As you can see, I started my Occupy Vancouver photoset at Tiffany last night. What more proof can you require that the 1% have offshored all the decent jobs? That window display is absolutely covered in dust! Ou sont les cleaning persons d’antan?
Moving on to Louis Vuitton. Does anyone besides me remember when they had a window display made of dozens of silver CCTV cameras focused on one pair of $1100 shoes? No? Just me then? FINE! In any case, the 1% are, as you can see here, safely confined behind bars as if in a zoo, and if Alberni is not a zoo, what IS? I ask yez. Especially on a Saturday night.
I got a lot of photos of signs, and although it took me a minute, I did like “Walk like an Egyptian” on the flag, which was over by the potted palm. There’s also a sign crediting Tunisia as the birthplace of modern democracy.
The little “I’m here for you. Are you here for me?” sign at the bottom-right of the “We are not kidding around. Stay a night and talk to us” sign at the top of the steps is the one that was kicked over earlier that afternoon by the chubby, dark security guard, who should have been on the other side of the fence in fact.
There is a guide to hand signals used in the General Assembly propped up against one of the Lions, although for the nearsighted a little more proximity would be helpful. God only knows what’s written on the whiteboard against the other Lion, as I myself am nearsighted and couldn’t make it out, even with the zoom, because I can’t fly.
YET.
I did like the guillotine labeled “Bargaining Tool,” but then as we’ve established, I’m a big old anarchistic meanie who thinks fear can be an effective weapon.
“My Other Occupation Sucks” is pretty good as well. A nice takeoff of the “My Other Car Is A…” bumper stickers. I saw a Porsche once with “My other car is a Datsun” on it.
Actual Bohemians not welcome at Bohemian Grove
Obscene Wealth and Greed are Not Canadian Values
Yeah, whatever. Tell it to Conrad Black.
There are now TWO red Homelessness tents on the premises. The number of tents is growing daily/nightly, and I expect tomorrow to be the biggest day yet, thanks to Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, authors of my favorite theme song. It’s hilarious to me that the YouTube has now become popular enough to have ads on it.
I had an enjoyable conversation with some firemen. I didn’t recognize the jackets, and firemen weren’t around the first couple of nights, so being me I toddled up and asked what group they were with, where they were from. They told me and asked where I was from. I said “The Internet,” and it was FUCKING GLORIOUS because I swear to god one guy’s eyes opened wide in alarm. Then I told them I was a blogger, they asked me where I lived, which was really none of their business, but I’m not very closety so I said Chinatown and we shared a chuckle over the fact that when the alarm goes off at my place all the Chinese people wait till I get there and then sort of shove me at the firemen, like “she’s white, let HER talk to them.” They were quite cool and probably around to make sure there were no open flames in the tented area. Later, I heard some of them go for coffee and they were discussing the income disparity and arguing whether or not it was bigger in BC than in the US.
Well ladies and gentlemen, as you can see from scrolling down it looks like Flickr is censoring all my OccupyVancouver images so that you have to actually sign in to Flickr to see them. I’ve emailed them twice and just get the generic “you can change permissions under Bulk Editing or on each photo” and in fact I CAN’T. Here’s an image they deleted from my blog:
UPDATE: well, someone was censoring my photos, but it turned out to be me. So much for my urge to tinker with the Flickr Uploader. NEVER AGAIN! All fixed now, moving on…
Occupy Vancouver. I'm not lion, this got censored on Flickr
Pretty obscene, eh?
So from now on I’ll be uploading them directly to WordPress.com. I only went to Flickr in the first place because I thought they were better than Photobucket, which censored this image:
Never Forget. Coalition of the Willing, to Power
Sorry to go all Godwin’s Law on you, Flickr, but you deserve it.
I’m uploading the pix here, so it’s going to take a little more time than before, but bear with me. I’m even uploading two videos to YouTube, and by the way, if you’ve got a video capable camera and a YouTube account, there are such a diversity of opinions at Occupy Vancouver that they would very much welcome your presence to document them all. There’s someone there today videoing and interviewing people to upload, and he could use some company.
