Observations from the Edge 10.29

I was at Liberty Square a couple days ago and had an interesting conversation. As we looked at the ring of interlocking steel barricades that now completely surrounds the park we started to talk about what the police in this country have become. In major cities they have become militarized to the point that it's hard to call some of the police departments anymore as they are more para-military organizations. They have all the toys and, in the case of Oakland, they want to play with them. I honestly think New York City probably has one of the best small militaries in the world, large enough to suppress all of Jersey in the event of any future Devils' Stanley Cup win.

You could use the so called 'War on Terror' as a reason for all that but none of these toys would have stopped the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. They don't seem to be able to stop drugs from entering the country or people from crossing the borders illegally. So what is their purpose? A question which we may all have to be answer one day soon.

But back to the barricades which started this whole ramble. I searched the New York Times archive and found an article from 2003 called “Steel Barriers Reinforce a Thinner Line of Blue at Parades, and the Bottom Line” (l, not sure if the link works without a subscription). At the time the NYPD already owned 12,000 of the stunningly beautiful things. I read elsewhere that the city now owns enough of them to completely surround the island of Manhattan in steel and right now they are everywhere, surrounding Liberty Square, the New York Stock Exchange, creating a veritable maze in the Financial District. Supposedly they are to keep protesters in the park and out of the street where they can restrict traffic yet the damn barricades themselves are in the street.

At a recent community meeting local resident Sabrina Espinal said “My biggest issue is the barricades, don’t care if they stay in that park 'til kingdom come. I just want the barricades down.”

Maybe the New York City Police Department is the real one occupying Wall Street.

Observations from the Window 10.27

I received a rather weighty package from Amazon yesterday that may signal the beginning of a cold weather reading binge, something I think my brain needs. It also seems to be the time to put Patti Smith's Just Kids on the shelf for a long deserved break. I first read the book back in April and have been rereading parts of it ever since, partly because I live near where so many of the scenes took place. But one part I have stayed away from is the end because it always brings tears to my eyes.

In late February of 1989 Smith saw Robert Mapplethorpe for the last time. In the book she shows the following note which she wrote to Mapplethorpe, but doesn't say whether she actually sent it to him than or was writing it to him in the book. If I should ever meet her that's the first question I'm going to ask.

Dear Robert,
Often as I lie awake I wonder if you are also lying awake. Are you in pain or feeling alone? You drew me from the darkest period of my young life, sharing with me the sacred mystery of what it is to be an artist. I learned to see through you and never compose a line or draw a curve that does not come from the knowledge I derived in our precious time together. 
Your work, coming from a fluid source can be traced to the naked song of your youth. You spoke than of holding hands with god. Remember, through everything, you have always held that hand, grip it hard, Robert, and don't let go.
The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off too. But before I did, it occurred to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all of your work, you are still your most beautiful.
The most beautiful work of all.
Patti

Mapplethorpe died a few days later on March 9, 1989.

Like I said, tears.

Patti Smith - Paths That Cross

Observations from the Edge 10.27

Leave it to Jon Stewart to say it best and with the fewest words. "What the fuck happened in Oakland?"

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Cry for Oakland

Jane Tyska for The Oakland Tribune via owsbot

One has to wonder what has gone wrong in this country when a scene like above can be played out in a major American city. In the predawn hours Tuesday hundreds of police from Oakland and maybe a dozen other central California communities assaulted the Occupy Oakland camp in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza. I use the word assault because police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades in the surprise raid. It can be debated where the blame falls for the eviction but what can't be debated is that the show brute and, in the case of rubber bullets, possibly lethal force was totally uncalled for. It all made New York Mayor Bloomberg look rather tame in comparison. 

As I write this Tuesday night hundreds of protesters are marching on Oakland's City Hall and the days total arrests for the day in Oakland stands at over 150.

