Dancing Barefoot Live

Revel and I opened the set with this. I started out kind of nervous, but lost myself in the song midway through and recovered. Q Cafe Nickelsville Benefit, Nov. 15, 2008

Dancing Barefoot

Last night I played in front of "people" for the first time in about twenty years. When I did it then, I sucked. That was a Street Magazine party, organized as a talent show. I made up some Devo-ish thing about art school people. They were an easy target. People dug it, and some guy asked me to play his cafe. I had one song I was good at at, and a handful of others that sucked. I declined.

Last night Revel and I did Dancing Barefoot in front of maybe 125 people at the Nickelsville Benefit. Then I did a fast, hard Have Mercy, which I managed not to tremendously fuck up (I'm prone to forgetting lyrics), and closed with a loose and hammy I Like Pink.

It was cool to have a sound guy giving me some reverb and making it sound nice. I've gotten very comfortable in front of audiences as a speaker, but performing as an artist is different. You're much more exposed. You kind of have to let go for it to work. When it works, you feel very high and very focused. I do, anyway.

Doing Dancing Barefoot in a christian setting brought out more of its god stuff for us. It's about intense love, connection, ecstasy, God, the universe, redemption. The big stuff.

The version posted here is hot. Revel and I did four takes on this song today, thinking that maybe after more practice and new strings on the guitar we'd get something good. None were better than the first, done at 9 am the morning after we learned it. I added a little reverb and a lead track tonight, and, well, it's pretty damn good. Really. Put on some headphones and listen.

Why Protest Politics Matters.

Today was the Real Change breakfast. The slide show above ran at the beginning and close, and is by Revel with music by me.

Sherman ran a lovely and funny extended metaphor that drew upon his ever deepening life as a frequent flyer. John Bayly, the Real Change vendor who made the pitch, did the best job I've ever seen, anywhere. We had about 450 people there and raised at least $71,500. We're still counting.

I talked about hope, reality, and the importance of protest politics.

This is one version of the future, I said: Grassroots activism grows. The political climate changes. There's a major investment in clean energy, and we put people to work. We finally get out of Iraq, and we figure out how to do health care. A bunch of bad executive orders get reversed. We get a few supreme court justices, and so forth.

But then, what about inequality, which has increased steadily since 73. The pace of that is only accelerating, especially at the top and bottom-most ends.

How much political will will it take to decrease inequality, I asked? I mean, ending homelessness; that's one thing we can all get around the table on, but reducing inequality? That's communism. And, as Sherman noted this morning, you're not allowed to call in sick on communism. Too few others are picking up the slack.

Here’s another version of the future, I said. Obama does what he can, but the economy continues to slide. Localities face budget deficits year after year. The war goes on. It turns out to be surprisingly intractable. No meaningful health care reform is passed because people think Obama’s going to do everything for us and they mostly let the insurance and drug companies dictate the terms. Tax reform is mild, and the financial system gets some tweaks, but mostly continues to run without transparency or accountability. Inequality continues to widen. Homelessness grows, as has been the trend since the 70’s. Local budgets are tight. The political will to end homelessness fades and grows more jaded. Poor people are increasingly criminalized. Seattle’s new jail, after just four years, is operating at capacity. Racial disproportionality in the prison and homeless populations keeps increasing. And so forth.

The difference, I said, will depend upon the strength of grassroots organizing.

Last night, I thought about protest politics, and what I was going to say about why the work matters. After all, we haven't exactly stopped the homeless sweeps yet; although we have made the practices a good deal more visible and forced the Mayor to at least a pretense of accountability. But there's been another win that might allow for a win later.

We shifted the frame. Protest politics changes the frame.

City framing on the homeless sweeps issue was clear, if not original: Camping is illegal. The plan is consistent and compassionate. This is a ten year plan, not a two year plan. Hypodermic needles, human feces, and bottles of urine are everywhere. Insert number tons of garbage removed here. The greenbelts have become places of danger and filth, and we should fear the filthy, dangerous people.

