“Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has unveiled plans for mandatory jail sentences for 16 and 17-year-olds who threaten others with knives.”

I’m at Starbucks (4 W 21st St., 5th Ave., New York) http://t.co/XPECRWbAThu Oct 20 18:10:45 via foursquare

Mister PeePee
MisterPeePee

“A guy who calls himself Mister PeePee set a goal of masturbating in every Starbucks in New York City, then photographing the results. Don’t believe it? You can listen to this self-described ‘big fan of Starbucks’ discuss his plans — in detail — on a podcast, and read his results on Twitter.”

Oh good, these killer drones are getting other, smaller killer drones inside them.

“I grew up in a house that had a whole lot of trouble,” she said. “As much trouble as you could imagine. In the daily paper, there were all these comic strips, and there was one that was a circle. It seemed like things were pretty good on the other side of the circle. No one’s getting hit. No one’s yelling.”

Once, at a comics convention, she shook hands with Bil Keane’s son, Jeff — Jeffy — who now inks the strip. Barry instantly burst into tears. She told the class why: “Because when he put his hand out and I touched it, I realized I had stepped through the circle. I was on the other side of the circle, the place where I wanted to be. And how I got there was I drew a picture.” She smiled and held her arms out. “The reason I’m standing here in Florida in 2011 is because I drew a picture and wrote some words. The reason you all are here is because you’re interested in doing the same thing. When I think about all the things that this image world has brought me…. I mean, I don’t have health insurance, and dental work is really an issue, but the feeling that life is worth living? Being in this class gives me that in spades.”

Lynda Barry is America’s greatest hero of creativity and saving yourself. She is the Near-Sighted Monkey and if she’s a cult, I want in.

by David Roth and David Raposa

David Roth: Before this World Series is over, I really hope we can find out what Tony La Russa could’ve said over the phone to Derek Lilliquist that would’ve sounded like “Marc Zep-chinski.” There is really nothing that sounds like that, except maybe for some long-simmered Ukrainian hoof-and-potato stew

David Raposa: Wait, he was asking for Rzep and got Lynn? I’m not sure there are enough wine coolers west of the Mississippi for TLR to plausibly mush-mouth “Jason Motte” into “Lance Lynn.”

David Roth: I think he wanted Motte to pitch to Napoli? Or I’m assuming as much, because you’d have to be a fraudulent Seagrams-7-cured Just For Men box-model of a hunch-humping goofus to let a lefty — or anyone but his best reliever — face Mike “Va Fa” Napoli in the most important moment of the World Series to that point. So I’m sure that it was probably just a bad connection is all. Because La Russa doesn’t dye his hair and his hunches are more certain than what you and I call “facts.”

David Raposa: Right. Nothing a highly skilled phone technician and some Q-Tips can’t fix.

David Roth: Have you enjoyed this World Series? I have enjoyed it.

David Raposa: I have, especially when (dead horse alert) I remember that I can put Fox on mute.

David Roth: Can you still hear McCarver talking about bunts when your TV is on mute? I can. I also hear McCarver talking about batting average right before I go to sleep. I think I should probably call my doctor about that.

David Raposa: I think my tinnitus makes McCarver’s belabored ramblings sound like a dog whistle to me. Which means that a Fox World Series broadcast and “Loveless” sound about the same to me, but I deal.

David Roth: Once I decided to start thinking of Tim McCarver as my dad, he got easier to take.

David Raposa: I did like hearing Buck go up on his call of Pujols’ third homer.

David Roth: Yeah, he had some moments in the blowout when he was astonishingly lifelike.

David Raposa: It was like watching Jimmy Fallon lose his shit during a Debbie Downer skit.

David Roth: In the sense that someone you think is bullshit was suddenly acting human?

David Raposa: Something like that, but in a less flattering sense. I think the Cardinals connection — which you’ve mentioned in previous Yaks — is the reason Joe’s been rising to the occasion. Even if Excitable Joe is still barely above emotional sea level.

David Roth: The thing I think I dislike most about the Series is how FOX it has been. Just how tacky and promotional and branded-out and leveraged everything is. The Jennie-O Turkey Burger Pitching Changes. The Ron Washington Slo-Mo Dance Cam brought to you by Monster Energy Drink. The Nolan Ryan Jowl Cam, brought to you by Citterio guanciale and Jim Beam Red Stag.

