If you want something to do next Sunday evening:
Four years ago I, a loyal Balloon Juice reader and general lurker since John was a Republican, put on a staged reading of Sinclair Lewis’s stage adaptation of his novel It Can’t Happen Here at UNC’s Old Playmakers Theatre. The play describes the takeover of the United States by an American president, and the resistance movement for which ordinary people risked their lives.
Four years ago, the threat was clear, but this election the threat is happening. Rise of militia movements. Voter suppression. Administration corruption as never seen.
Out of Durham and Chapel Hill, NC, a cast of professional and community theatre stalwarts will perform a zoom livestream of the production Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. to counter the threat to our democracy. Legendary music club The Cat’s Cradle is hosting the livestream. Longtime local musical favorite Daniel Chavis from the Veldt, is playing. Novelist Daniel Wallace (Big Fish) is introducing and historian Tim Tyson is doing a q&a following.
Our cast and crew are coming in from Texas, Illinois, and Brooklyn, and we’d love an audience from everywhere too. All people need to do is donate to FlipNC or the David Ladley Swanson Fund to elect progressive candidates through this ActBlue site: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/turningncblue. Any amount is welcome. The donation will generate the livestream link.
We have a website with more information: www.itcanthappenhere.net
Some BJ people donated last time to a reading they could not attend. Bravo, my virtual friends! But this time we can all share in this act of theatrical resistance, just as we’re pulling together to resist the galloping authoritarianism of the Trump presidency. It can happen here, it is happening here, but we can stop it.
DAVID ANDERSON
Balloon-juice meet-up? I will bring the Green Balloons
Gin & Tonic
It probably says something about me (not favorably) that when I saw the title I immediately thought of this instead.
WV Blondie
I will try. It’s my birthday, so maybe I’ll make it the gift to myself.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I have a story to tell about a friend of mine and militias that I’m gonna hang on to for a few months.
Its a doozy.
Elizabelle
I had the pleasure of seeing this play at UNC Chapel Hill 4 years ago. Look forward to supporting and seeing it again.
Gin & Tonic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.”
I hope we don’t have to wait 350 years.
SiubhanDuinne
Donated. Look forward to seeing this!
frosty
I read the book in high school, many many years ago. It made an impression but I don’t remember any of the details. It would be good to revisit it. Thanks for the link.
raven
Frank Zappa – It Can’t Happen Here
Oh, and it won’t happen here
Who could imagine
That they would freak out in the suburbs!
(No no no no no no no no no no
Man you guys are really safe
SiubhanDuinne
By the way, may we know the name/nym of the jackal who is spearheading this? Producer (of the dramatised reading) Leslie Frost is the only one I can think it might be. And no, I certainly don’t need to know, nor do I wish to violate anyone’s privacy. It’s just my ‘satiable curtiosity.
Benw
I’m toggling between the Braves and Chargers games. Bold prediction: the Chargers will lose because they are the stupid Chargers and the Braves will lose because the Dodgers are the stupid Dodgers
raven
@Benw: My bother in LA and I are texting away. He’s a die hard Dodger fan and I’m here in Georgia!
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: I wondered the same thing.
PsiFighter37
Speaking of fundraising, it appears that Cunningham has actually increased his lead since the news about his extramarital dalliances came out. Lost ground amongst seniors and women but apparently more than made up with it from (go figure) men.
Mary G
@Benw: @raven: Thanks for reminding me to turn the baseball game on. Are those real people in the stands now?
raven
@Mary G: Yes, 11,000
beth
sunday nights are tricky for us but i’d love to help flip my new home state blue and get some culture in the process. i’ve put a reminder in my calendar to tune in from the western part of the state. thanks for doing this!
TS (the original)
Latest poll has Cunningham +10 – seems he has been forgiven – or other issues are more important
Edit: as PsiFighter37 said above
A Ghost to Most
I read it years ago. Now we have our very own Buzz Windrip.
NotMax
Okay, that made me laugh.
mad citizen
We seem to have two threads going. This one is newer, but I’m commenting on the last one: I’m not buying that the election would be close or a nail-biter sans virus. Trump’s show is a shitshow through and through. Got to believe people are tired of all of it.
I (and my wife) voted today, pretty healthy line at the county courthouse. Again, have to believe more people are coming out to stop trump than otherwise. We’re trying to flip the IN-5 district from R to D since who knows when?
sdhays
@TS (the original): Well, his opponent caught COVID-19 and was accused by his first wife of “abuse”, so compared to that…
ETA: I haven’t been following closely as I am not a North Carolinian, but “abuse” is in double quotes because I don’t believe there are any specifics at the moment, so there’s a wide range of interpretations. But not good under any interpretation.
danielx
@mad citizen:
Voting next week at one of the satellite sites…and taking chairs in case of a serious line.
Benw
@raven: funny. My wife’s family are from the ATL area and huge Braves/Ga Tech fans
Ken
Some things never change…
sdhays
@mad citizen: I agree. Biden has been leading since last year and the 2018 election showed Democrats are fired up. I think people discount how much Dump-fatigue there is. People don’t like Donald Trump, and he won’t let people forget how much they don’t like him because he has to be the center of attention every. fucking. day.
Even without COVID, I think he’d still be cruising for a comfortable, though hard-fought loss. We wouldn’t be tied in Ohio. Things wouldn’t look as good in the Senate. But he was in a very bad position in February, and COVID just accentuated all of the negative exponentially.
Lying and being reviled are not helpful when running for reelection.
Mary G
It’s South Carolina, but Jaime Harrison is spending his big money well; I love this commercial:
Miss Bianca
@PsiFighter37: Oh, dear God. Well, any old port in a storm, I guess…
NotMax
@Ken
B’klyn.
They will gladly yell
we are not Chanel
But Chanel don’t smell
Quite like the Gowanus
.
:)
Summer
Dear all, We just finished rehearsal so I’m late to the thread and missed the party, but thanks Anne Laurie for posting for me and the rest of the cast and crew. And thanks to all who we’ll see Sunday night. When we first imagined redoing the play (which was a ridiculously short time ago), we imagined it as one more way for people to celebrate communally a commitment to make good trouble, to resist the chaos and to take heart for what is bound to be an unnerving few weeks. So I hope you can share this play with us.
Thank you for the comments on this thread. I’ve been here for SO LONG in a quiet sort of way mostly, that it’s nice to feel known. Yes, SiubhanDuinne, it’s me!
Cheers,
Summer
Aleta
danielx
@Aleta:
Not getting complacent, but…crush him like a grape, yes yes!
mad citizen
My continued hope is that trump ends up around 38-39% nationally…
MisterForkbeard
@Aleta: Huh. Is our Stein voters learning?
sdhays
@mad citizen: He should get around 9%, if for no other reason than he’s clearly not playing with even the partial deck he was born with, but I’ll be extra pleased if we can break the 40% floor.
Summer
@DAVID ANDERSON: This is a wonderful idea.