Day 24: Wisconsin

Introductions

As many of you know I have gone home for the summer back to Madison, Wisconsin. In my state right now there is an unprecedented and historic recall election taking place. The Governor is facing an election for his destructive union-busting budget repair bill that removed most collective bargaining rights of most of the public employee unions. That is not all this recall election is about, what most people from outside my home state don't understand is the budget repair bill was just the spark that ignited the fire. Scott Walker has done things in my home state that have set Wisconsin back decades and have significant ramifications for the rest of the country.

Walker's national polling is still at about 80% around the rest of the country. I don't blame the people of our country for that. I blame the media. They have not covered Wisconsin honestly or fairly. In this post I will detail some of the atrocities that have occurred under Scott Walker this past year. I hope this post can convince some people on the opposing side of the political civil war in Wisconsin to come to the side of justice, democracy and the Wisconsin way. The election is less than a week away and polling is not as positive for the outcome. I will explain how Wisconsin is going to effect us all if we do not win this fight.


Why Wisconsin Matters

The right wing of this country is using Wisconsin as a social experiment. The full effects and powers of Citizens United have never been tested in the election ring. The 2010 elections were just the beginning of the new era of unlimited corporate donations to election funds. In Wisconsin this past year over 35,000 volunteers braved the cold of Wisconsin winters to collect almost a million signatures to recall the Governor. These were average working-class people reminding us all we still control our democracy and that politicians answer to the people on election day not their campaign backers.

The ring wing is challenging this very notion. They believe that money will win elections and their political pawns cannot be held accountable for their corporate greed. The proof of this is in the pudding as they say. Scott Walker has raised a war chest of over 25 million dollars to spend on this campaign. If you include all the Super- PAC's, the Republican Governor's Association, and Third Party groups such as Americans for Prosperity the total money being spend in Wisconsin for the Governor will be about $45 million dollars.

Over 70% of Scott Walker campaign contribution are coming from out of state donors. That should tell you everything you need to know. In comparison the Democrat, Tom Barrett (The mayor of Milwaukee), has raised just barely 4 million dollars. Scott Walker's direct campaign is out spending Barret and a ratio of 12:1.

Citizens United has created a sever threat to Americans democracy. Never before have corporations and wealthy individuals been able to influence our political process. The million people that have mobilized are testing whether people power and real grass-roots level organization can defeat big money. If Scott Walker wins next Tuesday that will signal to every corporation and wealthy individual that money CAN and WILL buy elections and the floodgates will be opened for the 2012 election.  They are already predicting that 2012 will be a Billion dollar election. If Scott Walkers wins It will be a 2 or 3 billion dollar elections and the elite of this country will be playing for keeps.

If Scott Walker wins in Wisconsin his radical agenda for our state will become the mandate for the country. Mitt Romney will be run around the country saying Walker is a hero and he has fought for what the majority of Americans want. Just so this agenda is very clear this is what Scott Walker has done to my home state:

• Removed almost all collective bargaining rights of public union as well has forced them to pay more towards their pensions and pay towards their health care. Effectively a pay cut of $500-$700 a month ($6,000 to $8,400 a year). 
• Under Walker's leadership Wisconsin lead the country in job losses last year with a net loss of over 33,000 jobs, while the governor ran on jobs and promising creating 250,000 private sectors jobs by the end of his term. 
• He has cut 1.5 billion dollars from K-12 education while at the same time capping property taxes (how school districts raise most of their money) effective cutting education twice. 
• He has cut numerous social programs and tax credits for the poor, elderly, and minorities while giving huge tax cuts to millionaires and corporations. 
• He has passed one of the most radical voter ID bills in the country while at the same time closing several DMV's in the state and radically reducing services hour. Effectively suppressing the democratic voice of students, elderly, and minorities. 
• He repealed the the Fair Pay Act in Wisconsin which gave women more inexpensive legal avenues to sue their employers for wage discrimination (Women made a national average of 77 cent to every male dollar in this country. In Wisconsin it is 75 cents). 
• He has repeal comprehensive sexual education that required schools to teach contraceptives if they chose to have sex ed in their school. Now schools are encouraged to focus on abstinence only education.
• He signed a bill that requires women to privately conference with a doctor before performing a abortion to make sure she isn't being "threatened" into the procedure-- a blatant attack on women's reproductive rights. 
• He has put a radical anti-conservationist in charge of the DNA who is busy undoing every environmental regulation that environmentalists have fought for. Prime example: Wolves, a species we almost hunted into extinction, are now legal game. 

