507 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
507 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
YOU'RE WRONG!
|
|
An Irregular Column
|
|
by Mykel Board
|
|
|
|
I was more out of place than a leg razor at a lesbian bar. It
|
|
was the great ANARCHIST UNCONVENTION in Toronto. I figured
|
|
there'd be lot's of sex, beer, and free food. And the best part;
|
|
I could cause some trouble. Maybe the last issue of MRR had a
|
|
report of what went on. Here's the truth
|
|
I rode up there with Mike Gunderloy, editor of FACTSHEET
|
|
FIVE. Mike's an anarcho-capitalist who believes, among other
|
|
things, that highways should be privately owned and you should
|
|
have a choice between driving on those that require a license and
|
|
those that don't-- the latter presumably more expensive than the
|
|
former.
|
|
Mike planned to distribute a leaflet from some Chicago
|
|
Anarchists. They didn't like the way things were run at the
|
|
convention. They objected to senseless "death-demonstrations"
|
|
that trashed things for no reason. They said that the
|
|
organizers spend time raising money for food and future meetings
|
|
and all of it winds up being used for bail. Besides rioting
|
|
could give anarchists a bad name. The Chicagoans also objected
|
|
to completely open workshops that included seemingly irrelevant
|
|
topics. "What if someone proposes to give a workshop on 'Why
|
|
Anarchists should join the Churches?'" They asked.
|
|
The Toronto newspapers gave the convention a lot of hype. "15,000
|
|
Anarchists, skinheads and Nazis to descend on Toronto," they
|
|
said.
|
|
Local politicians called for a full scale investigation of the
|
|
city. How could they let a bunch of mostly foreign scum use a
|
|
public Civic Center for their nefarious purpose? Organizers
|
|
planned the auditorium for selling stuff, another big room as a
|
|
daycare center, and the small rooms for a bunch of "workshops"
|
|
on all kinds of things. The banana-colored journalists were
|
|
outraged. Because of all the publicity, Mike and I decided to
|
|
cross the border near Montreal, then drive on to Toronto.
|
|
When I arrived I heard people shouting numbers. "Eight! Six!
|
|
Forty two! One!" They said. They were all shouting at the same
|
|
time, but each of them said a different number. I peeped into
|
|
the room and saw that as they shouted, the people kicked up
|
|
their legs, opened their arms wide or tilted their heads to the
|
|
right or to the left. Everybody moved in unison, but no two
|
|
people did the same thing at the same time. I looked at my
|
|
schedule to see what this was. "Anarchist Aerobics Workshop,"
|
|
it said.
|
|
I went to find the "bomb making" workshop listed as being in
|
|
room 723. Of course there was no room 723. All the other rooms
|
|
were numbered randomly and those numbers kept changing every
|
|
five minutes. I tried to find the men's room, but there were
|
|
only two "person rooms." Hardline anarchists objected anyway.
|
|
It was fascist to assign a specific function to a specific room.
|
|
Each room should be allowed to seek its full potential and not
|
|
be hampered by arbitrary human restrictions. That was
|
|
"animist." People pissed in ashtrays and shat in coffee urns.
|
|
None of that is true. I wish it were. Instead of anarcho-
|
|
weirdness, I got hippies. Long haired, barefooted, patched
|
|
clothed, hairy legged, dope smoking, love-in hippies. Punk
|
|
hippies, homo hippies, lesbo hippies, veggie hippies. The free
|
|
food was lentils and spinach-- mmmm boy! I went off to Colonel
|
|
Sanders and spent the three days of the convention with a chicken
|
|
bone in my mouth.
|
|
You'd think that might rile up these organo-veggie hippies. Ho,
|
|
ho, not the Canadians. They are so proper and polite you could
|
|
gag. Steve B., one of my many hosts, said he saw a Canadian
|
|
anarchist with a button that said, "QUESTION AUTHORITY. . .
|
|
PLEASE." If it weren't for the Americans there, you could've
|
|
never gotten a decent riot out of these folks. Fortunately the
|
|
Chicago anarchists were right and there would be lot's of window
|
|
breaking.
|
|
The entire city reeked of veggies. Their big politicos were "The
|
|
Kentucky Fried Five" who graffitied the local you-know-what.
