I'm back from Hollywood and would be happy to help distribute some of
the door hangers for Round 2. Again my suggestion is an area of the
city near one of the universities/colleges or where more younger
people live (e.g. cheaper rental housing, in the Tenderloin, Mission,
etc.). Hitting the dorms at SF State would be ideal, though we might
have to go "guerilla" to gain access to the buildings. Or we could
flier cars in campus parking lots -- no reason the fliers must be put
only on doorknobs.
* * *
Libertopia went splendidly, by the way. There were perhaps a couple
hundred attendees -- somewhat fewer than I thought might be there, but
not bad for a first event. It was certainly refreshing to have such a
hardcore lineup of radical libertarians and anarchists. Of the talks I
caught, my favorite was the one given by David Beito on "The Voluntary
City & Mutual Aid Societies". I highly recommend it to readers of this
list who are interested in the topic of historical liberty in San
Francisco (although he did not talk specifically about SF that I'm
aware of, he provided fabulous details on how many non-government
arrangements worked in the 19th and early 20th centuries). I couldn't
find the video of his talk online, but perhaps it will be at some
point. Of the people I hadn't met before, I was most impressed with
Peter Thiel (of Paypal fame) and Stefan Molyneux (an Irish-born
anarchist currently living in Canada). Anthony Gregory and David
Friedman also delivered their usual intellectually solid
presentations. I was most sorry to miss a talk by Angela Keaton and
other members of the Ladies of Liberty Alliance on turning temporary
autonomous zones (a concept of left-anarchist countercultural
philosopher Hakim Bey) into permanent autonomous communities -- if
anyone finds a recording of this online, please let me know.
For my own part, in addition to giving my talk against nationalism
(not videotaped so far as I know, but hopefully the audio recording
one attendee made will be available online at some point), I did two
radio interviews, with radio hosts Ernie Hancock (http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/077058-2010-10-15-declare-your-independence-with-ernest-hancock-afternoon-october-15th-2010.htm
- this link is currently down but should be working later) and Marc
Stevens (the segment should be here -- http://marcstevens.net/NSP-20101016.mp3
-- though I haven't listened through to find it yet), one TV
interview (Reason TV with Tim Cavanaugh -- not online yet that I'm
aware of), and conducted one amusing video interview myself -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5QRE9CQrVQ&feature=youtube_gdata
.
That video and its sequel, filmed on the fly by Drew of Reason TV,
also document an unfortunate incident where an overzealously
authoritarian volunteer staffer for the Hollywood Expo convention
(Star Trek and other fan stuff) tried to force me to leave the hotel
based on how I was dressed (in a short skirt). Hotel staff came to add
their weight to the demand, but in the face of resistance from a
number of Libertopians with video cameras, were eventually forced to
back down, to the great pleasure of myself and the many libertarian
activists who came to my defense! And since Libertopia and Hollywood
Expo were being run by the same folks (Sky Conway and Joyce Brand),
I'm happy to report that the power-happy staffer won't be invited back.
During the event's closing session, Sky indicated that next year's
Libertopia will be somewhere on the west coast, probably in October,
possibly in Santa Clara or Orange County. He also seems quite
receptive to my convention ideas, especially the possibility of an
outdoor festival-type event, and I hope to work with them on making
such an event happen.
* * *
I was also very happy with the KQED forum last night. About 25 in the
audience there, but I felt I did better than usual with my responses.
The moderator even mentioned non-government community schools after I
did (referring to my remarks as she did so). Following the event, a
reporter from the Chinese language newspaper World Journal interviewed
me very briefly, mostly just the basics. The forum, along with
questionnaire responses submitted by myself and other candidates are
supposed to be online this afternoon at PerformingArtsWorkshop.org.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))