Bondi Beach, located in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, is Australia’s most iconic beach. Photo 2018 by Nick Ang (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Two news-making shootings overnight. Developing situations. Yet again.
First, at Brown University in Providence, R.I. Two people were killed and nine wounded last night when a gunman opened fire in a classroom. Police launched a massive manhunt for the shooter (Associated Press):
The shooting erupted in the engineering building of the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, during final exams. Hundreds of police officers had scoured the Brown University campus along with nearby neighborhoods and pored over video in pursuit of a shooter who opened fire in a classroom.
This morning police seem to have a person of interest in custody. All nine victims were students (New York Times):
The person was an individual in their 30s, according to Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of the Providence Police Department. Officials did not give further details on the person who had been detained or the investigation.
Exam times are pretty stressful. Food quality in our dining hall got noticeably better during exams. Counselors were on 24-7 standby. Campus legend had it that during exams a student once hung himself overnight from a practice football field goalpost. But that was before killing others in a blaze of public gunfire became trendy.
Over to Sydney, Australia
Gunmen (plural) opened fire on beachgoers from a pedestrian bridge Sunday evening local time. Multiple people are dead (Sydney Morning Herald):
Residents reported police cars streaming into Bondi Beach around 6.40pm (AEDT). Multiple gunshots were heard, and hundreds of people could be seen running near Campbell Parade.
Vision shows at least two men clad in black firing what appeared to be rifles from the pedestrian bridge that links Campbell Parade and Bondi Pavilion.
NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon announced just after 10pm that at least 11 people had been killed by the gunmen. One of the shooters was also killed.
New South Wales police believe there is no ongoing threat to the community. Lanyon labeled the incident a terrorist attack and said several explosive devices were found in a car connected to the deceased shooter.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters this was “an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation.”
Sunday marked the first evening of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday. The shooters were seen close by to the Chanukah by the Sea festival, where Jewish Sydneysiders had gathered to celebrate the holiday.
Britain is checking on the security of its Chanukah events after the Bondi terror attack, as European leaders express their dismay at the antisemitism and pledge to stand with Australia against religious hatred.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was working with the Jewish community in the UK in the wake of the Bondi attack, given that similar ceremonies are planning within hours in Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other national leaders all expressed their sympathy for the victims of the Australian shootings.
“The news that the Bondi Beach attack was an antisemitic terrorist attack against Jewish families at a Chanukah event is sickening,” said Starmer.
Naveed Akram, 24, was apprehended at the shooting alongside one other alleged shooter. One of these individuals has died, but it is not yet known if Akram is the deceased.
No doubt there were other people shot around the U.S. on Saturday night. But that news disappeared under the coverage of the killings in Providence and terrorism in Sydney. So it goes.
Nothing to mourn here, move along, right?
Update 1: That bystander who disarmed one of the shooters? (SMH)
A hero bystander who wrestled a rifle off an alleged gunman in a moment of bravery that may have saved lives has been identified as 43-year-old father of two Ahmed el Ahmed.
In an incredible act of courage, Ahmed placed himself in the line of fire to take a rifle from the shooter, and was later hit by at least two bullets himself.
Ahmed’s cousin, identified only as Mustafa, spoke to Seven News outside St George Hospital, where he is undergoing surgery. Mustafa confirmed to Seven that Ahmed had taken on the gunman and later sustained bullet wounds to his upper arm and his hand.
Yes, it’s that special season…for those obligatory “top 10” lists. Keep in mind, I can’t see ’em all; these picks are culled from the first-run features that I reviewed this year. Alphabetically:
Birthright– As Queen Eleanor muses in The Lion in Winter: “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” Writer-director Zoe Pepper’s twisted dark comedy thriller is like a 21st-Century take on James Goldman’s classic tale of family dysfunction. In this case, the prodigal son has not returned to the manor for a brief visit, but for an indeterminate stay.
Cory (Travis Jeffrey) and his very pregnant wife Jasmine (Maria Angelico) have been hit with a double whammy: Cory has been laid off and the couple have been evicted. Broke and desperate, Cory shows up on the doorstep of his upper middle-class parents’ estate and asks if it’s okay that they stay a few days . His judgemental father (Michael Hurst) and ice-queen mother (Linda Cropper) seem wary at best. They agree, but with some “tough love” caveats. As temporary lodging morphs into “taking up residence”, family tensions mount, old wounds reopen and an epic battle between father and son for the title of King of the Castle ensues. This is the most trenchant Australian social satire I’ve seen since Don’s Party.
