Life and Purpose

What a terribly difficult day for my friends in the DuBose family. My mantra at the moment is not, life is too short; it is that it is tragically too fragile. My heart is with Eliza and Molly.

For the rest of us, I believe that we best honor Rob by dedicating ourselves to purpose. If there is something we want to do. Do it. Don't find excuses. Do it. Now. No-one knows what tomorrow may bring.

The Zen of Piglet

I woke up this morning. The most important things on my mind were that my air-conditioning did not work. And that I was worried about my weight. Again. Vain little tramp, that I am.

As important as these were. I went through my newly-discovered mantras. About life and the universe and visualization. About what is important. What is not. What I want to be saying to the universe. And what not.

Came out the other side, just glorying in the beauty of life. Full of gratitude for what I have. And full of expectation for what is coming my way.

I get on Facebook. Read about a friend who is missing his granny. A year after her death. I wonder if the problem with societal ADD is not that suddenly we've all become inhuman monsters. I think that there's just too much stimulus. All at the same time.

I mean. It does take a year to accommodate grief. Why should we pretend that it takes less? Why do we pretend that we can cope with all of the bad news with which we are presented on all of the ubiquitous media that surrounds us? Not to mention personal trauma?

I find myself flitting between the sublime, the serious, the ephemeral, the urgent. Just trying to stay abreast. Stay afloat. Demands of work. Worrying about individual members of my family. Wondering if I am taking the right steps with my music career. Hoping Georgia beat South Carolina.

What is important? What is real? What matters? Aren't they all the same feelings? Triggering the same synapses? What to feel? What to tell the universe?

And then, late in the day, I hear that a good friend has been in a horrible crash. Is struggling for life. Struggling for health. My heart is with him. My thoughts with his wife, daughter and family.

My whole day is set in perspective. We are all such fragile creatures. Complex mechanisms, dependent on the flimsiest of conceived structures. Miracles of daily survival. Icons of transience, we take for granted, as being the impervious crucibles necessary for our souls to struggle with the meaning of life.

What was important. Is now irrelevant. What is now crucial. Is something over which I have no control.

My thoughts rest with the people who need them the most. Right now. I hope you know who you are. Meanwhile, I'm just tapping on the shoulder of life, to be sure of you ...

2013 WSM Annual Report: Fact -vs- Faction

Look. If I didn’t think there was much to love about Weaver Street Market Co-operative, I wouldn’t still be working here after eight years. All I ask is that we be honest about who we are, what we’re not, and whether or not this is contributing to the New Economic Democracy about which the guest speaker (Gar Alperovitz) at our forthcoming Annual Meeting (September 9) writes so eloquently.

So. Let’s take a wander through the WSM Annual Report for 2013 and engage in another of those recently hip processes: the fact check. Not just to see what’s wrong. But to see if what is wrong, and indeed, what is right, actually makes a difference.

And I set that phrase ‘making a difference’ in the context of if and how we are helping to avoid the mistakes that were made across this nation and around the world leading up to, through and pursuant to the Great Recession.

In sum, what were those mistakes? Well, for 30 years, we allowed small groups of people to control our corporations, large and small, and including banks, such that they made unwise decisions, based solely on earning money on the back of risky economic gambles, able to do so due to the lack of accountability to the public.

The primary consequence was that personal, corporate and governmental debt went through the ceiling. The financial system collapsed. And then all the same corporations scurried around trying to put matters right, primarily by squeezing consumers and workers, so that the only target that mattered (financial profitability) was once more secured.

Well. You might say. Thank goodness WSM wasn’t part of that awful paradigm. Um. Wrong.

For as long as I’ve been here (joined in 2005), WSM has not been controlled by its owners. It has been controlled by a small group of self-appointed folks in the corporate office management team.

