Rock’n’Roll Fever, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise

August 8, 2009 Martha Thomases 3 Comments

As comic fans head to Chicago for this weekend’s event, one of the highlights is sure to be the auction to benefit Comix4Sight, to raise money to help John Ostrander, one of the nicest and most brilliant writers in comics.  Our community has donated some amazing work, by an amazing list of some of our industry’s best talents.  Those who are not visual artists made other kinds of donations.

At the same time, I just received an e-mail about another kind of artist who needs help.  According to the press release:

CHUNKSAAH RECORDS ANNOUNCES CHARITY AUCTION FOR RICH CUNNINGHAM

Rich Cunningham formed Happy Days Records in 1995, releasing debut records by Hot Water Music and Ink & Dagger, as well as titles by Endeavor, Times Up, and Human Remains. In 2000 he formed New Labor, an alternative model of worker organization that combines new and existing strategies to improve working conditions and provide a voice for low-wage, young, immigrant workers in central New Jersey. In 2005 Rich was diagnosed with cancer and recently his battle has taken a turn for the worse. Chunksaah Records and The Bouncing Souls will be auctioning off rare records, vinyl test pressing, limited poster prints, Bouncing Souls tickets, and anything else we think will help raise money for our friend.

Additionally, Chunksaah Records is an active sponsor of the Hub City Hardcore Fest (featuring Degenerics, Psyched To Die, The Measure, Static Radio NJ, Detournement, Torchbearer, and many many others) taking place in New Brunswick, NJ the weekend of August 14-16 with proceeds going to help Rich and the Cunningham family. Please visit www.chunksaah.com for a list of Bouncing Souls / Chunksaah charity auctions, weekend passes for the Hub City Hardcore Fest, as well as more information about Rich Cunningham. 

For more information, visit:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102652704122&s=1525&e=00189tmI__0faMg7l1rlVhFtKE54p-1YGeHz0zexxUCCPojR4Z7RyCyBALgGCgSe-ScMUVvw0qBo5eUonf4zFOuBRP4slBrmE3cCINvCQ-mgGc=
 

So, if you have the time and the money, you can attend both events.  If you aren’t at liberty, you can still participate by contacting the websites for more information.

This all makes me furiously angry.

I’m a big fan of escapist entertainment.  Even when such works are not art, they allow us to daydream, to fantasize, to be amused and escape.  While I enjoy big Hollywood movies, comics from the Big Two publishers and a great song on the radio, there is nothing more satisfying than finding someone by myself, just stumbling upon the work by serendipity. These are the people who make our lives most rewarding.  They are also among the ones who don’t have steady jobs with benefits, and who fall through the cracks when they get sick.

You may have noticed that we are currently having a national conversation about health care.  If you haven’t noticed, that may be because our for-profit news media is too busy chasing stories about Michael Jackson’s death, Barack Obama’s beer preferences, and whether or not Sarah Palin is getting divorced.  

When our news media does focus on the healthcare debate, they tend to pay attention to the most sensationalistic, distorted aspects of it.  Tweety is obsessed with whether or not the plan will cover abortions.  Others describe how the laws will force you to kill your grandparents.

Meanwhile, artists suffer and die every day.

We are not a selfish people.  In fact, there are thousands of different organizations, raising money to help individuals and groups of people who don’t have decent health care.  Here’s a few I like, that may also interest you:

http://givingworks.ebay.com/

http://sweetrelief.org/

http://www.heroinitiative.org/

A quick few minutes with a search engine will find you lots more.

I admire the people who do this work, but it’s ridiculously inefficient for us to try to hellp so many with our own scattered efforts.  Politics aside, we would save a lot of time and money by having some kind of centralization, if only to counter the bureaucratic redundancy.  

So let’s give money to these worthy causes, and help those whose entertaining art got us through the tough (or just the boring) times.  But, at the same time, let’s get our elected officials to start giving us decent health care.  It’s cheaper, it’s easier, and we need it yesterday.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, realizes she left out many worthy charities connected to the healthcare discussion, and hopes you’ll suggest your own.