The list goes on and on, but these are some of the most major points. Looking forward it is also important to know what is still at risk in the state of Wisconsin:

• Scott Walker has hired a deer Czar that has concluded that they need to privatize hunting rights and government land use for the state of Wisconsin. This is one move if he stands election.
• With the budget repair bill Walker now has the authority to sell off state assets with a no-bid process. If Walker stands an election you will see Highways, airports, State forests, and most importantly state power plants sold off to Walker corporate backers for pennies on the dollar. Millions of dollars of value we can never get back.
• Walker will expand his voucher system in Milwaukee to the rest of the state supporting private for profit charter schools and dealing the final blow to our education system.
• I have no doubt in my mind that if Walker stands an election he will pursue right-to-work legislation (or right-to-work-for-less) effectively ending private sector unions in this state.

Scott Walker is a Fascist.

Now I understand the severity of the word I just used and I do not use it lightly. I will provide some evidence to prove my point. 

In this video a prank caller identifies himself as David Koch (one of Walker's major backers) and they start talking about massive protests taking place outside the capital. The prank caller asks Walker if he considered putting a few troublemakers in the crowd to turn to demonstration violent. Walker says they considered it but it was too risky of a calculation. He considered risking ten of thousands of peoples lives and putting the police force in danger. He decided against it not on moral grounds, but on it could be too politically costly. 

start listening at 4:20

Also during the protest last year Walker said he would not hesitate to call out the national guard if necessary. Comparable to the violent Vietnam War Protests in Madison or the Democratic National Convention. 

Here is a video of Scott Walker's Capital Police force arresting people who are sitting peacefully in the public state assembly because they have political signs pinned to their shirts:

Also remember that Scott Walker tricked protesters out of the capital building during the protests and then locked the Capital building for days. The Wisconsin Capital historically has always been open to the public. People were unable to petition their state representatives. 

Here is Walker describing that the Collective Bargaining law was intended to be use to "divide and conquer the state" not for budgetary reasons:

He also was recently before the Federal Ethics Committee where he was repeatedly asked by congressmen if he used his collective bargaining bill to punish public unions. He under oath said it was for solely budgetary reasons. He was repeatedly asked if he meant with single campaign contributors and discussed the strategy he said no. He technically committed perjury under law and members of the ethics committee have sent letters for him to reclarify his statements made under oath. (read about that here).

Scott Walker is a criminal

I will end my plea for the residents of my state to see reason. There is an ongoing John Doe investigation in Wisconsin investigating Walker's days as County Executive. So far 14 felonies charges have been filed and 10 current and former Walker officials and donors have been granted immunity. Walker has a legal defense fund and has spend $160,000 in legal fees to private law firms. An innocent person doesn't have a defense fund and they don't rack up 160K in lawyers fee with discussing with the DA.

We don't want to be the most embarrassing incident since Watergate. Nixon got a landside victory and then was forced to resign for threat of impeachment. Walker will do the same and this investigation surrounds him. 

Please Vote on June 5th and support Tom Barrett. Wisconsin needs an end to this civil war and we need to prove to corporations that people power will beat big money every time.

Yours truly at the protests last year.

If you need help with registration, need a ride, or just want to commit to coming to vote on June 5th you can join my small event and attempt to remind everyone in my life here: http://www.facebook.com/events/282446698518144/

Solidarity,

Will

Day 23: Minocqua and Cruz Home

Minocqua

Last weekend I had the pleasure of bringing a show I was in to Minocqua Wisconsin. The show is called Club Valhalla. It was a study of Warrior Culture. It was a collaborative piece we worked on for about 7 weeks and then performed at the University of Minnesota in March. Some of the material we wrote ourselves and others were scenes from established war plays we adapted and developed into our piece.

When it was announced that we were bringing this piece to Wisconsin I was very skeptical of the success of this production. We only had two rehearsals before we perform and one was on the performance day itself. We also lost a significant chunk of the original ensemble.

