AstroGirl's Galaxy Guide

Considering a move

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sat, 4 Feb 2012 14:02:00 -0500

Folks, I'm considering moving my blog to tumblr. I haven't made the final decision yet. I want to try out tumblr a bit first. But in preparation for that, I've started a review of some of the information I've posted here in the past 3 years, regarding The Senator. I'll do that for a while, then make the decision as to whether tumblr is working better for me. Here's my tumblr blog.

Baltimore's Senator Theatre: Then and Now

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:21:00 -0500

I recently helped Friends of The Senator (FOTS) compile this YouTube video, documenting The Senator's appearance before and after Baltimore City forced a change in ownership and management:

The video is a companion to the FOTS petition, encouraging the new operators to maintain the theatre's exterior neon and incandescent lighting, the landscaping, and remove accumulated graffiti. The petition was started about a month ago and has garnered over 600 signatures, mostly from the Baltimore area, but also from across the nation and around the world. Hundreds of comments left by signers often go far beyond the petition's modest request for exterior maintenance.

William E. "Bill" Hewitt, 1936-2011

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sun, 4 Dec 2011 14:12:00 -0500

On Monday, November 21st, the world lost the great William E. "Bill" Hewitt, The Senator Theatre's film projection artist, manager, technical and film expert, and the man behind the curtain at The Senator for almost 30 years. I am overdue in writing about Bill, because I couldn't figure out how to convey the importance of a man who had touched so many lives over the years, while saying so little, and being hidden from most people's view.

Bill Hewitt, the tall older man in the middle, surrounded by Friends of The Senator volunteers and his beloved grand-dogs, Natty Boh and Nipper.

Friday night was Bill's memorial service. As I sat and listened to the reminiscences of so many people who had known, loved, and respected Bill, it was clear that he had been one of a rare breed of people who truly understand the fine art of film presentation done to perfection, in all of its nuances. He was the best of the best. The world has lost something extraordinary.

This morning, I was thinking about my first film experience at The Senator, when I had first moved here. I went to see "The Illusionist," a film starring Baltimore's native son Edward Norton. I had never heard anything about this film before I saw it at The Senator. I went to the film because it was at The Senator, and I was buying a house right down the street.

The experience of seeing "The Illusionist" at The Senator was one of those transcendent film experiences that hardly ever happens: when I walked out of the theatre, I felt disoriented because I had been so drawn into the world of the film, that I was momentarily unsure if I was back in the world of reality. I had been transported through a portal into another world.

As I thought about that experience this morning, it hit me: that film is very good, but the illusion of "The Illusionist" had been made complete only because of the subtle skills of The Senator's "illusionist," Bill Hewitt.

It was due to sleight of hand trickery that you don't notice at the time: the way the projector starts just before the curtain opens even a tiny crack, the way the curtain opens, the way the print is illuminated, having been inspected, inch by inch, for any flaws, before it was even put on the screen. I'm sure there are other arcane details of perfect film presentation that I can only imagine. As it turns out, the particular print of "The Illusionist" was a special one too: an especially fine print that Bill had raved about. Bill was a connoisseur.

Bill left The Senator in June 2011. At first I thought that it was quite symbolic that only a day or two or a week after Bill had left the building, the Sun's highly respected film reviewer, Michael Sragow, went to see a film at The Senator (I believe it was "Super 8," but I can't find Sragow's blog post now), and wrote about how the lights had gone on in the auditorium during the middle of the show, and the film had broken. Bill had left the building, and things had fallen apart almost instantaneously. At first I thought it was symbolic, but then I realized - it wasn't symbolic; it was inevitable.

The world has lost a great light.

Occupy the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:21:00 -0500

Word on the street is that the Occupy Baltimore protesters are going to be IMMINENTLY routed from McKeldin Square. A couple of days? A week? Maybe two? Nobody knows, but the Mayor is rumored to be getting fed up with the occupation, and I’m sure that the Occupy protesters calling attention to the man behind the curtain, M.J. Brodie at the real City Hall, down on Charles Street (BDC), did not endear them to the city’s power structure.

Other cities have already ejected their occupations. Baltimore has employed an outwardly tolerant approach, but in reality, it’s almost certainly because our local occupation has been so ineffectual and silly that the politicians are laughing at the protesters behind the scenes. If they were a threat, they would be gone by now, and their lame applause at the BDC event probably reassured Mr. Brodie that they were no such thing. Still, even acknowledging that the man behind the curtain exists is itself a threat.

Me, I gave up on the local occupation a couple of weeks ago, after they were snowed by Brodie’s bullshit and actually applauded the little monster.

Revo, who was more enthusiastic about the Occupy movement from the beginning, only gave up hope last night, after attending the G.A. and realizing that in the face of imminent disaster for the camp at McKeldin Square, they were discussing bumper stickers and their triumphant glee over their YouTube hits for a video showing them acting like noisy children during Karl Rove’s recent talk at Hopkins. At the G.A. last night, the imminent eviction from McKeldin Square was apparently never discussed.

I’ll continue going to some marches. Most of the marches are actually organized by the unions, anyway, so they’re somewhat effective. The unions know how to organize.

I’ll continue to support the national Occupy movement too, as long as it stays focused on economic demands. I would like it to get more specific about those. Some of the reforms I would like to see:

A constitutional amendment clarifying that a corporation is not a person.

A constitutional amendment clarifying that money is not speech.

I happen to believe that the founding fathers never intended for corporations to be people or for money to be speech, because they probably had a dictionary, and they probably understood what the meaning of “is” is. Some federal judges need these things spelled out, though. Next we’ll have to be telling them that war is not peace and thought is not a crime.

The above two amendments to the constitution would, if enacted and enforced, go a long way toward reforming the system. They would clarify that the rights of the people supersede the rights of corporations, and that the right of individuals to free speech supsersedes the right of corporations to drown out their speech with money that speaks louder than words.

Others in the movement have also come up with very good ideas for reform. The original Occupy Wall Street group came up with this statement of purpose, which notes some specific problems that need to be addressed. One of the working groups of the New York protest has come up with the 99% Declaration. It contains a list of suggested reforms, which the group hopes to have representatives from all over the country vote on in a national convention on July 4, 2012 in Philadelphia. I agree with the ideas expressed therein, some more than others, but I certainly agree that all of these issues deserve to be part of the national debate.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has been investigating the corruption on Wall Street since long before the Occupy movement began. His advice to Occupy Wall Street contains a specific list of reforms to the financial industry that would “hit bankers where it hurts” and would help return our government to serving the people. I particularly like the one where a tax on all trades would make the financial industry pay for its own bailouts, and return our tax money to us.

I think between these documents listed above, there is a useful start to getting our country back.

The Occupy movement, and the local occupation in particular, have also discussed some ideas that I consider really silly. Chief among them is this “consensus democracy” model that consists of endless discussion, open balloting via wiggly fingers (snap, twinkle, pop!), and where decisions are only made when a clique of people who all agree with each other manages to shout down or intimidate all other participants. It doesn’t work among 20 people. How is it going to work nationwide?

The worst aspects to the “consensus democracy” model being used in the Occupy movement are the lack of secret ballots, which means that individuals are easily intimidated by self-appointed leaders into going along with whatever the mob decrees, and also the fact that, since decisions effectively only seem to happen when some individual or group manages to dominate everyone else, there is real danger, if this ever became the national model, of it leading to dictatorship and authoritarian rule, complete with slaughter of dissidents.

The local occupation has already been shouting down anyone they don’t agree with. In their Google group, when Revo started speaking up, they couldn’t handle even one dissident. How would they tolerate real democracy, if they ever got into power? The answer is, they wouldn’t.

Give me the U.S. Constitution any day, folks. Its three branch system with its checks and balances and its bill of rights have been emulated the world over. That’s because, until the system gets badly corrupted, as it is now, it works about as well as you can expect a system that governs millions of people to work.

Occupy the Constitution. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy our Government. Occupy the Future.

Previous posts in my series on Occupy Baltimore:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Unions to the Rescue, at Least Temporarily

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:58:00 -0500

In previous parts of my series on Occupy Baltimore, I mentioned the open Occupy Baltimore Google Group. Anyone with an email can sign up, but the majority of the posts on there are by the group I’ve been calling the Callow Clique (who are not down at McKeldin Square most of the time, except for during the nightly G.A., but are posting on the Google group). If you want to see some real dysfunction, sign up and check it out.

Continuing my series, where I’m still struggling to catch up to the present day at Occupy Baltimore, we go back to late October...

Participation was dwindling. The city was making noises about evicting the occupation from the square, and had given the protesters a deadline to agree to a stringent set of rules for use of the space. Just as the wolves of FAIL seemed certain to overcome OB, a group of union leaders, under the banner of the AFL-CIO, came to the rescue.

The October 26th AFL-CIO letter to the Mayor was just in time, urging the City to let the protesters remain in the square. In their letter, the union leaders wisely reframed the OB protest, casting it as being in alignment with the economic concerns of the national Occupy movement, instead of the tangential concerns it had actually focused on to that date.

“The Occupy Baltimore protests have given expression to a widely shared belief that our economy and our politics are controlled by corporate interests to the detriment of the overwhelming majority of working people...”

Well, no, up to that point in time, Occupy Baltimore had conspicuously failed to articulate any such thing, but the national movement had, and the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York had succeeded in releasing this impressive statement of purpose. The local union leaders were wise to assume the local occupation was in solidarity with the national movement, in spite of the local failure to coalesce into anything useful.

A big thank you to the Unions for saving the local occupation’s collective butt, at least temporarily.

After the union letter, the local occupation did gain a measure of focus on local and national economic issues. (Whether or not this was due to private pressure from union leaders, I can only speculate.) In any case, the focus shifted quickly to living wage jobs, demands for economic development that benefits the local population, the city’s suit against Wells Fargo for predatory lending practices targeted at minorities, and direct action protests at the banks and the Baltimore Development Corporation.

