(Jewish greetings for Yom Kippur).
The Lloyd House Wednesday Night Salon WEEKLY
(See at end of this email for introductory material)
(See at end of this email for introductory material)
SECTION ONE: TABLE NOTES
Around the Table:Viddle, Joe, Sam, Alan, Mira, Julia, Sophia, Mr. G., Judy
Around the Table:Viddle, Joe, Sam, Alan, Mira, Julia, Sophia, Mr. G., Judy
At the Table: Alan Weiner, Viddle, Joe McMillan, Sam Aboagye, Mira Rodwan, Julia Yarden, Sophia Yarden, Mr. G., Judy Cirillo, Ellen Bierhorst, Brooke Audreyal, Jude Smith (Welcome Sam and Jude!)
Ellen: saw "the kids are all right" ... See review in Books section.
Alan: the Dalai Lama is coming Oct 20 for the Freedom Center, at Convention Center.
Judy: my little house on Amazon is for sale. BDruffel@Comey.com 320 Amazon Ave.
Mr. G. a guy, an American, for 50k $ builds school in Afghanistan, coming here to speak. Greg Mortenson. Cintas Center. Free. All tickets are free, but all given out. Three Cups of Tea
Mira: A new book, Confessions of an Eco Sinner by F Pearce.
Irwin Silver, who started Sing Out publication about folk songs, with Pete Seeger... Died Wednesday in Oakland. Obit in NYTimes Sept 11.
SAM, TALKS ABOUT HIS HOME LAND Ghana in West Africa.
(Sam is a student of law at Chase Law School, NKU.)
On W coast. Between Ivory Coast and Togo. (just south of the hump of Africa; Above equator) Was colonized by the British; independent since '57. Until '81 unstable military coup governments. Since '81, stable gov't, peaceful democratic elections.
I grew up in Ashanti region. This tribe resisted British. My father died at 102 years old. He had been involved in that conflict. (how old your fa when you were born?) 75.
He was the only child of his parents, the royal family. The warriors. ... He was a chief of 5,000 people in the town he founded. I grew up there. He welcomed all tribes people. Twi, the language of the Ashanti, the other language besides English. 75 different languages in Ghana.
I grew up learning 5 – 10 languages.
My father, the chief, was a humble person. Was well respected. Had 32 children from 5 wives. His first wife, married age 18, had 3 children before she died. Then a second wife who subsequently died. Then two other wives. Had 8 with my mother. I am the 1st son, but 5th child of my mother. I have 2 brothers in Israel.
I was closer to my father than others. He named me after himself, Osei (Oh-say).
He would encourage people to come and farm in his land. Surrounded by a thick rain forest. I was just there in June. Now most of the trees have been cut down. We used to have lush trees, fruits. Now most gone.
My fa. Built the road to the town. I came here to study law so I can involve myself in government in Ghana. I was supposed to replace my father when he died, but in the beginning I didn't want that. His successor is a distant relative; he is allowing the trees to be cut down. So the citizens wanted me to take over from him. ....All my other brothers drink; they are disqualified. They drink excessively.
In June I went there to remove my "uncle" as chief. But it didn't work out well. ... I want the trees to be replanted.
My sister, the eldest, has opened a school for orphans. We have 1,200 students. 25 live with my sister. WE have had donations from U.K. And from US. Now we are building a hospital next to the school.
What brought me to the US. At first did not plan to stay this long. Here I met my wife; we married. So I stay here. But I go frequently to Ghana. We study law. We have 2 daughters, 1 son.
My father's place has great potential: Asumura.
Principle crop is Cocoa.
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/test7.html
After the pod is cut, the beans are removed, and the skin of the pod is used to make soap.
(?) brothers in Israel, converted to Judaism.
(?) All sorts of fruits; banana, mango, cocoanuts, oranges. Apples.
You can grow anything, any time of the year. Ghana is the size of Utah.
Brooke: do you know a bout the Pachamama Alliance. ? People from Ecuador got together. A tribe and some US allies. They started an eco tourism business. 2.5 million acres of rain forest was saved.
http://www.pachamama.org/
They give great trainings in environmentalism.
The cultivation of Cacao is exploitative of the people.
It is a big problem in almost every part of Africa. It's all about money. My mother said yesterday that Europeans come to buy the land; the small farmers sell to the European investors their land where gold is found. ... In E. Africa most of the land is going to few people. The small farmer has only one asset: their land where they can raise food. When they sell, then they have to work for the land owner.
Viddle: same as here in the US. ... At least here there is some possibility for reform.
Mira: (reading from an article on Eco Sinner). The middle man who buys the cacao uses crooked scales. ... Now the cocoa farmers are changing to maize and other crops. So buy Fair Trade chocolate.
It is also better to buy dark chocolate, which has higher percent of cacao.
NEW SALONISTA
Jude Smith: I work for the Enquirer in the advertising department. I have survived cuts and downsizing.
I was from Sudman, Indiana. I have a son, 23. Living with me again temporarily. He works steadily.
I went to a Gathering, "Grandmother's Gathering", this weekend. The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, from all over the world. Peace, human rights, healing the planet. The Native American said, "When the Grandmothers speak, the world will heal."
My sister led me to this Gathering. Christine Baldwin, "Calling the Circle" book. Conflict resolution. I was so glad I went. It was grueling. I stayed at my sisters' house.
Mira I belong to a Women's Sacred Circle. We call the directions. Read Starhawk.
Mira: Jean Shinoda Bolen said, "Gather the women and save the world."
~ end of table notes ~
Hugs to all,
Ellen
Ellen: saw "the kids are all right" ... See review in Books section.
Alan: the Dalai Lama is coming Oct 20 for the Freedom Center, at Convention Center.
Judy: my little house on Amazon is for sale. BDruffel@Comey.com 320 Amazon Ave.
Mr. G. a guy, an American, for 50k $ builds school in Afghanistan, coming here to speak. Greg Mortenson. Cintas Center. Free. All tickets are free, but all given out. Three Cups of Tea
Mira: A new book, Confessions of an Eco Sinner by F Pearce.
Irwin Silver, who started Sing Out publication about folk songs, with Pete Seeger... Died Wednesday in Oakland. Obit in NYTimes Sept 11.
SAM, TALKS ABOUT HIS HOME LAND Ghana in West Africa.
(Sam is a student of law at Chase Law School, NKU.)
On W coast. Between Ivory Coast and Togo. (just south of the hump of Africa; Above equator) Was colonized by the British; independent since '57. Until '81 unstable military coup governments. Since '81, stable gov't, peaceful democratic elections.
I grew up in Ashanti region. This tribe resisted British. My father died at 102 years old. He had been involved in that conflict. (how old your fa when you were born?) 75.
He was the only child of his parents, the royal family. The warriors. ... He was a chief of 5,000 people in the town he founded. I grew up there. He welcomed all tribes people. Twi, the language of the Ashanti, the other language besides English. 75 different languages in Ghana.
I grew up learning 5 – 10 languages.