We changed that. Right around June 8-9, during Camp4Unity and the arrests in the street, the media was starting to get more critical, and we shoved it over the top. Our own good press sort of astonished us. We were seen as in the right, and the City was shown to have a problem to solve, and the sweeps were not a help.

The city lost control of the frame and a new one was born.

There’s nowhere for people to go. People are doing something to help themselves. Why not help them? Pink tents are cool. Brenden Foster said "They're probably starving, and we should help them." Homelessness is growing. The ripples of the economic meltdown are spreading, and the response is known to be inadequate.

The Mayor is now seen as persecuting homeless people without providing real alternatives. Were he at all accountable, we'd be winning.

With the city poised to ram it's vertical municipal jail down our throats, new feats of reframing are required.

The jail will cost $220M to build and $19M to operate, at minimum. This kind of money is better spent on upstream solutions. Our city jail numbers are down 38% while overall population is up 8%. Yet, the Mayor is slamming it through. the new jail represents the continuation of a failed strategy: reliance upon incarceration for the mitigation of urban ills. It doesn't work. It just deepens poverty. And yet, here we are, poised to spend millions in the service of ruining lives when we should be putting resources into rebuilding them.

The city frame is that the jail is inevitable. The downward trends in jail population, they argue, are unsustainable, and will reverse. There’s no alternative. The question is before the electorate is merely one of where to put the thing.

The new jail is a bricks and mortar commitment to a dismal future for the poor. 1 in 99 Americans is already behind bars. 1 in 9 Black males aged 20-24 are in jail. A Black male high school drop-out has a 2 in 3 chance of landing in prison by age 35. These sorts of numbers decimate communities, and create ever deepening spirals of poverty.

We have a narrow window where we can still say enough is enough and change the frame. And it won't be done by asking quietly. You can bet on that.

Dancing Barefoot

Revel and I practiced this a few times last night and knocked it out this morning before coffee. We're clearly a duo act. Patti Smith's Dancing Barefoot, with feeling.

Nickelsville Talks Back To Mayor Greg Nickels

Astonishingly, Mayor Greg Nickels went to the Seattle Channel's Ask The Mayor to say that the people staying at Nickelsville aren't even homeless. They're mostly "advocates," he said, who have homes of their own. The incredulous expression on C.R. Douglas' face is worth the price of admission alone. Revel and I went to Nickelsville the next day in search of the fake homeless.

Study In Pink

Here's the Nickelsville slide show, with photos by Revel. She's the hottie in the black leather jacket about halfway through. These were taken the morning Nickelsville set up and last Sunday in Discovery Park. I like Pink, the original song behind the photos, can be downloaded from the music menu at right

Speculation On the Nature of "Soul"

Revel took this picture Sunday at Mercer Slough Nature Park, just prior to the moment Twin A commenced shoveling handfuls of raspberries into her adorable little face. Twin B, as always, was more fastidious, carefully eating one berry at a time, but vigilantly defending her fair share of said berries by keeping the box from her sister as much as possible. These are ways of being that I don't expect will ever change.

Prior to fatherhood, I was of the conviction that we are essentially born who we are, and that all of the life experience that shapes us is essentially overlay to an unchanging core. As I've watched the personalities of the twins emerge and unfold over time, this conviction has only grown stronger. What does this mean? Is this personality, this unchanging being, mere biology, or is it something that most of us would call a soul? I don't have the answer. Maybe someday I will.

I do know that life is, in some ways, a journey to the center of that which we are. The relational flip-side of this is recognizing that core being in others, and trying to see and love the person beneath all of the layers of pain and distortion that often occur over a lifetime. This too, I've come to see as the essence of a life well-lived.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Seattle's Million Dollar Toilet saga has come to a painful yet ridiculous end. The automatic restrooms have been closed off with tiny little padlocks, and the super-loos are up on EBay. The original minimum bid requirement of $89,000 is gone. Apparently there were no takers.