|
|
How radical! My hosts, Sean, Ruth, Al, and Ron were otherwise
|
|
fine folks, but they just would not chew the bone. Two
|
|
Californians and a Brit also stayed at this house. The three of
|
|
them were part of the "vegans", an extreme veggie sect who wear
|
|
veils over their faces so they didn't inadvertently inhale any
|
|
insects. They carried their own Soyburger mix with them, just in
|
|
case the local stuff was tainted. Of course they ate bread.
|
|
"How could you eat bread?" I complained. "Don't you know that
|
|
the wheat used to make that stuff is factory farmed? First it's
|
|
cut down ruthlessly, while still alive, with no anaesthetic.
|
|
Then it's herded like cattle up tiny shoots where it's
|
|
sadistically ground into tiny slivers and packed like sardines
|
|
to be cooked for your pleasure."
|
|
They weren't too pleased with me.}
|
|
There were lots of homos up there. Besides the natives, came
|
|
California computer wiz, Tommy J, and the truly flaming Tad K
|
|
from Kansas. Tad took me to my first homo bar in Toronto, but
|
|
it was too early for the action to have started. Over nice
|
|
Canuk beer, Tad told me about his new band, THE GRATEFUL DEAD
|
|
BOYS. An album should be out soon called, "Young, Loud and On
|
|
Acid." The most interesting homo there was Bruce LaBruce,
|
|
editor of JDs magazine and future guest editor of the all-homo
|
|
issue of MRR. Bruce is the founder of the "homocore" music
|
|
movement. He lives with this artist girl named Candy and their
|
|
little female dog-- a pug. They make 8mm movies.
|
|
Speaking of movies, he's got a sure winner you'll want to see.
|
|
Dave D., of MDC stayed with Bruce while he was in town. After
|
|
the MDC show, a punk girl stumbled up to Dave. He took her with
|
|
us to Bruce's house. The girl varied in consciousness from semi
|
|
to un. Because of her heavy use of eye make-up, you couldn't
|
|
really tell if the lids were open or not. Back at the house,
|
|
Bruce showed me his collection of film noir porno videos.
|
|
Through the open door I saw Dave carry the crewcut girl into the
|
|
bathroom.
|
|
During an extremely arty blowjob on the TV screen, we heard Dave
|
|
call out.
|
|
"Bruce, come here quick! Bring your camera!"
|
|
Dave and the semi conscious girl were in the shower. Dave had
|
|
his face nuzzled between her legs and was licking furiously.
|
|
Bruce ran in with the camera. The dog followed. I didn't.
|
|
From the bedroom I heard running water, a gentle moaning, a
|
|
slurping and an occasional yapping. It's all on film. That, by
|
|
the way, was one of three MDC stunts that raised my opinion of
|
|
the band 100%. Another was how they got into the country in the
|
|
first place.
|
|
You see, M.D.C. was banned from Canada for either politics or
|
|
beastial sexual practices, I'm not sure which. In any case,
|
|
they chose to brave the border to play for the anarchists. The
|
|
band flew to Syracuse NY then waited in the airport for more
|
|
than six hours. A Canadian finally picked them up and brought
|
|
them to the U.S. side of an Indian reservation. That
|
|
reservation spans both the U.S. and Canadian border. No national
|
|
cops are allowed in. From inside the reservation, Indians canoed
|
|
them across the river to the Canadian side. There, in the
|
|
woods, they again had to wait in fear of helicopter cops.
|
|
Finally they were brought out by I-can't-tell-you-who to play
|
|
for the @-boys. Those guys have balls! (For proof, just ask Bruce to
|
|
look at the movie.)
|
|
Now let's back track. Let's go into the community center where
|
|
all these "workshops" were happening. The organizers posted a
|
|
schedule on the bulletin board. Vertically were listed the times
|
|
of each workshop, horizontally were the room numbers. I looked
|
|
down the schedule and saw the "wymyn's" workshop. (They like
|
|
spelling it like that because "woman" has the word "man" in it.
|
|
They want to avoid that. Get it?) In parenthesis was the
|
|
notation, "wymyn only."
|
|
Fortunately, there was a blank square under this listing. Even
|
|
more fortunately, I had a pen with me. I filled in the square
|
|
with a fake "Klanarchy workshop." In parenthesis, I made the
|
|
notation, "whites only." I hope they would appreciate my biting
|
|
satire. Within half an hour, my graffiti was crossed out.
|
|
Within a full hour the entire poster was torn down so no one
|
|
could read through the crossout.
