Sunday, May 20, 2007

Lefty "Revival" Meetin' !

Its been kinda grim lately on the political-world scene, so I was looking forward to seeing Stephanie Miller, the frenetic, scatological and scathingly funny progressive radio personality, carried locally on 92.1, the Mic.

I had to wait a long time, it turned out. This was made more challenging since I brought my twelve year old son along with his twelve year old friend, both savvy enough to appreciate political and of course, scatological humor. (Hmmm, is this good parenting?)

The evening began with the program director of 92.1 reading the following week's programming schedule in its entirety (or so it seemed). Then we were shown a film by local film maker Luciano about the "resurrection" of The Mic from the evildoers at Clear Channel radio. It was a good film, albeit a bit lengthy. The boys and I generally enjoyed it. It got people fired up with its inspirational story line of grass roots activism.

Then, I naively thought, out would come Stephanie, the energy would continue to rise, we'd have some laughs and go home.

This, alas, was not to be the case. Instead, we were "treated" to a panel discussion. The panel included Matt Rothschild of the Progressive Magazine, John Nichols of the Nation, the station manager of Clear Channel in Madison, and Tom Kelly who I wasn't familiar with. The discussion was moderated by Stuart Levitan. So.......five WHITE MALES discussing and discussing and discussing. The 12 year olds were becoming restless. (uh oh) Most of the discussion was by Mr Levitan who evidently thought he was the star attraction, and not Ms Miller. The WOMAN who organized the massive petition drive to get The Mic back on the air was not on the panel. The WOMAN owner of the Dardanelle's, a major player in this "resurrection" was not on the panel. Of the panelists, only Mr Nichols drew attention to the fact that it was a group of all WHITE MALES on the panel. The 12 year olds were becoming more restless. In the words of my son "this sucks".

Mercifully, Mr Levitan brought things to an end. It took him five minutes to give his "concluding" remarks, but finally, finally we got to the main event. I was tired by then. It was 9pm. I noticed a lot of people looking at their watches during the panel. About a third of the packed house had escaped to the lobbyduring the panel. In the time-honored traditon of the Left in Madison, they get an excited, high energy crowd and drain the energy right out of them. When will this lesson be learned? If you're going to have a revival meeting, you don't stop for a Tupperware party in the middle.

FINALLY, Stephanie came out and did not disappoint the mulitudes of fans. She was very funny at times. Lots of stream of consciousness speaking. Reminding people that she came from a Republican family (her father was Barry Goldwater's running mate in '64) she told how when she criticizes Bush, her mom alway replies "he's doing the best he can". She quipped that if W was having sex with a sheep on the White House lawn, then set it on fire, her mom would say: "Well, honey, the sheep was cold. And lonely. And he's doing the best he can". Thunderous laughter. The twelve year olds were definitely getting into it. I guess this was a good thing. She had lots of commentary on Bush and got lots of laughs about all those right wing pundits. Her vivid, frightening, revolting description of what it might be like to be in bed with Rush Limbaugh nearly brought the house down. By now, the 12 year olds were paying even closer attention. Then, she took questions from the audience which was sometimes funny, sometimes pathetic. After an hour or so, she had the good sense to wrap things up and left the stage to thunderous applause.

Mr Levitan, apparently eager to soak up some of that applause, rushed out on stage and started speaking AGAIN. This time, though, people just bolted for the exits. He may still be talking. I don't know.

15 comments:

Suzy said...

Chuck, didn't you know? It's always ALL about Stuart Levitan, ALL the time. He's kind of the Bob Queen of lefty politics. Yuck.

I'm concerned though: Where was Norm Stockwell? Where was Allen Ruff? It wasn't the full compliment!

I like Matt Rothschild and think the world of John Nichols. (I enjoy watching his daughter wrap him around her little finger in the Market at supper time. Tee hee.)

But wouldn't you think that ONE PERSON organizing the event might notice the lack of racial and gender diversity?

