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All good things must come to an end

  
  

Page: 12(3)45

 
 
sTe
23:05 / 21.12.12
Thanks to everyone for the good times, the learning, the laughter and everything really! Such a pleasure to see this thread today, and am feeling quite inspired by some of the updates. Happy new world one and all!
 
 
Tom Coates
23:32 / 21.12.12
I suppose I should really tell all of you guys what I've been up to. The story of this one is particularly long so I'll abbreviate a lot of it. Doing Barbelith among other things got me properly involved in online communities, as well as helped me enormously by keeping me going through some of my darkest times and making me feel useful when various jobs ... did not. Plus post leaving my PhD I was not always particularly happy about the way my brain was being used. Being on Barbelith helped me a hell of a lot there, as well as helping me learn some fairly unpleasant things about how communities can go horribly wrong, some of the tensions between productive/creative/fun and being absolutely free and irresponsible. Along with that, came a hell of a lot of brilliant stuff. I met loads of interesting people elsewhere through Barbelith and the intersection of that with the UK and US weblogging communities. I started getting jobs in the tech industry basically because of that community and taking part in it all.

Whatever it is now - like thirteen years on - I've had amazing ups and downs. Working at Time Out was hard but worth it, until one day it wasn't. Working at the BBC was astonishing. Working at Yahoo had some of the biggest peaks and troughs of my life to death. Moving to San Francisco was terrifying, but I think absolutely the best thing I've done in a decade. Now I have my own little company, I have some of the best friends that I could imagine, and I get to think and talk and write (occasionally) about the shape of the world to come - always in the back of my head the weird creativity, and the mix of brilliant intellectual and community thrills (and harsh lessons) that keeping Barbelith going (and participating, obviously) have given me.

Bizarrely at the end of it all, I'm more optimistic about people than ever. Individual humans are aspirational, positive people - looking to open up their lives, do more things, explore and be thrilled by the world around them. The instutions that surround us are often rather more broken than the individuals inside them, and they can create vicious circles of impotence, rage and frustration. But—possibly unlike twelve years ago—I now also believe that they can be supports and struts and ways for individuals to collaborate to make something together that they could never have done alone. Bizarrely, Barbelith—one of the places online that has been traditionally most uncomfortable with leaders, structure and formal politics—was one of the things that showed me how great the world can be when good people try to work together for the good of each other, formalising what's necessary, but generally just fighting culturally for a friendly, supportive and open discussion.

Thanks to all of you guys for that - for putting up with me when it all got a bit much and I couldn't balance my life and career with keeping this place as great as it should have always been, for inspiring me to raise my goals a little higher, for keeping a space in my brain for the weirder and more mischievous ideas that keep us going through the tedious night, and most of all for just being generally decent, inspiring, honest, thoughtful, brilliant people.
 
 
iamus
23:36 / 21.12.12
*Standing Ovation*
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
23:55 / 21.12.12
*even though INCREDIBLY lazy and proper drunk, gets out of chair to ovate (is that even a fucking word? Clap, anyway)*

(Genuinely actually did that in real life).

Proper applause.

You know what (apart from the awesome people) really set Barbelith aside from any other online community I've been a part of since? Party the distributed modding. But MOSTLY the Policy forum. THAT, my friend, was a stroke of genius. Transparency writ large. And something that nobody ever seems to steal. AND IT WAS THE BEST BIT!!!
 
 
Still Decrescent
00:11 / 22.12.12
Amen.

(And further applause.)
 
 
in order to form a more Perfect Tommy
02:59 / 22.12.12
It's not quite the 22nd, but I couldn't stand it and just had to finish re-reading Vol3#1 a few minutes ago. I feel covered in pictures and feelings.

Time and change are tricky so who can say, but I believe I'd be a lot less interesting now if it weren't for that comic, and this place. Literary theory! Queer theory! Anarchism! Marxism! Classics! A politics more Left than "Vote Democrat"! And that's not even the Temple, where I learned that magic was cool and useful but that "quit whining and adapt" was the appropriate incantation for 24-year-old Tommy!

