Gone By April 1

After having undertaken a number of projects over the past couple of decades, I have come to understand that you can not, in advance, predict how a project will go... but you can almost BET that there will be a point where you are tearing your hair out, where everything that could possibly go wrong does in fact go wrong, and where things you never IMAGINED could go wrong simply go haywire...

I told myself I'd give myself a year to write my first book, and by the end of that first year I was sure I had failed and that project was over -- but I just kept blindly going forward and four years after I started, I saw that book in bookstores everywhere...

This gave me the confidence to begin a second book project -- surely a second book would go more smoothly, more quickly, than a first book, I reasoned... So the second book took TWELVE years...

In my Backpack Nation project (www.backpacknation.org), I recognized in advance a number of areas I thought might contain potential for breakdown, but when the killer breakdown finally did come I was left banging my head on a wall and moaning, "Not THAT! I'd thought of this thing that could go wrong, and that other thing, and the other one too..., but I'd never imagined THAT! Not THAT!"

In the Beach Impeach Project I'd never imagined that two days before the date I'd picked for the event, I would get a phone call from the Park Service warning of "a major Pacific winter storm with 28 foot swells" and "the potential for major erosion damage" SPECIFICALLY "at Ocean Beach" on the very day, in fact the very hours, I'd picked for the project... Of course I quickly postponed the event -- the storm fizzled, and on the scheduled day I went to the beach anyway, and found clear blue skies, a placid ocean, no wind, 65 degrees...

So while it should probably come as no surprise, I nonetheless find myself disbelieving that at this critical stage of THIS project, I find myself in the bizarre position of having been without a viable website and without the ability to communicate with the 1500 people on my mailing list for the past two and a half weeks... seems unbelievable, but there it is... In those moments when I am not pulling my hair out, I -- non-technical me -- am working hard to untangle this mess... which mostly consists of me begging tech-savvy people for favors and hoping for some tech-miracle...

But tonight, that's life...

And these are all absolutely tiny things in comparison to the disaster that this administration has been to our country and our world...

Onward!

Things definitely hit a 'breakdown' stage with the project last week, as all projects do... We've just kept plugging along over here, and things have begun to right themselves... we have a lease extension until April 30... we have a new date for the project -- April 28... we finally have phone service to the storefront and probably tomorrow we'll have internet access, too... the project doesn't exactly feel up and running, but we bought five weeks, and have just under eleven weeks remaining now... breathing room... and it all seems possible... by Wednesday we may well have a new website, and within a couple of days I should have a new email list... and all seems good here right now... Today I went to a memorial service for the father of my friend and, until last week, my webmaster, Chris Kula... a death puts everything into perspective (this too will pass) -- Chris' dad was only 11 years older than I am... it also felt good to be there and to sense another perspective that was also present in the service's air: Life goes on...

Indeed... And so does this project...

RESCHEDULING UNTIL LATE APRIL!

BIG WEEK behind me... lots of work, lots of forward motion, lots of reality crashing down on my head... Seven mornings ago I didn't even HAVE the storefront... Now I've been in there nearly a week, with a lease and insurance worked out... in the front window I've mounted two huge blowup posters from the Beach Impeach event, and people are constantly stopping outside to study them... and occasionally they wander inside, too... the place is great, oozing potential, but...

BOTTOM LINE: it's going to take more time getting the storefront "operational" than I had anticipated... Sitting in there yesterday morning, with no phone lines and no internet connection, I realized that I'm in great shape to orchestrate a late April event with 100 sites, but in very "iffy" shape for a March 24 event... I asked my landlord if I could have an extension until April 30, and he agreed, and now I'm trying to pick a new date in late April -- March 24 is "off the table"... Looks like April 21 or April 28 will be the new date... And I may just go back to DC again on March 17, when a huge march on the Pentagon is scheduled, and re-do the Mall Event, and get it RIGHT this time... great way to pre-publicize and jumpstart the April event...



NEEDS: Phone service, internet service... a few key volunteers with time to take on some of the projects bigger aspects:

-- WEB help -- my friend and webmaster Chris Kula's father suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on Tuesday night -- my whole web presence is... currently unattended... I need a new web site built -- anyone local to take this on? I want to be able to point over someone's shoulder and say: "Let's do this, let's do that..."

