Blue Mouse Monkey Blog

Brave on the Page, edited by Laura Stanfill

The book Brave on the Page is remarkable for three reasons. Well, many reasons, but three that I’ll focus on. Firstly, it’s an Espresso Book, a wonder of modern technology that “prints a book faster than you can make a cup of coffee,” creating and assembling the tome on what looks like a copier on steroids with glass walls that let you watch the inner workings. And what comes out is a real book, with a real color cover and pages that feel like a book, not like a photocopy.

The book emerging from the espresso book machine

The second remarkable thing about Brave on the Page is that it pulls together the thoughts and experiences of forty-two Oregon writers, in the form of interviews and essays. As such, it offers a rare snapshot-in-time of regional thinking on the craft of writing and living the creative life.

The brainchild of writer Laura Stanfill, Brave on the Page grew out of two years of posts on her blog, Laura Stanfill: Writing. Reading. Community. But the book is not just the blog posts lifted and dumped into print. Laura, being the consummate professional (she’s an amazing fiction writer as well as a journalist by trade) moulded the material into print form, which meant re-editing everything to match the more straightforward tenor of a printed book. A blog can be informal and chatty, whereas a book doesn’t come across so well that way (unless you’re Mindy Kaling and you write chatty comedy.)

Anyone with any interest in writing in Oregon should read this book. It’s varied and comprehensive and reveals another rich layer to the wealth of creativity and talent in Oregon. Oh, and yours truly is included, specifically an interview about my novel, Parts Per Million.

The third remarkable thing is that the book is self-published. Which means Laura didn’t have to shop a proposal around to agents and/or publishers then, if accepted, wait years for the book to crawl through the glacial publishing process and possibly emerge as a distortion from her original vision. Instead Laura had an idea and she went ahead and executed it. Just a few years ago this would have been an almost unthinkable level of individual power over media. Wow!

Brave on the Page is published by Forest Avenue Press. You can order it online, or visit the Espresso book machine at Powell’s downtown or at other locations in the US.

Here are photos from the launch party at Powell’s Books, and the 2012 Wordstock festival. Congratulations to Laura for bringing so many writers together in one book. I’m proud to be part of the collection!

Now it’s time to present a personal project! Parts Per Million is a novel about a group of Portland environmental and media activists. I’ve been working on it for a decade, finished it this year, and am in the process of seeking agent representation. Check out the site for photo galleries, excerpts, illustrations by Ryan Alexander-Tanner, and more.

I WANT YOU TO GET A BETTER WEBSITE

www.says-it.com is a website where you generate an image of a soda can, poster, church sign, official seal, or an number of other mediums of ‘official’ expression with your own text. It’s pretty hard to stop making these things.

Go. Go now. Go waste some time!

They rock.

Fur Flavored Soda!

That was a quote from the chamber of commerce rep who broke up the ‘press conference’ given by not-so-real chamber of commerce reps (I.e. the Yes Men) as they were announcing the COC’s (not really) reversed position on climate change. The ‘reversal’ story made it onto Reuters and several other outlets before it was revealed to be a hoax. A hoax that calls attention to the COC’s official position on climate change.

Full story here.

The Yes Men are at it again.

21 “Survivaballs” gathered on New York City’s East River and announced they were to going to “take the UN by storm” from the water, since all the land approaches were sealed. Once at the UN, they would supposedly use the Survivaballs to blockade the negotiations and refuse to let world leaders leave the room until they’d agreed on sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has demanded.

The event was a “scenic and mediagenic way to call attention to what our leaders need to do in the run-up to Copenhagen,” said Bichlbaum. It was also the official inauguration of the Yes Men’s “Balls Across America” series of civil disobedience actions, inspired by the call for direct action on climate change by website http://BeyondTalk.net.

Minutes after the balls began wading into the water, law enforcement swooped in on the protesters by land, sea, and air. In order not to harm their attackers, the balls admitted defeat and waddled out of the water and off the beach. Seven participants were given tickets for trespassing, and one – ringleader Bichlbaum – was whisked away to “the Tombs,” New York’s central processing facility at 100 Centre Street, due to an unpaid ticket for bicycle riding through Washington
Square Park.

Figuring out a way to defeat the logic that's destroying our planet.