Color Book -Everyone processes grief differently. In the case of recently widowed Lucky (William Catlett) and his 9 year-old son Mason (Jeremiah Daniels) there lies an additional complication in the healing process: Mason is developmentally disabled and doesn’t appear to understand why his mother is no longer with them.
Now more than ever, Lucky’s paternal instinct drives him to bond with his son; and even if Mason isn’t registering the same emotional pain over their mutual loss, he wants to do everything in his power to be a comforting and reassuring presence for him. But Mason’s chief concerns remain steadfast: drawing in his coloring book and watching televised ball games.
Lucky hits on an idea to break the impasse: he’ll take his son to his first pro baseball game. It’s perfect…a father and son bonding experience that will make Mason happy and get both of them out of the house for a day. What ensues is a veritable Homeric journey across the Atlanta metro area, driven by Lucky’s determination to get his son to the ball park on time to catch the game, regardless of any number of obstacles.
They say there is beauty in simplicity, and this is a simple story, beautifully told. It’s an astonishingly assured debut for writer-director David Fortune, shot in black and white by cinematographer Nikolaus Summerer. A truly compassionate drama that keeps it real at all turns, capped off by two outstanding lead performances. Color Book is a must-see.
Four Mothers -SIFF’s 2025 Opening Night Gala selection is the latest from writer-director Darren Thornton (A Date For Mad Mary). James McArdle stars as a gay novelist about to embark on an important American book tour. While he is excited about the prospect, he is torn about what to do about his mother while he is away (he’s her caregiver).
Adding to his stress level, he is unexpectedly saddled with taking care of three additional elderly women when several of his friends drop their mams off with him before heading off to a Pride festival for a weekend (he’s too nice a fellow to say no).
A delightful dramedy inspired by the Italian film Mid-August Lunch (my 2009 SIFF review). Bolstered by crackling dialog (co-written by the director and Colin Thornton) and endearing performances all round (particularly by Fionnula Flanagan as the writer’s mother, who steals all her scenes without uttering a word). (Streaming on Apple TV)
Nouvelle Vague – A heady and freewheeling backstage drama/fan fiction from Richard Linklater about the making of Breathless, the film that ushered in the French New Wave. Linklater not only offers a “fly on the wall” perspective with an uncanny recreation of the original production (right down to the camera work, film stock and screen ratio), but renews your faith in a medium that has become more about bombast, box office, and back end than characters, concept, and conflict. Full review (Streaming on Netflix)
One Battle After Another – It’s tempting to call Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling action-thriller/sociopolitical satire “one chase after another”, as it doesn’t pause often for a breather. Upon a second viewing (which I enjoyed more than the first) I detected more nuance. While the chase scenes are expertly choreographed, breathtakingly filmed (in vintage VistaVision) and genuinely exciting, it’s the little details I loved. The populous cast is uniformly excellent, but stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn are at the peak of their powers here. Certain elements evoke the anarchic political spirit of late 60s/early 70s films like Punishment Park, The StrawberryStatement, Zabriskie Point, and Getting Straight, but One Battle After Another can simply be enjoyed as pure, exhilarating film making for grownups. Full review (In theaters and streaming on PPV)
Sorry, Baby– Mumblecore is alive and well, as evidenced by SIFF’s 2025 Closing Night Gala selection. Written, directed and starring Eva Victor (who you may recognize from Showtime’s Billions) this dramedy is a sometimes meandering but generally affable portrait of an independent young woman’s long recovery in the aftermath of a traumatic betrayal of trust. Victor slowly reveals her character’s arc in episodic fashion, using a non-linear timeline. Solid performances all around in a story that chugs along at the speed of life. The film left me thinking about something Mr. Rogers once said…“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” He was right, you know. (Streaming on HBO/MAX)
U Are the Universe-As Elton John sang, it’s lonely out in space. Especially if there’s no Earth to come home to. Andriy (Volodymyr Kravchuk) is the pilot on a garbage scow loaded with nuclear waste destined for disposal on one of Jupiter’s moons (it’s just his job, 5 days a week). When he gleans that the world’s entire population has been wiped out by a cataclysmic event, he’s saddled by the realization he may be the last living human in the universe.