-- volunteers to keep the storefront open on a regular schedule (I'm there most days from 10 a.m. until 2:30 pm)

-- someone to oversee communications with and tracking of the various site organizers

-- a media person

etc.


NEW POTENTIAL ORGANIZERS: I keep hearing from new potential organizers: San Diego, Boston, and... Korea!


GONE BY APRIL 1... Nothing would make me happier than to see Bush and Cheney up and leave tomorrow, but this new project won't happen until after April 1...

Tick, tick, tick...

To make this thing happen, there seems to be nothing to do but keep doing the next thing that needs to be done, the next thing on a list that seems infinite right now... but one by one they're getting done...

Since late October, when my life veerred off in this unexpected direction, at every step of the way, just enough people have shown up to help get the things that absolutely HAD to be done, done...

That's going to need to keep happening...

I've got jobs that are too big for me to do alone:

-- need a volunteer crew to keep the office open on a regular schedule.
-- need people to communicate with people around the country re the March 24 events in their locales.
-- need to get my email list functioning.
-- other needs, too...

Right now, need sleep...

Six weeks, three days to go...

g'night

brad

...... Bush and Cheney GONE BY APRIL 1....

Feeling much better today, thank you...

Was in the storefront from 10-2 with a couple of friends -- it feels GOOD to be "in"! We cleaned up the place, started strategizing -- lots of work to do. We're working on getting phone lines, internet, and everything else set up, and intend to have tasks organized for volunteers to undertake if and when they start dropping in. Please do drop on by, if not to work, at least to say hi. We've got a few tasks outlined, but mostly, right now, if you come by you'll just get a sense of the potential of the place! It's really awesome. And it's a perfect place from which to jumpstart The Plan (next paragraph) 3208 Grand Av, Oakland, 94610 -- right next to the Grand Lake Theater.


AGAIN, THE PLAN -- On Saturday, March 24 (probable date, but not set in stone), at 100 different locations around the United States, we are going to recreate, simultaneously, the piece of public performance art we created on January 6 in San Francisco. During the next several weeks, I and whoever will help me are going to coach people who want to organize an event in their own locales on just what needs to be done.

This idea seems to be thick in the air. Even before I've publicized it, I've received emails and phone calls from people in 8-10 cities around the US: "That thing at the beach was fantastic -- how can I do that here in my city?" Off the top of my head, I'm in contact with people in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Washington DC, New York City, and a retirement home in Seal Beach, CA, all of who are interested in organizing a 100-foot 'IMPEACH!' event. And now, today, I'm starting to publicize it for the first time. Are YOU interested'

There is a finite list of things you'll need to do to pull this off and I'm working on it to post to the web site. Here are the basics:

-- Choose a good site, and obtain a permit if indeed a permit is required.

-- Obtain the tools and materials needed to outline the message 'IMPEACH!' in 100-foot letters.

-- Make sure you have approximately 1,000 people signed up. (A very handy online event organizing tool makes this job fairly easy -- even I mastered it, and I'm hopeless on a computer.)

-- Engage a photographer, and alert the media in your area.

-- It would be best to have a team of about 10-20 people to help you pull this off, but each event will need one person to assume responsibility. (While organizing such an event alone is probably not optimal, I have proved to my own satisfaction that it can actually be done.)


If 100 events like the one we staged in San Francisco are held simultaneously around the country, we will have an international news story. Our politicians will be emboldened to stand up to our current disastrous administration and begin the proceedings that will force them from office. And we can start again in trying to build a safe and peaceful and just world.

If you have an inkling that you'd like to organize an event in your town, I promise: 1) I'll do everything in my power to support you in having a successful event, and 2) the next 6-8 weeks of your life will almost certainly be unlike anything you've ever experienced before.

If you're considering it, or even if you're just curious, shoot me an email (newsham@mac.com) or give me a call (415-305-8294). And please forward this to any individual in the States (or anywhere, actually) who you think might be an
appropriate organizer in their area.


Tons of work to do in the six weeks and four days between now and March 24.

Onward!

brad
newsham@mac.com
415-305-8294

Awoke under the weather this morning...

Went to storefront, but sign in window saying, "Back in a day or two..."

