http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/ The Skeleton Archive is a collaborative online wiki serving as a database for the The Skeleton Newspaper's contributors. The Skeleton News is a free independent monthly newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. en 2009-11-18T03:12:27+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Articles%20by%20issue 1. - October/November: [[Statement of Intent]], [[CTA Takes us For a Loop]], [[Chilling Tales of Bi-Polar Adventures]], [[Sports]], [[Paper on Paper]], [[Comics & Games]], [[The Future]] 2. - December: Comics, Sex Trafficking, [[The Bermuda Triangle of Block 37]], [[Cop Cameras: Chicago's Blue Light Special]], [[Monster Hunter]] (interview) 3. - January: [[A Dark Vision of the Future...]] 4. - February: [[Influenza]], [[Feral Children]], [[Spherical Buildings]], Token Politics & Comics 2009-11-18T03:12:27+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Resources 2009-03-22T00:15:24+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Distribution ''List of Distribution locations by region'' For the Map of distro locations see: [[The Skeleton Map]] (This list needs hours of operation and # of papers for each location and any additional spots that are missing. Please take note) Edit this list at http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/edit/Distribution ID:skeleton PW:noteleks ===Andersonville, Lakeview, Wrigleyville:=== ''(Distro:17: )'' Reckless Records-3161 N Broadway St(773) 404-5080 Landmark Century Theaters-2828 N Clark St(773) 248-7744 Brown Elephant-3651 N Halsted St(773) 549-5943 pick me up cafe-3408 N Clark St(773) 248-6613 music box theater-3733 N Southport Ave(773) 871-6604 chicago comics-3244 N Clark StChicago,IL60657(773) 528-1983 women and children first -5233 N Clark StChicago,IL60640(773) 769-9299 kopi cafe -5317 N Clark St early to bed -5232 N Sheridan Rd Ravenswood Used Books at 4626 North Lincoln. noon to six seven days 773-593-9166 ===Bridgeport:=== ''(17:)'' Lumpen space- 960 W 31st St bridgeport coffee house-3101 S Morgan St or3430 S Ashland Ave ===Evanston, Rogers Park=== ''(17: )'' Black Koffee- 6560 N Sheridan Rd(773) 856-0936 New Leaf Grocery-1261 W Loyola AveChicago,IL60626(773) 743-0400 cafe express-615 Dempster StEvanston,IL60201(847) 864-1868 copy cat-1830 Sherman AveEvanston,IL60201(847) 869-0000 armadillos pillow -6753 N Sheridan Rd ennui cafe -6981 N Sheridan Rd metropolis cafe- 1039 West Granville Avenue ''(lulu)'' Northwestern University - Medill?Norris Cafeteria? 1801 Hinman Avenue Evanston, IL? ''(David Gleicher)'' Heartland Cafe-7000 N Glenwood AveChicago,IL60626(773) 465-8005 Mess Hall-6932 N Glenwood AveChicago,IL60626(773) 465-4033 evil squirrel comics - on glenwood just south of morse (next to mess hall). ===Humbolt Park, Ukranian Village=== ''(17: Brad smith)'' Atomix -1957 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago Tel: (312) 666-2649 Rotofugi Gallery - next door to Atomix Feed- 2803 W Chicago Ave Empty Bottle - 1035 N. Western Ave.(evening) permanent records-1914 W Chicago Ave ===Loop, North Loop=== ''(17: )'' ''(alex)'' School of the Art Institute- 2nd floor Cafeteria next to F news, 111 S Columbus Drive (If they ask for ID, say youre making a delivery for Sonny's Cafe) Gene Siskel Film Center- 164 North State Street Columbia College Bookstore- 624 S Michigan Ave (312) 427-4860 second hand tunes-2604 N Clark St,Chicago,IL(773) 929-6325 Reckless Record- 26 E Madison St(312) 795-0878 Kramers health foods-230 S Wabash Ave billy goats- 430 N Lower Michigan Ave(312) 222-1525 graham crackers comics -77 E Madison St(312) 629-1810 Lassalle Blue line station (humus/malcom X store) ===Logan Square:=== ''(17: trae)'' maria's diner Newspaper Box- Kedzie & logan square blvd Lula Cafe-2537 N Kedzie Blvd(773) 489-9554 whirlaway- 3224 W Fullerton Ave no friction cafe -2023 N California Ave(773) 278-7170 ===Pilsen, Little Village=== ''(17: )'' Mexican Fine Arts Museum -1852 W 19th St(312) 738-1503 Jumping Bean Cafe-1439 W 18th St(312) 455-0019 Carlos cortez culture center across street Mestizo 2 blocks west golden Age 1500 W 17th St, Th-Sn 12-6. skylark halsted & cyrmack ===South side, Hyde Park=== ''(17: )'' U of C? cafe florian-1450 E 57th St powells books-1501 E 57th St hyde park recrods-1377 E 53rd St SoulVeg -(15) - 205 East 75th St. 60619 Tel: 773-224-0104 dr wax -5225S Harper Ave # D ===West Loop:=== ''(17: )'' Mr City- 1133 W fulton market UIC? (Request: Several issues) Micheal Workman Bridge art Fair 118 N. Peoria, 2nd Floor ===Wicker park, Bucktown=== ''(17: )'' Earwax Cafe-1561 N Milwaukee Ave (773) 772-4019 Brown Elephant-1459 N Milwaukee Ave (773) 252-8801 Odd Obsession Video-1822 N Milwaukee Ave (773) 276-0894 Reckless Records-1532 N Milwaukee Ave (773) 235-3727 Quimby's-1854 W. North Ave. 60622 Tel: 773 342 0910 http://www.quimbys.com/directions.php Myopic 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave Chicago, IL 60622. 