November 19, 2011

It’s been quite a week at Zuccotti Park and for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tuesday Mayor Bloomberg ordered the park to be emptied out by cops and hundreds of people got arrested and beaten up in the process, including journalists and photographers with press credentials trying to cover what was going on. Police helicopters prevented media helicopters from filming police removing, arresting and beating people. I don’t know about you, but it makes me a little nervous when reporters start getting arrested for doing their jobs. Can you say, “Police State?” Mayor Bloomberg said at a press conference that journalists were barred from covering the police raid on the park, "to protect members of the press." Huh? Protect them from what? Doing their jobs? There was a lot of protests on Thursday and a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Goggla has some great photos from Thursday at her blog: The Gog Log.

The park has reopened, but you can’t bring in sleeping bags or tents and I think you have to go through a security check. I thought it would be interesting to go down and take some photos tonight.

Here we are, a block away from Zuccotti Park.

Wow, it looks like a different place and it looks like it's closed.

There's barricades all around the perimeter of the park.

I found an entrance into the park, but so far all I see are security guards inside.

It's kind of spooky in here.

I think this is where the kitchen area was. It's kind of hard to tell.

There appears to be people down at the far end of the park, let's go check it out.

There's about fifty people gathered here at the far end of the park.

The kitchen has been reduced to one small table with cartons of juice and some bags of chips.

People are taking turns reading poetry and ideas.

The ironic backdrop to this is the Bank of America building looming behind them.

The People's Library has been started again after Bloomberg and his goons reportedly destroyed over 5,000 books from the library that had been here at the park. Even if they didn't want to give the books back, couldn't they have donated them to homeless shelters or libraries? When you start destroying books and jailing journalists with press credentials, it makes you wonder what kind of direction we're headed in.

There's not a lot of signage down here tonight, but Fabio had one he was happy to pose with. He wants to bring the idea of privilege into the protest and he agreed to bring one more thing into it as well...

Gumby! Whatever your feelings are on Occupy Wall Street, you can't deny that it's brought up discussions and an awareness that wasn't here before. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming weeks. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Further reading: Hufffington Post, NY Times and NY Daily News.

Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and forsaked,
Tolling for the outcast, burning constantly at stake,
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Photo By Gene Rubbico!

Gene sent in this photo last night with the following caption: "Mural of a condom machine above the toilet, in the men's room, at Mum's, in Federal Hill, Baltimore." Cool, thanks for the photo, Gene!

October 25, 2011

First off, go check Goggla’s photo blog, The Gog Log for more photos from the Chillmaster Dance Party Five. Just click here to check them out: Chillmaster Dance Party V.

Okay, it’s Monday and that’s the night I go out and six photos in a specific area of New York and marry them up with songs and lyrics that I think add to the photos for one reason or another. Tonight I’d thought I’d take a trip to Occupy Wall Street and see what’s happening. You may or may not agree with what’s going on down there, but so far I’ve yet to hear anyone who’s actually gone down there say anything negative about the protest. Contrary to some reports, it’s not just “dirty hippies” down there, it’s an interesting cross section of people of all ages and races coming together for something they believe in. One thing they have achieved is opening up a dialogue that wasn’t so prevalent before. Let’s go down and get a sixpack of photos.

Here we are at the Cortlandt Street stop. Time to start clicking.

They say that's money can't buy love in this world,
But it'll get you a half-pound of cocaine and a sixteen-year old girl,
And a great big long limousine on a hot September night,
Now that may not be love but it is all right.

Please, don't wake me, no, don't shake me,
Leave me where I am - I'm only sleeping.

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered,
I don't have a friend who feels at ease,
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered,
Or driven to its knees.

Under pressure—that burns a building down,
Splits a family in two,
Puts people on streets.

I'm a model you know what I mean,
And I do my little turn on the catwalk,
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah,
I do my little turn on the catwalk.

Gumby!

Occupy Wall Street
Liberty Square (A.K.A. Zuccotti Park)
Corner of Liberty St. and Broadway
877-881-3020

Further reading: The Gog Log, Slum Goddess and CNN.

All in a dream, all in a dream,
The loading had begun,
They were flying Mother Nature's
silver seed to a new home in the sun.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Photo From The Duncester!
The Duncester sent in this wigged out  photo of himself in a  green wig of his own! It was taken in the early ‘90’s at a ski resort in Utah. Nice one, Duncester, thanks for sending it in!