|
|
I went to a workshop called "Loving Alternatives." I liked the
|
|
name and was attracted to the fact that it was being held right
|
|
next to the "Animal Rights" workshop. I figured there should be
|
|
some pretty wild alternatives if they combined the two. They
|
|
didn't.
|
|
About 50 people sat on the floor in a big circle. A bulky girl
|
|
started things by explaining how she had formed this
|
|
"arrangement" with her boyfriend so he could see another girl on
|
|
Mondays and Wednsdays and she would get Tuesdays and Thursdays.
|
|
Pretty daring, huh? Then people talked about their own ideas.
|
|
The big problem was making sure that at all times the
|
|
relationships involved "love and understanding."
|
|
"What the fuck does love and understanding have to do with sex?"
|
|
I asked. "Why should sex with someone involve love anymore than
|
|
eating dinner with them?"
|
|
Oh boy, did they get mad. I was just a stupid male, with a male
|
|
understanding and girls felt the connection more deeply. I
|
|
could just never understand how a womyn felt. Even the guys
|
|
yelled at me for being "a man."
|
|
The nasty thing was how I wasn't allowed to defend myself. This
|
|
was an anarchist workshop, you see, so they had very strict
|
|
rules. They couldn't have a leader or a moderator. Each
|
|
speaker had to pick a person to follow him/her. You had to give
|
|
everybody a chance, so you had to pick someone who hadn't spoken
|
|
before. Of course, you weren't allowed to pick two boys in a
|
|
row, because this would be sexist. You could never answer a
|
|
challenge, because you had already spoken and you had to give
|
|
someone else a chance. It was maddening!
|
|
"Who does that guy think he is?" they'd say. "He doesn't see the
|
|
beauty and mysticism of sex?" It got worse from there.
|
|
Whenever I would try to defend myself, someone would shout, "You
|
|
had your turn, let others speak." Eventually they got tired of
|
|
yelling at me and started talking about themselves again.
|
|
A great moment came when a pretty blond butch girl spoke about
|
|
how she was "an incest survivor." (Don't you just love these
|
|
new phrases? I guess I'm a "suburb survivor".) Anyway, you
|
|
could just smell the feminists' hackles raising slowly from
|
|
wherever hackles raise. "Those evil men," they were stewing,
|
|
"abusing their own relatives like that. Typical of penis
|
|
mentality."
|
|
The girl continued, "I was attacked by my sister. . . " Those
|
|
hackles deflated and lay limp. I couldn't hold back the smile.
|
|
Gradually, the workshop turned more and more into a group
|
|
psychotherapy session. People took turns telling about their sex
|
|
problems and what they did to overcome them. Each story tried to
|
|
out-sensitize the others. Sometimes there was applause.
|
|
One sensitive looking young man, who, if he wasn't barefoot,
|
|
should've been, meekly raised his hand. "Right now," he said, "I
|
|
am in pain." He brought his clenched hands to his chest. I
|
|
gagged and left the room.
|
|
Outside the building was a park-like space where some people
|
|
frolicked in the garden and others tried to sensitive the nearest
|
|
stranger into having meaningful sex with them. Tad introduced me
|
|
to blond girl named Alex. He met her at the last @-fest and they
|
|
became good pals. You'll read about my special "aura" later, but
|
|
it was working then, because Alex said, "Hi," then walked away.
|
|
Lisa Seagul, ARTLESS's first guitar player and composer of
|
|
"We Want Nuclear War", walked right by me. I grabbed her.
|
|
"What are YOU doing here?" she asked.
|
|
"I got a ride." I said.
|
|
Bob Z walked by. (Remember him? He's the guy who got $22,000
|
|
worth of postering tickets from the NYC sanitation department?)
|
|
Bob had a knapsack full of beer. He offered me one. We sat
|
|
drinking on the grass. Bob finished his beer. I set mine down
|
|
for a second. It was the same second that a pair of Toronto's
|
|
Finest chose to pass by. They saw the half filled can in front
|
|
of Bob and then opened his knapsack. Another beer, same brand.
|
|
Yep, Bob, the ticket magnet, got another one, $53.75, for MY
|
|
beer. Of course, Bob threw the ticket out-- or framed it.