773.862.4882 cat@myopicbookstore.com Alliance Bakery-1736 W. Division(773) 278-0366 Box @ Division&Ashland Triangle? ''(trae)'' North Coast video Division&Damen ===Etc=== Various book shops and colleges 2008-11-11T06:39:25+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Advertisers 2008-10-27T22:36:16+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Events *Oct 31 2006 Halloween Benefit at Mister City1133 W. Fulton Market *Beauty Shop *The Boris Kar-Loft 217 N. Wolcott *JunkShop 37th and Hoyne BBQ and sing alongs *Oct 29 2007 Halloween Benifit at Mister City1133 W. Fulton Market Face painting *Visual Fiasco Happy Dog Gallery- 1542 N milwaukee. (Joel 773 306 9222) Benefits, exhibit space. 25-30% cut. no charge on art sales. HAPPY DOG SPACE USAGE AGREEMENT DATES: Feb 7th-March 1st EVENT DATE: Feb 9th 7pm HappyDog is excited to provide a forum for the community's use. However, please remember that this space is also a living area for seven people, so considerations should be taken to allow events to run as smoothly as possible. RULES FOR SPACE USE: If needed, please provide you own electrical cords and power strips. On weekdays, no excess noise should eminate from the space after 10:00PM. All sound/music levels should be checked pre-show. Any rehearsals prior to the event should be scheduled in advance by emailing happydogchicago.com. For rehearsals, the space should be cleared of performers and cleaned by 10:00PM. If at all possible, necessary amenities and cleaning supplies (such as toilet paper and garbage bags) should be provided for the night of your event. FLIERS/POSTERS: Due to legal purposes, any fliers or posters advertising the event should not make mention of the sale of alcohol. Additionally, please be aware that admission should always be a donation-based. POST-EVENT CLEAN-UP: After your event, the space should be returned to its previous condition. Removal of all installation materials, music equipment, artwork, etc. should be complete by the following day. Additionally, you will be responsible for removal of all garbage from the main space, kitchen and bathrooms as well as sweeping and mopping the floor as needed. Time of event (beginning to end, including set-up): Curating and installation begins 7pm Thursday Feb 7th. Continues till 10pm. Resumes all friday February 8th till 4pm in which case we may open the space for viewing from 5pm to 8pm. But depending on the media, installation could take as long as up to the saturday night show which begins at 7pm and will last up till about 1:30AM. Clean up will be completed by about 2:00AM. We will hold standard gallery hours (same as All Rise 12-6) Untill Friday the 29th on which time we may keep open till 8 or 9pm and then clean till 10pm. We will be fully de installed by the atleast 10 pm saturday March 1st. THINGS WE NEED: *Table for display *Table for drinks *trash bags *flyers *Posters *Computer *sandwich board display *white paint 2008-10-27T22:11:52+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Blinking%20Blue%20Lights 2008-10-18T05:32:36+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/2nd%20Anniversary%20Editorial Dear Readers, A year ago when The Skeleton News reached its first anniversary, it surprised not only frequent readers of the paper, but also the very people who had created it. And to celebrate (if only tongue in cheek) the first annual issue was dubbed ‘One Year of Failure’. Ironically its been the past year that has proposed the most challenge for The Skeleton. From dwindling interest to attend meetings, a lack of content to meet monthly deadlines, and long hours put in by those who had already given so much to make the paper endure; the few left found themselves burned out and were prepared to give up. But some have managed to persist, driven by the belief that The Skeleton News is more than just a paper. Its a reminder that a few people can accomplish amazing things if they are dedicated to see it through. Its a reminder that lots of money isn’t necessary to build a community or readership. And we believe that it’s this spirit that makes us stay optimistic (or foolish) enough to make sure that things like The Skeleton News exist beyond the small group of people that start them. Of course not all things are meant to last forever, but for now the paper you hold in your hands is proof that there is still life in this one. And so we give you, ONE YEAR OF SUCCESS. 