My father, the chief, was a humble person. Was well respected. Had 32 children from 5 wives. His first wife, married age 18, had 3 children before she died. Then a second wife who subsequently died. Then two other wives. Had 8 with my mother. I am the 1st son, but 5th child of my mother. I have 2 brothers in Israel.
I was closer to my father than others. He named me after himself, Osei (Oh-say).
He would encourage people to come and farm in his land. Surrounded by a thick rain forest. I was just there in June. Now most of the trees have been cut down. We used to have lush trees, fruits. Now most gone.
My fa. Built the road to the town. I came here to study law so I can involve myself in government in Ghana. I was supposed to replace my father when he died, but in the beginning I didn't want that. His successor is a distant relative; he is allowing the trees to be cut down. So the citizens wanted me to take over from him. ....All my other brothers drink; they are disqualified. They drink excessively.
In June I went there to remove my "uncle" as chief. But it didn't work out well. ... I want the trees to be replanted.
My sister, the eldest, has opened a school for orphans. We have 1,200 students. 25 live with my sister. WE have had donations from U.K. And from US. Now we are building a hospital next to the school.
What brought me to the US. At first did not plan to stay this long. Here I met my wife; we married. So I stay here. But I go frequently to Ghana. We study law. We have 2 daughters, 1 son.
My father's place has great potential: Asumura.
Principle crop is Cocoa.
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/test7.html
After the pod is cut, the beans are removed, and the skin of the pod is used to make soap.
(?) brothers in Israel, converted to Judaism.
(?) All sorts of fruits; banana, mango, cocoanuts, oranges. Apples.
You can grow anything, any time of the year. Ghana is the size of Utah.
Brooke: do you know a bout the Pachamama Alliance. ? People from Ecuador got together. A tribe and some US allies. They started an eco tourism business. 2.5 million acres of rain forest was saved.
http://www.pachamama.org/
They give great trainings in environmentalism.
The cultivation of Cacao is exploitative of the people.
It is a big problem in almost every part of Africa. It's all about money. My mother said yesterday that Europeans come to buy the land; the small farmers sell to the European investors their land where gold is found. ... In E. Africa most of the land is going to few people. The small farmer has only one asset: their land where they can raise food. When they sell, then they have to work for the land owner.
Viddle: same as here in the US. ... At least here there is some possibility for reform.
Mira: (reading from an article on Eco Sinner). The middle man who buys the cacao uses crooked scales. ... Now the cocoa farmers are changing to maize and other crops. So buy Fair Trade chocolate.
It is also better to buy dark chocolate, which has higher percent of cacao.
NEW SALONISTA
Jude Smith: I work for the Enquirer in the advertising department. I have survived cuts and downsizing.
I was from Sudman, Indiana. I have a son, 23. Living with me again temporarily. He works steadily.
I went to a Gathering, "Grandmother's Gathering", this weekend. The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, from all over the world. Peace, human rights, healing the planet. The Native American said, "When the Grandmothers speak, the world will heal."
My sister led me to this Gathering. Christine Baldwin, "Calling the Circle" book. Conflict resolution. I was so glad I went. It was grueling. I stayed at my sisters' house.
Mira I belong to a Women's Sacred Circle. We call the directions. Read Starhawk.
Mira: Jean Shinoda Bolen said, "Gather the women and save the world."
~ end of table notes ~
Hugs to all,
Ellen
SECTION TWO: ACTIVITIES, OPPORTUNITIES
Sign up Online to Canvass!
Scott Gabbard Seeborg (Salon presenter, head organizer at Northside campaign office, great guy) has sent you (us) an invitation to
'Northside Knock and Rock ~ Keep Ohio Blue 2010' -- click
here to view the invitation and submit your response:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gp8hbz
---
We would love to see you out here Saturday! :)
Best,
Scott
Canvass for Driehaus, Fisher, and other Dem. Candidates EVERY Saturday at 11 or at 1:00 . Show up at the office at 11 am or 1 pm. This is the MOST effective way to help the campaign. So important to support the President's team. So important to elect Democrats to the leadership positions in Columbus because they will do the redistricting for the next decade! ellen
Dems. Campaign Office at Knowlton's Corner
4015 Hamilton Avenue, Northside (Knowlton's Corner) formerly Shoetopia location. Right at the corner of Blue Rock. (Across the st. from old Crazy Ladies' Bookstore)
After the Grand Opening last week we hope to have regular hours from 1 PM to 9 PM, Monday through Saturday. Right now, we don't have the phones set up so we're using Scott's number 614-477-6835 as the "office number." Our biggest need right now is to get volunteers to staff the office, so we have to call lots of people to get them to come by and sign up.
Thanks for your interest,
Mary-Pat Hester
Want to do a terrific service? Stop in the HQ at Knowlton's Corner between 1 and 8 pm, help them make calls. Fun and important. Ellen
ALSO
We will be having phone banking here at the Lloyd House (3901 Clifton Ave. 45220) after the Salon for 45 minutes starting next week. Come to the Salon pot luck at 5:45, or just come at 7:30 for phone banking. Bring your cell phone. There will be call lists and scripts. Ellen
New Phone Banking online tool for Democratic Campaign ...
Last night I left the salon early to get training in the virtual phone bank software at the Northiside campaign office (corner Blue Rock and Hamilton).
Kscott Gabbard Seeborg showed me the ropes. This is way cool. It means that anyone can do phone banking from anywhere if they have a phone and a computer!
Please join us every Wed night from next Wednesday Sept 16 until the election. Bring your cell phone and your laptop, if you have them, or just come.
This is a very important election. Don't let the noisy Tea Party people drown us out and cause us low morale. We are the majority. Calling is hugely powerful... Person to person is better than TV ads.
... But it is also great to give money as well. ellen
Yoga at the Lloyd House
Free open practice session, all levels, led by Nina Tolley will resume Friday Sept 24 at 9:30 – 11:00. Weekly. Questions? Call Nina: 281-2515
Cool Stuff at Park + Vine
(Eco Friendly Grocery etc. ~ now located on Main St. near Kaldi's in Over The Rhine)
Following is a list of upcoming events at Park + Vine. An American
Sign Language interpreter is available upon request for store events.
If you have questions, let us know
Thank you for your support
UPCOMING EVENTS
Park + Vine at Northside Farmers' Market: through Oct. 13
Look for supplies–and vegan baked goods from Grateful Grahams and
Sweet Peace Bakery–from Park + Vine alongside locally-grown produce,
handcrafted products, music and art, "green" experts, bread, plants,
soap and ready-to-eat food at the Northside Farmers' Market 4 to 7:30
p.m. every Wednesday through Oct. 13 at Hoffner Park, 4104 Hamilton
Avenue, Northside.
Celebrate Celeriac Five Ways: Sept. 25
Join Melt owner Lisa Kagen and chef Melissa Fairmount for a cooking
class on preparing Celeriac (celery root) 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 25 at Park + Vine. Those attending will observe prep techniques,
find out where to purchase products, and learn how to transform this
versatile vegetable five delicious vegan ways. Recipes and ample
servings included. Registration is $25 and limited to 25 people. RSVP
info@parkandvine.com or 513-721-7275 before Sept. 23.
