Raising the bar

Retiree Joe Natoli is ticked off about the lack of accountability of local charities. Environmental activist Leslie Purcell is concerned about the development of the Ballona west bluff, where, she says, Indian burial grounds have been found. Psychic counselor Larry Skuce is upset about proposed changes to the state housing voucher system.

On a recent Monday night, Natoli, Purcell, Skuce and several others got an audience for their grievances. They all participated in the free weekly Blues, Booze & Views event at the Gaslite, a low-key, old-time bar in Santa Monica.

Claire Ragge, the bar’s owner, started the Monday night forums in September.

“I wanted to do some community event, something good rather than just pumping alcohol down people,” says Ragge. “A lot of the customers who came in, I would hear them talking. People seemed to be dissatisfied with what was going on in the world. I thought it would be good to give people a more formalized outlet, put everyone’s heads together.”

Ragge intended the events to be open forums, but at the very first one, Pro Se, then a candidate for Santa Monica City Council, did most of the talking.

“I thought this worked out pretty well,” Ragge says. “So we had eight of nine City Council candidates come in after that.”

Since then, Ragge, with the help of Santa Monica peacenik Jerry Rubin, has booked dozens of speakers, including tree sitter John Quigley and Melissa Effron, a representative from Planned Parenthood. A majority of the speakers are involved with Santa Monica groups.

Recently, Keisha Weller from the Santa Monica Disabilities Commission talked about some of the special issues that she and other disabled people face.

She also gave those in attendance a few sensitivity lessons, recalling an exchange she witnessed where a bus driver shouted, “Wheelchair getting off!” He should have said, “Person in a wheelchair getting off,” Weller suggested. She also advised everyone to ask people with disabilities whether they want help crossing the street or opening a door rather than assuming they want help.

One Monday night a month there is an open forum -- the next one is Aug. 18 -- where anyone in the audience can speak for a couple minutes.

Like every Blues, Booze & Views night, this one started off with blues at 7 p.m. The usual lead man, J.J. “Bad Boy” Jones, whom Ragge jokes “has been around since boiled water,” was sidelined for the evening. So Rodney “B.R.” Millon, who plays guitar with Jones, stepped into his shoes, starting with Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe,” moving through some more traditional blues numbers, and ending with “Mustang Sally.”

The two dozen or so patrons scattered around the compact bar gobbled up free cheese and pepperoni pizza, another trademark of the event. (It goes quickly.) When that was gone, the baskets were filled with free popcorn.

Then it was time for speaker number one, the aforementioned retiree Natoli, whose informal presentation began with a diatribe about the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and went on from there.

Second up was Cyrus Mobasser, an economic research scientist, who began by posing a question: “Why is it that the GNP goes up, yet the number of homeless is increasing?”

After each speaker, Ragge opens up the floor to questions and comments. Inevitably there is a little of both. But overwhelmingly, this is a left-leaning crowd. So there’s a lot of agreement. Ragge said she doesn’t get many “Rush Limbaugh types,” referring to the conservative radio talk show host, though she’d like some, if only because it would fire things up a bit.

Rubin was the last speaker of the evening. In keeping with the political bent of the crowd, he talked about nuclear disarmament, the history of the peace symbol, “a new round of nuclear weapons George Bush is proposing.”

“I really feel there are a lot of bad things on the horizon,” he said.

Then he called Ragge up to present her with a gift, a poster he made designating the Gaslite “a nuclear free zone,” which garnered as much applause as the 20 or so pizza-stuffed bar crowd could muster on a Monday night.

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Blues, Booze & Views

Where: The Gaslite, 2030 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica

When: Monday nights at 7 p.m., with “The Views” portion at 7:30

Cost: No cover charge

Info: (310) 829-2382