Say it ain’t so. Sorry. We have a Board of Directors comprised of seven people. The General Manager. Two elected Consumer-Owner Directors. Two supposedly elected Worker-Owner Directors (the election has been uncontested for three years now; the Candidates selected are essentially management stooges; and before that, all contested elections – in which I stood four times – were won by the management bloc vote); and two appointed Directors (appointed three to two by the GM and his two Worker-Owner disciples). That equates to control by the General Manager.

Ok. But does that matter? I mean, we still make all the right decisions, right? Er. No. In 2007/2008, since WSM essentially had no accountability to its community, the small controlling group within the corporate office engaged in a massive expansion exercise, which put the co-op $10 million into debt. We were in such dire financial straits, we had to be bailed out by the national co-operative movement. Why? Because we had become the co-op too big to fail. Sound familiar?

Well, thank goodness that is all over. It isn’t. That exercise leaves us still some $6 million in debt. Costing us over $1 million each year in interest and depreciation. Blimey. What does that mean? It means $1 million each year which is not in your Consumer-Owner dividend. And $1 million each year your overworked workers have to sweat extra to find. Oh. And set that figure off against our local economic impact. Because not a penny of that interest goes to local banks.

Fine. But past history is past history, surely? No, it ain’t. Not when the same small group of self-appointed individuals is planning a new expensive program of store building [2020 Goal 3; Page 6 of 2013 Annual Report].

The 2013 Annual Report does not accurately reflect what the owner discussions had to say about new store building. I know. I was there. What we agreed was that we wanted no new store building until we had paid off the existing debt, and until we were certain that the Food House could cope with the extra food production.

But that’s what happens when decision-making and communication within our co-op are not controlled by the community. Fact reporting becomes Fox News faction.

Oh. And another thing which happens is that you are misled about what your co-op is doing to address “the pressing societal imperative” of “the livelihood of the people who produce our food.” Namely, your workers.

Contrary to the impression given in the Annual Report, your workers are not overwhelmingly happy. That much became abundantly clear from the now-suppressed WSM Employee Survey of 2011. Try and get a copy. I dare you.

That survey contained 72 closely-typed pages of complaint about the work conditions at WSM - I was able to read the results, only under the watchful eye of our Human Resources Director, and I was not allowed to have a copy.

Bottom line? In the continuing response to the Great Recession, the focus at WSM is almost entirely on productivity. We are each year worked harder for less. And we are different to the conventional capitalist grocery store, how again?

There is next to no opportunity for worker input to strategic decision-making, not least, what happens to the profits we earn for the co-op. And when we are asked, our opinions are ignored. In a co-op which the corporate office management team proudly declares is half-owned by its workers.

Our wage increases dramatically trail the annual increase in the sales we generate. And WSM still does not offer what North Carolina recognizes as a living wage.

Now the immediate answer to all of this would seem to be: support Candidates in WSM Director elections who talk about once more introducing true democratic control into our co-op.

Oh goody. Which ones would those be this year? Well. In the case of the Worker-Owner election, no-one. Because the election is uncontested. And the one Candidate on offer works in the corporate office Finance Department. Hardly someone who is going to act as counterbalance to the corporate office.

As for the two Candidates in the Consumer-Owner election. Er. Again. Neither. One thinks we’re a good co-op because we sell natural food. And the other likes WSM because she gets to dance on the Carrboro Lawn. In fact, I read through the plaudits at the front of the Annual Report, celebrating our 25 years of existence, and all the chitchat is along much the same lines.

People. I’m delighted we sell local food. Although, fact check. We have no clue what other grocery stores are doing. We are making up those figures. And. We don’t sell as much local food as we claim. Not when we include in our figures every last item of food produced in our Food House. It ain’t ‘local’ because I stick my sticky fingers into it. On that basis, the “pre-packaged gummy sweet sliced stuff” which Owner 156 decries is also ‘local.’

And do not for one moment think I am taking a swipe at those of my fellow workers who work long, hard and diligently in our Food House. I am not. They perform magnificently, in the same difficult conditions plaguing all of our workers. Namely, sub-standard conditions the consequence of the vainglorious primacy given to empire-building by the small group of self-appointed decision-makers in our corporate office management team. Vainglory made possible because democratic accountability does not properly exist in our co-op.

