OK there blues fans, due to popular demand here is another story from
my non-blues travels this year.

Tales from the Front: Washington, DC; Abolishing the Death Penalty


What if they gave a protest rally and nobody came? Would anyone
notice? Well, I went to such a rally and I'm not sure anyone noticed
one way or another. But let me start at the beginning.

Earlier this year, my singer/songwriter friend, Eric Blakely,
mentioned to me a gig in front of the Supreme Court Building,
Washington, D.C. singing and playing to demonstrators rallying and
fasting to protest the death penalty. We had recorded a song
called "Hangin' Tree" on his new CD; the song rejects the notion of
death as deterrence to crime and instead celebrates the obscene
voyeurism of public hangings and what that implies about our society.
He sent the song to Bill Pelke of Abolition.org
http://www.abolition.org/schedule.html and told him to use the song
as wished. One thing led to another and, at the end of June 2004, I
found myself with Eric landing on a United Airlines flight in the
first class section (cost: $196 round trip each from Austin with
employee passes) at Reagan Airport.

After renting the car, a Toyota Camry (cost: $167 for four days),
an "upgrade" from the broken Ford Taurus we reserved, we settled in
to the Americana Hotel near the Pentagon in Virginia. "I gotta have a
picture of that sign for my website" Eric declared. A night picture
of the vintage 50's neon sign was taken from the hotel room balcony.
While there on the first night, we discussed what might happen in the
next few days: Hundreds, maybe thousands, of protestors may show up;
we'll sing the song in question in front of a crowd as the opening
act for alternative country songwriter Steve Earle; maybe make new
music connections; maybe sell some CD's to offset the trip expenses;
hell, maybe even get arrested.

It was hot and humid when we went to the protest site on the sidewalk
in front of the Supreme Court steps. I was looking around
apprehensively for protestors, police, and other trouble; I protested
the Vietnam War in 1969 by running an alternative newspaper on the
Cal-State Hayward Campus. I knew the price; I avoided arrest and
detention by staying out of the way of the police. This time though
there were just few people; some were holding signs reading "Abolish
the Death Penalty," many were fasting, a few curious onlookers hung
around, while the police, both City and Supreme Court, kept an eye
out on the perimeter. All of this was recorded by hidden sidewalk
cameras in the street light fixtures. This made me a little nervous,
and where was everyone?

I couldn't find parking so had Bill Pelke ride with me to navigate
the reversible one-way streets. Bill is a laid-back sort. Fasting,
wearing hearing aids in both ears, glasses, and a tie-dyed t-shirt,
he looked more like a Deadhead than a protest leader. We talked. I
told him I was not fasting and was wondering about the event; did he
have permits, etc. and did he expect trouble?

"We've done this before. No problem," he said. "We don't expect a
large turnout."

He asked me about the death penalty. "I'm against the death penalty."
I answered.

As if breaking the ice, Bill announced, "Good. Otherwise we'd have to
kill you."

Eric and I spent the rest of the first day driving Bill's van around
Washington to pick up the battery powered PA for use on the sidewalk.
We got it and a large generator for the concert with Steve Earle, and
returned to play. Still, there were not many people there.

The Supreme Court Police came up to me as I set up the equipment on
the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court Building.

"You gotta have a permit to use this PA," the officer said. He was
friendly and quiet.

I directed them to Bill, who calmly said he had the permits and
would obey the law. The police retreated to the perimeter.


We played and sang through this one-speaker, one microphone, battery-
powered unit; even my bass plugged into it. I figured the sound went
as far as across the street. A tourist bus slowed as it passed by,
otherwise just a few demonstrators hung around holding signs as a few
government workers walked by. Behind me the rocking of a George Bush
bobble-head doll caught my attention. I also overheard someone use
the expression, "Free speech ends at the Supreme Court steps." There
were also a few guest speakers but that was about it. We finished and
went back to the hotel and had dinner at the Chevy's near Arlington
(cost: $16/each).

I spent the next two days the same way by playing and singing on the
sidewalk, hiding food that I had brought since I wasn't fasting, and
ducking into the shade with some cold water to recover from the heat.
The last day ended in a public park near the Supreme Court; a concert
opening for Steve Earle. People would surely show up for that, I
thought.

Wrong. Some of the demonstrators wandered over to the concert site
just as a thunderstorm came up with wind, lightning, some light rain
and cool downdrafts, breaking the heat. I helped with the PA by
attaching the ground wire, running from a stake in the earth, to the
generator to minimize a possible shock hazard. I sneaked in crackers
and Diet-Cokes and waited for Steve Earle. He has lost so much weight
that I didn't recognize him when he finally showed during our short
set.

We did "Hangin' Tree" plus a few others for the assembled crowd. Or
crowdlet, maybe, if 30 people in a public park could be called a
crowd. Steve Earle played as darkness approached, there were speakers
rallying the faithful before that, but by nightfall, the event ran
out of energy and people wandered away.

Checking out of the hotel (cost: $172 total) we ran for the plane
back to Austin where I would transfer to a plane bound for San Jose
(cost: $200 for a change of schedule).

So, the gig cost $565 (the experience: priceless!), but gave me a new
understanding of protests and fasts in this age of information.
Washington DC is an election-year capital locked-down due to the
threat of terrorism, people are trying to avoid trouble, and without
media exposure, no one pays any attention.