I do like the seamless transitions, following the final out, from Ken Rosenthal’s post-game interview with the star of the game to the Chevy Truck Nutz Post-Game Show featuring Ken Rosenthal’s post-game interviews with other key players.

David Raposa: I do like the seamless transitions, following the final out, from Ken Rosenthal’s post-game interview with the star of the game to the Chevy Truck Nutz Post-Game Show featuring Ken Rosenthal’s post-game interviews with other key players. And Eric Karros’ angry coif.

David Roth: That’s a Hemi transmission transition. It’s an American Classic. /”Like A Rock” by Bob Seger plays.

David Raposa: I’m just glad Stephen Lang refuses to do in-crowd cameos.

David Roth: They need to get more “Terra Nova” in the broadcast. In the same way I Stockholm Syndrome-d myself into liking “Franklin and Bash” during the NBA Playoffs, I think I now want to find out how someone can commit murder by dinosaur. So more of that, for sure.

David Raposa: Have Jason O’Mara and a T-Rex double-team “God Bless America”?

David Roth: Just have a T-Rex announce half an inning. With Derek Holland doing his Harry Caray voice as the play-by-play guy.

David Raposa: Was it Holland that aped Wash after Game 4? About Wash saying he could stay in if he begged for it?

David Roth: Yup. I did see their long, emphatic conversation on the mound. I can’t really help liking Washington. I am mostly sure he’s a lousy manager. Napoli hitting eighth makes me very sure.

David Raposa: But it worked! Just like he planned it! The eight-hole is second clean-up! Why do you think La Russa would bat Woody Williams there?

David Roth: This is a good point. But all my objections in re: Wash are overwhelmed by his weird String Cheese Incident jam-band dances and the sense that he treats his players like men. So I’ll file batting the hottest hitter on earth (and presumably “Terra Nova”) eighth under “wheels within wheels within wheels.” Except I suspect all of those wheels are covered in fudge. And they’re triangular.

David Raposa: Oh God — I saw a Golden Corral commercial offering future heart attack recipients a chocolate fountain for dessert.

David Roth: Me too. I did NOT appreciate the eroticizing of the fountain. That is gross enough without some non-union Isaac Hayes guy ad-libbing over it. Also everyone needs to stop fucking sticking strawberries in that thing. Just wait for the plumber/FEMA to arrive and let them handle the situation. Don’t be a hero.

David Raposa: Yeah, I’m hoping it’s one fudge spigot per table, because if that shit’s communal, the travel and FX budgets for Contagion II just got cut by 75%.

David Roth: They should shoot it at Golden Corral. Albert Pyun directs, Tom Sizemore shows up for 15 minutes to cash a check.

David Raposa: If you squint at this IMDB page the right way, Pyun already made his disease epic.

David Roth: Scott Paulin is Officer Brick Bardo! Al Pyun does not belong in this chat, but this is my favorite movie cast of all time, by the way. Nas and Sizemore have some nice scenes together.

David Raposa: I missed Nas! Which is bound to happen when you’re sandwiched between Jaime Pressly and 1/3rd of TLC.

David Roth: And when you’re playing a character named Art “Fuzzy” Rice.

David Raposa: That’s Detective Rice to you, scumbag.

David Roth: My point is that Golden Corral did well to hire Pyun to direct the commercials — I’m just going to keep on pretending they did, if you’re cool with it.

David Roth: So I’m belatedly getting caught up on the Michael Young-love going on in the Lamestream Sports Media. Gregg Doyel, who is what would happen if hemorrhoids could type and really lacked perspective, has weighed in. And even he couldn’t bring himself to troll all the way on it.

David Raposa: I believe he does mention Moneyball, though, so it looks like he was going for a quality-over-quantity kind of trolling. Yes, Gregg, it’s a book that prevents people from truly appreciating a perfectly average and nondescript infielder. And never mind the guy’s multiple (and vociferous) trade demands. Because how dare he move over during the back end of his career to make room for a more athletic rookie and/or a much better 3B.

David Roth: BUT HIS BATTING AVERAGE, DAVID.

David Raposa: I hate it when the MSM makes me hate a player that’s really not deserving of any hate.

