Before
John Ross died this January, he asked his family and friends to do the following with his ashes:
1) Scatter them along the #14 bus route in San Francisco’s Mission District, where Ross lived on and off for much of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. 2) Sprinkle them in the ashtrays in front of the Hotel Isabel in downtown Mexico City, Ross’s home base from 1985 to 2010. 3) Mix them with marijuana and have them rolled into a spliff to be smoked at his funeral. A certain half-baked logic ran through much of
Ross’s life and writing. For a few years during the Carter era, as he recounts in his (mostly true) memoir
Murdered by Capitalism, he spent his afternoons drinking Gallo wine and smoking pot and PCP in the
Trinidad cemetery in Humboldt County, California. It was there that he met the ghost of
Edward B. Schnaubelt...
posted by jim in austin
on Jun 11, 2011 -
17 comments
Noah Kirkman was stopped by the police while riding a bicycle without his helmet... He then spent the next two years trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare... trying to go home.
The Kirkman family has been locked in Kafkaesque bureaucratic limbo since a misunderstanding ruined an idyllic summer vacation in small-town Oregon in 2008.
[more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Apr 16, 2010 -
23 comments
Helen (Hunt) Jackson was an
author and an activist.
Her mom died when Helen was 14, her dad 3 years later. Helen's first child died at 11 months, her second at 10 years old. In 1879 she was
inspired after hearing Chief Standing Bear describe how the U.S. government took Native Americans' land.
She began to publish in support of Native American rights. 1881 brought her book
A Century of Dishonor [pdf], branded with the words "Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations".
In 1883, she published her most famous work,
Ramona, a novel about racial discrimination set in California.
If that's too much to take in, and now you need some kitties, she's still got you covered.
Letters from a Cat (1879) is being featured at
Archive.org today.
[more inside]
posted by cashman
on Aug 25, 2008 -
7 comments
HONK! is a showcase and annual festival for a "new kind of street band": motley, theatrical, activist protest groups working within the
marching band tradition. From this central site, link to
video and
audio from
twenty bands currently playing in the "honk" genre, from New York's
Rude Mechanical Orchestra to to Atlanta's
Seed and Feed Marching Abominables to Portsmouth, NH's
Leftist Marching Band. Heavy on the brass and percussion, rousing, raucous, and fun, these bands form part of a
worldwide musical phenomenon.
posted by Miko
on Jul 30, 2007 -
19 comments
RIP Heather MacAllister. "Any time there is a fat person onstage as anything besides the butt of a joke, it’s political. Add physical movement, then dance, then sexuality and you have a revolutionary act.” Founder of
Big Burlesque and Venus Group, she died Feb 13 after a long fight with ovarian cancer. She was notably
photographed by
Leonard Nimoy. Multiple
memorial services are planned for her birthday, Feb 25.
[some links may be NSFW]
posted by cubby
on Feb 15, 2007 -
15 comments
The Nexus of Evil So it seems as though the Chairman of the Colorado College Republicans (
Jay Bob Klinkerman, no really, no kidding, that's his name) seems to be the one responsible for the removal of three Democrats from a Bush Social Security Sideshow.
For some reason, and possibly it was always the case, all roads in this administration frequently lead to back to the same places, with the same names. What do all of the high profile actors in the current GOP have in common? Some sort of activity or affiliation with either the
College Republicans or
Young Republicans.
If you are wondering about the names - how about Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, Lee Atwater, and the central organizer, Morton Blackwell.
College Republicans have been the footsoldiers for the right since the Draft Goldwater campaign, and have been rewarded for their service throughout the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush#41 and#43 . You can also find their fingerprints all over the various thinktanks, the direct-mail industry, and fundraising. I strongly recommend taking some time to read up on the history of the
College Republicans (PDF).
posted by rzklkng
on Apr 28, 2005 -
43 comments
Peace Activist Philip Berrigan Dead at 79 Yes, I know, obituaries are depressing. But this man was one of my very few heros. He fought a good fight, but in this age of corporate sponsored and government promoted dimunation of conscience can a single person "bearing witness" to the immoral actions that go on in this world really make a difference? Or is the idea of citizen protest just a quaint vestige of another era?
[
NYT link]
posted by ahimsakid
on Dec 7, 2002 -
8 comments
A Left-wing European human-rights activist's take on Iraq. No, not what you'd come to expect by now. Far from the pro-forma accepted perspective of the Left, Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, a German human rights activist makes a case
for the war in Iraq in this insightful interview. He mentions plenty of things I haven't read about before in regards to Kurds and has quite a few strong words to say about Germany and the recent fashions of the European Left.
posted by bokononito
on Oct 7, 2002 -
24 comments
