20080825

MON.

EVOLVE

(excerpt)

Today I wore a t-shirt that says, “Stop Staring at My Chest.”

It’s actually a joke because I don’t “have” a “chest”—which makes it all the more funny.
…

Although I vowed not to go on the location with the protesting shoots—I keep getting called to cover sound for other miscellaneous events.

I developed such an affection and respect for Medea, the leader of a woman’s peace movement called CODEPINK.

I infectiously want to follow her everywhere and cannot resist coming to those shoots.

Hence, although I decided not to go on any more shoots related to the Democratic Convention, I end up going—because I’m addicted to the brilliance of Medea and her group—CODEPINK.

CODEPINK is an ingenious protesting movement. They are so incredibly cute—the way they all dress up in pink and paint the town pink where ever they go.

The artfully crash political events by singing and chanting funny tunes and thinking of extremely imaginative ways to remind Politicians to do their job right (or to uphold the constitution and so forth).

They dress up waitresses and go into restaurants, giving politicians menus asking them if they still want War “on or off” the menu…they send them their Bills and ask them if they want to pay for the war “now—or later.”

They are Public Exhibition Artists really…and so adorable in the way they protest.

…

Today was one of the most magical moments in my life with regards to documentary filmmaking.

The crew was shocked that for someone who hates conflict and confrontation: I threw myself into the arena of CODEPINK.

This morning was especially auspicious.

There was a very formal (or “official”) indoor event at a large auditorium at the Denver Performance Art Center downtown.

Some political figure named Nancy Pelosi, I believe was going to speak. I’m entirely apolitical, so I did not know who she was.

We were supposed to film CODEPINK there.

Medea’s intention to confront Pelosi is very simple.

Her protesting approach is simply an acting reminder to politicians what their job is—and to not sell out—or succumb to the lowest common denominator or status quo.

Because People who are in Power often forget who they are; they in essence need anarchists, artists and protestors to shine a light back onto them.

I’ve come to understand activism in a whole other way through Medea.

It is really a beautiful selfless act of love and human expression that she protests.

Throughout my life, I’ve always stayed away from Activists. At most, they project some personal unmet needs in their lives or simply unresolved self-hatred.

Medea is very different; she really feels Humanity in her Soul.

She’s a modern-day Gandhi really—just more eccentric and flamboyant.

When we entered the theater, the crew was pretty much just going through the motions.

But I felt something very “vibrant” vibrating beneath the surface of this otherwise very tamed and corporate event.

I wanted so badly to march straight to the front of the stage to get close to the action.

Just when I was thinking this, a woman managing the crowd asked us if were coming to film the speeches. I said yes and asked if we could be right up front.

Shockingly, she escorted us towards the front with tremendous hospitability.

We got midway down the right side of the auditorium and stopped at the center.

I realized that the front would skew our angle…and asked if we could hang out at the center, midsection.

Holy shit, this was like Rock Star seating. We had absolutely no obstruction whatsoever.

The entire place was filled with women and a speaker was ranting on about something—which I’ve since forgotten.

All I remember was Nancy Pelosi being introduced to the audience, they applauded and she sat down and took her seat on some very plush white leather furniture.

At that moment, I began to predict spontaneous events unraveling—as if CODEPINK was in my nervous system.

I said to the cameraperson, “Get ready, something’s about to come down.”

At that moment, the CODEPINK people began to align themselves in the front of the bottom of the stage spreading out their banners and began their own rants.

It was very peaceful…very promising at first…and then it got darker and darker and darker!

LOL!

The audience was SOOO CONFUSED!

Here they were, coming to this event to supposedly honor a Female Democrat who is supposedly doing something important for the world—and they probably could not understand WHY other women (or anyone for that matter) would protest a Persona of seemingly hopeful cause!

Yet everyone was very polite and the room remained very quiet…until some people in the crowd cheered CODEPINK on.

The energy was vibrant!

Things got very weird when they started directly attacking Nancy Pelosi with comments about her being SPINELESS and asked her to do “do her job!”

That was basically when the authorities started moving in.

At that moment, I had noticed several things:

Those moronic commercial broadcast people had set up their shots with their heavy tripods and monster cameras. They had the WORST angles really—and couldn’t move to really document the REAL action!

I told our cameraperson, “Let’s go! We gotta’ move to the center aisle!”

We quickly centered ourselves DEAD CENTER on image of Medea and the pink ladies being escorted towards the exit (and the camera).

When they passed us, I said, “Get behind them!”

We squeezed ourselves right into them like a big pink moving mass.

I held the boom over Medea, and in an instinctive way, the mic asked her to make a “statement.” (I seem to do a lot of mic hinting—and find that it works!)

In protesting world, a “statement” is never really a personal opinion or directed towards the self. It is always addressed for “show” or to demonstrate and broadcast some kind of quick billboard—that sticks forever in short phrases to make economic use of time.

Moreover, whenever they scream something—it’s always a form of “documentation” (an act of actively Recording).

It’s like laying tracks down—to stay in the consciousness of the witnesses—and to also deliver a message on tape (if media is around).

I noticed that even when they yell in the cops’ faces: they are not yelling “at” the person.

