Book-It's Prairie Nocturne is a knock out

Reviewed by Michael Dare

"A story wants to be told a certain way, or it is merely the alphabet badly recited. At the right time the words borrow us, so to speak, and then out can come the unsuspected sides of things with the force like that of music.”
- Ivan Doig

The dialogue is rarely the best part of a novel. In-between the quotes, the novelist is telling you what one of their characters is saying, but outside the quotes is the author stripped bare and entirely dependent upon their particular use of language. If a character says something the reader disagrees with, they could end up hating the character, but if the TEXT says something the reader disagrees with, they could end up hating the author.

All novelists provide perspective, good ones a perspective unique to themselves, and great ones a perspective simultaneously unique and universal. Ivan Doig is one of the great ones, and I can say that despite the fact I've never read a single word he's written, because I have seen Book-It Repertory's new production of Prairie Nocturne.

I don't know how I missed him but strangely enough, I'm glad I did, because what better way to get turned on to an author than through a Book-It production. If you close your eyes, it's like a book on tape - a bunch of actors are reading a book to you - and if it's a good book, you'll keep listening. Open your eyes and there they are, in costume, on a stage, still reading to you, but going in and out of character as the book demands, sometimes doing accents and pantomime, surrounded by state of the art stagecraft, where the slightest change of set and lighting moves you instantaneously from a mountain cabin to a riverboat going down a canyon to a limousine going down the street, they give you just enough to picture it in your mind's eye, but never too much to distract from the language of the storytelling.

This time, director Laura Ferri and adaptor Elena Hartwell invite us back to the 20s in Montana to investigate the relationship between Susan, a music instructor, and the two men who love her, Monty, a singing student, and Wesley, a cattle tycoon who brought Monty to her in the first place. The triangle is complicated by the fact Wesley's married (to a wife we never meet), and Monty is black, the Klu Klux Klan is on the rampage, and he's a mama's boy. Luckily, his mama filled him with a spirit of gospel that blessed him with a voice and repertory for the ages, taking him from the backwoods of Montana all the way to Carnegie Hall. (Monty has a real-life counterpart, Taylor Gordon, who actually did go from Montana to Carnegie Hall in the 20's. Doig says "I tape-recorded his memories of those times not long before he died, familyless, in 1971, and his papers and other Harlem Renaissance archival holdings are rich with detail," details he uses to fill the book with authenticity.)

Myra Platt, as Susan, is more talented than anyone has a right to be. She not only blazes through some excellent Chopin, she co-wrote the original music to Ivan Doig's lyrics with Theresa Holmes. Despite the flashiness of the other characters, when you start wondering who this is really about, it all comes down to her, and we become as much her pupils as Monty.

Shawn Belyea does the best he can with the thankless role of Wesley, the good natured gentleman whose relationship with Susan was in the past, and who doesn't get to do much but be a man and relive the love of his life without ever reconsumating it, but Geoffery Simmons get a real star turn as Monty. With Denzel's good looks and sensitivity, plus a magnificent singing voice, watching his rise from rodeo clown (really!) to tuxedoed solo artist is totally engrossing.

Special props to Faith Russell as Angeline, Monty's mom, who not only gets one spectacular solo number in a church at the end of act one, but has one of my favorite moments of the evening, a moment I'm always looking for in a Book-It production, a moment uniquely theirs.

In the book, every time Monty sings, he's infused with the spirit of his mother, so at his first singing lesson, when he first opens up and reveals the strength of his vocal cords, she's stage left singing with him, backing him up, giving him the encouragement he needs. Obviously she doesn't do that in the book. In the movie, they might have done something schmaltzy, like in the Lion King, have his dead mother appear in the clouds to sing with him, but here, it's a subtle touch, a translation of the spirit of the book as well as the actual words. Only Book-it could have pulled it off.

February 7 - March 4, 2012

Previews: February 7, 8, 9
Opening Night: Friday, February 10


Center House Theatre, Seattle Center
Evening shows begin at 7:30pm
Matineés begin at 2:00pm

Buy Tickets Online or through the box office: 206.216.0833.