In another bit of OWS news protesters arrested during Occupy Wall Street's march onto the Brooklyn Bridge may turn down a deal offered by prosecutors. The deal would drop all charges in six months if the individual hadn't been arrested again in that time. Most of the 780 arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and have been offered the deal but the National Lawyer's Guild, the group that represents them, says most may turn the deal down and demand a jury trial clogging the legal system in New York City.

And so it goes.

late update - All hell broke loose in Oakland tonight and the words police riot come to mind. Welcome to George Orwell's America....

link

Observations from the Coffee Shop 10.23

This morning I was looking at one of my recent OWS photos with a friend when she commented on a button the girl in the shot was wearing. The button said “2planes 3buildings 911wtf?” Now I know I have seen that line before but I didn't have an answer when my friend asked what it meant and all Ash knew was that it was a 9/11 conspiracy theory. Even though I may be superstitious at times and read my horoscope now and than I do try and stay away from wacko conspiracy theories because I don't need any more crap clogging my brain. I did look into this one a bit today because I have a soft spot for 9/11 and I wanted to know the answer to her question.

The 2planes party is easy, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I found the 3buildings part stands for the twin towers and Building 7 which collapsed during the afternoon of September 11th. Conspiracy theorists seem to use that later collapse to prove that the towers were bought down by a controlled demolition rather than by the airliners. They don't seem to believe that being 400' away from a collapsing 1300' tower would cause enough damage to bring Building 7 down. You might be wondering who would want to do that but I'm not even going to get into it other than to say they believe it was super cabal involving everybody from oil companies, to the CIA, to your local hair dresser's cousin Louie. It was done to justify invading the Middle East and seizing oil fields.

To me the one critical flaw in the whole theory is this. The Bush administration failed at everything it did yet I'm supposed to believe it pulled off and than covered up the greatest conspiracy in the history of the planet? Even if I wanted to I couldn't do it. Along with them the cover up would have had to involve the FDNY, the NYPD, the Port Authority, the FBI, the FAA, NORAD, and on and on. Even scrap yards in the New York City area would have had to be involved because they sold scrap steel before it was all tested as probably they were asked to by the Bush people. Which means Mayor Bloomberg couldn't have been involved because at the time he asked the yards not to sell it.

Omg, I drank the tea, I understand now and I need one of those buttons of my own.

Seriously even conspiracies with a few people are doomed are to fail, like Watergate. The more people you involve in it the more likely it is to fall apart. The amount of people needed for this conspiracy could fill both of the towers so it's just absurd to think this many people could keep a mass murder a secret for this long. Totally effing absurd.

Yet people still believe.

Observations from the Edge 10.23

Friday night I was watching a live feed of an OWS march from 95th Street to Columbus Circle that featured the 92 year old Pete Seeger leading a march of almost 1000 people. It was 1 AM till the group reached Columbus Circle but there they stopped and they sang. Now I'm not about to start buying folk music but even just watching the feed it was one of those nice calm moments in time. Even the NYPD officers present seemed to relax and enjoy it. I have shared enough bad scenes since the protests began, I thought I would share the good too.

Link

Observations on Art 10.21

It may seem as if OWS is now taking over even the art portions of my blog but I have to mention something that irritates me a little. One of the problems of not yet having a central message is the fact that every small group within OWS is treated as if it were speaking for the whole of OWS. That is what happened this week with Occupy Museums which is the brainchild of Noah Fischer and his Art and Culture Group. It's message seems just heated rhetoric about "a corrupt hierarchical system based on false scarcity and propaganda concerning absurd elevation of one individual genius over another human being for the monetary gain of the elitist of elite." Fischer said in an interview that Occupy Museums isn't a personal project and was approved by the group but really I think the group itself is his personal project. He also said that all statements read will be approved by consensus but again this is in the group and not at the OWS general assembly.

