Last Day for Early Voting - Friday, October 31st

Early Voting Ends Friday!
THE LAST DAY TO EARLY VOTE IS OCTOBER 31ST!
THE EARLY VOTING POLLS WILL BE OPEN FROM
7 A.M. UNTIL 7 P.M.


FOR MORE INFO: click here
or call Tarrant County Elections at 817.
831-VOTE.

If you wish to see the League of Women Voters' guide,
click here.



Avoid the lines VOTE EARLY! Take Your Voter Registration Card or ID!

Friday, October 31st - 7AM to 7PM

Vote at these locations / avoid Tuesday's long lines:

Diamond Hill Library, 1300 Northeast 35th Street 76106
Southside Community Center, 959 East Rosedale Street, 76104
Southwest Sub-Courthouse, 6551 Granbury Road, 76133
Tarrant County Plaza Building, 201 Burnett Street, 76102
Tarrant County Elections Office, 2700 Premier, 76111
Worth Heights Community Center, 3551 New York Avenue, 76110

_____________

Also, there's a party hosted by a party...

TARRANT COUNTY DEMOCRATIC Halloween PARTY
October 31st – Friday

The party will be at the RAHR BREWERY
--where 2 of the Presidential Debate parties were held--
at 701 Galveston Ave.
, Fort Worth, TX 76104
from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Halloween night.


Admission is free if you canvas for the Democratic Party
in costume earlier in the day, otherwise admission is $10,
which includes free beer, non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.


FMI: Contact the office of Lon Burnam,
Texas State Representative - House District 90
(817) 924-2008 lon@lonburnam.com

___________________

NOW, the GOATS!!!

And, whether or not you consider yourself to be a
TYPICAL AMERICAN, there are countless ways you can get ACTIVATED within your community to practice democracy ALL YEAR, EVERY YEAR.

Gadabout Film Festival 2008 - 1919 Hemphill right now!

Fort Worth's infamous 1919 Hemphill performance/collectivist space is an annual stop for the Gadabout Film Festival, and it's just a hoot-n-holler. Lots of fun, greatly entertaining short films, and typically the touring folks bring all kinds of zines, stickers, buttons, hand-printed tees, posters, and more for you to buy. Open your mind and your wallet (if you want) at the same time...

Ramsey's gonna get me one of the JUST SEEDS two-color posters! Hurray for friends who don't work on Thursdays!

Run, walk, bicycle there NOW!
This is independent film making.
(Gadabout Film Festival)

This is independent history teaching.
(Just Seeds art show)

This is independent music production.
(Halo Fauna music jams)

This is GONNA BE FUN!!!

International Music & Poetry Festival - FW Public Library - 5-7pm on Friday, Oct. 24

I'll be doing a 20-minute set accompanied by my friend and guitarist Ramsey Sprague. Hope to see you there.

FREE AND OPEN TO YOU, ME, AND EVERYONE ELSE.

Please spread the word! Thanks.

GHETTO PLAINSMAN book party @ Spiral Diner on Monday, October 20th in FW

There had been at least two previous opportunities to hear local activist/writer Jarid Manos read from his first full-length publication, a memoir titled GHETTO PLAINSMAN (Temba House Press, 2007). (By the way, Jarid wants us all to be aware that he is not FROM the ghetto, but, rather, fell deeply into the ghetto as part of his path to adulthood and wholeness.) The first reading was at the Arlington coffee spot MochaLux, on a Saturday night. Needless to say, it was not the perfect venue and time for the launch of a quietly-probing revelatory work, read--as Jarid speaks--softly, hastily. I couldn't hear a word from where I sat, and decided to leave it at that.

The next time he gave a public reading from GHETTO PLAINSMAN, it was as the featured writer for the "Open Mic, Open Minds" series at 1919 Hemphill in February. I had to work that night, so I missed the reading, but heard it went well.

So--when I learned that Jarid was slated for a reading at the FWCAC (Fort Worth Community Arts Center) on Tuesday, March 11th, I knew not to miss this one. The FWCAC is a gallery space--a quiet non-smoking venue--so I hoped this environment would be a suitable backdrop for Jarid's unplugged presentation.

I arrived a bit late, as transportation was a bit challenging to secure, but Jarid happened to be taking a small break just after having started his reading. He stepped over to welcome me, as I rolled my wheelchair into place next to Gabriela and Tabalo, noticing that there were alot of familiar faces in the small audience of about 15 folks.