I’m pleased to say that the committee that was working on a protest against the Baltimore Development Corporation did, after much delay, come up with an open letter to the BDC that’s more or less on point. While it’s true that they dismissed voices of experience that would have advised them to take a more demanding stance, instead opting to naively assume the BDC can be negotiated with, it wasn’t bad for a first round that would seem reasonable to the general public. If they would succeed in avoiding being placated by insincere promises of change and diplomatic liars telling them what they want to hear, they could then move on later to a more realistic assessment of the tyranny and corruption they’re actually dealing with.

But then, at the actual meeting with the BDC on November 7th, Brodie smoothly delivered a bunch of smiling diplomatic PC bullshit, and the majority of the protesters ended up giving him enthusiastic applause. Some revolutionaries!

The signs wielded by some protesters, which called the BDC “Baltimore’s Dysfunctional Cabal” and “Baltimore Demolition Corporation,” were the most confrontational part of the protest, but they were designed by Revo and me.

Brodie acted all nicey nice, promised future meetings that probably won’t materialize, and then in all likelihood got on the phone immediately after the meeting and told the Mayor to get rid of these people.

Getting rid of these people is now rumored to be in the works, according to some credible scuttlebutt we heard shortly after the BDC meeting. But instead of resorting to force, Baltimore City is apparently relying on the coming cold weather and the attrition that the protesters themselves have engendered.

The day after the BDC meeting, the Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Comittee, a committee of Stony Run Friends Meeting, Homewood Friends Meeting, and Old Town Friends Fellowship, also lent their support to Occupy Baltimore with an official statement of support. Much like the union leaders, the Friends nicely articulated an economic focus that OB itself had largely failed to articulate, with a pithy quote from William Penn, followed by their own short statement.

"That the sweat and tedious labor of the farmer, early and late, cold and hot, wet and dry, should be converted into the pleasure of a small number of men --- that continued severity should be laid on 19 parts of the land to feed the inordinate lusts and delicate appetites of the 20th, is so far from the will of the great Governor of the world, [it] is wretched and blasphemous."
William Penn, 1669

“The Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee supports the nonviolent protests against economic injustice that have spread from Wall Street to hundreds of locations across the country. The Occupy protestors’ commitment to nonviolence, inclusion, and consensus decision-making are our Quaker principles in action. We will support Occupy Baltimore by gathering donations and in witness to their efforts to draw attention to the injustices in our society which perpetuate excessive disparities in income and political influence.”

To date, however, the Callow Clique continues to dominate OB, continues mostly to divert its focus from economic issues, and continues to shout down anyone they disagree with, especially if that person is over 40. (Revo was told “This isn’t your revolution, grandpa. Take your walker and go home.”)

At the meeting on the steps of the BDC, Revo and I witnessed as one of the main “stars” of the Callow Clique accosted an older man (who happened to be one of a very few African Americans at the protest), accusing him of being a provocateur. After the meeting, Revo and I spoke with the man who had been accosted. He turned out to be Mitchell Ferguson, a playwright, actor, and acting coach who’s a co-founder of Nommo Theatre, who told us that this young group of activists from Red Emma’s doesn’t even realize that he himself has been invited, as a guest of Red Emma’s in the past, to give presentations there.

According to messages on the Google group, a person described as “Iranian Human Rights Activist” Saeed Salehinia recently showed up at a reading group meeting, started to articulate a point of view that was critical of anarchists, and was also shouted down by the same person that we witnessed shouting down Mitchell Ferguson. Although some in the group want to invite Salehinia to speak at a G.A., there is concern among the Callow Clique that he does not represent their point of view and will therefore be “divisive.”

That same person who did the shouting down in both of those cases, a revered figure in the Callow Clique, had, after an early confrontation with Revo over the music issue, walked up to Revo and shouted, in a voice that was meant to be menacing, "I know your legal history." (Revo's "legal history" consists of a false accusation, made for political purposes, that did not result in a conviction.)

Based on this person's initiative, the clique has also discussed researching the legal histories of anyone who wants to sleep in the communal tents, in spite of the real concerns, expressed by others in the group, that the legal system is inequitable, and statistics showing that the national rate of incarceration for African Americans is seven times the incarceration rate for whites. (Statistic: Open Society Institute)

Last night, a group from OB, led by the Callow Clique, went to a public talk by Karl Rove at Johns Hopkins University, and instead of attempting to engage in constructive critical dialogue, shouted him down and disrupted the event. While I agree that Karl Rove is a jerk, the vast majority of the audience had come to hear what he had to say, as an influential figure in American politics. The shout-down was simply counterproductive.

Occupy Baltimore does not employ a consensus democracy model at all. They employ mob rule, shouting down anyone the clique disagrees with. As I described it in an email to one member of the clique,

“One problem I see with OB's ‘consensus’ model is that the initial group that formed OB seems to have come from a revolutionary, fairly radical motivation, and therefore when individuals who might have more modest goals come in and try to influence the ‘consensus,’ since the ‘consensus’ is already coming from a more radical place, those individuals tend to be shouted down. They then leave, and the local movement does not grow, because people who are more mainstream in their orientation are being turned off - one by one, before any potential ‘consensus’ of these more mainstream views can ever grow.”

Occupy Baltimore's nightly General Assembly has turned into the OB kids table, with most adult protesters refusing to participate.

Time for Occupy Baltimore for grownups?

Previous posts in the series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Not Suitable For Children

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:26:00 -0500

Today I take a break from my series on Occupy Baltimore, which will continue soon.

Last night, at a Baltimore Blast game, which I attended with my family, I ran into one of the major culprits in the City's fiasco with The Senator Theatre. You know who you are. I didn't say what I wanted to say, because I would have had to say it in front of both of our families, and it's hard to say without a lot of profanity. So let me get that out of the way right now: FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK, MUTHAFUKKA!

First of all, you accomplished nothing. The Senator looks like crap now, and the City has already spent way more money on it than they ever spent during Tom Kiefaber's award-winning stewardship. It's now being run by people who don't have any passion for it, don't have much real experience running classy theatres, have a crappy plan for expansion that will ruin the building, and already aren't maintaining it properly. Way to go, idiot.

Second, you ruined a good man's life and reputation. Let me say it again. YOU ruined a good man's life and reputation. It had nothing to do with money, as evidenced by the fact that the City is now spending more money than ever on The Senator. But you lied about that to the press, and you know it. It had to do with the fact that Tom had spoken out against the actions of the BDC. Political favoritism and retribution, paid for by taxpayer dollars. Way to go, idiot.

NEWS FLASH, dude, in case you actually believed any of the rumors that were spread in order to smear: there was no cash being socked away somewhere, no vacation home in the Caribbean, no drug habit. Not a dime lent by the city. Not a dime wasted. Just a beautiful historic single-screen theater slowly going the way that just about every other historic single-screen theater in the country has gone: to the dustbin of history.

And a heroic, civic-minded man who spent well over one million dollars of his own money and operated that theater in an award-winning manner that made The Senator nationally lauded, just trying to ensure the theater would remain open long enough for others to realize its value, let him know that he was not alone in appreciating it, and come to the rescue. The Senator only still exists because of Tom Kiefaber, and he kept it going for about 20 years beyond the time when it probably would have otherwise failed. He did this to the great benefit of Baltimore City, but the cavalry never came. The wolves did.

Maybe when you're nearly 60 years old, someone will take your whole life away, and you'll have to rebuild from scratch. At 60. Maybe then you'll know how it feels.

You were not alone in this. You were joined by other present and past BDC officials, a city councilman, and a head of a local foundation.

Some of these people who were involved in the City's Senator Theatre fiasco are the same people who have been major players in the City's EBDI (East Baltimore Development Inc.) fiasco, where they forced relocation of 584 families, and then the project wasn't funded properly and the neighborhoods that have been razed are just a big empty space now.

FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FOUR FAMILIES. Most of them poor and black. Their neighborhoods destroyed, and many lives ruined. No matter what you gave them in relocation costs, you can't give them what they had back. YOU DESTROYED LIVES.

This is obviously a much much bigger heartbreaking fiasco than The Senator one, but I haven't been directly involved. I don't know any of the victims. That's why my first thought was to cuss you out for The Senator deal, but this EBDI thing is even worse, by all the reports I've heard.

I know of other cases of the City's biggest official egos ruining people's lives for goals they thought would be good ideas. Some of the victims don't want me talking about what I know, so I won't.

All I can say is, YOU SUCK. Try to develop some humanity, and some compassion. I guess you don't even know what that is. Whatever the City's goals are, if it involves ruining innocent lives in the process, it probably isn't worth it. Your career and your movement up in the local pecking order isn't worth it, either.

Respect Our Authoritah!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Wed, 9 Nov 2011 10:18:00 -0500

(Part 5 of my series on Occupy Baltimore)

The Callow Clique, and others who were grasping for the reins, seemed to alternate between desiring more participants to get actively involved in the “democratic consensus” movement, along with its increasingly byzantine committee and subcommittee structure, and then shouting down and giving the wormy wiggly downfingers treatment to anyone whose opinion they didn’t like. “Get involved, but respect our authoritah!” That seemed to be the message. (The Cartman Clique?)

At first, the drummers were regularly accosted, and shouted at to cease and desist immediately, any time the leaders of our leaderless movement felt like having an impromptu meeting. Although there was ample room to meet in the square or nearby, apart from the steady pulse from the music side, individuals would bolt across the square at any time of day and shout “STOP,” often right in the middle of an innovative groove, which took 20 minutes to get up to synch speed. They clearly didn’t begin to understand that this was simply rude and uncalled for, or that upon a quiet heads up request, the musicians could wind down within 5 to 10 minutes and take an extended break.

It was clear they assumed that whatever they were doing was more valid and significant than mere music.

Eventually, a compromise was worked out in the GA, where there would be certain times the music would not be interrupted, and also designated times when no music would be played, to allow for regularly scheduled meetings, like the 8 PM GA. Other times were open to whatever seemed to be the thing to do at the time: meet, play, or coexist in the square. To the credit of both camps, the welcome compromise was largely respected on both sides.

After “pamphletgate” erupted over a botched Sexual Offense Policy implementation initiative, Revo and I attempted, via the Google group, to get the group refocused on economic issues. We were completely ineffectual in that effort, roundly attacked and shunned by the Callow Clique in particular.