2008-10-18T05:26:00+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Arithmetical%20Amusements [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Issue 2]] Liam's Statistical Abstract by Liam Warfield This issue: leisure and recreation The following statistics are taken from the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006 edition and are therefore the most current and accurate statistics available. 18% of seniors aged 75+ weave. Weaving is far more popular overall among women (28.5%) than among men (2.4%). Women are, as a rule, more “creative” than men. Women report higher levels of participation than men in of all of the following arts activities: playing classical music, dancing, drawing, pottery work, weaving, photography, creative writing and singing in groups. On the other hand, a slightly higher percentage of men (29.7%) than women (29.4%) purchase works of art. African Americans trail whites in all but two of these arts activity categories: blacks purchase works of art at a higher rate (35.9%) than whites (28.9%), and sing in groups twice as frequently as whites and with three times the frequency of Hispanics. Only 3.7% of seniors aged 75+ sing in groups. Many Americans participate in exercise programs (55.1%), sports (30.4%), home improvement/repair (42.4%) and gardening (47.3%). 29% of Americans participate in charity work. Visiting historic parks is more popular (31.6%) than doing charity work; charity work, however, remains more popular than attending jazz performances. While more blacks (12.7%) than whites (10.5%) attend jazz performances, whites attend arts and crafts fairs at four times the rate (38%) of blacks (9.7%). Rich people (those earning $75,000+ per year) read literature nearly twice as much (60.8%) as poor people (those earning less than $10,000 per year). Likewise, the percentage of rich people who visit historic parks (50.9%) far exceeds the number of poor people who do the same (14.1%). Poor people, however, weave at slightly higher rates (15.7%) than rich people (15.2%). While dog ownership is more common overall (36.1%) than cat ownership (31.6%) cat ownership is more common than dog ownership among single-person households (23.5%). 4.6% of American households are bird owners. Roughly 1% of Americans (2.9 million) are hunters of migratory birds. Roughly 3%, or 10.9 million, are big-game hunters. A greater number of Americans hunt big game than fly kites. While playing chess is more popular (3.6%) than flying kites (3.3%), flying a kite is less popular than playing bingo (4.4%). 9.2% of Americans go out dancing; 12.9% play video games. 126,000 Americans visit the zoo two or more times per week. While the average commute to work rose in length from 9.02 miles in 1977 to 12.08 miles in 2001, the average vehicle occupancy has declined, over the same period, from 1.3 persons to 1.1 persons. Americans drove a total of 3.9 trillion miles in 2001, up from 2.3 trillion in 1990. A total of 375.4 million overnight leisure trips were taken in 2004. These trips lasted an average of 4.1 nights. Of the money spent on domestic travel, California claims the largest share ($61 billion, or 12.4%) while Deleware claims the smallest ($1.1 billion, or 0.2%). In 2000, 30.5 million foreign tourists visited the United States. Of these, 4.9 million were Japanese, 4.6 million British and 1.9 million German. 277,000 were Canadian. 35.5 million dollars in total prize money was awarded at professional rodeos in 2004, up from 18.2 million in 1990. The average salary of major league baseball players has likewise skyrocketed, from $371,000 in 1985 to $2.3 million in 2004. Attendance at major league baseball games reached 74.8 million in 2004. During the same year, 16.7 million Americans (7.8%) played a musical instrument and 24.5 million had a picnic. 