Lunch & Fix-It Meetup

posted January 9, 2017 6:03 PM | |

Sun January 29 at 1:00 PM, Bella Donna's apartment

1136 Brighton Ave, Albany, CA, USA (Map & Directions)

This sounds fun, and I would also like to meet more local MeFites! However, I am also in SF proper without a car, and this is an hour-and-a-half-one-way commute!

Hm. I will have to think on this.
posted by wym at 12:23 AM on January 10, 2017

I'd love to meet more MeFites, and live right down the street from you on San Pablo in Berkeley! (If you'll have a sewing machine to share, say so--otherwise I'll probably bring darning supplies and will gladly teach anyone with holes in their socks how to fix 'em.)
posted by tapir-whorf at 2:52 AM on January 10, 2017

I'm also right up the street wow! I also love soup and random crafting! I will be there!
posted by bleep at 6:22 AM on January 10, 2017

I am also interested! Have to see how the first couple weeks of school go, but hope to join!
posted by milkweed at 8:56 AM on January 10, 2017

I'm another close-to-San-Pablo-ite in Berkeley, but I'll be out of town. Neglected mending pile still not un-neglected.
posted by Zed at 10:09 AM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am interested; I'm in Oakland and would need to sort out BART and maybe bus details. Would love to meet some local MeFites!
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:21 PM on January 10, 2017

This sounds nice! I'm not crafty, but I'm into chatting / light reading / lazy Sunday hangs.
posted by naju at 2:39 PM on January 10, 2017

This is very close to my place! I have another commitment at 2pm, but might stop by at the beginning so I can say Hi to all y'all neighbors.
posted by expialidocious at 3:45 PM on January 10, 2017

I'm also near San Pablo in Berkeley! I have plans between 9am-4pm that day, but if that outing is cancelled due to weather, I'll stop by with some knitting.
posted by kiripin at 5:01 PM on January 10, 2017

I'm interested! I'm in Oakland and would love to meet some MeFites in person! I definitely have some hand sewing I can work on.
posted by ananci at 6:26 PM on January 10, 2017

I'm in! Thanks for hosting! Really looking forward to meeting you.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 7:43 PM on January 10, 2017

Wow, I'm so glad some folks are interested. I have a sewing machine and I have some sewing supplies and I will be delighted to have folks drop by before or during. Google says my place is a 7-minute walk from the El Cerrito Plaza Bart station, which sounds about right to me. You can also take any (I think) of the 72 buses headed north on San Pablo Avenue and get off at Brighton (if it's not an express) or the Plaza across from Peet's if it's an express bus.

I live at the very end of Stannage Avenue, north of Brighton, in the lovely apartment number thirteen at four oh one. It's conveniently located across a tiny creek from Trader Joe's, so you can stock up on supplies on your way home perhaps. :-)

Yay for soup and mending!
posted by Bella Donna at 5:01 PM on January 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Additional details:
I have needles and a variety of thread for hand mending as well as the single sewing machine, seam ripper, etc.

There happens to be a JoAnn's nearby. I have a love/hate relationship with that store because patterns and fabric (love) and because it's a big-box store (hate). Anyway, I am mentioning it because you can definitely pick up stuff over there since you're in the neighbourhood should you choose to.

I'm not actually crafty. I just like to imagine being crafty, buy stuff I fail to use, and then daydream a lot. So yeah, hanging out together sounds fun.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:19 PM on January 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm into this! I don't know from sewing, but hanging out sounds good.
posted by invitapriore at 7:30 PM on January 11, 2017

If I manage to come, I might bring my Abby Yates helmet-building project. You've been warned! ;) (If anyone going does LED kit stuff for fun, please MeMail me...)
posted by wintersweet at 10:45 PM on January 11, 2017

I'm interested, if you haven't hit your max headcount. I live in the northern part of the east bay and I carry a crumpled Joann sale flyer in my purse, usually, because I'm a quilter.
posted by puddledork at 1:32 PM on January 12, 2017

Hey puddledork, we can make it work. Kindly RSVP to the left so I will remember to send you the actual address. ananci, I need you to do the same (either coming or maybe) for address and meal planning purposes. If anyone is not sure, just call yourself a maybe. If you are sure, let me know because I want there to be plenty of soup for all.

There will certainly be plenty of buttons for all if anybody needs to add a new button to something. I just realized I have many, many buttons and some of them are quite wonderful.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:45 PM on January 12, 2017

Ah shoot. I'm setting up my semester calendar and I see I've signed up for a writing workshop that day. Everybody else have fun! <3
posted by wintersweet at 3:50 PM on January 12, 2017

Don't worry, wintersweet. If we have a good time, I'll do it again.
posted by Bella Donna at 6:52 PM on January 12, 2017

[stakes intensify]

posted by invitapriore at 11:08 PM on January 12, 2017 [4 favorites]

I've never actually met another Mefite (that I know of), so I would love to join. I can bring some munchies
posted by gt2 at 4:24 PM on January 15, 2017

Oh this sounds like fun! I'm down in Union City, but if you're near the BART station that makes it pretty easy. Looks like you have a lot of RSVPers already, but if you have room for one more let me know. I'm a knitter, seamstress, colorer, and general crafty girl :)
posted by kayray at 10:26 PM on January 16, 2017

People who are definitely coming (unless they get hit by a truck) naturally get preference over the maybes. Can everyone who knows that they are coming for sure (except captivepredator, for reasons) PLEASE RSVP AS ATTENDING so I can do a head count. That means you:

wym
ErisLordFreedom
ananci
gt2

Thanks, all. I am super excited as I have buttons I hope I can get people to use. Also, in general.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:05 PM on January 17, 2017