If we think protection against control of our lives by non-accountable corporations making daft financial decisions is assured by our co-op selling local food (and I don’t; and neither do Ralph Nader or Gar Alperovitz), then at least let’s be honest about just how much support we give to genuinely local food.

I have nothing but the deepest admiration for the job performed by my fellow workers in our Food House. But we do them and our co-op no favors by claiming that the product of their excellent endeavors is ‘local,’ if it isn’t.

Ok. So. What’s all this about Ralph and Gar? Well. Actually read their books. Don’t just open the flyleaf long enough to get an autograph at the Annual Meeting.

They both say that, if we are to provide a new economic system that is a true bulwark against bad decision-making of the type which led to the Great Recession, then it is not enough that our enterprises are community-owned. They must also be community-controlled.

We can have a gazillion owners. Win all sorts of prizes for being the best grocery store on the best Main Street in the universe. Be a vibrant meeting place. Environmentally conscious. Donate to local schools up the wazoo. Ensure that every last one of the gummy bears we sell is local.

But, none of this makes a hoot of difference to our contribution to the New Economic Democracy, if we ain’t democratically-controlled. And if, as a consequence, we are not accountable to our community, and we are setting ourselves up, once more, to be making potentially unwise, unsupported and likely risky financial decisions, and ones that do not support all of the pressing societal imperatives which guard against economic implosion.

It is democratic control, and only democratic control, which is the guardian against corporate mischief in the brave new world of Economic Democracy which Ralph and Gar champion. It is democratic control, and only democratic control, which makes us a co-op.

That is why democratic control by owners is the cornerstone of the official definition of a co-operative enunciated by the International Co-operative Alliance.

All of the pretty, sparkly matters for which we congratulate ourselves in our Annual Report are precisely that. Pretty and sparkly. Being fun and vibrant and local and natural may be wonderful achievements in their own right. But they do not make us democratic or accountable. They do not make us a co-op. They do not make us a truly democratic community enterprise. And they do not afford us membership of the new economic system to which Ralph and Gar refer in such urgent terms, however many times we invite the latter to address our Annual Meeting.

And here’s a chilling commentary. I have checked and double-checked the Annual Report. From cover to cover. Nowhere. Not once. Not anywhere. Do we mention the words ‘democracy’ or ‘accountability.’

In the Annual Report.

Of a co-op.

Our co-op.

Gar talks about them. So does Ralph. But not WSM.

Ok. So. We have an uncontested Worker-Owner election this year, and no Candidates in the Consumer-Owner election talking about the importance to a co-op of Economic Democracy. What then do we do?

At the risk of sounding impertinent. The first thing is, we have to give a damn. I grant you, this is difficult. If you happen to think that we’re a co-op simply because you like the bread, the music, the lady on the cash register, and the only partially correct claims we make in our Annual Report about worker conditions, local impact and so on, then I’m not going to win you over. Go back to your first date.

If, however, you agree with me that protection against corporate imprudence is important, and that it needs to be exercised even at the level of our co-op, then let the stirring begin.

Turn up to meetings. To the Annual Meeting. To meetings of the Board. And start to ask questions about the way strategic decisions in our co-op are made. How it is the four goals for 2020 are being set and monitored. Why it is that not one of these goals refers to Economic Democracy? And why it is that the Board never entrusts important strategic decision-making to a vote of the ownership, e.g. can we afford new stores at the moment?

Stand as a Board Candidate. Who says there is anyone else out there better qualified than you? If you agree with what I’m saying, you’ve read the Annual Report and you actually read the book Gar just signed for you, and you’re now fired up and ready to re-introduce living democracy into our co-op, then, with respect to our sitting Board members, you just became better qualified than most of them.

I love what our co-op has achieved over 25 years. But I am disappointed that, over the same period of time, those who generate the vision at the top have become so fearful of including others in the vision-building, they now essentially exclude the community from democratically controlling that vision.

