[Sorry for the crossposting]

I know, I know. You're already sick of the Presidential election crap. Me too. But don't forget, there ARE elections in 2007. Yes, they're local, but they are important. In fact, in terms of long-term planning, they're even more important. Why?

Because if there will ever...EVER be change it will come from a third party. Yes, I know there isn't a third party candidate who can win a presidential election now, or probably any federal election. But they HAVE been winning local elections all over the country. And that is how third parties will have more influence - from the bottom, up.

I know, there are no greens running in Rochester. It's a sad, sad situation, but did you know that there are 127 greens running for office in the 2007 elections? Yep. And it's not too late to help them. Here is a list of the 9 Greens around the country who have the best shot at winning their races. It doesn't matter where you live - you're helping create change. Check some of them out and throw them a few bucks! Your money can help pay for that last TV ad or radio blitz.

California
Janice Brittain, Candidate for City Council, Hermosa Beach http://www.janicebrittain.com

Connecticut
Jean de Smet, Candidate for First Selectman, Windham http://www.VoteJean.com
Ronna Stuller, Candidate for Board of Education, New London http://www.nlgreens.org

Maryland
Maria Allwine, Candidate for President of the Baltimore City Council http://www.takebge.org/main.htm

Massachusetts
Grace Ross, Candidate for Councilor-at-large, Worcester http://www.grace4worcester.org

New York
Howie Hawkins, Candidate for Councilor At-Large, City of Syracuse http://www.howiehawkins.org
Margaret Human, Candidate for New Paltz Town Councilman (At-Large) http://www.humanfornewpaltz.org
David Lussier, Candidate for Albany County Legislature, District 7 http://albanygreens.pbwiki.com/Dave

Pennsylvania
Jennaro Pullano, Candidate for Mayor, Reading http://www.pullanoformayor.org


I had a ridiculously long day, but I'm going to try to post on a couple of things that have been going on tomorrow.

Activism Part Deux

OK, I didn't make it to Denny's a couple of mornings ago. After the podcast on Sunday, Jill & I went out for a while and when I got home I was really wired for some reason. I didn't get to sleep until morning time - it felt like I was back on overnights. So I missed the Denny's meeting (see a couple of posts ago).

But tonight I went to another group's fandango. GMO-Free Hawaii. I'm not going to start preaching about genetically-modified food here - but you should do the research on your own.

I went figuring there would be Green-minded people. I made a couple of contacts. And with the other 4 "greens" in Maui taking their sweet-old time getting back to me, I've decided to say f-it. I'm not going to worry about them, they'll need to catch up to me. So I'll have the first Maui Greens meeting in November. I just have to find a place.

I've discovered that there's a mentality here of...well...I've heard it described a few ways. Third-world, Polynesian mentality that everything will work out on it's own, "maui time", etc. To me, it's still a narcissistic attitude that surfing and partying are more important than changing what's wrong. You know, there's nothing wrong with doing both. People here have accepted what's become of these islands. But there are small groups that are working on small issues that need to be working together. I think that's going to be the Green's role here. Stay tuned.

Ulalena

Well kids, when you win the raffle I told you about earlier, I now have the thing you have to go see. 'Ulalena is awesome! It's a...uh...I don't think the word musical works, but I guess we'll have to go with that for now. It shows the history of Hawaii, with minimal narration. The house band is awesome, the dance is cool and the arial stuff is amazing. Don't buy the soundtrack, though. I'll burn you a copy. (It's $25)

I was invited to go with someone I work with. She had a ridiculous amount of family & friends in town at the same time, so she figured, what the hell, one more couldn't hurt. It's actually the only Hawaiian thing I've done all break. I may try to get to the Ocean Center or the crater before school starts, but I'm not fretting over it. I'll get to that stuff when I get to it.

But 'Ulalena rocks! We're going to try to take the kids to it.

