In Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America”, the definition of marriage as that of a only a man and a woman was filed as the “act to restore dignity to the human family”. Now that’s marketing, sort of like the USA PATRIOT Act, with it’s surveillance measures seems anything but. It’s amazing that a generation that was alive when Senator Joe McCarthy was weeding out alleged Communist influence during a period of hysteria seems to be repeating the same mistakes since 911. It’s an irrational lashing out – so primitive.I saw ‘Spirited Away’. The movie is a completely beautiful, original story using traditional, hand-drawn animation techniques.
350,000
350,000 march in London! There’s protest coverage in all major media outlets for the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington DC. It’s nice to see that – I don’t understand why Tony Blair is so pro-war… he’s criticized in British newspapers for being a puppet of Dubya. I can see how one might easily draw that conclusion.
The first day
I start my first day for the midterm election by taking a cab filled with a Powermac to the Financial District. After introductions, I work for 11 hours. Yow. I’ve never done that before. They weren’t kidding, and remind me that the next six weeks of my life is basically theirs. I don’t mind, oddly. Apart from the studies at New College, I have no other distractions. The situation has an almost meditative quality to it.After work, I meet Ernesto. He’s kind of a quiet guy and shows me the room at the residence at 18th and Capp. Definitely a guy’s place – it has that sweat smell, but it’ll be fine for the time I’m here. The neighborhood is a bit sketchy, and it has that sewage smell that seems to permeate SF’s streets. What’s nice is that this apartment is only two blocks from New College. The lines of gentrification have been drawn, and it’s a much different world at 19th and Valencia than it is at 18th and Capp.
Flight
Sick of driving, I fly out of Seattle. My friend Nancy is watching my place, and I’ve taken a minimal amount of clothing to get me through November. I’m nervous, and excited.
The sublet
I’ve lined up a place to stay in the Mission, while I work for the upcoming midterm election, with a person who needs someone to temporarily sublet a room. It turns out that the dates more of less coincide exactly with the dates I need. I get in contact with Ernesto (roommate of Jeremy, the person’s room I’ve been offered), and even though neither of us have seen each other, we agree to do this. That’s a load off my mind.
Marketing Sustainability to the Masses
After much deliberation, I come up with a thesis: Marketing Sustainability to the Masses. It seems like so much green advertising isn’t directed at those who most need to hear or see it. I don’t know any of my regular joe friends in the Midwest who’d pick up a copy of Mother Jones or Utne Reader, much less use it to line their bird feeder. I think also of Michael Moore, who I believe to be our most mainstream left-advocating speaker, and his use of humor and “regular guyness” to achieve a point without coming off as a Tiva-wearing hippie. He breaks the left’s stereotypes. I like that. For the left to succeed in their goals, they’ll have to reach out to a wider audience by offering solid alternatives to business-as-usual. I hear a lot of complaining, but not much offering. James Carville calls it “framing the debate”. The debate for sustainability needs to be framed in such a way to favor the left, but come off in a new and better context in which to discuss these issues.
Black Mountain Fudge Cake
Today is Kim Michael Ritz’s birthday, and he’s 31 today. Kim has only one request for this year… it’s time to go to Black Angus, and my friends Celeste and Jennifer go along with this. Black Angus is in the suburb of Lynnwood, a mostly flat area consisting of strip malls and chain stores. The first thing I notice when we get there is that the parking lot is filled with mostly pickup trucks and SUVs, making Kim’s Saturn a bit tiny in comparison. We’re also the thinnest people in the place – I can imagine if a heart doctor had an office in an adjoining building, he’d make a mint.I stay away from the meat and order the salmon. Kim orders a meat extravaganza (five different types of meat) entrée in addition to a chicken appetizer. This is accompanied by margaritas and a black mountain fudge cake.
Death to Smoochy
Death to Smoochy is hands down my favorite movie of the year. I don’t know why. It got panned by most critics, but it’s a great play on commercialism and makes me think about what the behind-the-scenes at the ‘Bozo Show’ might have been like. Ah, the seedy underworld of PBS.
Product Launch
“It’s not a good idea to launch a new product in August.” That product? A possibly Iraqi war… I read an article somewhere talking about Bush’s former alcoholism, and that maybe his unwillingness to budge on the issue, aside from the obvious benefits of oil, is due to his possible thoughts that his dad doesn’t have that much respect for him, and he’s perceived as the dumber link to Jeb. The Democrats have been scared in this respect: they don’t say a word for fear of pro-war voters’ backlash. If they can take the Senate and get more votes in the House, maybe there’s a chance they’ll speak up.There doesn’t seem to be a big difference between George Will and Dennis Miller when it comes to the subject of war. Both are so pro-war it’s spooky. Even Charlie Rose was taken a bit aback when George Will talked about pre-emptive strikes and bombing, bombing, bombing. Miller seems to have spent a bit too much time emceeing Monday Night Football on ABC. He sounds like most of the nuts on television now. Again, the Democrats say nothing.
Hope’s Edge
I finished reading “Hope’s Edge” by Francis and Anna Lappe. It’s quite inspirational in that it tells hard stories, but offers hope near the end with positive solutions. In one case, there’s the Grameen Bank in India that has offered loans to over 2 million women (mostly divorced, a taboo in that country’s societal mores). It’s nice to read things about this, as it’s balancing in a big way the book about Detroit we’re reading for next month’s session.