Friday, May 30, 2014

Honoring The Fallen Again?


So Memorial day just passed a few days ago. And when that get rich internet quick does not get rich internet quick and that Google page rank update is still wanting to send me in search of a fifth full time job, and trying to figure out how to use this WordPress blog is even more trippy, I still find myself blaghing for some reason. And so that photo above that I came across in facebookland has text that reads as follows:
 
KNOW YOUR HISTORY: Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.

Thanks to Abstrakt Goldsmith for this nugget of history that most of us never learned in school.”

And that recycle this blog Memorial Day post  that I found myself posting on this blog some time a while ago reads:

And Memorial Day is almost near in a couple of days or so according to that Gregorian calendar and all of those street festivals that are to be found everywhere in the streets today. And I thought to blah blog about this patriotic flag waving holiday. And this also leads me to realize that I have been blahging on this blog for over a year now and that these holidays seem to be a recurring event and same day, different year when that same ole Gregorian calendar date roles around. And then I thought, hey, I can just post the same blog entry from a year ago that I posted on this blog a year ago because it almost seems like it’s the same day, different year. And besides, it;s less writing sometimes. So the following is a passage that I posted on this blog a year ago: 

And today is Memorial Day in America. A celebration of the war day. Another one of those patriotic holidays. The flag wavers are out and yellow ribbons, badges of honor, medals, parades, marches, prayers, patriotic songs, tributes and ceremonies are being broadcast everywhere. The headlines read “Honor the dead soldiers, honor the fallen soldiers and comrades”. Today is the ultimate patriotic fanatic holiday. My question of the day; for what reason is it an honor to volunteer to be fodder for the canon. For what reason is it an honor to die for nothing, to fight for reasons that do not exist, to fight against the flesh for powers that be that one cannot even see. For what reason is it an honor to be so poor that one will volunteer their life in exchange for money after one leaves the service, if one leaves the service. For what reason is it an honor for persons to be brainwashed with propaganda, theirs or mine. For what reason is it an honor to become a violent person and pick up a gun and kill another person for no reason at all. For what reason is it an honor to be a veteran who now make up the majority of the homeless population. For what reason is it an honor to attend one of those military sponsored funerals and cry over the image of a flag that propagates violence, the same flag that caused ones death. For what reason is it an honor to fall and die for nothing. For what reason is it an honor to promote this ideology. What is heroic about all of this? And why does the word “Patriot” have the word “Riot” in it? And why does the word “Military” militant militia have the word “Mal” in it? “Parens Patriarch, Father of our country”, that phrase seems to be the basis of endless deaths of the world. I saw Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary. It is nineteen eighty four and Orwellianism is everywhere at its best today. Is it written somewhere that this must all come to pass? Happy beach bar b queing Memorial day. Peace on earth. And what does this have to do with a No Police State?
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Sunday, May 25, 2014

Occupy Art Is @ Left Forum






 
And on this day finds itself another one of those Sundays that has rolled around according to that Gregorian calendar on the wall. The sabbath, the day rest, or is that Saturday. And yet I find myself blaghing away for some reason. Okay and so it's actually Occupy Art will be at Left Forum in a week or so from now as I find myself blogging this blog post and staring at this Left Form 2013 Mobilizing for the Ecological, nomic Transformation at Pace University, June 7-9 program booklet from last years Left Forum Conference. And on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street Day 982. And Occupy Wall Street is still moving fast, well sort of. And it seems as if I find myself posting on this blog whenever I can get one of those Occupy Art Shows to show up somewhere in that New York City area.  And so this time Occupy Art happens to be at an Occupy Art at a Left Forum Conference Panel May 30th - June 1st, 2014 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice with Carla Cubit - Occupy Art, Paul DeRienzo - Let Them Talk and Chris Flash - The Shadow. And that description of that event that finds itself posted in that flyer above and on that Facebook event invite reads something like as follows:


Hi Facebookers,

I will be presenting an Occupy Art Show panel with Paul DeRienzo of Let Them Talk and Chris Flash of The Shadow at Left Forum Conference at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Sunday June 1st, 3:40pm - 5:40pm for anyone who can make it by. There will be an Occupy Art open mic for all who wish to speak or perform. Occupy Wall Street Worldwide.