I completely forgot the magic of theater itself. I forgot about the first Friday rehearsal of Valhalla where we all brought proposals in and did a version of the show. I forgot how much time we spent in Valhalla and how it had changed me not just as an artist but a person as well. Transporting myself back to Valhalla was not only instant when we started running things, but it felt right. All of the bonds and connections we had formed as an ensemble were there like they had never left.

The show was received very well. For the first time in this process we had the ability to have a talk back after the show. Now I have seen a lot of theater and been in a lot theater. I have participated in a lot of talk backs. This talk back by far was the greatest experience I have had. It wasn't just because the audience offered a lot of praise, but they had a lot of artistic points as well. They made me think about angles of the piece I had not considered yet such as: female performers finding their femininity in a piece focused on war, the balance between the raw organic dance breaks and the more structured scenes with blocking dialogue and text, why homosexuality was not explored in the piece at all especially with the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell,  and whether this piece changed our perceptions of the military at all and whether we even considered enlisting.

We perform for predominantly a Minocqua's Peace Group. It was interesting hearing them talk about how this was an anti-war piece or a peace play. When we were forming this piece we worked really hard to get every aspect of the topic into the piece. We wanted every perspective to have their voice. We never talked about what was the skew of the play or what we were trying to leave the audience with. The piece became such a personal journey for me as character and I would say probably most cast members (although I don't want to speak for them) that we didn't think as much about the overall message of the piece was.

Labeling Club Valhalla a peace play in some ways is very truthful, but I also feel like it sells the entire experience short. I think the brilliance of the piece is it shows many sides of the topic. It allowed the audience to view all aspects of the topic and then make their own decisions. The show was not preachy nor did it tell the audience what we wanted it to think. That being said I do feel Valhalla is  peace play. Living and working this material for months now I don't know how you can look at every angle of this piece and not reach this conclusion.

Performing in Minocqua was very bittersweet. It was great to get the show off our liberal campus with audiences mainly full of our peers. It was really nice to hear honest everyday people's reaction (even though our audience was still liberal). It wasn't until performing in Minocqua where I realized how much this piece needs to be seen and heard. It is not a comfortable piece to watch. But we as a society have grow much too comfortable with the concept of war. We have grown far removed from the idea and people need a show like this to put them back into the realities of war and make them reconsider how they feel about it.

I said it was bittersweet because this may be our last visit to Valhalla. In Minocqua I rediscovered the emotional and artistic journey I went on this semester. I found new ways to look at our piece and all we have accomplished, but also how much further we can push the work as a whole. So I will end by agreeing with an audience member's comments: "People need to see this show. You need to take this show and tour so people can see this work"(not officially a direct quote rephrasing from memory.) So I hope I will get to return to Valhalla some day. I have more exploring that needs to be done and more people need to come on this journey with us.

Cruz Home

So I have been somewhat involved in Occupy Homes this past semester. For those who don't know they are a political organization fighting back against the foreclosure crisis in Minneapolis (there are other chapters around the country). They help people defend their homes as they try to renegotiate their mortgages with their banks. Occupy Homes has had multiple successes.

Their most recent Home defense is the Cruz family. they are family in South Minneapolis who are Latino. The owners are activist who not only have been very involved in the Latino community, but were also very involved in pushing the Dream Act in Minnesota.

I am writing about the Cruz household from a point of victory. The police raided the Cruz home twice a few nights ago attempting to enforce the eviction even though the family is in the process of negotiating with PNC Bank about a loan remodification. Below are photos are text directly from Occupy Homes as they retell the events:

Five Arrested As Occupiers Successfully Defend Home from Second Eviction Attempt (More below)
~~~
UPDATE: Community members will hold an emergency 12:00pm press conference and march on Sheriff Stanek's office from the steps of City Hall to denounce him for authorizing the violent eviction of the home while the family is in active negotiations with the bank to peacefully resolve the situation. They will demand he stop trying to evict the home while the bank is working to resolve the issue.

UPDATE: Sheriffs have said they will hold the arrestees until TUESDAY. Call sheriff Stanek to demand they release them IMMEDIATELY. Ask him why his deputies are evicting a family negotiating with the bank and to demand he stop these senseless attacks on our community. (612)348-3744
~~~
Platoons of sheriffs descended on the Cruz family home in a 4 am raid today, arresting five nonviolent supporters in the second failed eviction attempt in 48 hours. Fifty protesters mobilized to defend the home and outflanked the sheriffs by marching through the alley into backyard, causing the sheriffs to retreat without fully securing the home. Members of Occupy Homes MN remain inside the home as of 7 am this morning.

