So folks, you may or not know that I'm leaving for the east coast later this year or early next. This is a huge thing for me, as pretty much all of my life (Ok, since past age 5), I've lived within a 3-hour driving radius of here.
I'm sorting through my stuff and getting rid of most of it. It's really emotional process...I can associate piles of sentimentality with actual stuff. The other big thing is that I realize that I'm basically in love with everyone here. OK, not like that. But I'm pretty much in love with the entirety of my political community, and it's really hard to imagine not being here. Thinking of how many people have changed my life, helped me along, and made me who I am, it makes me all snuffly and stuff.
I'm also pretty excited, because it is time to go and spend a bit of time elsewhere. Elly left earlier this week, and she's trying to find a place.
But sheesh. It's good that I'll be back in two years, cuz this is a hard place to stay away from.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Saturday, September 04, 2004
San fran-disco
Here I am, back in San Francisco...so my plan to get some work tidied up was thwarted. I arrived and immediately came down with some sort of cold/flu thing which kept me in bed all day yesterday. Ah well. So today I still feel floaty but marginally more with it. The weather is lovely today, and I don't have much to do after we get the room cleaned up...being able to walk from one end to another is useful!
So apparently the film series that I organize with my pal Melanie went really well in my absence! Hooray! We showed "The Fall of the I-Hotel", I was really bummed to have missed it. Next month we're showing "Strong Roots", about the landless workers' movement in Brazil. That should be good.
All my pals got out of jail after the court ruled that the NYPD were in contempt of court for holding people for far more than 24 hours. That ol' wacky Writ of Habeus Corpus, the courts are so particular about it! Anyhow, the NYPD faced fines of $1,000 per person held after their ruling. Huzzah!
OK, I'm still out of it, so less rambling until I can form coherent thoughts.
So apparently the film series that I organize with my pal Melanie went really well in my absence! Hooray! We showed "The Fall of the I-Hotel", I was really bummed to have missed it. Next month we're showing "Strong Roots", about the landless workers' movement in Brazil. That should be good.
All my pals got out of jail after the court ruled that the NYPD were in contempt of court for holding people for far more than 24 hours. That ol' wacky Writ of Habeus Corpus, the courts are so particular about it! Anyhow, the NYPD faced fines of $1,000 per person held after their ruling. Huzzah!
OK, I'm still out of it, so less rambling until I can form coherent thoughts.
Friday, September 03, 2004
My last day in NYC
Sorry for the lapse in updates...yesterday I was mostly packing and heading through the subway to my flight. Wahh! I want to be there tonight, the text reports keep flooding in about people disrupting BUsh's speech, staging impromptu rallies, etc. All very exciting.
Before we departed we spent the day out at the Pier 57 (some calling it "Guantanamo by the Hudson", but really, now, folks, that's dramatic). Then we left and went to Central Booking, 1000 Centre St. But were I to have been there today, I would've seen the mighty presence of André 3000, of Outkast fame. Alas! But no, instead I got to see my pal Sasha make it to the outside after an unpleasant stint. She was moved every 10 minutes or so to ensure proper sleeping conditions, kept in metal shackles on hand and feet, and given Frosted Flakes once in the morning. Before she had a chance to eat a Food not Bombs bagel, she was surrounded by reporters. Not optimal conditions for interviewing, but we take what we can get.
While going from the Pier 57 to the courthouse we walked past Ground Zero. There was a small gaggle of Arizona RNC delegates, and one of the New Yorkers in our group took the opportunity to give them a piece of his mind about their explotation of 9/11. They had their own media team, replete with tv camera, and the camera person argued that they just wanted a shot and a 'moment of silence'. Anyway, they were chased off. The squad of NYPD that watched the incident lackadaisically didn't move a muscle to defend the Arizonans.
After supporting Sasha and giving off-the-cuff interviews to local print media, it was time for Elly and I to pack up and head out. We were sad to go, and by now it was apparent that I was coming down with a cold. We just made our trains, and I got held in the interminable wait of the special security line due to my expired driver's license. During our check-in we met two wonderful ladies who had come out from Sonoma County to protest...dear to my heart, since I spent many formative years in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. They were part of a group of mothers against the war, and affiliated with the SoCo Peace & Justice center. Yay!
