Wednesday, February 29, 2012
An Occupy Wall Street Art Event
Hey again bloggers or whoever could be reading this blog. And in case you have been stuck in the stone age or hiding out underneath one of those rocks, you may have heard by now that on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street Day 166. And as far as I blagher know, Occupy Wall Street and that global revolution of a movement Occupy Together are still moving fast. And so somehow I came across this LOW LIVES: OCCUPY! Facebook event throughout my internet travels on this day. And this Occupy With Art event seems to be one of many, seemingly a bazillion and beyond occupy events that are happening each day in that occupy wall street worldwide movement. And that Facebook event invite reads something like:
LOW LIVES: OCCUPY!
Event Date: Saturday, March 3, 2012
Event Time: 6:00 - 10:00 pm (EST)
Stop by any time between 6:00 - 10:00 PM
Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics , New York University - 20 Cooper Square, Fifth Floor (and online)
Low Lives has partnered with Occupy with Art and The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics to present “Low Lives: Occupy! a unique one-night-only program of live performance art, happenings, and public actions, simulcast to presenting host venues around the world. Low Lives: Occupy! partner Mark Read of the 99% Bat Signal / The Illuminator, will contribute a special projection and performance in conjunction with Low Lives: Occupy! in New York City.....
and there is also a
Call to Create! Public Art in City Streets, May 1 that OWS May Day Arts plans to have. And that Facebook event invite reads something like:
Call to Create! Public Art in City Streets, May 1
Tuesday, May 1, 2012. 9am until 11pm.
WHAT
Participate in massive, simultaneous public displays of art all over New York City and around the world on May 1, 2012.
On May 1st, Occupy Wall Street and our partners in the May 1st coalition and labor unions will bring tens of thousands of people into the streets to participate in a celebration of a better world. Performances and displays of public art will create a living, moving exhibition that will converge in three places at three different times during the day.
WHY
Create the world you want to see. On May 1st, we want to put the beautiful potential of that world on display, to encourage and excite others to work towards a new future.
HOW
Submit your idea, and we will help you make it happen. Or, if you don't need our help, please, go ahead, just do it.
http://www.calltocreate.tumblr.com/submit
We want to make this process as reciprocal as possible. If you have an art project ready to go, whether it is two-dimensional art, a performance or musical piece waiting for a public venue or audience, we would love to help you début it in the streets on May 1st. If you need supplies, space, special skills, printing, or volunteers for your project, we will work to help you find those resources. Please be specific when asking for help and resources. What do you need? How much? When?
WHO
You. We need you.
Right now: Spread the word, in every way you can. Help us open minds to new possibilities. Forward this call to create.
For May 1st: Dream something big and bring it to the world. We will help.
On May 1st: Show up. Celebrate with us.
Occupy Art Worldwide.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The Last Laugh
Guest post of the week by Deangelo Spencer
I love my parents but man do they crack me up! Ever since they got www.satellitestarinternet.com they have become the biggest hypochondriacs. Every little ache, pain or malady gets looked up online and the diagnosis they come up with is never good. I know I shouldn’t laugh too much. I’m glad they are using the internet at their age and paying attention to their health but I don’t think the mosquitoes where they live carry malaria. Try telling them that, though! For the most part, I’ve been able to convince them that most of what they are experiencing is just old age. Fortunately they also have good insurance that covers most of their trips to the doctor as well as a patient physician who is willing to listen and provide the correct diagnosis without making them feel foolish. And who knows, by paying attention they just might catch something in the early stages that is easily treatable so they may just get the last laugh after all!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Squat The World
And on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street Day 160. And Occupy Wall Street and those global revolutions of a movement Occupy Together are still moving fast. And so here's one of those emails that found itself in my email inbox the other day that I thought to repost on this blagh in an attempt to maintain content for this blog and my other blog whenever web 2.0 social media user generated content blaghers block possible.
Squatting Europe Kollective (SQEK) comes to CUNY Monday, Feb. 27
A collective of activist researchers from the European squatting movement are gathering in New York City. They will be at CUNY to meet with students and faculty and speak about the decades-old movements of squatting and building occupations in their respective countries. Generations of activists have participated in occupations of vacant buildings in Europe, beginning in the 1970s. With the worldwide rise of the Occupy movement, the deep reservoir of experience within the movements of political squatting have become suddenly significant. In two events at CUNY, these scholars and activists will share their methods for collective, participatory, interdisciplinary research and their knowledge of the history and present practices of squatting in Europe.