Park + Vine at the World Peace & Yoga Jubilee: Oct. 21-24
Join Park + Vine and other eco-minded folks at the World Peace & Yoga
Jubilee Oct. 21-24 at the Grailville Retreat Center in Loveland, just
outside Cincinnati. This weekend-long conference features yoga
teachers, musicians, authors, artists and chefs unfolding the path to
world peace.
--
Dan Korman
Park + Vine
1109 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-721-7275
www.parkandvine.com
10-7 Monday-Saturday + 11-5 Sunday
Advertisement: Try the Alexander Technique
FREE Alexander Technique Practice session every Sunday 3:30 – 4:30 at the Lloyd House. Open to all.
Ellen Bierhorst Ph.D. ~ Alexander Technique ~ http://www.lloydhouse.com ~ 513 221 1289 ~Cincinnati
I am having a blast here in my second year of teaching the Alexander Technique! Unbelievably, a full calendar since the launch of my practice in late June 2009.
Fantastic fee deal (limited time only): First lesson free; second through 4th lessons only $10. After that, only $50/lesson if you buy a package of 4 at a time, prepaid. * The "real fee" is $78 per lesson. I am interested in "turning on" as many people as possible to this wonderful learning. Good for pain, for performance improvement in the arts, atheltics, ... And finally, good for personal development. It has definite geriatric benefit as well.
You can read about my own experiences and find links to other sites here:
http://www.lloydhouse.com
Call and make an appointment or to discuss it with me. 513 221 1289.
........
* However, it is my commitment to adjust fees for anyone truly wanting lessons who cannot afford even this modest fee. Try it and see. Ellen
FIRST FRIDAY POETRY READING
AQUARIUS & OM CAFE
329 Ludlow Avenue (across from Esquire Theatre) Cincinnati
POETRY READING ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 1, 7:30 PM
MARY ANNE REESE
GWYNETH STEWART
If a nightingale sings with her breast against a thorn, why not we?
Susan Gilbert Dickinson to Emily Dickinson in 1861
Clifton Cultural Arts Center Presents African Drum & Dance class for all
ages, the classes will be taught by Baoku Moses.
(Baoku is a friend of mine, a marvelous, playful, energetic African man, very community spirited and a total blast. Ellen)
Drumming class details:
Ages: All ages
Dates: Thursdays, 4:00-5:00pm
Session Begins: 9/16
Cost: $10 per class, $2 discount if you sign up for both drumming and
dancing, or register more than one person
Instructor: Baoku Moses
Registration: Email info@cliftonculturalarts.org with "Drumming" in the
subject line. People are encouraged to pre-register.
===========================
AFRICAN DRUMMING
Drumming is very important part of Africans day to day life because
drumming and singing brings joy and happiness to the soul. The African
drumming class is for everyone who is looking to learn more about African
music, learn the techniques of playing African drums, and have fun, while
experiencing the rich tradition of African drumming. The class is open to
all ages. I provide drums, but students are encouraged to bring a drum if
they have one.
""""""""""""""
Registration: Email info@cliftonculturalarts.org with "African Dance" in
the subject line. People are encouraged to pre-register.
}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
AFRICAN DANCE:
African Dance classes will build on the drumming and engage participants
in learning, fun movement of cultural African dances.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Lloyd House: Will be vacant and available again come 1/1/11
Third floor two room suite, has own bathroom. Monthly house dues: $460 includes all utilities plus high speed wireless internet. Kitchen shared with two others. Wonderful space! Please call Ellen: (513) 221 1289 Available June 23 to Sept 15.
Must be rock solid financially, over 25, non smoker, homo sapiens only.
Very jolly, juicy multicultural household in Victorian Castle. See www.lloydhouse.com
ARTICLES AND LETTERS
- From Jeanne Nightingale, Bob Witanowski and Wm Rivers Pitt: take back democracy from the corporations
- Comparing Red States and Blue States... Pretty interesting.
- News links on Washington, from Atia Huff:
- 1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions
- 2. http://mediamatters.org/ (this one is a watch on the Right Wing press)
- 3. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ (This one looks like general political news with Progressive bent.)
From Jeanne Nightingale, Bob witanowski, and Wm Rivers Pitt: take back democracy from the corporations
Subject: GOOD THINGS TO DO IN LOUSY TIMES
Thanks for this, David.
Of the list of issues that Sam Smith lists below stands out as one that many -- right, left, and center -- can find agreement on: Abolishing Corporate Political Free Speech 1st Amendment Rights.
Until we end Corporate Rule, we will not be able to "restore our democracy and constitutional government."
Yesterday, I joined the two Monahan Brothers for 3 or 4 miles on their walk through Cincinnati yesterday. They began in California, and have walked 2,000 miles across the country, promoting the Move to Amend the Constitution movement. They are responding to the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, January of 2010, giving corporations and unions unfettered ability to pump millions into elections. The decision further insulates against any challenge to "corporate personhood".
The brothers persuaded me that this fight could bring people of many diverse political persuasions to the same table. This is a non-partisan movement.
Corporate Personhood should and would be abolished with passage of such an amendment by 3/4 of the states. This will be a long and difficult task and to achieve this end the public must be alerted to the dangers of the latest Supreme Court decision that places a stamp of approval on a corrupting practice.
We must Move to Amend. http://www:movetoamend.org
Jeanne Nightingale
As usual, Sam Smith hits the nail right on the head ...
GOOD THINGS TO DO IN LOUSY TIMES
Since 1989, we have occasionally published a guide to getting through the crummy era that we are still in. It seems time for a new, updated edition.
Face the facts. The First American Republic is over. The Constitution is being trashed by both major parties. We are incapable of responding to the environmental crisis. Liberals can't tell the difference between being elite and being extinct. We're in the most expensive wars of no purpose in our history. Both major parties have moved steadily to the right over the past thirty years. Both have never been so corrupt. Ethnic prejudice is at an overt level unseen since the days of the civil rights struggles. The economy is still in the pits. Our creative culture has been reduced to the likes of Lady Gaga and Jersey Shore. And Barack Obama has turned out to be the Bernie Madoff of the Democratic Party - successfully conning America's liberals out of their hope and spare change.
Work around it. If a hurricane comes to your neighborhood, you don't just sit around the kitchen table complaining about it; you do things to help your survival. The same is true of the great storm of American disintegration. We have clearly lost what we have lost. We can give up our futile efforts to preserve the illusion and turn our energies instead to the construction of a new time. It is this willingness to walk away from the seductive power of the present that first divides the mere reformer from the rebel -- the courage to emigrate from one's own ways in order to meet the future not as an entitlement but as a frontier.
Use the word 'progressive" and not 'liberal.' There are still a lot of nice liberals around with whom to make common cause, but the word itself carries too much baggage. Progressives are activists; liberals are a demographic. Progressives emphasize economic change; liberals in recent years have largely ignored it. Progressives convert their opponents; liberals rant about them. Progressives are grassroots; liberals are fedocentric.
