Tiffany Necklace {Category|Class}

Class: Talks With Writers

Comments are closed.
Rock the vote. Or, how I realized to stop worrying and love Stephen Elliott
Posted on | -->October 27, 2004 | Comments Off

By Sean Carman, reporting for MaudNewton.com
Stephen Elliott is really a truly great dancer; I find out why this is the most important election in 50 years; Looking Ahead to It is essentially the most exciting, idealistic, and inspiring book from the election year.
Just just before eleven p.m. on the Friday night time, at a celebration inside a warehouse loft in South Seattle,Tiffany Necklace, I see Stephen Elliott do absolutely the coolest point ever. Before, at the College of Washington E-book Retailer, Elliott examine from Seeking Forward to It, his memoir of a 12 months put in on the Presidential campaign path. Now,Tiffany Sale, several several hours later, Elliott is graciously internet hosting the Dutch foreign correspondent he brought from your reading towards the party, and me and the other enthusiast who have, inevitably, tagged along.
And we’re there talking, and Elliott is telling us, in his innocent and enthusiastic voice, that the genius of Bush is that he figured out that no one cares. “When Lyndon Johnson lost Walter Cronkite, that was it,” Elliott says. “Johnson gave up. Bush, though, figured out that if you lie about the war,Tiffany Canada, and call Walter Cronkite names — say he’s the liberal media and that he’s biased — no one will care.”
And it occurs to me then why this can be the most important election in 50 many years. Everyone’s been saying it, and I’ve believed it, although until this moment I’ve never known why I believed it. But now, suddenly, I understand. Stephen Elliott has explained it to me.
It is because the Bush administration has chosen, as a policy — as a practiced mode of governance — to lie to your American people. And not just about several things, or the worst things, but about everything. From your reasons for going to war in Iraq, to your reach of and responsibility for prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib, for the economy and Kerry’s Senate record. Bush lies and retaliates against those who stand up for the truth. What this election is about, when you get down to it, is whether such an insidious and audacious political strategy can succeed.
It is at this moment — when the weight with the election is coming down on me — that Stephen Elliott does the coolest issue ever. He motions behind him and says, “So the music is louder this way? Wanna go listen some?” And as we walk into the cavernous next room — splashes of light floating across the walls, the DJ spinning something techno with a solid beat — Stephen Elliot starts dancing. And not just dancing, but dancing truly well.
After a few moves Elliott drops his arms onto the shoulders in the Dutch foreign correspondent, who has basically frozen in place, although there can be a silly grin working its way up to her eyes. Elliott raises his arms, moves back, and closes his eyes. There is something inspiring — and joyful, really — in watching him so quickly and so gracefully change gears.
Stephen Elliott is a smart guy who knows how to have fun. Maybe,Tiffany Online Subscribe to shoutmeloud feeds, I think, just maybe, he truly can save the American electoral process.
Looking Forward to It really is Elliott’s journal of his idealistic and adventurous coverage of the 2004 Presidential campaign. He follows the democratic candidates and the press in the fozen fields of Iowa towards the convention in Boston, with a short detour along the way to observe President Bush. Elliott wants to understand more about the candidates as well as the process and, as a former Nader campaigner who has vowed not to make the same mistake twice, he wants to find out more about himself.
One from the charming qualities with the story is that Elliott isn’t actually covering the marketing campaign for anyone. He doesn’t have a regular assignment, so he has to scrounge credentials and talk his way into every event. He’s living out every armchair freelance journalist’s fantasy. If you quit your job, packed your bags, and tried to break into national political reporting, this can be what it might be like.
Elliott reports his adventures in a gleeful “guess what happened next?” voice. One winter morning, while house-sitting in Iowa, he ingeniously makes coffee from whole beans without the aid of a coffee grinder. He lets a string of national political reporters take him under their wing. The sentence that makes passing reference to several members from the press visiting a strip club about the outskirts of Youngstown has a good-natured footnote that begins, “That is mostly unconfirmed.”
There’s natural drama in the story of an outsider trying to find his way into a glamorous world, and it’s pure entertainment to watch Elliott tag along on the monstrous, bucking ride that is a national political campaign. I sped through Seeking Ahead to It and was sorry to have to put it down.
After finishing his book, Elliott launched Operation Ohio, a grass-roots program in which authors will call college students on election day to remind them to vote. It’s a natural next project,Tiffany Pendant, because Searching Ahead to It's, after all, trying to do the same factor — get young people jazzed about politics, show them how much entertaining it can be, and fire up their idealism and make them want to join in what Elliott calls “the only game for adults.”
In Seattle Elliot examine with former McSweeney’s icon Neal Pollack. McSweeney’s also published Elliott’s novel Happy Baby, thereby introducing Elliott to a wider audience of young-ish literature enthusiasts. Dave Eggers, one of Op Ohio’s writer-participants, talks up the project on the readings he does.
Slowly, in his own way,Tiffany Juwelier, Elliott is building a young-people’s army of political operatives. What if today’s student receiving a phone call from a writer is, in ten many years, rescuing and re-directing the Democratic party? What if McSweeney’s is more than just a literary quarterly with a sense of humor? What if the network of McSweeney’s writers and readers Elliott has enlisted in his cause is actually, yes, wait for it, a movement? What if we all did our part?
A little enthusiasm goes a long way, and reading through Elliott’s Quixotic adventures on the marketing campaign trail will make you start to think that maybe, after all, anything is possible, and that maybe, with ink enough and time, even a writer could save the world.
--> Comments