Bastardette has a lot to write about, but I’ll have a busy weekend with Comfest here in Columbus. Although the Bastard Nation tent became just too much of a hassle to do, I work each year at the Columbus Free Press wine tent. In a couple hours I’m off to help set it up.
Oppositional researcher and political analyst Chip Berlet will make two appearances at Comfest this Saturday. His schedule, according to the official Comfest program is:
4:25 PM – Bozo State (no subject)
6:30 PM – Solar Stage (Progressive Thought and Political Workshop)
Here is a partial bio of Berlet from the Public Eye.org
Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates (PRA), has spent over twenty–five years studying prejudice, demonization, scapegoating, demagoguery, conspiracism, and authoritarianism. He has investigated far right hate groups, reactionary backlash movements, theocratic fundamentalism, civil liberties violations, police misconduct, government and private surveillance abuse, and other anti-democratic phenomena. He is a lively speaker defending democracy and diversity. Berlet is co–author, with Matthew N. Lyons, of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, (Guilford Press, 2000), which received a Gustavus Myers Center Award for outstanding scholarship on the subject of human rights and intolerance in North America. He is on the advisory boards of the Defending Dissent Foundation, the journal Totalitarian Movements and Political Religion, and PRA’s Public Eye magazine.
The Columbus Free Press will also hold its monthly Salon at Comfest. Unfortunately it’s at 4:30 PM at the Solar Stage, at the same time as Berlet’s first talk.
There’s also some local open source media workshops that look interesting.
Finally, the amazing Linda Dachtyl (ldb3) is playing at the I Wish You Jazz stage at 5:00 PM on Saturday.
So much good stuff!
Go to the Comfest page for more!
Hey Marley, I think I told you I used to work for the Freepress? (from 76 to 86, took some time off to go broke in California, 1982-83)….we did the Comfest booth back when the festival was on 16th street/High St, we sold APPLE PIE (a little Americana joke there)… if my ex drops by, tell him I said hi! Also, my old-time best friends, Froggy and Margaret, also ex-staffers. I miss cowtown so much, you have made me SWOON with nostalgia.
Have a great time, it is one of my favorite places in the whole universe! 🙂
Well, there was a horrible storm on Saturday. I couldn’t find the Bozo stage and the Solar Stage was jammed with people seeking shelter. It was hopeless so I went home. The water on High Street was over my ankles I really wanted to hear Chip, but it was just such a hassle and I was drenched. I had an umbrella so I went up to High to catch a bus home. Guess what! COTA shut down service at ComFest. Could I make this up! They had a big sign up. The closest bus stop was at Nationwide Plaza!
I worked ComFest for the Wobblies when it was on 16th Street The second ComFest, I think. The one where Roshan Roland Kirk played for free. I met a guy whose dad was a friend of Big Bill Haywood.
Margaret (if you mean THAT Margaret!) is still around She was the president of the board for nearly all the years I’ve been on it That term finally expired, but she’s still on the board. I’ll say hello to her at the next meeting. Did you know Steve Conliff died. Suzie is now the OSU Bursar.
I wrote for the FP from about 1980-until that Daryl guy took it over. I came back a few years ago when I ended up on the board. Libby and I were good friends.
OMG, yes, I’ve written about Steve Conliff on my blog, one popular post is here–its even linked on Wikipedia! (preens)
I didn’t know you knew Libby well–if so, you probably knew my ex-husband, named Steve R(?).. .we lived in a collective household with Bill D, a Wobbly you might have known, played banjo and mandolin!
We’ve probably met before, I left town permanently in 1987. (Margaret was my best friend.)