Put national politics on the back burner. State and local politics are still a good battlefield, but national politics has been so completely bought by corporate interests that it won't change until a lot of other things do first. It's movement time again, just as it was in the 1950s and 60s. We must create for our era what the civil rights, peace and environmental activists did then. Then the politics will respond. Few things scare national politicians more than people getting organized.
Become an existentialist. Existentialism has been described as the philosophy that no one can take your shower for you. Weigh your words and actions on your conscience, not on polls. We may not be able to change history, but we can always choose how we react to history.
Read 1984 again. In Orwell's 1984, the Inner Party amounted to only 2% of Oceana's population; the Outer Party - the worker drones of the establishment (like those in Washington and on Wall Street) - were 13%. The rest were the proles, looked down upon socially yet retaining more freedom than those above them. We are in a similar situation - where, oddly, the lack of power can mean the presence of freedom. As we move towards - and even surpass - the fictional bad dreams of Orwell and Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World,', it is helpful to remember that these nightmares were actually the curse of the elites more than those who lived in the manner of centuries of humans rather than joining the living dead at the zenith of illusionary power. This bifurcation of society into a weak, struggling, but sane, mass and a sociopathic elite that is alternately vicious and afraid, unlimited and imprisoned, foreshadows what we find today - an elite willing, on the one hand, to occupy any corner of the world and, on the other, terrified of a few young men with simple weapons.
Read about movements that worked, particularly the populists, the 1960s anti-war and civil rights movements, the gay and women's rights efforts. And don't forget the Beats. They were the warm-up band for one of the biggest eras of change in our history.
Look up and down, not left and right. Consider the purported major achievements of the Obama administration. Each of them - the stimulus, healthcare bill, education changes and foreign policy - has at its core helping the top class of America grab still more of our economic and cultural assets. The healthcare bill was specifically warped to favor private insurance companies. The stimulus gave vastly more attention to Wall Street than to homeowners threatened with foreclosure or the unemployed. Plans to improve train service emphasize high speed rail - i.e. business and not coach class service. And so forth.
We will not overcome the current crisis solely with political logic. We need living rooms like those in which women once discovered they were not alone. The freedom schools of the civil rights movement. The politics of the folk guitar. The plays of Vaclav Havel. Church basements. The pain of James Baldwin. The laughter of Abbie Hoffman. The strategy of Gandhi and King. Unexpected gatherings and unpredicted coalitions. People coming together because they disagree on every subject save one: the need to preserve the human. Savage satire and gentle poetry. Boisterous revival and silent meditation. Grand assemblies and simple suppers.
Have noble goals, but look out for yourself: As maritime wisdom puts it: one hand for the ship and one for yourself. You're no good to the cause if you're injured, depressed or fall overboard.
It's the people's economy that matters. Losing jobs while the GDP goes up is not an improving economy. Public policy should first and foremost be aimed at making economic conditions better for ordinary Americans.
Be nice to small business. Few in politics, at either the national or local level, pay much attention to small business. That goes for Republicans, Democrats and Greens. The problem is that small businesses put too little into campaign coffers. But small business is the big job creator, it's the hardest part of the economy to outsource, and its about the only part of the business world that can honestly talk about being in a free market. Further, small business people are important community leaders and useful viral marketers of opinion. Be nice to them and it will pay off.
Remember that diversity includes those you don't like. Both the absolute rights of a libertarian and those rights derived from a liberal government falter on the issue of what to do when presumed rights are in conflict. A good way to deal with this is think of liberty as reciprocal, which is to say that I can't have my liberty unless you have yours. To retain both our liberties, we must engage in constant negotiation rather than a battle to the death over our philosophies. Let's talk more about a democracy in which everyone wins instead of one in which only approximately half do. Instant runoff voting and proportional representation are good approaches for starters.
There has been a stunning increase in class-based arrogance and disparagement by liberals towards large blocs of voters dismissed as red staters, fly-overs, evangelicals, etc. For a species that prides itself on avoiding stereotypes this is a bit hypocritical. Worse, it is terrible politics. Remember, we've always had Christian fundamentalists in this country, but there was a time that we called them New Deal Democrats.
Martin Luther King reminded his aides that among their goals was that the people they were opposing would one day be their friends. One good way to do this: go after to the big guys - the rightwing pols, hypocritical preachers and so forth - and leave the little guys alone.
Build cross-cultural coalitions quietly on issues, not noisily on guilt. One of the best ways to build a cross-cultural coalition is to work on campaigns and projects together and in so doing build cooperation and trust from successful experience rather than on good intentions and nice words. There are far too many noble thoughts about racism even as opportunities for multi-ethnic cooperation pass unnoticed. There particularly is a tendency for white progressives to become involved in symbolic and celebrated multi-cultural issues, while ignoring the potential and necessity of more consistent, more local, and less flashy support of the interests and causes of those still seeking a fair share of America. And one of the most powerful progressive coalitions would be a long overdue black-latino combination.
Create a counterculture. It worked in the 1960s and it work again. You don't have to be a prisoner of the dominant culture. You can help create an alternative, just as the young did in the 1960s, without money or power. And without a counterculture there will be no significant change.
Be nice to white men. One of the besetting sins of many in the progressive movement is that they have made white men the enemy. In fact, no ethnic group in history gave up so much power so quickly and so peacefully. Every social movement of the past 40 years has depended on either the acquiescence or active participation of large numbers of white men. To bash them is both bad politics and bad philosophy, throwing away constituency and logic at the same time. One of the basic reasons for the Democrats' current problems is that they have implicitly treated minorities and women, on the one hand, and white males, on the other, as mutually exclusive groups. This perception has helped to drive white males to the Republicans. While it is obvious that white men have been responsible for most of the horrendous political and ecological policies that have left us in our current situation, it should be equally obvious that most white men have also been among their victims -- in everything from war to black lung disease to economic exploitation.
Be frugal. Both liberals and conservatives spend too much money on the wrong things as soon as they are in office. liberals get 99% of the rap for it. Here is another case of the left stipulating to a conservative stereotype. Ral frugality, at the moment, is an untouched political cause. Progressives need to shuck the assumption that spending money in the name of something is the same as spending money for something. Billions are spent in Washington in the name of good causes; far less actually serves those causes. A number of states have dealt with this problem as it exists in charities by placing a limit on the bureaucratic overhead a non-profit can have and still claim tax-exemption. Progressives should seek a similar standard for government. Few things would change more the popular impression of progressives than if they began to concern themselves with the efficient use of the taxpayers' dollars.
Think Green. A progressive movement that is going to make a difference is going to include a Green Party movement. You can't do it just with a bunch of lite Republicans who happen to support abortion. This doesn't mean that everyone joins the Green Party, but it means, for example, a powerful green wing within the Democratic Party and an end to the anti-Green Party nastiness by Democratic liberals.