New York City, February 23-27, 2012
Squatting Europe Collective, New York City, February 23-27, 2012
1. Press release
2. Reception, Thursday 2/23 at ABC No Rio, 7-10pm
3. AAG sessions, Friday 2/24 at Hilton Hotel, 2nd floor Nassau Room
4. Saturday, February 25th, afternoon/evening – Public presentation: “Squatting in Europe: Prospects and Perspectives” at Living Theatre, 5-7pm; ends sharp; drinks afterwards at The Suffolk, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
5. Sunday, February 26th – brunch meeting at 16 Beaver Group 12-4pm // meet with O4O group at 7pm
6. Monday, February 27th – Public meeting with students and activists CUNY-GC 2-5 PM // Presentation at CUNY-GC 6:30-8:30pm
7. SQEK and House Magic library at Interference Archive, Brooklyn8. AAG session description (theoretical questions around militant research)Squatting Europe Kollective Convenes in New York City for the first time ever, a group of activist researchers from the European squatting movement are gathering in New York City. They will make public appearances to speak about the decades-old movement of squatting and building occupations in their respective countries.The tradition of political squatting is moving from the shadows into the light. With the world-wide rise of the Occupy movement, the deep reservoir of experience within the movements of political squatting have become suddenly significant.Generations of activists have participated in occupations of vacant buildings in Europe, beginning in the 1970s. The best known early success was the famous “free city” of Christiania in Copenhagen. But every major city in Europe has experienced some version of politicized squatting, most recently in the form of social centers.The members of SQEK – Squatting Europe Collective – have gathered for special sessions at the Association of American Geographers’ annual convention February 24. A public discussion, meetings, film and graphic arts exhibition are among the other activities planned for the meeting, Scheduled activities for SQEK 2012 New York City:2. Reception, Thursday 2/23 at ABC No Rio, 7-10pmThursday, February 23rd 7-10 pm – Reception for visiting researchers and activists
poster show of “House Magic” zine about squats and social centers
ABC No Rio cultural center
156 Rivington Street
Loisaida, NYC // abcnorio.org3. AAG sessions, Friday 2/24 at Hilton Hotel Squatting and Social Centers: Resistance and Production of Critical Spaces I
(5 sessions, 8am-6:20pm) in Nassau A, Second Floor, Hilton NY
Note: Single session costs a lot of money, but you can probably sneak into this room which we have all day. Look like you belong there; it will be a radical egghead party…
8:00 AM – 9:40 AM – Participants: Miguel A. Martinez (University Complutense of Madrid/CSOA Casablanca) and Lucy Finchett-Maddock (University of Exeter), Pierpaolo Mudu (University of Rome/Forte Prenestino), Hans Pruijt (Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam), Loredana Guerrieri (Osservatorio Di Genere, Istituto Storico Della Resistenza, Macerata, Italy), Matthias Bernt (Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Leipzig)10:00 AM – 11:40 AM – Participants: Linus Owens (Middlebury College, Vermont), Nathan Eisenstadt (Bristol University), Giovanni Piazza with Valentina Genovese (University of Catania), Alessia Marini (University of Rome, La Sapienza), Matthias Bernt2:40 PM – 2:20 PM – Participants:Elisabeth Lorenzi (UNED Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), Amy Starecheski (CUNY City University of New York, Graduate Center, New York), Thomas Aguilera (Sciences Po, Paris), Andrea Aureli (St. John’s University, Rome), Matthias Bernt2:40 PM – 4:20 PM Panel session; Participants: Justus Uitermark (Erasmus University, Rotterdam); Maria Rodó de Zárate (UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); Giovanni Piazza; Miguel A. Martinez; Thomas Aguilera; Amy Starecheski; Hans Pruijt; Andrea Aureli; Eliot Tretter (University of Texas, Austin)4:40 PM – 6:20 – Mark Purcell (University of Washington, Seattle); Eli Meyerhoff (University of Minnesota); Pierpaolo Mudu; Lucy Finchett-Maddock; Nathan Eisenstadt; Alessia Marini; Loredana Guerrieri; Elisabeth Lorenzi; Salvatore Engel-DiMauro (SUNY State University of New York, New Paltz)4. Saturday, February 25th – SQEK internal meeting 9am-12pm LOCATION TBD5. Saturday, February 25th, afternoon/evening – Public presentation: “Squatting in Europe: Prospects and Perspectives” (Living Theatre, 21 Clinton St half a block below Houston Street, 5-7pm; ends on the dot of 7pm); drinks afterwards at The Suffolk, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, southwest corner Suffolk and Rivington
Public presentation by members of the Squatting Europe Collective (SQEK)
“Squatting in Europe: Prospects and Perspectives”
A roundtable with the members of SQEK
Confirmed participants in a roundtable public presentation are: Miguel Martinez, Elisabeth Lorenzi (Madrid, Spain), Hans Pruijt (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Gianni Piazza (Sicily), Eliseo Fucolti (Rome, Italy), Thomas Aguilera (Paris, France), Lucy Finchett-Maddock (United Kingdom), Lynn Owens, Tina Steiger (Copenhagen/USA), Alan W. Moore (Madrid/USA)6. Sunday, February 26th – Public meetings with activists
noon-4pm – brunch and afternoon session at 16 Beaver Group, 16 Beaver St., Wall St. area (tentatively confirmed)
7pm – Catholic Worker auditorium (55 East Third St.) – a round table, “talking turkey” with activists of O4O (Organizing for Occupation)7. Monday, February 27th –2-5 PM, in Room 5409, SQEK members will have an open meeting to discuss their research projects and approaches with interested students and the public.6:30-8:30 PM, in Room C201, SQEK researchers will discuss European squatting movements.8. SQEK “Living Library” at Interference Archive, Brooklyn, continuing throughout the weekend
131 8th St. #4. Brooklyn, NY 11215 (Gowanus) 2 blocks from the F/G/R trains (4th ave. and 9th st.)3. AAG session Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 2012 // Friday, 24 February, 2012
Squat the world. Housing is a human right. Have a great squatter day and more.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Books
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Thursday, February 16, 2012
Normality Again
And even though on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street Day 153, and Occupy Wall Street and those global revolutions Occupy Together are still moving fast, I still find myself recycling this blog again with another one of those recycle this blog posts in an attempt to maintain content for this blog and my other blog whenever web 2.0 social media user generated content blaghers block possible.