They use the Cop as a Microphone, and the Arrest as a Platform (stage).

They do this as a form of street theater…so that witnesses can hear their message. The Cop in that regard is just the “supporting actor!”

It’s very good Improv. At its best really!

So the crew and I were shoving ourselves in this lump and moving-mass of pink people in front of thousands of people.

I vividly remember the exit doors throwing open—and how brilliantly different the light was.

I lived those moments in my Mind and realized that I am always filming with my Soul. Although I was not the one behind the camera—I captured this moment on a whole other level, which would remain inside of me forever, and would unfold continuously.

I actually had a spiritual experience but didn’t realize it until many hours later; that the meaning of  life (or true Reality) is the experience of merging into a moment where you are flowing within the arms of Grace.

The authorities continually asked the women to leave but they wouldn’t. They kept repeating their First Amendment rights and intellectually fought them down—to where the security people were mentally defenseless.

They knew they couldn’t touch these women or remove them by force, so eventually the SWAT team was called in (the ones with big guns, armor, helmets and other deadly chemicals).

This didn’t prevail until much later.

The ladies went outside and began this amazing live performance of chanting funny and somewhat touching tunes about protecting the constitution.

So many brilliant moments unfolded there. People started to gather in strange places—and one girl who was working as a bartender (in uniform) was so touched—she started to jump up and down, dancing and chanting with them—it was so funny!

COLD PINK started to open their banners to reveal hysterical messages and guess who was there!

Amy Goodman from DEMOCRACY NOW!

Holy shit, this was the funniest thing ever.

I always thought this droning hippy was just a wall fixture on a Denver public access television station.

I first saw her on TV when I moved back to Denver. I had no idea she was a National figure or broadcasts out of New York.

Because I only saw her on Denver television, I thought, “Oh of course, she’s in Denver.”

It is always SOOO SURREAL to see a talking TV “head” come alive right in front of you.

I  used to laughing to myself everytime her show would come on—because she just drones and drones about the injustices in the World in complete Monotone.

That show is so funny—it’s like badly shot British TV. Every time they cut to a story, the TV would start to buzz and hum because the mixed footage was not set to broadcast quality.

So to see her as a Person standing there doing the exact same coverage as we were was so fucking Weird. To add to this strangeness, we met as Equals—doing the same type of work!

And then she walked to up to me and asked, “Did you get any of the footage inside?”

Apparently every single broadcaster missed the event and the only people who caught it—probably only got them with our crew in it!

I was like, “Yeah, we got really GOOD SHIT!”

She asked if she could have some of that to broadcast that night.

I don’t know if that ever happened (there was some red tape involved; as there always is).

This CODEPINK documentation was a highlight of my documentary filmmaking experience. It was as if Grace was sweeping us away in Her arms in one large pink moving cloud. Everything was so perfect.

Things got a bit tense for me when the SWAT team moved in. At first, it really disturbed me. Situations like these are something I personally had to avoid.

CODEPINK was brilliant. They negotiated singing another two tunes and then peacefully leaving.

The rest of the day was very strenuous. It’s August and the heat is intense…there was a lot of running around.

We got caught in something later that could have been extremely dangerous and disastrous—but fortunately, the violence did not escalate.

Some extremely lowlife scary looking Anarchists with bandanas were trying to incite the cops to arrest them.

They were playing drums and arguing with other protesters who had their own thing going—and things got pretty ugly.

It was clear that something was up because SWAT teams were lining the at least a block around the scene…and somehow we walked into it.

Chills went down my spine when I saw these people (these anarchists). There was something cold and Possessed looking in their faces; something was “missing”—as if some fucked up collective force was taking over.

Later, one of the crew people said she saw Fear just ran down my face—like some kind of cold curtain.

That’s how I felt when I saw these angry people—and that’s exactly the reason WHY I chosen not to go on shoots on protestors.

I’m very much aware of things I feed into my mind: I don’t like to add conflict to it—to allow the imprint of cruelty and madness to settle there.

There’s too much karma cleansing and garbage to clean up in one’s life (one’s mind). And I do not want to add more work to it—if I can help it.

I didn’t like all these Black Uniforms and heavy artillery closing in…it was a very claustrophobic feeling where I didn’t want to end up in a sweep.

I saw exactly how the whole thing escalated—and that’s probably while chills ran down my spine. Like I said, I tend to predict events when I do documentary—it’s sort of like an animal or creative instinct.

It wasn’t shortly after that that someone started to push someone else into a Cop and another started screaming very loudly and forcefully, “WHY ARE YOU ARRESTING HIM! WHY ARE YOU ARRESTING HIM” when the cops retaliated.

Again, as mentioned, that’s protestor language: it’s voiced as a “billboard” to illustrate very quickly, a particular viewpoint or stance.

They wanted to show that the Cops were wrong. That’s why they yelled that; so Witnesses could quickly access the situation in that fashion.

People everywhere started pulling out cell phones to take pictures. Flashes were going off everywhere.

I was equally disturbed by the bystanders. They were laughing at the violence—the way they do when they see violence or cruelty on Reality TV (car crashes, chases and people getting insulted, abused, exploited or physically hurt).

