This is awesome. Check out the Bass Player, Ray Brown

Love that smile. He is a happy guy, playing with the best. He takes a half-minute solo 8 minutes in, completely smooth and unpretentious.



Man, is this so good. This is exactly what I need right now.

The pianist is Gene Harris, another dude absolutely sick with talent.

Oh yeah.

Occupy Oakland in Photos

I can't believe that this Occupy movement has been going on for this long and this is the first visit I made to Zombietime for his excellent photo coverage of Occupy Oakland. He's a truly skilled photographer documentarian who always gets the most pertinent footage by embedding himself within the protests.

I mean, who wants to see pictures of police hitting a guy who asks for it? That happens everyday, thankfully, but it's sort of boring. Or, what about photos of cute protesters? Go to a Russian Bride site for cuties, for heaven's sake. Zombietime captures the essence of the movement from the inside actually exposing the audience to it. Pictures like this one with the man's comments really do speak a thousand words:

Even more disturbingly, all over the camp were signs that said 'Not a toilet,' because some occupiers basically relieve themselves wherever and whenever they feel the urge. Disgusted campers started putting up signs so that their particular tents wouldn't be on the receiving end of any effluvia.

The entire page is long but worth it and ends an update on the teargassing the city was forced into complete with video and news links. I don't know if mainstream outlets don't want to show drug use, buckets of human filth and words on like shit and fuck but how else can you really capture the zeitgeist of the Occupy Movement?

"Slurp up the banality of existence with a krazy-straw of resistance." Is the Krazy Straw a symbol of consumerist enslavement? Is this a failed chant committed to writing? I'll let you decide.

"Last week was free love"

The NY Post talks about some problems at the good ol' #OWS gatherings that we didn't really see so much at the Tea Parties.

A volunteer at the park admitted concern among protesters about STDs.

“We give directions to clinics if people ask for information regarding STDs,” said the volunteer, who identified himself only as “Captain” and added that pregnancy tests are also a hot item.

“Like anything else, it happens. People ask, and we do the best we can for them.”

Volunteers at the medical tent hand out cash, usually $15 or $20, so the randy radicals can visit clinics that cater to a low-income clientele, the source said.

Experts said it’s the right thing to do.

“My advice for the protesters would be to practice safer sex. It’s a lot cheaper to buy a condom than get treated for an STD,” said Dr. Lisa Oldson, medical director of Chicago-based Analyte Health, which provides testing services for labs nationwide, including STD Test Express New York.

This reminds me of a friend of mine who is a registered independent and what I describe as a Radical Moderate, i.e., someone who thinks the conservatives and liberals are all a bunch of asses. He is smart and working on his doctorate, but he worked construction for many years with older guys who came of age in the sixties. His contention is that the vast majority of men in all the protest movements of the sixties were really just about scoring sex with as many women as possible, and that was an integral part of the energy of the movement. He said that this is evident from the way that so many of them remembered all the political upheaval that went on from the peace movement to civil rights.

So nothing has changed. I suppose this week will be Free Love Week as well, and Analyte Health will be raking in even more dough for their services.

I am the 98%

...who don't care about immigration and who view the issue as a big distraction. Excerpt:

Actually, no major poll of the last year—no, not one of them—showed robust public interest in immigration. This month, CBS News asked respondents to name “the most important problem facing this country today.” Less than 2 percent came up with “illegal immigration,” while a dozen other concerns, led by “the economy and jobs,” of course, finished higher on the list. Over the summer, surveys from Bloomberg and Fox News found 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively, who identified immigration as a priority, with gas prices, the war in Afghanistan, health care, the deficit, education, and even nebulous concerns like “partisan politics” and “moral values” more frequently mentioned by the public.

Lost my friggin' leg

Screw it, they're good.