Here’s the first video, which gives you a good idea how the Human Mic works. Effective, elegant, and absolutely free!
Like I said on YouTube, this is how your political sausage is made at Occupy Vancouver; slowly, inclusively, democratically. I’m impressed. And here’s the second one:
The guy at the end is worth waiting for.
Will update this post when all the images are uploaded. Check back in an hour or so. It’s worth it: I took the GOOD camera today! And should I ever get a 24 hour stretch of internet AND power access, I’ll even do that post on Love Is The Killer App that I’ve been meaning to put on raincoastermedia.com for two weeks!
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Here’s your slideshow, finally. It’ll probably be tomorrow before both videos are uploaded, alas.
While the crowd was considerably thinner than Saturday, I’d estimate that tents are up 20%. There are over fifty tents there now, not including the service tents like Food Not Bombs, the Medic tent, etc. And the Kid Zone is well-populated. The General Assembly is in full effect, although not using amplification; I’d heard they couldn’t afford to keep it indefinitely, and some people told me they preferred the Human Mic because it was the ultimate triumph of humanity over impersonal, expensive tech.
The chubby, swarthy, middle-aged security guard who was on duty at the top of the stairs (not the tall, lean, young one who is very cool) made it his business to walk over and kick over signs placed on the stairs, and to tell me “that’s far enough” when I got within two steps of the top, even though the public is legally allowed to occupy the area right up to the fence at the top of the stairs. And yes, he is in these pictures. Click to enlarge.
Operation Don’t Be An Asshat or I’ll post your picture on a blog with four million hits in effect.
The emergent imagery, of a fist clutching a red rose, is pretty powerful, although there are also many images of an open, upraised hand, the open hand of peace as I’ve heard it called. And yes, there are t-shirts. Apparently someone was just giving them away to the stalwarts who are chairing groups and working day after day, but I heard something about you can bring your old shirt down and they’ll put the symbols on it? I couldn’t find The T-Shirt Guy, but you are perfectly at liberty to adopt any of my images and print them out on that iron-on transfer paper you can get at Staples or wherever.
In the daytime the lions had lost the hearts in their eyes (probably under the influence of Asshat, see above) but by sunset the hearts had been re-installed. While it’s a lovely image, ferocious, powerful predators looking at the world through love, isn’t putting something on their eyes what you do with corpses? I don’t know: my family’s so cheap that someone always pocketed the pennies before the wake was over.
One fellow, in true Turning Swords Into Ploughshares style, had a suede arrow quiver for his tripod, which was appropriate. After all the complaints yesterday about the litter smokers made, today was almost smoke-free, and the ones I did see smoking were conscientious about non-asshattery and containing their litter. There was also a volunteer sweeping the steps pretty regularly. And there was an anti-tobacco campaigner on the premises; it IS ironic to be enslaved to Big Tobacco, but you can bet your last bippy, whatever that is, that if I were so addicted I’d be pretty resentful to the people who market that shizz.
The fellow in the More Heart sign is hand-carved of awesome. If you run into him, talk to him, because he has Deep Thoughts and Shit, and more heart than is legally allowed under the Statues of British Columbia. We all need the courage to have More Heart lately; engaged emotion is the last frontier.
Then I got a lot of shots of manifestii, schedules, calls to order, and Lists Of Shit We Need Donated. If you can’t click to enlarge them, maybe I’ll embed them all after a page jump.
Planking at 4:20. OF COURSE.
