Driving Mr. Daisey

This is in part a preview of A People's History of the United States, presented by Mike Daisey, which the Lovely Bride and I are seeing on Sunday at the Seattle Rep. How can I do a preview of a play I haven't seen? Hang on, this takes some 'splaining.

I've talked about monologist Mike Daisey before. We first saw him ages ago at the old Intiman, doing 27 Dog Years @ Amazon.com. I caught three of his four monologues on "Great Men" up on Cap hill. Saw The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Rep, and followed up on the craziness of his encounter with "This American Life". And now he's back in Seattle, at the Rep, doing A People's History.

That's all very well, Jeff, but why are you talking about it now, as opposed to after seeing the play? That is  your usual MO, after all. Well, you really should go see it, and I want to tell you that before we get there ourselves, because I've been listening to the performance in advance.

Source Material

Here's the deal: The People's History is 18 different monologues, all pulled from and based on Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, one of the great, truthful, and depressing history books of all times. So he is doing 18 different monologues. In our Pokemon-obsessed universe, how are we going to collect them all? The Rep has helped, with MASSIVE discounts after the first ticket, but even the time requirement will suck up half your week for several weeks.

So Mr. Daisey made an offer. He said: Here are the recordings so far. Download them, and listen to them. But, the deal is, you have to talk about them.

And so I'm going to talk about them. But to be honest, it has not been easy as it sounds. First message came through as MIME files with broken links. He fixed that, but then I was sent to LA for a few days. Then I got the files, but they were in an audio format I could not get my car computer to read (Yeah, Tech World problems). So I brought them in on a memory stick to work to change the format and promptly lost the stick (and I am deeply afraid one of the resident dogs has eaten it). Got the files into my Dropbox, which promptly went over its limits (they are big files). FINALLY I got it all set up so I can listen to them on my hour-plus-long commute from Grubb Street to downtown.

And it has been worth it. Mr. Daisey is a geek, a nerd, one of us, and turns that level of wonkiness to the American History. Knowledgeable and acerbic, profound and extremely profane, he's the guy who swallowed the encyclopedia as a child and can bring up the facts in a direct, meaningful, smartass way. He's the history professor you've always really needed.

Now A People's History is one of those depressing, truthful books. I've had it on my shelves for years, and I have read it in full, but in bits and piece. And I've read it in bits and pieces because prolonged exposure can really dampen your soul. The book can be summarized with a quote from Jimmy Cagney in The Oklahoma Kid "The strong take it away from the weak, and the smart take it away from the strong." The inhabitants of earth who actually lived in those past times, who actually did the work, who suffered so we can be her today, have been erased, forgotten, molded into faceless economic trends and social mores while we concentrate on the great men and the great battles. They are pushed aside while we build a suitable narrative for ourselves, construct a history shorn of its blemishes and genocides.

Tough read. And Daisey doesn't shy away from its warts-upon-warts-and-all description. There are bright moments of light, but the overarching tone of our own history is one of venal greed and violence. As I'm listening, he is still making jokes as he strikes hard against our foundational lies, and I hear the audience go quiet. This is tough sledding.

He starts with Columbus, who within my lifetime has been toppled from his heroic throne. As a young man I was instructed in his legend as one of the bedrock stories of our society, but here he is, damned in his own journals and actions. Genocide against the natives and a lust for gold. He has diminished both in achievement (The Vikings and others were first, though not as effective in destroying the neighborhood), and in iconic statue. And here's the thing: Columbus Day as a going concern really started in the mid-nineteenth century, about the same time as a unified Italy itself got established. Columbus himself would not call himself an Italian, but rather a Genoan, in the service of Spain. Yet it is identified strongly as an celebration of Italian-American Heritage. Part of the lessening of Columbus Day, I think, has come from the assimilation of the Italian immigrants into the Ameriborg body politic, escaping from the cities into exurbia. Less of a group that would defend the man as embodying their virtues.

This is the sort of thing that Daisey's work does to you - it gets you thinking and takes you down some strange passes to some very uncomfortable conclusions. And that's a good thing.

Here's another one that occurred to me on the way up I-5; History never ends, but history never really begins, either. The sighting of the New World is a convenient starting point for the History of Europeans in America, but the Spanish treatment of the native population has its origins in the reconquista that "recaptured" Spain from the North African Muslims, and the slave trade found its roots in the Portuguese use of radical new tech (deep-hulled caravels and galleons) meeting large, organized nations in Africa who found a good bargain in dealing with a oversupply of conquered peoples (Lest it sounds like I'm trying to spread the blame, it was still our ancestors who created the horrible Middle Passage that claimed half of the enslaved peoples it carried.)

History is messy and nasty and ugly, and the narratives we have used to tame it are like how we explain our dreams - filling in bits and excising uncomfortable truths. I'm glad I'm getting a chance to get in on this on the ground floor, as it were, and am looking forward to the performance itself. But I recognize that its going to be a rough one.

More later,

The Political Desk: The Jeff Recommends

Let's see, in the week since I started this, we have had a string of bombs sent by a man living in a van covered with pro-Trump stickers, a guy shooting two black people in a Krogers and declaring "Whites don't shoot whites!" and eleven people die when another whacko conservative unloaded with an "assault-style rifle" at a synagogue. I lived for many years in Shadyside, right next to Squirrel Hill. So, yeah, forgive me if I'm a little strident this time out.

Let me reiterate my initial statement - No Republicans. Not all Republicans are fascists, or nazis, or alt-righters, or racists, or rapists. But if you find yourself in any of those categories, then the Republican party (and all its connective tissue) has your back. They will blame your victims, deny your crimes, encourage your delusions, and spoon-feed you a steady stream of entitlement, then walk away when you do something, saying "I have no idea where they get these ideas, but it's the liberal media's fault."

I'd like to say that saying this out loud makes me feel a bit better, but it doesn't. You know what will make me feel better? Voting. Voting will make me feel better. Let's see what's up there.

Initiative Measure No. 1631 - The Carbon Fee  -YES (The opponents are calling trying to make it sound like it is a direct tax on you - it ain't. It's a direct tax on the people who are pumping crap into the atmosphere, and with it a potential reduction to the shareholders).

Initiative Measure No. 1634 - Prevent Soda Taxes - NO (The opponents are LYING you when they say this will tax all your groceries, and they are doing it with daily mailers. This one passing lets corporations dictate to your local government (more than usual)).

Initiative Measure No. 1639 - Firearm Safety - YES (Unless you still want to stand around and look at you shoes instead actually DOING something about it. And yeah, this is only a very small part, literally the least we can do, but it still a start).

Initiative Measure No. 940  - Reduce Police Shooting - YES (This is a strong compromise bill from numerous sources. I'm a fan of giving the cops more options).

Advisory Vote No. 19, Engrossed second Substitute Senate Bill 6269 - Maintained, even though it is advisory and the gummint don't have to pay no attention. Its about holding oil companies responsible for spilling oil. The companies are always declaring they have incredibly safe pipelines and there is no chance of oil spills, so this REALLY shouldn't be a problem, should it?)

United States Senator - Maria Cantwell, who has done a real good, if centrist, job. Also, No Republicans, and in particular no Republicans that are Trump-apologists.

United States Representative Congressional District No. 9 - Adam Smith. Yeah, I went back and forth a couple dozen times on this, and if you go for Sarah Smith, I will forgive you completely. The fact is that he, like Cantwell, has been doing a good job. Retain Smith.