Today, I'm a mathematician, I'm a capoeirista, I'm working on my first book (virally funded--I use the enn-eh-mee), and it's about rules and constraints and games and control, because I want to feed the message back into the system. Next, it'll be data science and machine learning over at the local branch office of Technoccult; after that, I'd like to figure out the true mathematics of Money, a 1-dimensional being forcing its way into our universe from a mathematically perfect reality...

Maybe you can't rewrite your personality, but thanks to the Invisibles and Barbelith, I believed I could, and discovered a self I could live with. Free will? Destiny? Same difference.

Thanks, Tom, for being a gracious host, and thank all of you lovely weirdos for being such strange aunts and uncles.
 
 
Sekhmet
05:13 / 22.12.12
The Barbelith Years have a golden-age glow in my memory. I actually think I was smarter back then. Barbelith certainly made me think in ways and about things I never would have done otherwise.

I miss this place.
 
 
Still Decrescent
05:25 / 22.12.12
Anyone Barbelith didn't make better wasn't really here.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
08:08 / 22.12.12
Very true...

Weird. I'm still in touch with most of my favourite 'lithers elsewhere on the internets, but this thread just feels comfier.
 
 
Anna de Logardiere
08:09 / 22.12.12
Writing this is almost questionable for me and I am sitting debating whether I post the reply or not. I'm not sure what the purpose is because this is not a love letter, a testimony or a discussion of something that is taking place. This is no analysis of ideology and I have always been better at throwing one glass brick than chatting here. Still here it is-

I no longer mourn the loss of Barbelith in my life but for years I missed the exchange and examination of cultural incidents. I think what is happening in the UK politically is so harrowing that I do not want to talk about it with the people who would have been inclined to dig their teeth in to it here. It would have made it worse not better to face that reality and have it confirmed by everyone and that is probably why I stopped missing this site because we are helpless and they are taking advantage of the vulnerable to save money which is more of a human construct than our bodies.

I have two children and my life is very intimate, I don't work for money, I'm a charity trustee, I'm involved in local politics, sadly I still own no Prada. I go to the Labour Conference. The woman who I was thinks it's hilarious particularly because I'm happy. It's the not having to deal with idiots everyday. I still hate sentimentality and the type of men who used to post here about how nice they were even though they were misogynists. I still do most of my Christmas shopping in November.

It is hard for me to say if I would be the person I am now without Barbelith or not. I suspect I have come full circle back to where I may have been without it but it certainly made me a more thoughtful, (even) more radical person than I might have been. I'm forever thankful for the understanding of identity politics I got here which has stood me in good stead with the people I've met in my everyday existence. I think Barbelith made me more understanding, less tolerant and more militant. Stronger or perhaps that was simply the effect on me of the people I met through this site.

Mostly I got some good friends. Quite a few of them are people I'm more likely to see then talk to online these days which really is brilliant.
 
 
Seth
08:39 / 22.12.12
Hey everyone. Long time no see.

I live in Bristol now. I'm a husband (again), a dad, I have the same old public sector job I always had (just in a different place) and I run two websites - my music at sethcooke.eu and a collective webzine at bangthebore.org.

The forum on bangthebore.org was initially modelled on Barbelith and Liminal Nation. I tried, and failed, to recreate what was, for a time, the best place on the internet.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
09:56 / 22.12.12
I googled my name and Barbelith just last week, when I was being interviewed for a scholarly article about writing and gender ~ how strange and unsettling to see my long thread about assault come up, from 2006! Barbelith was, with hindsight, a very important arena for me in terms of exploring identity (as well as discussing comics and stuff), and I doubt I would currently be embracing my wonderstarr-ness without having been accepted so widely and welcomed so warmly as a girl on here, for many years.
 
