Air guitar competition: Music Seen at SPACE Gallery, April 28, 2007

Published in the Portland Phoenix; written jointly with Sonya Tomlinson

ST For those wondering how the Air Guitar competition went down — the event was beyond sold out. Even when the space available for the film portion came down to standing room only the audience did not hesitate to express their enthusiasm. Despite the close quarters, the laughing, cheering, and clapping during the movie mimicked what would take place in a living room full of your closest friends.

JI In fact, some of the movie’s scenes — and the live post-movie competition — might have been best done in a living room, rather than on a stage or in front of a camera. But with a movie like Air Guitar Nation, if you can’t react to the events and commentary on the screen, there’s fairly little point in seeing it at all. Air guitar is as much about the art of performing as it is about the act of spectating.

ST Let’s get back to that live competition part. There were nine contestants for the first-ever Portland Air Guitar competition. I believe you were in the front of the crowd, right? Something about your wife being sprayed with fake blood by one of the competitors?

JI Yeah, there were supposed to be 12, but a few backed out and a few signed up on the spot, motivated by the movie, no doubt. Anyway, one of them — HammerSmash — had a cup of fake blood, poured it all over himself and drank it, and then tossed it into the crowd. He was one of the few who appeared to have actually rehearsed, and he ended up in the final three. Sadly, as the youngest contestant in the finals, he appeared to be less familiar with the compulsory song — the contestants had chosen their own songs for the first round — and ended up finishing third. That compulsory song, Poison’s “Talk Dirty To Me” (from 1986’s Look What the Cat Dragged In, if you must know) was a brilliant choice on the part of the organizers, and played right into the hands of the woman who stole the show — McNallica. She’ll be competing in Boston sometime soon, and we’ll keep you posted on that.

ST And we can’t fail to mention Free Bird, who came in second. Even his fans dressed up to support him. If you missed out, be sure to catch the local action at http://www.vimeo.com/clip:179839. And you can catch the film, Air Guitar Nation, at the Movies on Exchange May 2-8.

On the Web
More photos at: http://flickr.com/photos/space538/sets/72157600161646975/

Activist says legalize all drugs, not just medical marijuana

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Peter Christ wants to legalize drugs. “Heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD” — all of them. They are so dangerous to people and to our society that “they must be regulated and controlled,” he says, conveniently leaving any specifics to others (doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, almost anyone but a retired police officer, which is what he is).

And Jonathan Leavitt, director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative, wants Christ’s message (Peter Christ’s message, that is — his last name rhymes with “wrist”) to sway Maine lawmakers into relaxing Maine’s medical-marijuana laws in this legislative session, by passing a bill (LD 1418) sponsored by state senator Ethan Strimling (D-Portland).

But Leavitt may have the wrong guy, and Christ may have the wrong message.

Christ is vice-president (pun unintended) of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of former cops, prosecutors, and judges who say drugs should be made legal, controlled, taxed, and regulated by the government, much like tobacco and alcohol. Then, Christ says, society needs to address the social problem of drug addiction seriously, the way it has with tobacco use — cutting consumption significantly by teaching people what’s actually wrong with a legal product.

Christ is, in fact, opposed to Leavitt’s immediate goal. “If they succeed at what they’re doing,” he says, “then we don’t succeed,” because if lawmakers — and citizens generally — agree that drugs should be banned except for small, narrowly defined reasons (such as medical needs), there’ll be no impetus for wider legalization.

Christ does admit that Leavitt’s effort gets him access to newspaper offices and Rotary clubs. And he says that if LEAP wins its crusade for legalization — and control — of all drugs, then Leavitt’s group will also get what it wants. Leavitt believes slow, incremental change has a better long-term success rate in the political realm.

Much of Christ’s bluster is about his real push: to reform media coverage of society in general (and drugs in particular), because he says that is a necessary precursor to legalization of drugs.

Christ wants newspapers to stop writing about “drug-related” violence — saying that suggests a drug-induced high caused the incident — and instead call it “drug-business-related” violence, reflecting that the participants are usually having a dispute over money, or selling territory, or quality of the product.

“Part of the problem is the press,” Christ says, also lamenting reporters’ “failure to question” authorities, calling police “for balance” when doing stories about him and his activism, but not calling him “for balance” when doing stories about the latest drug bust, and whether it’s an effective way to reduce the availability of drugs on the street.

Leavitt, meanwhile, has hired some lobbyists — Betsy Sweet and Bob Howe (who represent various healthcare-related organizations in the state, among other clients) — to push his bill, which would allow any medical professional who can write a prescription — any doctor, physician-assistant, nurse-practitioner, optometrist, dentist, or podiatrist — to permit someone to grow or buy small amounts of marijuana for personal medical use. (Leavitt says doctors are too conservative, and the prescribing power needs to be expanded to let people get access to marijuana for medicinal purposes. No state agency has any data on how many people take advantage of the law as it stands now.)

The bill would also create a state registry of people who are so authorized, permit the creation of nonprofit stores where marijuana could be purchased by authorized buyers for medical use, and allow such stores to be located anywhere retail businesses are permitted under local zoning laws. And it would bar state, county, or local police officers from assisting federal agents in investigations of medical-marijuana use. It is slated for a hearing before a legislative committee on April 23 at 2 pm in the Cross Building (part of the State House complex) in Augusta.