The Yes Men’s Fix the World “Identity Correction” Challenge is alive and kicking. You create an account, then choose a challenge, such as Liberate Stupid Footage, Correct an Identity Online, and Create a Special Edition Newspaper. This one sounds fun: Engage in Jobjacking.

Buy an Exxonmobil shirt on the internet, and stand at the local filling station. When people stop for gas,talk to them! For example, “The money from your gas today is going towards helping us defeat the indigenous people of Alaska and exterminate the violent polar bear of the Far North. Thank you!”

Or, for example, become a Wal-Mart greeter. Introduce shoppers to some really weird products….

or

Do a training at a Trade Show: British Comedian and noted Activist Mark Thomas posed as a public relations specialist at an arms fair, offering to help improve the image of governments and companies who abused human rights. As various high-ranking officials visited the stand, Thomas videotaped their discussions. He devised a hilarious mock workshop on “winning the war of words” in which he convinced an Indonesian general to admit to the use of torture – an admission he would not normally have made….

There’s a Google map with the location of players, and a system for meeting up with like minded players in your area. The FAQs section answers such questions as Can I get in trouble for this stuff? and, How can I hijack a Twitter backchannel?

Oh yes, and the Yes Men’s new movie The Yes Men Fix the World is coming to theaters in the US on October 7th. Can’t wait!

Julie Perini takes on the world!

Julie Perini recently relocated to Portland, whereupon I had the pleasure of meeting her…and pretty soon I was designing her a fab new website! Her short videos investigate her immediate surroundings as well as larger social structures with humor. Julie is cooking, with a recent show at PCC Cascade, and one up right now at PSU. Check it out!

 

Arches National Park

From the Salt Lake Tribune

Excepts from the article by Patty Henetz:

He didn’t pour sugar into a bulldozer’s gas tank. He didn’t spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder’s paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won’t be opened to drilling anytime soon.

Tim DeChristopher, 27, faces possible federal charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on more than 10 lease parcels that he admits he has neither the intention nor the money to buy — and he’s not sorry.

“I decided I could be much more effective by an act of civil disobedience.”

Book Cliffs, Utah

…he came to the BLM’s state office in Salt Lake City to join about 200 other activists in a peaceful protest outside the building Friday morning. But then he registered with the BLM as representing himself and went to the auction room.
There, he thought about the times he has marched, fired off letters to his congressmen, signed petitions and supported environmental organizations — all to no avail.

“What the environmental movement has been doing for the past 20 years hasn’t worked,” DeChristopher said.

…The auction had been under way for a couple of hours when energy company representatives became suspicious of a man wearing an old red down parka after he won bids on more than 10 parcels numbered consecutively, all around Arches and Canyonlands…the man, brandishing bidding paddle No. 70 and unknown to the regular buyers, also seemed to be bidding up on parcels, raising prices on leases that others eventually won.

DeChristopher, who acknowledged upping other bids by about $500,000, said he would be willing to go to jail to defend his generation’s prospects in light of global climate disruption and other environmental threats.

Since the Election Day announcement of the lease sale, preservationists, conservationists, archaeologists, business owners, river runners, anglers and hunters have registered objections to the BLM’s plans to allow drilling in some of Utah’s most scenic redrock desert.

Desolation Canyon, Utah

They challenged proposed leases near Arches National Park, the White River, the greater Desolation Canyon region, Labyrinth Canyon, the benches east of Canyonlands National Park, Nine Mile Canyon, the Book Cliffs and the Deep Creek Mountains.

Objections also have come from the National Park Service, members of Congress and John Podesta, the head of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, who said the lease sale should be halted or altered to accommodate environmental concerns.

…BLM official Terry Catlin said the agency didn’t want to reopen the bidding on the parcels DeChristopher snagged unless all interested parties were able to compete for the leases. That means the parcels won’t be available again until at least February — after Obama takes office — during the next scheduled auction.

Read the full article

Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end. (This is a followup from yesterday’s ‘Because We Want It’ post)

New York Times Special Edition Video News Release – Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

A “massive power shifting exercise” intervention/flash mob/activist art event scheduled for tomorrow in NYC. Organized by…well, I’m not supposed to say. Sign up at Because We Want It.