Considering that there is an ample yet finite supply of food on the ship, Andriy has calculated he can survive for a while, but obviously not as long as he would have expected, had the Earth not been destroyed. His growing sense of existential despair is kept somewhat in check by the presence of his onboard AI technical assistant/personality-enhanced companion Maxim, which at least gives him “someone” to interact with.
Then, one day, out of the vacuum, a glimmer of hope. He receives a voice-only communication from a Frenchwoman named Catherine, who tells him she’s the sole occupant of a space station on a collision course with Saturn (she figures she only has a couple weeks before there’s an earth-shattering kaboom). Andriy now has a raison d’être; he immediately sets course for a rescue mission (despite Maxim’s dire warnings about his ship’s limited power reserves).
While this may be familiar territory (with shades of 2001, Solaris, Silent Running, and Miracle Mile), Ukrainian director Pavlo Ostrikov’s film (which was in the midst of wrapping production in Kyiv in 2022 as Putin began sending salvos of missiles into the city) is armed with a smart script, tight direction, a nuanced performance by Kravchuk, and a beautiful statement on love, compassion and self-sacrifice-adding up to one of the best genre entries I’ve seen in some time.
Vermiglio – Once I got pulled into writer-director Maura Velpero’s intimate World War 2 family drama Vermiglio (winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and Italy’s Official Selection for the 2025 Academy Awards), I didn’t want it to end. Imbued with shades of The Leopard, The Last Valley, and Little Women, this is a simple, yet universal tale that transcends the era it is set in (which is captured with great verisimilitude). It works as both an elegy to the final vestiges of Old World traditionalism and as a harbinger of post-war mores. Naturalistic performances all around. Lovely cinematography by Mikhail Krichman (that lush Alpine scenery paints itself). An honest, raw, and emotionally resonant film. Full review (Streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, and other platforms)
Waves – While it is set on the eve of the 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, in some respects writer-director Jiří Mádl’s riveting political thriller could have been ripped from today’s headlines.
In 1967 Prague, a young man named Tomás (Vojtěch Vodochodský) lives in a cramped apartment with his younger brother Paja (Ondřej Stupka). Tomás is Paja’s legal guardian. The conservative and apolitical Tomás is concerned about rebellious Paja’s increasing involvement with an anti-regime activist group. One day, he is chagrined to learn that Paja has sneaked off to an open audition for a job as an assistant to a popular but controversial radio journalist. Tomás rushes down to the station to intervene, but stumbles into landing the gig himself.
While he cannot foresee it, Tomás is about to get swept up into the vortex of tumultuous political upheaval in his country, culminating in the August 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces (the film is based in part on the rousing story of how Czech Radio managed to keep broadcasting, even after Soviet troops forced their way in and seized control of the main studios).
Waves plays like a mashup of Three Days of the Condor and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and is a welcome throwback to films that hit that sweet spot between historical sweep and intimate drama. Oh, and don’t forget to support your favorite independent journalists, because democracy dies in…well, you know. Full review
Yanuni– Tribeca’s 2025 closing night selection is a riveting eco-doc that profiles Indigenous rights activist Juma Xipaia (the first female Indigenous chief of her people in the Middle Xingu) and her husband Hugo, who heads up a government special ops team that locates and shuts down illegal mining operations in Brazil’s Amazon region.
Richard Ladkani’s doc unfolds like a Costa-Gavras political thriller; early on in the film we see harrowing footage of Juma participating in a protest outside of the National Congress Palace in Brasilia where riot police suddenly fire a fusillade of live rounds into the crowd. A distraught Juma kneels beside a tribal activist who appears to be gravely wounded, pleading for him to respond (he doesn’t) until fellow demonstrators pull her away, out of the line of fire.
Juma, we learn, is no stranger to the threat of violence; she has survived a number of assassination attempts over the years and continues to be under threat. Yet she soldiers on, fighting outside and (eventually) inside of Brazil’s political system for her people…as does her husband (Juma and Hugo form an eco-warrior power couple).
Ladkani follows Hugo and his team on several missions; these scenes play like they are straight out of an action film, but instilled with an all-too-real sense of danger (the illegal miners are frequently armed and rarely happy to see the government commandos). Mining has been prohibited since Brazil’s Federal Constitution of 1988, as it not only wreaks havoc on the Amazonian ecosystem, but has a number of negative health effects on the Indigenous peoples of the region.
