I am so excited! Only 5 more days before the cycles of uprising tour starts! and then, it's to Wisconsin for the winter to record a new CD with Matt Sanborn (same person I did WE ARE MORE with), master engineer, arranger, musician, and friend from as far back as high school. Below, find news about the tour, of my standing gig in Garberville, of my mail being tampered with by authorities using a red stamp saying "media mail: subject to inspection", a 2003 run-in with Exxon authorities in baton rouge, and some reflections I jotted down after pedal powering some produce from our community farm to the local grocery store taking part in our new bike delivery service.

But first, news about the bike tour! I am going on tour once again through the mid-western states of Missouri and Illinois and the southern states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana in a group of six-eight. We will ride the same highway through the bootheel of Missouri that saw the uprising of cotton pickers in 1939. There is a good write up about it at: http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0064. Both blacks and whites were part of the uprising with a minister inspiring them to action.

We will also follow some of the route of the "freedom from fear" civil rights march from Memphis to Jackson in the 1960's. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Fear for info on that part of our route.

The logo for this ride is really cool. You can see it at www.riotfolk.org. We will be making t-shirts, like we did for the gasfast tour, with found and thrifted garments. I am very excited to share radical art and history with five other artist/activists in a traveling collective. I've done a lot of bike touring, but never in this large of a group over such a distance. I look forward to putting my social theory into practice as we
ride to demonstrate the power of the pedal, but also to experiment with the power of humans working together in creative cooperation. See our complete group mission statement on the Cycles of Uprising page of my website: www.thistlespace.com.

"Cycles of Uprising is a pedal powered dance party, folk show, circus, mobile village, adventure, and celebration of historic and future uprisings against government, corporate and social oppression."--excerpt from our current tour mission statement.

I will keep you updated from the road of our efforts, adventures and conversations. It is going to be a really smart group of folks!

Speaking of smart folks, check out: www.risingtidenorthamerica.org to see the people I am going on a veggie bus tour with either the spring or summer of 2007.

LOCAL NEWS: I am proud to say I was "fired" from Sunday nights at the tourist place I play at downtown due to attracting "drifter kids" inside, including one who plays the mandolin like a beautiful hummingbird with feather earrings to go with it... a bunch of kids brought in their own food, the stale breeze from the street, and sat at the best tables so that when I went up to the cash register to get paid, the owner told me i was fired for bringing in people who aren't buying food. it was one of the best shows EVER for me, with the hummingbird kid playing and singing along, and so I asked the owner, "didn't you like the music?" and he said "yes, but I don't like the element that it is attracting" but he didn't fire me from Saturday nights, just Sundays, so I think he secretly likes it and so do the tourists, just not when the street kids are there to make them feel uncomfortable about their class privilege. It has improved my confidence and performance a lot to have a standing gig downtown.

I can't wait to see some of you reading this on our tour! Thank you!!!! for helping with venues, places to stay and promotion.

MAIL INSPECTED. Just want everyone to know that my mail was inspected and delayed by postal authorities about two months ago. It was a package containing about 25 gasfast zines and two "feminist" zines. There was an old-fashioned bicycle with a black flag on the envelope along with a red stamp that said MEDIA MAIL: SUBJECT TO INSPECTION. It was opened.

The gasfast zine, co-written by Adhamh and me, contains writings on topics ranging from practical tips for bicycle travel to transgender identity to how to organize a critical mass bike ride. Some of you may be aware that critical mass bike rides and organizers are under attack by the city and police of New York and authoritarian interference with rides has occurred in other locations as well.

In thinking about this tour and how we might be targeted for surveillance or interference by government and corporate authorities, I am remembering that run-in with Exxon security (in white SUVs) and local cops that Doug and I had on our bikes back in the fall of 2003 in Baton Rouge. Some of you may remember that account I sent over email. I wrote everything down that I could remember about the encounter a day after it happened when it was still fresh in my mind. Basically, I took some pictures of the Exxon/mobile oil refinery as we were riding into the city and was harassed by Baton Rouge police claiming to have connections to homeland security. The captain asked us who we were with, we said "each other" and then he suggested we were eco-terrorists working for Greenpeace. He also knew I was a folk singer laying for a local peace and justice group because he monitored their emails. He searched me for weapons in a very humiliating way, I did what he told me to do and then they finally let us go.

So...getting back to my recent mail being tampered with...I sent the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild a copy of the zine and a report about how the mail came to me. There is a civil liberties monitoring project here in Garberville that has also been alerted and will be in touch with us throughout the tour.