Open letter to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

Mayor Mike McGinn

Seattle City Hall

600 Fourth Ave., 7th Floor

Seattle, WA 98104

January 12, 2012

Michael Dare

Seattle City Hall

600 Fourth Ave., The Peninsula

Seattle, WA 98104

michael@dareland.com

Mr. Mayor,

Occupy Seattle has been occupying your front doorstep at City Hall for three months now, the longest permitted occupation in America so I'm told, which is something we have to be proud of. Though some of Occupy's clashes with the police have been horrendous, Occupy City Hall, simply through attrition, has become a role model for occupy/anything, which is strange because we haven't really done anything other than outlast the rest. That's about to end as our permit will not be renewed and we have to be out by Friday night.

Since your invitation was open ended, I'm wondering what happened this week for the city to withdraw its permission for us to occupy our small slice of City Hall. It seems capricious, unless you also consider that the only other Occupy site in town, a house on 23rd, was also shut down this week. When the trucks come to remove whatever's left of our encampment at City Hall at 7AM this Saturday morning, that will be the last remaining Occupy site in Seattle since it all started in October. The message has changed from "we'll work with you" to "we'll squash you like a bug."

There's a reason we need a presence in city hall. Everyone in the movement is grateful for the lip service of Nick Licata's resolution 31337 in favor of the basic principles of Occupy Wall Street, which passed the city council unanimously and was signed by you, but a quick scan of the contents reveal that nothing you support has actually been done. When exactly has the City of Seattle actively addressed and come up with plans to immediately modify the "sustained unemployment, growing income disparity, banking system failures, stalled earning power, unjust tax systems, and corporate influence in politics" that this resolution calls for? Maybe I missed it when some bankster was arrested for fraud or some politician volunteered to refuse to accept any corporate contributions, or when any sweet tax deal on a local corporation was rescinded. I certainly wasn't there when our rights to free speech were expanded instead of contracted. I know it's only been three months, but that's been long enough for numerous other cities to declare that corporations aren't people. Why hasn't Seattle?

That's why we need to Occupy City Hall.

Mr. Mayor, please step out on your balcony and look down at the plaza. What do you see? You see the Puget Sound in between skyscrapers, the cranes, the courthouse, the county administration, the jail, and the walkway in the sky from the jail to the courthouse, with Rainier right behind. What you don't see is the homeless shelter in the basement of city hall. You don't have to be reminded of the underprivileged unless you look to your left at the peninsula, where there's a hopeless frankentent of tarps and twine belonging to the 99%, a homeless shelter on higher ground. That's what we're doing here. The homeless movement and the 99% are joined at the hip and they are ours. We have nowhere else to go. We're here to remind you. You need to be reminded. That's what we need to Occupy City Hall.

I've been told our permit is not to be renewed due to, among other things, lack of activity. As a peacemaker, I should consider it a compliment that I've kept things calm. As a member of the Occupy movement who is willing to work with the system to achieve our goals, goals I believe we both share, our relationship has served as a gauge between the forces of revolution and the powers that be. The very little steam that has been let out at City Hall has kept the pressure down. That's why we need to Occupy City Hall.

Look down now and you see some homeless people who've moved up in the world, from the streets to the peninsula, taking on the sacred duty of simply reminding you that the Occupy Movement has not gone away, we're just the hardy ones willing to camp out all winter, and like a garden, the movement is growing roots, strong roots, roots strong enough to support a mighty political tsunami that will rock this country to its core when it's reborn this spring with greater focus, lucid organization, common goals, and bigger numbers. Is that what it takes? Do we have to gather greater numbers than the entire Seattle Police Department to convince you that policing isn't the answer we're looking for?

Nobody has gone away. We've just retreated to get our bearing, to refocus and learn from our mistakes. The Occupy Movement is a rapidly evolving social experiment unprecedented in history. Never before have so many smart techies kept the waters roiling with activity throughout the globe and, well, it's winter, so we're staying indoors, but online, right now, the decisions are being made that will make the rebirth in spring a miraculous thing. The biggest question will be how to translate the initial Wall Street rhetoric of the movement to specific local action. We camp out on your doorstep and demand you show us any any actual evidence of systemic change in the City of Seattle that has come about due to the Occupy Movement.

Nobody is in control. Occupy is anarchistic at its core, full of splinter groups, like mine, or the anarchists recently thrown out of their house on 23rd, groups who can't claim to represent the movement, only to be part of it, mingling with the homeless, the hopeless, and the insane, the 99% is nothing if not LARGE, crackheads with torches and Iraq war vets with PTSD who are pissed off and willing to fight for the 99% with all the skills they attained as servicemen, and the peaceful, thoughtful, free speech advocates fighting for change within the system, butting heads with the frustrated, enraged, testosterone charged revolutionaries who see conflict and violence as the only way to achieve our goals. We haven't come to any conclusions. Nobody knows what's going to happen except we're not going to stop. 