Then, to the plane. The only media channels were MSNBC, Fox & CNN Headlines...yuck. A few decent reports of protest came through, I saw some of my Siafu comrades on camera (represent!) and we were even mentioned in passing on the O'Reilly Factor - as the infamous chanting, dancing people in red. Then on to coverage about good ol' Dick Cheney. No wonder I felt ill by the end of it.
By the time we were in bed, it was 4 am NYC time...a long day. The up and off to work, if a little late, this morning. Now that my nose is soundly stuffed up, I may exercise my sick time, even though my work is backed up. So if you ordered a DVD from AlterNet and are yet to get it, my apologies, but there's only one of me and 4,500 of you. And I have personal priorities...the RNC won in this particular case, as did my four days' vacation time.
¡Que viva disruption of the RNC!
Before we departed we spent the day out at the Pier 57 (some calling it "Guantanamo by the Hudson", but really, now, folks, that's dramatic). Then we left and went to Central Booking, 1000 Centre St. But were I to have been there today, I would've seen the mighty presence of André 3000, of Outkast fame. Alas! But no, instead I got to see my pal Sasha make it to the outside after an unpleasant stint. She was moved every 10 minutes or so to ensure proper sleeping conditions, kept in metal shackles on hand and feet, and given Frosted Flakes once in the morning. Before she had a chance to eat a Food not Bombs bagel, she was surrounded by reporters. Not optimal conditions for interviewing, but we take what we can get.
While going from the Pier 57 to the courthouse we walked past Ground Zero. There was a small gaggle of Arizona RNC delegates, and one of the New Yorkers in our group took the opportunity to give them a piece of his mind about their explotation of 9/11. They had their own media team, replete with tv camera, and the camera person argued that they just wanted a shot and a 'moment of silence'. Anyway, they were chased off. The squad of NYPD that watched the incident lackadaisically didn't move a muscle to defend the Arizonans.
After supporting Sasha and giving off-the-cuff interviews to local print media, it was time for Elly and I to pack up and head out. We were sad to go, and by now it was apparent that I was coming down with a cold. We just made our trains, and I got held in the interminable wait of the special security line due to my expired driver's license. During our check-in we met two wonderful ladies who had come out from Sonoma County to protest...dear to my heart, since I spent many formative years in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. They were part of a group of mothers against the war, and affiliated with the SoCo Peace & Justice center. Yay!
Then, to the plane. The only media channels were MSNBC, Fox & CNN Headlines...yuck. A few decent reports of protest came through, I saw some of my Siafu comrades on camera (represent!) and we were even mentioned in passing on the O'Reilly Factor - as the infamous chanting, dancing people in red. Then on to coverage about good ol' Dick Cheney. No wonder I felt ill by the end of it.
By the time we were in bed, it was 4 am NYC time...a long day. The up and off to work, if a little late, this morning. Now that my nose is soundly stuffed up, I may exercise my sick time, even though my work is backed up. So if you ordered a DVD from AlterNet and are yet to get it, my apologies, but there's only one of me and 4,500 of you. And I have personal priorities...the RNC won in this particular case, as did my four days' vacation time.
¡Que viva disruption of the RNC!
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
All for one, and one for A-31
Hey folks,
So here it was, the big day! I took the morning off and ate breakfast (yay, I’m getting sick of Clif bars) with my lovely host Jenna and pal Cathy. Then, a nap, because my 10am meeting got rescheduled to 3pm, thank the sweet meeting dieties. After tending to bizarrely-placed blisters and laundering our rancid clothes, off to the streets. I’ve fully succumbed to my coffee addiction, as well.
Off to the park, off to an apartment, eating at a wonderful deli with a nice man who not only was 20 years vegetarian, but let us use the “employees only” bathroom, receiving roles, and off to go shopping at the Mall. “WTF?” you say? Yep, a mall near 34th and Broadway, from which to see the cops clearing streets and pushing shoppers around. We caught the news coverage at 5pm, and I was actually pretty impressed, even with the mainstream news.
