Crystal's first published work, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, an oral history of the life of her former husband and lifelong friend and co-conspirator, has been widely acclaimed by critics across the country. Perhaps most notable is Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times, her CBS appearance touting the book as one of the best summer of 2007 reads and inclusion in Maslin's list of Top 10 books of 2007.
Crystal started writing her first novel when she was 9 years old inspired by her grandmother's tales of how her family traveled in a covered wagon. She has written all her life and has file cabinets full of unpublished manuscripts. She set aside her aspirations to become an author when she met Warren Zevon in 1970. When her marriage failed in 1979, she devoted herself to mothering their daughter, Ariel, and to political activism around issues of human rights, environmental concerns and media bias. Later, she counseled disenfranchised youth through the criminal justice and school systems.
In the late 1980's, she began writing screenplays and has one film credit, "My Little Assassin", based on the story of a mistress of Castro who was recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.
Crystal lives in Barre, Vermont near her only daughter, Ariel, and her twin grandsons, Max and Gus. She shares her daughter's passion to promote local foods and local economy and works at Ariel's new businesss - Local Agricultural Community Exchange (LACE) and her Farm Fresh Market and Cafe. Simultaneously, Crystal is working on a screenplay based on her book and she has two new book proposals in the works.
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: The Voice of the Red Nations
I have determined that the heart beat, the connecting voice, to my film will be the voices of the courageous, humble and determined people of the Red Nations. For generations the traditional people of the Indigenous nations have been fighting "Structural Violence" at the hands of the U.S. government and ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: We All Live Downstream
I am sitting in a cafe in Rapid City, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation, early for my interview with Charmaine White Face. I watched the riveting, heartbreaking and informative film "Red Cry" for the second time last night to prepare for this interview. I also studied the very ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Tar Sands Pipeline and Red Nations
I haven't had much time to keep up with blogging... I spent almost a week in Oklahoma, camping near Ponca City with the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Camp - no electricity in my tent (although one tent did have a windmill and solar panels - I kid you not!). ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: A Waitress in West Memphis
I've always been a generous tipper. I worked as a waitress a few times, long, long ago, and my daughter worked as a waitress for a living more than once. I am aghast when I see a table of 10 walk out leaving a 10% tip (sometimes less, sometimes nothing)...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: A Heron in Galveston Bay
This morning I woke up in the lovely home of my hosts whose windows look out on Galveston Bay. On one side was one of those awesome sunrises that makes you know life is worth living. The planet worth saving. On the other side of the bay are oil refineries ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Navajo Nation Speaking Out
It seems about a century ago that I was in St. Louis where Don Yellowman and Fern Benally of Black Mesa, Arizona tried to deliver a letter on behalf of elders of Black Mesa/Big Mountain to Peabody CEO, Greg H. Boyce. The letter spoke to the devastation caused by Peabody's ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Interview with a Sheik
Murfreesboro, Tennessee getting the low-down on the local occupiers activities in 2013 (which are varied and many ranging from Cop Watch to childcare collectives to coop library), we decided it was worth our time to visit the Murfreesboro Islamic Center which opened its doors a little over a year ago. ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Mountaintop Removal in Kentucky
A few days ago, I joined the 'Footprints for Peace' Kentucky Walk for a Sustainable Future through mountaintop removal country. The horrific education I've received since my arrival is only made bearable by the committed company I'm keeping. On Feb. 1st, we arrived at the monastery in the mountains where ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Peabody Energy: Bad for the Planet
On January 25th, I was in St. Louis, Missouri where I met up with some friends in Veterans for Peace. It was a long drive from D.C., so I admit to being a bit road weary, but the action I was there to capture for Searching for Occupy was so ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: The Best Laid Plans
Why is it that the best-laid plans never work out… or, at least, they don’t work out like you planned them? More to the point, why haven’t I learned this lesson by now? I always find myself surprised that the things I thought were a ‘done deal’ tend to crumble ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: Occupy Maine
About to leave Portland, Maine for Augusta. It has been non-stop since we started on this quest to Search for Occupy. Before leaving, I heard from the checker at the health food store and the guy at the dog groomer’s (where Wilma, my Japanese Chin, got her beauty treatment for ...
SEARCHING FOR OCCUPY: First Day From the Road
Already many adventures and stories to tell. On the way in, I stopped at the home of one of the Veterans for Peace I met at Freedom Plaza and did a great interview. We then met Joan Livingston of Occupy Boston who had plenty to say. Next, I picked up ...
Just back from washing and vacuuming the car. Trying to figure out how we cram clothes, camping gear, photo equipment, food, two people and the dog in my little Prius for a 6 month to 1 year road trip… Searching for Occupy. I commented to my partner in this venture, ...
As the country, and indeed, the world, mourns the tragic and unnecessary loss of so many young lives to the Newtown School Massacre, many peace activists and advocates for non-violence around the world are mourning another loss… the loss of a tireless advocate for peace and reconciliation, a blogger on ...
Last year, after years of signing Internet petitions and not seeing anything change, I embraced the Occupy movement. I lived in a tent in the middle of Washington D.C. for 4 months. Through snowstorms and harassment of every sort, we formed a community and discovered what true democracy felt like ...
Before the whole “Occupy” thing happened, I had decided to write a book of interviews with people across the country who were suffering either as a result of the economic times we’re living in, or because they were simply born into poverty and the deck was so stacked against them ...
A couple weeks ago, I left Washington, D.C. where I’ve been an occupier since October. Coming home has been an experience stranger in some ways than living in a tent on a marble plaza in the middle of the nation’s capital. People I’ve known for years, good friends, are at ...
I’ve been occupying at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. since the beginning of October. A couple months ago, as storms blew down tents, the homeless population living in our community grew and rats found safe harbor under the pallets raising some tents in an effort to stay warmer and a ...
While many occupations - from New York and Boston to Oakland and Los Angeles - have been shut down, the two Washington D.C. occupations seem to just keep going. We’ve been occupying Freedom Plaza for 78 days now. In one sense, we’ve relaxed. We no longer have our bags packed ...
Since October 6th, I have been living in a tent on Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. (with a couple absences for the death of my father, and Thanksgiving with my daughter and grandsons). There are two occupations in Washington D.C. and we're both still here. And yet, our presence seems ...
Jackson Browne coming to Freedom Plaza
Yesterday, my first day back at Freedom Plaza with my daughter and grandsons in tow, I got a call from one of my oldest and dearest friends, Jackson Browne. I stepped away from the braided chains of plastic bags where occupiers and passers by were helping to complete my daughter's ...
I just got on the train at Union Station in D.C. headed for the airport. I packed up my tent on Freedom Plaza so that a visitor coming from Florida can use it while I'm gone. In fact, when I return I'll be moving out of my $39 summer tent ...
Some protests work out better than others. At OccupyWashingtonDC, we could be protesting 24/7, and while we try to plan our actions carefully, sometimes they just don't work out so well. That was the case today when we headed for the National Press Club, just half a block away from ...
Yesterday was a big day here in Washington D.C. We started out at noon with some Egyptian friends who had come to do a Teach-in the day before on the plight of Egyptians who famously won their peaceful revolution in Tahrir Square and deposed Mubarak. They spoke of their naive ...
My habit since I've been occupying Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. is to slip out of my cozy sleeping bag at around 6 a.m. and head for the corner bakery where I use their sink to brush my teeth and wash my face (habits I hope I can continue to ...
'Dirty Wars' by Jeremy Scahill
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