Straight from Peaks to NYC

Published in the Portland Phoenix

It startled even her. Becky FitzPatrick, a Portland cut-paper artist, heard through the grapevine that someone from the Ralph Lauren company was trying to get in touch with her. And when the call actually came, she was again startled to learn why the company was calling.

“Most of my work is small 2-D,” she says, including a piece in the just-completed “Body Parts” show at MECA’s June Fitzpatrick Gallery. But the giant clothing-maker wanted to talk about The Wishing Room, her second-ever piece of installation art, which had been shown at the Sacred and Profane festival on Peaks Island last fall.

The piece, assembled with the help of fellow artist Lisa Pixley, involved hanging hundreds of white paper birds from the ceiling of a large space inside the harbor’s former fort. Visitors were invited to walk through and among them. Ralph Lauren wanted something similar.

It turns out that “the wife of one of the windows team members at Ralph Lauren in New York City,” had had her picture taken with her kids in among the birds. When her husband saw the pictures, he wanted to see more, thinking perhaps a similar work would be good for a smaller display in the store.

“They didn’t even know who I was,” FitzPatrick laughs, noting that Sacred and Profane works are installed anonymously. After seeing more of her work and talking to her at some length, the company brought FitzPatrick to New York for a week to put together her first-ever show in the city. She and a windows crew of full-time and freelance Ralph Lauren workers pulled four all-nighters — installing 600 birds above Ralph Lauren-clad mannequins in the store’s four main windows at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 72nd, a block from Central Park, in the heart of the city’s fashion district. It will be on display for the next six weeks. And FitzPatrick — catching up on her sleep — is now back in Maine, hoping to find more installation work.

Sidebar: The League: A short history

Published in the Portland Phoenix

APRIL 2004 After six weeks of prep work, Justin Alfond (who later becomes the full-time state director of the League) and local activist Jo Horn host a League kickoff event, a book launch for How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office, edited by two of the national leaders of the League of Young Voters. Fifty-six people attend.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2004 League members help Falmouth Democrat John Brautigam campaign door-to-door against Portland Republican David Elowitch for a Maine House seat representing parts of both towns. Brautigam wins by 55 votes. (See “The Year in Citizen Activism,” by Alex Irvine, December 24, 2004.)

2005 Members get more involved in local issues, including the Portland School Committee’s debate on whether to ban the distribution to students of fliers from discriminatory groups like the Boy Scouts of America, and a proposal to allow Portland high-school students to remove their personal information from records released to the US military for recruiting purposes. Members also help coordinate the college-campus campaign of Maine Won’t Discriminate, successfully defeating an attempt to overturn the state’s gay-rights law.

FEBRUARY 2006 The Portland group changes its name from the League of Pissed Off Voters to the League of Young Voters, with the intent of attracting more members and more grant funding.

MID-2006 National organizations step up funding to the League, for its efforts in connecting with people who are not registered to vote and getting them informed and voting. The Maine Blueprint Project, a coalition of activist organizations, asks if the League will help fight the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a tax-reform bill, on college campuses. League organizers notice that young people — whether college students or not — tend not to know much about TABOR, and launch a widespread campaign to inform voters and oppose the initiative.

NOVEMBER 2006 City Council and School Committee seats in Districts 1 and 2 are filled by first-time candidates, all four of whom are under 35. TABOR fails. The League claims partial credit for each of those results, even though both successful School Committee candidates beat League-endorsed opponents.

JANUARY 2007 A group of Republican legislators introduces a bill to bar college students from voting in the towns where they live while attending college. The League backs a proposal from Portland Democrat Jon Hinck for “instant runoff voting,” a change to the present electoral system that would result in an election’s winner being the person most favored by the largest number of people. Both bills die in committee.

APRIL 4, 2007 The League is honored at the Maine State House, with a proclamation by the governor as well as resolutions by both houses of the Legislature.

INTO THE FUTURE League representatives may be included in discussions of youth issues with state legislators, nightlife policies with Portland city councilors, and other consultative groups. And the League will work to publicize the requirement that landlords disclose apartments’ energy-efficiency data to prospective tenants.

Sidebar: Celebrate with them

Published in the Portland Phoenix

The League is hoping to get enough members and fans together to TAKE A BUS UP TO THE STATE HOUSE on Wednesday, April 4, to represent young people’s political power and energy in the halls of state government. Visit their Web site, portlandme.indyvoter.org, to sign up.

After the trip to Augusta, come back to Portland and stop by City Hall, where the city council will be talking about studying a revised formula-business ban and having an elected mayor, and may make its own PROCLAMATION OF LEAGUE DAY IN THE CITY, if councilor Dave Marshall’s request is approved.

Their REACT FILM NIGHT is held at 6:30 pm every third Thursday of the month at the League offices, on the second floor of 1 Pleasant Street in Portland. (But in April, it's moving to Wednesday, April 18, and will be at SPACE Gallery. The League likes to keep members on their toes.) Their “REAL DEAL” ISSUE-BASED DISCUSSIONS are at 6:30 pm on the second Tuesday of the month at the Reiche School in the West End.