October 14, 2011

Once again I was going to do something different tonight, but then I heard news that Mayor Bloomberg is ordering the protesters at Occupy Wall Street out of the park tomorrow so they can clean it. They are going to be allowed back in, but this time they are being told you can’t bring back tents, camping gear, sleeping bags, tarps or coolers. Another, “new” rule is that you can’t lay down in the park. The park is owned by Brookfield Properties and they claim they’ve received complaints that the park is now unsanitary. I was there a week ago and it seemed pretty clean and orderly to me, but let’s go check it out tonight and see what’s happening and just how unsanitary it really is.

It's a misty night with light rain falling down as I head downtown to check out Occupy Wall Street.

And here we are, there's a big crowd in the park tonight, as I expected.

The park is overflowing with people in support of Occupy Wall Street.

Some are peacefully sitting and discussing what to do if the city and cops try to empty the park tomorrow to clean it.

Others are taking action and cleaning the park, so they can stay.

Tarps are being folded and stacked for the night.

This is cleaning gear that was donated. The protesters have been scrubbing the park all day and into the night.

Here's someone mopping the grounds. Let's go say hi.

His name is Andrew and he said he wasn't going to leave tomorrow. He then returned to cleaning the park. I told him to be safe.

It doesn't look unsanitary to me.

Gumby joins the movement! An historic moment!

Here's Gene who was flying the flag and taking a break on the steps. He said cops would have to drag him out of the park, but he would be non-violent about it.

Dear Abbie. Steal this sign.

No one's dancing with the glow in the dark hula hoop tonight. Maybe tomorrow. One can only hope.

Update: I just woke up and they’ve postponed the cleaning of the park. Bloomberg and the powers that be have blinked in this staring contest. Chalk one up for the people. The 99%. To be continued.

Occupy Wall Street
Liberty Square (A.K.A. Zuccotti Park)
Corner of Liberty St. and Broadway
877-881-3020

Further reading: City Room, NY Observer and NY Daily News.

I pulled into Nazareth, I was feelin' about half past dead,
I just need some place where I can lay my head.
"Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?"
He just grinned and shook my hand, and "No", was all he said.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

October 8, 2011

Okay, it’s Friday, it’s not raining outside or out of my ass and we all know what that means...Occupy Wall Street! Finally!

The outside of Zuccotti Park which has been renamed, Liberty Square by the protesters.

Inside you won't find any trouble makers, just peaceful discussions on how to make things better in this world.

Here people are sending the message of Occupy Wall Street out on laptops in a makeshift work center in the middle of the park.

Nice to see people talking rather than texting for a change.

There's lots of signs that people have made with their personal thoughts about what Occupy Wall Street is all about. Here's two people working on a couple of them.

Change! And she's not panhandling either. Here's some more signs, they don't need captions, they speak for themselves.

There's a free food line in the park. If you live in New York and would like to contribute, you can bring food down to the park. You can also contribute with donations via their website which is listed at the bottom of this post.

Volunteers help to prepare and serve the food.

There's several information booths, I thought I'd go up and say hi to this volunteer behind the booth.

His name is Aaron and he's from West Virginia. I asked him what he would say is going on down here and he told me the idea is to spread information and raise awareness of the unfair conditions that are happening.

Here's Andrea who's helping to spread the word.

This is Tanner who came from Delaware. He's been here over a week and plans to stay in the park through the winter.

Collette's sign reads: "Welcome To Your New Society." It does feel like a new city inside of this park. It's hard to explain unless you come here, but it gives you a feeling of hope that people want to change things and not just sit on their ass and continue to take shit from the greedy and morally corrupt people in charge of Wall Street and beyond.

On the perimeter of the park, a woman dances with a glow in the dark hula hoop.

And the band plays on. To be continued.

Occupy Wall Street
Liberty Square (A.K.A. Zuccotti Park)
Corner of Liberty St. and Broadway
877-881-3020

Further reading: CNN, New York Times and BBC News.

Well big limousine long shiny and black,
You don't look ahead you don't look back.
How many times can you get up after you've been hit?
Well I swear if I could spare the spit,
I'd lay one on your shiny chrome,
And send you on your way back home.