Rediscover populism. The real divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, blue states and red, conservatives and liberals, faith-based and sectarian, or socialists and capitalists, but between little folk and big shots, between ordinary citizens and their leaders. Both Democrats and Republicans don't want you thinking about this because they get their money from the latter even while pretending to represent the former.
Don't be too pure. It's okay to be a saint but don't expect many others to follow you into self-deprivation, moral perfection, supererogation or martyrdom. Be happy if someone votes the right way, writes the letter you want or shows up for the meeting. And if you find among them some anti-abortionists who are also against our policy in Afghanistan, don't knock them; put them on a committee. Progressives need a constituency, not disciples. Besides, most people aren't as interested in this stuff as you are. They're more like Oscar Wilde who said he could never become a socialist because he liked to keep his evenings free.
Speak United States. The people we are trying to convince speak United States; it helps to talk the same language.. Most Americans don't talk about stimuli, transparency or infrastructure. But you'd never know it listening to typical Democratic politicians. Avoid the language of the corporate executive, pompous academic, hustling preacher, or boring lawyer.
Don't let the right rewrite history. Since only 6% of the country has ever known, as adults, a progressive president , and since the media has generally bought the GOP line on progressive politics, it is important to remember what life would be like if it hadn't been for progressives. For example we would not have
- Regulation of banks and stock brokerage firms
- Protection of your bank account
- Social Security
- A minimum wage
- Legal alcohol
- Regulation of the stock exchanges
- Right of labor to bargain with employers
- Soil Conservation Service and other early environmental programs
- National parks and monuments such as Death Valley, Blue Ridge, Everglades, Boulder Dam, Bull Run, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Mount Rushmore, Jackson Hole, Grand Teton, Cape Cod, Fire Island, and San Juan Islands just to name a few.
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- Rural electrification
- College education for innumerable veterans
- Housing loans for innumerable veterans
- FHA housing loans
- The bulk of hospital beds in the country
- Unemployment insurance
- Small Business Administration
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Medicare
- Peace Corps
Get a plan. Many Americans think they know what the Republicans and Democrats stand for. The trouble is that they learned it from the Republicans. This is because Democrats and progressives have been miserably incapable of stating clearly what they are about. This is not - as some have suggested - a matter of better rhetoric or proper branding; it is a matter of having something you believe in and explaining it well to others. The Vichy Democrats in control of the party aren't interested in this because it destroys their flexibility to appear to be one thing to their contributors and another thing to their constituents. In the end, to many it appears to many that the GOP stands for all the good things - patriotism, values, family, the economy, security et al - while the Democrats stand for nothing..
Come up with a progressive platform, preferably one that can be written on a single side of a sheet of paper. Here are some samples:
- Economic programs aimed at doing the most for the most and an end to Wall Street bailouts.
- An end to colonial occupation and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- The restoration of democracy and constitutional government in the U.S.
- Single payer health care
- A safe and clean natural environment
- Electoral reform including instant runoff voting and public campaign financing.
- Government carried out at the lowest practical level
If you don't like that list, then write your own.
Remember what you have in common with others. Since the sixties there has been a tremendous splintering of progressives into groups specializing in a single issue or around a cluster of single issues. This has produced a high level of expertise on these issues, raised the national consciousness on many of them, and provided a cadre capable of writing and criticizing legislation. The less happy side-effect has been that progressives have forgotten how to work in coalitions with one another and seem incapable of providing a holistic vision of that for which they are striving. They have become specialists and technocrats of change rather than leaders and prophets. And far too many fit G. K. Chesterton's description of liberals: they can't lead, they won't follow and they refuse to cooperate.
So go beyond your own cause. It works and helps to undermine stereotypes. Encourage your cause to join worthwhile coalitions even if they seem removed from your own. You'll make new friends and change others' view of you. Gays for guns, women for drug reform, blacks for small business, whatever. . .
Find or build oases of freedom and decency in the desert of globalization and national deterioration - places of sanity or small communities of concerned individuals. Remember that the biggest political divide is between the peoples of the world and their leaders.
Be an activist, not a clicktivist. Signing an online petition or writing a check is not enough. Use the Internet, but only as a tool for organizing real people working with each other. For one model, study the decentralized congregational approach of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that helped to produce civil rights.
Use boycotts. Find things that are easy to boycott, easy to get the word out about, and for which there are alternatives - such as boycotting one brand of several. Boycotts are an especially useful tool in a society as atomized as ours.
But don't be afraid of internal debate. The Democrats used to be far more contentious then they are today. There were liberals and conservatives, northerners and southerners, civil rights advocates and segregationists, reformists and the corrupt. As a liberal you learned to fight a two front battle - against the Republicans and against the bad guys in your own party.
With Clinton, liberals packed away their views and their vigor and went along with whatever the top guns of the party wanted. One reason this has worked so badly may be that the very contentiousness of the Democrats sent a message to the rest of the country that all sorts of people could feel at home, even if a bit restless, within the party. Everyone knew the Democrats were a crazy conglomerate of America.
Don't be afraid of popular issues. One of the striking differences between old-style liberals and their descendants is that the former had a knack for finding popular issues such as social security, the minimum wage, and day care funding. Too many contemporary progressives feel almost guilty if they get involved in anything that will take less than years of activism to win general support. This is not to say that unpopular causes should be avoided, but simply to suggest that it is okay to leaven the difficult and the controversial with things people already want.
Avoid dignifying the despicable by treating it as debatable. In rhetoric, analysis and approach, bear in mind that we're often not dealing with ideology or policy, but with mean people, thugs and thieves. Stop harping on Glenn Beck. You're only helping to build his base. Follow Samuel Goldwyn's advice and "don't even ignore him." The more he becomes the issue the less important real issues become.
Describe a future worth fighting for. Optimism is deeply ingrained in American culture. Progressives are in a tough spot in this regard, because they tend to bring America the bad news. And America typically kills them for it. We need a lot more skill in motivating people to correct what's wrong without simultaneously casting a pall over their vision of the future. Progressives need not surrender optimism to the conservatives. As Thomas Jefferson said, "My theory has always been that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter than the gloom of despair." It was the Democrats, after all, who in the runaway election year of 1936 labeled Republicans as "disciples of despair" floundering in a "fountain of fear." Roosevelt himself got considerable mileage from his insupportable assertion that we had nothing to fear but fear itself. And one of the driving characteristics of the sixties was its vibrant, if unrealistic, vision of the future, including the dream of an Age of Aquarius. Today, the Democrats have an excess of whiners, nagging nannies, and contumelious scolds. Did the politics of joy really die with Hubert Humphrey?
Define your politics issue by issue, not icon by icon. One reason progressive politics fares so poorly is because we spend too much time on individual campaigns and not enough on issues. While the former tend to drive away the independent, the skeptical and those who don't like a particular a candidate, the latter can attract all sorts to join with others who may agree only one issue.
Define your politics by issue by issue, not by ideology. It's a lot easier to get a cross section of people backing a particular issue than it is for them to buy into your whole philosophy of life. Use the former approach on the streets and save the latter for the bar. You don't need common ideology if you have common causes.
