My life dream is to own a lot of land that I can devote to rescued animals-- factory farmed pigs, chickens, cows; abused horses; abandoned or feral cats and dogs.



Since moving to Chicago, I've started doing things with the Animal Defense League here. I'd taken a couple years off from political demonstrations because I was simply too busy with trying to finish my degree, so it feels really good to be back! Come out and join us EVERY Saturday, 2-4pm at the Chicago Fur Mart (700 N. Michigan) and give a voice to those who are brutally imprisoned and murdered!

Already, in these few weeks, I've seen a lot of things to keep me going. An older woman, in her sixties, coming up to me and telling me, "Thank you for doing this." Getting a group of middle school boys fired up with our cause so that they hold up signs and chant with us while their fathers are shopping in the mall. Knowing that an employee of the fur shop quit her job because what we said had an impact on her (she came out and told us afterward). The demonstrations are every Saturday, from 2-4pm at the Chicago Fur Mart, so if you're in Chicago (to live or just for a visit), come show us support and be a part of the change!

A few of us also just started an animal rights Radical Cheerleaders team, so if you're interested in different ways of protesting, come out and meet with us (for now we're just doing ADL events).

When I'm not protesting, I'm listening to music. There are a lot of great political, usually veg bands out there. I happen to listen to a large number of them. These are my top five veg bands:

The Weakerthans - my favorite band of all time. John K. Samson is vegan, not sure about the others. But the music is just... amazing. And Samson used to be in...

Propagandhi - very political, very punk, very in-your-face about it. Absolutely no apologies. I believe that all members are vegan, but it might be half vegan/half vegetarian.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Swedish. Songs about social reform. Some songs aren't overtly political, but others make up for it.

Rise Against - quickly becoming my #2 band, knocking out Tsar of the last seven years. Very political and very punk, but not as in-your-face as Propagandhi. Half vegan and half vegetarian, I think. They do a lot to get the word out to their fans.

I hope to get a good selection of their songs up soon so I'll have a wonderfully animal rights themed playlist going on... but that might take a while as my external hard drive, where I keep most of my albums, crashed.