Mr. Mayor, the holes in the public safety net are so large that all but the fat cats fall through. We ask for economic equality. We lose our free bus zone. We've had enough. 

There is a Navajo story of the two wolves within us - good and evil, hate and love, always battling - and the one that wins is the one you feed.

Every time the Seattle police force does battle with the Occupy Movement, it feeds the anarchists who thrive on conflict. Letting us peacefully camp at city hall feeds the other wolf.

Our disappearance from City Hall will mean the Occupy movement has no location in Seattle. This is unacceptable, and like Whack-a-moles, we're sure to show up somewhere else. Let's say we occupy Westlake again tomorrow. What would you do? Send Chief Diaz after us again and simply repeat history, only this time with more American soldiers in the tents? 

You asked me to act as liaison between Chief Diaz and the Occupy movement. If I believe that all conflicts are worth avoiding, how do I do that? Call Diaz on my speed dial and beg him not to pepper spray me, tell him that if he just backs off, we'll all respect him in the morning?

If the movement has no place to call home, no place it is "occupying," it will inevitably be brought up at every General Assembly (currently being held at the convention center at least twice a week), and yes, it is random, it is what spur of the moment democracy looks like, and if the re-occupation of Westlake isn't immanent, you can bet that SOMETHING is. The movement is full of committed individuals who are not going away until practical results are achieved. They're not going to wait for the findings of an oversight committee. You're sitting on a powderkeg. Do the right thing and you can be a hero. This is what revolution looks like.  

Though our success at City Hall might seem only symbolic, it's working. I'm connected every day to dozens of occupy sites around the globe who are looking at Seattle as a role model for positive relationships between the occupy movement and city governments. They are simply astonished that an occupation has lasted this long.

We have several other sites we're looking at. I have no doubt another permit is immanent. Will you please call off the hounds and give us enough time to secure a new location before moving?

Thank you,

Michael Dare

Lobbyist for the 99%

Paul Krassner's Predictions for 2012

Predictions for 2012

By Paul Krassner

Politics: The electoral college will be replaced by a system where voters will choose the polling firm they trust the most. Barack Obama will be re-elected because his vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden will be replaced by Hillary Clinton, thereby gaining the women’s vote. Failed Republican campaigners will all take other jobs. Mitt Romney will start smoking a pipe and portray the character Bob Dobbs in a movie about the cultish Church of the Subgenius. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain will form The Adultery Party to run in 2016, joined by Democrats John Edwards and Bill Clinton. Ron Paul will unite with Ru Paul and they’ll perform on Dancing With the Stars. Rick Santorum will be caught in an airport bathroom stall having a gay encounter. Michelle Bachmann will launch a lie-detector company. Rick Perry will copyright the word “Oops.” And it will be revealed that Donald Trump was actually born on Mars; he will have a birth certificate to prove it, along with a photo of him as a Martian baby with the first comb-over ever.

Show Business: Vegetarian converts will include Lady Gaga, who will wear a dress made entirely of heirloom tomatoes, and Meatloaf will change his name to Tofuloaf. Hermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will win Academy Awards for best male and female actors. Angelina Jolie will legally adopt Brad Pitt. Kim Kardashian will get married and divorced on the same day. The Tea Party will become a popular sitcom. Capital-punishment executions will become a top-rated reality-TV series. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ will occur live on a three-hour special to be telecast on every single channel simultaneously, with an offstage voiceover narration by God. Atheists and agnostics will picket the production, only to be struck by lightning. Howard Stern will expose himself on America’s Got Talent. The Taliban and al-Quaeda will be the final competitors on The Biggest Terrorists. Hulu and Netflix will merge as Huflix.

