I've still got this really nasty taste in my mouth from the Mary Cheney interview.

So I'm trying to figure out this MySpace thing b/c someone from the Steel Queer N'At collective posted my post about their performance ... there.  That's a horrid sentence.  But you get the point.  Anyway, I'm trying to figure it out and I notice that one of the acts from the collective is performing this Friday at Quiet Storm.

They are Thrive, three poets The Black Ass Bombshell..aka Vanessa German, Sweet Thunda aka Bekazela Mguni and Savannah Montana..aka Becca Cooper

We were very impressed by their acts.  The Black Ass Bombshell did this wicked piece about Jorge and I was so enthralled by their outfits that it took me at least two minutes to realize who Jorge was.  Then tonight I discover that Vanessa German is the woman who won the national SLAMBUSH contest.  And I think I heard her at the Peace Rally in 2005.  Where I was very impressed but it ended up I had been marching on a broken foot all along so the incredible pain sort of edged everything else out.  That's right -- I marched for peace on a broken foot. Then I went to Starbucks. 

So it all sort of swirls together to prompt me to go to The Quiet Storm this Friday at 8 PM to see Thrive perform en masse.  After marching for dykes on a never really gonna heal from being broken foot.  Then I'll march for Pride Awareness on that same foot. 

Thank god my father wants to spend Father's Day at the movies.  At least there'll be no marching. 

I would greatly appreciate if there could be a blogging for peace/equality/healthy feet/Starbucks event in the near future. 

7:01 PM  ------- Live tonight on KDKA, John McIntire talks with Mary Cheney for the lesbian perspective on the Ben Roethlisberger situation .... tune into 1020 AM ....

7:15 PM -------- Mary Cheney's book has sold less than 6,000 copies since its May debut according to OnePageQ.

7:16 PM -------- Marriage amendment "its a bad idea, how about that?" says Mary.

7:17 PM -------- She sounds like she's chewing on a duck.  She came "darn close to quitting."  She was troubled working for George Bush, but she stayed for Daddy.  He thinks discrimination should be left to the states.  She also stayed b/c terrorists will hurt our country so she didn't have the luxury to be concerned about same sex marriage. 

7:20 PM --------

7:23 PM -- ----- President Bush has at least tried to have a civil discussion around this. 

7:25 PM ---------  President Bush wakes up every morning thinking "what am I going to do to keep this country safe?"  Just like her Dad. 

7:27 PM --------- "People can look at it that way and its a valid opinion.  People can look at it another way and its a valid opinion."   WTF?

7:29 PM ---------- John tosses gay rights softballs to Mary Cheney. She is possibly the most boring controversial guest he's ever had on the air.

7:29 PM ---------- The Western state of mind.  People treat people as individuals.  Even gays.  Or poor people.  Maybe even poor black gay people.

7:30 PM ---------- KDKA is going to my hometown West Mifflin this week.  Our former police chief faces more than 19 counts of drug charges.  Its a great town. 

7:32 PM ---------- Mary's partner Heather is a nice person who doesn't bitch slap people.  She's supportive blah, blah, blah. 

7:34 PM ---------- Parents come to her book signings and her book helps them deal with having a gay child.  Or they are happy that she says nice things about her parents.  Because people don't do that these days.

7:35 PM ---------- We have purposeful and decisive leadership in Iraq.  They've held 3 elections.  A cabinet has been named.  We got the big one.  But there are still a few insurgents.  John: "and 100,000 innocent civilians are dead."   Mary: "give me a name to verify that."

7:40 PM ------I try to call and the phone rings incesssantly.

7:41 PM ------ A woman calls her on working for the Coors family and reaching out to gays for a conservative company.  Mary takes credit for making the entire Fortune 500 gay friendly.

7:43 PM ------- NOW ITS MY TURN! Mary is making a difference by being open about who she is.  Iraqi gays have more important thiings to worry about than being gay. Then I got cut off.  Oh well ....

7:45 PM ------- I should have listened to my gut and watched the rerun of Friends and Seinfeld.  Or cleaned the cat litter.  I can't believe I got suckered into calling.  Note:  I allowed myself to get suckered -- I was not the sucking victim of any one particular person.

7:47 PM -------  Her goal was to write a book that she could be proud of and sell a few copies.  Pittsburgh is not on the book signing list.

*************************************

Overall, this was not very exciting.  She had nothing noteworthy to say about gay issues.  She did show some spunk defending the Iraq war, but has this weird delusion that the President wakes up every day thinking how to keep America safe.  I think Paris Hilton has more insight into the life of the typical American homo than Mary Cheney.  Ah well ... kudos to John for putting her on the air.   

This past Friday, we accepted an invitation to catch the local performance of "The Hardest Question Ever," a puppet show performance art piece examining the societal role in creating and punishing violence through the prism of incarceration.  The show was put together by Indicator Species, a Pittsburgh based collective of teachers, artists and activists who work on prison issues. 

The show opened with live music from Ricardo who took our collective breath away.  His acoustic guitar performance and lyrics were just stunning.  I hunted him down at the end and ordered him to add us to his email list.  :-)     He told us he'd be performing live soon so we'll keep you informed.

The show itself was a 1/2 hour mixture of live action, puppets, and music.  I was skeptical at first as I always am when surrounded by a crowd of seemingly preternaturally thin people who made me feel incredibly mainstream .... one of the nightmare moments when someone points at you and yells "She's wearing Mom jeans" while everyone laughs.  Then someone's actual mom sat down in front of us with her two staunch suburbanite lady friends and I felt a the comforting shift back to slightly left of center.  Whew.  As soon as the group took the stage, all sense of discomfort fell away and I merged right into a crowd waiting to be taught.

The stage included a life-sized prison cell that is used for solidary confinement.  The walls were constructed from thousands of letters the artists had received through their books for prisoners program Book 'Em, a project of the Thomas Merton Center.  The show included 4 acts reconciling the horror of crime with the horror of prison.  Through live narration of cases based on the real life experiences of the artists, the show explores the complicated nature of something mainstream media and politics tends to oversimplify -- delving into the gray.  One case involved a former friend and comrade who had raped and murdered a woman -- the dialogue was a refreshing examination of all that had come before. 

I have to give the Indicator Species credit -- they really did ask the hardest questions.  When someone you know has raped and murdered, what does that mean for our own complicity in creating a violent society?  To simply say that you could not have physically prevented the crime is not enough of an answer.  What about all that came before -- at what point can we as a society prevent any crime?  And how does the way we treat our criminals reflect back on our values? 

"The cracks I fell through were the indifference of the people around me."

Indicator Species will be taking their show on the road for a two month tour.  For more details on upcoming Pittsburgh performances fedup@riseup.net or trust_the_shadow@yahoo.com

It was a good show -- thoughtful, earnest and personal.  It was obvious that the members of the collective put a huge investment of their personal stories, fears, hopes, and values into this show.  That investment touched me from the first chord and lifted me over any bumps in the road.  I would see this again when it returns to Pittsburgh.  And I'm going through my books to donate to the program.