“An army of sheriffs marched in military-style and busted down the door in the dead of night,” said Ben Egerman, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. “It’s unconscionable that Sheriff Stanek ordered the violent eviction of this home a second time, especially when he is fully aware of active negotiations between the family and the bank to resolve the situation peacefully.”

I say I write about everything that transpired from a place of victory. Occupy Homes successfully marched on City Hall and got their protesters released from jail. They also return the Cruz family door to the city. Occupy Homes reached the national spotlight I believe for the first time. You can read that article here. (other local coverage here.

Solidarity from Madison! 

Will

PS: Sorry for the long wait loyal fans. Many of you reached out to me and it was so encouraging to know my voice on the web was missed. I will hopefully be more active here as I am now settled back home in Wisconsin for the summer. Speaking of Fitzwalkerstan I have several things to say about the recall election going on. stay tuned for those nuggets. 

Day 22: A Senior Project, A Professional Revamp, and Trans

So in the last week I have seen a tremendous amount of theater. A lot of the shows I had to think awhile before I shared what I thought about them. Now that I have finalized my thoughts of the productions I will share them with you. I will share them in order of viewing.

The War Within/ All's Fair

War/Fair is The MovingCompany's new devised work. They workshopped and built the foundation for this show at the University of Minnesota last fall working with students in the BA program. The show has been reworked, recast, and now The MovingCompany presents their latest version of War/Fair.

Since I saw the original version it was hard to not be constantly aware what was new and what had stayed the same. It became a unique exercise of seeing a show in two different stages of development. It also became very hard to not compare and contrast which production was better. So I will make lists of the changes I liked and list the aspects of the original production I missed.

What I liked:

• Every character had a clearer through line or arch of development throughout in this production. The first production of War/Fair at the U had lots of one-off vignettes and characters that never reappeared.
• The level of absurdity of the characters was toned down just enough to make me think of real people. Watching the original production the characters were so out-there that it was really hard to connect to any of them. In the new production I saw characters playing out the extreme version of people I really know. 
• The addition of the "Bossman" character was very helpful. It provided direction and flow in between scenes and he was one of the funniest people on stage in my opinion. 
• The romance aspects between the dead character and the awkward girl were very satisfying

What I didn't like

• Some of the flair and energy of the original production seemed to be missing. Now I saw this production on a preview night with an audience of 10 people so I am taking that into account. 
• The design of this production was not nearly as beautiful. In the original production the advanced lighting design that themed itself on florescent lights added to the feeling of corporate and authoritative atmosphere. I also missed the vom. ramp and the cast sliding off the stage. 
• In the original production there was just the right amount of singing. In this revamp there were two or three songs too many and it started to feel like dead space.
• This newer production ran much longer than the original. I remember leaving the U of M production wishing there was more content. In contrast I found myself checking the time multiple times in the revamped production. Several scene could have been condensed or cut. 

Praise and criticism aside I highly recommend this production to everyone. It is worth the price and will provide you with some much needed laughter in these polarized political times. You can check performance dates and purchase tickets here.

Trans

So the next show i was able to see was a work from Lisa Channer's Advanced Directing class at the University of the Minnesota. I hoping to see the entire series of plays that were being presented the last few weeks of school, but unfortunately Spring Awakening ate my life. 

The piece I got he see was a devised work call Trans. The show had a very honest and direct conversation with the audience about gender stereotypes and the roles we force the sexes into. Now you know you go to a liberal institution and have a "politically correct" aware audience when the director starts the show with the comment: "It is ok to laugh. We encourage laughter." So let me go through what worked for me and what did not. 

