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Protest on 42nd Street

May 3, 2008

Mid-afternoon today, I started hearing shouts outside my place. It seemed to be coming from 42nd Street. I figured there was a protest going on and it turns out there was a protest going on.

Well, it’s near the United Nations and its near the Israeli Consolate, so what else could it be…except a legalize marijuana protest?

I left my apartment and easily caught up with them.

Mostly, it just seemed to be another group desperate to recapture the 1960s. I truly loved the signs about how they need to legalize it to help people get cured from their various ailments. (I know it is used to treat certain eye problems and to quell nasua from chemo, but there are pills for the latter and a quick Google has some sites saying it has no particular advantage for glaucoma whereas others say it’s the best thing since sliced bread for it.) There are other cited diseases it can be used for, but I have no idea as to their real status.

The crowd was doing your standard 1960s chanting and broke into song at one point (the “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” chorus was changed to “Marijuana, Marijuana, Hey Hey Goodbye” or “Good Buy” or something like that).

For a group that mostly was citing medical relevance in their signs, there was a distinct attempt at counterculture appearance. That’s fine. But the 60’s were 40 years ago. A little bit like if my generation put on raccoon coats and beanies during my college period, I guess. (Actually, that might have been really cool, but I had no access to raccoon coats.)

I loved this last sign. “Respect Life Weeds Earth”. It’s a bit incoherent and logically very…illogical. I presume that the wielder is trying to point out that marijuana (“weed” in 1960s/70s parlance – good to know the slang of my childhood continues) is a natural substance and is thus good. I don’t know how that jump is made, but it is by lots of people.

The protest was maybe 200 people? I didn’t bother to try and count. They were all in a bunch about 50 to 70 yards long, but it was a tight bunch of people. And they were followed by a lot of cops. I wondered about the cops being in such abundance, but that’s kind of typical of NYC protests. They like to have numbers on their side.

All in all, a bit of a timewarp and it gave a bunch of kids, who are probably getting ready for exams, a chance to blow off some steam. There may have been a few of them who were strongly interested in the medical angle, but they were hanging out with a bunch of stoners. (I do love my old slang.)

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town

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Free Hugs at Union Square

May 2, 2008

You probably missed it, but that’s why there’s a Famous Ankles. Free Hugs in Union Square last weekend.

There were about eight or ten t-shirt clad huggers calling out their desire to bestow hugs to any and all. A few took them up on the offer and a whole bunch of us just appreciated their willingness to hug.

I believe it was actually a political protest of some sort. A sort of “arms are for hugging and not for shooting” sort of thing, but that’s only because I saw one sign along those lines. I saw another saying “It’s my birthday, hug me” carried by another…so maybe it was…an anti-war birthday salute? Nah, it wouldn’t be a “salute”, just a hug-in (wow, that takes me way, way back).

Anyway, happy birthday to her (unfortunately, not pictured). And thanks to the young lady in the first picture for a great pose.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

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Tribeca Film Festival…In The East Village

May 1, 2008

On Saturday, I did some wandering around the East Village area and, while on my way toward Union Square, ran into the Tribeca Film Festival. (Simple NYC geography lesson: Tribeca lies about 20 blocks south of Union Square which is a long, long ways in NYC.)

Well, it is part of the Festival, but you have to remember that it has grown tremendously and they apparently just scoop up every theater they can find to do some of their screenings. I was there around 1:30 or so and a line or six were starting to form up.

To be honest, I didn’t know any of the shows they were planning to screen. At 2:30, they were showing “I Am Because We Are”. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s great. But Rene Decartes would probably find some way to improve the logic.

At 3:30, they were showing “Charley”. There were actually two lines for that show (lines “2” above and “C” below), but maybe not that showing. I presume one line was for voters/writers/critics/filmmakers and the other line was for the ordinary folks. Actually, there were also two lines for “I Am Because We Are”, but line “B” was empty. (A closer look at the pictures has the bigger line for “Ticket Holders and Badge Holders” and the other line for “Rush Tickets”. That’s about what I was expecting.)

It’s interesting to see such events and have the opportunity to go just because I’m walking by. I guess I should be a bit abashed for talking about it without trying it out. But I don’t think I’ve gone to a movie for a year and going to one in the hopes of seeing a great film seems like a poor reason to break that streak.

-H

Categories: Events, Greenwich Village, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings

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Union Square Artist Protest

April 30, 2008

Yesterday, I did a post about an unusual protest last weekend in Tompkins Square Park that seemed to reference Union Square and Washington Square Park.

When I got to Union Square later that day, I found a sort of “silent protest” by the artistic types. By “artistic types”, I mean the craftsmen selling their wares.

It seemed to me that the authorities were starting to crack down on the protestors in Union Square, but that didn’t make any sense. There was a farmers’ market going on and I can’t imagine that is under any City threat. But, then again, the protestors are always there and the farmers’ market is on Saturdays.

And, of course, they aren’t all protestors. Lots of them are just selling their wares.

If you noticed the above, there’s something about “park privatization”. It seems to turn out that there is a move to bring in a restaurant onto Union Square and that this was an Arbor Day Protest in response to the possible cutting down of some trees to make way for a restaurant. Wow. I’ve seen many a protest, but never an Arbor Day one.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

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Tompkins Square Park Protest

April 29, 2008

I was recently down in the Alphabet City area and wandered through Tompkins Square Park. While there, I saw a protest in progress at the southern part of the park.

The protest seemed centered around a bunch of mailing boxes with slogans.

Forgive me, but I couldn’t figure it out.

Some of the slogans were about Washington Square Park (undergoing renovations and no longer the center of protest activity). Others were about “stop strangulation in higher education” and “power to the sheeple”.

I do know that there was another sort of “park protest” going on in Union Square (I’ll post on that separately), so there is a point to the protest. If I had to guess, the authorities (yeah, those guys) are starting to crack down on the protestors in Union Square just like they did in Washington Square Park. That’s sad, if only because there are a lot of New Yorkers who really, really, really need a place to do their rants.

-H

Categories: Events, LES, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

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