|
|
Bored with the playground, I hooked up with Tad K., Bruce LaBruce
|
|
and this reporter for Canadian TV. We went drinking where it was
|
|
legal. Over drinks we discussed anarchism, politics, sports and
|
|
stuff I don't remember. I do remember making a rapier-witted
|
|
remark that struck them cold. I can't remember what it was, but
|
|
it must've been good, because Tad answered, "Did you have a hair
|
|
transplant, Mykel?" There was a split second of dead silence and
|
|
the conversation continued as if the question had never been
|
|
asked.
|
|
It's taken me a long time to figure it out, but I realize that
|
|
people who try to embarrass you with physical remarks are
|
|
admitting they've lost. It's like the "your mother wears combat
|
|
boots" game that little kids play. Stephan, singer of THE
|
|
FALSE PROPHETS, pulls this all the time.
|
|
"So Stephan," I ask, "How come The False Prophets play at over 21
|
|
clubs with big bouncers and rules that keep out punks and let in
|
|
yuppies."
|
|
"You're short and you're loosing your hair." replies Stephan.
|
|
Anyway, back in Toronto, Tad eventually went off to look for
|
|
boys. It was getting late, so I went hunting up some chicken
|
|
wings. I could've waited on line for three hours for the
|
|
evening's free service of lentil guts and cabbage brains, but I
|
|
decided against it.
|
|
That evening the first Americans were arrested. The locals said
|
|
it was immigration and not the Toronto cops who busted them.
|
|
They drove a car with American license plates. Immigration
|
|
stopped them and said that they must've lied at the border.
|
|
Their reasoning was this: If they had told the border patrol
|
|
that they were coming to Toronto for the anarchist convention,
|
|
then they would not have been let in the country. Since they
|
|
WERE let in the country, they must've lied at the border.
|
|
Because they lied at the border, they were under arrest.
|
|
"Pretty good reasoning," I thought, "those guys should be
|
|
anarchists."
|
|
During the day, I heard people talk about "the orgy house." It
|
|
was also called "Cathedral B" and was supposed to be a hippy
|
|
anarchist sex house. Boys and girls of all ages and preferences
|
|
lived there and supposedly strangers were welcome. Of course I
|
|
headed right over. I went with Tom, Bruce, Dave MDC, Tad and a
|
|
couple of other folks. As I walked in I could smell the stewing
|
|
Brussels Sprouts. I had hoped for something more fishy. The
|
|
first floor was packed with pretty girls. They looked at my
|
|
leather jacket, my leather army boots, and my face and sneered
|
|
once for each. The reflection in their eyes said, "Cow
|
|
Murderer!" when they looked at my jacket. It said "Man!" when
|
|
they looked at my face.
|
|
"I'm not a man!" I wanted to say, "I'm a myn! Do you think men
|
|
are just incomplete women? Hah! We're independent beings with
|
|
thoughts and feelings of our own!"
|
|
I didn't say any of that, though. After all, I wanted to get
|
|
laid. I went to the downstairs room where all the girls were.
|
|
They didn't seem to be DOING anything yet, but I figured it
|
|
was only a matter of time.
|
|
"Hey, get out of here," said a pretty one with a crewcut, "this
|
|
is the wymyn's rooms!" She gave me a look like I was wearing a
|
|
CRASS shirt to a SKREWDRIVER show. I apologized and went
|
|
upstairs to the boys.
|
|
Tommy J, and Dave D. were already there. Maybe it's something
|
|
about me. Bruce says I radiate a certain "hostile aura." In any
|
|
case, when I walked in the room a cold silence fell like an
|
|
Iranian airliner on the crowd lying on the floor. People
|
|
suddenly grew intensely interested in things like cleaning their
|
|
nails, or puffing up their jackets to make them better pillows.
|
|
Tom & Dave MDC nodded hello, slightly embarrassed to know me. I
|
|
waved back, took the hint and returned to the vegan house to
|
|
drink some beer.
|
|
Later I found out that, after I left, there was indeed an orgy
|
|
at Cathedral B. In fact, Tom himself started the boys' part
|
|
with some "cute guy with braces." Not only was there an orgy,
|
|
but there was nearly a riot.
|
|
The "bad guys" in the Toronto scene are not the baldies, but the
|
|
hair-in-the-air crew. I met some of them at a NO MINDS show,
|
|
and they seemed nice enough. I drank their beer and hung out
|
|
with them. They told me they worshipped me. In any case,
|
|
they're not very popular with the anarcho-homo crew, that's for
|
|
sure. Now, I wasn't at the orgy/riot at Cathedral B, so I can't
|
|
say exactly what happened, but here's what I heard.