The meditation circle is apparently a very powerful experience. The original security dude, the tall, lean, non-asshatty one, almost had tears in his eyes as he described it to me. It’s a better world already when security forces partake of meditation circles and have evanescent experiences therein. Maybe I’ll go and report back myself because…
Occupy Vancouver has a second wind now. Yes, the Celebrity Effect is in full effect: Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine (and could there be a more timely band name?) is going to attend and perform on Wednesday; no time specified yet. He’s been at Occupy LA for some time, apparently, and you can follow his Occupation travels on Twitter. Previously, of course, billionaire Russell Simmons has led meditations at Occupy Wall Street and volunteered to pay for the cleanup via Twitter, to much skepticism. Why’d he use Twitter, people ask…why not just email the mayor directly?
Because Russell Simmons understands the power of social media. You want to back people into a corner, you do it in public so they can’t weasel out.
Accessibility is a big part of Occupy Vancouver, but there’s an ongoing problem with people chaining their bikes to the ramps, which makes them impassable for the wheelchairs for which they were built. Again: don’t be the asshat. Don’t be That Guy.
Gotta love “Please treat this Porta-Potty as if it were your own” signs. So Canadian. And of course it’s Vancouver, so there’s coffee. Free coffee. I’d like to know how they hooked THAT up!
You know, should I for a moment hesitate to photograph people without their permission I just have to look at the Japanese girl to my left at Starbucks, who has been videoing nonstop since arriving at this cafe an hour ago. There IS no “Off-Camera” anymore.
My Dad is so proud of you
My Dad was born #887 Hornby in 1912. He is so proud of you all.
Ran into the Protest March through the Financial District at Howe and Pender. I was minding my own business, walking a friend to her next appointment, and then we saw flashing police lights and I said, “Let’s walk over this way” to nobody’s great surprise. Just caught the tail end of it, but it was substantial. At least a couple of hundred people, lots of signs.
At the VAG there was only one person I saw in an Anonymous mask, but s/he was making the most of it, getting the attention of passing cars. On Twitter there’s been some pushback about the masks and the concept of Lulz in general; people claim that the presence of jokers diminishes the entire movement, but this is getting it absolutely mathematically perfectly bass-ackwards: artists and jokesters are the way radical ideas first begin to integrate themselves into a society. If we got these hard truths from a straight man, we’d get our backs up. Shakespeare knew this when he wrote The Fool into King Lear.
Took a break and hit Cafe Artigiano, then back I went at about 6:00, just as the sunset light started. It gets cold at night; blankets, even those $2 space blankets from Canadian Tire, would be welcome.
Oh, I did see one of those Red Tents from the always-awesome Pivot Legal Society that were part of the Olympic protests. Good to see them still in use: sad to see they were necessary in the first place, and now more than ever.
I got a couple of shots of the beautiful Catherine and her partner David, modeling their signs, “Live in Harmony with Nature by Eliminating Price” and “Science vs Chaos.” Of course you know I’m all Team Chaos, but they were nice people anyway, from the Technocracy movement, and we had a great discussion about how the new paradigm hippies are skipping most of the 20th century and combining the best of the 17th with the best of the 21st, going off-grid with communications capabilities from the Digital Revolution.
It’s not every day you have those kinds of conversations, if you’re not an undergraduate.
Kyriarchy is a neologism coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza to describe interconnected, interacting, and multiplicative systems of domination and submission, within which a person oppressed in one context might be privileged in another.[1] It is an intersectional elaboration of the concept of patriarchy[1] — it extends the analysis of oppression beyond traditional feminism to dynamics such as sexism, racism, economic injustice, and other forms of internalized and institutionalized oppression[2].
Since Flickr will neither allow them to be viewable to the general public nor respond with anything like a solution via Support, I’ve decided to go ahead and upload all the photos here instead. Buh-bye Flickr!
So there’s my WordPress-specific slideshow from the Saturday night to Sunday Morning of Occupy Vancouver. I meant to get down there last night as well, but instead I blew up my friend’s blog and had to spend much time recreating it at WP.com (note to bloggers: DO YOUR BACKUPS!!!! Or you make the babby raincoaster cry).