What I liked

• This production kick started with very sassy and sexy dancing. It drew me in right away and lowered my guard a little, since I was walking into an experimental theater piece entitled Trans
• I loved the use of the alien/robot/thing that investigated the gender non-conforming subjects. It added some much needed comedy is a very serious scene. 
• I also enjoyed the hand puppetry that erupted out of the trash bags. It was very funny. 
• My favorite design element of this production was the lighting in the male female scene. the blue and pink lighting acted as a stark barrier between the two genders. 

What I didn't like

• Some of the scenes got repetitive and I would have rather seen other ideas or themes explored than returning to the trash bag hand puppetry or the gender barrier scene again. 
• There was almost no text in this show. Which would make me think that when characters do speak it is very significant. When characters spoke it seemed to lacked over-all theme or the significance I was looking for. Either those  lines should really means something powerful or don't break to the choice of no dialogue. I love the robot line of "subject normalized" that was eerie. 
• Towards the end of the show the director ran onstage and started talking and I ended up on this awkward position of questioning: Is this part of the performance? Is this on purpose? It ended before I could fully comprehend or understand what it meant. I don't necessarily think it was a bad choice I would say just make it clearer of what the intention behind the choice was. 

I understand this is a work in progress and is not intended to be a final product. I look forward to seeing more advanced versions of the show next year. I also commend to collaborators for taking on a subject matter that is not talked about enough and is not easy to discuss with an audience. 

Rossum's Universal Robots (RUR)

The third work I got to attend last week was RUR a senior project of at the University of Minnesota. Now  full disclosure I have worked on different productions with the director of this show twice this year and my best friend was a robot ensemble in the production. That being said I still feel confident in giving a fair review of the show. 

What I liked 

• The sound design of this show was fantastic. I may just be saying that because a lot of it felt like it was lifted from my Ipod, but it really fit the weirdness and disturbing nature of the show as well.
• I love the robot interludes that broke up in the action of the play. They were interesting and really added an interesting layer since in the show we don't get to see the robots a whole lot. 
• I like all the scenery and prop choice. The robot high council podiums were especially cool at the end of the show. 

What I didn't like

• The chemistry that was suppose to exist between the robot activist and the head of the robot factory did not exist for me. I didn't understand or believe for a second why she married him. 
• I haven't read the play, but things seemed to be moving very fast and I felt very rushed in the world of RUR. I don't know if cuts were made to the script or not but the pacing seemed rushed to possible meet an hour run time.
• My biggest complain with this show however is mainly a political one. Like I stated before I have not read RUR so I can only go off this production and the work maybe radically different. I don't agree with the major theme or message of this show. What I got from this play is "Don't help the oppressed break free because they will just turn around and oppress their oppressors." The way the female lead shrugs off the fact that she doomed an entire race of beings to mass genocide is repulsive. The robot murdered humanity and therefore genocide is all they deserve? No! Wrong answer! After WWII we didn't send the German population  through the gas chambers for what they did to the Jewish people. The way this play ended made me very uncomfortable as an audience member. 

So that is my recap of last weeks' theater productions. I will be traveling to Minocqua, WI tomorrow to perform Club Valhalla. I therefore will be away from internet until Sunday evening so I hope this lengthy post is enough to keep y'all tide over. Big weekend in Chicago this week. Good luck to all my anti-war comrades. I will definitely have thoughts on the protest early next week. 

Peace and Love,

Will

Day 21: How I Met Your Mother Finale

How I Met Your Mother Season Finale

So I am a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM). I might even go as far to say that it is my favorite sitcom. Fandom aside I feel the need to  comment on the 7th Season Finale. Now earlier this year I wrote a very mixed review of the where the show has been this season. In this post I really worked to give the show the benefit of the doubt (you can read those comments here) . Now I have seen the end of this season and where the show has gone it is time to take the gloves off.

Spoiler Alert....

So I have a million problems with this season finale. I will list them and go into detail with them. Some of these points will tie back to this season as a whole.

• Firstly, part one of this finale was super lazy writing. In this episode we witnessed the birth of Lilly and Marshall's new baby boy Marvin Wait-for-it Erickson (love the middle name joke). The majority  of the show was little Family Guy-like vignettes of one off jokes that couldn't be developed into full length episodes. This might be ok, expect the show this season has had several episodes like this and it feels like unnecessary filler. I want the show to go on for as long as it needs to finish the story, but it feels like the writers of the show are adding more and more of episodes like this to drag it out to make more money. 

