Okay, it's a great book with tremendous photos and great essays. Yada. yada. yada. Why should I by an ebook about a convention that happened almost a year ago? I've heard it all. It was a watershed event...this generations Woodstock...changing the face of progressive politics. Okay, I get it. Now answer my question. Why should I buy this book? Follow me below and I'll tell you.
UnConventional is what YearlyKos was all about. These portraits aren't of the pretty people who travel with an entourage and do guest spots on Letterman and Countdown to get their message across. They are average people with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep and pimples on their forehead and a wardrobe that is a throw back to some decade but we're still trying to nail down which one exactly. These are real people who didn't go to YearlyKos to "be seen", they went because there was work to do and they were willing to do it. My favorite photo in the book is the title page for Thursday and I have to give you some background so you'll understand why it's my favorite picture.
I expected a pretty small turnout at the registration desk Thursday morning figuring we'd have the bulk of the attendees show up on Friday. I have never been so wrong in my life. We were slammed. We didn't have the supplies we needed and we couldn't find the supplies we did have and worse, the banner wasn't hung. There was nothing there to welcome everyone to the convention. So the registration desk volunteers, being the true progressives that they are, found a way. They attached the banner to the gate with lanyards and paperclips. Was it pretty, not particularly but it worked. And that's the photo on the title page for Thursday. To me, it sums up perfectly the spirit of YearlyKos and the Progressive movement becuase it represents true problem solving. They saw a problem and instead of complaining about it or finding a scapegoat, they worked together and found a solution. That's why you should buy the book. The more ebooks we sell the better chance we have of getting a publisher to spend the money to create a hard copy and the easier it will be to find a sponsor to help pay for it.
When I look at the photos in UnConventional, I see those people I'd never met before but have come to respect and admire. People like Alex and Lynn who moderated the caucuses and roundtables. And Sharon who ran the registration desk long after we'd thought it would be closed. And Andy who figured out how to work the credit card machine and spent all weekend taking onsite registrations and selling merchandise at the YK Booth in the Exhibit Hall. They are all in there. People who have become my friends and looking at the candid shots from the panels and the keynotes reminds me of the energy and momentum that was generated in the most unlikely of places, Las Vegas, NV. We broke every expectation of who we are and what we could accomplish and the tremendously talented photographers, writers, and editors of UnConventional found a way to capture that within the pages of this book. Do you want to know why you should buy this book? Because this book is us. All of us who set their own rules. You should buy this book because it is a slap in the face to all those who dismissed us with the age old excuse, "you can't change the system". We changed it by not accepting the status quo. By not giving in to the "that's the way it's always been" mentality. By being UnConventional. So buy the book and own your own piece of the history.