Easy As Falling Off A Bike

Before I get to the meat of today's post, a couple of quick things:

If you didn't get an e-mail from me about this, then listen up. You have a chance at winning a trip for two to Maui. No, this isn't some spam thing from the Prime Minister of Nigeria. Someone I work with has recently adopted two babies from Ethiopia. The legal costs have been overwhelming so some friends (who I also work with) came up with this brilliant idea to help Maria with the costs. It's a raffle where there's only 275 "tickets" so your odd are 1-in-275. For $50 you have a chance at round-trip tickets to Maui, a cottage to stay in for 10 days, rental car for 10 days...and more. Here is the link to check out more. You should do this. It's cool and for a good cause. And someone's already asked me if they win do they HAVE to visit me. No, you bastards, you don't have to visit me. See if I care. But we did say on the podcast that if you win getting the info from this, you are bound to be a guest on The Stuart Bedasso Show.

As we were taping the podcast tonight, I got a call from Kathy. She wanted to know if I'd be interested in doing another shift Friday night. So I'll be on Mana'o Radio on Friday from 8pm to midnight Hawaiian time. Not convenient for you East Coasters, but if you have insomnia or the baby keeps you awake...

OK...onto our main topic. Yep, I'm baaaaack.

I've been procrastinating getting back into the activist game. I don't know, I think it was just the fact that it's been taking me a while to feel comfortable here. The opportunities I've had to change the world here...well, I've just blown them off. Well, today I sucked it up and went to something I said I would. Oh boy, did I get involved. The cause was to save this piece of land that developers are trying to screw up. It's all for rich people and it'll...well, you can check it out for yourself at www.savemakena.org. Well, there was someone there who is on the board of THE big environmental activist group on the island (Maui Tomorrow) and another who is active in a PAC who works for independent political candidates.

In the morning, I'm going to Denny's. That's right, Denny's. For a meeting of people who want to get different activist groups to work together. There's a bunch of Save XXXX groups on this island because these capitalist pigs are just trying to make this a haven for rich people and all the Hawaiians can be their caddies and housekeepers.

I'm starting a committee to start a contest for kids to come up with pictures, videos, songs, etc about the issue.

I think I volunteered my students to go to a county meeting a 9am (!!!) on the issue to videotape and possibly testify at it.

I have my T-shirt. I have my bumper sticker.

Good thing the meeting started late and ended early. Who knows what else I would have volunteered for.

The Return of Dr. Johnny Fever

There's nothing huge going on right now, so I thought I'd give you an update on the radio station stuff. Personally, I think things are going OK. The person who owns the station seems to be pretty pleased (more below). I'm in the middle of a 2 week break right now and Kathy asked me to fill in for 5 shifts. Three down. I think they're going well. I'm usually pretty oblivious to this, but it seems like I'm actually causing a little bit of a stir. I guess they're not used to dj's getting requests for Doug and the Slugs and actually being able to play it.

My first shift was last Friday night. On my way in, I'm listening to the guy before me. The Barrister. That's what he called himself...in this slow...deep...African...accent. So I'm thinking he's going to play some cool reggae / world music. Uh, Barbara Striesand? Cher? We Are the World? I'm actually screaming in the car because I have to follow some big gay African lawyer. "Noooooooooooooooo!!!!" People at the stop light must have thought I was being tortured. {sigh} So I do my show and no one dies.

The next shift was morning drive...Tuesday morning. They don't have overnight people every night, but they did the morning I got there. He had some chick there...uh...could have been his daughter. His, very cute, 20-something daughter. I didn't want to know - as long as the chair in the booth was dry, I didn't care. Did the show, seemed to go OK.

Now the person who does 10am - 2pm is pretty much the driving force of the station. It used to be this guy named Barry, who was married to Kathy. Barry died last April. It obviously shook everyone up. Anyway, this guy, Bill, is the guy who does a lot of the grunt work at the station, deals with PSA's, Promo's, etc. He gets a small stipend for it - the only person who is paid at the station - and he does his show 5 days a week where everyone else has one shift a week. So he's the big dog. Well, it seems I stepped on his toes a little that first morning. I played a song that crept into his first couple of minutes. (Hey, Keith Richards' solo album rules, man) So I figured that I'm going to have this guy on my ass now. Well...let's stay chronological, shall we....

