Another Week In Occupied New York - Keep Shopping, Everything's Fine

My OWS 'un-logo'

This is a story about a frog. They say if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will instinctively jump out. Because it is fucking hot. But if you put the frog into a pot of cool water and turn on the flame, he will sit patiently as the water warms, then heats, then boils - until he dies. This is what happens when little changes are made over time, instead of all at once. This week progressed with President Obama passing the NDAA (National Defence Authorization Act) legalizing detention of American citizens on American soil without charge, indefinitely, which in reality, could be forever. Nobody blinked. Whilst Bradley Manning, a young military officer, who allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. He exposed what the Pentagon and the Bush administration did in creating this evil and did so by allegedly leaking documents and footage to Wikileaks. Many of these documents dealt not only with Iraq but with how we prop up dictators around the world and how our corporations exploit the poor on this planet. Saturday was his birthday and 570 days in military detention. Nobody blinked. 

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Earlier in the year, the original Pentagon Papers were released (photo). Blinking was not an option.

Monday: The week began for me at Spokes Council, a roundtable discussion of OWS topics for the week. After Spokes Council many issues are forwarded to the General Assembly (GA) in the form of motions to be voted upon. Discussions ranged from Diversity to the focus on being a world movement vs. just a city franchise to housing eventually 400 people here in New York alone. An argument rose on the legality of independent film makers to film during the meeting. Live streaming is common in an effort to encourage transparency (like Cspan coverage of congress) but journalists are not allowed in closed OWS meetings. I made the point that independent film and documentary film makers are essentially a business. They enter film festivals in order to gain distribution for their products. It was decided that independent film makers would not be allowed to shoot - although one woman, just ignored it and kept on filming. 


A Racial Justice framework was encouraged and I was encouraged to speak with Tech Ops and Media regarding work on our website. On this day my old computer died, like I needed something else to work on. Good time to talk to Tech Ops. A man from the Finance group stands up and tells everyone that OWS has $375,000 in the bank, but this number doesn't make any sense to me - not without knowing what it costs per day to exist, how much we have coming in per day in donations and how much of a horizon we have on that money. Another woman stands up and rails against the Spokes Council for not investigating an estimated $350,000 in unaccounted for cash from media. For an organization that espouses transparency there is nowhere anyone can go to see a proper balance sheet, or projections for the future. Maybe we don't have them. In any case, transparency and spending, remain ongoing and thorny issues.

Tuesday: I spent the day in the office at OWS and briefly had the opportunity to go to Washington to meet with the Congressional Progressive Caucus - until that meeting was canceled due to a media leak in Washington. That caucus is primarily Democratic and the decision was made to abort, wanting to keep our affiliation, and the press reporting of such, with any party neutral. Tuesday ended with my weekly meeting with Dr. Kim Hopper and Cindy. Always interesting, I arrived in a flurry of new clothing and clean shaven exuberance due to an early Christmas gift from Freya. We talked of OWS' dealing with homelessness as a factor in the Occupation and how OWS handles the various medical and psychological issues that present themselves when 500 people with different agendas try to live and form global policy together (is that funny or what?).

Wednesday: The morning began as the first 'sleep in' we've enjoyed thus far. That meant we were able to sleep past 8 and ready ourselves for a 10am meeting with Starhawk, a facilitator from the west coast. Starhawk's focus was intended to be a primer to consensus decision making but the gathering quickly turned into more of a support group meeting. A man cried, on his admission that he felt he had found a home, a common ground, a family. "Finally I am in a room full of people I can share with", he said. There are more than one of us like that. Zeke read letters he had collected from participants at the park and the irony of the phrase, "Liberty and justice for all". Don talked about being arrested for skateboarding. A woman railed against people with NYU degrees and proudly called herself a ghetto bitch just getting her 2 cents worth in - which was more like two bucks. Later she was supported by another woman who related that sexual abuse as a teen and young woman had made her rant in public as well. And think. And grow. And aim for strength in confidence. So much to feel.  Is it hard to do things with so much personality crisis in the way? But everyone does. Just here, it comes out in the open.