279,000 Americans had picnics two or more times per week. 2008-10-18T05:26:00+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Block%2037 The Bermuda Triangle of Block 37 Liam Warfield [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Issue 2]] On November 8, the beleaguered Mills Corporation sold its remaining development rights for the multi-use megaplex at 108 N. State St., the parcel of land commonly known as Block 37, to Joseph Freed and Associates, a firm based in Palatine, IL. For the casual reader, this real estate transaction may hold little interest; but to those Chicagoans at all familiar with the lurid history of this long-vacant block in the heart of downtown, the news was revelatory: another striking plot twist in the story of a single city block which has, for four decades, confounded bankers, politicians, real estate developers, city planners, corporate executives, and no fewer than six mayors, including two generations of Daleys. Block 37 has, since first being slated for redevelopment in the late '60's, swallowed hundreds of millions of dollars in both public and private funds, yet it remains, to this day, nothing more than a pile of very expensive dirt. For those familiar with Block 37's story, the hopeful proclamations which accompanied this latest sale—"They're well thought of in retailing," Daley said of the block's newest owners, "So, there's no problem"—seem awfully familiar, the same displays of baseless optimism which have accompanied every stage of this jaw-dropping disaster as it has unfolded over the last forty years. When the Mills Corporation won the right to develop Block 37, buying the property from the City of Chicago for the deeply-discounted price of $12.3 million—the city lost nearly $25 million on the deal—the news was met with great fanfare. Mills, an international developer of shopping malls, had ambitious plans for the land, including high-end retail, dining, a hotel, condominiums, a TV studio, theaters, a spa and an underground CTA superstation which would send express trains to O'Hare and Midway airports. "It's going to be like Union Station, Disneyland and Times Square all combined," bragged Mills' executive vice-president Steve Jacobsen, apparently without a trace of irony. These were big plans, to be sure, but big plans were nothing new around Block 37. Plans for the site have ranged over the years from a ten-story public library to a casino to a two-tiered shopping mall/government center. It wasn't long before Mills began running into trouble. They broke ground on Nov. 15, 2005 with a lavish media spectacle, which featured Mayor Daley and other prominent figures digging in the soil with golden shovels. By May of '06, the company's finances were already faltering, and contractors halted work on the site, citing lack of payment. By June the company was up for sale. By July, they were being sued by the owners of the nearby Delaware building, who claimed that the construction was damaging the foundations of their landmark structure. By late summer the firm was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for bad accounting; by mid-August, it had sold the development rights to the office and residential portions of the project to the Golub & Co. firm. By October, CEO Laurence Siegel had resigned, and by the beginning of November Mills, in deep financial trouble, was considering bailout offers from Israeli realtors. Furthermore, they still lacked a major retailer for Block 37, though Target was reportedly considering the site—hardly the marquee name the developers were hoping for. So much for golden shovels. But if big plans are nothing new on Block 37, neither are financial woes. The two have gone hand-in-hand since the mid-60's when mayor Richard J. Daley, looking out the windows of his office at City Hall, first set his sights on the block, located between the flagship Marshall Fields store and Daley's newly-minted Civic Center. At the time, Block 37 was a freewheeling agglomeration of older buildings, both large and small. The McCarthy and Springer Block buildings were both built in 1872, shortly after the Great Fire. The Unity Building, built in the 1880's by former governor John Peter Altgeld, housed the headquarters for Rotary International. The United Artist and Roosevelt theaters were first-run movie houses. Stop-and-Shop and Hillman's