The Mudflats

I just loved this report from Mudflatter 24owls. Contributions from the ever-expanding Boots on the Ground team are so much fun. I have a couple more in the works to share in the coming days. It’s my “busy season” at that other job that pays the bills between now and the end of the year, so I may slow down a bit, but I’ll be back up to full speed after the first of the year, and I’ll supplement my own posts with great ones like this when I can. I’ll just warn you straight out that at one point in this post you will be unable to not think of Stephen King in a bumpit. You have been warned…

By “Boots on the Ground” reporter, Mudflatter 24owls

First some background – I live in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there is a wonderful theater located downtown called The Music Hall. It’s a beautifully restored place, and seats up to 900 people. The Music Hall partners with New Hampshire Public Radio and RiverRun Bookstore to bring a series called Writers on a New England Stage to the theater. It is a fantastic series where both locally and nationally known authors come and speak about their latest books, and their careers. In the first part of the hour and a half show the author stands at a podium and talks about, or reads from their latest book. In the second half the author is seated with an interviewer from NHPR and answers questions from the audience. The radio station tapes the show and then rebroadcasts it usually a week later. The first show was with Alan Alda in November 2005. Over the years there have been a number of amazing authors on the stage and I suggest that if you want to hear some great interviews and creative insight go to www.NHPR.org and click on the icon for Writers on a New England Stage.

And now to the “encounter” – The show was on December 1st and the guest speaker was Stephen King slated to talk about his latest book “Under the Dome”. The seats in the theater are comfortable, but snug with your neighbor. It is easy to strike up a conversation or hear what is being said around you. I had gone to the show with a couple of friends and in our seating sequence I sat on the end of our group with an unknown person on my right. The person sitting next to me was a man in his mid 50s. Next to him was his wife or mother – couldn’t tell, didn’t ask – some things you should just not inquire about. The couple and I chatted, nothing out of the ordinary, just polite conversation about the theater and the guest. They had just joined as members, and this was their first show. The lights turn down, introductions are made and Stephen King walks to the podium. A couple of his first comments were about the selling of his book and he made a reference that if he had a Sarah Palin hairdo maybe he would sell more of his books. Everybody laughed and clapped except the couple next to me – the man made a few loud comments in support of Palin’s hair and appearance. Now, you can imagine that after I heard his comments, over my clapping noise, I was wondering if I really heard what I heard. I gave him a sideways glance and he was still muttering. I turned to my friend on my left and asked if she heard his comments – she said sort of but then added that if he was a Palin supporter then he was really in the wrong crowd. We laughed and I clapped louder.

Just to put some perspective on that comment, Portsmouth, New Hampshire is a lovely deep blue on the political color wheel and New Hampshire as a whole has done a nice job of changing its color from red to blue in spite of our present senior Senator Judd Gregg who is retiring in 2010.

The NHPR interviewer, Virginia Prescott, is a well known host in national public radio circles – well respected, sharp wit, intelligent questions and follow-up inquiries. She has participated in many of these series interviews before so she was well versed and prepared. Stephen King finished up his talk at the podium and then sat down with Virginia. They chatted and then she asked the typical question of how he got the idea for his book. He said the idea had been kicking around for 20 plus years and he had picked the idea up again during a recent trip. He thought about the Bush administration’s abuse of power and that formed the substance for two of the main characters. He referred to it as the Bush and Cheney duo, master controlling the puppet dynamic. King then raised his hand in the air and moving the fingers like in the form of a mouth, mimicked the Darth Vader voice and Cheney telling Bush what to say and do. Everybody laughed and clapped – except for the couple next to me. They both got very irritated and started making loud comments again. The man was the loudest, saying at one point that he didn’t think this was suppose to be a political event and then he directed his sharpest comments to the woman interviewer. He dropped to a very scum sucking low level and said very demeaning and derogatory comments about the “elite” female, not towards King who had made the comments but towards Virginia. Then my neighbor says and I quote “Palin could beat your ass”. Nice huh? Well, needless to say, I was now getting hot under the collar, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. I turned and glared at the man and was forming the perfect rebuttal sentence in my head when as I opened my mouth to speak the two women in the seats in front of him turned around and said what needed to be said. Their words were laser sharp, direct and perfect, sorry I can not repeat them but they were very effective. The man shut up and sat back into his chair. I smiled at him with my best Cheshire cat smile and clapped and whistled even louder. Surprisingly, the couple did not leave, they stayed for the remainder of the show but you could feel the daggers being thrown in our direction. The show ended and we all filed out without any further incidents.

Afterward, my group went to the local brewery that is within walking distance and enjoyed a night cap. We discussed the evening, and they were pleasantly surprised that I didn’t deck the guy or at the very least pour my bottle of water over his head. Frankly, I didn’t want to waste the water. I just got to wondering how I was “so lucky” to sit next to a Palinbot in a place that seats 900. What were the chances, besides the obvious 899 to 1? Dumb luck I suppose.

I’ve been following the Palin train wreck on Mudflats since the very first month that the site has been on the web. I know more about her soap opera than I care to admit and it figures that I end up next to a Palin/Bush/Cheney minion. The rude comments about Virginia were really bad, like he was trying to protect his Queen Sarah from another threatening female. Did he see her as a threat? Virginia was clearly on her game with the interview. She showed smarts, intellect, proper use of language and sentence structure, her voice was calm, knowing, easy to listen to. The Palinbot had a very strange reaction to her, his demented thoughts came out with his demented words. Weird, weird, weird. But you know, this was a night to listen to Stephen King (talk about a guy who gets strange thoughts in his head). Maybe his next book will be titled Nightmare on Palin Street. Anyhow, Stephen King was very funny. He called himself an old hippie that just wanted to bring everyone together and get along. He is certainly a progressive thinker, and very proud of his Maine roots. Best yet, he is a huge Red Sox fan – his comments about the team and players were hilarious.

It was a great night, despite the Palinbot invasion.

[photo from newhampshire.com]