It’s the 4th of July and as friends are clamoring to make plans, I am reflecting on why is it even important to celebrate the 231rst year of our country. We continue to lose civil liberties that were written into our constitution every day. We are in a war that is barely televised or covered in the news. Paris Hilton gets more coverage than peers that are getting their limbs blown off as we speak. Immigrants are vilified, poor healthcare, full jails and affordable housing is not a right. Locally, in Brooklyn despite neighborhood groups voicing opposition to big money development from the Atlantic Yards, Coney Island, Greenpoint, Williamsburg to Carroll Gardens the voices of the people mean nothing and if you live in Bushwick ,Bed Stuy or Crown Heights your voice really means nothing. Money talks. SO that being said despite that fact the Reverend Billy from “The Church of Stop Shopping” got arrested for reciting the First Amendment in Union Square Park last week sometimes we can go under the radar and go to performance pieces such as the one at Issue Project Room as I did last night and not get pulled out in handcuffs.
Joe Wenderoth & Gibby Haynes. I review this as someone who does not usually go to poetry readings or performance art events. Never has been my cup of tea, too pretentious. I went to this one to see if I have “matured”. The first part of the reading Joe spoke of blowjobs and Jesus with images of both projected on the wall behind him. The second part of the reading Gibby Haynes joined in and generated some great soundscapes from his laptop computer. Images projected children making their First Holy Communion, swimming in pools or at the beach were intercepted with more shocking images such as pornography, the elephant that Edison electrocuted and more pornography as Joe spoke on. The most entertaining part to me was the Q&A afterwards when people asked some very earnest questions about how they picked their images and the answers were basically “we just picked the most shocking”. Gibby looked great for a 50 year old, looked early 30’s and he was a bit antagonistic to the questions but in a fun way, apparently this was the first time Joe and Gibby had met and they arranged this whole thing long distance. Never would of known it!
Anyway as someone that has been exposed to performance art through going to clubs in NYC for the past 20 odd years, not much was new here, it was “classic performance art”. Even though it’s not my thing it is important that I can still go see it, it’s keeping the First Amendment alive. Free Speech baby yeah!
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2 comments:
jeez FIB, don't you feel free to buy a luxury condo like the rest of us?! there are soooooooo many cool stores on Smith & Court St these days, even if a lot of them are... quite like a store in Park Slope, or Williamsburg, you are still free to spend a lot of $$$ there. in fact, chain stores are FREEDOM themselves in so many ways-- that queasy, confused feeling we can get in new situations, dealing w/all those people who might not be as luxurious as ourselves... i don't know about you but Brooklyn is... scary! my god man, did you know there was a prison on Atlantic? i heard there was like, a MASSIVE jailbreak a few years ago, it was worse than "Cool Hand Luke," "The Defiant Ones" & "The Great Escape" combined, & believe you me, none of those savages looked like Steve McQueen!! can't we, the rich people of South Brooklyn FREE ourselves of this social obligation & the fear this might happen again, not just to ourselves but to OUR CHILDREN!! my god the kids!!! the next thing you know they'll be listening to rap or punk or heavy metal music, writing graffiti, walking between subway cars, smoking pot. where is THE LAW, where is Our Saviour, St. Rudy, to free us, the tax paying luxury Brooklynites from all these threats to our freedom? Brooklyn won't truly be FREE until we are secure from those who feel free to fuck things up for those of us with the $$$ to make our luxury dreams happen. like you, FIB, & like me also. 10,000 thread count sheets baby, yeah!
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glad to hear Gibby's looking good, still got the edge, & tho' i TRY to support working stiff cops, who get it bad on all sides, it's difficult when they play at that totalitarian bullshit. were the charges dropped against Rev. Billy or ???
fuck Popeye*,
wwib
* say that to a stand-up cop & 99% change they'll laugh out loud.
well i know he spent the night in jail and has to go to court about it so i don't think they dropped the charges...have you heard about the latest about taking pictures in NYC? Now you need a permit or something..geez what's next? no eating &walking at the same time? anyway the park slope kids are doing everything you just listed, i love seeing the little hooligans congregating on 7th Ave. they remind me of me when i was their age....i don't think the last generation did that or there was a generation skipped in P.Slope which used to be pretty tough when i was a teen....
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