An evening of distortions
We decided to watch the State of the Union in true San Francisco style–on the wall of a Market Street building, via a video artist who distorts the tv image in various ways. It was more amusing than the straight feed, if a bit silly.
The most interesting part was being cornered by a tv crew shooting man-in-the-street interviews about Cindy Sheehan getting arrested at the Capital today. The correspondent really pushed us for strong statements, and I gave her just enough to suspect they might actually run a bit.
Sure enough, I showed up five minutes into the 11 o’clock news on channel 7. What is interesting is that I was used as the counterpoint to an outspoken Sheehan supporter, but my position was based as much on my appearance as my statement. The lefty protester who spoke for Sheehan was articulate but unshaven, and a bit rough around the edges. I looked positively clean-cut by contrast. It helped make my fairly neutral comment–that getting arrested for civil dissent “goes with the territory”–seem almost arch-conservative.
It says a lot about the Bay Area that I was the most conservative voice they could find!