The place where lost socks go...

On Sunday morning, I learned that Utah Phillips had died. He was a Joe Hill for our time, and the world is that much dimmer for his loss. I had been lucky enough to meet him and see him perform on four different occasions, most recently in Chicago 2005 at the Centenary celebration of our union -- the Industrial Workers of the World.

Fellow Worker, you will be missed!

It is June 27, 2005. One hundred years ago today, just a dozen or so miles from where I sit now, the Industrial Workers of the World was founded. Despite their omission from most high school history textbooks, the I.W.W. -- with its focus on industrial unionism, as opposed to the trade unionism of the A.F.L. -- played a strong role in the labor movement in the early twentieth century. And despite the rumors of its demise, the I.W.W. is still alive and kicking. Witness, for instance the first unionized Starbucks, which was organized under the I.W.W.

To honor the one hundred birthday of the I.W.W., a centenary celebration took place in Chicago this weekend. It began on Thursday evening, with a concert at the Hothouse featuring Utah Phillips (a Wobbly for fifty years now!) and John McCutcheon. I went to the concert with polymorphism, and we had a great time. I had not heard any of McCutcheon's music before, but I was impressed enough to purchase two of his CDs before leaving that night.

Then, over the weekend, an I.W.W. conference was held at the University of Illinois, Chicago campus. resourceress is in town, visiting for two weeks, and she went with me on Saturday. We attended a workshop on direct action, and another where the "new" old timers of the union remembered the "old" old timers through stories and some song. It was very inspiring, and the focus was not one of nostalgia but, rather, on keeping the momentum going into the future.

Saturday night, after the conference had ended for the day, there was another concert. This time, I attended with resourceress. There were many more performers this time, including Anne Feeney, Rebel Voices, Charlie King, and Len Wallace. For one of her songs, Anne Feeney sung a slow, sombre version of Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, which was quite the change from its usual tone. Utah Phillips also made a brief appearance, after the intermission and during the finale (which was the strangest version of Solidarity Forever that I hope to ever hear). For ten bucks, we got a concert and a songbook and all the pizza we could eat. One thing is certain: The Wobs certainly take care of their own. They have fed us for a thousand years!

Sunday, I went back to the conference alone, as resouceress stayed in to spend some time with the new baby kittens. I attended part of the keynote address, then a seminar on the Magna Carta and how it relates to current concerns, such as the privatization of the commons. At lunch, I met some Wobs from other cities, including one from Stockholm. I found myself in a long conversation with a philosophy student from Milwaukee that covered everything from physics to Tolkien and Tom Shippey. We exchanged contact info and I hope to go visit him at some point, bringing cheshcat along. After lunch, I attended a workshop on battling bad bosses; it had a strong emphasis on the local organizing drive going on here in Chicago. Good stuff. Finally, when all was said and done, I came home and collapsed, taking a nap to help recover from the long weekend!

I've been a fan of Utah Phillips's music and storytelling for several years now, ever since resourceress gave me a copy of The Past Didn't Go Anywhere. However, several attempts to see him perform live have failed: Last year he was in Chicago while I still lived primarily in Arizona; then he was in Arizona after I had moved to Chicago. Argh!

This past week, Utah came back to Chicago and I finally got a chance to meet him and see him perform. A few hours before the show, he met with me and half a dozen other Chicago members of the Industrial Workers of the World, which is the labor union that both he and I belong to. The IWW was founded in Chicago in June 1905, so we were discussing plans to celebrate the Centennial next summer. Looks like a big folk music concert (or two) will be part of it, and he is going to try to get Ani DiFranco to come out as well.

After that, we went for dinner while the sound check was taking place, then came back to see the show. His performance, of course, was excellent. I was unfamiliar with most of the material that he played, which surprised me because I have four of his CDs. No problem, though -- new music is a good thing. Utah told a number of stories, too, as he is wont to do; most of those I had already heard before. Some of the stories were more recent: His daughter Morgan had been in NYC for the RNC last week, and had also gotten arrested, so he talked a little about the conditions at Pier 57, where we had all been held.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased that I was in town this time when Utah came to perform. Since I seem to be travelling nearly half the time, that isn't something which can be taken for granted! He is performing next in Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow and I'll be driving up north to see that show, too.

Saturday was good. langs_place and I attended the annual Midwest Regional Wobfest, which was held in Chicago this year.

Sunday was not so good. The Queer/Trans Caucus of the Chicagoland Anarchist Network held a feeder march for the local Gay Pride Parade. It was my first Pride parade, and it reminded me why I've always avoided Pride before -- crass commercial assimilation. Gay Pride isn't about Queer activism; it is about corporate sponsorship and a middle-class street party. To make matters worse, there was a homophobic group marching in the parade itself with banners like "Homosexuality is a Sin" and "AIDS is not the disease, it is the cure." When we confronted these bigots, they physically attacked us. We defended ourselves... which resulted in three of our people getting thrown in jail and charged with felonies. How messed up is that?!? We got gay bashed at gay pride!