 (Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

October 7, 2011

I think planning on going to Occupy Wall Street jinxes me. I was going to go last Friday and then it started pouring down rain, so I didn’t go. Tonight I was going to go after work, but I’m too tired to go. I’ve really been trying not to whine about work on here, and I’m not, I’m just stating the facts. And the facts are that someone at work is on vacation, so I have to get there around ten in the morning and if work comes in at night I have to stay till it’s done. So even if I get out at 10 PM, it’s a twelve hour day. Today was close to 13 hours, so I’m not going down there, maybe tomorrow, since I can sleep in on Saturday.

And there’s another reason and I try to be honest on this blog, so I’m just going to come right out and say it (warning, this may be gross to some people): I have diarrhea tonight and was afraid to be too far away from a toilet. You know, I was thinking about it and why should you feel funny about having diarrhea? It’s not like it’s my fault, but people will rarely divulge when they have diarrhea, except to family and close friends. To me it’s no worse than saying you’ve got a cold or a headache. And you may think this is weird, but if I’m home or in a safe place with easy access to a toilet, I kind of like diarrhea. The cramping part in the stomach is bad, but once it starts flowing out of you, it feels really good. And no one can deny that it does. I took a taxi home tonight and really had to go bad by the time I got home. I just made it in my apartment just in the nick of time, sat on the toilet and started reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone. The cramps were bad and actually made me sweat, kind of like I was in labor, but then the chocolate rain began and all was well in my world. I let out a sigh of relief, it sounded a little bit like I was having an orgasm. In reality, I was having an assgasm. Hey, I just made a new word!* Cool. I also found out that Lou Reed and Metallica have a single out. It got four stars. Crazy, huh?

Since I don’t have any photos, I’m just going to post some YouTube videos for your enjoyment and have a few beers and try to get to bed and get some much needed sleep. But first, I gotta go. And I mean, I really gotta go! See you tomorrow after dark.

*I Googled, “assgasm” and it’s not a new word. Fuck.













Further reading: Medicine Net, Wikipedia and Stereogum.

That’s the way it will be.
That’s the way it will be.
That’s the way it will be.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Photo From Bobby Williams!

Bobby Williams is a contributing photographer to EV Grieve and sends me a photo now and again. This is one of the red tailed hawk who's taken up residence in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Great photo, thanks, Bobby!

October 1, 2011

At first I wasn’t going to go to the Occupy Wall Street protests against the banks and greedy corporations that continue to bulldoze the middle class right off the face of the earth. I heard about cops pepper-spraying people, handcuffing them till their hands turned blue and abusing their power to silence people protesting peacefully. I’ve been beaten up by a cop twice in my life and I’m not anxious for the third beating. And I have to admit, the cynic in me said, “What’s it all worth? Can it make a difference?” Well, it’s been going on for two weeks now and I’m curious as to what the scene is like down at Liberty Park. “Boris” asked if we were going to go, and that’s where we’re off to right now. I really wish I had a gas mask though!

Shit, I just walked outside of work and it's pouring down rain. It'll be hard to take pictures down there tonight, so I've decided to go next week. Tonight, I'll improvise and take photos of walking home in the rain and pair them up with lyrics and links to songs about rain. Kind of an artsy-fartsy post tonight. Okay, here we go.

Feels like colored rain, tastes like colored rain, bring on colored rain...yeah.

I'll never let you see, the way my broken heart is hurting me, I've got my pride and I know how to hide all my sorrow and pain. I'll do my crying in the rain.

I loved her, but now I've lost her, love's in vain. I watch a funeral in the rain.

Kentucky rain keeps pouring down, and up ahead's another town that I'll go walking through, with the rain in my shoes, searchin' for you. In the cold Kentucky rain.

Broken windows and empty hallways, a pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray. Human kindness is overflowing and I think it's going to rain today.

A rainy night in Georgia, such a rainy night in Georgia. Lord, I believe it's rainin' all over the world. I feel like it's raining all over the world.

Wastern to Mountain, third party call, the lines are down. The wise man built his words upon the rocks. But I'm not bound to follow suit.

Bus stop, wet day, she's there I say, please share my umbrella. Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows, under my umbrella.

Rain, I don't mind. Shine, the world looks fine. Can you hear me that when it rains and shines, it's just a state of mind. Can you hear me?

Further reading: The Weather Channel, The Weather Man and Answers.com.

I wish I never saw the sunshine,
Cause maybe, I wouldn’t mind the rain.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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