No more stimulus packages for grad school liberals. Use fewer experts from the Ivy League and more from Iowa. End the grad school politics that favors those that collect data, assess and legalize issue over those who actually do something. One of the things many people don't like about traditional liberals is how federally oriented they are. This is due in no small part to an elite class that designs jobs for themselves in Washington.
Remember that most minority voters don't get to even look at a glass ceiling. But many of them run into locked doors every day. Pay much more attention to the latter.
Personal to Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madow: A progressive movement can't be built on the mirror image of Bill O'Reilly or with endless sarcastic comments about your opponents. It can be built by people understanding and becoming enthusiastic about the policies you support. Help them and stop worrying so much about Bill O'Reilly.
We need local democracy as much as local lettuce. Progressives are often afraid to criticize big government because they think it makes them sound like Republicans. In fact, the idea of localization -- having government carried out at the lowest practical level -- dates back at least to that good Democrat, Thomas Jefferson. We need to rediscover the 1960s spirit of localism, including things like credit unions, coops, and community organizing.
One of the great failures of liberalism has been its great disinterest in local power. The closer government is to the people the more they like it and the more responsive it tends to be. Besides, if you can't be an effective progressive in the 'hood, then you'll be a pretty lousy one in Washington.
All national legislation with state and local impact should meet the standards of what the Catholic Church used to call the principle of subsidiarity: government power should exercised at the lowest practical level. There lots of ways to do this in federal legislation. Here are a few:
- Revenue sharing
- Giving money instead of orders to public education and other programs.
- Decentralizing government agencies like some of the best existing ones such at the National Park Service, Coast Guard and US Attorney
- Not making too many decisions at the federal level.
- Supporting the 9th and 10th amendments that clearly limit the federal government's role
Support the Second Amendment for three good reasons: it works, gun prohibition laws don't and you'll make all sorts of new friends.
Change the rules as well as the game. Support instant runoff voting, public campaign financing, more states, a larger House of Representatives with mixed proportional and district representation like Germany, state banks, and a constitutional amendment to end corporations' legal status as "persons."
Distinguish between good regulation and good jobs for regulators. New laws often favor the latter which is why we keep adding regulators but can't even bring the Glass-Steagall Act back.
Support a shorter work week. It sure helped progressive populists in the past.
Don't forget the forgotten. Everyone talks about having a black president, but hardly anyone does anything about the huge number of young black and white males to whom we offer two main futures: incarceration or pain if not death on the battlefield. It is similar with the poor in general. They have not only been deserted by conservatives and centrists but by liberals as well.
Ditch the war on drugs. A great recession is a wonderful time to get rid America's most unsuccessful and expensive policy this side of foreign wars. Ending the war on drugs will save money, reduce the police state, limit prosecutorial discrimination against the poor, lower the crime rate, switch attention to health-based solutions and attract a lot of young voters who didn't even known they were progressives.
Don't be afraid to lead: When your national leadership is pretty much down to Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich, you know there's plenty of room for you. Most great movements have been led by those most hadn't even heard of a few years earlier. You could be one of them.
Don't be afraid to follow. One of the most useful techniques in organizing is to support the work of others. A mass movement is built by groups alternately leading and following each other. And one of the best ways to get respect is to give it.
.
Turn public schools back to their communities. It worked for some 200 years until we decided to turn schools into human drone detention centers where the young are taught to pass tests rather than to learn live. And among the subjects driven out of our schools by the test tyrants: how to become a good citizen.
Don't let anal retentives, turf protectors, budget bullies, data druggies, assessocrats ambitious lawyers and CYA bureaucrats kill good ideas. Given the state of contemporary political culture, it would be unlikely that Social Security, Medicare or a minimum wage could be passed today. That's not so much a reflection of our politics as it is of our culture. We have mainly learned how to say no. Progressives need to reintroduce the concept of yes.
Keep in mind the great 1960s saying: Our goal is not to overthrow the system but to make it irrelevant.
The history of our country has involved repeated conflict between the specifics of the soul and institutional abstractions -- between people and places on the one hand and, on the other, a succession of systems desiring to exploit, subjugate or supplant them. We need to oppose not only the bad systems of the moment but unnatural systems in general - all those that revoke, replace or restrain the natural rights of human beings and the natural assets of their habitats.
The first rule of staying free is to act free. The number of liberals and progressives that follow this rule is sadly small. Everyone these days seems to prefer to talk about balancing rights instead of exercising them. But the rights outlined in the Constitution weren't bargaining chips; they were permanent guarantees.
Don't surrender the Bible to the right. Progressives leave the right's phony theological arguments largely unchallenged. For example, the Ten Commandments doesn't say anything about abortion or gay marriage but sure as hell is down on adultery, stealing (even on Wall Street), bearing false witness (even in political ads) and coveting anything that belongs to your neighbor (even in the name of capitalism). The Bible also doesn't like usury and strongly suggests that the earth is the lord's and not the property of multinational corporations. The ultimate irony of right wingers is that that they are the leading despoilers, usurers, war-mongers, hypocrites, idolaters and groupies of false prophets - all of whom are frowned upon by the book it pretends to follow. And its opponents, who are more faithful to the words that the conservatives only quote, are often such good Christians that they never say a mumblin' word about it all.
One of the best ways to revive democracy is to make sure that every organization, church, school, or club is run according to its principles.
Value tolerance. It's a word that isn't heard much any more but could ease a lot of our pain. Tolerance is often a necessary waypoint for people on the way to accepting new ideas. It's the trial period before full acceptance.
Educate more and scold less. Issues like climate change are complicated for many and hard to grasp, especially since our schools have devoted more time to teaching driving and creating drug free zones than they have to science. Help people understand issues and don't blame them for not.
Make change from the bottom up - Part of the illusion of mass media is that change can be organized like a TV series. Try it and typically one of two things happen: it fails or it becomes just more political mush. Too many web-based liberal organizations are modeled on corporate lobbying groups. They don't change politics, souls, or history. Despite TV and the Internet, change still comes from the bottom. Build from up there.
Forget the capitalist-socialist conflict obsession. Two questions illustrate the futility:
- Do capitalists ever ride the public subway?
- Who will run the restaurants in the Marxist utopia?
Mix and match based on the reality of the situation and not on somebody's theory.
Define America. If you don't like the way the right does it, come up with your own description, stories and role models.
Have fun. If you don't enjoy your cause, how can you expect others to?
Comparing Red and Blue States, from Atia Huff, Judy Cirillo, and Yagil Hertzberg
Hi Ellen,
this is very interesting and apparently he took a statistical approach to find out which part is most effective. Thought you might want to share it with the Salonistas. I plan to see you tomorrow.