Thursday: Ben Cohen is mostly know for being the Ben of Ben & Jerry's. But when he's waiting for the coffee pot at the OWS office and I'm the barrista, he's just another customer. He talks fundraising with another member. We all thank him for serving ice cream in Zuccotti park as he did on so many days during the physical occupation. He has life experience we can use. Everyone knows that. Young, overeducated and underemployed the occupiers have been called. That's not entirely true. Ben occupies with us.

The Guggenheim NY

Friday: I had been told that Friday was the day at the Guggenheim where you could enter for a "suggested donation". You could suggest a penny, as opposed to the $18 they normally ask. I am reminded that art is a business and not a public service. Michelangelo did not paint the Sistine Chapel for free. Leaving the church early for my walk across Central Park to the museum I found it a glorious morning - light filtering through trees, bouncing off east side cornices to light a path for the runners. I have no camera so I can only see with my pen. Something good about that. The exhibit today is Maurizio Cattelean and it is called All. I arrive early and talk to a street artist outside. He bemoans the fact that you don't need a license to sell art on the street in New York and says it has resulted in tons of shit hitting the streets. He talks of a woman buying his art, and then photocopying it to sell in Midtown. Thieves. 


Everybody steals everything in the creative arts - but in museums, stealing is called 'appropriation'. That's when one artist takes an idea from another artist and uses it. That's how Andy Warhol was able to appropriate a soup can and call it art. People who design soup cans and FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) labels are artists too. But they are called 'commercial' artists - something, somehow less than real artists because they admit they are paid for the work, or it is an industrial service, or some such thing. Maurizio Cattelan is a real artist - but I'm sure he licenses his work so the Guggenheim can make posters, t-shirts and coffee mugs from it - yes, which would make him commercial. But let's not talk about that now. Let's see what he's All about.


All is a retrospective of the artist's work. To have a retrospective at the Guggenheim while still living is quite the accomplishment. So I enter the ticket line. Once meeting an attendant I inquire about the 'suggested donation' plan and am told that that program has been moved to Saturday from 5:45 pm to 7:45 pm. Imagine that - letting the poor people in when the museum is the least busy and people who can afford $18 are busy having dinner before the theatre. Best to keep those two groups apart - so the rich people don't feel poorly about being rich and the poor people don't feel richly about being treated like society at large.


But with no ticket at all I am still allowed to stand at the base of Frank Lloyd Wright's inverted ziggurat and view, what for this exhibit, is all of the artist's work. Rather than hang the pieces on walls or keep sculptures on the floor, Cattelan has chosen to use the negative space of the interior as his canvas and hung all of the work, suspended in time, so to speak, with nothing on the walls or floor at all. That alone is impressive at least. But aside from that are the looks of the kids who are part of a school tour of the facility. They gape wondrously at all the images hung precariously from the ceiling - pigeons, donkeys and carts, a shopping cart that is three times longer than a conventional one, hanging male mannequins, a reclining Pope. Who knows what it's all about. That, I guess, is what one learns when they are able to see the entire show, from top to bottom as gravity will encourage at the Guggenheim - scheduled for another day.


Walking through Central Park afterwards an a Capella  group sings in the tunnel of Bethesda fountain. The light there through the archway is magical in the day growing towards noon and the music matches. Out of the park I veer to the west side towards the Apple store on 67th and on the way is Lincoln Center. I can remember the last time I was there in 1991 for the CLIO awards, advertising's version of the Oscars. I had been to Lincoln Center the year before for the same event and our hosts were Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) and Nipsy Russell (unfunny comedian). With that unlikely pair as hosts I should have known things were going south for the show in short order.


"The 1991 ceremony is referred as 'The Most Bizarre Event in Advertising History,' because it was a complete debacle. Attendees who had paid the $125 admission price did not have tickets waiting at the door, as promised. Also missing were Clio officials and Clio President, Bill Evans. The event did not start on time; in fact, people stood around drinking, schmoozing and trading rumors about Evans and the Clio organization for over two hours. Finally, the lights dimmed and the band started playing. A man walked up to the microphone and began to speak. He identified himself as the caterer and announced that the master of ceremonies was a no-show, but that he would give it a shot. It started out well, but after being informed that there was no script and no winners list, he gave up and walked off. A second fellow walked onstage and began talking, but was not a polished speaker; it was obvious that he was inebriated. Print ads were the first awards, When the last award in the category was dispensed, the band began playing an interlude, and the emcee began singing. The audience began booing and throwing dinner rolls, and the drunk staggered offstage. Several minutes passed, but no one took his place. As the people began to leave, one man mounted the stage, strode to the table of remaining statuettes, snatched one up, and waved it as he left the stage. Two other individuals claimed their own awards; then suddenly, the stage was stampeded by a feeding frenzy of advertising executives, intent on grabbing the Clios that remained."