Let's see ....  what else do we have? No one running against the incumbent, no one running against the incumbent, opponent dropped out, no one running against the incumbent. Ah, here we go:

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 8 - Steve Gonzalez. Every time I see something about his opponent, Mr. Choi, he's either not talking to the press or engaging in conspiracy theories. However, one early poll shows he is in the lead, so this is one of those places where we need an EDUCATED electorate. Go to Voting for Judges, which I have used for years for my recommendations, and Vote for Steve Gonzalez.

Stuff that is not on my ballot, but I think it is important in the local area:

United States Representative Congressional District No. 8: Kim Schrier, a pediatrician, over real estate millionaire Dino Rossi. The Times actually tone-policed Schrier in their endorsement of Rossi, saying that Dr. Schrier might actually put up a fight against the heavily-entrenched Republican majority, while Rossi will roll over on his back for belly skritchles. So, Yeah. Go with Kim Shrier.

State Legislative District No. 47. State Senate. Vote for Mona Das. Her views line up with mine, but let me lay on the line. Incumbent Joe Fain has been accused of raping a woman 10 years ago. I don't know if this is true. I'm not a court of law, and cannot dispense justice or find truth. But I damned well want to find out before hiring him for another term. Vote Mona Das.

State Legislative District No.  47 Position No. 1. Vote for Debra Entenman Again, she lines up with a lot of my own views. She is also a target of a lying mailer campaign from a nutter with access to photoshop, who has been encouraging progressives to write-in for candidates who are not running, Kent City Council member Brenda Fincher has been dragged into this mess, and minced no words in shooting it down, identifying it correctly as another form of vote suppression. Because, you know, that's what Republicans are known for. Vote Debra Entenman.

And Lastly, Stare Legislative District No. 47, Position No. 2. Vote for Pat Sullivan, who has served for many years and has not been accused of sex crimes or had nutters try to split the vote for him by sending out lying mailers. Hey, in the current environment, that's a ringing endorsement.

That's it. And regardless of where you are, it is time to step up. I'm not asking you to march. I'm not asking you to  confront. I'm not asking you to man the barricades. I'm asking you to vote. I know I am lucky in this state, with mail in ballots. We have a paper trail. We don't have voting booths located far away from actual voters. We don't have long lines. We don't have electronic devices that switch votes while you watch them. I'm lucky that way. I'm going to ask you to vote anyway.

Also, No Republicans.

More later,

The Political Desk: Public Office

Usually I would  break these down into a handful of entries for easy digestion, but we're not looking at a lot of real races here (though, of course, they are important). So here are all the public offices: Federal, State, County, and Court, that have competitive races this year:

US Senator - Incumbent Maria Cantwell has done a fine job so far, with most of the criticism I see being lofted at her is as a result of her being TOO mainstream and willing to work with conservative voices.. I'm OK with that. Her opposition, former TV newsreader Susan Hutchinson spent her time in the debates lofting Limbaugh-level conspiracy theories and repeating White House talking points. Yeah, no. Go with Maria Cantwell.

US Representative District No. 9 - This, the battle of the Smiths, is the only challenging race for me, and I've flipped a half-dozen times already. Incumbent Adam Smith is a liberal, yeah, I'll say it, progressive voice in the rejiggered 9th district, and he has been around forever. Sarah Smith is a liberal, even more progressive voice who brings youth and energy to the table. My game-playing brain says that, should the House change undergo new management, we would be well-served to have someone with experience and seniority in the office, while my narrative heart says that we would be well-served to have someone to push harder on more progressive issues. I still remain in flux, so color me UNDECIDED. They're both good.

My State Reps have no competition. Congratulations to Zak Hudgins and Steve Bergquist. And yeah, I'm not going to vote Republican in any event, but GOP? Really? You really need to keep the local franchise going. There is no depth in your backfield, which may account for some of your problems around here finding any traction.

The sole county level election, Prosecuting Attorney, was going to be former-Republican Dan Satterberg against Reform Democrat Darron Morris. I would go for the reform-minded Morris, but he dropped out for health reasons. though his name is on the ballot. So I have NO ENDORSEMENT this time out, but I wanted you guys to know that this is really one more one-person race.

Judges! Eleven positions! No waiting! And only one of them has a choice between two candidates. What, is this the era of good feelings? Justice Position No. 8 has the highly regarded Steve Gonzalez against Nathan Choi, who doesn't want to talk to voting for judges but last time set up a lot of signage in unusual areas, much of which lasted for weeks after the election.Go for Steve Gonzalez.

And that's it for my ballot. What about the rest of the state? Kim Schrier in the 8th Congressional. Mona Das in the 47th State Senate.Debra Entenman for State Rep from the 47th. Pat Sullivan for the other State Rep from the 47th. I used to live in these districts, until they shuffled the borders around, leaving the political map the world's worst jigsaw puzzle. It is almost like they're afraid of me ....

More later,

The Political Desk: Rolling for Initiatives

The initiative system in Washington State has pluses and debits. It allows the people to make an end-run around the legislature to support a new law. You means it you can get enough people together on an idea, you can have it implemented. It also means that, if you enough money, or access to people with enough money, you can put an initiative on the ballot and sell it to an ignorant electorate. It ALSO means that the initiative can be challenged in a court of law, often on specious grounds, but that's just icing.

We have four initiatives up in Washington State, and an Advisory vote. Three of the initiatives are "to the people" which means they came from the ground up (but see above), which the fourth is "to the legislature" as a double-check for legislation someone doesn't like. Advisory votes are a remnant of an earlier initiative which was partially struck down, and now required the legislature to check in when they spend money, but they don't have to pay any attention to it. More whining about that later. Here are the four initiatives and the Advisory Vote

I-1631, also called Initiative Measure No. 1631, also called the carbon fee initiative. Remember the middle of the year, when all the surrounding wildfires filled the Puget Sound region with a smokey haze? That was a natural occurrence, that was a rarity in the modern age, and that was one situation we'd like to keep rare. Throwing on a "pollution fee" for sources of greenhouse gases and using the money to promote more clean energy is a good idea. Washington State is taking the lead of reducing this type of pollution and should do more. Vote YES. [And the big argument is that the polluters will just pass the cost along to consumers. That convinces people, then the polluters jack their rates ANYWAY because war/scarcity/distribution problems/added value to their shareholders. Tell you what: I'd vote No on this if you let the voters decide EVERY price rise from here on in. Any takers?]


I-1634, also called Initiative Measure No. 1634, also called the soda tax initiative. Here's the story on this one. Seattle passed a tax on some carbonated beverages. Big Gulp, consisting of the soda companies, freaked out and want this initiative to keep any other locality from getting ideas and  doing the same. As a result, they have been wallpapering the mailboxes with scare mailers and peppering the local channels with farmers fearful that they will have to give up the back forty if we tax Bouncy Bubbly cola. This is what you call an astroturf campaign - it looks like grass roots but it ain't. Give localities the power to make their own decisions. Make corporations buy politicians the old-fashioned way, one at a time. Vote NO

I-1639, also called Initiative Measure No. 1639. also called the gun safety initiative. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of looking at my shoes. You know what I mean. Someone shoots up a school, or a night club, or a church, and there are coffins and eulogies and we all look at our shoes and feel bad that we didn't do more to keep it from happening. This is about handling a whole bunch of gun stuff - safe storage, decent background checks, training. Will it eradicate all guns? No more than Speed Limits eradicated all cars. I just want to not look at my shoes as often. Vote YES.

