Hello, all! Yep, we’re heading for the day when voting will cease for this 2020 election (9 days, 12 hours, 18 minutes, 20 seconds as of this writing to be exact). Sooo, I’m posting this today for a few reasons: 1) I’m including a few links that are time sensitive, 2) ideas for this are at my fingertips, so why not? 3) Dennis is making breakfast, so I’ve got an excellent time deadline to let the thoughts roll.

• 

• 

Back in June of 1992 when I worked at SPIN, I traveled with Pearl Jam to London and Groningen (Netherlands) for a feature. I took Polaroids (remember them?) to accompany the story. Their first release Ten had come out in August the previous year and the album had raged into the charts and fans multiplied like … a lot, and showed their love in myriad ways (see above in pic where Eddie was slightly concerned when a young woman showed him the PJ stickman symbol she’d had tattooed on her shoulder). This particular tour had been booked into smallish clubs before the label realized how fierce the fandom was becoming, which led to moments like Eddie wandering into a park after a London show and holding forth on life with an ever-increasing circle of people until their road manager, Eric, had to wade in, take him by the arm, and lead him back to the bus for the overnight ferry ride to the mainland. On that ride, there was much talk among Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike, and then-drummer, Dave about the state of the country and the world. Clinton was about to defeat one-termer papa Bush that coming November. Conservative John Major was Prime Minister in the UK and, as I remember, our conversations revolved around a woman’s right to choose and politics. (In fact, Eddie would go on to Sharpie-marker pro-choice on his arm for their 1992 MTV Unplugged show, which happily caused not a ripple of dissension—as far as I heard anyway—from the corporate execs in charge of the show).

• 

• 

And here we are, almost 30 years later and Pearl Jam are still voicing their views and putting their money where their morals are. Until tomorrow (Sunday, October 25th) night, you can access the band’s April 29, 2016, Philadelphia show on Nugs.tv. The $14.99 buy-in will be donated to national and local Pennsylvania nonprofit organizations like Make the Road Pennsylvania, Penn Future, and national organizations like League of Conservation Voters and People for the American Way.

And obviously it isn’t just big-time Charlies and Charlenes who make differences in this election for President and Congress (and local matters as well). It’s every single one of us. My friend Windy had posted a way to become trained for a National Voter Assistance Hotline to answer voters’ questions, help them make a plan to vote early, and help ensure that every eligible voter is able to exercise their right to vote. I’ve signed up here because during this year of Covid, doing any sort of door to door is not a thing. I Will Vote is also a rad site filled with one-stop answers to voting qs.

So that’s about all I’ve got for this weekend. Please enjoy as much involvement as your heart desires!