Back when we had first entered the protest at McKeldin Square, the Revolting Protester and I were treated to an assurance that we were free to talk amongst ourselves, we heard statements various participants made to the General Assembly (GA) that began with such grandiose assumptions as “If our revolution is successful, and we’re going to take over and replace all of the existing government services, we need to...,” and we met one of the self-appointed leadership clique who had “ironically” assigned himself the name of a Russian communist leader whose legacy of mass murder vies with Adolf Hitler’s for infamy. (Hint: What does barely composite character Callow S. Narrowmindsky’s middle initial stand for?)

For all these reasons, the apparent leadership clique, the group that seemed to run and control the GA each night, became known to Revo and me as the K-Rouge. Revo called them that on facebook a few times, and I suppose that didn’t endear us to that faction of OB.

When we later tried to participate in a meeting regarding the Baltimore Development Corporation, Revo was immediately accused of “unforgivable red baiting,” due to some of his posts on FB and the OB google group. (How do you “red bait” self-professed communists? By repeating their own claims of what they name themselves?)

Revo, with 25 years of experience dealing with the BDC and its predecessors, was compelled to leave the meeting within 5 minutes.

The more radical faction, self-described communists and anarchists, had apparently seized an opportunity to break out of the coffeehouse cabal, and had called dibs on OB early in its formation.

They did get the motor running, and set up the basic organizational structure, but then they fell into dominating it with Viva La Revolution fervor. They now facilitated every G.A. and most of the committees, ran the web site, and dominated the open Google discussion group. Any suggestion that something should be done differently was often met with defensiveness, group think, and accusations of trolling.

I began to picture this group in their sad and lonely days, before Occupy Wall Street, meeting in small groups of five or ten people and talking about “when the revolution comes.” It was clear to me that some of them probably thought the Occupy movement was their long-awaited glorious revolution, which they would lead.

Unfortunately for them, the majority of Americans who support the Occupy movement don’t want to replace our entire system via revolution, but simply want significant political and economic reforms, with the outcomes of a better economy, more jobs, and a government that once more represents us, and not just the wealthy 1% and the corporations. Nationally, this is not, at its heart, a particularly radical movement. The fact that it may look a bit like one is merely a measure of how bad things have gotten. When Revo and I tried to point out that communists and anarchists did not represent the 99%, we were once again labeled as red baiters and trolls.

Any dissidents in the group were labeled “divisive,” which is a favorite tactic of anyone pushing an extremist agenda; on the national level, George W. Bush was a master at this.

It was apparent that, although the self-appointed leaders claimed that everything was being decided via democratic consensus, the participants in the General Assembly were a self-selecting group of individuals who had not yet been turned off by these heavy-handed tactics. Others hung around on the sidelines, quietly griping, refusing to participate, or left the square, abandoning the movement entirely.

It was all somewhat comical. I was reading the Occupy Baltimore Google group and listening in on some meetings, but I also was spending quite a bit of my time in the square, interacting with the people on the margins of the protest, most of whom were interesting, nice people with serious concerns that were largely not being heard in the General Assembly. Many of the people on the margins were homeless, unemployed, or otherwise seriously hurting.

A more paranoid mind than mine would have assumed that at least some of the Red Emma’s crowd had been planted by “Da Man” to ensure the failure of the movement in Baltimore, but I don’t think that was it. They couldn’t have derailed the movement more effectively if that had been their intention, but the failure was evidently due to youthful inexperience, arrogance, and rigid, dogmatic thinking, not malice.

Nationally and internationally, the Occupy movement seemed to be growing exponentially. Here in Baltimore, the local occupation was stagnating and struggling against attrition.

As the wolves of FAIL circled Occupy Baltimore, the defensive leaders looked for explanations. Perhaps they had chosen the wrong location? Perhaps the word was not out? Perhaps the homeless and the real victims of economic oppression who had shown up on the margins of the protest were scaring away other, more committed parties? Many explanations were considered, but the most obvious explanation was supplied in various forms by Revo, myself, and other visitors to the google group, and was repeatedly labeled as “trolling”: the self-appointed leadership clique’s radical agenda did not represent the 99%, and their dogmatic, humorless, and didactic approach did not invite participation.

The most disturbing part of all of this was that the clique, which had seized control of the movement in Baltimore, was genuinely afraid of the economically downtrodden, often homeless, huddled masses yearning to be free who had gathered on the margins of the protest. Discussions in the Google group often focused on how to limit the use of the volunteer-cooked food to people who were “actually doing the work” (i.e. engaging in pointless circular discussion in the GA and other meetings), or how to eject the homeless from the square, or at least prevent them from sleeping in communal tents.

Even at Occupy Baltimore, there was a ruling elite class that looked down on those who needed help the most. The unspoken message was “We’d like to help the 99%, as long as we don’t have to interact with them. After all, they’re kind of icky.”

Previous posts in this series:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Next Part

Drumming Up Support for Occupy Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 13:12:00 -0500

ANNOUNCEMENT: One of the things at OB that "sometimes, almost accidentally, went right" is that a group has decided to target the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) as being one of the sources of Baltimore's many problems. This group has planned a public meeting with the BDC today. The meeting is at 5 PM, outside the BDC's offices at 36 S. Charles Street. There is a letter you can sign at anotherbdcispossible.org.

It should be interesting to see how the meeting goes. Some of the people planning it seemed more or less ignorant of the fact that the BDC is running the governmental pageant in Baltimore, and telling the Mayor and City Council what to do. They were definitely underestimating the extent of the problem going in, so we'll see if they realize it as this process unfolds, or get snowed by diplomatic platitudes.

END OF ANNOUNCEMENT

My series on OB continues:

After that very first General Assembly we attended in McKeldin Square, buddy Revo and I saw the proverbial wolves of FAIL chasing down the OB sled. The crowd we joined was meager, mostly young, mostly (but not exclusively) white, and mostly visibly bored by the didactic approach of the Callow Crew.

“This movement needs more diversity, or it will fail,” declared Capt. Revo, the wannabe revolting protester. He noted that he and others of his generation had come to the 1960s anti-war protests for the music, the drugs, and “hippie chicks,” but had their social consciousness raised once they got there. His back in the day experience in drum circles taught him a healthy respect for the uniting power of music. “We need to get a buncha drums and shakers down here FAST,” he opined with wide-eyed resolve.

The next morning my phone rang way too early, and I regretted answering it in a second. Damn, it’s Revo! He’s had his coffee and is ready to roll. He then loads up my car so jammed full of drums and other percussion instruments that it’s like I have blinders on, as we drive down to the square, clanking and ringing from a plethora of sound-producing devices. “None of which need a power cord!” I was reminded three times.

Revo staked out some turf, laying the massive Yellow Submarine banner over a substantial portion of the square. He set up his percussion playground, and began playing a pet djembe, festooned with Tibetan prayer flags. Shortly after the call to battle rhythms began, a few musicians and dancers emerged like mushrooms, seemingly from the very earth, and joined in spontaneous improvisation. The impromptu band of musicians, dancers, and spectators were a more diverse crew all right, with a wide variance in age, ethnicity, and background. Soul shakes and fistbumps, as Revo beamed with delight.

We were getting into the Occupy swing of things. I met Revo’s new bro, Jaythebusker, and Laconiclion, among others. A good time was had by all, and a certain spirit began to emerge, which was noticeably absent from the square the night before.

The diverse influx that day wasn’t entirely due to the drums and melodies, yet it served as a spark to what was emerging at the OB site.

It also helped that the smell of food was beginning to waft through the air – food being cooked up and served to all by OB volunteers.

McKeldin Square now looked a whole lot more representative of Baltimore City, and more representative of the 99%, who have been so adversely impacted by the predatory criminals on Wall Street.

A few days on, the influx of new OB participants was beginning to join in the nightly general assemblies, making those meetings more diverse as well.

This was all very exciting, but there continued to be some palpable friction between the self-appointed leadership clique and the new arrivals. Most of the wannabe leaders appeared to be young, college or graduate school age students, and many of them were visibly put off by the considerably more diverse group that had now swelled the ranks.

The leadership clique seemed to take keenly intellectual interest in the dynamics and procedures of the “consensus” model at the nightly general assembly, yet they were decidedly not focused on the overarching economic issues that seemed to bind the others in protest. The earnest young “Callow Clique” were more oriented toward radical leftist and tangential agendas. I soon concluded that many of them may not yet have had any significant direct experience of actual day to day economic hardship, unlike the more diverse crew that was now arriving, some of whom were homeless.

The newer arrivals appeared, in many cases, to have suffered considerably from the harsh economic and employment realities of the worsening recession that the government-fed media often won’t admit exists. Many new arrivals did not leap to engage in the GA meetings, marches, or setting the OB agenda. They lingered on the periphery, slept in the square, drummed and danced, and ate the food that was offered. Some helped in preparing and serving food, and others took on and dogged the basic tasks associated with a growing new community’s survival as a physical occupation.

The leadership clique was also expanding, and they continued planning teach-ins, education about gender and LGBTQ issues, discussions about consensus democracy and even, in some of the more radical cases, talk about socialist, communist, or anarchist revolution. Unlike the expanding cast of regulars like Jaythebusker, Godblessu, Laconiclion, Redbeard, Drunkchic, Pfloyd, Jazzcap, Bbark, Sweetdreams, Revo and others, the GA participants generally showed up at 7:15 PM or so, then milled about, conferring and fidgeting, until the 8 PM GA. Anywhere from 2 to 4 hours later, they broke it off, and mostly went home to their beds every night (as did I, thankfully).

During the GA meetings, a few of them sometimes threw hissy fits regarding the folks on the margins of the square, who were living on site, eating, cleaning, hanging out, playing drums, dancing, helping make signage, and marching on occasion, but were not People’s Mike users or GA participants, and mostly did not join in meetings to be “educated and involved.”

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

NEXT PART

What is the Sound of No Back Touching?

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Fri, 4 Nov 2011 14:40:00 -0400

What is the sound of no back touching? Who are the leaders of a leaderless group? These are but two of the profound Zen koans that Occupy Baltimore offers to the young Grasshopper.

To come clean here, I didn’t take notes in any of the meetings. Much like my barely composite representation of OB’s leadership, Callow N., some of my recollections of specific moments may be mashups of one or more separate actual moments.

