Travel back with me to 1995… I’m a sophomore in high school. Likes include: hanging out with friends, eating soft pretzels and Hawaiian punch, and listening to the Violent Femmes while writing angry screeds in my journal. Dislikes include: the fact that I’m, like, related to my parents and four sisters. And church.
Now come with me to St. Rita’s annual youth group retreat, held at a camp in middle-of-nowhere Ohio. I’m here because the only way my parents would let me attend public school — as opposed to Catholic school — was if I agreed to regularly attend Youth Group. So I did. I actually kind of liked Youth Group. It wasn’t overly religious most of the time, and it leveled the social playing field; it was so unabashedly dorky that the usual rules of coolness simply did not apply. So me and my funny, goofball friends could express our innate coolness without worrying that some jock was going to pop out from around a corner and pants one of us.
“Rock Out to Walk Out” with The Ne’er-Do-Well
Join us this Friday, August 27th, at the Rock Out to Walk Out, a night of stories and music and beer to benefit ILWU Local 5 – that’s the branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union whose members are workers at Powell’s Books and Aramark. With the next round of contract negotiations coming up in 2011, the goal of the benefit is to raise money for the Local’s strike fund, which ensures that workers aren’t left destitute should a strike occur.
This night also celebrates the release of two fantastic projects:
THE NE’ER-DO-WELL presents a special issue of working-class stories that cast a fresh light on the absurdity, banality, and redemption of contemporary wage-slavery, and includes brand-new stories and essays from favorite local authors, including Willy Vlautin (Lean on Pete), Kevin Sampsell (A Common Pornography), Suzanne Burns (Misfits and Other Heroes), Gigi Little (Portland Noir), Chris A. Bolton (Smash!), and others.
L5Artworks presents the first volume of THE LITTLE RED ALBUM, a CD compilation of classic union protest-songs that have been given a modern makeover (which, since this is Portland, means they’re all wearing moustaches).
The CD and lit mag will both be on sale at the event — and all proceeds will go straight to the strike fund!
Here’s the deets:
What: ILWU Local 5’s Rock Out to Walk Out
Where: The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel (SW 10th and Stark, downtown Portland, Oregon)
When: Friday, August 27, 2010, 5pm-2am
Entertainment: Happy hour from 5 to 7pm, with music from the Bop Out to Walk Out jazz quartet and readings from THE NE’ER-DO-WELL (Kevin Sampsell, Sheila Ashdown, and Suzanne Burns). From 7pm to 2am, live music from General Strike, Nate Ashley and the Landlines, ¡Ay, Claudia!, Michael Ford, The Middle Ages, Shaky Hands, and DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid.
Admission: Sliding scale, $5-to-$5 billion