Fashion Trends: Square Hitler-style mustaches will finally become stylish after decades of ridicule. Botox will become a soft drink that will get rid of unwanted wrinkles from the inside. Pornography will be allowed in public libraries, but moaning out loud will definitely not be permitted. Fetus transplants from poor pregnant girls to wealthy anti-abortion women will become a controversial new fad. Arizona, Mississippi and Tennessee will refuse to recognize Leap Year. Lottery winners will be fingerprinted. Private prisons will be turned into ashrams. Inspired by Steve Jobs, many industries will continue his legacy by transforming planned obsolescence into a virtue. Prescription drugs will become children’s names, such as Ambien and Lipitor. Travel agents will begin arranging guilt trips for clients who have given up on airplanes. Combination vibrators and insomnia cures will be invented, trademarked as Dildoze. Pope Benedict XVI will permit condoms to be marketed if there are tiny pinhole pricks in the reservoir tips in order to ensure a fighting chance for spermatozoa to get through. Serial pedophiles, gay bashers and Internet hackers will form unions.

The Economy: The Department of Energy will release a report concluding that so-called “clean coal” is, in point of fact, “filthy dirty.” The Bank of America will stop doing business with Veriozon and switch to Credo. largest protest in history will take place by ongoing Occupy-the-Federal-Reserve-System demonstrations. The recession will evolve into a depression, which will end quickly as the war on drugs morphs into the legalization of every single strain of cannabis will be designated as medical marijuana. Facebook members will be taxed for every friend, Twitter users will be taxed for every letter, Monsanto will be taxed for every genetically modified food, and masturbators will be taxed for every ejaculation. The Supreme Court will download all corporations into embryos. Several million jobs will be created as Unemployment Insurance clerks.

International Relations: North Korea’s new leader will be caught cheating on his SAT examination, but he will redeem himself when he allows almost 70 McDonalds restaurants to open all over his dictatorial realm. Saudi-Arabia will outlaw laughter. Iraq will become our 51st state. Afghanistan will require all men to wear burkas. Iran will develop a nuclear bomb, than drop it by accident on Libya and Syria. World War III will be fought entirely by drone planes attempting to destroy each other in the air. Products made in China will be increasingly pirated by American entrepreneurs. Global warming will continue to melt icebergs as well as Sarah Palin’s cold heart. The world will end on December 21st, but will begin all over again on December 23rd, just in time for last-minute Christmas shopping. The most popular gift will be cans of pepper-spray in a variety of flavors. Pakistan will continue to be bribed by us. The Nobel Peace Prize will be secretly awarded to Anonymous.

Paul Krassner is the publisher of the infamous Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster. His latest book is an expanded and updated edition of his autobiography, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture, available at paulkrassner.com  and as a Kindle e-book.

Personal message to everyone who thinks the permit holder for Occupy Seattle should be on a rotating basis

I have accepted the personal invitation of the Mayor of Seattle to occupy City Hall for more than two months now, making this the most successful and long-lived occupancy in America. No one else did that. Not to go all Ayn Rand on your ass, but I did that, and without one single penny of funds or ounce of encouragement from the Occupy movement. Mike McGinn has been kind enough to offer me, not you, a permit to sign every week, and every week I have accepted. This occupation is only continuing because I now have a proven track record of making agreements with the city and abiding by them. The only other person in Seattle with such a track record is Vivian McPeak, permit holder for Hempfest for 20 years, my mentor, and the only person I consulted before signing my first permit. (FYI, he considers the idea of "rotating permit holder" to be absurd and counter-productive, and I'm infinitely more prone to listen to his advice than anyone else's.)

There is no precedent for any of this. We're all blazing trails in the wilderness. We can't follow any previous revolutionary model. This is a new thing. I'm not following any game plan other than keeping it alive. A US mayor offering a chunk of city fucking hall to a political organization in order for then to live and thrive so they can expel corruption from the bowels of government in conjunction with hundreds of other Occupy sites around the world? Impossible. Yet it's happening because I've persevered when others gave up, I actually trust that Mayor McGinn and the city council have got the movement's back, and I won't let this incredible relationship be jeopardized by some peculiar notion that personal success must be punished and all duties must be shared. 

It's not like it was ever my goal in life to be a permit holder. The only reason I am one is because nobody else was willing to step up and sign the paper, but this isn't what I want to do. I want to write best-selling novels and make movies in Hollywood with a swimming pool full of bimbos. Instead, I'm a permit holder in a leaky tent in Seattle. C'est la fucking vie. If anyone else wants the duties of permit holder, I got no problem delegating authority. You want to run the tent, all you've got to do is ask. You want me to tell the city that your signature is as trustworthy as mine, I won't, because I don't know that. I just met all of you, and we're the easiest organization on earth to infiltrate. I have no idea what you have in mind. You might be a CIA agent or undercover cop or just plain psycho out to destabilize the movement, because that's what a "rotating" leadership is, destabilized.