You're right -- Madison's "left" can suck the life right out of anything.

Ed said...

You're absolutely right. The madison left could suck the life out of anything. And, have you noticed it's always the same white males? Or at least drawn from the same pool? They should have used the song "Impeach the Moron" to open their festivities and skipped the panel. Now, that would have been much more fun.

Suzy said...

"Impeach the Moron" -- good song!

poodledoc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
poodledoc said...

Here's my email exchange with Mr Levitan:

PoodleDoc wrote:

Dear Mr Levitan:

I attended the Stephanie Miller gig at the Barrymore. I don’t know who was responsible for the program, but I was dismayed to see a panel of 5 white males up on stage. What’s going on here? Why was this panel even necessary? Really? The film covered it pretty well, with an inspirational story line of some really cool grassroots organizing, by a number of women as well as men. None of those women were up there. But the question still remains: why did you have to have a panel? In the words of my 12 year old son, who came to see Stephanie, the panel “sucked”. He’s a harsh critic. Sorry.

Peace,
PoodleDoc


Mr. PoodleDoc
I am sorry you and your son didn't like the panel, but I had nothing to do with its development. My role was limited to what you saw -- introducing the participants and asking a couple of questions.
Race and gender aside, I trust you would agree that the four participants all had something important to say.
I will pass your comment on to the people who planned the event.
Yrs,
Stu Levitan

I don't think there's enough room on any stage for Allen Ruff AND Stu Levitan at the same time. They are busy trying to vie for the title of "Smartest White GUY in Madison". Well, that wasn't very Quakerly. I'll say something nice now. I did enjoy John Nichols and Matt Rothschild always impresses me as really bright, low-key and confident enough in himself that he doesn't go around trying to prove that he's a smarty-pants......

poodledoc said...

By the way, Ed, I would bet you a bratwurst that if you sent Stephanie Miller a copy of "Impeach the Moron", she'd play it on NATIONAL RADIO. Seriously.

Suzy said...

Last year Stu Levitan had an article in the Isthmus about the most influential Madisonians and -- guess what -- they were all white males! Maybe he had nothing to do with the organization of this event, but still, he's guilty of that peculiar brand of lefty chauvinism too.

Ed said...

You're on, Chuck. I hope you're not a vegetarian! I sent a copy of it to Air America's Randi Roads show (sorry, probably misspelled that) a year or more ago and, as far as I know, it's in a landfill somewhere right now. I even did the whole permission form thingy that they said they required. Anyway, I never heard from them.

poodledoc said...

yes, I remember that ponderous piece in Isthmus.....someone called him on it in the letters section the next week. (was that you?) I can't recall his response.....

Ed said...

P.S. Are Quaker's allowed to bet, even if it's only a bratwurst? How about a tofu brat?

poodledoc said...

Ed! Send it to Stephanie Miller, not Randi Rhodes! (no wonder it's in a landfill!) It will get played if you can arrange her to meet the man she refers to as "her future husband", Russ Feingold. You'll be even more famous than you are now!

poodledoc said...

Yes, Ed, as I understand it, Quakers are allowed to bet provided they do it silently, only bet with food items, and stay away from casinos. However, Quakers are sharply divided on the raffle issue. Some say this is wrong, others say it helps a good cause, so what if its sort of gambling? So, a meat or tofu brat is fine with me........

Ed said...

Okay, I e-mailed her associate producer regarding proper protocol for submitting a song. We'll see if it leads anywhere. I can almost taste that brat. AAAACK! It's a tofu brat! A tofu brat is just so, ummm, er, well, wrong!

Ed said...

How about a chilli tofu brat?

poodledoc said...

hmmmm....I remember eating "tofu pups" at a veggie friend's. Kinda like tofu hotdogs. I eat as low on the food chain as I can, but there's nothing quite like a partially charred, greasy, Wisconsin brat! As for a chili tofu brat, that's more PoodleDoc Jr's style. Just don't tell him its tofu.......the little carnivore....