 
Boboss
10:11 / 22.12.12
(No time to write at the mo', but I will return...)
 
 
doom_bean_xk
11:21 / 22.12.12
I was in London for this last Halloween meeting up with some of my best friends for one of the most magical, celebratory, madcap evenings of my life. Every one of those people I had met on Barbelith.

My memory is notoriously poor, so I tend to work backwards. My life is absolutely better because of Halloween, and that is bound inexplicably to how amazing Liminal Nation is, which is in existence because of how much many of us loved Barbelith at its best. The Invisibles was fun to read, however its impact on my life is measurable mostly in the existence of this community and the Chaos Magic interest of my spouse's younger self that lead him to point me here (and his interest in magic in general).


I'm going to be publishing a fiction novel in '13 that would not exist without the help of several 'Lithers / LNers. I'm looking at Princess in particular who has grown up to be an extraordinary person. Iamus, who poked me with a stick to come post today, is one of my absolute best friends and the most fun to shove off things when I'm soused in Glasgow. I cannot imagine life without Grant and Gypsy who have been teaching me huge things. Everyone else I can think of has a shout out in the Crushing thread on LN. You'd be surprised at how many names are the same as from when we were all here.


I'd like to thank Tom for all of his effort and work and all of the mods and folks who kept the 'Lith alive long enough for me to get in. Without this place, I would not have so many of my amazing friends or my amazing online community of critical thinking, ass kicking, multi talented magicians.


Liminal Nation is application based, but the admission policy has always been pro Barbelith alum as the Trustees are mostly fond of their former board mates. Not all of the topics are viewable without login and as MC mentioned, it is a wider range than just Temple-y topics these days.

We even have Lateshift as a hidden members only section. http://liminalnation.org/discuss

Thank you very much, and I sincerely hope everyone (especially Tom!) continues to enjoy the benefits of Barbelith's legacy.
 
 
Ye ever reliable The KNowledge
11:53 / 22.12.12
Pics - then and now!

It's like 'That Life' in here.
 
 
Ye ever reliable The KNowledge
12:02 / 22.12.12
I came back one day and the borad was deahly silent. When did it happen? And more importantly why?
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
12:42 / 22.12.12
Yes; in contrast to most fora, much of LN's Serious Sensible Discussions are public while the noodly/chatty bits are behind the login curtain.

This thread, it is hitting me right in the feels. When I first got involved here few places, online or off, had ever given me the kind of acceptance and support that I found on Barbelith. It was such a relief not to feel like a complete alien all of the time.

I would be lying if I said I didn't have bad times here; some of the negative experiences were so ugly as to verge on the traumatic. At its best, though, Barbelith was an incredible place to come and learn: to be confronted with genuine intellectual challenges, encouraged to question assumptions; and assisted in formulating defences for the things that matter to me so that I can hold space for them in the world more effectively. It taught me that my deeply-held ideals might not be "sacred cows" or "shibboleths" that I needed to cast aside after all, but genuine and meaningful principles that were worth sticking up for.

In particular, Barbelith gave me the tools to dig into and examine my own privilege, something which is at the core of doing the kind of work that I want to do in this world and something I probably wouldn't have learned to do particularly well on my own.

It was also on Barbelith that I learned to pick up my magical work and shake it; to question the prevailing wisdom on certain concepts and especially to question the prevailing wisdom on what constitutes "the prevailing wisdom".

As for the "where are they now" bit: yeah, well... wish I could offer a narrative of accomplishment and ongoing development, but things don't always work out the way you hope. Things are pretty bleak and I see no terribly convincing narrative in which they get better.

But I have faith in chaos: if carefully-laid plans can explode into disaster, inescapable decline can surely come off the rails as well.
 
 
Twig the Wonder Kid
12:54 / 22.12.12
Logging in for the first time in 10 years and I remembered my username & password first time. This alone an indication of how deeply this site was furrowed into my brain.