Ladkani’s film is slickly made and lushly photographed, but doesn’t pull any punches regarding its heavy subject matter. When you consider 10,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest are destroyed every day, the sense of urgency here becomes all the more palpable. (Streaming on eventive and Apple TV)
…and just for giggles
Holy Krampus…have I really been writing reviews here for 19 years?! I was but a child of 50 when I began in November of 2006 (I was much older then, but I’m younger than that now). Here are my “top 10” picks for each year since I began writing for Hullabaloo.
(You may want to bookmark this post as a handy reference for movie night).
A lot of people are writing about the beating Trump is taking the polls, his mental decline, the MAGA crack-up, the Democratic resurgence and the emerging defiance of some quarters of the GOP. We all are. But David Corn has written an excellent synthesis of all those trends in this piece on his substack Our Land:
An excerpt:
For over a decade—!!!—Donald Trump has defied political gravity. After descending that Trump Tower elevator surrounded by fake supporters who had been paid to attend his campaign announcement, Trump pulled one disqualifying move after another. He insulted war hero John McCain. He mocked a reporter with a physical disability. He made crass and crude comments. He lied relentlessly. He celebrated fringe players like conspiracy theory–monger Alex Jones. And with each of these misdeeds and missteps, the pundits declared he was kaput. But he wasn’t. Not even after the grab-’em-by-the-pussy videotape.Trump was able to survive gaffes, controversies, and scandals that would blow away any other politician. In part that was because, as one of his early advisers told me, being an asshole was part of his appeal. It was baked into the cake.
How many times since he was first elected president has a commentator said—or you thought—in response to some Trump outrage, no other politicians could get away with this? That includes bear-hugging Vladimir Putin, mismanaging the Covid epidemic (which led to avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of Americans), his first impeachment, his effort to overturn a legitimate election to retain power, his incitement of political violence that aimed to destroy American democracy, and the countless instances of grift and graft he and his clan have perpetrated.It seemed that the rules of politics and public life did not apply to Trump. Yes, he lost the 2020 election, but he resurrected himself—yet again defying the conventional wisdom following the January 6 riot that he was finished politically.
Trump still survives revelations and scandals that would destroy past presidencies—swiping classified documents, paying off a porn star. But the good news is that this does not mean that the political universe has been permanently upended. In recent weeks, there have been signs that political gravity does still exist and that we are not adrift in a cosmos free of all rules.
He says that some of what’s happening is normal political gravity reasserting itself. Movements rarely last long and MAGA is no exception. He provides this vivid example of the fractures within it:
I don’t know if you know who these weirdos all are but take my word for it, they’re important members of the MAGA coalition.
Corn points out that Trump’s hardcore followers will stick no matter what and he guesses they account for about 30-35% which is still a huge number of our fellow Americans. So, he’s coming close to hitting his floor.
Is all this really political gravity reasserting itself or is something more fundamental happening? I don’t know. Anything would be better than living with Trumpian dominance. But I’m hopeful that the shock of what’s happened over the past few years, the vast corruption, the lack of accountability, the flagrant authoritarianism — the worship of that ignorant brute — will end up creating an appetite for serious reform. We’ve seen the dangers.
As I’ve said before, this 2nd Trump nightmare is a roller coaster. I try not to get too excited by the highs or too rattled by the lows. We’re at a high point but we shouldn’t kid ourselves. He can recover.
Still, there’s no doubt that he’s weakening and his coalition is starting to come apart. That’s good news. I’ll take it.
Setting aside the absurdity of his description of Arthur Laffer, the man who created supply-side economics and screwed up the economy for decades, I wish I could understand why so many people see something like this and think “what a great leader” instead of thinking “what a ridiculous man-child!” It’s just so pathetic.
I know that modesty and dignity are totally out of fashion and that relentlessly hyping yourself is the way we live now. But his puerile vanity and egoism are just silly. Everyone who kisses his ring is a hero and anyone who challenges or disagrees with him is an enemy of the people. It’s twisted.
Apropos of nothing:
Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and the severity of symptoms vary. People with the disorder can:
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerate achievements and talents
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
Take advantage of others to get what they want
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Be envious of others and believe others envy them
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:
Become impatient or angry when they don’t receive special treatment
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation
He is the poster child. And I mean child, literally. Watching that disintegrate into dementia is just terrifying.
Gang leader Gregory Bovino, the “Commander Op At Large CA” above, who is going to every city Trump has specifically targeted to cos-play some kind of robo-cop fantasy, says everyone, including citizens, must carry immigration documents. What?