Time to rest a bit...

btrad

1. STOREFRONT
2. REPORT AND PHOTOS FROM DC TRIP
3. THE PLAN
4. TO UNSUBSCRIBE


1. STOREFRONT -- Long complicated story made short: This afternoon Allen Michaan, owner of Oakland’s landmark Grand Lake Theatre, icon in the impeachment movement,and all-round good guy, gave me the key to the storefront (he’s the landlord) next to his theater and said, “Let’s get rid of these guys!” The place needs some cleaning up, and tomorrow morning (Saturday, Feb 3), from about 10 a.m. until about 2 pm, I’m going to be down there (3208 Grand Ave., Oakland) getting a start on the cleaning and on the Plan (item # 3 below). Come on by -- say hi. Fill out a Beach Impeach postcard and mail it to your senator or representative or friends or family. A more “formal” announcement next week.


2. REPORT AND PHOTOS FROM WASHINGTON -- Our attempt to recreate “IMPEACH!” on the National Mall on Saturday, January 27, came “this close” to being a grandslam home run, but in the end wound up as something like a bunt single. Instead of a crowd of 1,000 people, 200 showed up. We did our credible best and captured a few nice images, but overall this was not the breathtaking success that we created in San Francisco on January 6. My report from DC, plus a couple of “IMPEACH!” photos taken from atop the Washington Monument, are posted on the home page at www.bodiescount.org


3. THE PLAN -- On a Saturday in the second half of March (probably March 24, but possibly the 17th or 31st -- I haven’t decided yet), at 100 different locations around the United States, we are going to recreate -- simultaneously -- what we did on January 6 in San Francisco. During the next several weeks, I and whoever will help me are going to coach people who want to organize an event in their own locales on just what needs to be done.

This idea seems to be thick in the air. Even before I’ve publicized it, I’ve received emails and phone calls from people in 8-10 cities around the US: “That thing at the beach was fantastic -- how can I do that here in my city?” Off the top of my head, I’m in contact with people in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Washington DC, and New York City, who are interested in organizing a 100-foot “IMPEACH!” event. And now, today, I’m starting to publicize it for the first time. Are YOU interested?

There is a finite list of things you’ll need to do to pull this off:

-- Choose a good site, and obtain a permit if indeed a permit is required.
-- Obtain the tools and materials needed to outline the message “IMPEACH!” in 100-foot letters.
-- Make sure you have approximately 1,000 people signed up. (A very handy online event organizing tool created by the good people at Working Assets makes this job fairly easy.)
-- Engage your own photographer, and alert the media in your area.
-- It would be best to have a team of about 10-20 people to help you pull this off, but each event will need one person to assume responsibility. (While organizing such an event alone is probably not optimal, I have proved to my own satisfaction that it can actually be done.)

If 100 events like the one we staged in San Francisco are held simultaneously around the country, we will have an international news story. Our politicians will be emboldened to stand up to our current disastrous administration and begin the proceedings that will force them from office. And we can start again in trying to build a safe and peaceful and just world.

If you have an inkling that you’d like to organize an event in your town, I make you two promises: 1) I’ll do everything in my power to support you, and 2) the next 7-8 weeks of your life will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.

If you’re considering it, or even if you’re just curious, shoot me an email (newsham@mac.com) or give me a call (415-305-8294). And PLEASE ALERT anyone in the United States (or anywhere, actually) who you think might be an appropriate organizer in his/her locale.


4. TO UNSUBSCRIBE -- I’ve folded all my email lists into this one, which for the next two months will be all-impeachment all-the-time. I promise to try to send no more than one email per day between now and the end of the project. If you’d like OFF the list, I completely understand. Thank you for your past support, and may I ask you to please take fifteen seconds to unsubscribe -- go to www.bodiescount.org, hit the “email list” bar at top of page and follow the unsubscribe instructions.

Thank you.

Onward!

brad
newsham@mac.com
415-305-8294

I keep thinking I've got the storefront nailed down, but just as the last t is about to get crossed and the last i dotted, there appears a j that needs to be considered -- what's that damn dot doing on the J? And then the whole thing unravels and moves me back three steps, and I fall down an Alice in Wonderland hole in the ground but suddenly see a light at the end of the tunnel and head for it... and tomorrow, MAYBE tomorrow, I'll be able to say, "The storefront is open -- drop on by!" But not tonight... and until that happens, or until I give up on it, and just run this project out of my studio or whatever other space I can find, everything is on hold... for now...

Undaunted...

ONWARD!

.....Bush and Cheney GONE BY APRIL 1....!