Discussions of Occupy Art Shows that have taken place in and around New York City. Occupy Art is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests. Occupy Wall Street artists and documenting artists mingle with other downtown voices and vibes to expand scope, perspective and inspiration towards an ongoing series of future culture jams around this theme and time and continue the discussion in a variety of media: painting, digital art, film, video and performances mediums at Occupy Art events. There will be a slide show presentation of Occupy artwork as well as Lower East Side, NYC Lower East Side Squat History


Looking forward...Get your tix now!

Mark your calendar:
MAY 30-JUNE 1, 2014

Featuring: Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Cornel West, Kshama Sawant, David Harvey, Immortal Technique, Marina Sitrin...


http://leftforum.org/
http://www.leftforum.org/content/occupy-art
http://occupyart.blogspot.com/


And those featured speakers at this event, well they seem pretty big I guess.  And that Left Forum description on its website describes itself as:
  
Left Forum is the culmination of the creative efforts of thousands of participants, panel and workshop organizers, and hundreds of volunteers who engage the gamut of conference organizing activities, from helping generate artistic events and panels, to outreach and involvement of a rainbow of organizations and individuals. The 2013 gathering involved 4,000 participants, more than 1,200 speakers and hundreds of panels, workshops, and events.  Left Forum conferences have included talks by Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Cornel West, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, Amy Goodman, Slavoj Zizek, Grace Lee Boggs, RoseAnn DeMoro, Cornel West, Chris Hedges, Marina Sitrin, M1, Nnimmo Bassey, Oliver Stone, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.  

Looking forward to seeing you there. Occupy Art. Occupy Wall Street Worldwide.
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

HOWL!

And so I just happen to have one of those 1st Annual FEVA, Federation of East Village Artists, HOWL! Festival of East Village Arts The HOWL! Souvenir Books lying around that I must have gotten from Tompkins Square Park years ago, that park that finds itself somewhat infamous for that 1988 Tompkins Square Park Riot that had squatters, the homeless and everyone in between running to and/or from the police that had something to do with a curfew in that park that finds itself in the Lower East Side now called the East Village for real estate marketing purposes maybe, in that city of New York.  And so this souvenir book is really cool with its East Village culture of life and history in that neighborhood during those times. And along with that Long Live The Lower East Side poem that finds itself in this book, here is another one of the many poems and photos that finds themselves in this book also that I thought interesting to post on this blog. Free the land. Squat the world.

1966/2003

the Lower East Side/ the East Village
ethnic neighborhood/style magnet
Ukrainians, Poles, Puerto Ricans and Blacks/ -, -, - and - 
flocks of babushkas/clouds of green ringlets
strung our junkies/tranced out tourists

burned out buildings/luxury ghetto
shoebox apt $217 a month/shoebox apt. $2175 a month
there goes the neighborhood/ there goes the planet
obvious potheads/invisible alcoholics
serious yippies/secret yuppies 
the Peace Eye Bookstore/Barnes and Noble
pierogis/ raw food
xerox magazines/online entities

"US out of Vietnam!"/"US out of Iraq!"
age of innocence/age of experience
embrace the beautiful stranger/embrace the ghostly clone
acid dreams/health club mornings
who was I then?/what am I now?
(the view from the tarry roof goes on and on)

dancers in the streets/students in the dorms
danger and mystery/crowding and noise
Filmore East and the Dom/great choice of multiplexes
Leshko's/Leshko's
angel-headed hipsters/angel headed hipsters
free love/free anytime minutes
many little mom and pop stores/one big NYU

BUT STILL: 
the Lower East Side/ the East Village
one and the same poets and painters and musicians/musicians and painters
and poets
free to be me/free to be you

 FREE TO BE ME BEING YOU

-Michael Brownstein's latest book is World on fire. Open City Books 
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