As such, I no longer recall whether the assertion of our right to discuss things amongst ourselves was ejaculated forth during discussion of the Sexual Offense policy, or the equally ridiculous discussion about whether or not to apply to the City for a permit to occupy the square, as both subjects were masticated for at least 5 days. The discussion of the permit issue was tabled in exasperation each night, as the fledgling consensus democracy could not come to a consensus.

The Sexual Assault Policy went on to be discussed over at least three weeks or more, during which it later became the Sexual Harassment Policy, and then simply the Sexual Offense Policy. It went through several drafts; an early one caused a negative media firestorm. It is periodically still being discussed.

The Sexual Offense policy was not only discussed ad nauseam, but this issue, the permit issue, or issues related to gender and LGBTQ equality led the G.A., apparently every night, for weeks. As far as I could tell, economic issues were not big a priority for the Callow Crew.

The proponents of the so-called Sexual Offense policy seemed to be largely concerned with preventing such horrific offenses as strangers touching them in the middle of the back without asking permission first, and also preventing anyone from calling them “sweetie,” “babe,” or even the dreaded “Hon (TM).” The looming threat of such actions made some people feel unsafe in the square, perhaps even made them feel like something much worse, such as actual rape, might potentially occur. (To the best of my knowledge, nothing beyond rogue back touching or the occasional rebuffed proposition had occurred, or had even been alleged, at the time of the start of this lengthy discussion.)

During the public discussion of the Sexual Offense policy in one of many General Assembly meetings, some voices of reason prevailed, and it was apparently agreed by consensus (among the self-selecting group that is willing to sit through hours of circular discussion) that if a victim was offended by some cretin doing something unforgivable, such as calling the victim “Hon (TM)” or touching her or him on the back without permission, they should not report the “assault” to the police, but the group should deal with such petty offenses between individuals itself.

I want to be clear here: I don’t think the Occupy Baltimore group ever discouraged the reporting of actual crime to the police. Nevertheless, the original “Sexual Assault” policy caused a media firestorm when someone in the group prematurely discharged an early draft, and began promiscuously disseminating it as a pamphlet.

The media (rightly so) assumed that “Sexual Assault” referred to serious crimes such as rape and sexual molestation; they saw that the policy was discouraging reporting of (minor) offenses to the police, and publicly made the unwarranted leap to the conclusion that the group was discouraging reporting of rape.

The resulting brouhaha was an example of a media tactic that Revolting back-toucher Revo and I know well (having been past media targets): if you want to discredit someone, say they are the exact opposite of who they actually are. The main proponents of Occupy Baltimore’s “Sexual Assault” Policy were in fact overly concerned with preventing anything that might have any remote chance of being construed as sexual offense of any kind, by even the most sensitive and easily offended soul. Through the distorted lenses of the media’s voyeur binoculars, however, OB became known for being totally unconcerned about preventing or punishing rape.

The discussion about the Sexual Assault/Harrassment/Offense Policy went on for the next 3 weeks, resulting in a current final draft that prominently includes the following words (emphasis mine):

“Sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted commentary or physical contact. It is the victim's prerogative to classify any action as sexual harassment, and to decide whether or not the harasser be ejected from #occupybaltimore. If the victim chooses to enforce the ejection policy, the harasser will be ordered not to return until the Safer Spaces Committee in conjunction with the Mediator’s Committee has reviewed the incident on the following day.”

Got that? ANY action. This policy amounts to nothing more nor less than a license to convene a vigilante mob against anyone an alleged “victim” does not cotton to.

Now, if someone tells you that a touch or a particular use of words makes them feel uncomfortable, then cool it and do not touch the person. Perhaps walk away. Sincere attempts to be respectful of others is key.

However, unless it’s actual physical or actionable verbal abuse of some sort, minor infractions aren’t “harassment” if the offender ceases the offensive behavior when asked. Individuals have differing comfort levels.

One should always endeavor to respect another’s comfort, but honest differences of opinion about what is appropriate can and do occur.

Something that is not a crime, or at least a repeated offense, should not result in vigilante actions and mob rule.

By acting like one who cried wolf, the policy’s main proponents inadvertently trivialized the risk of bona fide sexual assault, particularly when people are sharing a public space 24/7.

Weeks later, a rape was alleged to have occurred at Occupy Baltimore. The allegation was given sensationalist coverage on Fox 45 TV news, although police have since reported that they believe no sexual assault occurred, and the alleged victim made no such formal charge. One might question the veracity of a charge that is made publicly on the local right wing TV station, but never filed with the police, particularly when the TV coverage showed alleged drug paraphenalia left conveniently outside the door of a tent, for Fox News cameras to find.

Next:
Part 4

Previous installments in this series:
Click here for part 1.
Click here for part 2.

Astrogirl and Capt. Revo Join the Occupation

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Thu, 3 Nov 2011 19:41:00 -0400

I have a complaint. I was harangued into joining the local occupation against my will, by a serial back-toucher and a Revolting Protester, Capt. Revo.

Before the Occupy Wall Street protest ever began in New York, Revo already had it pegged as a trigger movement that would quickly go viral to become an international phenomenon of discontent. He saw it as coming at an ideal time, at the perfect level of fertile public outrage, taking full advantage of Tahrir inspired lateral communication and cell phone technology, the “flash group” technology that had made the Arab Spring possible, now denigrated as “flash mobs” on this side of the pond.

Through the jaded eyes of a frequent activist for over 30 years, I saw it as a protest organized by the usual suspects, which would undoubtedly produce the usual result: a small to medium sized group of people who would raise a fuss for a day or so and nothing beyond that would happen. Revo can justly claim the visionary edge here.

Capt. Revo was thrilled and energized by the potential American Spring he saw coming over the horizon. He immediately wanted to get involved. His badgering “encouragement” for me to get involved was met with my yawns. This Occupy thing will be a hassle and will come to nothing. That was my firm belief at the time.

By the time satellite protests spun off from the Wall Street site and started proliferating across the country, however, Occupy Wall Street had proven staying power. By the time Occupy Baltimore got underway, I was beginning to feel a groundswell. When Occupy Baltimore landed next to Harborplace, I agreed to give Capt. Revo a ride to McKeldin Square.

As an aside, my buddy Revo had his theatre, his livelihood, and most of his worldly possessions taken from him by the BDC in a nefarious process, and he now has no vehicle of his own. As the Beatles sang, “I got no car and it’s breaking my heart, but I’ve found a driver and that’s a start.” A downtrodden 99%er self-described “revolting protester” with a huge Yellow Submarine banner the BDC didn’t get, and a door to door chauffeur. Poor Revo.

When we first arrived at McKeldin Square, the nightly General Assembly meeting was just starting, with facilitators using the effective, but annoying “People’s Mike” to speak to the crowd of roughly thirty or so, mostly young and white participants (the apparent composition of the group at that time). I already had just about enough of “the People’s Mike” from the media coverage of Occupy Wall Street, where a civic ban on sound systems was the mother of that invention, by necessity.

Baltimore has no such ban on voice amplification, yet the Occupy Baltimore protesters seemed to relish using the People’s Mike, regardless. It appeared to impart a sense of participatory, joystick empowerment for the speaker to hear the crowd echo everything they said, vebatim in mini-tweet form – listener tedium be damned!

Using the People’s Mike, when we first arrived, was a representative of the self-appointed leadership of the “leaderless” Occupy Baltimore (think Zen koan), whom I will describe as the barely composite character, Callow S. Narrowmindsky. At that moment, Mr. Narrowmindsky was in the process of introducing the People’s Committee for the Prevention of Sexual Assault. He told the assembly that a representative of the Committee would read the group’s proposed policy on sexual assault, which would then be subjected to a non-binding temperature check, to see how people were feeling about not feeling anyone up.

Narrowmindsky and his cohorts then thoughtfully assured the assembly that “Afterwards, you are free to discuss the proposed policy among yourselves. We don’t have any rules to prevent that.” Capt. Revo and I exchanged grinning glances, stifling shocked hilarity at that reassuring revelation. Revo expressed his appreciation, and wondered aloud if it was not the secret wish of Narrowmindsky’s clique to ultimately invoke such a ban of free speech, outside the General Assembly. The angry glares directed at the Capt., from a core group among the assembled, was my first indication that hanging with Revo around this crowd may earn me an involuntary joy ride in a dark trunk to the killing fields.

The perceived need for a public pronouncement that we still retained our first amendment rights became an object of recurring mirth over the next few days...as did the content of the Sexual Assault and Harassment policy itself. (More on that next time...)

Click here for part 1.
Click here for part 3.

Occupy Baltimore: The Good, The Bad, and The Callow

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Wed, 2 Nov 2011 17:11:00 -0400

Over the past month, I’ve been spending a lot of time down at the Occupy Baltimore protest down in McKeldin Square, across the street from the Inner Harbor. Several days out of each week in October, I was at the protest: participating, observing, and often inadvertently irritating the thin-skinned leaders of the local leaderless occupation. Like the Revolting Protester shown here, I risked, if not life and limb and unwanted back touching, then at least being called a dirty hippie by someone. I endured outrageous demands to “Get a fucking job,” although I have no experience in the sex industry.

The Revolting Protester (image credit: dorothyadele)

I support the general spirit of what’s happening nationwide, the movement that began with Occupy Wall Street in New York. It’s long overdue to see Americans getting out in the street to protest the sale of our democracy to corporate interests, and the hijacking of our government by the wealthy elite that the Occupy movement is calling the 1%.

Banks receiving government bailouts, while ordinary Americans are losing their homes in record numbers, is simply wrong. From that standpoint, I applaud everyone who has taken to the streets as part of this movement. I sincerely do.

The local Occupy Baltimore protest, however, has often been a cogent real life example of how NOT to seek consensus, how NOT to get people involved, how NOT to relate to the media, and how NOT to present a coherent message about anything. At times there have even been moments of clarity and sanity, in spite of the local movement’s callow self-appointed leadership.

In the coming days, I’ll examine a bit of what went wrong, and what sometimes, almost accidentally, went right.

Click here for part 2.
Click here for part 3.