|
|
It was late. Tom and his new friend were starting the action
|
|
upstairs. Suddenly the door opens and the hair-in-the-air crew
|
|
stands hostilely on the other side.
|
|
"Look at those guys," says one of them, "that's disgusting!"
|
|
"Yeah, what a bunch of sick fags," said another, "I think we
|
|
should teach them a lesson."
|
|
They went on like this, their statements gradually increasing in
|
|
hostility. Most of the homoboys ignore them. Dave MDC got up
|
|
from whatever he was doing.
|
|
"Hey, these guys aren't kidding!" He said. Suddenly the happy
|
|
homos realize that they might actually be in danger. Dave faced
|
|
the bad guys.
|
|
"You'd better leave," he said. What happened after that isn't
|
|
clear. There was some sort of confrontation, with a group of
|
|
hard line hair people, their softer line supporters, Dave and
|
|
the B-boys. Eventually the hairboys left and the orgy
|
|
continued.
|
|
While those guys were deep in fudge packing, I was deep in
|
|
conversation back at the vegan house. The California veilfaces
|
|
explained their particular brand of anarchism.
|
|
I said I thought it was ironic that all these anti-censorship
|
|
people suddenly spoke out of the other side of their @'s when it
|
|
came to things like SKREWDRIVER concerts. (If you don't know,
|
|
that band has been in the U.S. They had as much trouble getting
|
|
here as MDC had in getting into Canada. They're having an even
|
|
MORE difficult time playing. Most of the A-punks say they'd
|
|
fight to stop any of their shows. Fortunately the NO MORE
|
|
CENSORSHIP DEFENSE FUND is putting up the money to hire a hall
|
|
for them.) [This is NOT true. It's just another example
|
|
of Mykel's "humor." --TY]
|
|
Anyway, I told those vegans that I couldn't understand that kind
|
|
of pro/anti-censorship hypocrisy.
|
|
"We've made sure they can't play in the open in England," said
|
|
one of them with a funny accent. "They have to make special
|
|
meeting places. Then someone comes to check 'em out and takes
|
|
them to the concert."
|
|
"That doesn't seem very anarchistic to me." I said.
|
|
"We're anarcho-fascists." came the reply.
|
|
To be fair, I actually liked those guys, despite the horrors they
|
|
later inflicted on me. They were smart and funny and could
|
|
commiserate with me, as they seemed to be the only OTHER folks
|
|
at this @-party not getting laid.
|
|
Anyway we drank ourselves to sleep. The next morning, the
|
|
vegetable people were off to go to an "Anarchy and the Military"
|
|
workshop. I went to one called "Queer Anarchists."
|
|
At that workshop a lot of homo boys wore dresses and didn't
|
|
shave their faces, presumably in solidarity with the homo girls
|
|
who wore dresses and didn't shave their legs. The anarchist
|
|
rules were the same from one workshop to the other. Only this
|
|
one was even more unfair, since we had to give the girls an
|
|
equal chance and there were only about a half dozen of them.
|
|
Most of the girls look like they were the type who stand to
|
|
piss. I could tell the most militant because she didn't sit
|
|
on her chair, but squatted on it, like a panther ready to
|
|
pounce.
|
|
One of the older gentlemen started off saying how these young
|
|
homos now days don't respect their elders. The older folks are
|
|
doing all this AIDS work and the kids don't want to hear from
|
|
it. They just want to disco. They're not responsible enough to
|
|
protest for more money for AIDS testing. They don't listen to
|
|
their elders. A younger guy apologetically said he couldn't
|
|
demonstrate for AIDS funding, because they use the money to test
|
|
drugs and drug testing kills animals. The others nodded in grim
|
|
agreement. It was quite an anarchists dilemma.
|
|
I didn't wait to be called on.
|
|
"Hey," I said, "Maybe the kids are right. Maybe it isn't the
|
|
most thrilling thing in the world to establish your identity
|
|
from a disease you can catch. It's bad enough to label yourself
|
|
based on where you stick your penis.. . . er. . . whatever you
|
|
have to stick, but to base your self-image on a sickness is
|
|
pretty lame."
|
|
That got 'em mad, but they were too polite to yell.