Our small group missed the big event. 40 people got to the middle of an intersection and sat down, blocking 33rd and 5th. Hell YEAH! It’s pretty inspiring. We were meanwhile amongst lots of confused shoppers/commuters, some fellow protesters, some freaked out RNC delegates, and lots of aggro cops. They shoved some grandmas and parents on their way to chase freaked out, yet pretty obviously unaffiliated people trying to flee the scene.
The coolest thing was that even though it was apparent the NYPD had word of our plan A, they didn’t get our plan B...and *we* did.
Anyway, after finding everyone left over from the first round, we met with more folks outside the hot zone and made our way to Union Square. Things were chill there, and it was a great study in plainclothes observation. There were, at varying points, 1 plainclothes to every 3 legit protesters. Because my pals and I kept pointing them our loudly (and singing them little songs at points), they had three shift changes in our area, very funny to watch. Then the area heated up, as some riot cops snagged a person trying to go into the subway. I heared (but didn’t see) that it was one of these nasty neck-lasso thingies. So everyone int he park rushes over and starts trying to get them to back off. We pulled back and watched, the riot cops, a squad of mounted police, and a weird SUV-thingy with an automated satellite dish. We cruised around and noticed the amazingness of our comrades inside as they started a lively chant circle to draw the attention away from the hot zones. This succeeded in de-escalating, and a platoon of riot cops who had surrounded the crowd disappeared. Poof! The undercover stayed with as well.
Anyhow, it was chill, and Midnight, so we walked home and are now attempting to go to bed.
Jenna says “OK Max, time to make a sign. Fuck your blog!” Here I am, quoting her.
Yay radical librarians.
So here it was, the big day! I took the morning off and ate breakfast (yay, I’m getting sick of Clif bars) with my lovely host Jenna and pal Cathy. Then, a nap, because my 10am meeting got rescheduled to 3pm, thank the sweet meeting dieties. After tending to bizarrely-placed blisters and laundering our rancid clothes, off to the streets. I’ve fully succumbed to my coffee addiction, as well.
Off to the park, off to an apartment, eating at a wonderful deli with a nice man who not only was 20 years vegetarian, but let us use the “employees only” bathroom, receiving roles, and off to go shopping at the Mall. “WTF?” you say? Yep, a mall near 34th and Broadway, from which to see the cops clearing streets and pushing shoppers around. We caught the news coverage at 5pm, and I was actually pretty impressed, even with the mainstream news.
Our small group missed the big event. 40 people got to the middle of an intersection and sat down, blocking 33rd and 5th. Hell YEAH! It’s pretty inspiring. We were meanwhile amongst lots of confused shoppers/commuters, some fellow protesters, some freaked out RNC delegates, and lots of aggro cops. They shoved some grandmas and parents on their way to chase freaked out, yet pretty obviously unaffiliated people trying to flee the scene.
The coolest thing was that even though it was apparent the NYPD had word of our plan A, they didn’t get our plan B...and *we* did.
Anyway, after finding everyone left over from the first round, we met with more folks outside the hot zone and made our way to Union Square. Things were chill there, and it was a great study in plainclothes observation. There were, at varying points, 1 plainclothes to every 3 legit protesters. Because my pals and I kept pointing them our loudly (and singing them little songs at points), they had three shift changes in our area, very funny to watch. Then the area heated up, as some riot cops snagged a person trying to go into the subway. I heared (but didn’t see) that it was one of these nasty neck-lasso thingies. So everyone int he park rushes over and starts trying to get them to back off. We pulled back and watched, the riot cops, a squad of mounted police, and a weird SUV-thingy with an automated satellite dish. We cruised around and noticed the amazingness of our comrades inside as they started a lively chant circle to draw the attention away from the hot zones. This succeeded in de-escalating, and a platoon of riot cops who had surrounded the crowd disappeared. Poof! The undercover stayed with as well.
Anyhow, it was chill, and Midnight, so we walked home and are now attempting to go to bed.
Jenna says “OK Max, time to make a sign. Fuck your blog!” Here I am, quoting her.
Yay radical librarians.
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