Author: Mike

Mr. Hetero’s final chapter, and other items

scan_772395627_1

Mr. Hetero’s final chapter
Worcester Magazine notes that Tom “Mr Hetero” Crouse has dropped his lawsuit against the City, in which he claimed he was coerced into paying for a huge police detail to protect his “Mr. Hetero” pageant (see City documents for more). The City Solicitor writes:

The suit was dismissed by Rev. Crouse when it became apparent in depositions that Mechanics Hall, acting as his agent and fearing that the agreed upon number of police officers would not be sufficient to protect event attendees, actually requested additional paid-duty police officers above and beyond the number recommended by and agreed-to by Rev. Crouse and Mechanics Hall for the event to further ensure the safety of event attendees.

Earlier in his statement, the City Solicitor engages in fantasy:

Attendance at both the event and the protests was far less than expected due for the most part because February 18, 2006 turned out to be one of the coldest days of the winter.

There’s no evidence that the weather was the key factor; days before the event, Worcester Magazine was reporting that advance ticket sales were extremely low. For February, the weather was actually pretty nice; at least there wasn’t a blizzard or icy roads.
Continue reading “Mr. Hetero’s final chapter, and other items”

Catholic Peace Fellowshop conference podcast

The Catholic Peace Fellowship posted the audio of their 2007 conference months ago, but I missed the announcement, so maybe you did too.

[Podcast feed]

Catholic Peace Fellowship co-founder Jim Forest: mp3

Merton noticed that when compassion and love are absent, actions that are superficially nonviolent tend to mask deep hostility, contempt, and the desire to defeat and humiliate the opponent.

My housemate, CPF head Mike Baxter: mp3

. . . the division besetting the churches is the product of the absorption of those churches into the U.S. mainstream, and, more particularly, into the political culture of the United States. The result is that the word of Christ and the way of discipleship gets tamed, watered-down, domesticate, so that non-Catholics—good Catholics, sincere Catholics, committed Catholics—imagine they must choose between thee two false and, quite honestly, unfaithful alternatives.

Catholic conscientious objector Joshua Casteel: mp3

Catholic conscientious objector Jonathan Lace: mp3

My housemate, Catholic conscientious objector Daniel Baker: mp3

Someone asked me in one of the classes, yesterday or the day before, “Do you think that there are vocations for this kind of thing? Do you think God provides people vocations for the military?” And I think that God does. But not for the institutions that we have. Not for this military. I think that there are vocations to defend people. To defend those who cannot defend themselves. However, I think the goal is to create those organizations, like this one, those institutions where those people can serve honestly for humanity, with their skills, their gifts that God gave them, and really make a difference without having to resort to violence.

Items

Greetings from the South Bend Catholic Worker. This summer I hope to blog more about activism/religion/hospitality, and less about community media and Worcester.

Milton Valencia
I’ve been told that Milton Valencia is no longer writing for the Worcester T&G, and has moved on to the Boston Globe. This is a big loss for Worcester, as he’s been one of only a handful of local journalists who take the job seriously. Best wishes and godspeed.

Peace Pilgrim
Speaking of community media and Worcester, here’s a WCCA story about a woman following in the footsteps of Peace Pilgrim.


Continue reading “Items”

Snow Ghost CD celebrated

Snow Ghost record release party

The record release party for the Snow Ghost’s new album was a success. It was low-key, as you might expect from an adult party held at Pizza Hut. Attendees included a guy with a Wikipedia page, a guy without a wikipedia page, and some guys who showed up in the paper the next day. And of course the Snow Ghost himself (pictured above), the most notable of the assembled celebrities.

You can order the album at the Snow Ghost homepage.

Items

Snow Ghost news
Snow Ghost (by Cindy Brennan)The new Snow Ghost CD, “Despair, Death, and Redempshire,” is out. You can listen to it at the Internet Archive, or order a $10 ppd. copy at the Snow Ghost homepage.

We’re having the record release party tonight at Pizza Hut (Bruce’s brilliant idea). The attendees will be disproportionately vegan, and one of them pointed out to me that the only vegan stuff at Pizza Hut is the crushed red pepper and pizza sauce. “They put milk in things it seems you couldn’t put milk in.”

flyer

Jacob wrote a nice description of the Snow Ghost Community Show debut party at the Catholic Worker house. “the snow ghost’s connection with them is peculiar, in that he is a self-avowed ‘satanic warrior’, but i guess they can still respect each other by virtue of being on the same coin, if opposite sides.”

Worcester Wal-Mart news
The Zoning Board of Appeals was supposed to hear a petition against the Wal-Mart this week, but because of a recent change in the zoning laws, they had to turn down this particular petition. They’ll likely hear the petition after a building permit is issued, which turns it back into an issue they can rule on.

You can listen to the discussion as an mp3 or in other formats.

[display_podcast]

City Council candidate websites

Just added Joe Casello’s site to the list.

Indiana, here I come

I’m leaving Worcester in a couple days to spend the summer at the South Bend Catholic Worker, and was planning to write an article on Pie and Coffee with a bunch of suggestions on what Worcester Magazine can do to improve, because I know editor Michael Warshaw reads (but doesn’t really like) my commentary on his magazine. But last week the T&G reported that Mr. Warshaw is leaving WoMag to edit a semiweekly paper in Framingham. Good luck and godspeed. Of the three major media outlets in Worcester, WoMag was the only one that doesn’t make a regular habit of insulting its readers’ intelligence, and if I’ve written lots about the things I don’t like in it, it’s because I like it enough to want to see it be even better.

Interesting comment on th T&G article from WoMag copy editor Lester Paquin. He points out four errors in the article, none of which were in the on-line version by the time I saw it. Does the T&G make on-line corrections without noting them? So it seems.

City Council candidate websites

The other day I got a list of City Council candidates from the election commission so I could mail them a survey, so I went ahead and put the list on the Worcester Activist wiki too. I’m pleased to report that there’s been no vandalism yet.

Many people are running for City Council this year; only a few of them have websites.

(If there’s a website I skipped, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com and I’ll update this article.)
Continue reading “City Council candidate websites”