Book Clubs

We were so lucky to have Adam Schiff join us at the beginning of our second Midnight in Washington Book Club zoom!

It was wonderful and inspiring.  Almost Retired (Curt) did a masterful job of facilitating the conversation, Athenaze, Argiope and MomSense asked wonderful questions, and Adam Schiff was gracious, candid and thoughtful.  It was a real delight to have him with us and it felt more like a conversation than any of us expected.

By popular demand, here is the audio version of the Adam Schiff portion of our zoom.

There’s no profanity, so you know we were all on our best behavior!  Even a day later, I think a lot of us are still excited from the experience last night.

I learned how to clip audio files today, next up is clipping video files!

So we will likely have the video on Friday.  I have the video clipped to just the 40 minutes with Adam Schiff.  But I am waiting to hear back from our 3 questioners about whether they are okay with the video being posted publicly.

Update on Friday morning:  I have now heard back from everyone, in the affirmative, so I will be putting up a post with the video later.

Adam Schiff on the Midnight in Washington Book Club Zoom (Audio)Post + Comments (35)

Adam Schiff joined us on the Midnight in Washington Book Club Zoom last night, and I think it’s fair to say that it was as exciting and wonderful as we all thought it would be!

In case you missed the zoom, you can read about it courtesy of our amazing crew of live-bloggers in the post last night:

Midnight in Washington Book Club: Adam Schiff Joins Us Tonight at 8 pm ET

Let’s give it up for our live-bloggers last night: A Good Woman, Chmnna, egorlick, Lyrebird, Nancy and Scamp Dog!

You guys were fantastic!  Are you willing to do it again for the Feb 2 zoom with Adam Schiff?

And a shout-out to our fantastic questioners from Almost Retired (Curt) and WaterGirl!

Also, a major shout out to questioners Athenaze, Argiope and MomSense for asking great open-ended questions – and for asking them in an engaging and personable manner, as opposed to reading from a script. Also, thanks again to CaseyL for introducing the hostile workplace analogy, and to Ohio Mom, Geg6 and others for expanding on that in earlier comments to help us form the opening question. Adam really ran with that and it helped set the tone for the rest of the evening.

And a major shout-out to Almost Retired (Curt)

Almost Retired (Curt) deserves applause for his outstanding facilitation of the conversation with Adam Schiff.  Curt was a brilliant choice for facilitator, if I do say so myself!  :-)  He set the tone from the outset – a conversation rather than a Q & A.

Many thanks, Curt, for a fantastic job.

We recorded the zoom, so you can look for the portion with Adam Schiff on the front page in the coming days.

I have to figure out how to just include the first 45 or 50 minutes of the files, so if anyone has experience editing a video file (mp4) or audio file (m4a) please drop me an email with some tips.   I use a Mac and I have GarageBand, but I have never used it.

I would like to do something to thank Congressman Schiff after each of the two zooms he attends.

Let’s do a word cloud for Adam Schiff!

If you didn’t attend the zoom, comment in this thread as you always would.

If you did attend the zoom, please comment as usual but if you like you can list up to 5 descriptors for how you felt / what you thought about his time with us last night, or his book, whatever you want.   If you don’t supply an actual list, I will choose up to 5 words or phrases from your comment, and I’ll include those in the word cloud.

Subaru Diane suggested that we also send some BJ swag, I believe an email with ideas will be coming from her soon.  Feel free to add any of your ideas in this thread, too.

I am headed out for curbside pickup at our old time meat store.  It’s 6 degrees here, but weather underground says it feels like minus 10.  I say it feels really fucking cold.  But I need some meat, so off I go.  Back in 20 minutes or so, hope I am not frozen solid.

Open thread.

Let’s Thank Adam Schiff for Joining Us for the Book Club ZoomPost + Comments (64)

I am super excited about Adam Schiff joining us in the book club zoom tomorrow night!

I nearly wrote “please read all the information” but I thought that would be too close to “please clap”.

First: Adam Schiff will be joining us for our book club meeting at 8pm Eastern on Wednesday 1/19, for 30 minutes.

Second: Theme for this meeting is The Insurrection on Jan 6 – The Revolution Really Was Televised!

Third:  We have permission to record the 30 minutes with Adam Schiff.

Fourth: 25 people signed up for the book club but haven’t indicated whether they want to participate by zoom or by BJ thread.  You know who you are!  :- ) Until I receive email from you, I cannot send a zoom link.

Fifth: I am looking for 5 volunteers who would like to be on the zoom but who have not read the book – IF you are willing to live blog the Adam Schiff questions and answers in the Bj thread.