And again on this blogging day, I find myself reposting yet another one of those blog posts from sometime a whole ago for when blogger life seems as if it wants to blaghers block pass me by.
Who is to decide what normal is. I ran across this poster written by Janet Foner from Support Coalition International, now called MindFreedom, a human rights and alternatives to psychiatry and the mental death system organization the other day. And I find the poster really interesting, almost sort of funny and hilarious, so I thought to repost it because hey, it's less writing sometimes. And what does this have to do with a No Police State?
Ten Warning Signs of "Normality"
Mad scientists are working around the clock to discover the cure for "normality," a serious and persistent "chronic mental illness"" afflicting much of the general population. Support Coalition International, an alliance led by psychiatric survivors and open to the public, has become very concerned recently as a "norm-demic" has hit the streets, forcing many people formerly safe from this afflicton to recognize that they, too, have caught the dreaded disease.
Fortunately, our scientists have been able to uncover the ten warning signs of "normality."
Take this free self-test:
1. COOL: You're cool, you hold everything in and always put "a good face on it" - you never cry or laugh much, or show emotion in any way, certainly not in public. Your psych cia trick label is "tearlessnivity."
2. SERIOUS: You always do the proper thing - never anything unusual, playful, spontaneous, "different", wild, or creative, if you can help it. You believe playing and being silly are beneath your dignity and only for children. You have a psych trick label of "stiff upper lippity."
3. NICE: You always act nice even if you can't stand the person to whom you're talking. You never say what you're really thinking. Your diagnosis: "inappropriate smiling."
4. RIGHT: You always do everything right _wear the "right clothes", say the "right thing", associate only with the "right people" - you know there is only one right way, and it's you way. You are diagnosed as "conformity prone."
5. BORING: Your conversations, life and living space are dull and boring, and your lawn is always manicured no matter what. In the more advanced stages you have much inner "lifelessness" and "flat affect" - in other words, you are one ot the "walking dead." Your psych cia trick label is "hyper-inactivity."
6. OBEDIENT: You always try not to offend anyone, especially those in authority - your security seems to depend on that. So therefore you are willing to put expediency ahead of principles. Your psychiatric label is "adjustment prone/adjustment reaction."
7. GULLIBLE: You believe that the doctor always knows best, that the media is telling the truth (major newspapers always print the facts, right?), and that the medical model of ?mental illness" has been proven scientifically. Your diagnoses is "normal naivete' disorder."
8. AVOID FEELINGS: You are out of touch with yourself, with the natural world, and with what is going on with other people. It has become too hard to face how others are being oppressed, so you choose a more comfortable path. TV starts to look very, very good. You are labeled with severe blinder-itis."
9. DON"T TRUST YOURSELF: You learned in school that it's important to always pay attention to those in charge and not to trust your own thinking. You learned to "play the game," and you are still doing that. You believe your own lies. You have an advanced case of "schoolmania," which, if not stopped in its early stages can lead to severe overwork and, in advanced stages, "corporate asskissingitis."
10. INDOORISM: You lost touch with wildness in nature, and within your own strong feelings. You do not rebel against ecological destruction. Label: "Tame."