The only person who can evict Occupy Seattle from city hall is Mayor Mike McGinn, and he can do it with a snap of his fingers by simple withdrawing his invitation. We mysteriously have a relationship of respect, made obvious when the Mayor emailed my phone number to Police Chief Diaz as the person to talk to if he has any more problems with the Occupy movement. I've asked to be on the police oversight committee, where I believe the Occupy movement needs to be represented. Anyone else ask to be on that committee? Please don't be shocked if it turns out to be me just because I was the only one who asked. (More likely, no one from Occupy.)

In any case, as long as a permit is offered me, I will accept it. We are not a leaderless movement, we are a leaderful movement. If anyone else wants a permit, please, I actively encourage you to go get one. We need more Occupy sites. I hope to inspire you. But this one's mine.

An Occupied Hempfest Christmas

Occupy Seattle met at Gasworks for a pot luck Christmas eve dinner.

There was an overabundance of sweets. If you're diabetic, you might have died. 

There was real food too, ham and turkey and salad and stuffing. Everyone was well fed.

The fire was nice and just the thing we need at all the other Occupy sites in winter. (Good luck with it.)

The only ones who had anything to complain about were the actual occupants of Gasworks, the homeless who were living there under the radar, and who worried that Occupy Seattle would draw attention to them and get them thrown out. They were sitting at their own table saying "Fuck the Occupiers, they're going to ruin this for everybody if they set up camp." Luckily, even though the invitation was made, nobody set up tents, and the actual occupiers of Gasworks were free to remain. This is a problem we have to face. The Occupy movement has got to advocate for the homeless and not fuck things up for them. They are us. 

The next morning, Christmas day, Hempfest had its annual drug war protest at the city jail. It was a trek for everyone else to get downtown. For me, it was just a walk across the street from the Occupy tent at city hall.

It's a strange event, sad but hopeful...

that nobody sees...

the streets are almost vacant...

but we're not doing it for them,

we're doing it for everybody in this horrible building who doesn't belong... 

and we know they can't hear us when we sing them Christmas carols... 

but we do it anyway... 

hoping every prisoner on earth who is a victim of the drug war can somehow feel our presence, that there's someone out here who cares, because what else are we going to do...

let the DEA get away with ruining lives,

destroying families, 

preventing sick people from getting their legitimate medicine,

and refusing to budge on the issue until every corporation currently making a killing on the outlawing of pot gets to wet their beak on the decriminalization?

When it should be free, with no more regulation than tomatoes, as safe as a medicine can be, a sacrament, a blessing, and the greatest and most useful plant on earth.

We wish you a marijuana,

We wish you a marijuana,

We wish you a marijuana,

and a hempy new year.

Protesters in Westlake for a major American hero

Does being a liaison between Occupy Seattle and the Chief of Police make me a traitor?

I live at city hall. The first thing I do every morning is read the mayor's newspaper in his waiting room on the 7th floor. This morning, the lead story concerned the US Justice department ripping the Seattle Police department a new one for its use of excessive force. They were particularly hard on Chief of Police John Diaz who was actively defending his department.

Ever see a picture in a newspaper and look up to see that person standing in front of you? Chief Diaz came right out of the elevator and went in to a meeting with the Mayor.

Afterwards, they both emerged from McGinn's office and stood there talking in front of me. God knows what inspired me to butt my ugly head into a conversation between the Mayor and the Chief of Police, but I walked right up to introduce myself. I thanked Mayor McGinn for making our site at City Hall the most successful and long-lived in America. He said he was waiting for someone to notice that.

Diaz saw this happen, an open and trusting relationship between the mayor and an occupier, so I took advantage of the moment. I told Chief Diaz that I was from the Hempfest and used to working with the police to put on protest events. I offered myself as a liaison between himself and the movement, making it very clear that I was taking this action unilaterally, without approval from the general assembly, but I was deliberately disobeying the rule not to talk to police because we need a dialogue going. I was very clear I was speaking only for myself, not FOR the movement, but simply as a member OF the movement. He agreed and asked for my contact information.