I-940, also called Initiative Measure No. 940. which doesn't have a short-hand name. This is the result of carefully crafted negotiations between civic groups and law enforcement agencies to reduce the chances of cops shooting people, by giving the officers more tools and training to use as well as remove language that makes it harder to deal with such situations (currently, you have to prove the officer was MAD at the victim to prosecute - So casual and off-hand shootings were OK).  It was made a law. It was contested in court. Now it pushed back to the people to make the call. And even then, it will probably go back to court. Schoolhouse Rock never prepared me for this. Go with YES.

Advisory Vote No. 19, Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 6269, also called One of the reasons why no one wants to be in state government. This is about raising the taxes and fees on petroleum products to cover the inevitable leakages. Given that at the national level they REALLY want more oil (though China isn't going to order from us for a while, apparently), this works for me. Actually, the ADVISORY part of the title tells it all - this is a poll at best, if we're good with this. Go with Maintained, anyway.

Next up, we get personal. As in, we talk about people running for office.

More later,

The Political Desk Opens For the Fall

If you're in Washington State, you should have received your ballot already, along with a good-sized voter's pamphlet (two of them if you are in King County. It feels like voting season is a little tight this year, so you need to turn those around pretty darn quick.

And yeah, this election is important. OK, EVERY election is important, but this one has a lot more riding on it. At the national level we've been seeing a plundering of the public treasury, with a promise of more to come should the Republicans maintain their majority. And yeah, there is all sorts of gerrymandering, suppression, and downright lies being cast about from the conservative and corporatist sides. We have to stop this crap.

And I say that realizing that, from a personal standpoint of what I can affect, I'm not in a bad position at all. I said "NO REPUBLICANS" in the primary, and I pretty much have gotten my wish. The GOP did not put opponents for our State Reps in my district, The County Prosecutor scratched Republican off his descriptive tags,the US Representative battle is between two liberal Democrats, and the US Senator race is between a veteran incumbent and a conspiracy-theory media hack.There are not a lot of Republicans to vote AGAINST for me in this election. 

But before I tell you about my ballot, let me point you in the direction of some other people with opinions:

The Stranger has grown up. Yeah, they will pepper their endorsements with f-bombs just to show they can hang with the cool kids down at the skate park, but they are probably the best set of recommendations you can find for locating functional adults who want to be in government. That's right, you're reading an endorsement of an endorsement. They've even been spreading their wings beyond the Puget Sound area to talk about other races elsewhere. You go kids - just clean up your act.

The Seattle Times is ... well ... don't bother. I'm not even going to link them this time. I'm used to them carefully pawing around the issues, then choosing the more traditional, pro-business candidate, but this time their editorial board has really crapped their pants. After whinging about transparency for almost every Democratic candidate in the primary, they have endorsed for US Rep a millionaire real estate investor who won't share his tax returns and is involved with people stiffing their contractors (in other words, a typical modern Republican). And they decided to double-down and re-endorse a State Rep after said rep was accused of rape. So they're spending their time cooing in your ear "Don't worry,.THESE Republicans will be different from all the other Republicans we've recommended over the years". The Times talks a good game about good government, but when push comes to shove, they will sell all y'all out for the price of a two-page spread.

Who else is there? Well, here are the Progressives, and we line up pretty well, but they may have better arguments than I do. Voting for Judges does its normal excellent job, but face the same challenge I do with a lack of competition in most of the races. The Municipal League's site has not been updated since last year, but they are launching ReadySetVote.Org, which acts as a clearing house for other people's endorsements (including a few I will not mention here). The Washington State Conservation Voters are here. The Chamber of Commerce has formed a new pro-business alliance, and are asking for money, but don't seem to have endorsed anyone. The Seattle Transit Blog checks in here. 

All of them suffer from the same malady as Grubb Street - We have a couple very, very important races, but a lot of incumbents running against empty chairs. Me? I'm thinking of branching out.

More later, 

Theatre: A Paradise Lost

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Ursula Rani Sarma, based on the book by Khaled Hosseini, with original music written and preformed by David Coulter, directed by Carey Perloff, Seattle Repm through November 10.

The Rep begins its season with a tough one - a story of women in the face of an oppressive society, sent against the Afghanistan of recent memory. Based on a novel by Khaled Hosseini of the same name, the play intertwines the lives of two women against the chaos of a collapsing world.

Young Laila (Rinabeth Apostal) loses her home and family in Kabul in a rocket attack. She is rescued from the rubble by neighbor Rasheed (Haysim Kadri), who takes her as his second wife. The first wife, a brow-beaten Miriam (Denmo Ibrahim), does not approve, but has no say in the matter, setting up a very hostile household. This is made worse by the decay of the country as it falls under the sway of the fundamentalist Taliban, and by Rashid's own brutality. The two women must unite in order to survive in a world that has no other allies for them.

It is brilliant performance. We watch Laila age on stage from girl to mother. But , more importantly, we also watch Miriam grow and find for herself redemption and purpose in her life. Their relationship grows as the play unspools and you find both pity for Laila being beaten into the system, and sympathy for Miriam who has become inured to its unfairness (the advice from her mother was - "endure"). For his part, Kadri plays the venomous Rasheed with just enough vulnerability and true believer fanaticism that you can believe him as a real individual (though you still want to take a swing at him - repeatedly).

But the play itself has the far-away, fantasy landscape that makes the viewers happy that they are not in such a world. In "othering" the action of the play, even to real-world Afghanistan, there's a safe distance between Rasheed's society-endorsed, abusive behavior and our own. When I was first brushing up against theatre in college, I noted that plays of abusive families were almost lower class, urban, and usually Catholic. Now we expand it to other continents. The Lovely Bride, for her part, noted the similarities between Suns and The Color Purple, which also puts the perils further away from the audience.

The fantastic nature is enhanced by the stagecraft, which is beautiful. Flying backdrops, lighting which capture the mood, props that move the locations around the actors, the stage is the stark, wild, empty lands that surround Kabul,  from the surrounding mountains to the tight, imprisoning household. It capture the mood of the play, in all its barren beauty.

And then there is the music. This is the first play in some time I remember having live supporting music, in the form of David Coulter, ensconced off to one side with a variety of instruments, including a musical saw, which stresses the alien nature of this world on the other half of the globe. It has been a while that I have seen music woven so tightly into the mood of the play itself.

So, the short form? It is a tough play, hard to watch, and difficult to review. It is also a beautiful performance, rich and deep. Go expecting to feel a little more troubled and thoughtful afterwards.

More later,

A Week In Books

It does not rain but it pours.

It has been an interesting and thoughtful week, in that three beautiful sets of books arrived at Grubb Street. But I don't think my reaction is the same as most other people, but I highly recommend all of them. Here's the picture of the haul:

In the middle is the Prince Valiant Storytelling game, and beneath it the adventure book. Both are beautiful books, illustrated with Hal Foster art that takes me back to the comic section of the Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The game itself is simple and sweet, and the Episode Book has contributions from an all-star squadron of creative talent (yours truly among the gang).

Yet, these books are bitter-sweet for me. First off, Stewart Wieck, who was putting them together in the first place, passed on (his brother Steve, finished the work). Then, the day after the books arrived, I learned of the passing of Greg Stafford, the original designer of this game, White Bear and Red Moon, and Pendragon, and creator of the fantasy world Glorantha.  I don't have any great Stafford stories - we chatted at the occasional convention but our paths did not cross that much. Still, one more of the original gangsters of gaming has passed on, and we are all lessened for it.

