If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and no one is around to hear it; does it make a noise? If the Circus Redickuless performed in a club and no one came to see it, do they still suck? If I wrote a column for the SF Weakly and nobody read it, is it still selling out? Well, yes. Actually it's yes yes and yes. Defiantly yes. Well I did it. Lets see how many people complain about it, rail against it, applaud me for it or just don't bother to read it. My guess is that I'll enjoy writing it, you'll enjoy reading it and you'll also love calling me a sell out hypocrite gagin' on corpirate bla bla for all the wrong reasons. You like to complain. I like to be complained to. We both need an enemy... So here it is: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibition ist/2011/02/do_what_he_says.php It's called: SHUT UP CHICKEN I get paid by the insult. Feel free to waste your time commenting on my poor spelling and grammer. But do go to the show that I wrote about at the Grand Lake Theatre this Thursday night. Details below...

OILPOCALYPSE NOW:
Time for a 28th Constitutional Amendment for the SEPARATION OF CORPORATION AND STATE

A Benefit Evening for the Gulf Coast Fund, Ultimate Civics, and the Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011, 7 p.m. at the exquisitely beautiful Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610; (510) 452-3556. $10-20 sliding scale. (Get there at 6 or 6:30 to check out the tables in the lobby by Matter of Trust, Burners Without Borders, For the Bayou, and the Ladies' Guide to the Apocalypse Gulf Coast Water Altar and info display ...)

Dr. Riki Ott presents the documentary Black Wave -- The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez

featuring 10-minute talks by

Dr. Riki Ott - community organizer, marine biologist, fisherma’am, author. Riki Ott, PhD, is a community activist, a former commercial salmon "fisherm'am," and has a degree in marine toxicology with a specialty in oil pollution. The author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Not One Drop: Promises, Betrayal, and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Dr. Ott is also the founder of three nonprofit organizations which deal with lingering harm from man-made environmental disaster. She is one of the heroines in the documentary, she has also been fighting tirelessly in the Gulf C oast. By the end of this brainstorm February 10th, the Bay Area should know the next steps to separating corporations from America’s government, hopefully before they kill us all.

Lisa Gautier - Founder and President of the ecological public charity Matter of Trust est. 1998 (the group that uses waste clippings of hair, fur & fleece to soak up oil spills). This was the most prominent citizen-led task force in the wake of BP / Halliburton / Deepwater Horizon's disaster. Overnight, this small non-profit ballooned into the most likely method for Americans to do their part in helping protect the Coastline. Tens of thousands of concerned citizens collected hair from salons in 30 countries. It was stuffed into pantyhose by hundreds of volunteers at the Gulf where tons and tons of “hairboom” were made and ready. These booms are a shockingly effective waste-stream method of soaking up oil, and BP's boom department agreed. Then, to everyone's surprise, BP’s $900-million PR department smeared and quashed the movement.  Come hear the whole story.

Summer Burkes - writer and displaced New Orleans homeowner, author of “THE LADIES’ GUIDE TO THE APOCALYPSE” blog, who ran around fighting the bad guys and trying to get the hair boom in the Bayou to protect it, before too many facefuls of Corexit (the deadly dispersant) gave her TILT (Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance) and forced her to evacuate and leave everything behind. She is still homeless, waiting for the government-funded planes to stop spraying Corexit, which they haven’t ...

Phoebe Sorgen - author of Berkeley's resolutions to abolish corporate personhood, an eco- and anti-nuclear activist who, since 9/11, began focussing on peace. She risked arrest at Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, Chevron, B of A, San Quentin etc, and served on the KPFA LSB. When chairing the BFUU Social Justice Committee, she learned that abolishing corporate personhood is key to most of what we want. Resolutions she wrote as a Berkeley Peace & Justice Commissioner would rein in corporate rule, from addressing stolen elections (Diebold voting machines) to challenging unfair trade agreements, Haiti's occupation (Hanes, etc. sweatshops) and wars inc. She organized a Bankster Picket at the SF Federal Reserve and, with the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Citizens United protests.

Carol Brouillet - host of “Community Currency,” Deception Dollars publisher

Plus ... a TINFOIL HAT CONTEST!!! (BYO tinfoil) judged by John Law - co-founder of the Cacophony Society and Laughing Squid.

doors open 6pm. talks 7pm. tinfoil hat contest. film 8pm. Q & A 9:30 ‘til 11 or ?. Tix $10 – $20 (whichever you can afford).

100% of the proceeds will help feed starving Louisiana families, and go to organizations doing vital work in the Gulf

Do you really believe the oil in the Gulf magically disappeared?

Did you know if the Valdez had spilled off the coast of California it would cover the Pacific Coast from Washington to Mexico?

Can you believe Exxon? BP? Halliburton? The President? The Supreme Court? Congress? The media? The military?

Is there a pattern to the assaults upon the people and landscapes of America?

What are we going to do about it?

Black Wave – The Legacy of Exxon Valdez is an exquisite documentary chronicling the struggle of the people of Cordova, Alaska, two decades after a drunk captain veered off-course and 11 million gallons of crude poured into the ocean. The stunning landscape and heartbreaking tales are moving and instructive. We are witnessing a similar, but much larger tragedy unfold in the Gulf as BP uses a near-identical litany of lip service, lies, litigation and disregard for humans and environment in service to their bottom line. The superficial, inadequate, toxic clean-up of Prince William Sound and the lengthy legal battle Cordova endured still falls laughably short of ‘making them whole’ as promised and exposes the deep biases and injustices of a broken system. Contrary to the rosy reports on tv, the people of the Gulf Coast are starving and exhausted, the Corexit planes still f ly, and fresh oil rolls ashore every day.

SUPPORT THE 28TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE SEPARATION OF CORPORATION AND STATE!

OILPOCALYPSE NOW: "I love the smell of Corexit in the morning"

To learn more and support people of the Gulf Coast, see - rikiott.com ultimatecivics.org chsl.webs.com gulfcoastfund.org projectgulfimpact.org

Brought to you by Community Currency, The Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse, and the Grand Lake Theatre.
If you want to help, please do! Spread the word, and we have lots of posters, flyers, cards that need to get out...

Hope to see you there! Note: This isn't a regular everyday tinfoil hat occasion, this is a fancy dress tinfoil hat occasion. Non-regulation tinfoil flair such as feathers, pipe cleaners, wire, tinsel, thrift-store jewels and LED lights will not be turned away. Fancy it up.

Here's one of the Matter of Trust videos we made in the bayou. Guess who insisted we use Professor Longhair as the song in the first 'un. #NewOrleansMusicPride ... you can view the rest of the Matter of Trust's Youtube channel. Hope to see ALL yall at OILPOCALYPSE NOW. (da Harrah... da Harrah...)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyGRmMWzXis]

UPDATE: Read Carol Brouillet's review of the film Black Wave here, and her review of Dr. Ott's book Not One Drop here.

Update 2: Former Vice President "Dick Cheney" has agreed to help John Law judge the Tinfoil Hat Contest!