It is not enough to invite contribution. That is not democratic control. It did not protect against the bad decisions made in 2007 and 2008. It does not allow our co-op to avoid the same corporate mindset that almost destroyed the American economy and our co-op in 2008 and 2009. And it does not ensure sensible consensual decision-making going forward.

All of which said, we could merely bury our heads in the proverbial sand. In which event, I’ll continue to be here, merrily reminding you how I think we could be better. And in the meantime, I’ll be one of those playing music on the Carrboro Lawn. I’ll be helping to make that ‘local’ food. And I’ll be trying to arrange day dates with your sister!

[As always, I am admonished by our new Employee Policy to declare that what I am saying here in no way represents anything other than my own personal views.]

Happy Underpaid, Working Hard Labor Day !!

Oh come on, Geoff. Lighten up. Sigh. Ok. On this glorious day, when annually we celebrate the contribution workers make to keeping our country running, I'd like to share a couple of blog posts, previously written, about just how important co-operatives can be in the coming New Economic Democracy.

Partly to celebrate what is so wonderful about co-op's at their best; partly to hope that Weaver Street Market Co-operative (where I have now worked for eight years) will one day attain such exalted heights; and partly to thank the many friends I have made at WSM, and remind them that, you know, there's a lot that's good and fun about WSM, even if the corporate office management team can be a bunch of ... Geoff! ... ok ...

Happy Labor Day, corporate office management team ... if you're there ... and not at home ... bar-b-que-ing ... as the rest of us swelter, in the oppressive heat ... laboring to produce the profi ... Geoff! ... sigh ...

So, my two blog posts, from yesteryear, but still appropriate today:

1) What is a co-operative? -- http://tinyurl.com/l7ospb.

2) How co-operatives can work, even in tough economic times --http://tinyurl.com/yarsxmv.

Happy Labor Day!!

POP VOX -- August 29 -- Thank You !!

Another fabulous evening. Thank you all. They were coming in from the streets, to find out why we were all having so much fun with#POPVOX ... !!

Tammany Hall In Weaver Street Market Co-operative?

And so, for a third year in a row, the Election for a Worker-Owner Board Director is uncontested. So what? Well. The primary role of our W/O Directors (if, bless their hearts, they were doing their job) is to act as the de facto trade union for all workers in Weaver Street Market Co-operative.

The two W/O Directors, sitting on our seven-member Board of Directors, aren’t acting as the voice of the workers if they are simply the uncontested mouthpieces of the WSM corporate office management team.

And let’s get this straight. The positions have not been uncontested for three years because the 220 workers in WSM think the Board and its W/O Directors are doing a whoop-di-do job. They are uncontested because workers have given up hope that anything they say will make any difference.

That there is anything we can do to stem the wholesale embrace by our corporate office management team of unbridled, naked corporate capitalism, and its attendant focus on targets, profit and productivity, not community, people and social well being.

Well. Since I’m having a full service swipe at all that is wrong this merry morning, let me be even-handed in the critique. To my fellow workers, I say this. Your defeatism is nonsense and circular.

Of course, the corporate office management team will go on winning, so long as we (and by ‘we,’ I mean the 177 workers out of 220 who have signed up to become Worker-Owners, and who have the vote in these elections). So long as ‘we’ believe they have won. So long as we do nothing to stop it. When we don’t take advantage of the opportunity offered each year, by these elections, to stop the rot. If we don’t volunteer to be Worker-Owner Director Candidates.

I stood as a Candidate four years in a row. Surrounded by fellow workers who voiced their support. And who then could not be bothered to vote. In sufficient numbers to overcome the management bloc vote. Not good enough!

With 177 signed up Worker-Owners, we now have it in our grasp to wrest back our co-op from its obsession with conventional capitalism, and mold it into the successful, community-oriented, democratically-controlled enterprise we all want it to be.