• Secondly, Robin and Ted. Robin and Ted's romantic interaction was put to rest several seasons ago. They tried being friends. they tried dating. They they revisited it, and then they tried just being fuck buddies. They have explored every possibility angle of being together. It never worked. About Five episodes ago the writers decided Robin and Ted still loved each other. They got back together for one episode and then broke up and didn't talk to each other. The writers made a very big deal out of this new division. Robin and Ted were NOT talking to each other. How did they solve this major impass that shook the strongest friendship on the show? One line! Robin said (paraphrasing but the line really was this bad) "I don't want this new baby to come into the world where we aren't talking. Let's Make up!" And they did. Why Revisit Robin and Ted to just undo it all? Why build up this Major fight if you are just going to undo in one shitty line?

• Thirdly, Barney and Quinn. Now Barney has developed all over the place this season as well. He went from being Barney to deciding he wants a marriage and family. He fought to get back together with the best woman he ever had, Nora. They got together and then he threw it away to be with Robin who just decided she didn't really love him. Then he met Quinn who is literally the female version of Barney. They worked through there issues. Barney finally purposed. It was beautiful sweet and romantic. Quinn gave up her job she love, being a stripper, to be with Barney. The plot lines and development was all tied up, Then in the last 30 seconds we find out that Barney is marrying Robin. WTF? WHY? 

• Fourthly, I hate Robin. hate Hate HATE her! Her writing this season has been the dumbest thing on the show. Let me walk you through all of the Robinism that have ruined the character for me.
• She Got with Kevin, (basically an Indian version of Ted). Knowingly that she cannot have a future with him because he wants kids and a family and she does not. 
• Then she finds out she can't have kids, and has a huge dramatic episode about how she wants kids now that she can't have them, just to reach the point where she realizes, she doesn't want kids.
• Then she hooks up with Barney and they realize they still love each other and NEED to be together even though Robin is with Kevin and Barney is with Nora. They agree to break up with their partners to be together. Barney dumps the best thing to ever happen to him in a very big leap in character develop admitting for the first time he loves Robin and needs to be with her. Robin gives the big middle finger to Barney and stays with Kevin.
• Next Kevin proposes to Robin even though she can't have kids and doesn't want them. She kind of says yes and then realizes that its really a no she doesn't love him and they want different things. She breaks Kevin's heart. After she has broken Barney's heart.
• Then, at a state of vulnerability she lets Ted reconfess his love for her and leads him on like she feels the same way. Then she breaks Ted heart (again) and destroys the strongest friendship on the show. 
• Now with the teaser at the end of the finale we find out that Barney and Robin are going to be getting married, which means that Robin is going to break up an engagement and break Quinn's heart. Bringing the total up to 4 heartbreaks in one season. Not to mention Barney has now developed to wanting kids and family and Robin firmly does not want this.  
• In the episode where Robin's life was threatened and it looked like she was going to crash in a helicopter I wanted the bitch to just go down in flames. 

I actually have one more point on Robin's awful writing but it ties into my last point so I will save it for that.

• My last point is Ted and Victoria. I and dumbfounded by this entire plot point. Ted tried with Victoria and then left her for Robin. They he tried to reconnect with her later and she was with someone else. Done. No more. She is a finished point. But ROBIN being Ted's best friend again for about three minutes starts telling him he has to find a woman who wants what he wants if he is going to get what he wants. He needs to reconnect with Victoria. So he calls her to reconnect and then she arrives in a wedding dress. They then talk about running away together and leaving her husband-to-be at the alter. Then Ted comes to his senses and realized, "Hey wait I was left at the alter and it almost killed me!" He tells Victoria that it is too late and she has committed to her husband-to-be. THEN he goes "hey wait fuck that," and they drive away into the sunset holding hands. What is the point of any of this? We know that Ted meets his wife at Barney and Robin's(grrr...) wedding and therefore she cannot be Victoria. This seems like another device to just  add unnecessary drama to the show and extend the length of the run. 