Do you have any immigration documents? I don’t. Apparently, a Real ID doesn’t suffice. Do we all have to carry passports? Does it even matter since they are refusing to even look at them until they can get you into their special, federal, bio-data collection system?
This all stems from Kavanaugh’s ridiculous opinion that stopping people based on their looks constitutes probable cause because it’s no big deal to be brutalized, detained and terrorized if you are a U.S. citizen. Get used to it.
I fully expect that this authoritarian crackdown will be upheld because of this embarrassing dynamic. The Supreme Court majority has no more seriousness, integrity or dignity than the lowliest podcaster, influencer, or Fox News propagandist. Where they once proved themselves to be partisans they are now no better than shit posters on Twitter.
The 25th anniversary of Bush v Gore was yesterday. The modern vote suppression movement (as opposed to the earlier vote suppression of Jim Crow) got its mojo from that Supreme Court decision, learning for the first time that the partisan Supreme Court would have their backs. Virtually everything bad that has happened in this country over the past quarter century can be traced to that moment.
Dave Roberts of Volts, (who I’ve been following on social media for 20 years and who is one of the most insightful curmudgeons on BlueSky — a man after my own heart 😉 wrote this about that moment:
In terms of US politics, Bush v. Gore is the defining event of the century. It set the template: a ruthless right that instinctively seeks power & doesn’t give a shit about rule of law…and a bunch of hapless, feckless octogenarian Dems worried about the good opinion of centrist opinion columnists.
It was like waving a giant white flag and announcing, “the people on the side of rule of law, democracy, and decency WILL NOT FIGHT AS HARD AS THEIR OPPONENTS. They don’t have the grit or guts for it. Act accordingly.” And readers … they have acted accordingly.
Back in 2001, the right-wing takeover of US media was still a ways off. “Right-wing media” was still a distinct, separate thing. Nonetheless, the conservative browbeating of “MSM” voices had been loud enough, long enough, to suppress the natural civic horror at GOP cheating in the election.
This, more than anything, is what the right realized in the wake of the 2000 election: in a moment of chaos or crisis, they can do anything — *anything*, no matter how overtly criminal or gross — & just smooth it over later with “both sides” pablum. “Let’s not fight, let’s look forward,” etc.
They applied that lesson again & again in subsequent years. Bush II was basically a criminal administration, even aside from its world-historical blunders — allowing 9/11, f’ing up Afghanistan, f’ing up Iraq, f’ing up Katrina, f’ing up the economy — but after it was over it took a matter of *months* before the media had collectively smudged & smeared the whole thing, “ah, there were many fights, who can say, let us come together & look forward rather than backward,” etc. Crime –> no consequences. Greater crime –> still no consequences. And so on, still today.
I was still in the throes of anger about the Clinton impeachment in which the media had sided with the Republicans and then this happened. (Remember Sally Quinn and “the village”?) I will never get over being told to “get over it” by Wolf Blitzer on CNN in the days after the decision. I screamed at the TV, “who do you think you are????” It radicalized me.
And, once again, Democrats were crawling over each other to capitulate and “move on.” It’s been a long standing problem that hasn’t fully resolved itself yet. With Trump’s billionaire buddies trying to buy up all of U.S. Media, I’m just hoping that independent media will be able to keep the flame burning.
This right wing has been batshit for a very long time and institutions have also been blowing down to it. It isn’t new. Trump came along and was ignorant enough that he didn’t even understand the basic compact we still had left and just bulldozed his way through the remnants. Now there’s almost nothing left.
Maybe I’m just grateful for decency and compassion these days. Maybe I’m just desperate to be reaffirmed in my belief that we are not as racially divided as the right wing insists we are. But that video made me choke up a little bit.
I think we need to see more of this in the media. It gives you hope. And God knows, we need hope.
Humans made fires as early as 400,000 years ago, pushing the timeline of this crucial human innovation back a staggering 350,000 years, reports a study published on Wednesday in Nature.
Mastery of fire is one of the most significant milestones in our evolutionary history, enabling early humans to cook nutritious food, seek protection from predators, and establish comfortable spaces for social gatherings. The ability to make fires is completely unique to the Homo genus that includes modern humans (Homo sapiens) and extinct humans, including Neanderthals.
Lots of uses, fire. Cooking, heat, defense, light to make cave paintings by. Mastery of fire helped us get this far.