But aren’t we a democracy? I mean, we have elections. When I served on the WSM Elections Task Force in 2008, and one of our primary remits was to explore what could be done to get more folks to vote, we were all agreed that voting was not the problem.

The problem was that deliberate neglect by the Board and the corporate office management team, over the years, had conditioned consumers, workers and owners into believing there was no point in getting involved. No point in even voting.

The Task Force made it clear in its findings that what was needed was a sustained effort to make it clear that involvement was welcomed, and that it would make a difference. At which point, the Task Force was ignored.

Of course it was. The corporate office management team don’t want pesky workers and consumers and owners getting involved. That might interfere with their own well-laid plans.

So, they minimize the opportunities for involvement. Until ‘democracy’ becomes feedback. In a wooden box. The contents of which are thrown away. A far cry from the admonition of the International Co-operative Alliance that a co-op is only a co-op if it is democratically controlled by its owners.

Oh. Come on, you say. I exaggerate. Do I? This year’s Annual Meeting. An important part of the supposedly democratic governance process. When owners are supposed to be allowed to grill their Board and the corporate office management team on the extent to which we are still a co-op. Has been reduced to a meet and greet with an author.

The business section is no longer than half-an-hour. Which will consist of ten minutes from the General Manager. Five minutes from the Board Chair. A couple of minutes each from the two Consumer-Owner Director Candidates. Leaving just a few minutes for owners to ask serious questions about whether we are still a co-op.

This has become standard fare, over the years, for our corporate office management team. Which has pulled out all the stops to suppress genuine vocal democracy in what should be the prime example in our locale of a new economic democracy.

Which makes the author in question (Gar Alperovitz) even more of an irony. Since he celebrates in his book (What Then Must We Do?) the dawn of a new era of ‘democratizing wealth,’ an era which will see an end to corporate capitalism. When he will be addressing an entity which talks the talk. But does not walk the walk. Which has placed all its focus on ‘wealth,’ and rather less on ‘democratizing.’ Which has become the very epitome of locally-oppressive corporate capitalism.

But again. Who cares? I care. I didn’t join Weaver Street Market Co-operative for a paycheck alone. To find myself working at a traditional grocery store outlet, where the only difference is the preponderance of tattoo’s and recycling bins. Whole Foods has organic food. Food Lion has ‘local’ food. Even WalMart donates to schools in our vicinity.

No. I joined Weaver Street Market Co-operative because it was a social statement. One that stated that you could succeed financially, but look after folks too, if you actually lived the co-op concept.

One that declares that we do not sell to consumers by using marketing trickery, to con them into buying something they do not want. But rather, we put them in charge of what we sell. So that we are selling to them what it is they truly need.

A concept that proudly demands that when it comes to determining how we sell to consumers, we allow the workers to set the conditions. So that the workers are happy. Because true happiness in the workplace is only achieved if workers are truly happy. And if they are happy, then they are more willing to provide genuine customer service. One that is based on the principal of mutuality: you will be treated the same way you treat us.

That is the bold but very simple concept that is the bedrock of the co-operative revolution. And it is a concept which frightens the living crap out of the corporate office management team in WSM because it means they will lose control, the oldest and most grotesque trait of corporate capitalism.

This is not socialist nonsense. I have never in my life been mistaken for a socialist. It is, as the author who will be addressing our Annual Meeting, in the mistaken belief that he will be sharing with like minds, as that author declares with clamor and glamor in his book, it is the common sense notion of democratic economic communality which will be the safeguard of economic normalcy in the years to come.

And it could be ours, in our co-op, within a matter of just a few years, if we workers would only take the first step. Overcome our misgivings. Use the democratic process which still exists, and vote true worker representatives onto our Board of Directors.

Worker reps who ask us what we think more than once a year, at Election time. Worker reps who actually advocate for us at Board Meetings. Rather than rolling over. Worker reps who hold discussion groups all year round. The findings of which are then presented as firm proposals to the Board, for immediate adoption.

We do not have such worker reps at the moment. I was unable to offer myself as a Candidate this year, since it had not been a full year since I rejoined as a Worker-Owner last year.