I searched for a pen. He searched for a pen. Mayor McGinn told me to just give my information to his secretary and she would send it on.

Cool. When Chief Diaz got back to his office, there was an email waiting for him from the Mayor saying if he ever had any problems with the Occupy Movement, give Michael Dare a call. Hilarious. I'm not holding my breath.

In any case, Mayor McGinn was more than pleased to see such an exchange, and renewed his commitment to working with those in the movement willing to work with instead of against the system. He agreed to sit down later to discuss the future of the movement and how we can work together to further both of our goals.

Like it or not, Occupy Seattle now has a liaison with the Mayor's office and the Police Department.

I posted this information to an Occupy group and someone responded with this... "If you talk to a cop and he beats you then you are a hero. If you talk to a cop and both you and the cop are civil and even discuss your different opinions.... Well then you're just a snitch and a traitor! But good for you!"

Let me clarify what I believe a "liaison" does by inventing a fantasy situation.

Let's say we're gathered somewhere surrounded by police. We are quite rationally fearful of getting pepper-sprayed or worse, so we prepare for a clash.

The liaison walks up to the police and says "Hi guys, what's up? Why are you here? What are we doing wrong?"

The police say "It's the candle."

The liaison says "What?"

The police say "You can't have an open flame."

The liaison says "You've got to be kidding me. You're not here to suppress free speech?"

The police say "You can have as much free speech as you want. What you can't have is an open flame."

The liaison says "So if we blow out that candle, you'll go away?"

The police say "Yep."

The liaison walks back to the Occupy gathering and says "All they care about is the candle. Blow out the candle and the cops will go away."

The liaison is stared at in disbelief. Somebody takes it upon themselves to blow out the candle just to see what will happen. The cops go away.

Voila. Incident averted. A peaceful protest is allowed to continue because somebody talked to the police.

This is obviously over-simplified but you get the idea. Sometimes mis-communication is the only problem. The police don't know what we're doing so they are naturally fearful of entering the situation. Their entire training has to do with how to handle unstable situations. As for being a "snitch," sometimes, literally, all the police need to know is what we're doing.

Once again, let's say we're gathered in a park. The police are there prepared for anything because they don't know what we're going to do. Somebody goes up to them and says "We're marching from here to the Federal building for a short rally, then returning here."

The police have an INSTANT change of tactics. Knowing where we're going and what route we're taking, the police move in front of us to CLEAR THE ROUTE. Suddenly, they're working FOR us to make sure nobody gets hurt.

Okay, this tactic wouldn't have worked at the docks where we were clearly breaking the law, but there have been other situations where all we were doing was exhibiting free speech. In those situations, violence can have be completely averted by simply informing the police ahead of time where we're marching, 

As a liaison, obviously I know a lot of things I'm not telling the police, like where marijuana grow rooms are situated in Seattle, or where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. (In one of the grow rooms.) But if I tell the police "We're going to be meeting here at this time and marching to there at that time," does that make me a police informant? Not any more than Vivian McPeak is a police informant when he tells the Seattle Police department that hundreds of thousands of people are going to be gathering in Myrtle Edwards Park in an open act of civil disobedience in protest against the War on Drugs.

Hempfest is the world's largest peaceful protest rally. In a city park. With the co-operation of the Mayor and Police. This is a city that lets Hempfest happen. This is a city that will let the Occupy movement happen. All you've got to do is talk to them.

How to Deal with Corruption in One Easy Lesson

Corruption trumps political systems. In a corrupt democratic government, those with the most money tell the government what to do. In a corrupt socialist government, those with the most money tell the government what to do. If a government is corrupt, it matters not what particular system the corruption uses to express itself. Corruption IS the system. A corrupt dictatorship, in which the moneyed puppetmasters actually pull the strings, is no better than a corrupt Republic in which the moneyed puppetmasters actually pull the strings. When corruption permeates the system, it doesn't matter who's in charge because they're not in charge, they're just figureheads for corruption, like the Pope or the President, they only keep their jobs when the let the money river roll on, no matter how many drown.

