who wants moore?

mikey at UNR

so. i admit this picture isn't of the best quality. and for those who can't tell who it is, it's michael moore. yes. he spoke at UNR (the university of nevada, reno) on wednesday night. i worked the event (i'll explain that later) and was fortunate enough to be given a seat in the 8th row. it was padded. the seat.

this was a pretty big event. somewhere around ten thousand people showed for it. but the thing that makes this more substantial is this: people got angry about him speaking. a local businessman offered $100,000 for him to not speak. some alumni threatened to pull funding if he was approved to speak. the republican party offered to pay for another speaker to debate him. but. the student senate and the administration stood their ground. everyone on the UNR side (i believe. well. i'm sure it was mostly everyone.) refused to be bribed or blackmailed into stopping the show. and i think that's pretty cool. good for them. yay people standing up for what's right. freedom of expression and all of that.

and it was pretty cool to see michael moore speak. he's an exciting personality and is important in that we need his side to have a voice. yes he has an agenda, yes he isn't always right, yes he says things i don't agree with, but we need that perspective to have a voice. no matter which side of the political spectrum, people should get their five minutes. (which opens doors for fascists and the like to do the same, yes, but well.. they have their right to an opinion, no?)

but. to agree with my roommate, the guest of moore - Tom Morello was the best part of the night.

(tom, for all of those who don't know is a musician/activist. he played guitar for rage against the machine and now plays for audioslave along with doing solo stuff here and there. like last night. was solo. he went to harvard for political science. he practices eight hours a day. he's actually my favorite member of rage against the machine. this may be because of this story my friend gabe told me while working at BMW. zach de la rocha (lead for ratm) went in one day and bought a super fancy BMW. left his cell phone number with them. and for some reason, this makes me not like him as much. it's kind of disappointing, mr. man of the people zach, mr. activist on the front lines protesting buying a bmw. it just hits a bad note with me. (pun. ha.) but. back to my michael moore/tom morello story)

so. tom got up and sang some woody-guthrie-style protest songs. like actual old school protest songs. which i thought was great. there's a lot of history in that genre, people made a lot of noise with simple folk songs. so. i enjoyed that. (although i thought the crowd around me was taken aback, expecting crazy rage music)

and i thought what he had to say was more important than anything michael moore had to say. he reminded us that no matter which multi-millionaire is elected, we have to remember that november third is the most important day. the issues don't disappear after the election and it's up to us to make sure that on november third, they're not forgotten for the next four years. (paraphrased poorly, i'm sure. my memory is lame.) so that was cool.

one thing i thought was not so cool, was the kid who got thrown out at the beginning. some lame "beginning of the show heckler" was yelling things at moore, mostly for attention, it seemed. and moore was feeding off of it.. and it was one of those things where i think the kid would've gotten bored with it.. (this is all assumption, i wasn't sitting anywhere near the kid so i have no idea how serious he was) but shortly after the second heckle, the security guys came and threw him out. coincidentally, moore was just talking about Freedom of Expression. and then a kid who booed him got thrown out. some freedom.

so. my new job. i'm working for america coming together. a non-profit organization geared towards getting people to vote this november. (not only get people to vote, but get people to not vote for george w. bush. technically, i think we're non-partisan, but we're anti-bush.) i canvas. which means i go door to door talking to people about the presidential election. here's an example of what i do, best-case scenario:

(knocking. dogs barking. door opens.)
me: hi! (insert name of person from my palm pilot)? i'm with america coming together, a nonprofit organization going around talking to folks about the upcoming presidential election.
them: (blank stare)
me: will you be voting this november?
them: yeah
me: do you know who you'll be voting for?
them: yeah
me: would you feel comfortable telling me who that is?
them: sure. john kerry.
me: right on. what would you say is the most important issue to you? taxes.. health care.. the war in iraq..
them: oh.. probably the war
me: all right. do you need a ride to the polls?
them: no.
me: ok. well. here's the early voting information. this tells you all of the places you can go in reno/sparks and when they're open.
them: oh.
me: thanks for your time! have a good afternoon!
(end scene)

so. that's one out of every five houses, maybe. i've actually only had a few really rude/off putting people. one woman spit out very angrily "i don't discuss my politics with anyone."

another acted very strangely and when i asked her my question about who she would vote for, she said "are you a democrat?" to which i replied, "no. i'm non-partisan." and she said, "but you're wearing a kerry bracelet." i looked at my wrists. the left has a piece of white plastic coated electrical ground wire connected with a "butt crimp". the right has a green sparkly totally 80s plastic bracelet and a yellow live strong bracelet. i realized that the latter was the only one she could've been talking about. and i gave her a strange look i guess because she said, "yeah. john kerry wears one of those." and i started to explain to her that it was related to lance armstrong not john kerry but she wasn't having it. i wished i would've said, "i think cancer is non partisan" but i didn't think of that until i was walking down the street.

i did get dragged into a household by The Mother to get involved in the family debate in the kitchen between The Father and The Son. they gave me a glass of water and were really friendly and entertaining. i didn't really get into the debate, much to the dismay of The Mother, i'm sure. but it was funny. i was there to talk to The Daughter who was asleep at the time when i knocked. she woke up and came into the kitchen and made a comment about how she didn't even care about the election but she would probably vote for john kerry just because. The Son had spent a lot of time abroad travelling around and was focused mostly on the environment. The Father just didn't see why he shouldn't vote for bush. not that he really likes the guy, but he couldn't find a good enough reason why he's not good enough for the presidency. it was bizarre, to say the least. to be brought into a situation like that. and in the time i was sitting in their kitchen listening to this going on, i really got a pretty good glimpse into what they're like. which i really got a kick out of. The Son was really frustrated because he didn't feel like he was being listened to. and The Father thought The Son wasn't catching on to his form of communication which was of the say-what-you-think-of-immediately-even-though-you-are -interrupting-the-other-person variety. and The Mother was chopping up vegetables and cracking jokes about the two of them to me. and The Daughter was just apathetic. it was great. and as i left The Son followed me out and gave me a gift. a piece of peruvian wood that when burned is supposed to expel negative energy. he apologized for his folks saying they really frustrate him because they don't seem to care about things that are really important to him. and he wafted peruvian wood smoke at me and explained that it would last me for years and to only burn it when i really need it. and that it's like white sage.

but now i feel like i'm rambling. so. this job. i have it until the election. but up until then it's pretty intense. it leaves me feeling pretty tired (two jobs and graduate school. yes!) and drained mentally and physically. which is an excuse for why i'm having a hard time updating this thing.

this is where you'll find me now. i guess. (yawn) whatever.