Writing and junk and stuff…

What I’ve been working on lately. 

Started my first weekly column with Change.org. Bookmark it, yo… 

Wrote a piece on addiction that has drummed up lots of interest. And still may. 

And a piece on the most kick ass resource site ever. 

And a news story on Dignity Village today.

Is your bell banging loudly?

Oh Nebraska…

My lifelong friend Jason Myers lives in a little town of oh, about 400 people outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. Both John Nasello (we all grew up together) and I traveled east for a long overdue weekend to see Jason and his family. We had lots and lots of fun and we came back alive. Perfect. 

I made the team. (Heisman Trophy winners at the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.) 

How come Street Roots isn’t mentioned in books about Portland?

I was walking past the Portland/Oregon section in Powell’s Books today – if you’re a Portlander you know the section. Not one of us has not purchased or thought about purchasing one of those books about Portland for someone stuck in some god awful place they wish they would have left long ago. 

There’s so many books to choose from. And you know what – of the umpteen books about Portland and it’s culture, not one of them mentions Street Roots. 

How can one put out a book called Zinester’s Guide to Portland and not mention Street Roots? Worse, Portland’s Red Guide, a book about Portland’s radical past and present, nothing. Secret Portland? Nope. Portland for Dummies? Forget about it. I haven’t read Fugitives and Refugees, which Street Roots has both of, but I’m sure Chuck Palahniuk forgot to mention us or something, something. Fucker. 

I’m telling all my friends to move to Seattle anyway… so there.

Ten years of Street Roots

A story I wrote on Street Roots turning ten! And I managed not to mention myself once. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s 8:30 on a Thursday morning, and the monthly vendor meeting is about to begin. People have been mulling about for more than a half an hour – drinking coffee, eating pastries and talking sales techniques and sports.

Nearly 40 people gather around. They are eager to talk about the increase in vendors and how it’s effecting vendor locations throughout the city. In the past month, the number of individuals walking through the Street Roots door and selling the newspaper has increased dramatically. New faces and old assemble around the Street Roots table like a campfire on a chilly night. It’s the same table where, more than a decade ago, five vendors and a few volunteers gathered around to plan the first edition of Street Roots.

Wash off the day

When tears run from her eyes
Talk of taking her life
Tired and grizzled.

We set and stare at the rain
Down at 211 NW Davis there’s a message
You could have been anyone
There’s no time when you’re blown away

When tears run from her eyes
Softly she speaks
Listening, I listen

When she leaves, she leaves nothing at all
Cupping her hand in mine, she smiles

She walks away.

I go back to work all twisted up.

Obama’s poster boy got busted…

Boston police just made Shepard Fairey a little more famous. Why the good people of the world don’t allow for more graffiti art I don’t know. Seems a little prudish to me.

Can America’s paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism?

Michael Hirschorn with the Atlantic Monthly reports.

Do something!

Affordable housing hits a wall in a time of rising need. 

The New York Times is calling for the package on the Hill to include the funds.

Do something!

Is free trade the best way to beat a recession? No…

Larry Elliot with The Guardian asks, “Is free trade the best way to beat recession?” The Washington Post also reports.

I won’t be surprised to see the anti-globalization movement pick up its pace in the coming year. Fractured groups working on a broad range of issues, including labor, environment, poverty, etc., etc. held the stage nearly a decade ago in Seattle. In fact, the beginning of February marks the 90th anniversary of the Seattle General Strike. 

After the turnout to this weekends Economic Crisis Town Hall meeting you get the feeling that something’s brewing. You can feel the tension in the air on the ground level of poverty. The air is thick and feels hard to walk through. I won’t be surprised to see a revisiting of some of the trainings, tactics and energy that existed in the Rose City nearly a decade ago and led to something as powerful as the WTO protests in Seattle. 

Living in Portland on and off for ten years, it’s hard to gage the level of commitment that exists out there surrounding these issues. The demographics of Portland has changed dramatically. But with the continued downturn in the economy the stage is set for groups that have been off fighting their own battles (homeless, labor, environment, trade, immigration, etc.) through the Bush Administration years to have a chance to unite under one common theme. Groups across the board are connecting the dots, mostly born out of circumstances. History always repeats itself. Right now the messages around the economy is being driven in the media by the banks on Wall Street and the free traders on the Beltway. In the next year, I think the people will speak in a way that doesn’t represent the hope and change we’ve been seeking, but in a voice that calls out for dignity and demands justice. And I won’t be surprised to see it happen in the masses on the West Coast first.