Many happy memories of pre-millennial banter, back when it used to be the Nexus, and deeper post-millennial philosophising when it became Barbelith. I remember the place as a great intellectual masked ball, where people of unusual depth attempted to work out the world, hidden behind ridiculous fiction suits.

Did any of us succeed?

Is there a directory that matches usernames to real life identities? Or are these things best left secret? I'd love to see where some of my fave posters ended up, but fear the normal flesh housing the brain I used to debate with could only be disappointing.

I'm happy to pull off my mask now though. TTWK was, and still is, this guy:

http://zenbullets.com
http://twitter.com/zenbullets

Me. Matt.

I never did say goodbye. Just drifted off. So glad to see so many turn out for this joint funeral. Rest In Peace all you dead fictionsuits.

p.s. For the enjoyment of the early adopters - there was a time, around when the Nexus went down and Barbelith rose from its grave, that I took a dump of the board and uploaded it to some free webspace. Remarkably, 13 years later, the free webspace provider still exists and those pages are still being served: http://wonderkid.4t.com/nexus.html
 
 
Laughing
14:47 / 22.12.12
It's been a while, Barbelith. I hope you've been well. I've missed you.

You helped me when I was down, Barbelith, many times, and you didn't ask for anything in return. I want to thank you for that.

Overall I don't think you'd be especially proud of how my life turned out, the opportunities I ran away from and the mistakes I never should have had the chance to make, but I like to think you'd give me that long-suffering sigh and a parental pat on the head and say something like "It's all right then, I know how hard you've tried".

I'm still trying, Barbelith. Please don't ever think I've stopped trying.
 
 
Ye ever reliable The KNowledge
15:42 / 22.12.12
Well I went travelling the arse-end of 2002 and loved it. Ten months of blissful freedom roaming the globe.

I came back and took a job with British Airways, which was eventful, to say the least. I met a bunch of famous people, highlights being Gary Glitter and Tony Hart, and that bloke of Eastenders who had AIDS but got cured.

I was then fired for gross misconduct and abruptly abandoned in Kingston, not Kingston-Upon-Thames, unfortunately, but Kingston, Jamaica. I spent four months on a trawler boat trying to get home but that got hijacked by pirates in Somalia and a long stint in a slave camp ensued. I learnt some hard lessons there, particularly with regards to property and what happens when you lay claim to something that isn’t yours. I am writing this one-handed.

But ever the optomist I struggled on, through various infestations, male patten baldness and a rare skin disease that’s like a cross between eczema and thrush. The British embassy eventually deemed to lend a hand (no irony intended) and got me home, where my girlfriend in waiting who I expected to be on high form in Heathrow arrivals lounge turned out to be a lowly six feet under, having chosen to divorce her head from her neck the previous Summer, in a nasty reverse-guillotine incident that I won’t go into here.

I spent a few years on the dole, managed to score a nice council flat in Bryntywood, and started in earnest on my memoirs. I was mugged twice, lost an eye in a nasty writing accident, and my parents stopped speaking to me.

After an early midlife crisis I decided to say fuck it and travel once more. Volunteering at an orphanage in Ethiopia, I made my way there on a cruise ship as a janitor. “Calo, the one-eyed, one-armed pirate janitor” was what my co-workers cruelly nicknamed me, but I had the last laugh when the same Somalian pirates from 2004 raided the ship and slaughtered them all, but on remembering me took me back to Tyccartnu slave camp where I spent another long stint getting to know my duties once more and developing permanent backache and gonorhea.

I recently returned to the UK and have just been told my benefits are about to be stopped.

But I try to keep smiling and look on the bright side.

Does anyone else here ever feel like giving up?
 
 
SMatthewStolte
16:00 / 22.12.12
Yes.
 
 
Imaginary Mongoose Solutions
17:04 / 22.12.12
The non-Barbelith years have been brutal but so were the "Barbelith years" so you take what you can get.

