normcore?

i have to assume that we've collectively ridiculed comic sans to the point that the cool has flipped and it is now acceptable to use as a protest typeface.

re: eric garner

Over 100 Broadway stars, directors, producers, musicians, choreographers, designers and technicians from some of the most prominent productions gathered in front of the police station in Times Square on Tuesday. They wanted to send a message about police violence and the killing of Eric Garner. ‪#‎itstopstoday‬ ‪#‎blukluxklan‬ (via)

did you guys hear...

...about the thai protesters that are using the hunger games fingerz?

NO MORE BARILLA!

Guido Barilla the guy who owns the pasta company was talking some shit about gay families in a recent interview and went so far as to say "if the gays don't like it they can go eat another brand." Don't mind if I do, jackass!

 TIME FOR A BOYCOTT!

Ole Miss confirms its conservative (racist) bonifides

Two people were arrested after more than 400 gathered on the University of Mississippi campus chanting political slogans and racial slurs during a protest of the results of Tuesday's presidential election. 

Ole Miss officials said in a statement released Wednesday that shortly before midnight after messages were sent out on Twitter that students gathered near the student union on the campus in Oxford. 

The crowd of 400 was dispersed by university police, but about 25 minutes later, another crowd of about 100 gathered in front of one of the campus dorms. 

“While we are grateful that there were no injuries and there was no property damage, we are very disappointed in those students who took a very immature and uncivil approach to expressing their views about the election,” said University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones in a news release. “The gathering seems to have been fueled by social media, and the conversation should have stayed there.”

nErD aLeRt!

tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the protest by architects' group AGBANY (terrible name) to save the old pretty penn station from being turned into a peeps-and-poops-soiled nightmare. it failed, obvi, but is noted by most to me the beginning of the modern architectural preservation movement. the new york times recounts the story of the dedicated new york architects who tried to save her.

Philip Johnson was impeccably present, in the company of the peerless Elizabeth Bliss Parkinson, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, who would soon be its president. There was Aline B. Saarinen, the widow of Eero Saarinen, who had been until 1959 an associate art critic at The New York Times. Agbany counted Eleanor Roosevelt, Stewart Alsop, Jane Jacobs and Norman Mailer among its supporters, along with many of the most respected names in architecture and architectural criticism. (via)

poor saps.

million hoodie march

The family of Trayvon Martin joined thousands of demonstrators, who teamed up with Occupy Wall Street, to march across New York City last night to protest the shooting death of the Florida teenager. The "Million Hoodie March," as it was dubbed, was organized to show support for the Martin family and call for the arrest of the George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Martin last month, but has not been charged after claiming self-defense. Martin's parents spoke to crowd to thank them for their support and continue to push for chages to be filed against Zimmerman. Martin's mother Sabrina Fulton told the gathered protesters that "My son is your son." (via)

what it's like in syria

A French journalist has smuggled out some of the clearest footage yet of the dramatic and dangerous ongoing battle in Homs. The 11-minute report, which was broadcast on Britain's Channel 4, shows mourners rallying over dead bodies without coffins, children suffering from shrapnel wounds in makeshift hospitals, and armed fighters doing battle with government snipers in the street. Be warned that some of the images of blood and wounds are quite graphic. (via)

nerd alert: photography

Famous photographs with the subjects removed.
 Can you name all four?

via animal

time magazine's person of the year

(surprisingly, it's not pitbull...)

"the protestor". cover by shepard fairey.

Time's editor Rick Stengel said the Protester was chosen, “For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century." Very lofty.

The initial gut reaction on Twitter seems to be one of derision, as Time has gone with a faceless human mass instead of picking a single person (like Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who Time mentions in the story and is widely acknowledged as the person who set off the "Arab Spring.")  In 2006, Time chose "You" (with a mirrored cover) to much disappointment. They also once picked the personal computer as "Machine of the Year" and Earth as "Planet of the Year," proving that it should probably just be "Story of the Year" if they aren't going to acknowledge an actual person. By not picking any one individual, they've basically chosen no one. (via)

squidding is the new tebowing.

today #OWS is "squidding" goldman sachs. it's unclear exactly how this is manifesting itself but it's based on this 2010 matt taibbi quote.

it seems they have made several big squid puppets. they're also promising a dramatic conclusion. i can't wait.

some of their grievances against goldman sachs are wrapped up in their west coast action today to shut down the ports. they have reportedly successfully caused the closing of the ports of portland, oakland, and long beach.