I had had to resign my Worker-Ownership in 2011, when my employment was threatened due to my advocacy.

I will be eligible to stand next year. Who will join me? It’s no good whining about what is wrong. If you are not prepared to take the steps to help make them right.

And there is much that is right about WSM. Don’t get me wrong. I am still here because there is so much that is right. So much that makes us a better grocery store than, say, WalMart. I truly love what is right about our co-op.

But we have much to do, much to make better, if we are to meet the grand goals co-operation sets for itself. The goals pretty much all of us had in mind when we joined WSM. Goals which have been proven to work elsewhere. And which would work here, if only we had the courage and honesty to give them a fighting chance.

[Oh. I nearly forgot. The new Employee Policy rules now require that I add this statement: These opinions are my own, and would never in a gazillion years be mistaken, even by Kim Kardashian, as being the formal viewpoint of the WSM corporate office management team. Although I suspect the latter would prefer something more formal ... !!]

POP VOX @ 2nd Wind, Carrboro

‪#‎POPVOX‬ will be appearing for the first time at 2nd Wind in Carrboro, on Thursday, August 29, beginning at 10.00pm. No cover charge!

You got a foretaste of the excitement at ‪#‎Weavestock‬. But for the full effect of POP VOX's hi-energy, interactive Beach Pop, bring all of your friends to ‪#‎2ndWind‬, in just ten days time!

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE -- http://tinyurl.com/md3bhzk.

Now, Facebook have changed everything. Yet again! So, if you want reminding, just 'Join' or 'Maybe.' That's the only way to get updates!

Or, you can 'Like' the POP VOX FB Page -- http://tinyurl.com/c437os9.

If you want a preview of the fun and games, have a gander at the POP VOX Reverbnation Site -- http://www.reverbnation.com/geoffgilson.

See ya there! Get the voices singing and the feet dancing ... !!

The Right To Vote: How Weave Workers Can Win The Vote, And Win Back Their Co-op

There are now 177 workers within the Weaver Street Market Co-operative (out of a total workforce of about 220) who are worker-owners and therefore eligible to vote to elect the 2 worker representatives on the WSM Board of Directors (total number of Directors = 7).

This was the most important announcement (in my humble opinion) at last evening's annual Southern Village Weave store meeting.

Ooh goody. Er. So what?

It means that workers can now lead the effort to win back our beloved co-op from the creeping corporatism which has overtaken said co-op the last few years.

Um. How?

I stood for the Board four years in a row. The math was always against me. The Board insisted that worker-ownership should cost $500 a worker (versus $75 for a consumer-owner), and that the $500 should be paid over the course of just one year.

That meant that only about half the workforce, some 100 workers, could afford to be worker-owners. And, since a worker can only vote if a worker-owner, it meant that only half the workforce could vote for their representatives on the WSM Board of Directors (um, anywhere else, that would be called a poll tax).

I determined while campaigning that about half that number (50) would never vote. All sorts of cultural reasons. Leaving between 50 and 60 willing voters.

Management vote in the same elections as workers. Each year senior management found a stooge (sorry to be blunt), and piled in to vote for that person with their 35-vote management bloc.

Leaving about 25 votes for me. Of which I was never able to muster more than 20. Net result = regular tally each and every one of the four years I stood of: Management - 35/40; Geoff - 17/20.

Now, with 177 workers as worker-owners, and the management bloc the same size, even if you say there are now 77 worker-owners who have cultural reasons for not voting, that leaves a willing base of REAL shopfloor workers of some 65 voters.

Boom! All workers have to do to end up with two representatives who truly represent their interests, and not those of the corporate office management team, is to (a) field candidates who are real shopfloor workers, and (b) vote for 'em.

Now, I could use this note simply to bray and scream in shrill voice how this is in large part due to me.

How, since 2007, when I first stood for the Board, and wrote an 88-page strategy document, I have campaigned assiduously to make it easier for workers to become worker-owners.