David Roth: Me too. He’s totally decent in the way he’s totally decent. That is as a guy who hits singles and doubles and never walks and fields poorly. That he bitches regularly inna passive-aggressive macho stylee is the most Jeterian aspect he’s got. Jeter’s underminer-y quotes are way underappreciated. “I think it’s cool that Brett’s so great about hitting ninth. I feel like that sort of attitude is so rare these days, and could really help him prolong his career.”

David Raposa: “I’m Alex’s biggest fan. I brag on him so much that my teammates are sick of me talking about him.” That’s supposedly an actual quote, though you know he added that extra special Edge to it.

David Roth: The guy has one.

David Raposa: We should look into getting kickbacks from Ford, given how many times we’ve talked about the Edge. (I will NASCAR the shit out of these chats.)

David Roth: I am covered in decals as I write this. Smithfield Ham Co. is going to buy me a place in Virginia, if Johnsonville doesn’t make me a better offer. Monetize the pork-talk, comrade.

David Raposa: You’re saving up for that Rocky IV robot, right?

Can you deal with seeing Nolan Ryan and George W. Bush high-five if the Rangers win the World Series? I am already steeling myself for it.

David Roth: It’ll talk with Jon Miller’s voice, but yeah.

David Raposa: So: I don’t think we’ve talked enough about Mike Napoli. Who deserves all the good press in the world. And an ownership share of the Rangers. And the option to turn down any Bush family cookout invites. Even though I’m still pissed because of what he made me to do my fantasy team.

David Roth: What was that, exactly? Feel bad about cutting him and keeping Jeff Mathis? I WILL NEVER GET TIRED OF THAT. Mike Scioscia opts for the frankly un-tangible intangibles over the guy who does not totally suck at defense and hits homers.

David Raposa: To quote ESPN: “Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Tuesday that personality conflicts with catcher Mike Napoli had nothing to do with the January trade that cost the Angels one of the most powerful hitters in the American League and saddled them with the onerous contract of Vernon Wells.”

David Raposa: And from Scioscia hisself, after he dismisses the personality-conflict claims: “Mike had to work on stuff that didn’t come naturally to him, more so than other catchers who maybe do it more naturally.” Well, maybe when the guy hits like a first baseman, you put up with the growing pains and give the guy some burn.

David Raposa: “We played him a lot more than Texas has this year over his career with us.” Translate this bit of Scioscia-ism for me.

David Roth: “I am a stubbornly retrograde mortadella in stirrup socks.” I hope that helped.

David Raposa: Is he actually claiming that the Angels played Napoli more in his four-plus years with the team than the Rangers have in their one season with him? I’m all for higher math, but come on.

David Roth: That’s baseball math. Count deez RBI, etc. Napoli isn’t as good as he has been this season. Check out his BABIP. (Says the guy who gives himself a wedgie for typing that.)

David Raposa: Yeah, I’ve a feeling this is some career-year/change-of-scenery serendipity for Naps.

David Roth: Which is fine because he is still very good!

David Raposa: Exactly. Instead of being the best in the league, he’ll be behind Brian McCann, a healthy Joe Mauer (if that ever happens again), and, um, young Jorge Posada?

David Roth: For all I know, Napoli is a terrible jerk with toxic gas who insists on listening to Savage Nation over the PA during batting practice. But if he isn’t, Scioscia was small-minded about the thing and hurt the team. When will the plague of Italian-American Catcher on Italian-American Catcher Violence end? Someone needs to record a benefit song.

David Raposa: The Situation and Skrillex are on the case!

David Roth: Can you deal with seeing Nolan Ryan and George W. Bush high-five if the Rangers win the World Series? I am already steeling myself for it. I think I like it more than La Russa writing a book on Leadership And Genius with Bobby Knight and Buzz Bissinger if the Cards win.

David Raposa: Whatever — that “rooting for Bush vs. rooting for La Russa” stuff is nonsense.

David Roth: Oh, I don’t know. To a certain extent, but also I don’t like seeing George W. Bush on TV looking happy. It’s just rude of him. He should just give everyone a few decades off from his face.

David Raposa: Sure, the guy might’ve resided over the collapse of the US economy and two unjustifiable wars, mismanaged one of the country’s worst natural disasters, tried to legalize bigotry on a national level, and appointed at least one asshat to the Supreme Court…

David Roth: … but he does love his baseball.