"Barbelith made me a better thinker. Period. I had never (and will probably never) find an online environment that made me check my own head, choose my words, and examine my assumptions as much as Barbelith did. Sometimes this was agonizing; often, the relentless drive to "unpack" every statement was hella irritating. But overall, it moved me from a generally lazy Internet conversationalist to a much better critical thinker. "

This is so true and will always be a lasting legacy of this place in my heart. I learned a lot about how to look at and dismantle Big Ideas here. I also found a coterie of like-minded souls when I needed them, and honestly, I should probably credit the Nexus/"`lith" for curbing a lot of my more irritating magickal practices.

Let's see, not too long ago I sold off my belongings and drove West from my little midwestern enclave and set up shop in the SF Bay Area. I still do freelance work, but also have a day job at a bay area tech firm.

Never have I been more involved in an online community as much as I was this one. Made lifelong friends and got to share virtual space with some extraordinary minds. It's been an honor and a pleasure. And to be perfectly honest, I miss it at times. Thanks to everyone who made this place amazing, but of course extra thanks to Tom as well for keeping this place moving.

I'm still about as @moonandserpent on twitter

Wow, I'm actually getting a bit teary. Anyway, in short this was a wonderful place that I found at just the right time in my life. I hope that everyone involved has amazing journeys ahead of them.
 
 
beautifultoxin
17:34 / 22.12.12
I made the same bargain some of you did: if I remembered my password on the first try, I would post.

Barbelith was the context for the risks I took that make me feel like a somewhat put-together person today: writing on the internet, making a job out of talking and changing politics and sex and technology (and magic – sure, sometimes, maybe). Finding my people along the way.

What else? There was that time I was working as a tech reporter and was assigned to cover the launch of a product that Tom worked on. At least ten years had passed then since the original Barbelith site (scrolling iframes, y'all). The launch party was at a bar that used to be a bathhouse, and was sometimes a dance club with a "mod night" where they would play Kula Shaker between Smokey Robinson and T-Rex. When I saw Tom, I introduced myself to him as someone he didn't know but loved this place. I hope I'm not the only one who ever did that.

I just noticed up there in the header that I have an unread private message, from Mono:

"Hey there! There is a thread going about Sacred Prostitution in the Temple at the moment...don't know if you even check around here anymore, but thought I'd let you know."

She and I met in college. Eventually she went off to London, I went to San Francisco (post-college, writing, camgirling, writing, labor organizing, building websites, writing), and when I moved to New York (writing, writing, writing, finally), I met someone from Chicago who knew her in London.

So sometimes I feel like I'm still surrounded by this place.

And that's not just because Barbelith is still a decent segment of my Twitter feed, as evidenced by the feels you all were getting last night then this kicked off:

https://twitter.com/barbelith

I don't really want to know who that is. But it showed up, like this did, at just the right time, with just enough humor about itself. And in that way maybe it's eternal. The nostalgia was built in from the start.
 
 
illmatic
18:43 / 22.12.12
Hello all

Nice to see this conversation going. Thought I'd say hello.

I've long since shook off the shit and frustrating job I had when I first began posting here and built myself an decent career in education. I have given up magic, started doing it again, then given it up and started again. Then I gave it again, and started doing it properly. I've also watched someone I met through here go fucking batshit crazy so that was a a salutary tale. Am pleased to say I'm finally in Reichian therapy and it continues to astonish me and make me wish I'd taken it up 20 years ago.

One reason I was initially attracted to this board was I was aware it had a social side and that worked out just great. I am still in touch with many of the people I met through here. In fact, I've been Best Man at two Barbelith-related weddings (one I kinda didn't make it to but that's a story for another day). Both of these weddings have led to progeny so the Children of Barbelith literally walk the Earth (or crawl it, more accurately). I met many of my best friends through here and one long-term partner and we had a wonderful time together. We still have mini old school Barbemeets every now and then, and I'm pleased to say we had some AWESOME Liminal Nation boozing fun a few months back which reminded me of those happy times.

Thanks to all who made it possible.