Temba House publisher Greg Johnson sat near the front, and kept offering suggestions for specific passages to read. Jarid paused thoughtfully between these passage readings to elaborate on certain points and to respond to any questions or comments.

As Jarid read aloud from his book, I felt as if a huge blanketing map of buffalo grass was unrolled over us, drawing us into a great plains ambience. The excerpts vividly described moments of Jarid standing--always alone, always questioning himself and the condition of his surroundings--amidst expanses of acreage pocketed with prairie dog holes, or on asphalt lots, sparkling with broken glass and seedy but amiable urban survivalists. I could feel myself there, standing in his jeans, in his wind-flapped flannel shirt with a broken arm in an itchy cast. I could feel myself there, commiserating with the earth, feeling depletion beneath my feet.

GHETTO PLAINSMAN reads as the soliloquy of a loner who, after descending into the deepest of hells, comes to relinquish his anguish in order to make pact with the land and its inhabitants--whether buffalo or bird, homeless derelict or drug-dazed passerby. This deal is a promise to self as well as to them. A promise to strive towards wholeness, recovery, reclamation, and a resurrection of sorts.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Booksigning party with Jarid Manos

MONDAY, October 20th

Spiral Diner - 1314 W. Magnolia Ave.

7PM.

Free and open to you and me and everyone else.

See you there.

Bring your copy of GHETTO PLAINSMAN for Jarid to sign, or buy one there at the Spiral Diner.

Sponsored by FW Weekly.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

///////////////////////

Jarid is a respected ally and comrade here in the 817, and as writer, I have to say that he has penned a wonderfully compelling memoir.

I got a migraine headache sitting up reading the proof copy of this book early last year--it was that good....i just couldn't
put it down...!



Poem #140 of 365

Jarid, I blame you for the headache,
if someone must be at fault,
for I sat and lay in bed reading
your manuscript at 5am today.

I got it from Greg yesterday
and didn't think I'd take the time
to get my eyes up in the book
because I've been so tired lately.

Yet, I woke up so early feeling good,
but didn't want to get dressed, so I
reached for GP and devoured it for
two hours straight.

I recall the various positions in bed. I shifted
with the book in hand to stay comfortable,
on my belly, on my back, sitting up,
but something locked in my neck.

And yet, I couldn't pull away, your story
answered questions and brought others,
so I flipped and turned here and there
to learn about you more.

And, too late, the pain started rising,
in my shoulders and my neck, so tight
and stiffened with contortions
was my body in reading repose.

When the headache came full force,
I cussed my curiosity and my
lascivious reading tenacity and
pressed my temples and walked
the floors, trying to come back
to my senses, get away from the pain.

I never recovered that day or night, though
I had brief spells of rest and latent ache. And
now I fear to resume the read, and Greg
thinks me superstitious, although I beg
to differ.

Lastly, I want to offer a back cover blurb:
"Reading this book gave me the worst
headache of this century, and it was
worth the pain."

Someone, though, please tell me how
it ends.



copyright 2007 tammy melody gomez

Recommended: for this weekend in D/FW

FRIDAY, October 17

Modern til Midnight - Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth - 7pm tonight. $15 a person, FREE for Modern Members. Gets you in for a last-chance glance at Kara Walkers Retrospective exhibit, as well as the Hubbard/Birchler "No Room to Answer" exhibit. Modern Cafe hours have been extended for this shindig, and beverage bars will be set up on the outdoor sculpture terrace.

Live music line-up and schedule:

Baby Dee
7–7:40 pm

Stumptone
7:50–8:30 pm

Telegraph Canyon
8:50–9:30 pm

Mount Righteous
9:30–10:10 pm

Dove Hunter
10:10–10:50 pm

Mucca Pazza (large-scale puppet and stilt-walkers performance troupe from Brooklyn)
11 pm–midnight

_________________________

SATURDAY, October 18

* Free Day and Family Festival at the Kimbell - great opportunity to see the amazing "The Impressionists" exhibit (on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago) for FREE.

