On Saturday I was at the North Minneapolis Art FLOW with a bunch of good friends, taking in the talent show organized and hosted by the PEACE Foundation in the parking lot of Cub Foods, and who should I run into but James Everett? Everett is running for Mayor.
He previously ran for governor. He really doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hades of winning against R.T. Rybak for mayor, but maybe Everett just wants to get more votes than Al Flowers, who once came in THIRD in a two-way race, click here.
Everett is what political scientists call a "perennial also-ran."
So there I was with my camera, and I thought, "I need a good stock photo of James Everett, in the unlikely event he does anything newsworthy in the election..."
So I approached Everett and introduced myself and asked if he wouldn't mind smiling for a photo. To my annoyance (but not my shock) Everett wanted me to "sit down" with him and "chat" and find out where I was "coming from" before he would simply smile in a cooperative way for a photo.
So I was all, like, "Mr. Everett. You're running for mayor. Obviously people will take your picture. I just want a photo and I'm giving you a chance to let it be a complimentary likeness instead of an image of you with your hand up in front of your face."
Every time I'd raise my camera, he'd throw a hand up in front of his face. I finally said, "Look, we're in a public place. You can't stop me from taking your picture. So it can be you smiling or you with a hand in front of your face. Your choice."
The top photo shows an example of how James Everett makes poor choices. Oh, the bottom photo I just happened to snap while driving out of the parking lot. I love telephoto and Macs. Sure, I've said harsh things about Macs in the past, but they are so great for working with digital photos, like blowing them up ten times their original size.
Oh, one more thing: Everett claimed to be following issues in the Jordan Neighborhood, but claimed he had "no idea" office equipment and records were missing as part of the controversy. Hadn't heard of it. IT WAS NEWS TO HIM! I found myself wondering, "How can somebody claim to know ANYTHING about the JACC controversy and not be aware of controversy with missing records and equipment?"
One of life's little mysteries, I guess. Like who has the Blackberry issued to former JACC director Jerry Moore before he got fired.
(Parody content ahead)
Everett is running on the Social Entrepreneurship Party. I've heard of this party before. My little buddy Chipper The Entrepreneurial Squirrel (click here) tells me he was invited to join, but decided not to get his good name messed up in what smelled like "some kind of nutty scheme."
that's too bad--i thought his governor campaign van was a pretty creative bit of theater. it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a "fringe" candidate who is interested in mixing things up a bit, but it sounds like Everett is running on the paranoid power trip ticket. if you have a a coherent platform (like Kucinich in the Democratic primary) rather than just a couple of broken-record catch-phrases (like Al Flowers), then you act like an adult and use the campaign to communicate your vision. if, on the other hand, you are a self-absorbed megalomaniac like Al Flowers, and, (apparently) James Everett, you use every opportunity to make yourself look like a victim.
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