Once again, however, the best shots are not mine. The BEST shot is this, from Jazmin Miranda:
Yes, I suck as a photographer. But I was there, and here’s what I saw, and below are my notes.
Flickr has hidden the photos behind a sign-in, so there will be a slight delay. Sorry. Bloody censors! Okay, guess what” That was entirely my fault. Should be fixed now. Sorry, Flickr!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The first thing I noticed on my way to Occupy Vancouver was that last night the Bay took the perfume out of the window displays, whereas on Friday night they hadn’t. Goddam those fucking Chanel #5 hooligans, spoiling midnight window shopping for the rest of us! Bloody one percenters!
Stopped for a few minutes to listen to the band the Sons of Granville. If you haven’t heard of them, you will. I don’t even LIKE live music, and they stopped me in my tracks. Let’s just say I’ve never seen a viola player go Full Jimi Hendrix before, but it was not something I’ll forget quickly (nor will the knees of his jeans, I’m thinking). Not sure what you’d call the music: roots rock on a viola, acoustic guitar, and percussionist who played a speaker? Something like that.
The scene was quite different from the night before, with perhaps 30 small tents (some, yes, staked, but mostly nowadays you don’t need to stake the tents because tension keeps them up) and maybe a thousand people when I first arrived. Perhaps 600 by midnight, hanging around and listening to some guy rock out on the mandolin. Yes, there were a lot of dreadlocks there; how’d you guess? Heard that the police asked them to shut off the amplification at 11pm (there was a brief panic on Twitter as “the cops are moving in” but that’s all it turned out to be). There are two expensive hotels overlooking the protest grounds, and I suppose there must be noise bylaws about such things, even though I noticed the Hotel Georgia had only one window lighted on the side facing the Art Gallery; they’ve obviously put most of their guests in the inferior-view-having East side of the building, so they don’t have to stare at dirty hippies all day.
In related news, our old friend Rumour has some more news: that the new Superman movie is scheduled to be filmed at the Art Gallery and many protesters have been given to understand, somehow, by persons nameless, that the protest will have to pack up so that the (very expensive) show can go on. They seem quite resigned to it, which surprises and disappoints me. Surely this is the very thing for which movie production insurance was invented! Take those bastards at AIG for millions, Paramount! Solidarity!!! Stand fast! Supes would want it that way!
The cops were hanging out, being cool, and not appearing to take much notice of anything. There was a resolution made while I was there that the cops should stay out of the tented area unless their presence is specifically requested there; not exactly sure whether the cops replied to that or even if a response was required, but I’d expect cops will do their jobs, and if that means wading in, they will so wade.
This is as good a place as any to remind people that you can download Civil disobedience guide and you should so do. It’s fascinating reading, and quite up-to-date, as the date on it is September 23rd of this year. It even gives a list of things you should/should not bring to a demonstration, and here is an excerpt (click to enlarge):
What to Bring to a Protest from the Guide to Civil Disobedience in BC
There, don’t say I never did nothing for ya. Also, if you add baking soda to the water in your bottles it’s better for staving off dehydration AND rinsing tear gas. Just sayin’. I learned that by reading the WHOLE document, as I’ve already mentioned you should do and if not, what have you got to do that’s more important, eh? You just never know when you’re gonna get tear-gassed lately.
Speaking of servicey protest posts…I learned something useful while frittering away the seconds (we live on internet time now, baby) over at LolJulian, the Julian Assange Fangirl Tumblr. This is: what is up with all the bloody chanting? Seriously, I was getting worried this was some sort of indoctrination procedure, but it turns out to be something not only benevolent, but useful too: the human microphone. I don’t feel stupid, though, because Julian clearly didn’t know what it was either, till someone explained it to him.
Since Julian Assange’s speech at Occupy in London yesterday, people seem to have been freaking out about one specific thing: the crowd repeated everything he said.
Now, everyone who is shouting “he thinks he’s the messiah!”, “who does he think he is, God?!”, “he’s become like a cult leader!!!”, “it’s like that scene from Life of Brian!!!!1”, take a moment and read this.