* Other Arts music event at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth - $20-25 per person, tickets at the door only.
8:00 PM

Animator Pierre Hebert and composer Bob Ostertag will perform a live animated film "Special Forces" in the auditorium of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. "Special Forces" is a recent work from 2007 inspired by the civilian victims of wars. Performing as Living Cinema, this duo has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. None of the animation you see is pre-recorded; Hebert draws on blank paper and captures these images (sometimes augmented by newspaper photos) with a digital camera connected to a computer that processes the images into an evocative animated multi-media collage. Ostertag's accompanying score transforms sounds from computer games into an original score, also performed live. Living Cinema's work has developed enormously over the years, as has the software system they use for transforming still images into animation (Jitter).

from "Between Science and Garbage," loosely focused on the subject of recycling (2001)


Here is a youtube URL for a second excerpt from their first DVD "Between Science and Garbage."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVk0QqY9A6s

Tickets for "Special Forces" are $25, $20 for students and seniors, available at the door.
For more information: otherarts@sbcglobal.net

* Indie design house HOUSE OF DANG is celebrating their second year with a "2-Year Anniversary Party W/ Disqo Disco & DJ Schwa" - 219 Bryan Street Dallas, TX 75204. Call 214.827.1146 for more information. Throw your bicycle on the TRE and ride the train to Dallas. Biking to Bryan Street from Union Station ain't far at all. FREE.

State Senate District #10 Candidate's Forum - Thursday, October 16 in da Northside

The Chicano Luncheon meets this Thursday, October 16, 2008, from 12 noon to 1:p.m. at La Trinidad United Methodist Church (1300 Gould Avenue at Northside Drive) in Fort Worth.

Topic: State Senate District #10 Candidate's Forum
Guest Moderator, Edith Jones of the League of Women Voters
All three candidates confirmed: Wendy Davis, Kim Brimer & Richard Cross

Should be an informative Luncheon.
Open to the public - $6 includes a cheese enchilada plate, cup of iced tea, and dessert.

For more information, contact Renny Rosas at chicanoluncheon@gmail.com.

GREAT NEWS about the Chicano Luncheon:

You can now watch previous installments of the Chicano Luncheon, archived as video files on the City of Fort Worth website. Just type "Chicano Luncheon" in the search field for AVAILABLE VIDEOS, hit enter, and another window will open with the Chicano Luncheon selections from which to choose.

Thanks to Community Cable Television (CCT) producer Rick Leal for making these programs available online.

Second Tuesday Poetry Series - tonight at Benbrook Public Library

SECOND TUESDAY POETRY SERIES Presents
"Best Poems of the 20th Century"
featuring Dr. Jeffrey DeLotto.

7 p.m., Tuesday, October 14, 2008 

Benbrook Public Library
1065 Mercedes, Benbrook, TX 76126
817.249.6632

Go to www.benbrooklibrary.org for directions.
 
For this month's 2nd Tuesday Poetry Series, TWU's Dr. Jeffrey DeLotto will present his list of some of the most important poems for the 20th Century. Dr. DeLotto will discuss why he chose the poems, which will be read aloud by those in attendance.  All are welcome to bring their own 20th Century favorites to read and discuss as time allows,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Dr. DeLotto's Top 10 List: 

"The Second Coming,"  - W.B. Yeats
"The Road Not Taken"  - Robert Frost
"The Idea of Order at Key West"  - Wallace Stevens
"In a Station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" - T.S. Eliot
"Dulce et decorum est" - Wilfred Owen
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" - Dylan Thomas
"A Far Cry from Africa," - Derek Walcott
"Daddy" - Sylvia Plath
"Like a Rolling Stone" - Bob Dylan
-----------------------------------------------

About Dr. Jeffrey DeLotto: A Virginia native who grew up in Miami, Florida, he earned his Ph.D. from Florida State University. He has taught at Texas Wesleyan University since 1983, previously having taught writing and literature at Yarmouk University (in Jordan) and Texas Tech University.  He also taught as a Fulbright Scholar during the 1992-93 academic year at the University of Plovdiv in Bulgaria.  His scholarly interests lie primarily in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British  literature.
 
His poetry collections include Voices at the Door (Maverick Press) and most recently, Days of a Cameleon (Xlibris 2007) His work has been widely published in many journals and reviews, including the Taj Mahal Review and the Concho River Review. In addition to his involvement in Metroplex poetry societies, Dr. DeLotto enjoys sailing, herb gardening, and cooking.

Harvard Educational Review - Call for Proposals - due October 20th!

[The following anuncio came to me via Dr. Roberto Calderon's (UNT-Denton history professor) "historia" listserv.]

CFP l Harvard Educational Review l Symposium l Latino/a Students Undergraduate Experiences l Deadline: 10.20.08

Harvard Educational Review
Latino/a Students Undergraduate Experiences
Symposium in the Harvard Educational Review

Proposals due October 20, 2008

The editors of the Harvard Educational Review invite students, researchers, practitioners, administrators, and policymakers to submit proposals for manuscripts appropriate for publication in a forthcoming symposium that will focus on the undergraduate experiences of Latino/a students.