Part 2 of My Guest Post at The Oxford Astrologer

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Fri, 7 Oct 2011 15:27:00 -0400

Part 2 of my guest blog post about Venus is up at The Oxford Astrologer. Check it out!

My guest blog today on "The Oxford Astrologer"

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:23:00 -0400

I was recently invited to write a guest blog post about Venus, at "The Oxford Astrologer." It's going to be a 2 part piece, and the first part is up today. It's about the Goddess of Love and the Golden Ratio. Check it out!

Coalition of Candidates Calls Election Wired

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:23:00 -0400

A coalition of candidates for the office of City Council President held a press conference today to protest the lack of public debate in the race for the office of City Council President. There have been fifteen mayoral debates, many of them televised, and not a single one for the second highest office in the City. Candidates for City Council President formed a coalition, after they realized their voices were being silenced.

The candidates said that the single scheduled debate for them had been canceled after the recent earthquake, when the City put pressure on the Pratt Library to close that evening, even though the building was sound. The debate was not rescheduled.

Candidates Tom Kiefaber, Leon Hector, Armand Girard, and Renold B. Smith were present at the conference. Two other candidates, Charles U. Smith and David Anthony Wiggins, had signed up to suppor the coalition, but were unable to appear at the press conference.

The 3 minute highlights video is here:

Press Conference:

Q&A:

Fair Share Challenge: What Taxes Do For Me

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:16:00 -0400

This post is in response to a blogger challenge from my friend Isy. She was fed up with millionaires who don't want to pay their fair share of taxes, as well as tea baggers who say silly things like "Get your filthy government hands off my Medicare!" She decided to write a post about her life, putting in boldfaced type anything that is funded or subsidized by taxes (federal, state, or local). I hope lots of bloggers take up the challenge and it makes its way all over the internet.

Now, some of you may know I have been critical of local government corruption in Baltimore, particularly when it comes to the degradation of The Senator Theatre, which got very limited funding when Tom Kiefaber was running it, but just got a lot more funding now that Baltimore City has taken it over and chosen some politically connected cronies to run it. It's important to be aware of it and speak out when tax dollars are being misused and public officials are acting inappropriately, but we all also have a lot of things to be thankful for that are funded by taxes -- things we almost couldn't live without.

Yesterday, I drove by city streets to Whole Foods, where I bought yummy stuff to eat. Many of the farmers who grew it probably received subsidies. Perhaps Whole Foods received subsidies as well, to build their store there. I know they have received such government help in other communities. Everything that was for sale at the store had conveniently arrived there on trucks that traveled over highways and city streets. Thank heavens for that, because I wouldn't want to shop at a store with empty shelves!

After I went to Whole Foods, I drove over more city streets to get to the farmer's market. Lots of delicious stuff there for sure! It was a lot of driving that day, but luckily, my car doesn't use much gasoline.

Tonight, my friend is coming to visit me, and she's arriving at Penn Station by Amtrak. Maybe while she's here, we'll visit the art museum, which we enjoyed last time she was here. Or maybe we'll go to the Inner Harbor and see the aquarium or the U.S.S. Constellation.

Later this year, I'm going to Massachusetts. I'll be using the interstate highway system to get there. It would be a pretty circuitous and maybe impossible route if it weren't for all those bridges built in the 1930s by the WPA. All of that infrastructure is getting quite old now, yet we all still rely on it every day. I often see Department of Transportation workers out on the highways and bridges fixing them. The resulting traffic jams are a bit of a pain, but it would be even worse if they never got repaired! Getting the funding to repair our nation's infrastructure is a continual political challenge, largely because of arguments in Congress like the one last week, where some people thought it was more important to subsidize Bill Gates and Dick Cheney and other wealthy people than to fund basic programs that benefit us all.

My sister just got a job working for the school system. Her kids are being educated in the same school system. Her husband works at a non-profit. My other sister works for a public university. Her ex-husband works at a library. My parents used to work at a different public university, but now they're retired. They're getting social security and Medicare. I hope those things are still available when I'm their age.

I've started selling things online, which I love so far. It means I can work from home, but sometimes I have to go to the post office to put things in the mail. I used to work for various corporations, but then I got injured. I'm glad I was able to get state disability and worker's comp, but it's a good thing I didn't have to rely on them entirely, and had savings, because they wouldn't have been enough. I'm thankful too that there's still some government regulation of the banking industry or my savings and my retirement fund would probably be long gone.

It's a struggle to start a new career, and I'm no longer receiving any disability, but fortunately, I haven't had to go on food stamps or anything like that. It's nice to know they'd be there if I needed them. I wonder if I would qualify for any government grants for small business, but I haven't looked into it.

I don't know what the corporations I used to work for would have done without public schools and public universities. Even with those systems providing them with skilled and trained workers, they were still having a hard time finding enough people with the right skills.

I have cousins who are in various branches of the military. I hope those who are still serving stay safe.

I've had a couple of friends who had to go to hospitals recently. I'm glad they got good care.

I also want to note my gratitude for electricity. Without it, I'd be writing this with a pen by candlelight, and you'd have trouble reading it.

UPDATE: The Fair Share Challenge now has its own blog!

Tom Kiefaber's letter to CHAP

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 18:11:00 -0400

Former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber copied me and also several others, including reporters for the local media, on this letter to Baltimore City's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) before their meeting today. I have asked for and received permission to distribute it.

Dear Ms. Kotarba and Mr. Leon: Please pass on my protest over the manner in which today's CHAP hearing is being conducted to the commissioners. I will also attempt to forward this communication to them individually as well. To proceed on this matter today under these circumstances is improper, as I elaborate below.

Sincerely, Tom Kiefaber

August 9, 2011

Dear Chairperson and CHAP members:

I am writing in my capacity as the former owner of Baltimore's once-beloved and currently degraded Senator Theatre and as an award-winning professional in the field of historic theatre operation and preservation.

It has become apparent through manipulation of the courts by way of a "Peace Order" that Ms. Kathleen Cusack, a key representative of the tenants seeking CHAP concept approval of a fourth new iteration to significantly alter The Senator Theatre, has tactically barred my in-person participation and testimony in today's CHAP commission hearing. My lawyer has advised me not to attend or risk arrest.

Today's CHAP hearing represents the forth major change in the "competitive" RFP plan awarded by the City of Baltimore, and it has become a fundamentally different project from what was approved by the BDC on behalf of the citizen owners of the renowned National Historic Landmark facility. Today's CHAP commission hearing is auspicious in that it represents a significant departure from prior CHAP approvals of three earlier concept plans for significant modification of The Senator Theatre.

From the incomplete set of drawings I was provided by CHAP staff upon request, it appears that the applicants have chosen to take the oft-delayed project in a disappointing direction by converting the remarkably intact historic structure to create a cramped and substandard four-screen film multiplex. This current direction of the controversial project is alarming, considering the ongoing seismic changes in the motion picture exhibition industry that have rendered such modified re-configurations of National Historic Landmark theatres as outmoded, costly folly. The truncated and incomplete schematics I was provided by CHAP staff show a plan that will effectively desecrate an irreplaceable and celebrated historic structure in myriad ways.

In seeking a viable alternative to my in-person testimony regarding this latest modification, which the the surrounding business and residential community has not yet been apprised of, I requested on their behalf a simple set of plans and renderings to review. I was planning, in my former capacity as the long term former independent owner and steward of the Senator Theatre, built by my family in 1939, to be able to submit to the commissioners a clear, well-reasoned written list of informed observations and valid objections to the plans being considered for concept approval at today's CHAP hearing.

Unfortunately, as often occurs surrounding past hurried CHAP meetings regarding The Senator, I was not supplied any complete and up-to-date information, and what I received also contained no second floor plan at all, nor the details of existing exterior openings, cut-throughs, fire exits, materials and elevations required to evaluate the plan.

At 11:15 am today a fuzzy image appeared by email that was useless to me, particularly with a written submission deadline to CHAP, at at noon. The additional material I requested prior to today from CHAP was also requested by me from designer Alex Castro personally. What just arrived from CHAP staff are crude electronic images that are wholly insufficient to comprehend.

In light of the factors listed above, and the highly-charged significance of this oddly convoluted, public/private profit-sharing joint venture project intending to modify one of the most intact and celebrated motion picture theaters of its type remaining in America, I respectfully request that today's CHAP hearing on The Senator be postponed for cause.

Please note as well that today's hearing is inexplicably listed on CHAP's online agenda and in the document I was provided by staff as being submitted by my Senator Limited Partnership, which no longer owns the theatre.

Please postpone and re-scheduled the CHAP hearing to allow the public and myself to actively participate in an open and transparent agency process that is accountable to, and respects the rights of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre.

Sincerely, Thomas Kiefaber

My Comments for Today's CHAP Meeting on The Senator Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 12:40:00 -0400

I am unable to attend today's meeting of Baltimore City's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), which will consider the 4th significantly changed plan for The Senator Theatre submitted by the new operators in about a year. Instead, as one of the founding members of Friends of The Senator, I submitted my comments by email as follows:

Comment to be placed in the public record

Baltimore City CHAP:

The Senator Theatre is an important, largely intact and rare example of art deco/art moderne theater design by Baltimore-born theater architect John Zink. It is a precious component of Baltimore City’s built environment, which once lost, could never be replaced. It has been recognized nationally as an important monument on the National Register of Historic Places, and as such, it belongs not only to all citizens of Baltimore, but all citizens of the United States, the world, and future generations.

Thoughtful and well-planned preservation of historic buildings of the caliber of The Senator is essential for any metropolitan area that aspires to be both livable and a worthy destination for tourists.

It’s too early to make any informed decision on the latest plan submitted by City’s appointed lessees of The Senator, which is the 4th significantly different plan they’ve submitted in about a year. This new plan has not been seen by the public, and the plan that was submitted to CHAP, as of a few days ago, is nonsensical and incomplete, missing elevations and exit doors. It turns the historic theatre into a poorly planned multiplex and winebar, and still includes a proposal to mutilate the facade’s sight lines.

This has been the pattern all along: the new operators have submitted poorly thought out, incomplete plans which have slid by every approval stage of the process at the City level. Later, when they find out the plans won’t work, those plans change.