So what do we do when all three branches of Federal Government, legislative, executive, and judicial, are undeniably, completely, and utterly corrupt? How do we use the system in place to root out the corruption when corruption specifically won't allow the system to work that way? Voting is meaningless when the voting system is corrupt. Suing is meaningless when you can't go any higher than a Supreme Court who are the active enemy of the public domain, appointed for life, who will only make pro-corporate decisions. Petitioning is meaningless because the puppetmasters behind the puppets can't be petitioned. Give me a choice between a corrupt Democrat and a corrupt Republican and I might as well cut my throat, they're both from the same party, the Corrupt Party, loyally in the hands of whoever's willing to pay. When corruption rules the day, money gets whatever it wants. Want to pollute the air, poison the groundwater, go to war to protect the bottom line of the fuel market? All it takes is money. And guess who rules the monetary system? Not you.


Our argument is not with democracy. A genuine democracy is a beautiful thing. But a corrupt democracy, in which money literally buys votes, is no better than corrupt monarchs or corrupt commies. The system is simply the method by which we all get screwed, even systems that were specifically designed to protect us.


They keep saying they don't know what we're for, only what we're against, as though being against corruption isn't enough to define us. 


The movement has a flat structure. I can't claim to be speaking for the 99%, but I can claim to speak AS one of them. 

I want it to be a felony for a candidate running for or in office to accept one single penny from anyone, RETROACTIVE to the year 2000. I want every one of those corrupt bastards who put Bush in office in jail. I want the entire Supreme Court fired with a new system in place in which they're not appointed for life but for ONE YEAR, then we get to vote on whether to keep them. I want everyone at Fox News to commit ritual hari-kari, live, on camera, at half-time during the Superbowl. I want Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump to dress like Vikings and fight each other to the death for the title of Douchebag of the Year. I want every debt erased. Period. Every one. After a certain reasonable amount for one's children, say a hundred thou, I want a 100% inheritance tax. I want everything a person owns, all their copyrights, patents, and art, to enter the public domain upon their demise. What do they care? They're dead. Now everything they made is ours. The public. I want more public bathrooms. I want Barack Obama to tell Ben Bernanke to go fuck himself. I want the responsibility for health care to be completely taken away from employers, insurance companies, and HMOs and be available for free, just like the police and fire departments, to anybody, as a human right. When they're not actively engaged in fighting the enemy, I want the US Navy to clean up the oceans, the US Army to clean up the land, and the US Air Force to clean up the air. I want everyone in jail for a victimless crime to be set free and restitution paid. I want the FDA to tell the pharmaceutical industry what to do instead of the other way around. I want the EPA to tell polluters what to do instead of the other way around. I want the FED eliminated. I want the DEA eliminated. I want Boeing to stop building killer drones and start building rapid transit. I want Seattle to expand the free bus zone to the entire city.


There. That's my position. I'm sure I'll think of more later, but it's a start. Let's start negotiating.

Occupy the holidays in Seattle City Hall

Meeting with the 1% in city hall

I was watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann on my Chromebook in the lobby of city hall when I couldn't help but overhear the conversation at the table next to me, three guys, well dressed, one larger, older, clearly one of the 1%, and as they talked I understood him to be an expert in the affairs of landlords and probably a landlord himself. This was a guy I had questions for.

So as they broke up and he headed across the lobby, I walked up, introduced myself, and asked him if he'd mind answering a few questions. I never got his name. Maybe that's why he was so forthright. My main question, is there any way to LEGALLY occupy a vacant space in Seattle? Here's my interpretation of what he said...

As soon as you move into a vacant property, you are de facto legally creating a landlord/tenant relationship with the owner of the property. This makes the owner of the property legally responsible for all those things landlords are liable for in their area, in Seattle, upkeep, like fixing the plumbing, etc.

Of course there are landlord/tenant agreements where the tenant agrees to take care of such things, so everything is negotiable. So one good thing to do upon occupying a vacant property is draw up a legal paper indemnifying the landlord and not only agreeing to but actually doing all necessary repair work. The whole idea is if you're not costing the landlord anything, if you're actually improving the property, they won't have an incentive to evict you since eviction itself costs money.

Having a vacant property isn't a tax write-off. There is no monetary incentive for landlords to leave properties vacant, just laziness. Pay the legitimate landlord ANYTHING and it's profit they weren't making before. Mail off that check for $10 rent every month. All they have to do is cash one of them and you're set.