The New York Times took the opportunity to write on this at length last month. Apparently, we West Coast rubes who think we live in a real city make an irresistible target, especially when we're being stupid and indecisive on such a grand scale.

Not surprisingly, bidders have been scarce. What municipality, during this age of homeless criminalization and urban upscaling, is going to set themselves up by purchasing the Emerald City's cast-off vectors of drug use, criminality, and prostitution? It's a case of bad provenance.

With a little more than eight days to go on EBay, bids on the five toilets now range from $306 to $510.

The photo, taken the night the toilets first closed, is by my friend Revel, who recently became my fiancée. This is French for "person I want to marry." We are of the same clan. It's Alpha-love.

The glass giant that looms behind is the Fifteen Twenty One Second Avenue Building, one of four luxury high-rises going up in the neighborhood. If one wishes to convey exclusivity in a common street address, one method is to spell the numerals. The building bathes the neighborhood in bright reflected light. It's all part of this building's specialness, and the very specialness of those who, sometime between this December and May, will occupy this citadel of excellence. To quote from their website:

If one is lucky, there's a time in life when simplicity takes on new meaning. It becomes less about style and more about the ability to appreciate that which is rare and true.

At Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue, the architectural profile is tall and lean, the residential windows floor to ceiling, the water and city views a daily gift. Modestly put, it's a downtown home for the confident few.

Private preview appointments available upon request. Priced from one-million dollars.

Nice. I bet they'll have really beautiful bathrooms.

Gettin' Her Janice On

"Where the hell has Tim been," some of you might ask? Over the last year and a half, I've kept the OCD Gods happy by posting more or less daily, even when mere mortals may have said "Fuck it, it's only a blog." I have, however, met my match in the form of bacterial pneumonia.

Being one who has some trouble keeping things to himself, I magnanimously shared this with my girlfriend. This hasn't been all bad. We have transcended, and turned illness into art. As her normally dulcet-toned voice began to resemble a five ton truck driving through a gravel bed in low gear, we said, "Sing!"

Here's Revel, recorded for posterity, getting her Janice on.

Revel-ution

Yesterday I drove to the Tacoma Convention Center to witness the founding convention of Sound Alliance and watch my friend Revel speak to a crowd of nearly 2,000 on behalf of Real Change. We were one of 80 organizations there to support the launch of this very necessary cross-class, cross-issue organization that builds power for the bottom eighty percent.

While we're not members yet, Real Change is definitely in the courtship phase. A number of us have been to their trainings. We have adapted their relationship-focused organizing style as a means of creating real solidarity across class. We helped their housing committee frame the broad goals for Sound Alliance's housing agenda. It was inspiring to see nearly 2,000 people letting Governor Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp know that people are organizing and expect accountability.

Without pressure for the broad, structural change we all need, homeless people will get little more than a shit sandwich with extra mayo, which is pretty much how I'm visualizing the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness these days. We need these people, and they need us.

My brain took the day off today and I didn't think to bring a camera. It's too bad. Seeing Revel make the case for housing, reflected on the huge screens to either side of the stage, made me very proud to be her friend. Maybe I'll find a photo later. For now, I'll just put up this postcard of Emma Goldman speaking in New York's Union Square in 1916, because it was kind of like that but with a better sound system. Revel's speech is below.

Hi. I'm Revel Smith with the Real Change Organizing Project. I live in very low income housing in Seattle and I've been disabled with Multiple Sclerosis for 10 years. This disease slowly erodes the nerves in my brain and spine. Without warning I experience symptoms such as blindness, vertigo, the inability to walk, the inability to speak, and memory loss. But I can pray with sincere thanks that, for me, treatment successfully slows THIS train down.

But there is something worse, something much bigger which we ALL have to face. Lose your job, experience a change in income, get sick, have a family that is less than supportive, find yourself caretaking for a loved-one . . . any one of these life-changing events can occur overnight. Then what do you do to get an affordable, safe healthy home for yourself, much less your family? How do you find this kind of shelter in the Northwest when you become vulnerable?

