"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Philly is the New Brooklyn

I like to think that the work I did in 03/04 in some way had it's Genesis in the spirit of Brooklyn of that time. It was a good place to live post-9/11 for the intersection of a lot of smart artists, law-students and b-schoolers who were all waking up to the fact that their individual career tracks might need to be a bit more widely focused as it seemed the world was not, in fact, going to take care of itself. I don't know if that spirit still reigns, but the buzz on the Left coast is that Philly is the New Brooklyn.

What if you could do the following:

  • Take the central organizing principle of MFA of bridging political activism, civic participation and cultural cool.
  • Implement it on the ground through one of the few indipendent production groups that's been able to prosper in the fact of Clear Channel's aggressive colonization of the club-level music scene
  • Employ the Tank's theory of creating all-day venues that build social capital while performing the usual task of having a show at night.
  • Staff it up with some of the better young organizers on the East coast, and situate it in a centrally-located ballroom/restaurant that can seat as many as 900 people in Phillidelphia?

I think you'd have something pretty bad ass. At the very least you'd have a 21st-Century union hall. It's blowing in the wind. If anyone with juice still reads this old blog, I strongly suggest -- even more strongly than I suggest you watch Primer -- you get in touch with the right people and do what you need to do to let this happen. Today. Contact me if you're not already aware of who that is.

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