Who is Darfur?

Today I went to a rally concerning the ongoing genocide in Darfur. I joined Luke, Michelle, and Megan to sell copies of The Easiest Best Thing Is Be Kind, an anthology of poetry and prose related to the ongoing events. Luke collected new and used works from his counterculture heroes and some friends (myself included).

The event was held at a temple/synagogue-type place, apparently right in the sanctuary. There appeared to be some detachable wall-type things to enlarge the room, and so when "Deadheads for Darfur" set up their booth, they (we) were all the way in the back corner. Well, all the booths were in the back, but we were next to the pizza booth. At our own booth, besides copies of the book, there was a posterboard with information on the Darfur conflict, and there were also paper dolls for kids (and bored teenagers like us) to cut out and color for an Illinois schoolteacher's project to amass 400,000 of the little guys in order to pressure Barack Obama into making a stand. Whew.

Anyway, there was a range of speakers there, mostly from other houses of worship, mostly from churches. But they all talked about how we should really do something about Darfur. There were choirs, guitarists, lecturers, people playing videos, and more. There was even a visit from our friend, newly elected Congressman Ron Klein. We had last seen him a few months ago at a rally where he was campaigning to get elected. After that rally, Luke asked him the hard-hitting questions about Darfur, so this rally seemed like a good time for him to follow up.

Luke went to one of the wings to keep an eye on the Congressman as he sat next to the lectern. But when he wasn't looking, Klein followed a cameraman out a side door. When we told Luke about it, he went to pursue the politician right away. After all, he probably wasn't leaving. Judging by the person he was accompanying, he was probably doing an interview. And that's what Luke found him getting ready to do. He presented Klein with a free copy of the book, with his home address written on a piece of paper inside. Pretty creepy? Oh yeah. Most people just write their Congressman a letter. But will it be effective? Probably more so than usual.

As for the book itself: Even though there were a lot of people at the event, we only managed to sell 10 copies, one of which was bought by my mom. Hopefully Luke (and the rest of us, if he wants our help) can sell the other 90 or so at school. And of course, you can always buy a copy in paperback ($10 US) or hardcover ($20) online. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the Save Darfur Coalition in Washington, DC. I'm hoping that a little plug on my site will draw more attention to the book and the cause that it represents. The header graphic will be seen by tens of thousands of people and web-crawling robots over the next month or however long I decide to keep it up.

This is probably the weirdest blog in history: Running from Camera. At first glance, it seems to be a bunch of photos of someone running from a camera. But according to the site, "the rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can."

Here's a movie you almost certainly haven't seen. In fact, it might just be the lowest-grossing movie of all time. Last February, Zzyzx Road was released in a single theater in Dallas, Texas, for six days, during which it made back $30 of its $2,000,000 budget.