Judy
From: atia huff <huffat@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 9:39 PM
Subject: How Democrats, Republicans compare
To: judy <jcirillo.1@juno.com>
welcome home, judy,
(salonista Judy Cirillo has been in Maine all summer. ellen)
and all the best with the sale of your home. it was good to see you again and hope you'll feel better soon.
after my visit to Prague, i realized, i would have no problems staying or re-settling. does it make me an ingrate?? my language command was still good, i still know how to get around on a public system which is excellent. the city itself has a subway, trams and buses, i could do just fine without the car. around the country, there are buses and trains. in fact we took both a train and a bus out of the city, both were cheap and good.
to my chagrin, the west, or western & u.s. corporations 'invaded' the country, and one can find every imaginable chain food store such as McDonald, KFC and Starbucks; the same goes for other corporations, such as Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, etc. while i was there, Hewlett Packard was moving its plant from Czech Republic to Romania after 3yrs of tax free residence, leaving 1500 people without a job.
of course, i know, it's been happening here for decades, only i saw it repeated globally. before they arrive, corporations negotiate good deal on corporate taxes, paying barely any and when the time comes to start paying they MOVE - isn't it nice of them?
local government, for that matter, our government, too, doesn't have the fortitude to refuse them, for they are bringing JOBS, never mind that on their terms. corporations, our 21th century masters! and if they can't get the politician to agree to their terms, they make sure he doesn't get re-elected. anyway, that was a bittersweet experience while i was there.
so, you think you are going to vote for a lesser evil in november? it so happens that i got this article in the mail tonight, that compares the two evils. somebody did some serious statistical comparison and when you finish reading, i hope you feel a little better about the ballot choices:
Atia Huff
How Democrats, Republicans compare
Yagil Hertzberg
San Francisco Chronicle September 12, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
For years I have been trying to persuade supporters of the other major American party to change their mind and vote with me, to no avail. That is, until last week, when three politically minded friends came over for an evening of snacks and politics, and, halfway through the evening, I unleashed my new one-two approach to political persuasion.
First, I asked my friends how they would go about choosing a new dishwasher. We agreed that the responsible and rewarding method would be to ignore any marketing hype and instead follow the Best Buy recommendations by Consumer Reports. Because nobody mentioned the virtues or shortcomings of, say, Whirlpool's executives as a valid criterion for choosing the appliance, I asked why they argue for hours about the perceived personalities of the candidates instead of comparing the track records of the major parties. My friends answered that it's simple enough to summarize the essential properties of dishwashers, while the elections are about a large number of issues that defy easy tabulation. Therefore, they concentrate on the candidates, hoping that by choosing the right person for the job, the elected official will make the right decisions when dealing with all those different issues.
I used to share this view myself, but then I checked the numbers. I was surprised to find out that the results of comparing the track records of the two major parties fall neatly (with one exception) into two categories - economy and family values. In my analysis, I compared all administrations going back to 1960 and all states based on how they voted in the presidential elections since 1980.
It was time for the second phase. I presented my friends with a list of numbers. To overcome bias, I used symbols (A, B, C and D) to represent the two major parties under the two categories. All state-related numbers (including those for the District of Columbia <http://topics.sfgate.com/topics/Washington,_D.C.> ) are per person.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/11/INH31F68GB.DTL#ixzz0zgyfNNBy
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/11/INH31F68GB.DTL#ixzz0zSbkdAIq
http://www.fixcongressfirst.org/
Bentley Davis' updates on the political scene... Bentley rocks! Best politics expert I've met. Ellen
nothing new this week. Stay tuned.
REVIEWS: BOOKS, Movies, MUSIC, CONCERTS, RESTAURANTS, WEBSITES ...
Please send me your tips...love to hear what you are reading etc. ellen
......................................
From Ellen:
Did I tell you about Thirty Years a Slave, Four Years at the White House by Elizabeth Keckley? Elizabeth rocks! She worked as a seamstress/coutourier and bought her own freedom ... Worked forMaryToddLincoln... Fascinating report. And in the forward, a scholar gives a valuable bibliography of slave narratives written by African American people about their experiences. Wonderful resource. Ellen
.......................................................
The Kids Are All Right (R)
Rated for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore - 104 min.
Two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination get the notion to seek out their birth father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers have built for them. Family ties are defined re-defined, and re-re-defined.
(Review by Anna Simon, my daughter... Ellen)
Here's my thoughts: I hate infidelity movies, hate lesbian-sleeps-with-man movies, but somehow I was caught completely off guard and LOVED this film. Had to really think about why. I think it was this: I was actually completely convinced about them as a couple- including the Lesbian Bed Death (LBD) phase of their relationship: super familiar with each other, loving each other, but at the stage where even with a lot of props (using male porn is barely talked about but extremely common among lesbians I have known) life is just not very sexy. The match of their personalities similarly made a lot of sense to me, felt familiar. I thought each character was sympathetic and realistic. But none of that was why I loved it.
I realized that I loved it because it turned the lesbian-sleeping-wth-a-man as well as the infidelity paradigm on its head. Yes, she sleeps with a man, but it doesn't make her straight. At all. AND she is unfaithful, but this lesbian relationship is stronger than any on-screen marriage I've seen in which this happens: the relationship survives. And it's believable, because I was completely convinced of the strong foundation of their relationship, despite their (serious) problems. Unlike any other film with these themes, I left feeling hope, feeling uplifted and validated. Our marriages are strong- really strong. They have issues like any other, but look at how basically good they are- look at the great kids they raised, too!
Anyhow, that was my take. Anna.
....... On Sep 12, 2010, at 11:28 AM, Ellen Bierhorst wrote:
Last night I went to the Esquire and saw that movie about the lesbian couple who have two teenage children and they dig up contact with their sperm donor. Not so entirely convinced those two straight actresses made a real lesbian couple... the sexy scenes didn't ring any bells for me. Mostly it was interesting in regard to the trials of a 20 year old marriage, surviving sexual infidelity, gay or straight. I'd give the movie a B. There were some good laughs. Anyone else have a reaction?
Ellen (see Esquire times schedule below)
.................................................................
Valerie Cronus Bickett Sends:
Hello: I am sending you a poem that wakes me up.
Fall classes start soon. Thursday morning: Sept. 16th. Monday night: Sept. 20th. Information attached and available at www.littlepocketpoetry.org
Write or call with any questions. Valerie Chronis Bickett (681-9252)
I Have News for You
by Tony Hoagland
There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood
and there are people who don't interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.
There are people who don't walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable
and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings
do not send their sinuous feeder roots
deep into the potting soil of others' emotional lives
as if they were greedy six-year-olds
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;
and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.
Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?
There are some people, unlike me and you,
who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as
unattainable as that moon;
thus, they do not later
have to waste more time
defaming the object of their former ardor.
Or consequently run and crucify themselves
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.
I have news for you—
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room
and open a window to let the sweet breeze in
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.
........................................