The BDC’s choice of a new operator, without any significant or legitimate input by either the public or historic theatre preservation professionals, has been a disaster so far.

The promised increase in traffic to the theatre has not materialized, nor do the numbers thus far support the suggestion that traffic will increase as promised once the project is complete. There comes a point where even exponential growth will not be enough, and this project is never going to attract the approximately 1,000 visitors per day attendance level that was projected in the original proposal to the City.

Worse yet, the theatre is not being adequately maintained. Marquee lights that burn out are left off for months. When parts of the aged neon go out, they are not reconnected. Graffiti is ignored and left to metastasize on the building’s exterior. The inner lobby is now painted an inappropriate color, found nowhere in the original design. A large plastic chute that was used in roof work to funnel debris to a dumpster is left hanging off the building, flapping in the breeze for months after the work was completed and the dumpster hauled away. The place looks like a dump.

The new operators have also shown beyond a doubt that they do not possess the aesthetic, historic, or design sensitivities to do an appropriate restoration. They initially proposed tearing out the original Ladies’ Lounge, a signature feature of Zink’s design for the building. This mutilation would never have been proposed by anyone with a real appreciation of the building’s design.

When that proposed change didn’t fly, for reasons that were obvious to everyone but the new operators and the BDC, they submitted a series of changed proposals. The one they submitted to the Maryland Historical Trust, in an attempt to get historic tax credits, was rejected by MHT, apparently due to its proposed mutilation of the building’s sight lines on the facade and/or its proposed mutilation of the original Men’s Lounge.

Perhaps unbeknownst to most of its members, Baltimore City’s CHAP commission has already done immeasurable harm to the future preservation prospects of The Senator Theatre, when it succumbed to ill-advised direction, apparently from Commissioner Robert C. Embry, in 2009, and placed ill-timed and probably unconstitutional interior landmark restrictions on The Senator Theatre, just in time to drive down the theatre’s value at auction, scaring off viable interested parties. This enabled Baltimore City to accomplish a land grab of The Senator from its former owner, Tom Kiefaber – a man who had made planning for and gathering the resources for the eventual judicious and top-notch restoration and preservation of the theatre his consuming passion and the number one priority in his life for over 20 years.

CHAP thus succeeded in handing The Senator Theatre over to the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), a body that is notoriously anti-preservation.

That Mr. Kiefaber was brutally harmed over a decade, and not helped in his determination to preserve The Senator, by the BDC and the Abell Foundation, is a permanent stain on the records of those organizations, to their everlasting shame.

The CHAP Commission is also tainted in this matter. It’s rife with conflicts of interest, since Mr. Embry, who has long worked to undermine Mr. Kiefaber, and Mr. Cusack, the new operator chosen by the BDC, are both on the board.

This Commission has been rendered incapable of making any decision regarding The Senator that will not be tainted by its politicized record.

I’m through with pretending that The Senator Theatre was acquired from its former owner by a legitimate process, put through a legitimate RFP process by the BDC, and is now being put through a legitimate design review process. I’m not going to give lip service to those falsehoods any longer.

None of this is legitimate. It’s all been one big shameful corrupt fiasco from the beginning. As one of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre, I reject this body’s authority to make any decision that will allow any modification of The Senator Theatre by the current operators, who have clearly shown that they don’t deserve the honor.

The only legitimate decision that CHAP could make, in my opinion, is to put a moratorium on ANY changes to The Senator until such time as Baltimore City’s lease to the current operators is revoked, and a legitimate historic theatre planning process is done by real, nationally recognized professionals in the field, with the full input of the former owner and the community. Anything less is a travesty and a shame.

Signed,

Laura Perkins
Friends of The Senator Theatre

City Hall Revokes Kiefaber's Constitutional Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 22:03:00 -0400

In a bizarre and illegal move, Baltimore City officials have banned former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber from attending public meetings at City Hall in clear violation of his constitutional rights.

Mr. Kiefaber has never harmed anyone and is not a physical threat, but City Hall officials clearly do not like what they think he might say. Kiefaber made one spontaneous peaceful protest at a City Council meeting and was thrown out. A week or so later, he was thrown out of a Board of Estimates meeting he had sat in for 40 minutes without saying a word and without doing anything, apparently because city officials thought he might have an opinion about the next item on the agenda, the West Side "Superblock" project.

The Baltimore Sun appears to be in collusion with City Hall on this, as I will illustrate below. When I saw the Sun article, which does not include a quote from Kiefaber, a hunch told me to call Kiefaber and find out what happened.

My call quickly confirmed that the Baltimore Sun had received the letter from City Solicitor George A. Nilson, but Kiefaber had not received it. When Kiefaber got a late Saturday afternoon call from the Sun about a letter he did not have, he questioned Sun reporter Tricia Bishop about why they had the letter and he did not. Bishop told him that Nilson had sent it to an address in Sparks, Maryland, where Kiefaber has not lived for over a year.

Bishop asked Kiefaber for a quote over the phone, but given Kiefaber's experiences over many years with the Sun, which has a pattern of either not quoting him or twisting his words and cherry picking the most negative part of his words out of context, Kiefaber insisted on putting the quote in writing. Kiefaber says Bishop then got miffed and wrote in her article that he refused to comment.

After the Sun article came out this afternoon, Kiefaber called the Sun and spoke with Steve Kilarp, who appeared to see that an injustice had been done and promised Kiefaber that if he sent him a quote in writing, he would make sure it got into later editions of The Sun. Kiefaber sent Kilarp the following quote in email:

I appreciate an opportunity to comment on this article for later editions of The Sun. Ms. Bishop reports incorrectly that I refused comment. That is not true. I merely insisted on providing prompt answers to her questions, in writing, a methodology that Ms. Bishop refused to indulge. She was apparently miffed and proceeded to mischaracterized my position in her error-laced article.

Rather than update the article as promised, however, someone at the Sun apparently decided they did not like the quote he sent them, and instead updated the article with the following lie in bold print:

Kiefaber refused to make a comment on the letter or criminal summons by phone, saying he preferred to do so in writing. No written statement had arrived late Saturday. He also said that The Sun was not covering him fairly.

Kiefaber then called the Sun again and spoke to Content Editor Andy Rosen. Kiefaber asked Rosen why the Sun had not printed the comment he sent them, and had instead lied and said he did not send a comment. Rosen told him they were not going to update the article.

Kiefaber also asked Rosen to meet with him to discuss the pattern of the Sun's documented smear campaign against Kiefaber. Rosen said no and hung up the phone, according to Kiefaber.

The Sun's article also falsely states that Kiefaber was recently escorted out of The Senator Theatre. I was there. Kiefaber came out on his own. Nobody escorted him. Kiefaber also called the police himself after his argument with the new operators.

Kiefaber Agrees to Six Months in Heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:16:00 -0400

Is it a punishment to agree to stay away from what unfortunately seem to be two of the worst run movie theaters in the city for six months? Methinks not.

Given how difficult it must be for Tom Kiefaber to see The Senator being degraded day by day by the questionable management skills of the new operators, I'm assuming he welcomes today's agreement that he will not go to The Senator or the Charles Theater for six months.

Boo fuckin' hoo, y'all!

The agreement comes after Kiefaber tried to intervene to protect a child with leukemia, when Kathleen Cusack had apparently decided to deny the boy's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The resulting argument left the Cusacks with a fine opportunity to complain to the press about the man who once ran The Senator with a style and panache the Cusacks seem unable to approach or even comprehend. Their frivolous complaints look like an obvious political maneuver to harm Kiefaber's candidacy for City Council President.

Yawn. At least TK won't have to look at the marquee that the Cusacks can't seem to keep lit.

Cusacks Said To Violate ADA By Failure to Accomodate Sick Child

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:38:00 -0400

My previous post revealed that at the opening midnight show of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, the management of The Senator Theatre, at the direction of Kathleen Cusack, refused to provide space in one of The Senator's upstairs party rooms for a kid who has leukemia and a compromised immune system as a result. Instead, the sick patron had to sit in the packed auditorium, full of germs and viruses, if he wanted to go to the show, even though Cusack said nobody was using the party rooms that night.

I stated in my last update to that previous post that I suspected this was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That previous post has gotten quite long, with several updates, so I wanted to post a new one now that it seems I was right about that. I checked with Isabel Tifft, a retired RN who has extensive experience with disability law. This was her reply:

The text of the law states that, where reasonable accommodation can be made without excessive cost or burden, then the public facility (including restaurants and movie theatres) is required to provide that accommodation without additional cost to the person with the disability. In other words, they still have to pay to get in, but they shouldn't be charged extra for using the party room.

-Isabel Tifft, RN (ret./dis.)

Since Kathleen Cusack stated that nobody was using the party rooms that night, they were apparently obligated under federal law to accomodate the child's medical needs, and at no extra cost to the child's family.

Cusacks refuse to accomodate sick child, file restraining order against Kiefaber

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:46:00 -0400

The Baltimore Sun has just reported that Kathleen Cusack, one of the new operators of The Senator Theatre, have filed a restraining order to keep Tom Kiefaber away from the theatre he was the proud and loyal steward of for over 20 years. In typical Baltimore Sun fashion, they neglected to report the other side of the story, when it comes to Kiefaber.

I was there when the incident happened. Here's the comment I posted on the Sun's article, although it has come to my attention that it's somewhat misleading, and I address that in the update below.

laurajperk at 1:23 PM July 16, 2011
I was a witness to this incident. Kiefaber was attempting to protect the health of a sick child, who had been advised by his doctor not to sit in the auditorium at the Harry Potter midnight show, because he has leukemia and has no immune system left.

The boy in question had apparently been to all previous Harry Potter midnight shows at The Senator and was determined to attend. The Cusacks had been asked to accomodate the boy's medical needs by allowing him to use the upstairs party rooms, which would have separated him from bathing in the sea of germs in the auditorium. The Cusacks refused.

Kiefaber was there because he was outraged by this lack of concern for this boy's welfare. His intention was to persuade the Cusacks to reconsider. The incident got out of hand primarily because of the Cusack's unbelievable lack of concern for the kid's health.