David Raposa: Exactly? (God, don’t make me root for the Cardinals.)

David Raposa: It’s just a shame that Obama’s a White Sox fan. Thinking of him getting down with some “cans of corn” and “he gones” is almost as disappointing as thinking of his presidency.

David Roth: Dinner parties with Bill Ayers and Hawk Harrelson. And Oney Guillen and Scott Podsednik. HOLD UP, I NEED TO WRITE A MOVIE.

David Raposa: So who’s Sizemore playing? (Please say Reverend Wright.)

David Roth: Bobby “Fuzzy” Jenks?

David Raposa: Oh boy, I can see Luis Guzman waddling out to the mound to call for him, stretching his arms out as far as he can in super-slo-mo as the Requiem For A Dream theme kicks in.

David Roth: If we can get this movie out before Blockbuster goes out of business, we are going to be rich. Let’s buy the Florida Marlins!

David Raposa: As if you need to be rich to do that.

David Roth co-writes the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Fix, contributes to the sports blog Can’t Stop the Bleeding and has his own little website. And he tweets!

David Raposa writes about music for Pitchfork and other places. He used to write about baseball for the blog formerly known as Yard Work. He occasionally blogs for himself, and he also tweets way too much.

Photo by Keith Allison.

“He had already told me a lunatic story about meeting a hooker who knew a gay porn actor who did security for Christina Aguilera and had knowledge of a transvestite that a Yankees star kept in an apartment on Central Park South. The gay porn actor also happened to be diddling a Hollywood director. Via this most exotic of connections, Howie claimed to have had a few conversations with the director, who had put him in touch with his agent at Creative Artists Agency. The agent stopped taking Howie’s calls within the week.”
 — It doesn’t take long in the endlessly sordid tale of the life of Howard Spira for the line “Do you know who I am?” to crop up. Yegads!!!

“Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new nanomaterial that can ‘steer’ electrical currents. The development could lead to a computer that can simply reconfigure its internal wiring and become an entirely different device, based on changing needs.”

Daily smoking is a risk factor “for repeat episodes of depression.” OR MAYBE IT IS A WAY OF COPING WITH REPEAT EPISODES OF DEPRESSION! Did you ever think of that, study? Grrr.

by Chris Chafin

Last night at Le Poisson Rouge, Ben Lear was wearing a wetsuit that made him look like a Starfleet Medical Officer and shaking hands. The 23-year-old son of 89-year-old television mogul and activist Norman Lear (you might know him for producing “All in the Family” or founding progressive advocacy group People For The American Way) had just finished performing Lillian, a show that’s like an epic blend of Arcade Fire, Feist, a Muppet adventure and rock opera (although Lear prefers the term “folk opera,” for its lower pretentiousness quotient). The story, which is by turns touching and bizarre, follows a young man’s search for his lost love, which takes him to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a soup of plastic that’s about twice the size of Hawaii. While there, he meets a group of jellyfish (played by a gospel choir wearing shiny robes, plastic bottles, and Christmas lights) that attempts to baptize him in a pocket of air. Sample lyric from this section: “You little jellyfish, come to me/ You hold the key to a secret place/ With all the things/ That’ve gone to waste.” After an argument with a sea captain, the young man comes to accept that the past is “not lost, just plain dead.”

Lear’s voice has the husky sincerity of Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, and his music the emotional bombast of Belle & Sebastian’s most extroverted songs. The show (and the album of the same name) feature a miniature orchestra of around ten players, and musically ranks with today’s best chamber pop, Owen Pallet’s Heartland — a record that Lear likes but says can be “too much all the time.” The whole thing is deeply silly, too, and at times felt like Jason Schwartzman (whom Lear sort of resembles a taller version of) reenacting Jason Segel’s vampire puppet opera from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In other words, it was amazing. Though the show has faded into the ether, with no additional performances planned for now, the music exists forever — and it’s well worth a listen.

I talked to Lear about the show, the environmental issues it alludes to, what it’s like to have a sister who’s 40-some years older than you are, and why he wants to dump his globe-trotting life to get a regular job.

Chris Chafin: Tell me about the show.

Ben Lear: Lillian began with an idea I had in my junior year of college, when I was kind of looking ahead to possible graduation recital (I was in music composition school).

