Lysistrata

As you may know, the play Lysistrata was performed all over the world yesterday as a protest against the coming war. Basically, the women of Athens and other city-states, led by Lysistrata, decide that there’s been enough killing and that they only way to get the men to stop going to war is to not put out in the bedroom. There are impassioned speeches about the results of war (more impassion, I might add, than you’ll hear on the floors of the American senate these days), the value of human life, and the role of women. In the end, the men decide to make peace in order to get laid. If only Laura and Lynne would cut off the boys...or maybe that wouldn’t work after all. The worldwide effort was simply another area of art -this time theater -coming out strong against the war. The society that refuses to listen to its artists deserves the world it builds for itself.

I was scheduled to play a few roles, including one where I got to wear a giant phallus. I know what you’re thinking; “redundant” or “typecasting.” Well, I didn’t get to strap on for the performance after all because my body became a nightclub for a viral-rave that lasted all weekend. The fever is pretty much gone but I was sad to miss my chance to be part of this protest. However, mi esposa Nili was the person that brought the Sunday night Roslindale/JP production together and made it all happen and I couldn’t be prouder. She organized the thing, found readers, found a place (thanks for your help in that, too, Helen!) and generally fretted over the play while simultaneously taking care of a baby & sick husband, neither of which could help out around the house much. She raised money for Move-On and even performed while holding Asher in a sling for two hours. This is an amazing woman that I’ve married and I still can’t figure out how I convinced someone so clearly brilliant and wonderful to hang around for longer than a few weeks. I thought that it might have been the omelets, initially, but there must be something else...

Anyway, I think that the Lysistrata project was a big success in that it has kept up the pressure on the administration to justify this ridiculous war. The project is also a much needed response to the administration’s and mainstream media’s constant barrage of pro-war propaganda. While I was on the couch Sunday, I ended up watching more TV than I’ve seen in the last few years. I saw the Comedy channel, movie channels, the Discovery Channel, Fox, etc. Here are some of the shows I saw:

-Midway: War movie that glorifies America as a fair “sleeping giant” military power.

-Davie Crocket: Americana & myth making. Pro -military.

-“Terrorism On The Job”: This one was truly straight out of psyopps. One hour of explosion after explosion as fires break out, bombs explodes, planes crash, boats crash, people rob banks. There wasn’t a whole lot of terrorism bu there was a lot to be afraid of. And that, I guess, was the point.

-Shores of Iwo Jima: War movie.

-Top Gun: War movie

-Some Fox crime drama, the title I didn’t get, where a disgruntled scientist takes over his “Patriots For Peace” meeting and holds everybody hostage unless ten newspapers print the number of the United States’ own weapons of mass destruction along with reasons why the US shouldn’t go to war. What a flattering portrayal of the antiwar movement!

And that was just a smattering! The TV is truly a conservative medium. And that, my friends, is why protests like the Lysistrata Project are so important.