Sixth: Last week’s book club zoom a success.  I can not say the same for the BJ thread.  The BJ thread book club clearly needs someone/s to help start the discussion and keep things moving along.  I cannot be in two places at once, so I see three possible ways forward: 1) we have someone/s live blogging the Adam Schiff portion and see if that helps get the BJ thread going, 2) someone volunteers to serve as facilitator in the BJ threads, and 3) we hold the book club meetings in BJ threads after the series of book club zooms is over.

Seventh: We will have more time for questions than I anticipated.   Questions for this week should relate to the book and/or to the insurrection because that was one of the themes Adam Schiff found most interesting.  Questions for the second meeting can be more wide ranging as the theme is “where do we go from here, and how do we still have hope”.

If you are interested in asking a question, please share your question in this thread or by sending email to WaterGirl.  There will likely not be time for all the questions to be asked, but please share your questions in advance.  

 

Book Club News: Adam Schiff Here on 1/19, Volunteers Needed, Opportunity KnocksPost + Comments (52)

Open thread.

But this is also intended to be an opportunity for book club peeps to share:

1. your ideas for how we might want to approach each of the themes
2. your thoughts on questions we might want to ask Adam Schiff (if we get to ask questions)

This is a chance for everybody to toss their thoughts into the ring for consideration.

⭐️ The goal of this post is to end up with a superset of all ideas, not to make decisions. ⭐️

Points of Information

I will facilitate all the zooms, but I have asked a couple of people to lead/moderate discussion for three of the meetings.  I will fill that role for the other two.

Please note that the Theme number doesn’t necessarily correspond with the Meeting number – because we will be discussing Themes 2 and 5, respectively, on the evenings that Adam Schiff is able to meet with us.

When sharing your thoughts on how to approach a particular theme, please identify the theme. :-)

The questions for Adam Schiff should be related to the two themes in color below, and in your comments with proposed questions, please reference which theme your question relates to.

THEMES FOR DISCUSSION

Theme 1.  Discussion of the book more generally, no specific theme
(discussion moderated by WaterGirl)

Theme 2. The Insurrection on Jan 6 – The Revolution Really Was Televised!
(discussion moderated by Almost Retired)

Theme 3.  What Didn’t You Know Before You Read the Book?  What Surprised You?
(discussion moderated by WaterGirl

Theme 4.  So Many Shocking Betrayals On So Many Fronts.
(discussion moderated by Subaru Diane)

Theme 5.  We’re Not Helpless Passengers On a Bad Ride – Making Our Own Shade.
(discussion moderated by Almost Retired)

Have at it!

Let’s use this as an open thread – I will cull through all the comments to find any related to the book club.

Share Your Ideas & Questions for the Adam Schiff Book Club (Open Thread)Post + Comments (42)

We got some exciting news about the book club this week.  Adam Schiff plans to join us for the first 30 minutes of – not just one, but two – meetings.

Are you guys are as excited as I am?

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Details are in the sidebar for easy access: Midnight In Washington Book Club

I will put up a post tomorrow so we can start gathering possible questions we might want to ask Adam Schiff AND so everyone has the opportunity to share any thoughts about how we might want to approach each of the 4 themes in our discussions.  (Start thinking now so you can join the discussion tomorrow!)

Theme 1.  Discussion of the book more generally, no specific theme

Theme 2.  January 6:  The Insurrection – The Revolution Really Was Televised!

Theme 3.  What Didn’t You Know Before You Read the Book?  What Surprised You?

Theme 4.  So Many Shocking Betrayals, On So Many Fronts.

Theme 5.  We’re Not Helpless Passengers On a Bad Ride – Making Our Own Shade.

Themes 2 and 5 are listed in color because these are the topics we will be discussing on the evenings when Adam Schiff joins us:  Theme 2 at his first meeting with us, and Theme 5 at his second meeting with us.

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Important Housekeeping Requests:

• If you had signed up for the book club but you have changed your mind, please let me know in the comments below or by email.
• I will need to communicate with all of the participants by email.  So everyone please send me an email with adam schiff, book club, or midnight in washington in the title.
• In your email message, let me know whether you plan to attend by zoom or if you plan to participate only through the BJ book club posts.

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NYM IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL MESSAGES – IN MANY CASES I KNOW THE NYM-NAME CONNECTION, BUT WITH 120 PARTICIPANTS, IT’S REALLY HELPFUL IF YOU INCLUDE YOUR NYM!

Book Club participants list is below the fold.

show full post on front page

Adam Schiff Book Club – Exciting News and MorePost + Comments (125)