There are emails that have been circulated between one of the child's parents and Kathleen Cusack that substantiate the reality of this situation. I will not quote them at this time, because I have not spoken to the family. In them, Ms. Cusack changes her story about why it is impossible to accomodate the child's medical needs several times.

Also, I did not follow Kiefaber into the building, but it's my understanding that the shoving was begun by the staff of The Senator, attempting to shove him out the door. Hopefully more on this will surface later.

UPDATE: I realized that my comment on the Sun site earlier had given some people the mistaken impression that Kiefaber was angry when he went into The Senator. That's not what I intended to convey. In fact, he was in a good mood when he went in, because he believed he had worked it out with some members of The Senator's staff (not the Cusacks) that they were going to go ahead and accomodate the kid's medical needs. He simply went in to ensure that this was in fact happening. It was when he found out that they intended to let the kid just sit there in the auditorium, being exposed to countless germs, that he got mad.

UPDATE #2: Kiefaber has now posted at least some of the email exchanges between the parents and the Cusacks, which were forwarded to him, in comments on the Sun site. He had sent them to the Sun, but the reporter refused to report on them, and slammed down the phone, apparently when the story stopped fitting her preconceived agenda.

UPDATE #3: Some of the info Kiefaber has posted in comments on the Sun site below:

PART 1 The reporter just told me she is "finished with this story" and slammed the phone down. The Truth hurts so I wioll now post the information she's chosen to ignore.

Adam,

I understand that it is within my rights , in order to defend my self & my actions tonight at The Senator, to put the email exchange between us that I originally placed [within the exchange in writing] , off the record, on the record and release it if I care to do that. Presently that appears my only option to insure that the truth is adhered to in this needless drama,.this situation is absurd, and should never have gotten to this.

I was assaulted tonight at The damn Senator Theatre! Unbelievable. It's a real drag Adam. I simply tried to advise you, dammit, in good faith to just help this kid above all else, that's all, be Solomon remember? as you should note when you review your copy of the correspondence. It just didn't happen.

I was simply was in neighborhood tonight, in my district after campaigning all day, and stopped by the theatre line outside to renew od friendships etc. Then decided, for sound night's sleep, really, that's what I was thinking when I wandered into the outer lobby at around 10:30 to reassure myself that wisdom prevailed and the young man was safely in one of the lounges, where he wanted to be anyway. I was shocked, dude, when it was like, get out! What do you want?

PART 2
I just wanted to know that it all worked out, and that the kid who was so ill was not being exposed to that invisible cloud of airborne virus and bacteria from a packed house when he NEEDED TO BE UPSTAIRS, before they let the crowd in. He has leukemia and his immune system is hardly there , if you recall. It's just that cut and dry, possibly life or death cut and dry. As you know, his doctors as Sinai forbade him to go at all !! Nada. And the management said there were 870 people in there. That's too packed. 870 in there is cheek to jowl. Starting to see this nightmare shaping up? Well I sure did, and I was trying to reason with a blank wall of go away.

So when all these hundreds of patrons were rolling into the auditorium coughing and shedding virus and bacteria, i am thinking of this very sick kid with no immune system is now stuck in there for OVER THREE HOURS, in a sold out show, I got a little jiggy wid it.

Alarmed and frustrated is more like it, at the abject s u p i d i t y of it all.

Part 3

So it became a bit of a scene, after I was treated very rudely for my simple, smiling inquiry. Then words were exchanged I was jostled and taunted by someone named "Chris", who was not even staff as far as I could tell. Like a friend of the staff. I plan to file assault charges on him in the morning downtown if I figure out who he is and how to do that. . I have never been treated like that anywhere, particularly there.., the guy really jammed me. Seriously.

Words were exchanged , I used some profanity, and then was assaulted by a few staff, [I'm OK] and the Chris guy in particular, and then screeched at by Katheen Cusack in my Face with, "the kid's sitting down stairs, That's it! Now please leave our building immediately".

Lounge A and B were both sitting empty. EMPTY. It was one of the most pointless, stupid and shamefully, dangerous things I have ever seen in 35 years running motion picture theatres, 25 of them winning award running the The Senator as professional, and not as a look-what-daddy-got-me-toy to now dangerously mismanage. And that's the truth. And you know it too.

From my informed perspective, the management of The Senator tonight committed some form of criminal negligence, of the most arrogant and stupid kind.

A very unpleasant end to an otherwise great day of campaigning.

Tom

[my account above was sent by me to a patch reporter.

PART ONE [of 2] of my email sent to reporter/slacker Julie B. earlier today.

Julie,

There's more that's even worse but I don't want to hit the inbox too hard. That should keep you busy for a bit digesting what really is going on here. I am incredulous that filed this action against me. All I can figure is that they thought the Sun may do with it what's been down so far and not tell the real story because I have been accused of assult. Let's see what ensues.

By the way, she says they sold 870 tickets? to The Senator for the midnight show. If they did as KC states, you would need the lounges to seat the overflow. The Senator only reported 750 tix sold to Warner Bros. for that show. That's public record. That's a strange income discrepancy of over $1200 that Warner Bros. is apparently looking into. Something isn't right there. The film companies want each and every numbered ticket accounted for. Each Ticket!

Email to reporter Julie earlier today: PART two

So are they allowed to have people up there in the lounges or not according to the FD? That story keeps changing from KC. Kinda, no we can't for the midnight show, buuuut we will break the regs. later and slide him up, ignoring those FD safety regs when we can get away with it? ? What is all that about? . Please run that to ground. I would also check with the FD and find out is that is true or false, or what about new FD regulations on the Senator's mezzanine? Inquiring minds want to know. See where this leads? Gonna "go there"? I doubt it...

Regards, Tom

This

This email posted below was form Kathleen Cusack, and forwarded to me by those trying to arrange for the young man Sam, who has had his immune system wiped by chemo for a possibly lethal illness he was recently diagnosed with, sit upstairs for the special midnight premiere of HP at The Senator thrusday eve, I tried to stay out of this situation but got involved out of concern for the very sick young man's well being and fuiture.

Subject: RE: Help for a sick boy

good morning:

logistically we cannot accommodate your request to use the screening room at the midnight premiere. as you may imagine, it is sold out and it will be a mob-scene. there will be roughly 870 people there, who begin to line up for their seats around 9pm.

however, in the alternative we would like to suggest that perhaps sam and his mother come to the first scheduled matinee show that following friday or saturday afternoon.

we will need the full names of all of those that plan to come (in the event that he would like any friends to join them; we ask that there not be more than a total of 4)

additionally, they would need to arrive and be discretely seated upstairs one hour before the crowds arrive.

please let me know if you find this acceptable so that i can begin to make the appropriate arrangements.

regards,
kathleen

Note that in this one, she changed her story to it can't happen that night that the kid can go upstairs, when she initially said it couldn't happen because it was against Fire Department regs for anyone to be in the party rooms.

More from TK...

So the burning question remains, why wasn't this extremly vulnerable, ill young man not allowed upstairs Thursday night for his safety? The family was intially told it could not happen at all, because it was prohibited by the BCFD. What?

Then the story changed to what you see in the next post below. Then they were told by KC, it's OK but not for the critical midnight show? Too busy to bother with letting him upstairs that night. Really now?? and 870 tickets sold????. No, and that's a strange claim by KC. None of this fiasco in safe theatre management and operation adds up in my mind.

Ms. Cusack essentially lied to these folks multiple times, in writing, and so she was pissed that I found out about it. So she dug her heels in, the kid marinates in potentially lethal virus for three hours and I get a restraining order trying to do something about it when I found out what was up only after walking into the lobby that nigh to simply inquire about it?

Oh no. Not for this I should not be barred form the premisie. This upcoming hearing with the judge should be interesting. What do you bet The Sun does not meke it that day. Pinkie shake?

And to all who are judging me so harshy without any of these facts, what if it was your son in there? Would I be a loudmounth crazy man then?

Pitch to KC from the boy's family:Kathleen:Sam & his group have all their tickets for the premiere screening. The pediatric oncologists at Sinai got wind of Sam's HP plans & told us that seating him in such close proximity to so many others would be very dangerous, as his immune system is shot & his treatment regimen has made him vulnerable to contagious agents in a large crowd that would not be an issue if he was not so ill. Please allow me to hone in on the specifics of our request as I may not have been clear before. We are asking that only Sam & his mother, two ticketed patrons, be permitted at showtime to be seated in one of the the mezz lounges to enjoy the film screening. Sam is perfectly ambulatory & the concern is about his being so close to so many other patrons. His doctor nixed his being seated downstairs in close proximity for a two hour period, that's all. In that light we ask that you reconsider our request with those parameters. Hopefully with this clarification it will allow you & your staff to permit Sam & his Mom to enjoy this meaningful HP evening together on your theatre's mezzanine level, the two of them.Your compassion & assistance in this regard will be greatly appreciated by all concerned. Please let me know if I can supply any additional info per this request. The doctors are happy to provide verification of Sam's illness.

UPDATE #5:

A reader asks why it was necessary that the kid be allowed to go to the midnight show, instead of some other show. My guess is the refusal to accomodate him was a violation of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is huge, and I'm not a lawyer, but it prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in public places.

I would assume that this means that you can't discriminate against someone who has a disability caused by illness (in this case a disabled immune system), when it is possible to accomodate their needs.

The party rooms were empty, according to Kathleen Cusack. They could easily have accomodated the child's needs.

Furthermore, I don't think the ADA allows you to treat disabled persons as a second class of citizens and dictate, for example, what times they are allowed to be accomodated. If the kid wanted to come to the midnight show, and they could accomodate him then, I would think they were in violation of the ADA by not doing so.

http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm

Free Sample Menu from Emma's Pennsylvania Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:00:00 -0400

As any author eventually learns when publishing books independently, eventually you have to learn some marketing. I choose to look at that as an exciting opportunity, and I want to share what I'm learning with my fellow authors via this blog.

One good source of marketing tips is the Smashwords page on facebook.

The other day, they posted a link to this article by Michael Stelzner, which lists 9 ways to use social media to market a book. They all sound potentially useful, but I decided to start with one: creating a sample of my book in PDF form, and embedding a retweet button within it, so that people who like the sample can easily tweet about it. To learn how to do that, I followed the instructions in this other article. The only instruction there I didn't follow was to get Adobe Acrobat Pro, because actually, I found I didn't need it. I was able to embed the prepared tweet URL in a Word document, then save that as a PDF.

