NOTE: Please don’t pay any attention to anything except the recommended articles on this archived site; almost everything is quite dated. People intimately connected with Jimmy Kimmel can begin with http://oxtogrind.org/534 perhaps.

The Black Barbershop Party
To fulfill my obligation to Paul Robeson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Howard Zinn, Marcello, Mitch Hedberg and James Baldwin et al.
by Oxz

“A moonbow, the nocturnal equivalent of a rainbow, generally appears to be white.” — James Baldwin to the author at Small’s Paradise in the 60s.

Just so you know, I got out of a comfy bath to pen this… (unedited) first draft. [Pause.] I would not waste your heartbeats.

You can change the name. I don’t care. A Black Barbershop Party is going to be the same… whatever you call it (registered or not). I just think a spade should be called a spade. And we should dig what we’re doing in solidarity.

I’m tired of writing. Tired of waiting. So tired of the excuses and the blindness. Do me a favor — serve us all up a sweet flavor — and get this TOSCA (Taking Over the State of California) thing off the ground yesterday. I don’t care whether you embrace the straight-up (now obsolete*) version as per http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/pumping-green-iron-calif ornia.html or the funny take as per http://oxtogrind.org/archive/521, but I do want you to take some step with me which follows a new paradigm in the electoral arena.

*To be elaborated on, upon request.

Directly below you’ll find an (updated) tentative list of people who could comprise a California coalition which would serve as a gubernatorial team along the lines advocated by TOSCA as per (the now obsolete) http://oxtogrind.org/archive/483. [Pause.] But TOSCA’s not important. Certainly, I’m not attached to the original version or any variation that’s evolved over the last year. The important thing is to move in solidarity at something other than an arthritic snail’s pace. For we have all kinds of deadlines looming.

Feel free to switch the names around, delete, add, etc. as you see fit. I’m not attached to particular names. And I don’t know who might or might not be a resident of California (although that’s actually not important except when it comes to those who will be our write-in candidates for the electoral arena; our unaffiliated, non-politician citizens running for office). Basically, the twelve citizens would serve together on an equal basis as Governor (with their advisers) once we secured the gubernatorial office. In short, we want the arts and what’s dear to our hearts (like health and healthy jobs and the like) at the center of the Executive’s agenda, not on the periphery.

Jimmy Kimmel or Keenan Wayans or Alice Walker, Dr. Mario R. Hemsley or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar* = Working figurehead candidate for Governor
*We could select a number of different souls for this slot, as long as they’re not hypnotized by — for want of a better expression — George W. Obama… or as long as they’re open to being deprogrammed (http://www.zcommunications.org/obama-as-predicted-by-paul-street), if necessary.
Dr. Bill Releford = Working figurehead candidate for Lt. Governor
Alicia Keys (or someone comparable living in California)
Dr. Wallace J. Nichols
Derrick Jensen
John Fogerty or Cesar Rojas
Dick Gregory or David Hidalgo
Chris Abani
Dominque McCafferty or Kathleen Brennan
Bruce Anderson or Glen Ford or Ishmael Reed
Margo LaDrew or Angela Davis or Antronette Yancey
Slot #12 to be determined (A woman along the lines of Jennifer Loewenstein or Marie Trigona or Haunani-Kay Trask or Chellis Glendinning.)

This is a rushed list. Still, I trust you’ll get the thrust. The ticket we could put together eyes closed could not lose. By the only important standard, it could not be defeated, even if electoral fraud kicked in and prevented our taking control over the Sacred Seat in Sacramento. We could circumvent the consequences of that highway robbery, and triumph on some unprecedented basis. [Pause.] And for those who simply don’t know what any Governor of California (with heart, head and soul in a healthy place) could do unilaterally — without so much as a discussion with gangster politicians — I invite you to contact me immediately. [Please note that TOSCA has lots of "experts" in different fields, available to advise on... whatever; the above would essentially be a ticket to get into office.]

Nigerian poet and novelist, Chris Abani (on the list above), currently teaching at the University of California-Riverside, recently concluded an interview conducted (a few years ago) by Dominique McCafferty with:

“‘What you should be asking yourself is not Will I get published? Not Will I write a publishable book? Because… trash gets published all the time. What you should ask yourself as a writer is, Can I write something important? Can I write something that’s inevitable?’ Well, I asked Percival [Everett, a writer], ‘So how do you know?’ And he said, ‘You will know what is important and inevitable because it’s the story that keeps you up at night. It drives you crazy. It makes you angry. It makes you despair. It makes you depressed. Because all of that will pour into the book and go into the world, and people will read it and say My life has been changed.’”

All that resonated with what I’ve been trying to do with TOSCA. For I not only lose sleep daily over the whole shebang… I lose time in the tub over it. And I am fully convinced that — together — we can transform the lives of people throughout the world (not just in California)… virtually overnight… on a zero budget. Win or lose.

Please get with me ASAP. I need to wash up… for the so-called great unwashed.

Blessings for creating a watershed in history,
Richard the Ox
1713 Jennifer Drive
in the Vienna Woods of Aptos, CA 95003
831-688-8038 at any hour
P.S. You miss the spine of all this if you think that the spirit of http://www.blackbarbershop.org/index.htm — which has served as the point of departure for my latest inspiration — excludes any groups, any demographic profile. No, rather, this is very Rainbow… without the ego, or obsolete angles of yesteryear. Our Moonbow would be the most singular, inclusive campaign in history. [It would even include foreigners!]