How I fought for the same when a member of the WSM Elections Task Force in 2008.

How I stood on a platform in 2009 with one single issue: give all workers in the co-op the vote, regardless of whether or not they are worker-owners.

How that year, in panic, the corporate office management team ran one of their own in opposition to me, chap from the corporate office finance department. With a counter compromise - to make it easier for workers to become worker-owners, by extending the period of payment from one year to five.

How, I pursued the Board mercilessly to implement at least that modest compromise (after, sigh, the management bloc won again).

How, at last, two Board members finally spoke with me, and admitted they had been convinced by my argument that, without such a compromise, they were keeping in place a form of worker apartheid, where WSM had two classes of workers: those who could afford to pay to vote; and those who could not.

And how, some 18 months ago, the Board finally agreed to extend the period of payment to five years. And how that led to the increase in worker-ownership, over that ensuing 18 months, from 99 to 177.

I could, with shrill voice, declaim all of this, and demand attention. But I don't. Because it doesn't matter. It's not important.

All that is important is that the opportunity now exits for real shopfloor workers to be able to elect two real worker representatives to their Board of seven Directors.

And how, if they do that, consumers might then feel encouraged to run their own consumer-owner candidates, ones who truly believe in a real co-op.

And how that might, in less than, say, three years, lead to a majority of four (two worker, two consumer) Directors on the Board of WSM, who could work to reclaim our co-op from the forces of efficiency-crazy, productivity-driven, expansionist, corporatist, chain-store-by-any-other-name non-cooperators who currently claim the majority on our WSM Board of Directors.

It is result that counts. Not credit. The victory is in the consequence, not the argument. I don't care who claims credit for the opportunity that now exists to win back our co-op. I care only that we recognize the opportunity. And that we grasp it.

Weavestock: Postgame and Thank Yous

Well. The first Weavestock was a huge success. Through the course of the evening, I counted roughly 150 people out there on the Lawn at the Carrboro Weave.

The six acts gelled magnificently. Performed wonderfully. And were all well-received by a supportive and responsive audience.

Thank you to Weaver Street Market for creating the space to allow we employees to demonstrate to the world the other talents we possess.

Thank you to all in the WSM Marketing Department for their tireless efforts and creativity, especially Lesley, Linda, Sylwia, Emily and Brenda.

Thank you to Steve Carter and Sean Murphy for co-ordinating the acts, and providing such an excellent sound service.

Thank you to the acts, and thank you to the excellent WSM audience.

Finally, a huge thank you in advance to the folks at WSM who will be making the decision to make this now a regular and ongoing event ... !!

Weavestock -- The Fullest Details ... !!

Six hugely-talented Weaver Street Market musical acts, including yours truly, as POP VOX, will be performing at the very first Weavestock, this coming Thursday, July 25, from 5.00pm to 9.00pm, on The Lawn, at the Carrboro Weaver Street Market.

Have a gander here, for the fullest details.

Weavestock: If you're not there, you won't have anything to say you can't remember ... !!

POP VOX Unplugged

Emily Buehler, from the WSM Marketing Department, very kindly hung around in the 90 degree heat at the second Southern Village Weaver Street Market Wine Down, and shot a video of me singing 'Falling in Love,' one of my more Unplugged love songs.

Of course, what the heck does Unplugged mean when one is still connected to a plug? Well. In my case, it means the mellow version of my POP VOX act. One without the hi-energy Beach Pop, and what some describe as my Richard Simmons-style, audience-interactive stage performance!

And what is that like? Here's a sample. And you can find more at http://www.reverbnation.com/geoffgilson and on the POP VOX Facebook Page.

More to the point, you can hear the whole kit and kaboodle to full effect at Weavestock, the evening of Weaver Street Market musicians taking place on The Lawn, at the Carrboro WSM, this coming Thursday (July 25), from 5.00pm to 9.00pm.

Weavestock: If you're not there, you won't have anything to say you can't remember ... !!

Weavestock 2013 ...