Ice took a man one block from my house. A week ago Ice agents took him from where he was rebuilding a front porch or raking leaves or some similarly monstrous and deadly criminal activity. The street where they tracked him down (thanks Palantir!) dead ends directly into the playground behind my daughter’s school. If any children had been outside then, they would have seen the vans pull up and some armed men get out of the van and take the man. They took him while I was having my second coffee of the morning. That afternoon I got to greet my daughter at the door when she came home from school. That afternoon the man who was taken not only did not see his family, he also doesn't know when he will see them again.

I am sick of feeling helpless while something truly terrible, something that, throughout my life, people declared would never happen again, is happening on the streets where I live.

Fortunately, I am not alone in being sick of feeling helpless. And, as usually happens when one person is feeling helpless, another person is figuring out how to help. And so the networks are formed, and the networks grow, and crucial information is shared, and strategies are developed. And there is evidence that the resistance is working. (Congratulations to Friend of Mushroom Head Meghan Carter, who worked overtime on this legislation, which will hopefully be signed into law today!)

Speaking of resistance, here are some scenes from our participation in the "No Kings" rally two weeks ago.

Three Things Keeping Me Going This Week

1. I was in Milwaukee two weeks ago and even though I was only there for a few hours it was long enough to remind me that A) Milwaukee is just the coolest and B) I have to return for a longer visit. I went to see an exhibition of work by Bettina Grossman, who died at the age of 94 in 2021 and was a resident in Manhattan's storied Chelsea Hotel. The show, at Ruth Arts, is one that you can spend hours in, if you are like me, that is, and love seeing a wide variety of work by a woman who tirelessly sought and found patterns in the world.

Apparently when Bettina died her apartment was so full of boxes of her work that she had to sleep in an armchair, and I'm not surprised, since the show is made up of so many wildly different things, as though to her mind any object was fair game to become art, including notepads on which she carefully dog-eared each successive page until it created a pyramid form or even a carton of eggs, each of which she drew on and then saved for several decades. (Also, shout out to Friend of Mushroom Head Scott Ponik for the cool furniture design!)

2. When I visited New York this past weekend (more on that in next week's Mushroom Head) my sister and I watched the documentary The Perfect Neighbor, which is composed exclusively from police body-cam footage. Anne compared it to the Blair Witch Project, and I agree except that this documentary is superior and also more disturbing.
3. We also watched La Chimera, directed by Alice Rohrwacher, and starring Josh O'Connor as an archeologist turned grave-robber and Isabella Rossellini as an Italian mamma living in a kind of Gray Gardens estate in Tuscany or thereabouts. There is a thrilling seventies neorealism feel to the movie, and also a subtle message about matriarchal societies. Not a bad choice for All Hallows Eve/Dia de los Muertos, now that I think about it!

Bonus Thing: I finally caved and got a subscription to Paramount just to watch South Park, because the very short clips I could find online were no longer satiating my curiosity. Trust me when I say that this season the show is going ALL IN on 47 and his goons and that it is very cathartic to watch (though also can be quite dark, but hey, this is South Park we're talking about).

Now I must go get ready for HALLOWEEN because the trick or treaters around here mean business! Michaela is carrying a tote bag this year; she's not fooling around with any tiny plastic pumpkins. She is going as a creepy doll. I am going as a fortune teller. Chad is going to be a mad chef (Mad Chef Chad). What about you? What are you going as? Please do tell me, I'd love to know!

Wishing you all a lot of candy in the near future. Stay Safe!

Love,

Claire

Mushroom Head must issue its first ever correction! In the last edition, I wrote about Roger Brown's former home and referred to someone named Tom Giordano. I must have been hungry and dreaming about pizza when I wrote that because I should have written Thomas GRAZIANO. Mi dispiace, Thomas!