Soon afterwards Cthulhu Invictus (on the right, with coins and a decal) showed up at my door, a Kickstarter from Golden Goblin Press. And on first blush the book is SO textually dense. I remember picking the Chaosium Invictus back in the day and noting the wide margins and large leading (something Chaosium is not alone of doing - check out some TSR products of the age). This version is heavily packed, the script-like font running nearly to the edge of the page. Golden Goblin does some of the best material in this new golden age of Lovecraftian gaming, and I am slowly making my way through it.

And with it comes a sense of both opportunity and obligation. My gang has talked off and on about doing some adventures set in the Roman Empire, and this may just push me over. But that becomes one more thing to work on. If I get around to it I will post.

And on the right, the big powerhouses are two different editions of Art & Arcana, which showed up Saturday morning. Several months ago the authors came over to the house, where they took some pictures of the original art I have on the wall, and and listened politely as I blathered on about told stories of the old TSR.

I haven't dug in too deeply, but the final project is absolutely beautiful.Old guard gamers will remember the Art of Dragon books - this is SOOOO much better. Larger, heavier, glossier, meatier, amazing. Here's the visual history of Dungeons & Dragons. The deluxe edition is boxed, has some separate art (suitable for framing) and a photostat of the original Tomb of Horrors when it was an adventure run at GenCon 1975. I did not know this existed. It looks it it was originally typed on mimeograph paper, but I can't be sure.

And it feels like going through a old high school yearbook, and each picture reminds me of something else that happened in those bygone days. I've leafed through it, and said "Ah, that reminds me of a story ..." and there is a lot of me and the other greats of the Bronze Age of TSR, plus great stuff from the giants that came before us and the brilliant creators who came after.

So. Sadness, Opportunity, Nostalgia. Not what I normally get in the mail.

Check out all three.

More later,

Book: October Country

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville, Verso, 2017

Provenance: I first found this book in an airport bookstore, mis-shelved. It is a history of the Russian Revolution, but it was in the Science Fiction section. Which makes sense in that China Miéville is a noted SF/Fantasy writer of the "New Weird" school, best known for books like Perdido Street Station, Un Lun Dun, and The City and The City.

But I did not pick it up then. Instead I purchased it at Third Place Books in Ravenna, a tidy little neighborhood bookshop. On the day of purchase, Third Place was donating their profits to organizations working against the brutal immigration policies of the current administration (and ICE in particular). So a political book purchase made perfect sense.

Review: I'll fess up, despite a lot of reading, I have only a passing knowledge of the Russian Revolution. The storming of the Winter Palace, Rasputin. Lenin. The Battleship Potemkin, Reds with Warren Beatty. Yet in my brain the events of the Revolution itself unspooled almost simultaneously. One day there was a monarchy, the next day the Soviet Union.

Actually, it was a continual and chaotic clusterfreak, unrolling over a period of months, with Saint Petersburg (which becomes Petrograd and will eventually become Leningrad before returning to Saint Petersburg in 1991) at its center. Then the heart of the Russian government, it was here that the people's uprising mattered. Out in the hinters of Baku or Finland or Moscow, rebellions of the workers could arise, either to the be crushed or to find some limited amount of autonomy away from the wellspring of then-modern Russia.

There are histories built around Great Men. There are histories built around Great Moments. Miéville's approach is built around Great Meetings. And there are a lot of them in the tempestuous times.The Duma, the provisional government, the nascent Soviet, the various factions within the revolution, the gathering of a dozen Bolsheviks when Lenin was on the lam from accusations he was a German agents. Meeting upon meeting, faction upon faction.

How many factions were there? Take a dinner plate, hold it at an arm's length, and drop it on concrete. That many. Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Mezhriontskys, Socialist Revolutionaries, Kadets (Constitutional Democratic Party), the Military Revolutionary Committee, various garrisons, and subfactions of the above that range from moderate to revolutionary. The difference between the two big factions, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, is whether the worker's paradise has to go through an intermediate stage of bourgeoisie, as the masses need to get up to speed with the concept of self-rule (The Mensheviks said yes, the Bolsheviks said no, and Lenin thought that if you topple everything right now, the rest of a war-torn Europe would quickly follow).

Miéville openly skews left/socialist politically, and that shows in where his attention lies. We get a lot of the Bolsheviks and their meetings, while the right shows up in turns as ineffective foil or a threatening counter-revolutionary force. Nicholas abdicates and vanishes from this narrative. The Duma, tethered to the Soviet in a dance of dependency, is rarely effective (and the Soviet itself, like Caesar, rejects opportunities to take command until forced to by Lenin's wing of the Bolsheviks). He demurs on whether things could have gone differently, or if the horrors of Lenin and Stalin were "baked into" the Bolshevik Revolution itself. There were more than enough opportunities for a different faction, or collection of factions, to "win" the prize of a starving Russian state.

Miéville  is also a urbanist, and most of his fiction is city-based or community-based (The Armada from The Scar, the railroad town from The Iron Council). So he is at home in this not-as-ancient city, built like Washington, DC to house a ruling class and a government. He is at his best when he is describing the city itself, and its inhabitants, either scrounging for food, marching in protests, or defending the barricades against the counter-revolution. Miéville captures the flavor and the feeling of those turbulent months of 1917 where Russia hung suspended through a decaying old system and and an unborn, chaotic new one.

We stop in October, with the Czar still alive, the nation still at war, and the Civil War yet to fully kick off. Miéville tells a great story, but it is an incomplete one, with the great tragedies yet to come. The retro-vision of "what would be" colors our judgement of those hides the concept that the future of the Revolution hinged on a single decision, a single political act, or a single meeting.

More later,

Adventure: Hard Reign Gonna Fall

Reign of Terror by Mark Morrison with Penelope Love, James Coquillat, and Darren Watson; Call of Cthulhu RPG; Chaosium, 2017


Here's my deal on reviews: I have to play the game in order to review it properly. Reviewing a game or game adventure without playing it is akin to reviewing a play simply from its script. Now. uou can review a script as a script, analyzing why it works and how, and guess how it will all play out, but you really aren't reviewing a performance. For that reason, I read a lot of RPGs and adventures but don't review them. I'm more than willing to promote stuff I haven't played, particularly by friends and colleagues, but reviewing? Not so much.

Oh, and there will be spoilerish things here, so if you want to run this, or never will run this, proceed, but if you want the thrill of playing in it (and its a bit of thrill ride), you can bail now.

My regular Saturday night group has of late been more anime and kaiju movies of late, particularly since we wrapped up the massive Horror on the Orient Express (which I COULD review under my rules, because I was a player,but not a GM/Keeper). I came across this at The Dreaming, up in Seattle's U-District (good comic and game store - my choice for the Lovecraftian stuff), and since we HAD wrapped up Horror, thought this a good tie-in.

Now Horror was set in the 1920s and ranged between London and Constantinople and back again, but the latest incarnation also had a number of vignettes for the past that helped fill in bits and pieces of the story. These vignettes had pregens and gave the players a break from playing their normal characters. Cool idea, particularly since Call of Cthulhu can have a rather lethal body count.

Reign of Terror is really two adventures. The first takes place in Paris in 1789, at the dawn of the revolution, and the second five years later at the height of the Terror, when the guillotine made messy work of those who were out of favor.