The symposium will focus on the experiences of Latino/as in higher education to call attention to the needs and interests of this growing population of students in the United States whose educational opportunities and successes will help determine the future of our nation. This symposium underscores our conviction that ensuring equality of opportunity as well as equality of success requires looking beyond the college gates to the experiences of students inside these institutions. We seek to inform educational policies, practices and future research that will help promote college access and persistence to degree for Latino/as as well as advance their individual development and learning.

We seek two types of submissions for this symposium:

Scholarly submissions may include qualitative or quantitative studies, theoretical pieces, or essays, and should not exceed 9,000 words. We ask scholars to include implications for policy and practice in post secondary education as well as K-12 schooling where applicable.

Personal essays by current or former Latino/a undergraduates should address important aspect(s) of their undergraduate experience, and should not exceed 3,000 words. We ask students to construct narratives that will be instructive to those wishing to have a positive impact on Latino/a student success.

We seek studies and commentaries on Latino/a students social and academic experiences in a variety of institutional contexts, including, but not limited to, two-or four-year institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, historically black colleges, and predominantly white institutions.

Proposals of up to 500 words should be submitted, along with author CVs for scholarly submissions, by October 20, 2008 to HER_manuscripts@gse.harvard.edu. Authors whose proposals are accepted will be invited to submit full manuscripts for consideration by February 18, 2009. Please direct all queries to HER_manuscripts@gse.harvard.edu.

Laurie Anderson in Dallas, free stuff to do in FW--tonight

Of course, without a doubt, I'd love to be in the audience for Laurie Anderson's new show, presenting tonight at McFarlin Auditorium in Dallas. But I lack the bucks and the car to get me there. I hear that Lou Reed will be performing alongside Anderson too. Que lastima that I have to miss this one...read on for more, including notes on what I possibly may be doing tonight.


If you didn't know that Laurie Anderson is the first resident artist for NASA, or that she is shacking up with VU frontman Lou Reed, perhaps a little reading is in order...

ONE SHOW ONLY - TONIGHT - tickets no longer may be purchased online, but call the TITAS office directly at 214-528-5576 for ticket info.

LAURIE ANDERSON - presenting "Homeland"
When: Sunday, Oct. 12, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: McFarlin Memorial Auditorium (SMU), 6405 Boaz Lane, University Park
Cost: $14 - $59

Blurb from the online promo:

"One of the seminal artists of our time, Laurie Anderson's genre-crossing work encompasses performance, film, music, installation, writing, photography, and sculpture. 'Homeland' is a series of songs and stories that creates a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture. The stories and songs that make up Homeland are marked by a political urgency and, as with all of Anderson’s work, are personal and utterly unique. 'Homeland' is a tour de force of spoken word, music, and technology."
___________________________________

I've been an Evelyn Waugh fan since I was a high school kid who took a fancy to fancy uses of English. "Masterpiece Theater" never struck me as nerdcore--heck, that genre term didn't exist back then--I simply thought it good drama in impeccable British English. I remember, though, having to haggle with my family about commandeering our tv set (back then, most families only owned one per household) for 1-hour increments to be able to catch up on my favorite MT series episodes, of which "Brideshead Revisited" was one of the best. I guess that's probably when I was first introduced to (and temporarily fell for) Jeremy Irons, he the actor so often cast in roles of gloomy, doomed, unrequited lovers.

You can catch the latest adaptation of the Waugh classic at the Modern Art Museum today at 4:30pm. I'm definitely going to be there.

Later, there's one more presentation of the Fort Worth Theatre's adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing" outside on the east-facing stage at Arts Fifth Avenue, 1628 5th Avenue, in the Fairmount Neighborhood, at 8pm. Free and family-friendly.

Finish off the night--you might see me--at the Chat Room Pub (out on Magnolia St.) for this week's (someone just told me this has been happening on Sundays) installment of "Bring Your Own Vinyl." One of the Chat's bartenders apparently brings his record-player and lets folks spin 3 of their pre-selected songs from vinyl lps (maybe 45s and 78s too, one wonders?) they bring in from their precious vintage collections. I think I'ma show up with a Nina Simone, Krzysztof Komeda, and Meat Puppets trio of songs tonight..
Chat Room Pub, Sundays, sometime around 7pm (so I've heard), FREE.

Why vote?

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE



This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs demanding the right to vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? & Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

___

One woman's comments on documentary film on the suffragist movement:

"Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think
a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.



The doctor admonished the men:
'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for b y these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made."