October 22, 2024: My sister Karen shaking hands with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at Memorial Hall in Racine, Wisconsin.
Another Week: Number 96
Sometimes things seem set and rigid — when you know the established track, the inevitable routine, and the limits of likelihood.
Other times — often through the power of the arts — your imagination gains some elasticity and you remember that reality can bend, that rigid situations can shift into a more pleasing arrangement. Even a crooked set of teeth, for example, seemingly fixed in one’s jaw, can be nudged into alignment by gentle and consistent pressure over time.
The pace always picks up this time of year. Cooler winds blow the stagnant air away, clouds roll through, and daylight hours get noticeably shorter. Baseball season and the election cycle are rapidly drawing to a close.
On Sunday, my sister Karen and I went out knocking doors for the Democratic Party. I had canvassed many previous elections with Amy, but the system is so much more streamlined now. Instead of clipboards, everything is synchronized on smartphones — maps, names, addresses, survey data, early voting details, and Election Day details. We talked to a lot of people, and they were all gracious and motivated. It was a beautiful day.
On Tuesday morning — Racine’s first day of in-person early voting — I filled out my ballot at City Hall. The parking lot was crowded, but a spot opened up for me just as I arrived. There was a short waiting line for Room 207. Inside it were separate stations for registrations, ballot requests, ballot completion, and witnessing. The whole process was 16 exciting minutes of civic hustle and bustle.
On Thursday afternoon, I walked 3.69 miles around Kenosha’s downtown and lakeshore.
This one came around on my guitar many times this week.
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Tim Walz rally at Racine Memorial Hall
Vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Walz came to Racine on Tuesday evening for a rally at Memorial Hall.
My sister Karen and I attended, remembering when President Obama visited in 2010. At that town hall meeting, Amy was in charge of the audience microphones and Karen sat on the stage with the president.
At this rally, Greta Neubauer and Peter Barca preceded Gov. Walz.
Meanwhile, The Atlantic broke a story that quoted Donald Trump as once complaining, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
So — in that scenario — who, exactly, do you suppose Trump would want to be?
On the one hand, our country is just a few days away from a sick and sinister swerve. If that occurs, America will not come back in my lifetime. We wouldn’t be the first nation cowed into submission. I have read those books.
On the other hand, it’s exhilarating to join together with all these ordinary people in this Herculean effort to hold the wheel, stay on the road, keep our democracy, and leave the ogre in the rearview.
Please do anything you can.
In this video from the campaign, Gov. Walz takes the stage 32 minutes in. At 40:19, my sister Karen and I are seen applauding him.
John McGivern’s Main Streets (with Emmy Fink)
I like TV travelogues generally, but there’s an added appeal when the places visited are within easy reach.
A decade ago, Amy and I regularly watched Discover Wisconsin, a long-running tourism show on commercial TV. Host Emmy Fink became one of my TV crushes. But eventually, new hosts took over and we didn’t watch as much.
Milwaukee-born actor John McGivern used to have a show called Around the Corner on PBS Wisconsin which visited towns all over the state. We watched a lot of those, too. McGivern employs his own natural silliness to help shy locals out of their shells.
Then that show ended, I guess — but eventually, he returned with this similar series called John McGivern’s Main Streets. Not limited to Wisconsin, it premiered in January 2023 and features business districts across the Upper Midwest.
I had not seen it until this week, when I caught the last episode of Season 2 (Dodgeville, Wisconsin) and was thrilled to see that McGivern and Fink have teamed up, beginning with Season 2.
Seasons 2 and 3 are available via my PBS Passport subscription, so I guess I’ll get more use out of that. Why not go crazy and include all three seasons? I don’t know.
Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo
Saturday afternoon as I was driving to my mom’s place, Michelle Obama was speaking to a Kamala Harris rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
There have been quite a few outstanding speeches during this campaign, including a couple by Barack Obama — and Michelle Obama’s own speech at the convention in Milwaukee.
This one in Kalamazoo, however, made the case in new and deeply personal ways. This is a woman speaking straight from the heart the way a great singer does — but without the benefit of music. I don’t think I have ever heard a better example of public speaking.
It was astonishing.
His Three Daughters (2023)
Saturday evening at my mom’s, we watched His Three Daughters on Netflix.
Vincent, dying of cancer in the bedroom of his New York City apartment, has entered hospice care. We are out in the kitchen and living room watching his three adult daughters — Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen — as they keep his deathwatch and irritate each other.
Over time, their personalities emerge, bits of their histories are revealed, and tension builds. I have seen many movies like this, and I thought I knew where things were going.
Instead, events went somewhere unexpected and arrived at a moment that — in its surreality — felt true and real to me.
My mom also thought it was very good.
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