Days of Lore

THE GREEN PARTY
I walked down to S&S Produce on a recent Sunday for an Arizona green tea—because it’s dee-licous, and nutritious—and I was approached by a familiar face handing out fliers for the upcoming Peace & Justice Center events with Cindy Sheehan, the mother who camped outside George Dubya’s Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq. The friendly, dreadlocked gent and I agreed that Sheehan is doing a good thing (unless, of course, your last name is O’Reilly or Limbaugh), although, I thought to myself, “She’ll just be preaching to the choir.” But that’s OK; who doesn’t want to listen to a likeminded citizen’s diatribe on the United States president’s horrible foreign policy … you can still do that in this country, right? Just checking.

As I parted with my fine-feathered flier supplier, he posed the following question … and these words will stick with me until my dying day: “Hey, you don’t happen to have any nugs, do you?” Although I couldn’t help him, it was comforting to know that the true essence of political activism is still alive and well. It also confirmed my notion that conservatives are always so much more organized than liberals.

For more info on Sheehan’s talks on May 3 and 4, go to: www.chico-peace.org.

Real World, Chico Say it isn’t so:
MTV in Chico?! Really? Pretty please? Umm … no. But the spirit of MTV will be here for a good cause Friday, April 27, at the Beach Hut Deli. The Go Red at the Beach Hut benefit (not to be confused with the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women campaign) will feature live music and raffles, with proceeds going to MTV’s Staying Alive campaign, which was established in 1998 to educate young people about HIV and AIDS.

Also involved with the benefit is The Body Shop (not to be confused with the muscle-mass factory on West Fifth Street), which will donate up to 65 percent of its sales to Staying Alive. And Beach Hut owner Kurt Russell (not to be confused with Captain Ron Kurt Russell) will donate 10 percent of all food sales to the campaign.

Oh, and there will be live music. Keeping with the MTV theme will be the chipperly named bands Die Trying, So Called Tragedy and Faretta, who will perform at The Beach Hut starting at 8 p.m., with a $5 donation getting you in the door.

Abigail McFarland, a Body Shop consultant and the event’s organizer, is working to make this an annual thang, with talks already under way to hold the next event at Chico State in October. For more info, go to www.staying-alive.org or www.myspace.com/abigailsbodyshop.

Your Sunday best There’s another benefit happening this weekend—for
Reverse Order drummer Johnny Sawblades, who almost died from an esophageal hemorrhage a couple of weeks ago. The all-day concert will feature tons of local bands including The Makai, Idle Discourse, Blood of Cain and Cochino, who will play to help raise money for medical expenses. The show is Sunday, April 29, at Lost On Main, and runs from noon to midnight.

Also that evening is the first ever Chico Hay Ride, which claims to be modeled after the Grand Ole Opry and the old Sun Records showcases from the ‘50s. The show will bring in a heady lineup of rock ‘n’ rollers and a few pickers and grinners in the form of The Shankers, S.F. pop duo Pillows, Oakland country trio the Porch Flies, the not-so-tongue-in-cheek country of Flash Flood and the Dykes and the lovely Barbara Manning. Show starts at 4 p.m. and costs 5 bucks.

There. Your Sunday is set. Don’t forget church in the morn.

The Debauchery is gone Well, we knew it would happen some day.
Aubrey Debauchery is getting the hell outta Chico to spend more time on her music and comic projects. She’ll land in an undisclosed location in Washington in early May, after her CAMMIES performance at the Senator Theatre. Makes me sad. And happy. But sad. We’ll miss you, Miss Debauchery.