Yesterday Occupy Museums descended upon a strange, and probably befuddled, group of institutions, the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick and the New Museum. I have no idea how they missed the Met other than my theory that Fischer has something there and you don't seem to see anybody from the group stopping the Smithsonian from collecting flyers and signs in Liberty Square. Another complaint I saw was that public museums charge a fee to get in, currently $25 and $14 for students at MOMA. It seems like almost nothing compared to a ticket to a major concert or sporting event. Will the group be occupying stadiums next? Count me in on that one if they protest a Flyers - Rangers game.

Occupy Museum's manifesto also stated, “Recently, we have witnessed the absolute equation of art with capital. The members of museum boards mount shows by living or dead artists whom they collect like bundles of packaged debt. Shows mounted by museums are meant to inflate these markets.” At the risk of stabbing myself in the back I tend to agree with this but they are blaming the entirely wrong people. I think this is becoming a problem the art world will have to deal with at some point but the problem comes more from the larger galleries and art shows and not from the museums. The museums are just an easier target with a much better chance of publicity.

As Kyle Chayka said in ArtInfo's gossip blog, “museums, public institutions as they are, don’t really seem to be fitting targets for such vitriol. Try Gagosian gallery, maybe?”

10/22 update - After I posted this yesterday I found a couple of things that add some to it. The first is a Twitter account I ran into called @OccupyArtWorld that is similar to Occupy Museums. It's about two weeks old and again filled with misplaced rhetoric. Among other things it calls out the art blogs Hyperallergic and Art Fag City for taking ads when these are two blogs that made their reputation before taking any ads at all. It fails to mention ArtForum whose posts seem to go with whoever is buying ad space at the time.

The other thing was a post in yesterday's New York Times ArtsBeat (l) blog that gave a good description of the protest. You can follow the link and read it if you want but I love the last paragraph of it so I'm posting it here.

"At the New Museum, a protester mentioned White Box, a small gallery off the Bowery that was having an opening that night. After a consensus vote, the group marched their protest over to its doors. But the exhibit there, “WALLmART,” turned out to be in solidarity with the 99 percent movement. So after a few minutes, the Occupy Museums group abandoned their sidewalk chants and went in.“We occupied, and now we’re going to schmooze,” Mr. Fischer said."

Artists, what are you going to do with them?

Observations from the Edge 10.17

Liberty Square turned one month old today and in that month Occupy Wall Street has received over $300,000 in donations to it's website. Some randomness.

I stopped at home lunch today and caught some of Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC. What is so ridiculous about most media coverage of Occupy Wall Street is they just don't seem to get it at all. Before going to a commercial Mitchell said the next report was on OWS, basically she said it's getting too big to ignore but is it drawing the right kind of attention. Well no, not when your 5 minute OWS report is following a 15 minute report on the record money being raised for the next presidential election and your “expert” for the OWS report is Jim Kramer from CNBC. Unreal.

Did you ever want a pen pal? A pen pal to share your problems with, your hopes and dreams, that can help when you lose your job or home? Thanks to a website called Occupy the Boardroom now you can. From here you can send an email to all the top execs at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo. Alas they can't release the email addresses because of the Computer Fraud and Abuse act, funny how your bank can sell your email address though.

This is just a follow up to the previous post on the message of OWS and is from a post on their website marking the one month anniversary of Liberty Square. “Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.”

However there are problems with not having a central demand. In today's New York Times there was an article titled “Protesters Debate What Demands, if Any, to Make.” The article talks with and about the Demands Working Group which was formed over a week ago. The problem is the group was self formed by its members, not by OWS itself, and I have heard it's being called a hijack attempt. Another group has formed to formulate a response to the demands group and talk about principals not demands.

Finally today Citigroup announced a third quarter profit of $3.8 billion, its seventh consecutive quarterly profit, and a 74% increase from last year.

Is it any wonder people are pissed off?

the Message

If you listen to main stream media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement one of the complaints you hear is that they have no stated goals. I find it so funny that they all seem to feel the need to suggest appropriate ones. But the left and the Democratic Party have always been that way, it's both their curse and their blessing. It has always been a far more inclusive party and movement than the right. As I wandered through Zuccotti Park I saw people of all ages and backgrounds who all seemed to have one thing in common, they are terribly pissed off at a system that is totally messed up and corrupt. They are all just tired of it and aren't going to take it anymore.

