We're doing really well on the funding front right now, and I wanted to drop a full update on where things are at with HOUDINI. First off—we launched the radio station. And honestly, launching radio feels powerful. It's this thing we have to tend to, like fire. That's the best comparison I can make. Radio and fire—both are ancient technologies, and neither is obsolete. Not really. Sure, we're not all out here building open flame campfires, but we still use fire every day. Same with radio. You might not be spinning a dial, but 24/7 internet radio is very much alive.

And that's what we've built—something living. Something breathing. Right now, we've got live music coming in from London, some dance sets, and even some early talk radio and late-night horror programming in the works. But more than that, what matters is the autonomy. If something's happening—if we need to speak, to respond, to go live—we're not at the mercy of Zuckerberg's feed. We're not getting flagged, banned, or shadowbanned. We flip a switch and boom: live, uncensored, unfiltered. Our platform. Our voice. That's powerful.

We've also been getting submissions into the Zine-o-Rama, and I've gotta say, I'm loving the culture of creation we're fostering. That's one of the deepest beliefs I hold: creation is empowerment. It's one thing to consume, to scroll, to watch. But it's another thing entirely to make. And not everything has to be polished or perfect. Just make something. A sketch. A one-page zine. A few lines of poetry. That's how it starts. The act of doing—of learning by doing—is revolutionary. So far, over 25 people have joined, and we've gotten more than four submissions already. That tells me we're on the right path.

Site-wise, we've been hard at work too. We did some major overhauls this past week. There's a section called The Crypt—kind of like a dusty attic for all our old projects, experiments, and little digital ghosts. We've started digging through and reviving some of the better ones. One of those is Houdini TV, our DIY streaming zone. It's now got over a hundred shows and movies, all wrapped in that CRT/VHS aesthetic. You can watch the original Toonami broadcast of Broly on there. No joke. That kind of shit—it's small, yeah, but it's special. It's us using the tools we have to build something weird and beautiful.

We also revamped the Discord. It's growing every day. And—big deal here—we just published a massive feature by one of our longtime contributors, Cass. She's an environmental scientist out of the Midwest and spent months researching this piece called "A Soil Narrative". It dives into the Dust Bowl, what caused it, and what we didn't learn. It's deep, thorough, and not something that's usually in my personal wheelhouse, which is why it's so valuable. That's the kind of content we can produce when we've got time and trust in our contributors. Cass has been with us from the start, and seeing her work out in the world is a huge milestone.

We're also leaning into the collective part of HOUDINI Magazine in a big way. One of the newest projects is the Goth Night Flyer Project. Goth nights are huge in our community, and we've got four artists already on board, each submitting 3-6 flyer templates. These are free for venues to use—drop in band logos, event info, and go. It gets our artists' work into the broader scene while also encouraging folks to organize, to gather, to build third spaces that don't rely on corporate infrastructure.

This is all part of the vision: HOUDINI Magazine as a platform, a publication, a collective, a community. We're not funded by billionaires. We're working-class people trying to build a culture that doesn't need $20,000 in Instagram ads just to be seen.

So yeah—thank you. Seriously. From the bottom of our hearts. Every bit of support means the world. We're going to keep pushing. HOUDINI Magazine—always and forever.

We're going to make the miracle escape.