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 Battle for Our History
If you'd told me nine years ago that shutting down the WTO and downtown Seattle, getting tear-gassed, beaten and arrested, and organizing a grand "fuck off" to the dominant institutions of global capital would one day lead to activists partying in a luxury suite at the Westin San Francisco after watching a Hollywood star-studded major motion picture depicting the protests, I'd have told you that you were on drugs. But I guess this is yet another case of reality being stranger than I could have imagined.
On Sept. 19 we all headed downtown for the SF debut of Stuart Townsend's new release "Battle in Seattle" to watch Michelle Rodriguez, Martin Henderson, Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron and a bunch of others play basically, well, us, sort of. They used a lot of real footage, creating a bizarre dichotomy between the film seeming realistic, yet at the same time utterly inaccurate in many ways. Happily, it wasn't so inaccurate with the issues. The director obviously had good intentions, and all in all, I'm glad the movie's out there. But if we're not careful, the movie could be what sticks in people's minds as what actually happened in Seattle. Already the mainstream media has painted Seattle as something dramatically different than what it was, rewriting history from its own interests and perspectives. Hopefully the film may inspire people to seek out the true stories, which are being compiled in a people's history website, http://realbattleinseattle.org/, and may be compiled in a book next year. I wrote up an essay for the project, called Learning To Sing, about my experience there, and I hope many others who were there will also contribute.
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 The Kamagasaki Patrol: What the G8 Means on the Street
Ten years ago, a homeless man in Osaka, Japan, was collecting recycling by the river when he was assaulted and thrown in the water, where he drowned. The homeless community was outraged and called meetings to decide what could be done to ensure the safety of their community. They decided to address the issue collectively and autonomously, since the police were not supporting them. This was the beginning of the Kamagasaki Patrol.
In recent months the Patrol has been focused in three main areas of work: 1) patrolling the neighborhoods for safety and coordinating weekly communal meals; 2) organizing with the precarious workers' unions for workers' rights, and helping community members find jobs; and 3) engaging in anti-G8 organizing. But several weeks ago their efforts were derailed.
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The Book
Ordinary Stories of Magic, Adventure, and Chocolate
June 27, 2008
What is the worst thing that could have happened this month with regard to the book project? How about having my laptop stolen when I was literally ONE DAY away from finishing the first round of edits? Yep, that's what happened. And I hadn't backed up in way longer than usual, because I was so close to finishing and kept thinking, "Tomorrow I'll be done and sent it off to the editors, so it'll be backed up then." And it was probably my most productive writing month ever. To add insult to injury, just as I was realizing the computer was indeed missing,I looked over and saw that my new housemate's cat was peeing on my jacket.
I spent the whole day crying. I wondered if this was a message from the Universe that the book was crap and I should just move on with my life and do something more useful for the world.The idea of reproducing all that work was heartbreaking...
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