Movies Starting Fri (9/17):
Love Ranch
I'm Still Here
Esquire Theatre
Schedule for Friday, September 17, 2010 until Thursday, September 23, 2010
I'm Still Here (2010/I) (NR)
Joaquin Phoenix
- 108 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:10, 4:40, 7:20, 9:50
The American (R)
George Clooney, Violante Placido
- 105 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40
Animal Kingdom (R)
Ben Mendelsohn, Jacki Weaver
- 112 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:00, 4:30, 7:10, 9:45
The Kids Are All Right (R)
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore
- 104 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:30, 5:00, 7:40, 10:10
Love Ranch (R)
Scout Taylor-Compton, Bryan Cranston
- 117 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:20, 4:50, 7:35, 10:00
Get Low (PG-13)
Bill Murray, Robert Duvall
- 100 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:45, 9:55
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R)
Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon
- 100 minutes Sat: 12:00 AM
6906 Wooster Pike Cincinnati, OH 45227 (513) 272-2002
Movies Leaving Thursday (9/16):
Despicable Me
Mid-August Lunch
Movies Starting Friday (9/17):
The Concert
Mariemont Theatre
Schedule for Friday, September 17, 2010 until Thursday, September 23, 2010
Eat Pray Love (PG-13)
Julia Roberts, James Franco
- 133 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00
Digital Presentation, Final Days
The Concert (Le concert) (PG-13)
Aleksei Guskov, Mlanie Laurent
- 120 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:00, 4:30, 7:10, 9:30
Get Low (PG-13)
Bill Murray, Robert Duvall
- 100 minutes Fri - Thu: 12:50, 3:00, 5:10, 7:20, 9:40
......................................
From Ellen:
Did I tell you about Thirty Years a Slave, Four Years at the White House by Elizabeth Keckley? Elizabeth rocks! She worked as a seamstress/coutourier and bought her own freedom ... Worked forMaryToddLincoln... Fascinating report. And in the forward, a scholar gives a valuable bibliography of slave narratives written by African American people about their experiences. Wonderful resource. Ellen
.......................................................
The Kids Are All Right (R)
Rated for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore - 104 min.
Two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination get the notion to seek out their birth father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers have built for them. Family ties are defined re-defined, and re-re-defined.
(Review by Anna Simon, my daughter... Ellen)
Here's my thoughts: I hate infidelity movies, hate lesbian-sleeps-with-man movies, but somehow I was caught completely off guard and LOVED this film. Had to really think about why. I think it was this: I was actually completely convinced about them as a couple- including the Lesbian Bed Death (LBD) phase of their relationship: super familiar with each other, loving each other, but at the stage where even with a lot of props (using male porn is barely talked about but extremely common among lesbians I have known) life is just not very sexy. The match of their personalities similarly made a lot of sense to me, felt familiar. I thought each character was sympathetic and realistic. But none of that was why I loved it.
I realized that I loved it because it turned the lesbian-sleeping-wth-a-man as well as the infidelity paradigm on its head. Yes, she sleeps with a man, but it doesn't make her straight. At all. AND she is unfaithful, but this lesbian relationship is stronger than any on-screen marriage I've seen in which this happens: the relationship survives. And it's believable, because I was completely convinced of the strong foundation of their relationship, despite their (serious) problems. Unlike any other film with these themes, I left feeling hope, feeling uplifted and validated. Our marriages are strong- really strong. They have issues like any other, but look at how basically good they are- look at the great kids they raised, too!
Anyhow, that was my take. Anna.
....... On Sep 12, 2010, at 11:28 AM, Ellen Bierhorst wrote:
Last night I went to the Esquire and saw that movie about the lesbian couple who have two teenage children and they dig up contact with their sperm donor. Not so entirely convinced those two straight actresses made a real lesbian couple... the sexy scenes didn't ring any bells for me. Mostly it was interesting in regard to the trials of a 20 year old marriage, surviving sexual infidelity, gay or straight. I'd give the movie a B. There were some good laughs. Anyone else have a reaction?
Ellen (see Esquire times schedule below)
.................................................................
Valerie Cronus Bickett Sends:
Hello: I am sending you a poem that wakes me up.
Fall classes start soon. Thursday morning: Sept. 16th. Monday night: Sept. 20th. Information attached and available at www.littlepocketpoetry.org
Write or call with any questions. Valerie Chronis Bickett (681-9252)
I Have News for You
by Tony Hoagland
There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood
and there are people who don't interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.
There are people who don't walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable
and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings
do not send their sinuous feeder roots
deep into the potting soil of others' emotional lives
as if they were greedy six-year-olds
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;
and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.
Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?
There are some people, unlike me and you,
who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as
unattainable as that moon;
thus, they do not later
have to waste more time
defaming the object of their former ardor.
Or consequently run and crucify themselves
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.
I have news for you—
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room
and open a window to let the sweet breeze in
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.
........................................
Movies Starting Fri (9/17):
Love Ranch
I'm Still Here
Esquire Theatre
Schedule for Friday, September 17, 2010 until Thursday, September 23, 2010
I'm Still Here (2010/I) (NR)
Joaquin Phoenix
- 108 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:10, 4:40, 7:20, 9:50
The American (R)
George Clooney, Violante Placido
- 105 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40
Animal Kingdom (R)
Ben Mendelsohn, Jacki Weaver
- 112 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:00, 4:30, 7:10, 9:45
The Kids Are All Right (R)
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore
- 104 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:30, 5:00, 7:40, 10:10
Love Ranch (R)
Scout Taylor-Compton, Bryan Cranston
- 117 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:20, 4:50, 7:35, 10:00
Get Low (PG-13)
Bill Murray, Robert Duvall
- 100 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:45, 9:55
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R)
Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon
- 100 minutes Sat: 12:00 AM
6906 Wooster Pike Cincinnati, OH 45227 (513) 272-2002
Movies Leaving Thursday (9/16):
Despicable Me
Mid-August Lunch
Movies Starting Friday (9/17):
The Concert
Mariemont Theatre
Schedule for Friday, September 17, 2010 until Thursday, September 23, 2010
Eat Pray Love (PG-13)
Julia Roberts, James Franco
- 133 minutes Fri - Thu: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00
Digital Presentation, Final Days
The Concert (Le concert) (PG-13)
Aleksei Guskov, Mlanie Laurent
- 120 minutes Fri - Thu: 2:00, 4:30, 7:10, 9:30
Get Low (PG-13)
Bill Murray, Robert Duvall
- 100 minutes Fri - Thu: 12:50, 3:00, 5:10, 7:20, 9:40
A Newsletter published every Thursday from the Lloyd House in Cincinnati
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FIVE SECTIONS, including:
Table Notes of the discussion at this Wednesday night's Salon, as recorded by Ellen
Events and Opportunities
Articles and Letters
Book, Film, Theater, TV, Music, Website Reviews
Tri-State Treasures, compiled by Jim Kesner
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The Wednesday Night Salon has been meeting each week of the year (no break for holidays, weather) since July 2001 in pursuit of good talk. Bring a dish at 5:45 pm and join us. We are usually about 10 people of varied erudition and age. We like to talk politics, environmentalism, social issues, literature, the arts, ad any blamed thing we want. Sometimes we have a special presenter. We emphasize good fellowship and civility always. Way fun! Everyone welcome. 3901 Clifton Avenue 45220.
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