Owen Meany's Sacrilegious and Hilarious Christmas Pageant

Have yourself a rollicking, perverse, slapstick Christmas with Book-It Repertory's new production of Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant, based upon chapter four of John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. It tells the enchanting tale of the valiant attempts of the Reverend Wiggins and his wife - of Christ Church of Gravesend, New Hampshire - to put on a normal, humble Christmas pageant but who, through no fault of their own, find themselves trapped in a chapter of a John Irving novel, and Irving won't be done with them till he's wrenched every drop of pious ooze from their trembling bodies. 


Never has more gone wrong with a Christmas theatrical production. It's almost a Jerry Lewis movie, the laughs keep rolling in, but Irving is smarter than that, and the whole affair is drenched in sadness due to the strange relationship of the narrator, Johnny, to his best friend, the diminutive and irritating Owen Meany. 


According to the book, not only was Owen's growth stunted to under five feet, he damaged his larynx and has to shout through his nose in a wrecked voice. I can't imagine a harder acting job than having to play someone completely irritating to everyone IN the play but not so much to everyone in the audience who better not hate the main character. Josh Aaseng pulls off this complicated task with a simple falsetto and a lot of comic dexterity.


Connor Toms, from Book-It's previous production of Irving's The Cider House Rules, is particularly good as Johnny, the narrator with a hole in his heart he never talks about. 


It seems one day they were playing baseball when Owen hit a high fly ball that killed Johnny's mother, one of the many of random acts that appear throughout Irving's books in his deep-rooted philosophy that life is uncontrollable. 


When you've got a line in a book like "Simon and I never spoke of my mother because it was just too painful," it's too important to leave out and yet impossible to delegate to dialogue. Once again, Book-it provides the perfect solution by having Johnny say the line from the book directly to the audience.


This isn't your mother's Christmas Pageant. My favorite moment was when the little baby Jesus had to throw cues at the angel of the lord who forgot his lines - just the way it really happened. If you're looking for reverence, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the most subversive Christmas play ever, get your tickets now.




The program for the show.

An Occupy Thanksgiving

I started the day, as always, at the Occupy Site at Fifth and James at City Hall

Normally, I"d head upstairs to the City Hall lobby and get something from Rick Farley at the City Grind, where they put up with me even when all I want is hot water, but it's Thanksgiving and City Hall is closed, as is the library.

So I head down the street to the entrance to the transit tunnel when I notice something happening in the park at Jefferson and Fourth...

A park with no name where the trees have mufflers...

And there are tents and people lined up...

And I wonder if I'm hallucinating. What is wrong with this picture?

Maybe this guy knows.

Nobody seems to notice that they are surrounded by the gayest trees I've ever seen, each with a Jewish mother, and ever since they came out of the closet, she won't stop knitting. You'll never guess, bubala, for Thanksgiving, I'm making you a muffler.

What is everyone lined up for? Amazing food prepared fresh in the park for absolutely anyone who gets in line. There's fresh bacon...

And ham and muffins and mashed potatoes...

And Shasta soda and smiles...

And all these people...

Who are now my heroes...

Have gathered in the park on a cold morning where the trees are normally warmer than the people...

And spread the warmth by feeding everyone, those with one leg...

And even those clothed in trash bags. 

Yeah, this kid's my hero too, for passing out cookies, pears, and water.

Why is this guy my hero? Because he's passing out silverware out of the goodness of his heart.

These  are my heroes too.

And I'm going to show you every one of these wonderful people who appeared out of nowhere to make fresh pancakes.

They didn't do it for fame or fortune.

They don't expect to be paid back.

They're doing it because they're decent...

And nowadays, simple decency is a valuable commodity.

And they're enjoying themselves while they do it...

Actually taking orders and giving out numbers so people can pick up their individualized breakfasts. 

They went to all this trouble...

For these people...

And these who are usually ignored.

Not checking for ID or doing breathalyzer tests or making anyone listen to a sermon, even though they were from a church...

Feeding everyone with a mouth,

Creating a whole park full of happy people.

I was once walking around Santa Monica, CA, when I saw a bunch of people in an alley. I walked down to see what was going on and saw somebody had a truck full of food they were passing out, and it wasn't just street grub but fancy to-go dishes from expensive Beverly Hills restaurants. I moved in closer and saw it was Martin Sheen. There were no lights or cameras around. He wasn't doing it for publicity. He personally drove around to all his favorite restaurants at closing, picked up their leftovers, and distributed them to hungry people. He became my hero that day. Like these people. I wish there were more like them.