It’s getting late in the day and I’m happy to feel the shift in the temperature. One of my online sources tells me that it’s 87°f right now, which feels significantly cooler that just an hour ago. (By the way: That’s is around 30.55°c for those of you living in the greater metric system.) My blinds are rattling gently from the growing breeze, a herald of the setting summer sun. I can hear the laughter and squeals of children playing somewhere just beyond my window, and my stupid “Wind Tunnel” G4 is whining like a hairdryer.
Now, that was fairly poetic, wasn’t it? At least, for a minute there. I think part of me is trying to make an extra little effort for this entry. The likelihood of having unfamiliar visitors increases with each day, so I might as well roll out the red carpet. Lord knows that I’ve put too much time into this little hobby of mine already. I just never expected that I would be directing people to this site so aggressively. (This site is linked to brownequalsterrorist.com at the moment, which I think counts.)
Anyway, there’s been a lot going on today. Today is Father’s Day, and Fremont’s annual fair is running full strength. Hating those kinds of large crowds, I instead decided to try to take take advantage of the 24th Annual Peace Concert. I whipped up some handbills, blew another wad over at Kinko’s, and headed out to Gas Works Park.
You know, the chore of walking around and bugging complete strangers is highly overrated. I’d hate to have someone walking up to me and trying to sell me something when I’m enjoying the day off at the park. Unfortunately, I really haven’t thought of a better way to try to raise some interest at this point. The ACLU is investigating matters at the moment, but it’ll take time for that investigation to run its course. I feel a strong sense of personal responsibility, so I just keep moving.
The people that I’ve been talking to are certainly an interesting and diverse group. (Oddly enough, I’m not profiling. I’ll talk to whoever will listen.) I talked to one woman this morning for about a half an hour. Her daughter, who I’m guessing is around ten years old, piped in with an alarmingly articulate dissertation on Bush’s sidestepping of the Geneva Convention, which has to do with not calling the war a “war.” She also talked about how she had a current events assignment in class,.
You know, I’m not sure what it means when someone that young is that aware. She was comparing her viewpoints to those of her classmates, and, while I certainly attribute some of this to the parents, I’m also not old enough to have forgotten just how aware a young mind is. Yeah, I think that young woman’s commentary was definately the highlight of my day.
But back to the Peace Concert, already in progress. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
Some people are extremely defensive. I tried to talk to one woman of color, and she just looked at me like I was a crazy person trying to sell her on Amway. Another guy really went out of his way to shoot me down, belittling my effort to initiate what I hoped would be a short, polite conversation. “I’m in television,” he announced. Then he started namedropping. In fact, he was so busy filibustering about his work with KIRO and enlightening me on what I really should do that he never heard a word I was saying. I think I even feel a little bit bad for him. Hmmm… lessee… yeah, I think I might be able to come up with something better to do with my time than to be a target of shallow egotism, thanks. (Of course, I also can’t help but enjoy the irony of this encounter at the PEACE CONCERT.)
I guess I ended up spending about four hours at the concert, talking to people about “The Great Ballard Fiasco.” (Nope. Not even close. I’ll keep trying.) I tried tp give handbills to those I estimated as just be being polite and gave newspapers and reprints to the people I thought were more genuinely interested. I’m really hoping that some of them will check out brownequalsterrorist.com, but I also realize that I am spreading myself too thinly to be really effective. I could have worked on content for the site, but thought it was more valuable to take advantage of the open-mindedness associated with the Peace Concert.
As for the concert at Gas Works Park, it was a pleasant distraction. I got some exercise, fresh air and sunshine. I ate a hotdog and shaved ice, and talked with a bunch of good people about a good cause. I listened to some interesting ideas and heard a few more horrific stories about profiling. (The security guard being stopped while off duty with his family is a pretty powerful one. Hopefully, he’ll email me about it.)
One last note: You know how I’ve kinda’ been raggin’ about how the Josh Williamson Band really needs to have a soundman when they play at the OP? Well, JWB was played a set during the Peace Concert today, and, yes, there was an audio engineer on the premises. Hearing those sounds in the open air was an extraordinary experience. I’m definately going to have to make a point to go listen to them in other venues when they get out of the studio.
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