for all kinds of support out there right now, but would be awesome if the #letterpress community would help them out right now!

2026 Wayzgoose?
In Chicago?
Word!

It’s about time for the printers to get together again.

Starshaped Press and I are planning Wayzgoose ORD (WORD) in Chicago this November 2026.

WayzgooseORD.com

We’d sure love to see you there!

#letterpress #wayzgooseord

Let’s get free.

Yay yay yay!

Wood type in a composing stick that says ‘WORD’ with a Chicago star. Image is reversed to be easier to read.

Community is everything and printers know that well. So @blountben.bsky.social & I are leading the charge to host WayzgooseORD (WORD) here in Chicago. It’s a new gathering for the print community to share their shops, knowledge and friendship. More info: wayzgooseord.com

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

-W. H. Auden

The federal government is gunning people down in the streets, lying about what happened and then preventing any independent investigation of the killings

I want the Truth and Consequences commission to be so memorable people assume they named the town in New Mexico after it fellowtravelersblog.com/2018/03/13/a...

pointing at the hamburger menu icon in the top left hand corner of a mobile bluesky app screen

settings menu option circled

content and media menu option circled

autoplay videos and gifs toggled off

to turn off autoplaying video on the bluesky mobile app

select the icon in the top left corner

go to settings

go to content and media

make sure "autoplay videos and gifs" is toggled off

‘I had a lot of equipment and ink and I was very very angry’ is a beautiful sentence in this context ( @dansinker.com I think you’ll appreciate this one)

Most of the people I saw saying a general strike couldn't just be spun up out of nowhere were right. I don't think any other place could pull this off right now. The Twin Cities built a citywide support system on every front in like 6 weeks, they are doing the ridiculous backwards in heels.

If this works tomorrow, it won't be because a general strike is easier than we all thought.

It will be because the twin cities went all in on community and built a path to a place the rest of us still can't reach... Yet.

The first of a series of Public Safety Messages inspired by the emails my city sends out before and after every snowfall, and also by the current situation in the Twin Cities.

#letterpress #abolishICE #iceoutofMN

I have genuinely thought to myself multiple times over the last year that Stephen Miller et al. found themselves in Omelas they'd be looking for more kids to torture to see if that would make things even better.

The other thing is, in 2020, the locus of anger was internal, which is destabilizing. But this time, we ARE UNDER ATTACK. We are INVADED. All my neighbors are friends. All the feds are the enemy. No one wants to turn their rage on local streets or businesses; we are, specifically, protecting them.

One thing that people don't understand is that the community base opposing ICE is extremely committed to avoiding anything that could trigger rioting, I think largely because of the 2020 experience. Trump thinks he can redo 2020 but shoot the protesters this time, but Minneapolis isn't the same.

Abolish ICE