There’s something called the ‘human microphone’, you may not be familiar, I wasn’t either until a few days ago, but let me fill you in. It’s when a crowd of people repeats everything the person speaking to them says. That’s basically it. It’s been done plenty of times at many protests and such, and especially at several of the Occupy protests round the world.
Amongst many others, Slavoj Žižek and Michael Moore are fairly well known names who have spoken to Occupy protesters, and the crowd repeated everything they said also, you can find videos on YouTube.
If you still don’t believe me and just want to pick on something else Julian Assange has done, just watch the video above. About 1 second in you hear a woman shout ‘human mic!’ and again a few seconds later. Julian starts his speech 8 seconds in, and is quickly interrupted by the crowd repeating what he had said. He looks a bit confused for a moment, then a couple seconds later, at about 11 seconds in, someone out of the frame apparently informs him as to what’s happening.
So, what is it they say on Mythbusters? Oh, right, busted.
Right then. Still sorta creepy if you’re not expecting it.
By the way, who’s this Mike Check they keep yelling for? He sure is popular.
I did climb out on the lions to see what was on their eyes, but it was only hearts, no actual words. Someday a shrink is going to lecture me about my tendency to see patterns and layers of meaning where there aren’t any, but that day is not today. In any case, the lions have love in their eyes, awwww.
Which is as good a place as any to mention that the Occupy Vancouver site is overlooked by skyscrapers housing HSBC, the world’s largest bank, the Toronto Dominion building, the Four Seasons, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, and, off in the distance, the Royal Bank building. Kitty corner is the building that used to and may still house IBM.
Sad that the last photo in the set is of the memorial water fountain that was put in place during the early years of the last century to provide drinking water to the urban poor.
Too much for just one post, so you get a bonus! UPDATE: actually, Flickr doesn’t want you to see these inflammatory photos, so just scroll up to one of the posts where I told Flickr to go fuck its censorship-happy Yahooligan self and uploaded the pix to WordPress.com. Should I ever get a break, I’ll sit down and repair this post. UPDATE: Done. Turned out to be my fault for setting them as Moderate in the uploader. I didn’t even know you could do that.
I spoke to the same security guard that I encountered yesterday and tonight instead of being nervous, he was … stoked. That’s pretty much the only word for it. He was stoked! Far from fearing the Anonymous masks, he was now focused on the community-building in situ, something he’d heard about but never seen for himself. The democratic process was impressive: the security woman at the medical tent, who couldn’t have been more supportive if she HAD been wearing one of those masks, told me they’d come to six resolutions, there was a free food tent (donations accepted) and it had been uniformly peaceful, to the obvious disappointment of a couple of standers-by.
As expected, it was fairly left-leaning, although there was also a strong Libertarian presence and they are attempting to keep the livestream as apolitical as possible. They’ve come up with a statement from the General Assembly, which is basically everybody there who wants to vote, which is basically EVERYBODY THERE. That should put paid to the “if they can’t say what they want in 140 characters, forget it!” people. What ever happened to good old manifestos, anyway?
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15TH, 2011 VANCOUVER ART GALLERY
Occupy Vancouver – A Non Violent Movement for Social, Economic and Political Change
We, the Ninety-Nine Percent, come together with our diverse experiences to transform the unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power and wealth in our city and around the globe. We challenge corporate greed, corruption, and the collusion between corporate power and government. We oppose systemic inequality, militarization, environmental destruction, and the erosion of civil liberties and human rights. We seek economic security, genuine equality, and the protection of the environment for all.
We are inspired and in solidarity with global movements including those across the Middle East, Europe, and the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Together movement in over 1000 cities in North America. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
We humbly acknowledge that Occupy Vancouver is taking place on unceded Coast Salish territories.