And the first adventure works really, really well. The pregen characters are soldiers in Paris, assigned to guard the catacombs as bones are moved from the overflowing cemeteries to new homes underground. They have an encounter with Count Fenalik (who for opur group was a recurring foe in Horror), which gets them involved with revolutionary pamphleteers, palace politics and several decadent dinner parties. The adventure ends with some interesting footnotes tying the characters into the Tennis Court Agreement and the Storming of the Bastille.All of this is really solid.l

The second part happens five years later, after the revolution and the Terror that followed. This is the age of the guillotine, where informers are rampant and the ambitious use false accusation to clear out political and personal opponents. A minor character from the first adventure gets hold of unspeakable knowledge and plans to sacrifice all of Paris to an Elder God (I did mention spoilers, right?).

This part didn't work nearly as smoothly, for several reasons. One is that in the first section, the players are all effectively on the same team - they are soldiers, one of them in the sergeant, so there is chain of command. Also they have specific orders and are expected to obey. And they can expect some sort of support from their superiors. In the wake of the revolution, though, that command is broken down. Not all the characters are still in the army (our romantic young soldier is the group became disillusioned, quit the army, and became a busker on the streets), and some of them may have actually fired on each other at the Bastille. They don';t have superiors who are giving them direct orders, and have a lot more leeway in their actions.

In fact, the adventure turns on the characters, who previously have been expected to obey orders, disobeying those orders for the plot to proceed. In our case, they chose to not disobey orders, forcing the Keeper into quickly coming up with how to proceed the story further. Often, keeping the story moving forward has the whiff of railroading, but this was a case where the game leaves you a bit high and dry as how to proceed (we managed, but it required some impromptu rewiring).

A second challenge is that both big bads are very similar. Singular, aggressive, elite, and powerful (both in physical abilities and in social position). Both are unkillable until a certain set of circumstances come together. Their goals are very different, but how the players interact with them is similar. In the case of the second adventure, the second big bad taunted the characters with a very Fenalik sort of grin, and AT THAT MOMENT the group decided that, whatever he was up to, they were going to take him down. They skipped the next two sections of investigation and went directly to judicious application of kegs of gunpowder in a closed space to defeat him.

Third, and this is one of the biggest challenges of the second half, the shadow of the guillotine hangs over them, but the process of how one gets there is unclear. How is the arrest made? How long do you sit in jail before the kangaroo court sets down a decision? The book does talk about such things as how condemnations functions, but not once the process is rolling There's a definite gap between The Second Big Bad decides to send the Committee for Public Safety against the players and the tumbril rolling up to the guillotine, and one that the keeper had to play by ear..

Production values are extremely high in the final product. The art is wonderful, and the page layour both clear and sumptuous. One challenge as games move to full-color production is the handouts - Older CoC games benefited from easily photocopied handouts. Chaosium has the handouts on their site, but while that works for players with electronic media or color printers, the old fashioned among us with B/W printers and photocopiers have to deal with it.

Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix, a classic image
of the Revolution painted forty years later.

The presentation also has some padding. Two-page spreads of famous art. No less than 6 maps of Paris. A full-page reproduction of the Rights of Man (in French). Good stuff, but there it is occupying space we can for other things.

What other things? A short bit to be read to players of what happens between part one and part two would be good (and don't lecture me on boxed text - there is a BIG section at the start of the adventure). There is a lot of data in the book on the French Revolution, much of which is aimed from a historical end and less from the viewpoint of those on the ground (short version - it sucked). For all the  information provided for the characters, I had to wing it on whether the soldiers had a barracks or what (I went with yes, but the commander lived with his family nearby).

Also, a pronunciation guide would help. Yes, we know what French sounds like, but I come from a part of the country where Versailles is pronounced Ver-SAILS and Dubois as DUE-boyz, so I am working through my high school French to manage pronunciation in places. None of my players have been to France (Quelle horreur!), so in general we went with "Hollywood French", either ignoring pronunciation challenges or, sadly, rolling out a Ree-DEEK-you-louse Frange AcCENT. So, a guide would be useful tools for the Keeper.

And the volume does suffer from the "Curse of Cthulhu" as far as map/text agreement. The dwarf violinist lives the garret of a three-story building, which has five floors on the map. The description of Fenelick's grounds don't quite line up with the text. And, while the Pregenned PCs have useful info, one of them is lacking a vital part as to his political alliances. (in the book. They did make the correction to the pdfs, so go there for the characters.).

So in general? Not an adventure for a first-time keeper. First half is solid, and definitely good if you're playing/have played/would want to play Horror on the Orient Express. Second half requires more work from the Keeper and can potentially go off the rails. Keep the wikipedia handy so you know more about the Herbertists and Dantonists and why it would be important to a bunch of soldiers.

But is also great for putting the players in two very different dystopic realms where life in cheap and justice cannot be found. From the golden halls of Versailles with its wealthy elites to its revolutionary remade France stalked by the Terror, the players are forced to deal with challenges to their characters beyond the traditional 1920's milieu. It is an excellent doorway into the past for playing the game. Check it out, but be prepared to work for it.

More later,

Triviathlon

So, over on the Facebooks, I have been asking questions. Not my questions, but rather question from 1996 about AD&D Second Edition.

This was the Trivathlon, a full-sized poster that may have been shipped with DRAGON subscriptions (though I'm not sure) and/or were distributed to hobby stores.On one side was a full list of all the D&D products to date, put together by John Rateliff (also known around here as Sacnoth). The other side had a contest - a hundred trivia questions about AD&D in the 1996 era, along with the rules for "The Arcane Challenge" First prize was a choice of a free trip to the Spanish Gen Con Game Fair in Barcelona or the Euro Gen Con Game Fair in England. Second prize was a trip to the US Gen Con in Milwaukee, and third prize was a limited edition pewter Great Red Dragon.

Anyway, John has been cleaning out his basement and came across a copy of the product list/poster/contest. His memories about it are here and here. The same weekend, at our regular gaming group, Steven Winter (who used to blog at the Howling Tower) brought in HIS copy of the Triviathlon, partially filled out. I snagged Steve's copy and spent the past month or so amusing myself posting a bunch of questions every day. Sometimes I got the right answer. Sometimes I got smart-alecky remarks. It was fun.According to Steve, there was ONE person at the time who got all the answers right.

However, TSR never published the answer key, or so we thought. But someone (and I will  gladly credit them here - I've lost that message in the past month. EDIT: It was Ed Tucciarone! Thanks Ed!) sent me a link to a user group on Google, which had copied the answers from a response by the TSR Online Coordinator at the time. The Coordinator from that time would be Sean Reynolds, but Stan!, another member of our regular group, checked with Sean and he remembers nothing of the contest either.

However, an answer key does exist, and can be found HERE. So if you've been following the whole craziness of the Triviathlon, here's where you can find out if you're right or not. Or if THESE answers were wrong.

Me? I'm going to go have a bit of a lie-down. I've done enough Facebookery for a while.

More later,

The Political Bunker: Fallout

I usually wait a few days before posting after an election, because votes continue to come in (deadline was postmarked on Election Day), and there are usually one or two contests that are close enough to wait things out. and even in this small but important collection of contests, this has happened. So take a look.

King County Proposition No. 1 Regular Property Tax Levy Automated Fingerprint Identification System Services - Approved. Here's an interesting factoid. The tax is a LOWER percentage than the last time around, because property values have gone up. Which means they can get the same amount of money from lower rates. You're still paying more money, if you're a property owner, because the property is supposedly worth more.

United States Senator - Maria Cantwell came in with 55%of the vote. Now, in a primary, 50%+ is considered "comfortable". This is a pretty good indicator, with the fact there were 28 OTHER candidates in the race (because there were no other big state races for Goodspaceguy to run in). The Republican standard-bearer, Trump-apologist Susan Hutchinson, got 24%, which bodes ill for the GOP.