were grocery stores, Stop-and-Shop a specialty gourmet shop and Hillman's a mid-priced, full-service store. The block contained bargain cafeterias, clothing outlets, old-world coffee shops, pool halls, an arcade, doctor's and lawyer's office, a novelty toy store, a custom tailor, a wig shop, a barber shop and a tavern called Mayor's Row where politicians drank after-hours. Looking out over this assemblage of well-worn structures and the largely working-class and black populations which frequented them, Daley decided, in his typical autocratic manner, that he wanted it all rebuilt. And not just Block 37, either. Much of the North Loop had become, in Daley's view, "blighted", and called for massive redevelopment. It was under this rubric of "blight" and "redevelopment" that Daley, with the backing of area bankers and real estate speculators, undertook the unprecedented task of taking property from longtime owners to sell to private developers at bargain rates. The developers would, in turn, build highly profitable office and retail centers which would be tax windfalls for the city and attract further development. This was the basic premise of North Loop redevelopment. The plan, however, was plagued with problems which would persist well into the 1980's. There were massive problems on the legal end: the constitutional definition of eminent domain allowed only for the seizure of property which posed a public health hazard or was needed for the defense of the city. And there were, from the start, overwhelming financial hurdles. The city was never in any financial position to fulfill redevelopment ambitions on the scale of the North Loop. It was forced, from day one, to rely on unpredictable federal funding and, to a much larger extent, ethically dubious alliances with private corporations, sleazy developers and overseas investors. Plans for North Loop redevelopment moved forward at a glacial pace, particularly on Block 37. Proposals were drafted, scale models were built, money changed hands in million-dollar increments, but development on Block 37 remained in the realm of fantasy. It wasn't until the mid-80's that the city began to move forward with any kind of plan, awarding development rights, for $12,583,430, to a joint venture of Chicago real estate interests called FJV. By this time Block 37 had seen four mayors come and go, as well as numerous real estate dynasties, several economic cycles and untold numbers of aborted plans for the site. Still, plans for the site remained stalled. The city was locked in legal battles with preservationists over the McCarthy Building, which was designated a historical landmark in 1984. Meanwhile, other sites in the North Loop were being hastily redeveloped, and the real-estate bubble of the 80's was causing downtown values to climb at exponentially inflated rates. Another Daley was in office by the time the city cleared all the hurdles which stood in the way of demolishing Block 37. On Oct. 17, 1989 the bulldozers arrived, and by early 1990 the block was reduced to bare land. FJV found itself in possession of a multi-million dollar vacant lot, a pile of expensive architectural renderings by corporate darling Helmut Jahn, and a bunch of extravagant plans which it was finding increasingly difficult to implement. For starters, the real estate bubble was bursting, and the demand for pricey office and retail space was drying up. They simply couldn't get anyone to pre-lease space in their unbuilt multiplex. One after another, major tenants brokered deals with the developers and then balked at the last minute. Newspaper headlines from throughout the 90's and early 00's tell much of the story, an account of repeatedly shattered hopes and lessons left unlearned: Movie Chains Vie for Block 37: Loop May Get Cinema Multiplex – Chicago Tribune, 7/22/97 Condos Put Homeyness in Block 37 Plan – CT, 7/15/98 Macy's Seeks Hefty Subsidy [for Block 37 development]: Daley Aide Terms $55 Million Demand 'Ludicrous' – Chicago Sun-Times, 9/1/98 State St. Macy's Not 'Ridiculous' – CT, 9/3/98 Daley: Macy's Deal in Dead – ST, 10/15/98 City May Reacquire Troubled Block 37 – CT, 10/24/98 Daley Kills 'Modest' Plan for Block 37 – ST, 12/10/98 Block 37 Survives Any, All Attempts at Development – CT, 4/23/99 Deal Close on Block 37: Lord & Taylor Seeks $20 Million – ST, 6/25/99 Daley Hopes Block 37 Will Make State Street