a compelling case

you may have heard about a recent #occupywallstreet initiative, involving a hunger strike outside of duarte square (canal + sixth ave). the demands of the strike include being allowed to use the space as the new zucchini park. the plaza is owned by trinity church, which has been fairly supportive of the movement, sheltering protestors at times. a common reaction (it was mine) was that a hunger strike is a bit of a disproportional approach to gaining a new gathering space. additionally, many argue that this protest no longer requires a physical space, and that these efforts are a digression from more important goals.

this morning, i read an editorial piece written by one of a group of clergy members who assembled to hear and evaluate the movement's request to use their plaza:

That morning a dozen occupiers addressed forty or so clergy. We clergy were all somewhat skeptical of the demand for public space. You could hear the ministerial, rabbinical hrumph, hrumph in the room. (Most of us had never occupied Zucotti Park and a downward trend in temperature wasn’t going to improve on that.) But the occupiers edged toward the theological as they articulated a need for communal, inspirational, face-to-face contact in which they could “appear” to one another.

Secondly, they talked about the nearly complete privatization of municipal public space in a way that made a deep and tragic sense. Where can you go if you don’t own something? Does a public even exist if it has no space? The great irony is that they have been called the virtual demonstration, and here they were talking about old-fashioned, in-person, human interaction.

Third, they talked about the increasing surveillance of most space, private or public—the self-surveillance on Facebook, the constant camera, and the ask-no-questions “security” cordons. They reminded me of one of my first posts on this whole matter: we no longer march and the police pen us for “our own good.” What nonsense. A completely nonviolent movement does not need to be penned up for its own good.

And finally, they spoke of a new monasticism, in which people have given up everything to jump to a future they can only imagine. In the most recent newsletter posted by Occupy Theory [as of this posting, the site is down —Eds.], occupiers describe how sad they were about their lives, both present and future, until they found each other. If you were worried about “young people today” before, you will be terrified after you read about the emptiness, the bought-and-soldness, the futility, the lack of any place to be or person to be. (via)

worth a read.

it's an active #ows day

follow along with their livestream.

around 5 or 6pm, theyre supposedly going to occupy the bridges. so that should be good tv.

everyone get ready.

Occupy's website calls for a 7 a.m. meeting at Zuccotti Park, where protesters will try to "shut down Wall Street" by "confront[ing] Wall Street with the stories of people on the frontlines of economic injustice," the idea being to "exchange stories rather than stocks." Then they're going to spread out to 16 different subway stations throughout the five boroughs and do more storytelling there through general assemblies at the stations. Finally, the plan is to assemble in the evening at Foley Square and march to "our bridges" (which ones are not specified, but the closest is the Brooklyn Bridge). (via)

bonus link:
download the poster

jicydak.

#occupywallstreet got kicked out of their occupied park this morning.

ooooohhh i wonder what's going to happen?!!?

omgstopstopstopstopstopstopSTOP.

watch some berkeley police poke the shit out of some student protesters.

As reported by the Oakland Tribune, yesterday Berkeley students held a rally to protest privatization and increased education costs. To show solidarity with the Occupy Everywhere movement, some of the protesters set up tents on Sproul Plaza. When riot gear cops showed up to remove the tents, the students reportedly "linked arms and formed a circle" around their camp. Naturally, this resulted in a showdown, police batons a-waving, and multiple arrests. According to the Daily Californian, seven protesters were led away in cuffs, while several others were treated for stomach, arm, and head injuries caused by those batons. (via)

ouch ouch OUCH!

look at tennessee go.

A judge told Tennessee officials on Monday to stop enforcing new rules that have been used to arrest Occupy protesters in Nashville.

The decision was a victory for the fledgling movement and for the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, which sought a temporary restraining order to block a curfew put in place last week.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger issued the order, which state officials did not fight.

"Political expression deserves the highest level of protection and it was unacceptable for the state to suddenly shut down protesters' speech and forcibly oust them from Legislative Plaza that has long been used as a place for peaceful expression," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director at the ACLU of Tennessee. (via)

this happened at #occupyoakland last night

At around 9:30 p.m., there was a tense faceoff between protesters and police officers on Broadway at 14th Street. About 100 officers, some appearing to be sheriff’s deputies, stood behind a metal barricade in full riot gear and wearing gas masks, while on the other side people pressed against the barricade, waving peace signs and chanting slogans. A few protesters hurled objects — what looked like water bottles — at the police, while over a loud speaker, officers instructed people to disperse or risk “chemical agents.”
...
Shortly after 9:30 p.m. the announcements stopped. Moments later, the police began firing canisters of tear gas into the crowd. Many people ran, but a few protesters wearing gas masks stayed and continued to throw things at the police. Those who had been affected by the gas coughed repeatedly and appeared to weep. Some stooped before a woman who volunteered to rinse reddened eyes. (via)

woah.

(via)

way to go, nashville.

occupying it up.