 Hello, I'm Leslie McVane. Welcome to the Community Television Network's membership highlights featuring main veterans for peace. My guests today are Crystal Zevon and Denise Valdez and Wilma, the dog. Hi, welcome. Now you are searching for Occupy. I believe that's your little tagline. Tell me how this gets started. Well, we were both occupiers at Freedom Plaza in Washington DC and that occupation started on October 6th. And we met there. Denise is from Texas and I'm from Massachusetts. And we were there during the entire time of the encampment, basically. When the encampment broke up, Denise stayed in DC working out of a peace house. I went home. And as I was sitting at home, I felt like gradually I started going back to what I was doing before, signing petitions online. And it didn't feel like enough. I was getting depressed. And then Denise went home. And you were getting depressed. Yeah, just wasn't ready for it to be over just because the encampments weren't there. Didn't mean that the movement was over. And we knew that. I mean, I think that's it. We were both very active and knew what was going on around the country. And yet the mainstream media, there was a total denial that Occupy's dead. Yeah, as long as they weren't visually there, they weren't there. So your background is as a writer. In fact, you wrote a book about your former husband. I'll sleep when I'm dead. The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, which was actually quite a big hit in 2007 when it came out. It was successful. And I'm proud of it. But there's nothing political about it at all. Right. And you are an artist who does sculptural pieces that are not necessarily political pieces. But you both have had a deep commitment to activism. And that's what drew you together in the encampment. Why did you decide to follow the movement? I mean, you're on a nationwide tour of the country looking for what has happened to this movement. Well, I kind of had this idea. Actually, before the Occupy movement started, I was really obsessed and thought about doing a book about people falling into hard times because of what was happening in our economy for all the things that Occupy Wall Street was addressing before it happened. So I had this plan to drive around the country. And I had started doing interviews and so on. And then when I saw this was happening, I scrapped that. I said, this is it. This is what I'm looking for. So for me, it came as kind of like a natural, oh, well, we're going to go. I had an experience where I filmed something on the 4th of July in Peonia, Colorado. One of the Koch brothers had a tank in the parade. And I just, on my iPhone, this hairdresser who was cutting my hair on July 3rd said, on July 4th, I'll go out and stand in front of the tank, and you film it. And we thought, with a sign saying, are you planning to take the planet or buy it? And the next night, it was on the lead story in Rachel Maddow. I just threw it up on YouTube. And then it was. And I said, that's it. That is citizen journalism. I was there. I filmed a moment. It's not about having a great work of art. It's about this is what's happening now. And there it was to thousands of people, just like that. And that's kind of where I had the idea. And I called Denise. And Denise, when she made that phone call to you, what were your thoughts? I had actually been thinking the same thing. And it was just everything fell into place. It was just perfect timing. And I had actually had. I was staying at a activist house in DC. And I had planned on interviewing people that came in and out of the house. And just never got the time to actually sit anybody down and do it. If people want to get in touch with you, I know you're blogging on Michael Moore's web page. You have your own web page, which is www.searchingforoccupy.com. And people can like you on Facebook. And you also have a little map on Facebook, I believe, where people can follow your path. That's on our web page. That's on the web page. So people can follow you and offer you housing, food, and interviews, all around the country. So thank you for doing this. Thank you for being here. Is there one quick last thing you want to say to the audience about what you're doing? I think that we just want to tell the truth. I think the activists that were there are still out there doing things. And sometimes it's not under the name of Occupy. But we believe if we don't, if everybody doesn't step up to the plate, who can, we're going to be in deep doo-doo. Exactly. And I think that's one of the most important things that Occupy brought to the public, was that, yes, we need to pay attention. I just want to say thanks to Occupy, Portland, Maine. They've been great organizing everything. Of course. The first one of the first stops on this trip, I hope they all go this way. Well, thank you both for being here. And thank you for doing what you're doing. Thank you. Thank you for having us.