It was your graduate project?

Everybody had to put on an hour-long concert. For a composer, that means you would find like a string quartet or something to play your original pieces. Obviously, it varied a lot more than that, because there were a lot of different types of composing going on. But, mainly it was like formal recitals in a school building. That wasn’t really going to light a fire for me.

So, you decided to do a make a rock opera? Are you a fan of them?

I’d never been into rock operas before. I’ve never seen Tommy. I’ve never even watched The Wall. I’ve never seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I’ve never seen anything like that, because it’s never interested me. So a rock opera was always the last thing I was interested in, because I think the same reason that people would generally be turned off by that idea: seems a little cheesy and glamorous. In the same way that musical theater might be that, when these words are being fed to you because it’s so important to get this story across, but you’re also trying to maintain some allegiance to the music itself. That’s a really hard balance, and a balance I was trying to maintain. Because on the flip side, there’s the artsy conceptual narrative thing that makes no sense, and sounds like crap also. And there’s a lot of that, too. So, I thought, “I don’t want to make this pretentious high-concept album, but I don’t want to make this cheesy really straightforward rock opera with a silly story. I just want to have an awesome concert experience.” At the time, I was thinking that there was this huge opportunity for bands to do more with their live show. By that I don’t mean project video on top of them or have a lighting designer. I mean to create a narrative.

Something that happened while I was working on my show that was super-influential to me was Jonesy from Sigur Ros put out his debut solo record. He had this British production company do his live set — they built a set for him, and made these really immersive projections everywhere, with animals chasing each other, and everything was sequenced to the music. I was like, “This is what I want to do, exactly, but I want to be telling a story.”

Your show uses the Pacific Garbage Patch as a metaphor for… I don’t want to say the Island of Misfit Toys but —

Sort of that, yeah. The idea is, what if there was a place that held everything you ever lost: notes, harddrives, memories, and feelings? When you think back on the first person you ever loved, and how intense that feeling was, and now that feeling is completely… I have ex-girlfriends I’m friends with, and I can’t even possibly remember what that felt like. It’s crazy to me that that could have happened, and I have such little memory of it.

So, I was working with that idea: what would it look like? What would that place be like? This was in 2009, and that was when I first heard about the garbage patch, that’s when people were first talking about it. I was like, “That’s crazy! Where are the photos of it?” But that’s because there are no photos of it; it’s this soup of almost microscopic plastic that the fish are eating. So I also got really fascinated by that misconception, and I thought maybe my character, like everyone else, kind of romanticizes this place.

The idea is that it’s a very real journey, everything about it. Real within the logic of this world. I don’t have a scuba diving mask.

What have you been doing since you graduated?

I got invited to be on an expedition with this nonprofit that’s doing plastification research, to go from Chile to Easter Island, on a sailboat for three weeks. That was really wild. The same group of people flew me out to Burning Man to perform on their raft of plastic bottles.

Were you guys trying to raise awareness?

It was definitely to raise awareness, but the other pressing issue was to study the South Pacific Gyre. There are five main oceanic gyres, and eleven sub-gyres. This one organization has gone to all of them, and trawled a net in a very specific way to collect plastic debris. That’s the only way you’ll really see it. We would just cruise all day, and the autopilot was broken, so we were steering 24 hours a day, and drop these nets in and pull them out, clean off the plastic, label them, and when we eventually got to Easter Island, we shipped them off to this lab in California that tests them for different biotoxins. The idea is that plastic is not only inherently harmful to sea life, but something about it attracts other carcinogens that are in the water, so it becomes like a hub, and it’s three or four or more times more harmful. And then we’re eating all of that, of course.

Have you ever thought about being a scientist?

Never. I always wanted to be a filmmaker, actually. Then, music came along, and that kind of took over. Maybe I just never just fully exercised my… Is it my left brain? My science brain?

I don’t know.

Whichever one, I haven’t exercised it. If I sound science-y, I’m succeeding in bullshitting you with flying colors.

I think of myself of someone who’s pretty normal in my day-to-day life, and I just happen to have a heightened interest in this stuff, so I try to be a little better in my plastic consumption. I started a blog called “I Want to Be Good,” which was about me trying to be single-use plastic free. It only lasted like three days. And if I fucked up, I wrote about it.