Still there is a message to be heard if they would just listen.

(updated 1/4/12 with a youtube version of the video, the vimeo one has apparently been deleted.)

Occupy the World

Today, October 15th, people will protest in over a thousand locations in 87 countries. There are almost 7 billion people on this planet and maybe it's time a majority of them are heard from.

In Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chez Republic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenia, Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisie, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela they will Occupy the World.

Link

Observations from the Edge 10.14

I went down to Zuccotti Park early Friday morning where the city was poised to use the cover of park cleaning to evict Occupy Wall Street. If what follows seems a bit confusing it may be because I was running, and still am running, on three hours sleep and most of it is off the top of my head because I was traveling without my usual backpack of toys. All I took along was Ash's old Nikon, the largest cup of coffee I could find at 5 AM, my phone zipped tight in my jacket, and the cell number of Ash's lawyer who I am quite sure was already expecting my call.

When I got to Zuccotti around 5:30 there were already thousands of people crowding the park. Broadway was partially blocked by steel barricades and maybe a hundred NYPD officers, a sight which sort of blew my mind. Not so much seeing all of them there but the fact that they were blocking one of the main arteries of the Financial District just before rush hour. Not only that but it was perfectly timed to be broadcast live on all the morning news shows and I began thinking somebody really hadn't thought the whole thing through. That may have been the scariest thought of the day. Ringing the park were cameras from networks all over the country and the world. I could easily pick out ABC 7, NBC 4, CNN, Univision, AP, German ARD, and the BBC.

I found a nice clean and comfy trash can to sit on than settled in to drink my coffee and see what dawn bought. My trash can was in a good spot just outside the park with an open street behind it so I figured I had a nice exit route should I need one. Just after 6:00 my escape plan went to hell when about a dozen officers arrived on scooters I could only think they borrowed from meter maids. I have to admit that made me more than a little nervous so I quickly double checked that lawyer's number. Not long after the scooter cops arrived a rumor began to spread through the crowd that the whole operation had been postponed if not canceled and it was officially announced at around 6:45. It was a slightly emotional moment because the crowd began chanting “we won, we won” over and over and I know I saw some of the younger cops smiling. By now I had my phone out and was back in contact with the rest of my world.

At this point hundreds of protesters poured out of the park and headed north on Broadway in an impromptu celebratory march on City Hall. I hoped off my perch and followed part of the way but turned back when I started to see riot police, horses, and those damn orange nets the police used to gather up marchers on the Brooklyn Bridge. During this march protesters clashed with riot police outside City Hall and this is where most of the days arrests took place. I wandered back through Zuccotti taking photos and talking a little including to a guy who had just been arrested in the big Occupy Boston arrest, got out, and than traveled to New York fully expecting to be arrested yet again. One of the most discussed topics is also one of the least reported facts of the day. Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg's live in girlfriend, just happens to be on the board of directors of Brookfield Office Properites, the owners of Zuccotti Park.

Personally I don't think the cleaning operation could have been planned without the approval of Mayor Bloomberg himself and so the decision not too do it must have been his as well. Probably laying it on Brookfield Properties was an easy way for him to wash his hands of the whole affair should it have gone bad. I have to agree with what a Village Voice writer said in a column later in the day. If the decision not to clean the park had been made the night before why the hell didn't they announce it than. Announce it before thousands of people, some of them very heavily armed, stood in the early morning light of Zuccotti Park just waiting for something to happen.

What I do know is that the word postponed was burned into the minds of everyone there this morning. Not cancelled, just postponed.