On the plus side of things, I got to curse Fred Phelps out to his face.

Anyway, if Pride wasn't bad enough, tonight cheshcat found out that her mother had died suddenly and unexpectedly sometime over the weekend. The call came late in the evening, as I was beginning to get ready for bed. Which is why I am still awake at nearly 4am. If you know cheshcat, please go write something nice in her journal.

As I said, this was really not a very good Sunday.

Arrived in Argentina safe and sound, thanks in part to the safety pin that resourceress clipped to my IWW shirt before we left the house yesterday morning.

Thankfully, the trip was not quite the thirty-one hour monstrosity that it was last time. Thanks to plentiful numbers of collaborators arriving on the same place, we decided to rent some taxis to take us from Mendoza to Malargue. This shaved about three hours off of the time it would have taken on a bus, so the trip was only a twenty-eight hour monstrosity.

For the record, this trip entails many parts:
#1) Taxi from home to O'Hare International Airport (0.5 hours)
#2) Flight from O'Hare to Miami International Airport (3.5 hours)
#3) Flight from Miami to Buenos Aires International Airport (9.5 hours)
#4) Bus from B.A. Int'l Airport to B.A. Domestic Airport (1.5 hours)
#5) Flight from B.A. Domestic Airport to Mendoza (2 hours)
#6) Ride in Taxi 250 miles from Mendoza airport to Malargue (5 hours)
OR
#6a) Take local taxi from Mendoza airport to Mendoza bus terminal (0.5 hours)
#7a) Take bus 250 miles from Mendoza to Malargue (6.5 hours)

This doesn't quite add up to 28 (or 31) hours, but that's because it doesn't account for all of the waiting time that inevitably takes place between consecutive steps.

The best part of the trip was finding out that my old friend, Kai Martens, has come down for the week. I had no idea -- he didn't mention it to people -- but I ran into him at the Mendoza airport. Kai was like an older brother to me when I was a young graduate student at SK, and it is always great to see him. He is not an Auger collaborator (yet?) but is here to talk about a competing experiment, the Japanese Telescope Array, and plans for using those resources in conjunction with Auger North.

Anyway, I'm here and I'm hungry and I'm tired. Meetings start at 9AM tomorrow, less than ten hours away. So it is time for a quick dinner, then sleep.

Zzzzzzzzz....

The Chicago branch of the Industrial Workers of the World meets on the first Friday of every month. Last Friday, I decided not to attend the meeting for this month, largely because resourceress had just gotten into town and I wanted to spend time with her.

Well, that will teach me to miss a meeting.

Last night, I got home and checked the answering machine. There was a message from the branch secretary, informing me that I had been nominated for branch treasurer. Yup, the old adage still holds: Those who are not present get nominated to do things. :)

I am inclined to accept the position, though I want to ask about what responsibilities come with it first.

This Friday, being the first Friday of the month, was the branch meeting of the Chicago Wobblies. Of itself, that is nothing special, but Lang agreed to go with me to this meeting. Although I've tried hard not to proselytize her, it has been ever more difficult as her job has increased her hours, reduced her sick days, and jerked her around. I don't like seeing workers treated like crap, especially when they are friends. So I've been trying to get Lang to see that she is not, in fact, Middle Class because the Middle Class is a myth, built on exploitation and designed to keep the more privleged faction of the Working Class content as the Employing Class jerks them around!

Anyway, the meeting went well on a number of levels. It was a good and productive IWW meeting, and Lang seemed to enjoy being there. It's not like she suddently felt the spirit of Joe Hill move her, causing her to join the union on the spot -- but she did say that she would go back to another meeting.

After the meeting, we went out with a college friend of Lang's who was visiting from Connecticut. It was fun; conversation consisted of old college stories, musings about Connecticut & New England, and much punning. Interestingly enough, he seemed impressed that I could quote Shakespeare.

Saturday afternoon was spent, at last, at the Museum of Science and Industry. A fun time was had by all [two of us]. I hatched plans to kidnap the baby chicks from their exhibit, as this would probably be easier than snatching a buffalo from work. It is a tad odd to see the juxtaposition of science AND industry, though. This changed the feel of the museum slightly, relative to other science museums that I have been to (e.g. Boston Science Museum, Liberty Science Center). I think that I like the pure science museums a bit better.

Now I'm off to install Linux on the new laptop, hopefully making it co-exist peacably with the pre-installed copy of Windoze 2000 Pro.