I feel really good about this tour. I am pretty sure the DNC2RNC Democracy Uprising march of 2004 had federal agents observing it and potentially interfering with it. Call me paranoid, but by the time we marched into New York City, I saw that same white van with tinted windows and a driver with electronic gear hooked up to his ear pretty often and there were some suspicious characters who had joined us marching at that point too.

Here is what the Democracy Uprising march was, for those of you who may not know. A group of 60-2000 activists marched against corporate- controlled elections from the DNC protests (Democratic National Convention) in Boston the summer of 2004 to the RNC protests, 28 days and 258 miles later in New York. Our solidarity and love of life and resistance kept us safe and strong. But it wasn't just that, it was the support the people gave us along the way. In really rich white (and some people of color) neighborhoods and in poor Latino, Asian and black neighborhoods, people were very ready to support community-based organizing instead of the traditional two-party electoral system, which is what the march was about. We were a bright exuberant, colorful bunch of kids that presented a real and joyful alternative to the mundane and grey landscape of urban centers under capitalism. People dug it.

So thanks ahead of time for helping to support this ride by telling everyone you know about us and our shows. The more people know we are out there riding our bikes together over 1,000 miles in our mobile village, the safer and stronger we will be.

A little bug told me we are going to be more than okay on the cycles of uprising tour. "...the joy of old things being new, I CAN'T WAIT TO SHARE SONGS WITH YOU on the side of the road!"--just a little ditty, I'll play for you once we get to St. Louis. O-my-gosh, only five days!!

and for those hardcore comrades and friends who are still reading this...I changed the lyrics to "resistance" just slightly, to represent that moment more accurately and how I see it fitting into our resistance movements for social and personal change. In the new version, I "sit to write it all down and stare into the flame of a candle we lit in perfect rebellion against cars and things" Instead of "it's a brew or a potion I put on the stove..." The new lyrics will be on the album I record with Matt this winter.

Here are some reflections I wrote after pedaling produce five miles from our community farm in Garberville to a local grocer a few days ago.

Pedal-Power: A New Verb

I am sweating and the salt from my face drips a little into my mouth. I feel happy, just sitting on the edge of the parking lot swatting flies listening to all the motor sounds around me. Our home in the country is eerily urban. There are so many roads up here in the hills. I walked one late at night recently, under a starry dome. While I was walking, the forest came alive in all of its sounds and quiet flutters. I had a dream soon after that that the lakes, rivers and streams had dried up so the animals--bears, elk and deer--came out of the woods in a circle all around us and asked "What have you done?" I am silent in the dream and scared and sad. "Sorry, I can't answer that, I don't know why we did this" is what I would've said. It does puzzle me, since we are hard-wired to seek pleasure. Why do we accept apocalyptic scenarios so readily? And on top of it, it is people in our own species creating those apocalyptic scenarios.

I am learning to speak the truth "even though your voice shakes" type of thing. And even when the truth hurts. But I am discovering that it doesn't really hurt that much if you set a new course of action.

It feels really, really good to pedal-power produce from your community farm to your community grocer, even in the midst of an urban disaster and personal struggles for example. I am still holding out for a mass shift from "motor-powered and fast" to "human-powered and fast." By the standards set by other species who don't have the benefit of opposable thumbs, the bicycle is really fast. Cheetahs can go up to 70 miles per hour but they can't maintain that speed for as long as we can maintain 20-25 miles per hour on a bicycle. Maybe there's a chance masses of people will jump on a bike soon just because it is fun and feels great. Isn't everybody tired of feeling tired and hopeless? And now, with the climate changing so quickly? What is it going to take?

All of us seeing ourselves as a big wave of people on bikes, the rising tide, as the oceans rise symbolizing the force of nature that we wish to be in synch with, would help. It could be so unbelievably fun and beautiful.

A little more news: I rode my bike 43 miles south in a group of three to the Earthdance festival. I got myself a power rock and heart-shaped acorn seed for my sacred pouch that I will wear as I ride on the tour. The Ani Difranco show was really good, a little mellower than usual, but good. o-my-gosh---someday...someday we will get her on a bike.

Finally, I want to say that my friend Betsy and I rode our bikes to a grove in the redwoods on September 11th much in the same way that Adhamh and I rode into the redwoods together last 9/11. While America was showing images of the planes hitting the twin towers on T.V. to "honor" the victims, we sat inside a large tree, lit candles and did a little ceremony for community and peace in our world.

Mucha paz, solidaridad y amor a todos ustedes!

thistle