Creativity is Occupy Movement's middle name

I didn't see "Cheyenne" or "Wyoming" flash on this building but maybe next time...

Here's what this is all about:

One of the most impressive moments of yesterday's Occupy Wall Street marches, was when someone projected a giant 99% "bat signal" on the side of one of lower Manhattan's skyscrapers as thousands of people swarmed across the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. New Yorkers know the Verizon Building as the windowless, concrete eyesore that looms over the bridge and mars the downtown skyline, so seeing it used is such a way certainly got a lot of attention. 

But who did it? And how were they able to project the stories-high words on the building just as the protesters made their way over the span? Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin spoke to Mark Read, one of the Occupy Wall Street organizer who pulled together a team of friends and artists that arranged for the projection to happen. 

Read says he got help from two video projection artists, Max Nova and JR Skola, who used a 12,000 lumen projector and programmed the software needed to properly program the message. He also found an apartment in a nearby housing project from where they safely angle the projection on to the building. He says he offered to rent the apartment from a single mother of three, but when she found out what they wanted to use it for — and saw what happened during the eviction of Zuccotti Park — she refused to take their money.

Music by Hans Zimmer, To Know My Enemy. 

Some of this is new to me. There is now a category known as "video projection artists?" And a 12,000-lumen projector? It must be huge. 

Cool vid from Occupy Denver's Oct. 8 rally

There are at least two people I know in this time-lapse vid

Billionaires for Wealthcare members welcome the Koch Brothers' Tea Party Express to Cheyenne

All of us local Billionaires for Wealthcare members are gathering in downtown Cheyenne Monday for cocktails and sign-waving. 

The Tea Party Express is rolling into town Monday, Aug. 29, funded by our fellow billionaires, the unfairly maligned Koch Brothers. If you want to act like a billionaire and believe that wealthcare is all we need in this country and the poor and middle classes have it too good because Social Security is a "disease" then come to our rally for billionaires. Dress like the opulent rich person that you are -- tiaras, tuxes, long gloves, formal wear, or whatever. 

We will gather at Capitol Avenue and Lincolnway (16th Street) at 5:30 p.m. Don't be late. That's so gauche.

For more information or to see examples go to www.billionairesforwealthcare.com.

FMI: 307-631-3410 or 631-9990. 

TELL YOUR BILLIONAIRE FRIENDS!

Imagine a protest with imaginative signs

My fellow progressive blogger at thepoliticalenvironment in Wisconsin had the following to say about free speech and protest. Pictured above is an example of the of the "angry, distasteful signs" on display at Saturday's rally in Madison.

Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary, on behalf of Gov. Walker, told a Madison judge Tuesday that the display of "angry, disdainful signs" was one reason that protesters should be denied access to the State Capitol.

Mean signs? Really? Should we pull up the Tea Party photo album?

No need - - as Wednesday the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that truly angry, disdainful signs displayed weirdly and offensively by anti-gay protesters at US military soldiers' funerals is legally protected free speech under the US Constitution.

Huebsch picked the wrong day to complain about signs.

Another miscalculation by the Walker Gang, and for now, the Capitol remains open - - though Huebsch and Co., in slowing down the flow of people through the doors, seem to playing fast and loose with the word "open."

Two upcoming arts & justice events in Denver

These listings come from the "Open Letter," the weekly newsletter of Denver's Capitol Heights Presbyterian/10:30 Catholic Community and edited by Monte Clark. The 10:30 CC was my family's church when we lived in Denver. My son was baptized there. An incredible group of people (many of them community organizers) pray on both sides of the pew. The newsletter features two great arts-oriented events coming up in September:

“CATHOLIC LITERARY IMAGINATION: WHAT WOULD JESUS VIEW?” LECTURER AND AUTHOR – HOPKINS POETRY CONFERENCE on Thursday, September 17, 7 p.m. at St. John Francis Regis Chapel. Featuring Dr. Ron Hansen. Dr. Hansen was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and educated at Creighton University, the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop, and at Stanford University, where he held a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship. He has received fellowships from the Michigan Society of Fellows, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lyndhurst Foundation, and was presented with an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Professor Hansen has taught fiction and screenwriting at such institutions as Stanford, Michigan, Cornell, Iowa, Arizona, and is now the Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University in California. His novels include "Mariette In Ecstasy" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by that Coward Robert Ford."

PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE ROMERO THEATER TROUPE as we work to return Labor Day to the people. We will perform Voices From the Worker's Struggle, a series of scenes from American Labor History, past and present, including several traditional labor folk songs. Our show begins on Labor Day, September 7, at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Park Amphitheater, 11th and Osage, next to the swimming pool. Seating is limited, so it's first-come, first-served. This will be the final public presentation in Denver of what has been a two-year journey of bringing the history of the Workers' Struggle to the community through Organic Theater. This is a free show. The People's Labor Day begins at Lincoln Park at 2 p.m. with free food open to the community. The afternoon's events include poetry, music, and children's games. All are welcome. The United Food and Commercial Workers and Jobs With Justice are co-sponsoring this exciting event. For more information, check out the website at http://www.romerotroupe.org/

Who would Jesus vote for?

These Repubs in Denver during DNC are close personal friends of Jesus and know that the Dems walking the 16th Street Mall in Denver are doomed.

Return of anti-war street theater

A group of performers from Iraq Veterans Against the War took it to the streets of Manhattan during Memorial Day weekend and in Chicago in June. Go here for the YouTube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkcwVGiEv48

Here's a short description from The Nation:

Pointing imaginary guns and roughing up "Iraqi civilians", a group of antiwar veterans brought the realities of the Iraq debacle to Manhattan, in a Memorial Day protest that briefly turned the streets of the city into a combat zone. In "Operation First Casualty," a half-dozen members of Iraq Veterans Against the War employed the tactics of street theater to stage mini-dramas in Times Square, Union Square and the World Trade Center site, simulating sniper fire and staging mock arrests of
fellow protesters who portrayed Iraqis. The group plans to take Operation First Casualty to the streets of Chicago June 17.

A reminder of the street theater of the Vietnam era. Vietnam Veterans Against the War often put on playlets to distress the populace. During one at a University of Florida homecoming parade, VVAW actors waged a mock battle among the marching bands and frat floats. Some of these same guys were indicted as the Gainesville 8 for conspiring to disrupt the Miami Republican Convention in Miami during the summer of '72. The trial yielded no indictments but plenty of headlines, at least in Florida. I recreated the UF homecoming demonstration in my short story, "Water People on the Shore." You can get a copy of the 2006 book through your local bookseller or at Ghost Road Press. Read a sample at my web site.