United States Representative District 9 -  Here's the one that was hanging fire, and I will admit it surprised me as well. Incumbent Adam Smith looked like he would square off against perennial opponent Doug Basler, but a late surge put progressive Sarah Smith in the number two position. So we have a situation for a US posting with .... no Republicans. I see this one as a win-win situation.

State Legislature District No. 11, positions 1 and 2 - Zack Hudgins and Steve Berquist -  but they were unopposed, so that should not be a question.

Elsewhere?

Steve Hobbs won the 44th with 55%, which is good for a incumbent, more challenging for his opponent.

US Representative District No.  8  - Dino Rossi versus Kim Schrier (likely - this one is truly hanging fire, and we may have to wait until Monday to get the final). Dino got a tepid 43% percent, which makes him vulnerable (more so as primaries do well for Republican, while the general tends to get more people, and therefore more Dems). Mr Rossi, who has traditionally depended on saying little and letting the Seattle Times do his dirty work, has his job cut out for him. Good thing he has a lot of out of state money to work with.

Actually, across the state, the Republicans have, to be kind, "underperformed". Stalwarts are getting lower numbers, and districts that have been reliably red are considered suddenly in play. The supposed "Blue Wave" seems to be alive and well in Washington, but in all things politics, it all depends on what happens between now and November.

That's it until the ballots for the general election drop. See you then.

More later,

The Gaming News

Ah, GenCon weekend. Not going this year, but when I do go, I hunt down the small companies that I have never heard of before and check out their projects. These days, with the Internets and the Amazons, the throw-weight of smaller companies is a lot greater, but the chance to actually physically check out the product before purchase has a thrill. Also, the person you're buying it from may just be the designer.

Yet with GenCon there has been a sudden wave of activities on the Kickstarters and elsewhere for new products, many of which by people I know and some of which I have actually supported. Let's take a look.

First off, Let me start off with a Humble Bundle. Humble Bundles are collections of electronic media (games, pdfs, e-books) that are offered a low, low price (though you can make it higher and get more). The proceeds go to good causes. In this case the causes are Girls Make Games and Girls Who Code, both of which work to expand gender diversity in pretty male-overwhelmed areas. The books are a huge selection of books on game design, some of which I own, and some of which I have contributed to. AND this particular bundle has new, just published material by Mike Selinker.

If you're also looking for more books about games, take a gander at Your Best Game Ever from our friends at Monte Cook Games. It not rules for playing a game, but advice on how to use those rules for, well, your best game ever. Usable both by new players and old, YBGE is already blowing up in funding. Plus, if you want rules with your tools, they are offering the revised Cypher System Rulebook, which is MCG's "universal" system. Check it out.

Also in Kickstarter (and blowing up even bigger) is The Expanse RPG. I got into The Expanse from the Lovely Bride - she tends to Tivo entire seasons and binge-watch, and my attention is collateral damage (I would walk into the room, sit down, and then cross-examine her at the commercial breaks). It's a great TV show, but it is based on books (no, really, books. With words and letters and chapter and everything). And The Expanse RPG is based on those books. It uses Green Ronin's AGE system, but sounds like it has a couple neat tweaks to it.

Also on the Kickstarter is Demon City, by Zak Smith. Call it experimental gestalt weird fantasy. Call it millennial urban horror. I really liked both the presentation and the content of Red and Pleasant Land (Alice's adventures in a D&D universe - better than the old Through the Magic Mirror), and Maze of the Blue Medusa (which neatly juggles a bunch of different subplots into one major adventure). Both readable and playable. So I expect to like this as well.

Staying with Kickstarter, but moving into the past, Steve Jackson is bringing back The Fantasy Trip, which was one of those foundational games back in the early days of D&D/ Originally micro-games with paper chips and maps, it was a hex-based combat game that simply recapitulated the nature of fantasy combat. At a time when D&D options were just starting to sprout up, it took the dungeon to the boardgame long, long before 4th Edition. I think I still have a copy or two in the basement. This looks like a faithful recreation of the original, more of an update than a complete revision.

And ALSO from Kickstarter AND with a healthy whiff of updated nostalgia, we have Over the Edge, which back in the day was a brilliant combo of mechanics and world-building. Imagine D&D if Hunter Thompson had teamed up with Gygax and Arneson, and if Bill Burroughs replaced Edgar Rice Burroughs in Appendix N. Unlike The Fantasy Trip, this is an all-new edition set on the island nation of Al Amarja, and I want to see what they've done with it.

Fine, you want some games that are already finished and available? Do you have IOs on your tablet or phone? Take a look at the Cthulhu Chronicles, which gives you solitaire adventures in the Mythos/ There are both transposed Call of Cthulhu adventures (Alone against the Flames) and original material here. The first three sanity-shattering adventures for the day are free! The classic nature of the old choose-your-own-adventure books with modern-age technology! Indulge your Lovecraftian desires!

And since I'm still talking about games, how about some fanzines? I would mention both Warlock #6 (from Kobold Press) which deals with the City of Brass and The Excellent Traveling Volume #8, a wonderful Empire of the Petal Throne 'zine. The mere fact I have articles in both of them has nothing to do with my hearty recommendation.

And finally, let me mention Dungeons & Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History, which is NOT out yet, will prove to be the ultimate source for art in the golden age of TSR. The authors are recognized masters in reporting the history of D&D, and, I am have been informed, the book will include several pieces of art from the Private Collection at Grubb Street. I'm really looking forward to this!

And with that, the Gaming News wraps up. More later,

Game: Boss Tweed

Very Gangs of New York

Tammany Hall designed by Doug Eckhart, Pandasaurus Games 2012

Let's move on from politics to ... a game about politics!

Provenance: This is the Kickstarted version of the game. I purchased it at North Texas RPG Con as my "Big Buy" of the con (I try to limit myself to one, because I have to lug it back). Brought it out for our Monday Night gaming group.

Review: We've played this game three times, and there are issues. But let me give you the lay of the land before I start complaining:

Tammany Hall is a unit-placement game set in New York City in the mid-19th century. This was the time of the rise of the great urban political machines, and I am a fan of the era, and in particular William Marcy (actually Maegar) Tweed, who was the "Boss" of Tammany Hall and the Democratic Party in post-bellum NYC. The board is lower Manhattan, divided into three districts with numerous wards in each district.

A pool of immigrants shows up at Convent Gardens (this is pre-Ellis Island) - four national groupings - Italian, Irish, German, and English (different colored cubes). You have a hefty number of "Ward Bosses" (meeples) and can put a ward boss and an immigrant cube in a ward, OR put two ward bosses in one or more wards. Easy peasy. If you put an immigrant cube, you get a "favor token" for that immigrant group.

After four turns (years) you have a vote for mayor. You only look at the ward bosses in each ward, since they deliver the votes. No other ward bosses? You get the ward. Other ward bosses in the ward, you square off, secretly adding appropriate favor tokens to the number of ward bosses you have. High score gets the ward. Guy with the most wards (and there are all sorts of tie-breakers) gets to be mayor.

The mayor then hands out the city offices, which allow to gain free favor tokens, lock down wards, or move or remove immigrant tokens. Everyone gets an office, so the trick is to hand out the more powerful ones to people you think you can trust. After four elections (16 turns), the game ends and the high score (VPs awarded after every election) wins.

And that's pretty much it. But after playing it three times, I get the feeling we're doing something wrong. And that's not good. First game we were being polite and learning the rules. Second game we got into a little more deal-making. Third game we tried to dogpile on the leader. None of these worked out that well, and in the last two we had to call time (a two hour playing time is a bit rosy in its estimation).

