One thing I remember with great fondness during my brief stint in the mid-’80s as a volunteer disc jockey was running across the music of Texas garage band legend Roky Erickson, whose material was going through a bit of a revival. Pink Dust Records put out an album called Don’t Slander Me in 1986, which I played to death in the cassette deck of my Pacer.
Don’t Slander Me is a vocal extravaganza, like virtually everything of Erickson’s. It was recorded several years earlier, after Erickson got out of the mental institutions where he spent much of the ’70s.
The title track, “You Drive Me Crazy”, and “Burn the Flames” — a wild rant that equals Arthur (“I am the God of hellfire!”) Brown’s best — are probably the best-loved by Roky fans, but I’ve always been partial to “Bermuda”, which sets an amazing pace and drives to an exciting, hoarse finish.
Roky Erickson lived on the edge of everything for years, claiming that he was inhabited by a Martian, having trouble getting by on Social Security, until very recently when his brother managed to get guardianship and see that Roky got the treatment he needed.
He’s started performing again the past couple of years, and today a documentary has been released about his story. He’s scheduled to play at Bumbershoot in Seattle and rumor says he’ll be here in Portland for MusicFest NW in September.
The DVD of the documentary is supposed to be here tomorrow.
Reed College sent out an electronic newsletter linking to Die Zeit‘s article on quality US schools (“Die Wundertüte”), which mentioned Reed right up front.
The translation in the newsletter provided by a German professor said the school was right for students “who are highly intelligent or simply a little bit different” (“für die hochintelligenten oder einfach ein bisschen anderen Studenten”). I guess I know by now which category I fall into.
I have spent many years in a volunteer capacity working against domestic violence, so I was shocked when my grandmother was shot and killed June 11 in the White Salmon area. My grandmother was bedridden, blind, and has suffered many strokes over the years. I did not expect her to die in this manner.
She died because her caregiver, Toni Stencil, was the target of an angry man.
There is not room to write all the details Toni has given me, and Toni has her own story to tell. I am not a legal expert, or an expert in domestic violence. I am simply a granddaughter asking questions and looking for answers on why my grandmother had to die so violently.
Through my questions, I have found out that the state of Washington has a Mandatory Arrest Law, as does Wisconsin, where I now live. This law does vary from state to state, and I’m not clear on the stipulations in your law. What I have been told by Toni is that she called 9-1-1 on the Thursday evening prior to the (Monday) shooting because this man had bound her and held her against her will for over three hours. She talked her way out of this dangerous situation and did call 9-1-1.
I wonder why he was not arrested on that evening. Certainly this will be determined, and police in White Salmon have declined to answer my questions concerning this issue at present.
Why should you care about this law? Remember that my grandmother was an innocent victim of a dispute between two people that she had absolutely nothing to do with. This was a dangerous man. Are the laws you have in place working for you? If not, why?
These are the questions running through my head that keep me up at night. There is another state law that interests me as well that I’m checking into concerning self-help information that is to be given to victims of domestic 9-1-1 calls. Three days passed between Toni’s initial call for help and the shooting; she needed professional help. I have found out that you have the Programs For Peaceful Living. This program could have offered Toni some very needed support in a number of ways.
I pose these questions and tell this story because it is my way of helping and healing. On my own, I cannot look into your laws and check into the rapport between your police force and your programs in place to help people. You need to be concerned because you care about the health of your community. I believe domestic violence issues are so important, because the health of a whole community starts in the home.
Please support your local law enforcement and program such as Programs For Peaceful Living in working together against domestic violence.
Although I launched this site in February 2004, I didn’t put the Site Meter up until mid-August of 2005. It’s been slowly climbing its way up to the 100,000 mark — with volume going from 4,000 page views last June to 14,000 last month — and when I checked it this morning, there it was at 100,001.
My first real job was working for a bookstore in Eugene called Gandalf’s Den Fantasy Gallery that also sold wargames and role-playing games.
Almost exactly a quarter-century ago — in the summer of 1982 — the children’s librarian at the Springfield Public Library contacted the store to see if they had anyone who might be interested in talking to the kids at the library about Dungeons & Dragons, which was at the time still less than a decade old. The owner and his wife delegated me to do the presentation, which was unsurprising, since I was the only employee at the store.
A few weeks after I’d agreed to make the appearance, I got a call from the librarian. She told me that a “youth pastor” at a local church had an objection to the topic and that they were threatening to picket and make a fuss at the library unless they were given a chance to speak out about the evils of D&D. And they insisted on making their statements before my presentation. The head librarian apparently had acceded to their demands, the only option I had was to not give the talk. I was 20, I was stupid, I decided to go ahead.
When I showed up for the talk, there were a dozen or so ten to thirteen-year-old boys — the upper age range of just the kind of kids you expect to find at the children’s library on a sunny summer afternoon — and what seemed like a score of members of the church group, including the pastor, a couple of adults, and a number of teenagers (including the only girls in attendence). Not to mention the children’s librarian, the head librarian, and some news media.
The pastor gave a very stirring speech about how the D&D led to all sorts of Satanic rituals and how you had to spend thousands of dollars on suits of armor and how it corrupted your soul. He went on for what seemed like a half hour. Much fidgeting took place.
I finally got to speak and gave my little dog and pony show about D&D and role-playing games, and other types of games. The photo shows Champions (superhero RPG), Bushido (feudal Japanese RPG), D&D, The Morrow Project (post-nuclear holocaust RPG), and GANGLORD (my own play-by-mail gang warfare game), as well as a couple of others I can’t make out (not to mention my friend and moral support for the event, Tom Stansfield, leaning on the podium). I talked about how there was no way I could have afforded to spend thousands of dollars on armor, how as an athiest I could hardly be a Satanist as well, that I didn’t know any nor did I believe in magic, and how I viewed the whole spectrum of games as just a way to enjoy the company of other people. I answered questions about games from the kids, was asked by the church teens if athiesm wasn’t just the same as Satanism, and tried to keep myself on an even keel when I felt very much outnumbered.
I don’t know if it was planning or sheer dumb luck that made me put on the shirt my folks had brought back from the National Zoo. Despite the wild hair, the beard, and maniacal smile, I think it might have been difficult for some of the kids to seriously consider me as some sort of threat to all that was good with panda bears on my chest.
I have a very nice letter from D&D creator E. Gary Gygax offering his support about the incident.
Addendum: There’s a rundown of the games on the table here.
