Flagstaff

VK reporting from the road to New Mexico.

The Fundraiser Dinner at Becky Daggett’s Newly-Renovated Home

On our first night in Flagstaff, Becky Daggett, an extremely active member of city council, hosted a fundraiser dinner for us at her home. Since each person “donated $1000” to attend, Altheimer dragged his feet to the nearest suburban grocery store and stocked up on finger food and booze.

The guests were a varied and intelligent bunch. Several political science professors from Northern Arizona University were in attendance, e.g. Andy Kruse, who focuses on environmental issues and owns a company that produces wind generators for the southern region of Arizona.

Also, Al White! Vice-mayor and guitar player extraordinaire, he stumbled across Flagstaff on a cross-country journey from Massachusetts to Los Angeles when he was on his way to work for television. He found himself working on keeping Flagstaff beautiful instead.

At the end of the night, I was driven home in a convertible by Jasmine, an ebullient seventeen-year old who eventually became our campaign cheerleader.

The Nurses at Flagstaff Hospital

The morning following the fundraiser dinner, Richard the cameraman, needed to go to the hospital due to a fractured ankle. My past experience with hospitals in the States has always been horrendous. They make you wait forever, the staff is rude, and then they charge you an arm and a leg for a prescription of painkillers and a bandage. The Flagstaff Hospital proves this wrong.

I’ve tried to avoid mentioning Richard Prince during this journey because he was too easy a reference to compare our experience. Cowboy culture, motorcycle sightings, and bad jokes are intrinsic to Prince’s art and make up several of the layers in this bizarre campaign journey—but hot nurses?! I never expected us to encounter that. Well we did and they were mighty flirty with Richard. More down-to-earth than Prince’s nurses, but gorgeous and unbelievably accommodating.

The Firemen

Since he was a little boy, Altheimer has dreamed of seeing an American fire engine ride off into the sunset with a Danish flag flapping behind it. Actually, he told us it was a European flag, but there was no European flag back then so I am taking the liberty to correct his childhood memory. Yesterday we made the fire station our most important destination in our door-to-door campaigning.

We showed up at one station right as the garage doors were opening and the truck was setting off with the sirens and the lights a flutter. We sat in the parking lot and brainstormed over a way to meet with fire fighters. We considered options such as starting a small fire or putting Hannah Jefferson up in a tree and reporting that our cat was stuck. As referred to in a past post: Tanner ’88 on peyote!

We successfully met with the firemen via the regular means of communication: calling the chief and telling him we were making a movie. He directed us to a station where we met with a few firefighters. They expressed their concerns with Arizona being a Right to Work State—something that was on the verge of being changed until the new mayor, Karla Brewster, was elected to office. Jefferson explained that Europe’s free healthcare and history of strong unions would improve the conditions of their hazardous occupation. They supported our mission and Altheimer’s dream came true.

The Haters

The hecklers in the square! On the evening Second Child played in the square and gave the stage to us for ten minutes to talk about our campaign, we received our first vocal protesters. Two older gentlemen bespawled about God and how he’d built this country. “Get back on the boat!” Expect to see footage of this in the next few days!

Whispers: “those Europe people are here.”
A passing pick-up truck: “Get your faggot ass back to Europe!”

Altheimer kept repeating the faggot line to himself for the rest of the day as though it were Wordsworth.

This campaign has its fans as well as a fair share of skeptics, but why do people hate us? There are individuals (see our guestbook) who are seething. Do they feel threatened? They think everyone in Europe is a homosexual. We are gaining a new awareness of the small-minded America. As Alexis de Tocqueville states in Democracy in America: “The word of a powerful man which by itself reaches the passion of a silent gathering, has more strength than the muddled shouts of a thousand speakers.” (211).

I don’t really think Altheimer is that powerful of man. He is just a maniac. He’s…the Danish Larry David. Mixed in Napoleon’s stubbornness and Scooby-Doo’s clumsiness.
But he is creating fear in people and like any charismatic leader type, this gives him strength.

Exit from Flagstaff

The night of the “French girl” was our last. Marianne Dissard, Tucson singer whose album is being produced by Calexico, put on a highly anticipated performance in the Monte Vista Martini Bar around the same time Altheimer and Jefferson appeared on Channel 2 news. Prior to the show she shared some vodka with us in the Clark Gable room and told us about her French-ness.

On our way out of Flagstaff we passed three women and a man dressed in funereal outfits, holding up umbrellas and a sign that read WOMEN IN BLACK AGAINST WAR AND VIOLENCE. Altheimer hopped out with his styrofoam platter of Chinese food and spoke with them in the rain. He commiserated with them over hecklers. Our final exchange in Flagstaff was a gathering of political freaks.

We’d like to thank everyone in Flagstaff who made our stay here memorable and invigorated us to keep going with the campaign trail. I’d especially like to mention the trains that run through the city all day and night, Becky, Al, Jasmine, John, Marianne, Marcos, Charlie the naked guy, Macy’s Coffee Shop, Brews and Qs, the firemen, Monte Vista Hotel, Second Childhood, and even the haters. We love the haters, too.

The next post will include far superior images taken by Dennis Orneborg. Hopefully, I will also have some video footage of all this madness.