I used to have a good career in healthcare, and participated in my community. When my ability to work was compromised, the first thing to go was housing. When I looked for help, my impressive resume and strong sense of responsibility meant nothing. It would be a long wait.

So a friend’s family let me live in the unfinished basement of the fixer-upper home they'd just bought. I attempted work again and became eligible for a tax-based apartment for "working poor." I was *that* place for 6 months when I finally became too sick to work at all. I used-up my last month's rent and left. I had run out of options. So I moved to a room in a bonafide slum and applied everywhere I could for help. Finally, in 2002, I got a HUD apartment through a housing organization in Seattle. I was "in". Those were the days.

I've never lived in a healthy or safe apartment situation. Federal and Local funds are unavailable to maintain buildings that exist. Section 8 is closed again ( I was one of thousands rejected when the housing lottery reached capacity– another 2 to3 year wait). Safe secure housing is something I dream about. I don't know when I'll get it, but I can't wait.

We call this particular barrier to survival a "housing crisis". It's a human catastrophe. In the Northwest it's unconscionable. It dehumanizes the least and poorest of us. The middle class is being destroyed as affordable apartments in this major city are turned into high-rent condos. Billion dollar highrises eclipse people trying to survive on the streets outside. It’s up to a 3 year wait now, just to get a modest place you can consistently sleep eat bathe and live in.

Survival is a right. Housing is a right. It's time to unite with others who understand the nature of poverty and how to cope while actively working to improve this broken system. I joined the Real Change Organizing Project because they "get it." We are all peers it this grave situation, no matter what our background or class. With tears in my eyes I realize, it’s through allies like Real Change and Sound Alliance that we will find solutions and thrive.

Thank you.

For Those with Eyes To See

Revel Smith noticed this richly ironic convergence of themes a few blocks from her home near Pike Place Market and didn't rest until she got the perfect photo.

The pretentiously named Fifteen-Twenty-One — marketed to "the confident few" — is shown above rising into the sky while the slogan for the Seattle Art Museum's newest exhibit offers a lovely caption to the scene. The newly expanded SAM, along with Benaroya Hall and the picturesquely convenient Public Market form the core of the cultural amenities that, along with the upscale shopping and the stunning view of the Sound and the Olympic mountains, draw the uber-rich to Seattle's "Gold Coast."

Four new condo developments within this four block area will bring 505 new condos with an average value of $2.2 million each. Meanwhile the purge of visible poverty from Victor Steinbrueck Park and the downtown in general steamrolls along under the guise of compassion and "public safety." The playground is being cleared. The Empire is here, and for those with eyes to see, the conquest of the City is taking place right under our noses.

Daily Dose of Dread

Thanks to my friend Revel for turning me on to this. These are from a parody of the Ready.gov disaster preparedness site. Apparently, these cool little signs (click to enlarge) were once posted there with advice for idiots and small children, and the tech geeks over at Slashdot amused themselves by writing alternative captions. The UK disaster preparedness parody site makes the point more clearly. This is from their homepage.

“The Emergency Planning Society believes that this booklet provides valuable and common sense advice for the public, just in case they're stupid and can't work it out on their own.”
Debbie Spargo, Chief Executive of the Emergency Planning Society, who doesn't look like Anthea Turner at all.

The Government is working hard to make sure that the UK is as prepared as it can be in the event of an emergency, and it is important that you are ready too.

No, that's a lie. I'm sorry, I can't keep it up. The Government is working hard to get re-elected, and to give themselves more money. Your safety's maybe number ten on the priority list, just below stopping Euan Blair going on another drinking binge and keeping George Bush from blowing the world up again.

This booklet will tell you how you can help yourself and your family in emergencies, because we're not going to do it ourselves. First chance we get, we'll be off to an undisclosed location, hopefully leaving Gordon Brown behind.

If you need alternative language versions or formats, get someone to translate them or LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH. ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING THE WORDS THAT I AM SPEAKING?

