step into the old

Picture of the Day
yesterday | today tomorrow

Saturday
January 5, 2002


What goes on in the living rooms of America? I don't know about you, but at Josh
& Haruko's one Saturday each month, the name of the game is Performance Potluck.
The kitchen table is piled with delicious food, people stand shoulder to shoulder,
laughing, chatting, patiently waiting to fill their plates. After everyone has eaten,
we assemble in the living room, orange walls and ceiling, adjacent to the "stage"
--just a little bit of floor in a completely blue room, yellow-walled and -ceilinged
kitchen visible through an arched doorway. Their monochrome paint schemes feel
cozy and warm as a playhouse. What follows next is combination show-and-tell and
talent show, with poems, songs, Butoh, film shorts, skits, etc. I recited Sarah's poem,
she read mine, and thus everyone learned more than they needed to know about us.
This is what I mean by community--people gathering to share food and creativity. I
imagine gatherings like this were more common in the days before TV. Assembling in
private w/out a permit is the last bit of freedom we have left. I'm serious. You can't do
anything in public. A friend was recently arrested for carrying a "George [Harrison]
Is Dead" sign outside and several people at the Potluck had been pepper sprayed
on New Year's Eve by police in riot gear simply for parading and playing music
in the street. Why not make it your resolution to meet your neighbors, cover the TV
with a sheet, and fight the powers that be? Freedom is more than a flag on an SUV.