So even within those three days, you fucked up?

Well, the second I went to get groceries, it was over. If you want to go to Trader Joe’s, forget about it. If you have any interest in deli meats, or any meat, forget about it.

Did you grow up having an awareness of issues like this? Both of your parents are very into progressive politics, right?

I grew up in a really political household. Not like screaming ideology, but a serious intention to stay informed. The paper was open every morning. My dad has been fighting right-wing religious America for, like, 30 years. And that’s always been a big influence.

I remember going to local Democratic headquarters on election night, or campaigning in my neighborhood. Did you do things like that as a kid?

No, and I probably would have liked that. It was more just indoors. There were definitely fundraisers in the house and stuff like that. Meeting really interesting people.

It must have been a little weird to have a bunch of people suddenly in your house.

There was a group that came to all that stuff, so I would be familiar with most of those people. Growing up in my household, at least in my own mind, I was always “the son,” and had a lot to accomplish. We have this one family friend, who helped fund the majority of my music video, and when he did that, I had a flashback to being six years old, and bringing my paintings down to my parents’ dinner parties, and trying to sell them to the people there. Everyone would say, “Oh, that’s cute.” But he bought one. For twenty bucks! When I was six years old. And he knew exactly what he was doing when he did that. I’ve met a lot of people like that through my parents, and I really appreciate it.

I have two brothers and a sister. And they’re not much older than me, but they’re like ten to 15 years older. I’m actually from my mother’s second marriage. When I grew up, there would be all these pictures in the house from the ’70s, and whenever there was a family gathering everyone would talk about things I hadn’t been around for, that were totally removed from my experience. I’m wondering if you had that experience growing up — almost like you’re knocking around someone else’s house?

Totally. I have three older sisters. My dad had three marriages, and had one daughter in his first marriage, two in his second, and then me and my sister in his third. And he did it over a long period of time, and they didn’t really overlap.

How old is your oldest sister?

My oldest sister is 65. My dad is turning 90 in July. So that’s what I mean. It literally was just like a family unit, and there happened to be another one almost in a previous life. I mean, I’m, like, insanely close to my older sisters.

It must be strange having a father who’s famous, but not famous in such a way that people on the street would recognize.

That’s the weirdest thing — he’s not this outward-facing celebrity where that would happen every day, and on top of that he’s just my dad. But only on very specific occasions would he become like a god. Like, literally a god. And everyone would come up to me and be like, “Do you know how much I love your father?” It was always far enough between those experiences that I would forget what that was like. Like, the other day, he just had a 30th birthday party for his organization People for the American Way here in New York. It’s this organization he started. And it’s become a very prominent thing. And as a surprise to everybody, President Clinton showed up. And he’s doing that to my dad. That’s the other thing, because of the generation gap, the people that I look up to look up to my dad.

Like, when I was about 8, we both fell in love with “South Park,” and watched it together every Wednesday. And of course Matt [Stone] & Trey [Parker] are big “All in the Family” fans, and, I mean, I think Cartman is very strongly influenced by Archie Bunker. So, they get a call from Norman Lear, and he’s like, “Hey, I’d love to meet you, and bring my son.” And they’re like “oh my God!” and meanwhile, I’m like “oh my GOD!” and he’s like “oh my God!” Because he loves everything that’s good. He’ll gawk at Matt & Trey the same way he would at… I dunno, whatever was super old. Fatty Arbuckle.

Have you had to get up to speed on the ‘business’ part of the music business?

Right now, I’m kind of actively my own marketing guy, PR guy, label executive, and on top of that, director of the show, producer of the show, composer, all these different things. And I love doing it. It’s not a problem; it just significantly cuts down on my time to just write. I think the real shift in direction I’m about to make is setting down all those hats and just getting a job. I would love to work in music in some capacity and write on the side. I’m kind of forcing it to be the work right now, but I’d like it to be a hobby again. And just write a lot more.

One last question: Do you eat fish?

I won’t touch tuna, because that’s over-fished. I try not to eat salmon, but salmon’s really great.

Chris Chafin writes for a few places about things you can listen to, play or consume. Here’s his Tumblr, which isn’t super compelling.

Interview condensed, edited and lightly reordered.

“Every single person walking down the street is fighting a great battle, whether or not you can see it.” What’s yours?