|
|
"Oh, he's just a bi-sexual," said one of the dressboys. "I hate
|
|
bisexuals. They're all liars. They're just queers who don't have
|
|
the balls to admit it."
|
|
"I'm afraid that's not right" said another, "They're just
|
|
straights who think it's fashionable and politically correct to
|
|
say they're bi."
|
|
Being neither Canadian nor an anarchist, I didn't wait to be
|
|
called on to defend myself. "Why bother with labels at all?" I
|
|
asked. "Why not just say that you like whoever you like, you
|
|
want to do it with whoever you want to do it with, and that's it?
|
|
Why CALL yourself something?"
|
|
A guy sitting in the corner responded. "Well personally," he
|
|
said, "I like the label ANDROGYNOUS. I feel that way I can
|
|
express both parts of myself. . . "
|
|
A person is androgynous if they could be either gender. Someone
|
|
in the middle; like David Bowie in his prime or the people who
|
|
go to THE CURE concerts. This guy needed a shave and showed
|
|
lots of curly chest hairs. He was as androgynous as Hulk Hogan,
|
|
but that was the label he picked. Jee-sus!
|
|
The squatting girl raised her hand and called on herself to
|
|
answer.
|
|
"I LIKE being a lesbian!" she said, "I'm proud to be a
|
|
lesbian. It gives me an identity, a way of reaching solidarity
|
|
with my sisters. It carves me a place in the struggle."
|
|
She adjusted her sitting position to give herself greater vocal
|
|
effectiveness. She often spoke in italics.
|
|
"MEN," she said, "especially STRAIGHT MEN are the enemy
|
|
when I make myself a lesbian. They just don't understand.
|
|
There was a womyn's workshop and some MAN wrote something
|
|
obscene on the poster because it was WYMYN ONLY. Then I
|
|
heard about this OTHER ASSHOLE who tried to bed down with
|
|
the lesbians at Cathedral B. THEY just don't understand.
|
|
We're LESBIANS and we need our space."
|
|
Applause.
|
|
I left.
|
|
I did get to see a couple of good bands when I was there. I
|
|
didn't get to the MDC, MR. T EXPERIENCE show. I saw NO MINDS,
|
|
the fun all-girl FIFTH COLUMN, THE LAYABOUTS and FAIL SAFE. All
|
|
these are really good Canuk bands, who might get to play in the
|
|
U.S. if the Canadian parliament passes "The Free Trade Bill".
|
|
FAIL SAFE, by the way, is the only punk band I've ever seen with
|
|
a blind guitar player. He goes a long way toward proving my
|
|
theory that cripples are generally better than "normal people."
|
|
Oh yeah, this Free Trade Bill is a law introduced into the
|
|
Canadian parliament that repeals the duty on goods crossing the
|
|
U.S.-Canadian border. It would make U.S. records, books and
|
|
other goods cheaper in Canada. It would also make Canadian
|
|
goods more available in the U.S. (I could finally get that
|
|
VILETONES single, for example.) What's really odd about this
|
|
thing is that the lefties are against it. D.O.A. played a
|
|
benefit to help defeat it. The pink-tinged labor party sang the
|
|
Canadian national anthem in parliament as a protest against it's
|
|
introduction. They said (with straight faces, presumably) that
|
|
Canada would loose "it's national identity" if it were passed.
|
|
Can you imagine all these lefty nationalists? These guys saying
|
|
"my country first, and fuck freedom of access?" Can you imagine
|
|
DOA wanting to make it hard for MDC to play in Canada? I wonder
|
|
how many other Canadian anarchists are against free trade.
|
|
Politics does make funny bedmates-- no?
|
|
On the next to last day of festivities, there was the giant party
|
|
in the park. If you weren't around in 1966, you didn't have to
|
|
be. The Toronto @-people brought their own time machine. When
|
|
I got there, a bunch of them beat on drums, oil kegs and who
|
|
knows what else. Another barefoot crew was wildly dancing to the
|
|
drumbeat, carried off to mental Grateful Dead land. There were
|
|
boxes of green things and pita bread for those who wanted to eat.
|
|
Off to one side, another bunch of folks discussed the next
|
|
convention. It'll be in San Francisco. They also discussed the
|
|
demonstration scheduled for the next day. The U.S. had shot
|
|
down that plane, so they had a good excuse to riot. I didn't
|
|
hang around for the discussion. I'd rather go shopping than
|
|
rioting.