Great Again – CT, 4/17/00 Block 37 Grows Up – ST, 4/19/00 Crumbling Credibility on Block 37 – CT, 4/19/00 Back to Square One on Block 37 – CT, 7/14/00 Daley Backs New Block 37 Plan That Soothes Critics – CT, 12/14/00 Daley Denies Approving New Plan – CT, 12/15/00 At Last, Hope for Block 37 – ST, 1/21/01 Another Block 37 Snag – 5/4/01 Block 37 Hotel Plan Struggling – CT, 5/9/01 Harrod's Owner May be Shopping on State St.; Famed London Store Could Go On Block 37 – ST, 12/12/01 Harrod's Out of Block 37 Picture – CT, 3/26/02 Chamber Head Likes Block 37 as Casino Site – ST, 5/22/03 For Block 37, Maybe This Time – CT, 9/7/04 No To Casino – CT, 10/20/04 Latest Block 37 Plan Looks Like a Rerun: Rumored Pool Hall, Movie Theaters Not Likely to Please Daley – ST, 4/28/05 This Time, Block 37 Is For Real – 11/16/05 City's Block 37 Partner Admits Finances a Mess – ST, 2/24/06 Head of Block 37 Developer Resigns Amid Probe by SEC – 10/3/06 New Player Agrees to Take On Block 37 – 1//8/06 Many people, understandably so, began to think of Block 37 as jinxed. But the vacant block had, in the meantime, acquired a life of it's own. A summertime arts program for high school students took root, transforming the lot into a tent city where kids were paid an hourly wage to hone their talents. In the winters, the lot became a popular ice-skating rink. No thanks to the long-struggling developers, Block 37 was finally making itself useful. Many Chicagoans urged the city to turn the lot into permanent parkland. Naturally, this was not going to happen. Too much money had already been sunk into the dormant project—to save face, the block would have to be developed sooner or later. By June of 2001, the city had lost $60 million to the black hole of Block 37, not to mention many millions more in lost tax revenues; FJV had lost in excess of $100 million, and still had nothing to show for it. Fed up with 12 years of inaction, the city bought the land back from FJV for $32.5 million. In less than four years the city would resell the land, this time to the Mills Corp., for $12.3 million. It doesn't take much math to figure out just how much money the city has lost on these perplexing deals, selling a piece of land for $12 million, buying it back for $35 million, and then selling it again for $12 million. And still, in November of 2006, the land in no more than bare dirt. Though construction has been underway for a full year, and the site is bustling with heavy machinery, all one can see are mountains of soil being pushed to and fro. "The most important thing for Block 37," said one of the city's former real estate advisors, in the wake of the Joseph Freed sale, "Is to get dirt moving and see the project is for real." The most devastating thing about Block 37 is that it is, for all it's high-stakes plot twists, hardly a unique story—it's simply a larger-than-life example of how city planning is typically done in Chicago: a vibrant area is condemned as junk, demolished wholesale, and replaced with sterile crap, or nothing at all. The perpetual disaster of Block 37 makes a very persuasive argument against this tremendously wrongheaded style of planning, though one would be naïve to hope that our leaders and builders will ever take note of it. 2008-10-18T05:26:00+09:00 http://theskeleton.atwiki.com/page/Buy%20the%20ticket%2C%20take%20the%20ride [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Issue 2]] Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Election Night with Pirate Jim By Amanda Hodgman James Hill ran, appropriately, in what turned out to be the most expensive U.S. House race in Iowa’s history. The 42-year-old Eldridge, Iowa resident ran on a platform based on the total abolition of lobbying and funded his campaign with only $3,000 of his own money, while his opponents, Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Mike Whalen, spent over $6 million between them. Tired of the republicrats, Jim decided to form his own party based on his ideals of transparency, honesty and accountability and called it the Pirate Party. Why pirates? Jim will tell you that pirate captains were elected democratically. He will also tell you that he is a drunken, brawling individual that would have your wife right in front of you. This sort of honesty is the heart of Pirate Jim’s philosophy. If you are honest about your personal faults and your actions, then “what are