The Dumbest Post Ever

It's good to have geeky friends, but not too many of them. Today Revel told me about The Hamster Dance, and it's brilliant successor, The Satanic Hamster Dance. Apparently, in some circles, these are well known internet phenomena. She sent me the links. I played them over each other without really intending and sat listening for longer than any normal person can possibly justify. What is happening to me? I posted the result above, in case you're too chicken. You should know that I resisted the temptation to experiment with the synchronization. I take some comfort in this.

Last Night Sucked Life Again

Revel left this comment on a post where I linked to her blog. I found myself reading it over and over and decided to put it here. She's expanding on Last Night Sucked Life, her story of one night's medical crisis and getting left out in the cold.

On January 22, the scariest part was I was essentially a MIDDLE CLASS person (earned Medicare, not welfare Medicaid) when my ambulance arrived at Swedish Hospital (private not County). The medics kindly helped me get-in there when the ambulances were being rerouted (I mentioned I was a medic and a medical administrator before I got sick - no lie - pulled a favor).

STILL, afterward, I was sent out walking alone without a coat in fucking 22 degree weather at 4am. I lost eligibility for disability welfare and emergency taxi due to Top-Down budget cuts last year. And the hospital abdicates responsibility when you sign the release. In the cracks again. MIDDLE CLASS.

You can't get away from the breakdown in the system. Lower-Class, Middle Class. This is where it's going and it's unjust as hell. This is why we help the most vulnerable in the horrible sub-class of Homeless. Bottom to the top. This is how we are going to save ourselves.

The Nickels Full Court Press Continues

Well, Wednesday is the rally and overnight encampment at City Hall, and the Mayor's office is pushing their own media offensive to go along with it. We have the Raging Grannies opening the thing and the Seattle Labor Chorus closing. I've been to rallies where that would be half the crowd, but it doesn't feel like this is going to be like that. We had 25 people last night at Real Change's civil disobedience training.

The whole CD thing turns out to be a card we don't need to play right now. We've gone respectable, and the whole thing is permitted. Even the overnight encampment. Rally speakers include Council President Nick Licata, City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness Director Alison Eisinger, Real Change Organizing Project participant Revel Smith, Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness co-Chair David Bloom, and Real Change vendor Deb White.

So we turned last night's meeting into a peace keeper's training. We're ready if the folks that the Mayor's office sends out show up to machete our tents and steal our IDs.

Wednesday morning, the City has invited the media to a lower Queen Anne greenbelt on a city guided tour of "the health and safety hazards at these sites."

Since they've been "cleaning" them so regularly, I wouldn't think there'd be much of a problem. I look forward to seeing the photos.

Couldn't be much worse than the goose shit at Green Lake.

Oddly, Real Change didn't get the press release. We apparently aren't on the Human Services Department PR list. That's what they told us anyway.

The first protest I went to when I arrived in Seattle in the Spring of 1994 was about greenbelt clearances near the Kingdome. This isn't new stuff. These things would occur from time to time when neighborhood complaints started to mount. There would be a few of them a year, at most.

What's changed is that now the Mayor's office mobilizes the media and the neighborhoods. It's their proactive approach. Meanwhile, they continue to hold the line against new shelter options, and to tell lies about there being room for more people.

One of the things that happens in the media is that issues turn into cartoons. It's the besieged neighborhoods — over-run by Asian heroin cartels living in concrete bunkers, discarded syringes, and a rising tide of human waste — against the clueless bleeding hearts who are fighting for the right to shit in the woods.

For the record, people shouldn't have to sleep in the woods in the winter unless they have the appropriate REI gear. And shelters shouldn't be an overcrowded poor excuse for a mental health system for the poor. And poor people should be able to afford housing AND food. And the minimum wage should be a livable wage. And there should be universal health care in America. And anyone who wants to get into drug treatment should be able to without jumping through twenty hoops designed to weed out all but the most determined.

And the Mayor shouldn't be able to say he's ending homelessness when he's only hiding the evidence.

But that's not the world we live in, is it? So, maybe we'll see you Wednesday. Click here for info.