long weekend.
not one, but two protest activities. the first was the truly fun critical mass bike ride on friday night. usually somewhere between 1000 and 2000 people show up for a bike ride through the streets of manhattan on the last friday of every month. this time, since the ride was also functioning as a protest against the RNC coming to town, there were 5000. now that's a lot of bikes.
and with a lot of bikes and a lot of republican convention go-ers, there tends to be a lot of police. this was the official NYPD observation blimp (brought to you by Fujifilm apparently...it was actually a Fujifilm blimb that had NYPD written really small along the bottom) that followed the ride all night long.
every once in a while, the ride stops and everyone cheers and lifts their bicycles over their heads. the main reason is to let the whole group catch up to the leaders in order to create a more effective traffic-blocking ride. it's also just sort of fun.
there was supposed to be a big party at St. Marks Church in the east village after the ride. i was intrigued about how this was going to work seeing as how only about 200 people can fit into that space. apparently the police were intrigued by this as well because they decided to show up wearing their riot gear and plastic handcuffs. they even brought paddy wagons and a helicopter.
you know when you go to a concert and sometimes there's so many people in the crowd that it's hard to move around and get anywhere? well that's what it was like that night except that everyone also had a bike, making it totally impossible to move at all. you could pretty much tell that something was going to happen, and before too long (maybe 5 minutes) it did. people started yelling and throwning things at the police and the police started arresting them. then they started arresting pretty much anyone who looked at them funny, including the poor soul who was standing right next to me. at this point i had a sneaking suspicion that there was most likely not going to be any party after all and hightailed it back to the relative safety of brooklyn.
the second thing that i attended (besides seeing vincent gallo's Brown Bunny...more on that later) was the big United For Peace And Justice march that happened on sunday. it was the first time i have actively participated in something like this and even though it was blazingly hot, it was really great.
it was kind of spooky at first entering into such a giant crowd...mostly because if anything really terrible were to happen, you'd be pretty much screwed. luckily the only incident that i saw was when some folks lit this big paper mache dragon on fire right outside of madison square garden. it was pretty insane for a couple of moments, but the fire quickly burned itself out. (see the photos that the people at the Black Table got of it here).
this is my friend kelly. she was the mvp of dance on this day. whenever i would get separated from our little group, all i had to do was look for a head bouncing up and down in the crowd and it was most likely hers. kelly rules the school.
also, this guy was really funny throughout the day (though the thought of wearing that rubber mask in the 90 degree heat made me want to gag).
all in all, a pretty good weekend. PLUS, i got to hang out with these crazy (and i mean that lovingly) Polish heavy metal goth girls at this bar right by my house. my friend was desparately trying to hook up with one of them, so i was there for moral support. every time a Slayer or Iron Maiden song would come on the jukebox, these girls would get the most incredibly evil looks on their faces and yell out "SLLLLAAAAAAAAYYYERRRR!!!!" or "I-RONNN MAAAYYYDENN!". i so wish that i had photos of that...it was awesome.
not one, but two protest activities. the first was the truly fun critical mass bike ride on friday night. usually somewhere between 1000 and 2000 people show up for a bike ride through the streets of manhattan on the last friday of every month. this time, since the ride was also functioning as a protest against the RNC coming to town, there were 5000. now that's a lot of bikes.
and with a lot of bikes and a lot of republican convention go-ers, there tends to be a lot of police. this was the official NYPD observation blimp (brought to you by Fujifilm apparently...it was actually a Fujifilm blimb that had NYPD written really small along the bottom) that followed the ride all night long.
every once in a while, the ride stops and everyone cheers and lifts their bicycles over their heads. the main reason is to let the whole group catch up to the leaders in order to create a more effective traffic-blocking ride. it's also just sort of fun.
there was supposed to be a big party at St. Marks Church in the east village after the ride. i was intrigued about how this was going to work seeing as how only about 200 people can fit into that space. apparently the police were intrigued by this as well because they decided to show up wearing their riot gear and plastic handcuffs. they even brought paddy wagons and a helicopter.
you know when you go to a concert and sometimes there's so many people in the crowd that it's hard to move around and get anywhere? well that's what it was like that night except that everyone also had a bike, making it totally impossible to move at all. you could pretty much tell that something was going to happen, and before too long (maybe 5 minutes) it did. people started yelling and throwning things at the police and the police started arresting them. then they started arresting pretty much anyone who looked at them funny, including the poor soul who was standing right next to me. at this point i had a sneaking suspicion that there was most likely not going to be any party after all and hightailed it back to the relative safety of brooklyn.
the second thing that i attended (besides seeing vincent gallo's Brown Bunny...more on that later) was the big United For Peace And Justice march that happened on sunday. it was the first time i have actively participated in something like this and even though it was blazingly hot, it was really great.
it was kind of spooky at first entering into such a giant crowd...mostly because if anything really terrible were to happen, you'd be pretty much screwed. luckily the only incident that i saw was when some folks lit this big paper mache dragon on fire right outside of madison square garden. it was pretty insane for a couple of moments, but the fire quickly burned itself out. (see the photos that the people at the Black Table got of it here).
this is my friend kelly. she was the mvp of dance on this day. whenever i would get separated from our little group, all i had to do was look for a head bouncing up and down in the crowd and it was most likely hers. kelly rules the school.
also, this guy was really funny throughout the day (though the thought of wearing that rubber mask in the 90 degree heat made me want to gag).
all in all, a pretty good weekend. PLUS, i got to hang out with these crazy (and i mean that lovingly) Polish heavy metal goth girls at this bar right by my house. my friend was desparately trying to hook up with one of them, so i was there for moral support. every time a Slayer or Iron Maiden song would come on the jukebox, these girls would get the most incredibly evil looks on their faces and yell out "SLLLLAAAAAAAAYYYERRRR!!!!" or "I-RONNN MAAAYYYDENN!". i so wish that i had photos of that...it was awesome.
posted by anthony at 11:47 AM
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