To the TV-Generations—reality is no longer real.

We all know that this point that the Cops are winning the Protesting in this case.

They have been very friendly, cooperative and tried to give the impression at least—that they are “maintaining the peace.”

What appear as Safety, “Peace,” threat of “Terrorism” or whatever is easily packaged to the public to get them to follow trends based on fear.

Most people don’t get it—they are more than willing to slit their wrist and hand over their Identities and rights to a GPS chip (on the sales pitch of having more “Security” or “Convenience”) or any kind of morphine to not worry, to escape reality or to not have to think…

When really, America is a very heavily controlled and surveillance environment. They want to sell you Saftey—in order to steal your liberties…and most people hand their rights very easily over.

Americans are goats. They are very complacent. They “buck” Democracy, Freedom and Individuality—yet have herd mentality and surrender easily.

This is why Freedom of Speech, and in that regard, “Protesting” is important to society—whether or not we agree with it; it is something that is needed to restore balance or address imbalances.

There is a VERY clever strategy that many people don’t realize:

There are class action lawsuits set aside and reserved just for people “wrongfully arrested.”

These protesters spend their lives waiting for the opportunity to make money out of being put in jail. It’s a very lowly thing—but there’s a crook in every corner; whether it’s from the bottom or at the top.

In any case, I don’t really care what people’s agendas are.

Denver is WAY AHEAD of the game of the activists. The authorities have corralled them into “voluntary detentions.”

The city has set up all these “Official” protesting spots where activists all go to, in order to exhaust all their energy.

The protesters are so Narrow Minded (tunnel visioned)  and blinded by their ideals that they didn’t even realize that they freely led themselves into an “organized” open jail (without fences).

These little areas, I call “voluntary detentions.” They are where organized protesters are allowed to set up their tents, banners and so forth.

But what they may or may not soon realize is that: they are COMPLETELY REMOVED from the public.

This is so majestically and strategically planned by the city.

These chosen designated public areas are designed to “detain” the protesters (yet allow them to practice Free Speech) include extremely narrow entrance and exit routes.

The locations are so Remote that it’s almost like designated “Dog Parks” where they can run around in.

The protesters don’t even realize that they freely volunteered to enter into a communal jail.

The city figures they are just happy to roll around in the mud with their own kind and rant among themselves.

That’s the sad joke of it all.

What about contact with the public?

They never see them nor do they engage or interact.

The city managed to curtail any mass protest from ever spilling out into the streets. Once these protesters set up their little voluntary jail-tents, the city send cops to surround and survey all the narrow or limited “check points” (or exit/ entrance routes).

It’s ingenious planning really—yet disturbing and obviously, is very military-based strategy.

The Protesting areas illustrate a Political Landscape literally: an architectural portrayal of how there IS NO DEMOCRACY, right to Freedom of  Speech (or right to truly Protest) in America.

CODEPINK even fell for some of it…they even planned an evening where everyone goes to the park and lay down for an “Aerial” photograph to promote Peace.

But if they look closely at this photo in the aftermath: they will see nothing but an architecturally designed jail that Governments have designed as part of the city.

The jail city-scape is not new. The college I went to, SUNY PURCHASE was designed in the late 70s structurally to prevent political gathering and riots. As result of this, the entire campus is brown brick, have small windows and look like a prison.

They designed it to be “anti-community” so it is impossible to find a circle or square to commune with others. It is extremely anti-social and every student that goes there eventually contemplates suicide as a result. I say that facitiously, but it’s not far from the truth. Even the dormintary room have doors with no privacy: the door is raised approximately 2 inches off the floor to accomodate tear gas to be thrown inside if necessary.

Does this sound like the American Myth immigrants perceive? It’s everything that America preaches Not to be: yet IS.

As for the protesting open-air jail cells or “Protester Dog Park” in Denver:

Every piece of concrete, plot of grass, tree and lawn is architecturally designed to be “fences” or cages in which humans who “act out” can feel comforted to settle in completely by their own free will.

How ironic.

To think that it takes only Apolitical people like me to see the larger picture: The city thinks no one notices, and the protesters have no clue.

But Medea knows…she said to us, “I will never go back to the Freedom Cage”

Can you believe that? Even the city calls their designated section for protesters a “Freedom Cage.”

What a sick oxymoron!

As long as there is Oppression in life—there will always be Protesting (or Anarchy) and Art.

People in Power need Mirrors—or they will become lost and irresponsible.

They do not realize what a favor protesters do for them…they keep them “in shape” and hopefully honest or working towards the higher good.

When people in power do not have the status quo to uphold their ethical consciousness—at least the protesters remind them to adhere to their highest purpose and potential. For this, People in Power should be exceedingly grateful instead of threatened or afraid.

This is partially what Medea taught me; and that’s what I believe Activism should be about—Truth.

If and when a society realizes and values the right to Protest or the Human voice (whether it is expressed through activism involving  Protest or Art)—only then will it be considered a healthy culture…only then can it self-reflect therefore, evolve.

Medea and Ji (in front of the Democratic Convention center)