they going to say about you that’s worse than what you’re saying about yourself?” “Personal openness and honesty won’t make me as rich but I’ll sleep better.” He insisted upon entering the public arena without any debts in order to eliminate the “element of payback on every vote.” I met Pirate Jim in a bar in Eldridge on election night before the polls closed in Iowa. This was the sort of establishment where you could smoke, drink, play pool, and eat fried food with your kids. Even though we had never met, Jim came up to me and introduced himself, saying I “screamed underground newspaper.” Having read his blog (www.jameshillforcongress.com), I expected a man who was constantly followed by chaos and insanity. He wrote of thugs with chains and hippie chicks in trees, a homeless man wasted at a podium, “having difficulty riding the rolling waves in his head.” On the other hand, I went into this knowing that some or all of it might have been fabricated with the purpose of selling an image. I now believe that the events described did actually happen. He is clearly selling an image; it smacked of gonzo, right down to the Samoan bodyguard. However, it seems that the campaign itself was the sort of gonzo attack that will attract the types he described. Tonight was not to be a Happening such as the ones I had read about. There was no posse of gibbering maniacs, only two young campaign aides and myself. I got a beer and settled in. Jim did not follow a normal trajectory toward a career in politics. He claims that he didn’t do well in school (“My grades were below average, as were my mile times.”) and dropped out of college in two months, once he realized that it wasn’t for him. He spent the next 11 years of his life working as a stable hand for Bader Race Horse Stables. After that, he got a job with the Safety Kleen Corporation, where he worked until he ruptured a disc in his lower back. He is now on disability and experiences chronic pain that prevents him from doing the manual labor that used to be his livelihood. He currently takes classes at the local community college to receive training so that he can pursue a career outside of physical labor. He has never held an elected office, although he is a member of the local PTA. To Jim, a lack of experience was no reason not to run for office, and may have even been to his advantage. When asked what he thought about the difference between a politician’s original intentions when running for office and their actions once they have been elected, Jim said that “probably 90%” of politicians have the best interest of the public in mind when they are elected, but that they are “quickly perverted by the party.” As a man who would take no money from outside sources, Pirate Jim would have nobody to answer to and would thus be immune from those corrupting influences. In order to get on the ballot in Iowa, Jim needed to acquire 300 signatures, which he collected primarily in the Quad Cities area. He didn’t campaign much before August, but once he began he was serious about it. He hit 59 cities in 12 counties over the 3 months he spent campaigning. When I asked how many people he thought he had talked to, I assumed that he would tell me how many people he had called. However, he told me that he didn’t really call anybody, and that his campaign was almost exclusively on the ground, usually in bars or diners. He had hired a company to make calls for him, but they did it two weeks early and in the wrong district. In the 59 cities he visited, he guessed that he talked to about 2,100 people. Of those, he thought that most of them would actually vote for him. Considering that he received 2,184 votes out of the 206,603 cast, this assessment may in fact be accurate. Jim did receive some media attention, but strangely little coverage in the local media. A couple days before we met, Jim was on WHO TV and admitted on air that he smoked pot, and a conservative host of the show still gave Jim his endorsement. He was on Good Morning America and Fox did a piece on him for the news, but the Quad Cities newspaper failed to invite him or the other independent candidate to complete a questionnaire about their platforms. I wondered why Ed Tibbets, the author of the questionnaire, would show such disregard to the independent candidates, and Jim said he thought that Tibbets was “just lazy”. He thinks that the major candidate