Here's the finished free sample chapter. Pretty cool!

Adventures in Independent Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:39:00 -0400

Over the past few months, I've been having adventures in the world of online self-publishing. I'd like to share my experiences, in case any of my readers is thinking of publishing their own books.

To start from the end and show you the finished product, after some trial and error, I decided it's important to publish my book on more than one site. I'm glad to have had a chance to do a dry run with my book of my Great Grandmother's Recipes, "Emma's Pennsylvania Kitchen," because I have at least 4 or 5 others books in mind and in various stages of writing and research.

Where to buy "Emma's Pennsylvania Kitchen":

In print, and also in PDF download at Lulu.

In many different formats of ebook at Smashwords.

For Kindle (MOBI file) at Amazon.com.

Initially, I published the book on Smashwords. This had been suggested by my Dad, who has also published books on Smashwords, here.

Dad has a long history of traditional publishing as a professor of American Literature, but more recently he's been writing memoirs, travel books, and comedy, and has turned to electronic publishing. Since he's been doing this longer than I have, I decided to take his advice, which I think turned out to be good advice.

My experience with publishing sites:

Smashwords is exciting for anyone who wants to publish an ebook, because they have technology that converts your Microsoft Word file into many different formats for use in different devices, including EPUB, which Smashwords says is their most popular and most important format, and makes your book available for the Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, and "most e-reading apps," also MOBI (for Amazon's Kindle), also HTML, PDF, RTF, LRF (for older Sony readers), and Palm Doc (PDB). If your book conforms to their exacting standards, they make it available on many different partner sites, as part of their Premium Catalog. Publishing on Smashwords is free for authors, and you set the price of your ebook yourself.

Getting into the Smashwords Premium Catalog is no cinch, however, and currently takes a long time. Smashwords recently announced they have hired some new people to try to clear the backlog. My book has been on Smashwords for over a month, and still has not made it into the Premium Catalog, although I assume it will eventually be eligible, once I fix any formatting issues. The book was on their site for over two weeks before they got back to me and said it had a formatting problem for EPUB, which I worked on right away and uploaded a new version. I think this one is complete, but I'm still waiting to hear back from them.

One of the things I like about Smashwords, apart from the conversion into multiple formats, is that they seem to be genuinely eager to help independent authors. Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, has gotten back to me quite quickly on a couple of occasions with answers to questions I had submitted (through their customer support link at the top of the page on their site).

The author profile pages on the site are another way that I think Smashwords is very helpful -- they allow you to link to your web site, facebook, twitter (complete with a feed of your recent tweets) and even allow you to link to where you have your book available in print or audio book -- something they might be expected to view as competition, but instead, they take the more author-friendly approach.

Perhaps the downside is that, since they convert your book into so many different formats, they have very exacting standards for the format of your Word file going in. If you haven't followed their Style Guide carefully, you're likely to run into conversion problems. This seems a small price to pay for getting your book into so many formats, but I can see how it may be daunting to some authors.

While I've been waiting to get into the Smashwords Premium Catalog, I noticed that a facebook friend had simultaneously published her book about Tarot cards on Smashwords and Amazon.com. I wondered how she did that, since Smashwords does not currently make books available on Amazon.com, so I made it a priority to find out.

It turns out that Amazon lets independent authors publish for their Kindle device through their Kindle Direct Publishing site.

Publishing on Kindle Direct is free for the author. You can set the price of your ebook yourself, but it must have a minimum price of 99 cents. (Smashwords allows you to publish free books.) If you publish your book on Kindle direct, it will only be available in Kindle format (free apps are available for reading on other devices, such as your PC).

The benefits of publishing on Kindle Direct are that your book is available from one of the biggest online book retailers in the world, and that it's available very quickly.

My book only took about 48 hours to become available on Amazon, after I had uploaded it. However, I ran into a strange problem where, immediately after I had uploaded the book, I found something minor that I didn't like about the file I had uploaded. Instead of being able to upload a corrected version immediately, I had to wait for Amazon to approve the one I had already uploaded, which I knew had a problem. Only then did the link become available to upload a new, corrected version.

Another pitfall of publishing on Kindle Direct is that the process of preparing your book for upload is not all that straightforward, and they have buried the most relevant instructions, so that they are very difficult to find on their site. (Click the link in the previous sentence to read them.)

Now I had my book published on Smashwords and Amazon.com, so I was happy. I had a vague thought that some people may want traditional paper books, but I was so happy with the Kindle for PC app that I had downloaded from Amazon.com that I was getting used to ebooks very quickly. I incorrectly assumed this would be an easy switch for most people.

Not long after I had published the ebook versions, I ran into a friend of mine, who asked me when "Emma's Pennsylvania Kitchen" would be available in print. I told her I wasn't sure that it would be, because it was my impression that most self-publishing sites that make paper books available, do so at a premium to the author. I was aware that in most cases, self-published books are not big sellers (unless the author also becomes a successful marketer), so it's usually foolish for an author to spend hundreds of dollars up front to publish their books. Having looked into some of the vanity presses out there a bit, I was aware that on many of them, hundreds of dollars is what you pay. My friend told me she's definitely a paper book person, however, so I decided to look into it more and see if there wasn't an exception somewhere.

I had been a site visitor to Lulu.com before, and I knew that they at least claimed you could publish on their site for free. I had also heard people express the opinion that this wasn't really true. I decided to investigate.

Actually, it turns out that publishing a paper book on Lulu is almost free.

The truth is, you can upload a book and publish it for free on Lulu, but if you want them to distribute it to Amazon.com and list your ISBN in major bibliographic databases, then you have to at least buy one copy as a proof copy (for printing cost plus shipping), which you have to approve before they do their distribution. Their Extended Reach distribution is then free (after you buy your proof copy), but more extensive distribution options are not free. I opted for the free extended reach distribution, because my ebook was already available in other places, and I just wanted to be able to give people a link to where they could buy a print copy.

Lulu is currently running a promotion where your proof copy is free, too.

Getting your book ready to upload on Lulu is fairly simple. Just use their downloadable Word template for the book size you choose, and you can easily format your text correctly. You may want to use their printing cost calculator (on the left margin of the linked page) before deciding what template to use. You don't want to design your book for a specific template and then find out the printing cost is too high.

The template downloads also include a cover layout template, so you can design your own cover. Unlike with the ebook publishing sites, for print books on Lulu, you need both a front and back cover, and a book spine. For less experienced users, they also have a book cover designer, but I'm not sure how well it works, because I designed my own cover in Adobe Photoshop.

Once you use their templates, the book conversion process is largely a matter of what you see is what you get. They say they prefer PDF uploads, but I uploaded mine as a Word document, and this worked fine. The one problem I ran into with the conversion is that I had left certain pages blank on purpose, so that chapters would start on odd numbered pages. They removed the pages I had left blank on purpose, so once I discovered that by looking at the PDF file they created, I had to go back into my Word document and put something on the pages that were blank intentionally, then upload the file again. It was quite easy, though.

Lulu shipped my proof copy to me quite quickly, and there were no problems with it, so I approved it for distribution. They say this will take 6 - 8 weeks.

Between the three sites, Smashwords, Amazon, and Lulu, I'm quite happy with the online availability of my book in various formats, at basically no cost to me as an author. This doesn't mean I'm expecting big sales, and one of my major goals is to learn how to market my writing better. It's a major feeling of accomplishment to have the book published on these three sites, though, and one I'm celebrating.

Why publish independently?

There used to be a stigma against self-publishing, but that is changing.

Traditional publishers can offer authors a certain level of proven marketing expertise, although authors generally still end up having to market their own books to a great degree. Traditional publishers are also pretty good at picking out books that meet a certain basic level of quality, so having a book chosen by them is an accomplishment. (Even if you think much of what gets published by corporate publishers is crap, at least most of it is saleable and edited well enough to be at least intelligible.)

Why self-publish, when I'm sure with a year or two or a few of effort, one or more of the books I have in the works could be accepted by a traditional publisher?

The simple truth for me is that I'm not big on accepting authority. I like to do things my own way. I like it a lot. Although I would welcome being published by a traditional publisher, I'm not inclined to seek their permission to publish. They act as gatekeepers. I've jumped over the fence.

At some point, I'm sure I will submit some work to traditional publishers, especially once I have established a proven sales record with self-publishing. For now, though, it seems more important to me to write and publish, not wait and wait. For me, independent publishing is empowering! That seems like a good enough reason.

It's official: Tom Kiefaber running for Council President

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Tue, 5 Jul 2011 20:22:00 -0400

I hear it's official. Former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber has now filed to be a candidate in the Baltimore City race for Council President. He's challenging incumbent Council President Jack Young.

This all comes after Kiefaber was recently removed from a Board of Estimates meeting pre-emptively. He had been seated quietly in the meeting for over 40 minutes, not saying a word, when the Board of Estimates took a break in the meeting to eject him from the room.

Apparently the next issue on the agenda was the West Side "Superblock" project, which Kiefaber has a strong opinion about. As an advocate for preservation of West Side historic buildings, Kiefaber was recognized by the New York Times about a decade ago for having turned the tide for West Side preservation, by screening a short film called "Baltimore's West Side Story." This seems to be where Kiefaber's political troubles with the downtown power elite began.

Changes of Directions

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Serena) — Mon, 6 Jun 2011 12:55:00 -0400

I haven't posted in a while. This is because another series of changes of directions is brewing in my life. I use the plural, because I tend to have so many interests and directions at once.

The latest is that I have published a collection of recipes by my Great Grandmother Emma Patterson on Smashwords. These came from six handwritten notebooks, which I've been transcribing and editing for some time now.

Also, I've been hard at work on arts and crafts and collecting lovely vintage things. My shop on Etsy.

The experience of trying to save the world, or even a very small, fragile, and beautiful part of it, has been so excruciating and frankly disastrous for the past few years that, while I continue to care about various causes, I will now be adjusting the balance of my life more toward enlightened self-interest. I think this is a good thing, and it's one I'm excited about!