Part of the problem is that mayor is a very powerful office, long-term. Short-term it sucks - everyone else has something they can do. You just get 3 victory points. But since you have to control a lot of wards to get to be mayor, you have more victory points already. The end result is that the mayor (particularly if you can get re-elected) gets a huge head-start on everyone else. The rich get richer. In each game, we had the first mayor get out front, a second place player at about half points, and the rest in a mob at the bottom.

The idea that it is clear that taking down the mayor is a catch-up feature, but it is very hard to do. Challenging other wards requires effort and resources that might be spent better elsewhere, and leaves both combatants weakened. There is a "scandal" mechanic that can take out enemy ward bosses, but it requires a layout of future victory points and favor chips, and requires you have a good setup in the first place. The ideal form of combat is "Let's you and him fight" - getting two opponents to take each other on while you hold down your own territory.

Dealmaking is also a challenge, in that there is precious little you can actually trade at the time. You can't trade the favor tokens, and there is no rule to punish deal-breakers (other than everyone saying, "Oh, Stan! He broke a deal once! Let's you and him fight!"). And since you have to give out all the offices, you have to give good powers to less-than-responsible people.

The quality of the game components are excellent, the rules are fairly clear, and most of the information you need is repeated on the game board. It has an excellent physical design. Tammany Hall gets good reviews, in particular from those that claim that it will turn players against each other faster than Monopoly, Diplomacy, or Kingmaker. I'm not seeing it. Our group gave it the old college try, but it came up empty. Not a bad game, but not as amazing as I expected. Maybe I should check out its ancestor, El Grande, to see if I'm missing something, or if it is just us.

More later.

The Jeff Recommend: Primary 2018

OK, its pretty brief up here on Grubbstreet, so let me set things down for you.

Get your ballots in by 7 August. But do it now. Avoid the rush.
You'd have to pay for postage. Drop it in the mail. That simple. Or you can do a drop-box in King County..
But just vote, dammit.
No Republicans.

King County Proposition No. 1 Regular Property Tax Levy Automated Fingerprint Identification System Services - Approved, I guess.

United States Senator - Maria Cantwell, better than all 28 other options.

United States Representative District 9 - Sarah Smith (though that other Smith is OK). And hey, she did an AMA on Reddit.

State Legislature District No. 11, positions 1 and 2 - Zack Hudgins and Steve Berquist - so good at their jobs that no one wants to run against them.

And here are a few that I'm not voting on Usually I don't poach on other areas, but these merit some attention.

State Legislature District No. 44 - Steve Hobbs. Impressive. Did I mention he's part of a gaming tabletop podcast, the Geeks of Cascadia?

US Representative District No.  8  - Not Dino Rossi. This blog cut its teeth on he disastrous run for governor and resulting lawsuit. There are three good Dems running against him, and it would be great if Rossi didn't even make the cut. Check out Jason Riettereiser, Kim Schrier,  and Shannon Hader. I lean towards Hader, but I'm not voting in this one. And it would hilarious if Rossi didn't even get out of the Primary.

We will tune in after the election for the final count.

More later,

The Political Bunker: Proposition No. 1

The primary ballot is actually pretty short this time, and we're already down to the county measure propositions. And there is only one of them - Proposition No. 1 (not to be confused with OTHER Proposition No. 1s you may encounter), Regular Property Tax Levy Automated Fingerprint Identification System Services. It replaces an existing levy and is meant to fund and upgrade AFIS and other identification programs.

And I say Approved, but I my heart just isn't in it. I guess I am suffering from tax fatigue, as so many different  worthy measures come to the taxpayers with their begging bowls for funding. Its like when ALL of friends in the office are selling candy for their kids' school bands. I mean, this sounds important, and if its important, shouldn't it be in the budget to start with? Do we need another revenue stream, which has turned into a regular avenue for funding attractive budget items?

So, yeah, Approved, but even I am getting tired of this.

More later,

The Political Bunker: State Reps, District 11

The 11th district starts east of Lake Young and and runs up to Sodo along the I-5 corridor (which means it is most of my morning commuter) It is a long, spindly thing, and its state senator is Bob Hasegawa, who's not up for re-election this year. It's State Reps are Zack Hudgins and Steve Bergquist, who are. And running against them is ...

Nobody. Nobody? No Chamber-of-Commerce-endorsed Republican? No newly minted Libertarian who is still reading the welcome-to-the-cause literature? Not even a challenge from the left?

OK, then. Zack Hudgins and Steve Berquist. So good that even the GOP wants you to vote for them.

But while I'm here, let me credit the state legislature for actually doing things this session. Not everything I want, but at least it has been progress, over the previous, supposedly bipartisan, deadlocked sessions. A couple things that were pretty dumb, but actually the average of those was lower than usual. So, yeah. Go team.

And even though I'm not voting in this particular election - here's a nod for Steve Hobbs down in the 44th, around Lake Stevens and Mill Creek. I had the chance to talk with the incumbent a few weeks back, and found him to be knowledgeable and engaged with the issues. He's a little more moderate to my tastes, particularly on fiscal issues, but he impressed the heck out of me with the depth of his understanding in a variety of fields. Plus he's a gamer AND he has a podcast. So if you're in the fighting 44th, vote Hobbs.

More later,

The Political Bunker: US Representative District 9

Adam Smith has done a dandy job in the redistricted 9th, dealing with the ever-spreading, new-and-improved swamp in DC. And should he be the sole Democrat on the list this fall, I'll be glad to endorse him. But a stronger choice is another Smith, Sarah Smith. She's running as a anti-war progressive Democrat (Hey kids, remember when we had TIME to be anti-war?), and one of Mr. Smith's weaknesses is that he is deep in the pocket of the Military Industrial Complex, a remnant of when his district included Fort Lewis.

The third candidate, Doug Basler of the GOP, runs a wanna-be InfoWars radio program. And you know how well THAT serves the body politic. It would be great to see the two Smiths duke it out this fall, so I'm supporting Sarah in the primary.

More later,

The Political Bunker: US Senator

So, yes. Maria Cantwell. She's been one of our two senators. And while she steers a little closer to the center than I would prefer, she's done a damned fine job holding peoples' feet to the fire when we need her to. She deserves going to the finals.

Her chief endorsed Republican opponent, Susan Hutchinson, is a former newsreader for a local TV station and former chairbeing for the State GOP. She's been enthusiastic in her support of the squatter occupying the White House, chastising other candidates for not being sufficiently positive of the GOP's leader and excusing his horrible personal behavior by declaring that "he was a Democrat at that time."  So, just say no.

I'd like to say that that there are viable options about the 27 other candidates for the post, but that's not the case. Instead we have the Usual Suspects, the Well-Intended, and the Whack-a-Doodles. I'd like so say there's one that provides a reasonable alternative to the two mainstream candidates, but ... but ...

Look, people, it's time we had a talk.

Have you folk heard about EDITORS? I'm serious here. These write-ups in the Voters' Pamphlet are probably the only chance you have to reach out with your message. So what's with the word salad? What is with the incomplete sentences? What's with the fluid, subconscious, almost unconscious use of capitalization? I know some editors. They cost, but they make you look less like idiots. The state is legally prevented from fixing your language and making you coherent. So GET SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU.

Oh, and under Elected Experience, do NOT put all the times you've run for office before and lost. I mean, seriously?