This series could have ended this season in a very satisfying way. Robin could have found she wants kids and since she can't have them married Kevin and they could have adopted. Barney could have married Quinn or Nora and gotten what he wanted. Lilly and Marshall already have had what they wanted. Ted could have met the woman with the Yellow Umbrella at either of Barney's possible weddings. We could have had all of that in this season by cutting out all of the junk filler episodes and the series cold have ended on an all-time peak. Instead we get all of the junk filler episodes, insane plot twists, and we see our characters developed to the point where they are unrecognizable. I hate Robin, I almost can't stand Ted, and Barney almost lost me and then he proposed and I was finally happy again and then we find out he is going to leave Quinn  to be with Robin. WHY?!?

How I Met Your Mother has a huge fan base and I have a feeling that most of this post will read as nitpicky bullshit from a person that wants to hate on someone. But I hope the fan outcry deafens the Internet and the writers hear that they can't just do whatever they want with characters we have lived with for 7 years and expect us to be ok with it. 

If the show continues on the trajectory it is on it is going to end as embarrassingly as Scrubs did. 

I hope everyone found my rage entertaining,

Will

PS: I am so happy the duckie tie made a comeback for the finale!

Day 20: May 1st recap

So I wanted to write about everything I was involved with at the May 1st protests in the cities. However due to Illness, finals, and a broken keyboard it took forever to get this post finally done. I apologize for the lack of timeliness. Summer has officially started and we should be moving back to more regular content




Occupy encampment












So the day started in Loring park with the Occupy encampment. This became the central location for teach-in's barbeques and everyone talking left wing politic ad nasea. more importantly this became the location for people to leave to go protest at various locations. There were about 200 people there in the beginning of the day (I was only at Loring from about 11 am to 230pm). I have been to enough occupy events to recognize the "usual" crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to see several new faces at the events there. The energy level there was also very exciting. At the relaunch of the occupation about three weeks about the numbers were not good and there was a feeling of defeat. May 1st there was a feeling of enthusium and an energy that could take on the world.







March on US Bank HQ












The first event of the day was an Occupy Homes march on the headquarters of US Bank. We marched to US Bank with a 200 person strong force banging drums, pots, pans, and blasting music the whole way. We marched on US Bank to raise public awareness of the perpetrators of the foreclosure crisis in America, as well as demand that US Bank sit down and negociate with Monique White and John Vinje who could both pay both their mortgages if they were adjusted to current market value.












There was a disturbing level of police presence on this march. we were followed be 18 mounted officers almost the entire stretch of the march. Once we got to the bank the police on horseback lined up in strike position directly across the street. There were a few points on the march where it felt like there was going to be arrests of protestors. Why didn't the police go ahead with the arrest? Since we were walking down Nicolette Avenue right at lunchtime there were dozens of spectators. Several people stopped their business and came out onto the sidewalks to take pictures and watch the protest. It would have looked really bad for the Minneapolis police department if they decided to arrest us peaceful prostesters.















Immigrant Rights March












The next stop of the day was the Immigrant Rights March on Lake Street and Nicolette. I have been told by fellow local activists that historically in years past this protest has been huge. The protest today was only about 500 strong. That includes a significant bump from the occupy crowd (about 150-200 people) and a faction of the IWW.




With these three distinct groups it was a very bizarre march. There was no feeling of unity in the messaging in the march. The Latino community kept their chants, Occupy had their chants, and for some reason there was the IWW calling for the overthrow of the entire capitalist system. Now that isn't something I oppose, I in fact agree with them, but this was the not the right time or place to be chanting for the overthrow of the capitalist system. There were a lot of new and young activists at this march and radical over the top messaging at a rally that isn't directly linked to the protest of capitalism, will turn off potential new activists.







Well that is it for the post today. I do have lots to write about the next few days. I am planning on reflecting my thoughts about the How I Met Your Mother season finale. I also have a class project, two senior projects, and a professional performance to write about. So look forward to all of that in the very near future.







Love and Peace,




Will







PS: This is a shout out for my friend in Le' Sueur Kelsey.









PSS: I don't know why the formatting of this post is shit I apologize.

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Final and sick! New content soon!!!!