politicians want to “keep themselves in pretty controlled environments”, which would clearly exclude any interaction with Pirate Jim. At the bar, the local television station only showed results for the Democrat and Republican candidates, but CNN showed that Jim had 1% of the vote, with 0% of precincts reporting. The two campaign aides and I discussed why people who become rich also tend to become more conservative while Jim worked on the beginnings of an acceptance/concession speech. Jim said that most of the people that he convinced to vote for him previously voted Republican, and that it surprised him a little. It seems that these are the more Libertarian Republicans that the current administration has alienated. When it comes to the Bush administration, Jim is blunt. He writes, “I ache for the thousands who have died in King George’s fiasco.” He tells me multiple times that he thinks Haliburton’s assets should be liquidated to pay for the war. He wants to remove all political ties between oil companies and the elected officials, and calls the guys behind the top defense contracting companies “the new age Robber Barons”. He knows that if we were to stop awarding no-bid contracts to the same huge companies then maybe things could get done more efficiently and money could get spent where it is needed. The front page of his website reads: ''Do not expect me to get on the band- wagon of heart- wrenching divisive social subjects. This is how the standard Politicians have kept us distracted while they sold their votes to the highest bidders. . . .My goal remains to remove the money from politics, by giving you a candidate who takes no money.'' Instead of trying to use emotionally charged subjects such as abortion to swing people to vote for him, Jim takes what he calls a “pro-living” approach. He says that it “strikes [him] as odd that we want to afford more compassion to eggs that may never be born than we do to living children.” If we make abortion illegal, what of the hundreds of thousands of unwanted babies that would be born and the financial drain they would produce? He tries to take a logical approach to issues such as the death penalty, citing the fallibility of man’s decision-making faculties. Since there are innocent people on death row, Jim cannot justify risking one of their lives. He also wants to reform the health care situation in this country, forcing drug companies to make their products available to those who need them. He writes, “We claim to be the world’s beacon of freedom and what is right. The claim rings hollow when people are held hostage by illness with no access to treatment.” While his views tend to have a socialist bent to them, he would by no means call himself a Socialist. He doesn’t want to completely overhaul the system, just to purge the poison from it. As 10 o’clock neared, 4% of the precincts were reporting and Jim was in third place. He talked about maybe running for Alderman in the future, although he thinks that Congressman has a better ring to it. He thinks that he might write a book about his experience campaigning. He has already written a children’s book, Larry the Lunker. He had promised his wife that he would be home at 10; she hated the beard he had grown for the campaign and was going to shave it off. He was going to be on Good Morning Cedar Rapids the next day and thought that she should do it live on TV. He was pleased that someone was interested in hearing what he had to say after the election, that he was being seen as something greater than a novelty act. Although he fell short of the 10% of the vote he had been hoping to get, Pirate Jim did manage to capture some national attention. He was known for asking the sorts of questions that nobody else seems to be asking even though the answers are urgently needed. While he didn’t win this election, he spent 1/50th as much per vote as the two mainstream candidates. He plans to continue in politics to some degree, although he isn’t sure how. Jim tells me that a friend told him that he could win if he just “cleaned himself up a bit.” Jim and I agreed that "cleaning himself up" would miss the point, and that if people were going to vote for him at all they would vote for him as a pirate. Widespread change of a system is rarely a clean process, and it takes a man with nothing to lose to really get things done. 2008-10-18T05:26:00+09:00