DON'T PANIC: If you have two or more of these signs, within any lunar cycle, it is not too late. Read Dendron News, support one another, get out into nature and especially rake action to stop psychiatric oppression before serious persistent "Normality" sets in.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Print This Coupon
The Worst Part of Censorship is
And somehow I came across that photo that finds itself posted in this blagh post throughout my internet travels on this blogging day that reads something like "The Worst Part of Censorship is". And so I thought to repost that photo on this blagh as I found it censorship interesting. And so what does that internet bible dictionary Wikipedia have to say about this word, as I would imagine it would have something to do with freedom of speech (I think...), blacklist, whitewash, silence, a wall of silence, cover up, keep whatever it is in the dark, ignore, iron curtain (what's an iron curtain?), 1984 (Oh, George Orwell), groupthinc, non groupthink, totalitarian state (What's that one all about?), don't talk about this, don't talk about that and and any other thought that someone else is saying to me at the moment and that also comes to mind. Well, have a great censorship and more day. And what, if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Showcase This Jewelry
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Congregation Segregation Again
Hey again bloggers, or whoever could be reading this blog. And even though on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street Day 146. And those global revolutions of a movement of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together are still moving fast, this blagh post seems to be about church, you know that holy place where one finds God, I think. And somehow I came across a conversation about finding a church to get baptized so one can be saved and not die and go to hell or something like that. And in that quest to find one of those baptize me and save me so I don't die and go to hell churches it was discovered that one must be a member of a church to get baptized. Hugh? What's up with that. A church bureaucratic loop? Church red tape? The one place that I would think would be inclusive and welcome all is exclusive with hoops to jump through. And so in that quest to find a church that would baptize non members it was discovered that there are no churches that baptize non members. And even if one is a member of that church, one must go to church classes before one gets baptized. Hugh? More church red tape? Does that internet bible Wikipedia have an answer for this? Has this be a member of a church to get baptized thing always been like this? Does one have to wander the earth the rest of ones days non baptized potentially burning in hell for the sake of not being a member of someones church. And so those find a church somewhere on planet earth that will baptize non members thoughts has me wanting to repost that Congregation Segregation blog post that was posted on this blog and my other blog some time a while ago in an attempt to maintain content for this blog whenever web 2.0 social media user generated content possible.
Easter must be coming up soon because the stores are filled with chocolate bunnies everywhere. And This Holy Week thing is making me wonder, are churches the most segregated places on planet earth? I just realized that every time I want to go to church I have to find a church mass, communion and religious worship service for my "Demonination" my nationality. For what reason can't all churches welcome everyone regardless of your race, color or creed. The one place where one goes to find God and be free is not free, it's segregated by nationality and denominations. It's either all Christian, all Protestant, all Jewish, all Episcopalian, all Catholic, all Muslim, all Buddhist or all something else.
This Tower of Babel confusion of the languages, cultures and nations thing has got me confused.
And what if I want to go to church with someone who is not my nationality? We'd have to look around really hard to find a church that would accept both of our nationalities. I do believe there are some free, liberal, multicultural and diverse churches who welcome everyone such as Interfaith, Unitarian and Universalist churches who approach faith, religion and spirituality in a non traditional, creedless and non dogmatic way and have no creedal requirements imposed on their members. Times Square Church in Manhattan is an example of this. But for the most part, churches have always remained segregated.
I am losing faith in the churches for this reason, they seem Saint Hypocritical and Saint Elitist in their God loves you for who you are speeches. Where can I go to find God and not be judged by the color of my skin? Should I just become an Atheist? Happy Easter.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Advertise This Business
Friday, February 3, 2012
Transportation Again
Transportation Alternatives and Critical Mass. Those are two groups that come to mind as I read this article in yesterdays Metro newspaper, "The high cost of cruising" and unfortunately, according to this article, the high cost of cruising seems to be death from car accidents. The article has some interesting numbers and statistics. "From 1950 to 1970, the U.S. automobile population grew four times faster than the human population. Interesting. And it goes to to say, Cars kill people, During the 20th century, 250 million Americans were maimed of injured in automobile accidents. Every single day in the U.S., an average of 121 people are killed in car accidents. These numbers are incomprehensible to me and I see the increase of cars in New York city over the years as I look around. Streets I once crossed slowly, I now run across. With today's gas guzzling cars contributing to the war with oil and gasoline consumption, ozone depletion and greenhouse gases speeding up the pace of life, more cars and more accidents seem to be a way of life. What can one do if a loved one is lost to an accident, as cars are not the only hazardous mode of transportation. Any mode of transportation can be hazardous with the possibility of accidents. If only roads could be built for people and not cars. If only laws could change where pedestrian deaths are not treated as disposable roadkill and drivers could be reprimanded with something other than a parking ticket or be told to just keep driving. If only speed limits can be reduced on highways and even streets or if only everyone can bike to work, or if only the pace of life can be slowed down with cars and transportation or if only it was possible to go back to the days of horse and buggy's. If only another world was possible. And what does this have to do with a No Police State?