|
|
Overhead, two blimps circled. One was from Goodyear, the other
|
|
from a Canuk company called OV. These companies paid the bail
|
|
bill for the anarchists in exchange for being allowed to
|
|
advertise at the gathering.
|
|
A stage was set up. An all girl band played and they invited
|
|
lot's of people on stage to beat on things. The hot weather let
|
|
people pull off their shirts. Couples were making out on the
|
|
grass. Under a tree, Tom prepared his latest find for future
|
|
drilling. Alex, the girl that Tad had introduced me to, came
|
|
running up to me through the crowd.
|
|
"Hey," she said, "when Tad introduced us, I didn't realize you
|
|
were MYKEL BOARD."
|
|
I smiled an "aw shucks" smile and kicked the dirt with the toe of
|
|
my boot.
|
|
Alex called to another girl.
|
|
"Hey Collette," she said, "this is Mykel Board. LET'S GET HIM!"
|
|
Before I knew what hit me, they tackled me. Alex pulled at my
|
|
shirt. As I reached up to keep it on, Collette went for my belt.
|
|
It was the second time in a year that I was to become an
|
|
attempted rape survivor.
|
|
When I let got of the T-shirt, Alex pulled it up over my head.
|
|
Trying to keep my pants closed with one hand, I reached up to
|
|
save my shirt with the other. It was too late. Alex took my
|
|
arms and pulled them up over my head. She managed to pull the
|
|
shirt completely off me while Collette fumbled at my waist.
|
|
Then she sat on me. Collette grabbed my legs. By this time
|
|
another girl, Becky, had joined the gang bang. I managed to roll
|
|
over onto my stomach. While still fighting for my pants, I
|
|
realized that Alex had gotten a marking pen from somewhere. The
|
|
girls held me down. Alex used my back as a public billboard.
|
|
"I support the struggle of oppressed wymyn everywhere," she wrote
|
|
indelibly. Then they turned me over. Collette sat on my pelvis
|
|
and Becky held my hands. Nearby, Bruce took movies and Mike G.
|
|
smiled. So much for male solidarity.
|
|
Alex drew two arrows on my chest, one pointing to each of my
|
|
nipples. The base of the arrows came down to my stomach where
|
|
she printed, "These are tits too!"
|
|
"OK," I shouted, "you've had your fun. Now give me back my
|
|
shirt."
|
|
"Nope," said Alex, "you've got to walk around the whole city like
|
|
that. It'll help you pay back some of the shit you've been doing
|
|
for these past years." She stuffed the shirt in her pants'
|
|
pocket and ran.
|
|
Later at the festival, Tad managed to corner her and grab the
|
|
shirt from her pocket. "I always wondered what it would be like
|
|
to get into a girl's pants." he said.
|
|
The victory was short lived, though. Alex soon stole it back
|
|
and-- to my knowledge-- still has it. Was that it? Was that
|
|
the end of my torture at the hands of sadistic anarchists? You
|
|
bet it wasn't.
|
|
I want back to the veggie house to get something to cover my
|
|
upper body. The vegans were waiting for me.
|
|
"Hey Mykel," they said, "come on out to the car. We want to show
|
|
you something."
|
|
I should've smelled a rotten turnip right then, but I was still
|
|
stunned from my attack in the park. I walked out to the car.
|
|
They took out the box of "instant Tofu-loaf mix."
|
|
"Uh oh," I thought. I was right.
|
|
Again I was tackled. Right there on some stranger's front yard.
|
|
One of the veggies must've eaten a lot of spinach, because he weighed
|
|
almost 200 pounds. It only took one of him to hold me down,
|
|
while the Brit opened the box of Tofu mix. Sean squeezed my
|
|
cheeks to force my mouth open. The stuff tasted like salted
|
|
sand. I choked on it as it filled my mouth and spilled over
|
|
into my hair, over my chest, in my ears. Meanwhile, the regular
|
|
residents of the house were happily snapping away with their
|
|
instamatics.
|
|
Anything else? Oh yeah, there was a riot. They burned flags.
|
|
The papers said, "We told you so." A bunch of people got
|
|
arrested. Lot's of money was used for bail. I went to a Blue
|
|
Jays game with Steve B & Al. The Blue Jays lost.
|
|
|