I miss not writing regularly, I'm sure it made me brain grow.
 
 
grant
22:15 / 22.12.12
Twig! T\/\/IG!

The first thing I open is a post by me with a quote I'd forgotten from a comic Ganesha sent me. (Had an "-a" at the end then.)

13 years ago. Rizla's on there as 70sman. Whoa.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
22:25 / 22.12.12
When I first started reading the Invisibles in the 90s, I imagined that by 2012 I would be some sort of mod witchdoctor, having occult adventures in bespoke 60s tailoring, perhaps married to a beautiful New Orleans Voodoo queen, and writing books about my adventures. However, real life does not always go according to plan, and I still have about 30,000 words left to write on the book.
 
 
pigeon toucher
22:44 / 22.12.12
I should have been here. I should have spent my online-teenage years here instead of fucking newgrounds.
 
 
Seth
22:46 / 22.12.12
You cranked out around ten top mixtapes to make up for it, though.

(edit - in reply to GL)
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
22:57 / 22.12.12
Well, hello.

It's been a while.

Personally, I've been married, divorced and last week appear to have bought a house. While I'm sure that'll make some f say HETERONORMATIVITY PAH I at least, these days, am aware of it. And it's a great house. Not as great as that coat, but you can't have everything.

After a spectacular flan-in-a-cupboard meltdown and leaving of the UK, I tried to keep up with this place. I couldn't. Though this place was never about physical proximity (though the pints were great) I felt the lack if London (and its people) pretty keenly. So I stopped visiting. Sometimes you can't go back home. But I think hanging around here made me able to do that. Painful, annoying but influential and character-building all the same.

I'm aware there's a tendency that, once someone or something is dead, to never refer to them negatively. (My phone insists we elderberry them negatively, which is actually better than the comment I was going to make so...)

Now, I know more and much less than I did then, but I'm open to lots of what goes on. Had great times, had shit times, and took up taiko which provided me with the transformative experience so many of you talked about and I envied so long. (I was in a team that won an international competition in Japan which is still a bit like something in a comic, to be honest.)

So I guess that it's taken me a long time to reach what the Invisibles and all the people here were trying to say: that you make things happen. That all that stops you is you. That being a work in progress is ok and that if you will it, it'll happen. Maybe more slowly or slightly differently than you'd thought, but there you go.

So, thanks.
 
 
Rex Cityzen
23:59 / 22.12.12
I have missed you all and this place so very much.
 
 
Unencumbered
12:56 / 23.12.12
Funnily enough I was reminiscing about Barbelith with someone last weekend. Thanks for the good times, Tom.
 
 
Olulabelle
16:11 / 23.12.12
Mixmage and I got married, had a child called Solomon who is now 4, trained as Goldsmiths and now run our own business Magnus & Bella. In 2011 were short listed for New Designer of the Year at the UK Jewellery Awards.

Because of Poppy (Persephone) I took up roller derby and now play for the Birmingham Blitz Dames, number 15 in Europe. I also coach roller derby.

Some of the people I met here have turned out to be lifelong friends, more so even than people I went to school with. I loved this board and I wish it was still the place it once was.
 
 
ana.carolina
16:22 / 23.12.12
Hi!

Today, particularly, I felt like visiting Barbelith again, after many years, for no reason other than checking the music forum.

What a surprise running into this last thread by Tom, started 2 days ago!

I think Barbelith was responsible for my meeting some of the most interesting people around, and making friends with them. Barbelith can also be accounted for some unique experiences I've had in this life. And it was my portal to London, kinda.

Some of the old names are still here Good to see you all!

It's like saying hello to the old me, while at the same time knowing that it's all in the past, and being glad for it (today, I'd probably write on the music or the literature forums, and leave all those magick/spiritual/religious things alone, heh...)

Hope you're all doing fine, that life's been treating you well. I'd like to finish with that old Bill Hicks line: "It's just a ride".

Thank you Tom, thank you everyone!!!

