070622 Free State Porcfest 4 - Brian Wright Home Page

It's reasonably early in the movie. People are scattered around sitting on picnic tables and a few folding chairs; Istand for a while, pop a top, then watch evening-gown-clad Dominique Francon (the beautiful Patricia Neal) tellHoward Roark (Gary Cooper) she has to destroy him for being so good... but first let's field test the architecture ofyour bedroom. All satire aside, I still love this movie and the unique passion of Ayn Rand breathing, heavily, within it.But I'm tired and The Fountainhead by the campfire light is more surrealism than I can handle at this late hour. Ileave where Ellsworth Toohey—has any author in history had a better knack for names—is telling Peter Keating thatPeter is a third-rate imposter and would not know the first thing about designing affordable low-income housing.Harsh; you can see why Peter has such sniveling low self-esteem.That's my cue to return to my own low-income housing for the weekend, wherein I crash gratefully for the night.Saturday, June 23 ______________________________________I awake in my tent thinking I need to talk to the landlord about the heating system. The outdoor temperatures wewere told would be dropping into the 40s, and the indoor temperatures didn't climb much above that. Cold and stifffrom lying on this cot all night, I manage to rise and make my way toward the bathroom.I don't want to be negative, so let me just say the facilities are much better than if you were to string threeouthouses together—with more privacy, though not as much elbow room, than the Harris County Jail (Houston). Idon't see any urinals (so the toiletry can be used coed I surmise) but two small shower stalls, a row of crappers, andI never cared to know what was behind Door Number 2. Then three sinks crowded together and a mirror, as I recall.Because of the cramped quarters and lack of things like shelves, hooks, benches, space, I decide I'll forgo showeringfor a couple of days and rely on an extra layer of deodorant to keep the hot babes from running off screaming. AndI'll brush my teeth regularly, too.This is the main day of the festival, but unlike previous years, no Jason (Jason Sorens, the founder of the Free StateProject) and no Amanda (Amanda Phillips, she's been FSP director, and I've always considered her one of the leadingladies in the Free State drama, kind of a Dagny Taggart VP of Operations qua Toastmistress).I remember well the first Porc Fest in 2004. What a thrill! Not only because it was my first time, but because it waseveryone's first time. Jason and Amanda did a tag-team revelation-and-enthusiasm routine at the podium that raisedthe roof; you could feel the energy pulsing through the presentation area... like an old-time revival tent. We werethere to save and be saved. We felt the excitement of beginning an earthshaking journey of deliverance.Now the journey is well underway, and some would say we (i.e. the FSP organization) stand at a crossroads. Itseems we now need to cross a chasm of cultural lethargy if we are to reach anything like the originally defineddestination. From my perspective now, there's the Free State Project (FSP) and the Free State Movement (FSM)—themovement being defined by actions of the early movers in concert with the pro-liberty efforts of preexisting NewHampshirites already in progress.4