Observations from the Gallery 10.13 Randomness

Some days I just get all kinds of things in my mail, for instance today I got an invitation to the 12th Istanbul Biennial which runs through November 13th. Now I'd go in a heartbeat because I would love to see the Hagia Sophia and museums but it seems the folks at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts forgot to send along the airfare. I suppose I need to pass on Istanbul this year. I also received an invitation to a Halloween party at a major gallery in the Village, now that could be fun and far cheaper than Istanbul, but it seems a $100 donation is necessary to attend this event. I guess I pass on that one too or maybe we'll just have our own Halloween party that night. I spend far too much time on my multiple tumblr blogs but I like looking at photos so I would probably be looking anyway.

One thing I have discovered is I'm far from the only person alive who loves quotes. I rarely get photos reblogged, well rare for the number I post, but the quotes always seem to get a couple likes or reblogs or likes. Two of the most popular are Hunter S. Thompson quotes, "life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously," with 98 reblogs and "who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed," with 52. Seems there are a lot of Thompson fans out there.

Another thing I've been spending some time on is trying to keep up with the Occupy Wall Street protests and others around the country. There is a video on YouTube of the Boston Police breaking up a demonstration and tearing a flag out of a man's hands. I wont bother sharing because it isn't of the best quality. What I want to share is a comment to the video that just shows how damn myopic some people are in this country. The comment said, “Boston Police officers are doing an outstanding job. These so-called "protesters" are the most ignorant and arrogant misfits around. They were repeatedly told to leave the area. The fault clearly lies with these ignorant misfits. It is a shame that the Boston Police officers are forced to put up with these arrogant crapheads. Keep up the good work, Boston Police!!!!” The group protesting was the Veterans for Peace, a non-profit humanitarian organization of vets dedicated to increasing public awareness of the costs of war.

Finally today was one of those days where one topic of conversation seemed to linger all day in the gallery. That would be thanks to Ash who, when I got the party invitation, commented that before she dies she would just like to get a little respect from those, well, people. I shan't elaborate on the exact language she used but I will say she has a point because the bigger galleries do tend to look down on the smaller ones. Respect is a tricky thing in that it's earned, given, and sometimes taken for granted, sometimes until it is gone. But should a large gallery have our respect simply because it is large or should there be more to it than that? I suppose more art world bridges have been burned over that one simple word than almost any other reason. Damn arrogant artists.

My only fear is that any hits taken out during Ash's campaign for recognition will have to be handled by me.

Michelle Branch - Loud Music

Observations from the Edge 10.13

This short film is a little overboard in its fervor but it does contain some awesome clips and it is rather well made. I especially like the scene at 5:30 where the protester thanks the police for "participating in our media publicity campaign." The comment I added below the video was posted on YouTube by the person who posted the video. It gives a better explanation of the vid. Also the powers that be have deemed it should be age restricted so I have no idea how that effects the embed, there is a link below.

“Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.”
 Julie Metz

Link

"I appreciate your thoughts, just wanna be sure all is clear with the video. It is NOT a comparison, rather a WARNING that if the police keep repressing people's rights, America COULD turn into Egypt. If the police arrest the War Vets who risked their lives to protect the police, how long can you Americans stand for this?! It is their blood that makes USA possible. All americans should agree and demand a? stop to arrests now. The First amendment trumps local ordinances."

Observations on Art 10.9

As you may or may not know for the past week or so I have been wandering around the Occupy Wall Street protests. I've been taking photos, taking it all in, honestly trying to understand what it means and I want to write about it some but that isn't what this post is for. You can ask ten people what makes a good photo and get ten different answers most of which have to do with composition or lighting. Depth, lines, perception, all have their place in a good photo but I have my own opinion. I really don't worry about any of it much when I'm taking shots, I just shoot what I see, and I don't think my work is any better than average.

I took this photo yesterday near the OWS protest in Zuccotti Park. To me a good photo needs no title and I posted this on Flickr (l) without one. A good photo tells the viewer everything he or she needs to know, it pulls at your heart and kicks you in the gut at the same time. It makes you think. You may not think this is a good photo, you probably don't think this is even the best I have ever taken, but it fills all my criteria.

I look at her and I just hurt.