All that said, Let me give a brief shout-out to Clint R. Tannehill, who actually comes across as a rational human being with a straightforward plan and an engaging backstory. If you cannot bring yourself to vote for a mainstream Dem, take a look at him. Regardless, no Republicans.

More later

The Political Bunker Reopens

And so it begins. Yard signs show up on Mercer Island. Facebook ads show up for people running in the next district over. Mush-mouthed endorsements show up in the Seattle Times.

The election is coming. In this case, the primary.  And it is important. Well, they all are, but this year's elections have primal import.

So this time out I'm going to be a little less glib, a little less fun-loving. Yeah, I will mention the nowhere candidates with funny names but really am not going to spend a lot of time on them. The past two years a positive, humane agenda in politics has been under siege. We're lucky up here in the heavily blue Pacif Northwest, but there is a lot of bad craziness going down across the country, and we need to dig in here.

So, there are a couple rules that I'm looking at before even looking at the candidates.

No Republicans. Now, I'm aware that there are good Republican men and women in office, but for the most part they are cowed by the more radical factions these days. The party is swarming with neo-nazis, white supremacists, self-declared pimps, opportunists and racists. And those who are a bit more centrist still are willing to vote for rewarding the wealthy and punishing the poor. Enough.

And of course, the fish stinks from the head, and on a national level the head is one of the worst I've seen. The Republican presidents in my lifetime have had the ability to make their GOP predecessors look not nearly as bad, and I hesitate to say we have bottomed out as each week punches through the floorboards and finds a new sub-basement. Ethically, morally, professionally, intellectually, this is the worst. So yeah, let that drag the party down as well, since few on that side seems interested in reigning the current White House occupant in. We're doing crap now that we're going to be pretending we didn't do for twenty years, and then apologizing for it once the criminals directly responsible are safely buried.

Even so, professionalism, ethics, and morality would usually be redemptive enough. I'd rather have a good Republican than a bad Democrat most days. Not this time.

Also, No Former Republicans. The current King County Prosecutor has already ditched the GOP for the Dems, but I don't want that to be a saving grace for him. He's been running for years on the "Republicans are the strong, grown-up, law and order group" bandwagon, while they've been a collection of thieves, panderers, yada yada. Now that it looks like he would lose just because he's a Repub, he's scraping off the party label. We have one candidate out there who considers the parties to be flags of convenience, to be jettisoned as soon a the opportunity presents. Libertarians? A lot of them are of recent vintage (one has declared he's "been Libertarian since 2016" - a whole year and a half!). Libertarian-ism is not the Blood of the Lamb. You don't change labels and are reborn.

Other warning signs? "Running government like a business". Big donations from the NRA. Support from the Chamber of Commerce (really, when they come over, count the spoons afterwards). Puff pieces in the Times that use the phrase "Dan Evans Republicans." Declarations that they have "Bi-Partisan Support", which tends to mean all the usual GOP suspects and a retired Democratic party conservative or two.

Hang on, you say, aren't there rotten apples on the Democrat side? There are, and we tend to dump 'em, not re-elect 'em. Mistakes will be made, but the Dems are not the party of doubling-down on the last stupid thing they did (they always look for new mistakes ... I keed, I keed). 

I am done with purity tests as well. If the non-Republican candidate is a centrist with corporate ties, I won't cross him off the list (but I will be digging). If the non-Repist is a wooly-eared progressive seeking cetean rights, I won't say no. But I will mock. Given a choice between good candidates, I tend to veer more to left, and your mileage may vary.

And you're going to vote, right? Vote in the primary to get the best candidates, and in the general in November. This has to change. We tend to get the government we deserve, and in the words of Menken, we get it good and hard.  So vote or give up.

And don't just listen to me. Others are wading in. The Seattle Times, notable for thinking hard on the subject, then choosing the more establishment candidate, can be found here. This time out, they are particularly angry at anyone who voted for less transparency from the state legislature. Unless they're not. The Stranger seems to have lost their pot-fueled sense of humor and are acting like grown-ups this time (This is how far we've come). Voting for Judges does not have a lot for the primary, but they are still present. Here's the Progressive Voter's Guide. Nothing from the Municipal League yet, which is usually a standard, but they should show up.

So, gird up your loins, open you voter's guides, and let's take a look.

More later.

Book: Looking At You, Kid

We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg W.W.Norton & Co. Copyright 2017

The Provenance: Christmas present. The Lovely Bride was listening to Public Radio and they were talking about it, and since I am a fan of the movie (though, oddly, I rank it below The Maltese Falcon), she got me a copy. Started in on it that week, made a good head of steam, then bogged down around the discussions with the censors. The book lay fallow, and risked being added to my shelf of abandoned books, but I picked it up again and polished it off, in bits and bobs, over the next week.

The Review: This is one of the great classic movies. If you haven't seen it (a state that would leave me shocked, simply shocked) you need to take the opportunity to do so. If nothing else, you'll get all the references that everyone else is using.

The book itself doesn't really talk about the movie so much as talks around the movie. Originating in the play "Everyone Comes to Rick's", the story was first and foremost a political play by Murray Burnett and and Joan Alison, based on their experiences getting out of pre-war Europe and smuggling a good chunk of the family treasures with them. Purchased but unproduced, it went west to Hollywood, where it was swallowed by the industrial Hollywood movie machine.

It busts some myths as well. Ronald Reagan was never seriously considered in Bogart's role. It originally lived as a play, though unproduced in part because of the problematic love story (Ilsa sleeps with Rick for the letters of transit). It wasn't a scrappy little success story - the script was purchased for a record amount by Warner. Yes, the original had a ending (Rick shoots Strasser and gets arrested), though getting there in the movie went through many hands. This last bit is a good tour through the studio system, where the script, once sold, gets numerous revisions from various writers with different strengths (comedy, romance, adventure), creating the multi-threaded narrative that creates the foundation for its publication. In fact, Casablanca reveals the success of the studio system in creating film. And it was a hit from the start, its release timing with the Allies taking Casablanca itself, the news reports putting that North African city in the forefront of American thoughts.

And it talks extensively about Paris as a replacement for coitus, for the affair between Rick and Ilsa, a married woman (though the film goes to great lengths to point out that she assumed he was dead at the time, it was a change for modern movie morals of the time). Inspector Renault's sexual preferences (very young, very pretty, and very much in need) bubble up to the surface more subtlety in the movie than in the play.

But the book has some gaps as well. While it goes deeply in the bios of the players (the bulk of the actors were themselves European refugees), it does not get deeply into the production schedule - when the shots were taken and where. It does recommend another book, The Usual Suspects by Aljean Harmetz, for such details, but sadly that is not the book I'm reading. And it is a bit silent on the awards that popped up immediately in its wake (Casablanca took three Oscars - Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay - no small feat - How did that happen?).

And most importantly, the struggle that We'll Always Have... keys in on is the flak that the Warners took in making this movie in the first place. In the wake of the war, we think we were always a country unified against the fascist threat, but such was not the case. Most movie companies soft-pedaled the Third Reich, since most still had business there in an increasingly hostile environment. And yeah, Jack Warner was hauled into a Congressional Hearing where he was peppered with questions about why he was being so anti-German (at this time, there were more Germans living in Milwaukee than in Berlin). It is one of those things that echo in the modern day - as Twain said, History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Ultimately, however, we get the suburbs of Casablanca, but never fully get into the city itself, much less to Rick's Cafe Americain. It remains a mirage on the horizon, with travelers telling us the tale of the city and its legendary waters.

Heck, go watch the film.

More later,