“This is a 400,000-year-old site where we have the earliest evidence of making fire—not just in Britain or Europe, but in fact, anywhere else in the world,” said Nick Ashton, an archaeologist at the British Museum who co-authored the study, in a press briefing held on Tuesday.
“Many of the great turning points in human development, and the development of our civilization, depended on fire,” added co-author Rob Davis, also an archaeologist at the British Museum. “We’re a species who have used fire to really shape the world around us—in belief systems, as well. It’s a very prominent part of belief systems across the world.”
Artifacts have been recovered from Barnham for more than a century, but the remnants of this ancient hearth were identified within the past decade. The researchers were initially tipped off by the remains of heated clay sediments, hydrocarbons associated with fire, and fire-cracked flint handaxes.
One hundred thousand years in the future, archaeologists mey be tipped off to our presence by layers of plastic and styrofoam in soils infused with carbon emisssions.
But the real smoking gun was the discovery of two small fragments of iron pyrite, a mineral commonly used to strike flint to produce sparks at later prehistoric campfires such as the French Neanderthal sites.
“Iron pyrite is a naturally occurring mineral, but through geological work in the area over the last 36 years, looking at 26 sites, we argue that pyrite is incredibly rare in the area,” said Ashton. “We think humans brought pyrite to the site with the intention of making fire.”
The fire-starters were probably Neanderthals, who were known to be present in the region at the time thanks to a skull found in Swanscombe, about 80 miles northeast of Barnham. But it’s possible that the fires were made by another human lineage such as Homo heidelbergensis, which also left bones in the U.K. around the same period. It was not Homo sapiens as our lineage emerged in Africa later, about 300,000 years ago.
Donald Trump is really, really proud of his genes. We know how old he is. Wonder how old they are?
I’m a behind-the-scenes guy. But extraordinary times, y’know? I’ve held signs on streetcorners and an overpass during rush hours 4-5 days a week since August. I see neighbors, anxious and frightened, thankful to see people standing up to the authoritarian turn of our country. Twice, women turning off Merrimon Ave. stopped mid-turn. “That is so sweet,” said a college-age woman out her passenger window, replying to the top [sign] and feeling seen. A 30-ish woman last week stopped, looked out her window and said, “Thank you! Thank you for what you’re doing” in reply to the second [sign]. To supporters, I offer a talking point. To the undecided, a thought for the drive home. To opponents, something to piss them off. The smiles, honks, and thumbs-up make this feel like public service.
(The photos above are from weekly street protests with 30-40 others.)
On the overpass I use larger one-sided signs (lit after dark with a 160-LED video light on a tripod). Last night I went with this on.e The 400 pt, 4-inch type is readable from 75-100 ft away.
MAGAs know what they were promised, what they voted for, and what they didn’t get. They really don’t like being reminded. I got a frantic thumbs down from a woman in a red Lexus and a stiff middle finger from a guy in a pickup. Gotcha!
Timothy Snyder is on TV live right now with Rachel Maddow and saying there will always be people who say there is no point to what you are doing in terms of resistance. Hold that thought.
I had a good session on the overpass tonight. Atmospheric conditions cooperated. There was enough cloud cover that I was not backlit (and thus visible to westbound traffic on my downtown overpass or else drivers would be squinting into the setting sun). It was cold but not too cold. Traffic was heavy. Two more women stopped on the bridge to photograph the sign. The neighborhood pedestrian traffic is youth-heavy, so I play a 30+ song, 21st-century-only playlist on a pair of Bluetooth speakers to keep me pumped. Yes, I am the idiot dancing with a sign on the overpass on Fridays at rush hour. This is an attention economy. Get some or go home.
Who knew I’d be teaching a workshop this morning?
The groceries message speaks to most everyone. Last night I got not just lots of honks, smiles, and thumbs up, but vigorous two-handed waves from lots of cars passing below. (I’m a familar presence by now.) They get it. They feel it. For the first time in four months, I realized that when traffic temporarily comes to a halt, I have a captive audience and time to spin the sign around to display the backside:
How d’you like that double tap. OMG, the honks exploded.
Some grisled older guy walking by asked what I was up to.
“I don’t own a television station,” I said. “But I can send a message to 4,700 pairs of eyes an hour here for free.”
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said and walked off.
One of my regular pedestrians, Christina, laughed it off. She gets it.
I’m a trusted messenger now because I’m there every week. I’m not knocking their doors. The “doors” are coming to me. Asking them to vote comes later. For now, don’t tell them what policies and party to support. Make them feel seen.
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