Ana Carolina aka morrigan aka screaming pacha, from Brasil.
 
 
Dead Megatron
19:15 / 23.12.12
Megsie speaking here

Barbelith was my great introduction to online forums and it is still the best one I ever joined. "Come for the magick, stay for the people', you know...

I miss Hauss, Mordant Carnival, Ganesha, and many others who taught me a lot even when I was irritating the shit out of them. Noawadays I have twitter for me to vent stupid one-liners that occur to me, and facebook for any ego trip I might feel like entertaining, so I believe I could have been a much less annoying poster now.

I miss Kali, because she was sweet. I miss Mad Scientist becau he was funny. I miss Adventures of the Little People. I miss any thread that had to do with beards or STRONG TRUTHS. I miss the Temple.

As for where I am in life now, I have to confess I still pretty much feel like the same guy, despite the decade or so gone by. Now I have my own place, my own career as a free-lancing translator. I'm beginning to feel like writing science fiction and fantasy again. And I don't have to count the cents for everything anymore.

Got my heart broken a couple of times along the way, but that beat the hell out of not having a heart at all. Still believing

Also, is it me or Grant Morrison went from being the voice of our generation to kind of a jerk? Not a Frank Miller-level jerk, but still...
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
20:33 / 23.12.12
Finally in front of a keyboard rather than looking at this on my phone so I can write a longer response. Barbelith, and specifically the Temple, was where I found my voice as a writer. Not just stylistically, but through the process of thinking critically about magical practice and trying to bring some of the rigour of the other forums to bear on my particular field of interest. Unpacking and examining the cliches, received ideas and assumptions of occultism - while always retaining the magic itself, the numinous quality, the heart and soul of what it is and why we do it.

Since then, I've had various essays and articles published in a range of books. My first published work came directly out of a friendship forged on Barbelith, when I contributed several essays to the anthology Generation Hex published by Disinformation in 2005. Obviously (for anyone who was watching this space at the time) that particular story had an unpleasant and somewhat upsetting ending - and those are old wounds I have no wish to reopen - but I went on from there to have more published work.

Essays on ancestor veneration for Dreamflesh Journal, several essays in books published by Scarlet Imprint, most recently in the anthology 'At the Crossroads' that came out this year. An article on the influence of African Diaspora magico-religious traditions on popular music for Strange Attractor Journal 4, and various other things besides. Along with regular speaking gigs at venues around London including the ICA, an appearance at the Green Man music festival, and the occassional DJ gig playing from my extensive collection of Voodoo records.

I also co-created Liminal Nation with XK and Grant, which was originally like the life raft from the Temple. It's fairly active and has since diversified to cover subjects beyond the occult stuff as per Barbelith - and lots of former Barbelith people post there. We have an admissions policy to keep out the trolls and problem characters, but it's actually pretty relaxed in practice as long as you're not a nutter and explain who you are and what your interest is.

Meanwhile I got married to someone who I didn't actually meet through Barbelith per se, but who I did meet via mutual friends who I knew from Barbelith. Illmatic was the best man at my wedding. I became a father this year, and I'm about to emigrate to New Orleans in 2013 with my wife and daughter.

I've been working on a book, provisionally titled 'Dub Seance' about my experiences of Voodoo and magic in London and New Orleans. In some ways I hope that it picks up the flaming torch that led me to Barbelith and carries it on in a new direction relevant to the times we find ourselves in. I still have a bit left to write but I'll hopefully get it wrapped up next year.

If anyone is interested in the direction of my work, I wrote this seven part essay on the occult landscape of London for Seth's Bang the Bore webzine - illustrated with photographs taken on city drifts and with an accompanying mix to go with each section:

http://www.bangthebore.org/archives/2024

I'm a fairly infrequent twitter user @gypsylantern mostly due to a crappy android phone that can't really cope with it, but I may remedy that at some point. I'm quite active on facebook though and generally accept freind requests if there's an obvious connection or shared interest.
 
  

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