You know, I don't know what I was expecting (a war-room situated in a smancy downtown office, a well organized mob of Probama supporters signs in hands, the actual feeling that I was doing something effective) but whatever it was, my actual experience was far different. A few observations:
1. Over the course of three hours of walking about, my housemate and I had talked to one person in the actual flesh and one person through an old folks' home speaker box. This was not out of laziness, our master list was comprised of mainly wrong addresses and store fronts. The man at the prosthetic limb store was not exactly accompanying to our political banter.
2. During one of the worst environmental times in the history of, well, the world, we were passing out literally stacks of campaign-lit. Really high-quality, glossy mags about how great a bunch of Democratic public servants are. Lord knows how many trees died in this process, or how, in a "recession", much money was spent to produce them. Oh politics, you're a hypocritical beast if I've ever seen one.
3. We were canvassing on Capitol Hill in Seattle. For you who aren't Seattlelites, this is the super-hip, super-gay, trendy like spot in Seattle. Very, very obviously Democratically-leaning, and here we are two shmucks trying to get the word out on Obama. Sure, we were really trying to make people vote, but I really think we could've been making a bigger difference, er, anywhere else in the world.
4. People are scared of door knockers. Hell I'm scared of door knockers. The only guy we talked to in person, peered at us through a crack in the door. He might've been trying to keep his kids in the house, or hide his meth operation, but nonetheless he looked terrified of us. Maybe it was because I was pacing creepily in the background, sharpening my butcher's knife. Is that creepy these days?
All in all, I felt good to be out there, but also felt like, the Democratic could spend some of that money they're throwing away on un-read campaign literature and make the whole volunteer process run a little smoother. Oh and by the way, don't be chumps next Tuesday, there's only one ticket that you should be throwing your vote at and it's doesn't involve a geriatric maverick and his scarily stupid soccer mom friend.
Finished The Lord of the Flies (43) last night. Great, great adaptation of that book. There's a scene at the end, after Piggy's had his head wacked, where Ralph (the leader of the sane group of children) is running from Jack (the choir boy who becomes the crazy tribe's leader) and the crazy tribe, and their trying to burn him out, and it's all weird screams and unseen attackers and it was really tense. Peter Brook's sound scheme on this movie is ridiculous, just full of animal yelps and screaming four year olds. I tried to watch the special features on this, but, well, they sucked. Which is surprising as Criterion is known for these. I really wanted to see the behind-the-scenes work that went in to making these kids so believable, but all I got was some unexplained video of people walking all actor-like in a room. Nonetheless, great flick.
Oddly enough Walkabout (10) and The Lord of the Flies (43) had certain similarities involving what happens when you're completely taken out of the context of modern life. Walkabout (10) revolves around two kids who are abandoned by their father in the middle of the Outback in Australia and befriend an Aboriginie to try and return home. Things get weird quick. It all sort of unfolds like a cheery mushroom trip. I watched this film on a plane to Hawaii for what would end up being a fairly rough week long vacation, and I can remember the bevy of odd looks my surrounding plane-riders threw me. Whatever, I'm cultured!Wednesday: The Seventh Seal (11)
2 comments:
Walkabout is so good! One of my all time favorites. Nice job on this blog.
Yeah I had a similar experience canvassing here in super-leftist, largely black north Portland. Preaching to the choir. Also, they had me go out by myself, at night, on dark streets! People were scared of me and I was scared of them. It sucked all around.
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