So, I'm scheduled to do the Thursday morning drive. Get my ass up at 4am (after not getting any sleep because of those f-ing dogs in the neighborhood. They're actually barking as I type...at 10pm) I'm driving in, listening to the guy before me. Oh God. First I hear Enya. I almost caused my airbag to deploy from banging my head on the steering wheel. Then the guy gets on and rambles for 15 minutes straight. In the middle of this, he tells an incoherent story about how he bumped into Kathy last week who told him that this new guy is going to be coming in on Thursday and that he's really good. (So that's how I know Kathy's cool with what I'm doing) But he sure can't remember my name because he's been up for 25 hours. So he goes on and on about how he can't remember my name. I'm pretty much driving with my mouth open now.

Alright. I get there, the guy seems nice. A bit weird, but nice. I do my show. It goes fine. Though, I'm still having problems with this virus...I have to do a hernia-enducing cough every time I'm about to go on the air. (sorry for being so graphic) So, it's near the end of the show and Bill comes in. Now, I already had this planned, but I figured, what the hell. Let's show this guy that I ain't fucking around. I AM radio, dammit! So my last two songs before his show were Public Enemy followed by jazz vocalist Betty Carter. That's right, bitch*. I'll finish by playing your song, but I'm going out with a bang.

As I'm in my car going home, I'm listening to Bill's show. He started talking about me...not really in a bad way. He had already told me that he liked how I sounded on air. I'm going to need an explanation from someone who hasn't just gotten off the boat, but he said, "He sounds just like he should be downtown, but with a more...eclectic taste in music." He said it with a tone that was complimentary, but when he got to the eclectic part I could tell that the PE thing kinda rocked him.

Well, next week I got some bagpipe stuff from a guy in Maryland....and I'm saving it for 9:57am...and there's always the one Whitee song that's appropriate for the air (Trials & Tribulations)

OK...some pictures. I realized that for whatever reason, Blogger won't let my links to my pictures on Fokti go through. Though you can still see them here. So instead I have to post them directly into the post. So here's the radio booth.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the Ocean Center. So I hope to have more pictures to put up. Then next week, the petroglyphs and the crater.

*All efforts at sounding like a badass were for comedic purposes only. No DJ's were hurt in the making of this post.

Have You Seen This Teacher?

I may be a bit paranoid here, but there's a chance that I may turn up missing some time soon. If that happens, I leave it up to you to contact the police with what you know.

My radio is alive.

Let me explain. The only thing I've had to listen to music at home is my laptop - which I'm getting ready to punt into the ocean. So I figured I run over to the Salvation Army and see if they have some cheap thing I can throw in the bedroom to listen to stuff when I go to bed. I found a little boom box...a boom boxette, for fifteen bucks. I tried it out there, it worked fine so I grabbed it.

Well, it turns out I know how it ended up at the Salvation Army to begin with. It killed its last owner. I'm serious. When it's plugged in it won't turn off and keeps flashing "HELLO" over and over until you unplug it or start playing some music. There's a power button, but you push it and the power goes off for maybe five seconds, then it turns itself back on....looking for you. "HELLO" "HELLO" "HELLO" "HELLO" "HELLO".

My radio is alive, it's creepy, I don't know how to appease it and it's going to kill me.

But before I go, I'm taking someone with me - that f-ing yapper-dog next door. Barking from 10pm to 2am last night. I guess the neighbors must think it's soothing, like wind chimes or a fountain. I'm thinking about making the worst mix CD I can find, fill my possessed radio full of batteries and leave it on their door step going full blast.

Hey Buddy, You Got The Time?

This isn't a big deal, but I just found out something that made my eyes roll a bit. Seems that Hawaii doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time. So now when the switch over comes I'll have no idea. But I guess I'll only be 5 hours from the east coast. But to throw a little wrench into this...Dad lives in one of the few places on the mainland that doesn't observe it either - so he'll still be 3 hours different.

I was under the impression that there wasn't going to be any math involved in this move.

Anyway, could someone let me know when you change your clocks, please?