Busy busy busy

But what else is new. My dear friend Sami Rasouli is heading back to Iraq next month. I've made a flyer for a send-off party:

Minnesotans think....

One of the assumptions that people who live in Minnesota their entire lives tend to have is that every small town has at least one Catholic church and one Lutheran church. Of course, this is hilarious to people from other parts of the country. But now I have cartographic proof of the issue. A series of maps showing the distribution of religions in the U.S.

An updated version

An updated version of the Mothers Walk for Peace flyer. Apparently, we had the wrong CITY for the event. Whoops!

Actually, many Twin Cities businesses use the city "Minneapolis" no matter what city they are actually in. It's a weird custom that I don't remember seing anywhere else.

40,000 people marched in St. Paul.

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of participating in a rally for the rights of immigrants -- both LEGAL and WITHOUT PAPERS. Yup. I don't care if they break the law coming into the country. It was a lot of fun....

The Minnesota Daily has a decent article.

My favorite sign: What VISA did the Pilgrims carry?

Another flyer for Mayday Books



This author talk was arranged by a Mayday volunteer worker, Lydia Howell. Sounds like fun!

Let the discussions begin!

I'm hoping this will be an event that brings the interesting and the bizarre ideas to the bookstore. I had an idea about how to make this flyer, but ran out of time. I wanted to use the "One Big Union" type from an old IWW poster and have various editors marks to indicate differing viewpoints. But I never really got it working out. Plus a got a ton of copy to shove into a small flyer. So I just put together a badly faked ballot. It'll do, I think.

Finally!

We are in our annual review cycle at work. After several years of pittance wage increases, I finally got a decent raise. Considering how many workers are facing job loss, benefits cut offs, etc., it's hard to believe a worker has a chance at any decency these days. The sad truth is, my department lost a couple of highly-trained and valuable workers because my supervisor was unwilling to bump them into the next pay grade even though it was obvious that they were deserving of the reward. As soon as they left, I realized my chances of being rewarded this year had increased exponentially. My supervisor couldn't afford to lose another reliable worker.

Well, I deserved the raise and I'm glad I got it. But it's a damn shame to realize the reasons, have to do with my fellow workers willingness to make a significant change in their lives. They aren't unhappy in their new jobs, so I don't feel bad for them. But I also know how much their choosing to act benefitted me. Under capitlism, this is supposed to be A Good Thing. Unfortunately, I'm not blind enough to revel in that bullshit answer.

In other news, I went to see a number of high school spoken word artists yesterday. They were amazing. They were coming into their voice and learning their own power. What an awesome thing to experience. Could anyone have predicted 20 or 30 years ago that poetry would be a source of strength for young people today?

Awesome.

Failed blogger

I'm never going to be a successful blogger for a wealth of reasons, not the least of which is having too many things to do. In the past week, I've managed to watch a world-class caligrapher at work, seen the amazing Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman talk about their work to document the political activism of ACT UP, worked on typesetting a book for my mother, attended a wine tasting dinner with my brother, the winemaker, worked at the bookstore, and attended an amazing play called Venus.

My life is full and I am more than a bit pleased. If I get a chance, I'll write about it.