Due to the disorganization of the event I have no idea if I won anything or not. I had had five works shortlisted that year - twenty years ago. One has to ask themselves what had gone wrong in the intervening years. As far as the Clios went, owner Bill Evans had allegedly become a coke-head and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1992. I myself missed the drug habit and have yet to file for bankruptcy. For that, one needs to have had at least had enough money to have run up a debt to be forgiven. Still debt free, I am also job free and house free these days, so going into chapter 13 doesn't really seem to be an issue.


I realize that I write this blog always from a point of view that I will not be jobless nor homeless forever. I realize that that belief taints the POV. What if I never rise from this station. What if this is permanent? If you look at the facts and figures regarding poverty in the US the one thing sure is that we are making more poor people and the rich people are getting richer. Thinking positive and being hopeful are always ways we tell ourselves to be - but what if the mathematics just simply don't work? What if it is statistically impossible to beat poverty? I see the way our government and our society are not working at all towards a more equal distribution of wealth - and I protest that fact at OWS - but that job doesn't pay either. 

Bloomscrooge & me

Saturday: D17, Occupy Wall Street's 3rd Anniversary was billed as a grand reoccupation of a not so grand piece of ground - a Trinity Church property adjacent to Duarte Square at Canal and 6th St. Trinity, being both a church and the third largest land holder in NYC had been encouraged by clergy citywide to 'deed' an occupation site to OWS thereby showing their firm commitment to the movement. Trinity has been both praised and derided since the start of Occupy for at once, supporting the movement through their community center, Charlotte's Place whilst secondly, not doing much to help since the early morning police raid of Zuccotti Park on November 15th. In the end, OWS's attempted reoccupation of a private park, against church wishes, didn't do much to help the movement and whilst the day was spirited and fun in many ways, helping to get OWS back together for a public gathering, things ground to a slow trickle by 6pm once the requisite number of arrests had been made, obligatory photographs of supposed police brutality made and a pretty damn fun puppet show featuring mayor Bloomscrooge staged - but more generally"Much ado about nothing in the end", the bard proclaimed.


The day finished out with the first attempt of an OWS film festival at 56 Walker. Having seen literally hundreds of videographers and filmmakers during our occupation of Zucotti Park it was refreshing and enlightening to see the events from distinctly different POVs. My prevailing thoughts during the screenings 

were that the world needed to see these images, as mainstream media (MSM) doesn't at all seem to represent the movement at it's finest. These films did. Thanks to all the filmmakers and I hope this library and screenings grows as the movement progresses.


Sunday: Sunday featured an OWS 'unconference' at Pace University where skeletal presentations are featured but the conference grows as participants are encouraged to make spontaneous presentations on whatever they want, time permitting. I had become familiar with the unconference format from the Barcamp tech gatherings in Saigon and thought it was a worthwhile format for OWS - a sort of 'think as you go' format. More of these can certainly work to our advantage.


Monday: Monday ended after I had just cooked dinner at the church and did all the dishes for sixty by being told by one of the mangers that I didn't get a weekly Metrocard. Whilst knowing me as a resident of the church, he was not aware that I had spent 48 days in the park and accumulated all the media you see in the right sidebar under AHBINYC Media for OWS. Now I've been told that only work for official working groups is regarded as work worthy of the organization paying for all my transportation to work I am not paid for. So what I read from the organization is that the work I do individually for them is not valued - nor is the work people do by occupying Zuccotti Park, going on marches or other activities - unless of course, it is sanctioned by an official working group. 


Seems oddly like we are moving to a structure much like the one we are protesting - and just like that frog, mentioned at the beginning of this post, we may fail to realize that until we are summarily boiled in our own process - nickel and diming ourselves to death while the rich get richer.