By rsvp, do you mean hitting the Attending button on the sidebar?
posted by gt2 at 12:53 AM on January 19, 2017

Yup, either the Joining or Maybe. I'm on my phone so I can't see it.
posted by Bella Donna at 7:59 PM on January 19, 2017

I'm in officially and may even have sewing-related projects to pursue; we'll see how a trial run tomorrow goes.
posted by kenko at 2:08 PM on January 21, 2017

My dishwasher died and can't be repaired until next week. So there will be paper bowls for all and no whining about it. I don't own a car so I'm not worried. :-)
posted by Bella Donna at 4:27 PM on January 27, 2017

I already signed up for a workshop tomorrow afternoon but hope this goes well and looking forward to to the Feb one!
posted by Sparkling Natural Mineral Water at 8:49 AM on January 28, 2017

Not going to make it, hope to come to the next one!
posted by milkweed at 11:20 PM on January 28, 2017

I am avoiding the temptation to head to SFO instead of this, although I'm planning on bringing protest supplies and potentially heading to SFO after, if the protest there is still going on.

I'm not sure I can bring snacks, but I'll be bringing a selection of teas because I like tea, and I like to share tea.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:47 AM on January 29, 2017

I mailed you, but never pressed the Attending button. I made banana bread this morning. (Not a big loaf, but it smells good.)
posted by puddledork at 10:45 AM on January 29, 2017

I'm running late but will be there.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 12:22 PM on January 29, 2017

Unfortunately I can't make it today - sorry to miss you all!
posted by expialidocious at 1:15 PM on January 29, 2017

Thanks so much, Bella Donna. I'm still overwhelmed that you made soup for a bunch of strangers and welcomed us all to your place!

Thanks also to everyone who showed up and let me natter on in contrarian mode. For more of the same, here are three articles I mentioned at different points in the conversation, all of which make my points far more eloquently than I possibly could:

From the Post, on not rebranding civic responsibility as "resistance":

[...] There’s no question that civic engagement is a way to stand firm against the degradation of a representative system of government. At the same time, recasting the fundamental building blocks of civic engagement not as essential tools of public engagement available to all citizens in all times, but as acts of resistance we deploy only against extraordinary threats to our system, is a quick way to get those acts tagged as radical rather than normal.

We should be wary of adopting a renamed version of civic engagement that seems mostly intended to make ourselves feel good and brave about doing things we should have been doing in the first place. Meeting our basic obligations as citizens is not the same thing as revolutionary action.

And we ought to be doubly wary about that re-branding if it opens the door for the basic functions of our political system to be recast as partisan and radical, rather than as fundamental and routine.

Also from the Post, on fighting authoritarian populism in Venezuela:

[...]"We are in a rigged system, and a big part of the rigging are these dishonest people in the media," Trump said late in the campaign, when he was sounding the most like Chávez. "Isn’t it amazing? They don’t even want to look at you folks." The natural conclusion is all too clear: Turn off the TV, just listen to me. The constant boos at his rallies only confirmed as much. By looking down on Trump’s supporters, you’ve lost the first battle. Instead of fighting polarization, you’ve played into it.

The worst you can do is bundle moderates and extremists together and think that America is divided between racists and liberals. That’s the textbook definition of polarization.
[...]
The problem, remember, is not the message but the messenger. It’s not that Trump supporters are too stupid to see right from wrong, it’s that you’re more valuable to them as an enemy than as a compatriot. Your challenge is to prove that you belong in the same tribe as them — that you are American in exactly the same way they are.[...]
[...]
Recognize that you’re the enemy Trump requires. (italics mine)

And finally from the Guardian, by MeFi's Own:

[...]"The problem with moderation, Peter Wehner argued in a recent New York Times essay, is that it’s seen as intrinsically lily-livered, a lukewarm compromise between more resolute extremes – "a philosophy for tender souls", as Jean-Paul Sartre said of liberalism. I don’t want to be moderately opposed to dishonest, misogynistic, quasi-fascist politicians; when extremists run the world, we should be extremely committed to their defeat. Yet on the other hand, deep down I know that a victory for My Team over Their Team at the next election or referendum won’t solve much in the long term, either: humiliating the other side simply ensures they’ll come roaring back, more furious than ever, until they regain sufficient power to humiliate me.

Is there a way out of this dilemma? Wehner argues there is, that we should think of moderation as "a disposition, not an ideology": not a set of views, but a way of relating to your views, and to those who disagree. Moderates "do not see the world in Manichean terms that divide it into forces of good (or light) and evil (or darkness)", writes the political scientist Aurelian Craiutu, in a new book, Faces Of Moderation, which Wehner quotes. True moderation doesn't mean you’ve got to split the difference between your opinions and other people’s (for example, to concede that racism might have something to be said for it); but it does mean conceding that nobody’s unreachable or irredeemable.

posted by tangerine at 7:31 PM on January 29, 2017

Sorry I left so abruptly but I am not sorry I went to SFO! I regret not eating any soup or herring!
posted by kenko at 8:17 PM on January 29, 2017

Hey Tangerine, thanks so much for coming, thanks for those links, and I hope you didn't feel unwelcome because I didn't agree with everything you said. Your perspective is valuable; I appreciate how patient you were in articulating your viewpoint.

kenko, so happy you made it at all. And super glad you made it to SFO as well. Feel free to report back on how it went.

The next soup fest is scheduled for the 19th of next month. Hope to see at least some of you again.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:43 PM on January 29, 2017 [1 favorite]