"But maybe in the next world, maybe in the next world"

A major fracture in the Occupy movement? Say it isn't so! Major down twinkles, man. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. All honeymoons end. Here's the full article, and here's a highlights piece from Verum Serum. Excerpt:

Because even by the time the General Assembly was ready to meet at 7:30 p.m., things were unraveling. A large group, made up almost entirely of men, stood in a circle denouncing the General Assembly and their efforts to "police" the camp, particularly regarding drinking or smoking weed. Anyone who spoke in favor of a code of conduct was aggressively booed. Adding to the morass were four different men looping in and out of the circle, each armed with his own megaphone, shouting their own grievances and rhetoric. When a runner from the General Assembly made the announcement that they would begin the meeting, he was thunderously shouted down, then someone yelled out “The GA is dead!” and the crowd erupted in both celebration and shock: "We don’t want you or your fucking procedure!" One male protester, in an army helmet and no shirt, cried out as shoving matches erupted between several groups of men. The young man who was leading the informal group yelled: "This is the People’s Forum! There are no committees, there are no rules, everyone gets to speak. Get in a circle! GET IN A CIRCLE!" A majority of the crowd abided, although they were openly chastised when the circle took on non-circle shapes.

If there are no rules, then what is the next statement when he says "Everyone gets to speak"? Sounds like a rule to me, albeit a dumb rule. There's an old proverb, something like "Anarchists should be seen and not heard" which I think is mainly based on the content of their blather and not the threatening tone or the megaphonic volume.

The next paragraph mentions how everything eventually degenerated into "spastic dancing and primal bellowing". This is the most consistent thing to do shortly after denouncing rules, authority and order of any kind.

Reminds me of the lyrics to Death of a Disco Dancer by the Smiths:

Love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...but maybe in the next world

"[W]e have no idea what you are doing..."

So get this: Occupy Madison loses it's permit. Why?

A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters. In addition, officials agreed further occupation should not be allowed to continue without restrooms on site to avoid further public health violations.

Public masturbation. Yep, that ought to do it. Here's the part that really puts it into featured can't-make-this-up-material.

Occupy Madison representative and street use permit holder Paul Streeter said he hopes to use the 30 on the Square space again as soon as possible after Freakfest.

"[The protest] is indeed a work in progress," Streeter said. "We will continue to address issues as they come up."

No pun intended, we'll assume.

Madison's Parks Division requested a written form stating the dates and location where members wish to occupy.

"You can tell us what your proposals are, but we have no idea what you are doing, how you are doing it or what your safety and security plan is," McCullen said. "We have nothing in writing to back it up, and we usually require that all events have [written plans]."

Do any of them no how to write?

Occupy Madison is relocating onto Olin Terrace until Monday when Freak Fest is over, and they can request a new permit for 30 on the Square.

Call it Freak Fest II. Or maybe "The Real Freak Fest". Or "Festering Freaks", "We have no freaking point"... the possibilities are endless.

The Like Total Unfairness of Darn Rich People

My feeble attempts at humor are nothing, NOTHING, compared to this awesomeness from Frank J. Fleming. Excerpt:

See, the wealthiest 1 percent prevent us from getting ahead because any time we improve our incomes, we spend more on businesses and services, and guess who that helps? The 1 percent. Getting ahead just isn’t worth the knowledge that the rich are getting richer.

There’s no point in working hard to try to become one of the 1 percent ourselves, because what’s the chance of that happening? One in 100? Who would play a lottery with odds that bad?

No, instead of working hard, the 99 percent can only sit and protest on Wall Street until the wealthiest 1 percent are torn down.

Here’s the thing: They’re the 1 percent, but we’re the 99 percent. Their wealth may be much more than ours, but 99 is a much bigger number than one. So we should just gang up and take their money.

When one person takes the property of another, that’s tyranny, but when lots of people get together and do it, that’s democracy. So we should legislate that the 1 percent no longer get to keep that vast wealth and must instead distribute it among the rest of us. (I should get the largest portion because it was my idea.)

Read the whole thing, it's worth it.