We are committed to an inclusive and welcoming space, to addressing issues of oppression and discrimination, and to creating an environment where all the 99% can be heard and can meaningfully participate. We are also committed to safeguarding our collective well-being – including safety from interpersonal violence and any potential police violence.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a working statement that we know will evolve as #OccupyVancouver grows and flourishes. Our demands and our dreams are not limited to this statement as we have many ideas and solutions. As stated by #OccupyTogether, no one group, person, or website could ever speak for this diverse gathering of individuals. However, the General Assembly on October 8th reached consensus to accept these broad principles as a starting point and there will be further discussion on October 15th at 10 am at the General Assembly at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
And as for resolutions of the General Assembly, well, they are all nice people, they are letting anyone speak, they are willing to consider any and all positions and objections and amendments, but remember:
The Occupy Wall Street movement that is slowly gaining steam in New York City is the change that I have been anticipating for much of my lifetime.
I have warned that a ‘revolution’ is coming. But on the other hand, I have called for change. I admit I have vacillated between embracing a world where the corporate agenda has lost its influence and ‘selling out’ to secure my economic future.
The revolution is upon us. It won’t be a Storming of the Bastille sort of revolution- or so I still hope. It’s going to be organic and more peaceful a la Gandhi; it will be in the numbers of participants, rather than in any violence that the change will take place.
Indeed, it will gain moral strength with every act of violence committed by those defending the status quo. Sadly, the defenders of the status quo is the role the New York Police Department is fated to play out.
REAL, deep and profound change doesn’t happen with a convenient sound bite or even a speech.
It happens because people vote with their feet. It may seem that what they are doing is unfocused right now. But as people slowly realize that their economic interests are being compromised by forces beyond their control and that all they have to do is stop what they’re doing and assemble to be counted, the momentum for change will accelerate.
We are not yet anywhere near a critical mass for spontaneous ‘revolution’ but I cannot help but keep my eye on this movement. Hell, I might even get on a plane and fly to New York to go see what is happening for myself. Seriously. This is the real thing.
Are we at all surprised it’s happening now? The largest demographic in the American population is the kids of baby boomers. They are unemployed, endebted and mad as hell. They see their parents retirement dreams vaporized. Their futures appear condemned to a losing battle against organizations that get rights but bear no responsibility for their actions. They see injustice everywhere and they have the time on their hands to affect the change they need to rebalance the wrongs.
And they make their flower-power parents look like kids making daisy chains in their sophistication and connectedness. To the establishment, they are truly dangerous and the first management tool to diffuse their frustration is extinguishment: to simply ignore them.
Three Little Pigs by Jerome Kashetsky
Remember that in BC the gap between the top 1% and the other 99 is larger and faster-growing than in the US. Remember also that Canada has more billionaires per capita than any other nation, and that Vancouver has more of them than any other city in Canuckistan except possibly Toronto. And hell, anybody who lives in Toronto instead of Vancouver is already suffering enough, right? Amirite?
Sorry, protests r srs bzns.
Goddam Organizers cheaped out! OccupyBakeries!
Should you wish to Occupy Grocery Stores on behalf of Occupy Vancouver, here is the wish list from the food tent:
and the wish list for the rest is topped by: INTERNET! If you have one of those Wind, Mobilicity, Telus, etc, internet sticks and you would like to donate it, please do. If you’ve got the makings of your own mesh network or what have you, please hook up with the Media Committee. And here’s the rest of the wish list:
Media team
walkie talkies
press passes
whiteboard
printer, ink, paper
tables, chairs, media tent
rocket stick (prepaid)
Boom mic and stand
extension cables
super long internet cable
4 power bars
External hard drives
SD cards
Apple laptops with final cut pro
PC laptops with premier or AVID
HD cameras
Cables (USB, FireWire, etc)
flip HD camera
Any other film/video equipment (lights, generators, Gaffer tape, power cables,
If anyone has any of the following items and is willing to donate or loan them for Occupy Vancouver, please email occupyvancouvercontribute at gmail.com
raincoaster 