Second Stage
Well, lot has happened and I've had no time to sit down and download for anyone who is watching what I am doing. I'm gonna slam out the second stage of my trip (now in phase 4). If I haven't sent you an email I appologise, I've been flat out and living in regular time and space rather than cyberspace.
So when I last left you I was about to head to Denver. I headed up on the 23rd of August for the Rock the Bells show. I stayed with some people from CouchSurfing who help out with Food Not Bombs in Denver. I dropped off my pack and headed to the ampitheater. The show was everything I had hoped. I scored a phat bag of weed and smoked blunts into the night seeing all my rap idols. Show highlights were blackstar, mos def, nas, methodman/redman, ghostface/raekwon, Dead Prez, Africa Bambatta ,murs and Imortal technique. Also a special surprise was Jay Electronia, a New Oreleans rapper who was rapping about DMT and time and space. My kind of music. The whole thing had a great vibe and a focus on socially consious hiphop and it was great seeing imortal technique telling a whole stadium of people about class struggle and globalisation. Met two great guys called Adolphus and Watson during methodman and smoked a blunt with them. This small act changed my life hugely for the better (see below).
The next day was the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I stayed in town until Obama's speech. It was crazy. American politics is like spectator sports. There are two teams, with mascots (people walked about in Donkey and Elephant costumes), people wave placards and wear T-shirts. Was really weird. Huge police presence. Each state in the US has its own set of storm troopers to prevent the people from being powerful. They had crazy riot armour and non-leathal wepons and were total assholes. I watched a few of the anti-war marchs but more as a spectator. Protests here seemed mainly to be antagonised by the police and then used by the news media to paint liberals and activist and total assholes. The best part was I saw Dead Prez play on the steps of the capitol. I saw some great conflicts between democrats and anti-abortion protesters too.
The best thing I participated in was the critical mass. It was huge and we rode for over 2 and a half hours with tens of hundreds of people. I bought a bike from the pawn shop and fixed it up and rode around Denver, which is a hugley sprawling suburban southwestern city. Great views of the Rockies and generally really nice people. I rode up to a great unban farm collective called black tail that run permaculture and eco-building etc and Deralier collective which did bike recycling and shit. The best part of the whole week was attending two sessions of radical urban sustainability training (R.U.S.T.) which taught one how to build a grey water filtration system and microfarm and home made solar ovens etc. I think that the real change we need will not come from the top but will be built from the bottom up. I loved all the sustainability activists becuase they offer real solutions not just yelling in the streets.
Caught a few other great bands at an anti-war rally at Denver Stadium with Iraq Verterans Against the War. A rap/funk band from Oakland, CA The Coup who did excellent political funk. A local denver Rap/Celtic band the Flobots and headlining RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. The show was huge, there were massive amounts of people and everyone yelled and shoved each other alot. Very satisfying. Followed it up with an Anarcist Variety show with lots of powerpop and dancing and acordian. I was supposed to leave for the Slow Food Nation conference on Wednesday, the day before the Rage show and two days before the speech but decided that i didn't want to attend a conference on policy and slow food becuase I really have no faith in policy to change the system while agribuisness is funding government and writing farm bills. Also, the wierd thing here is there is heaps of organic food but it is all too expensive for the poor. There is no equity in organics and we can't have a functioning society until all are equal. I love Anarcy but with real solutions not just chucking rocks at cops. I also wanted to stay around in Denver cuase it was cool to watch all the shit going on and do the RUST training.
Saw Obama's speech, was much as I expected. "oh, the poor hardworking american, everyone deserves a fair go, God Bless America, blah blah blah". Nationalism is fucking stupid and will get nobody anywhere. If Americans want solutions (and we in the world at large) we need to build and create them not wait for the corrupt regulation from the fucking broken beurcracy they call the government.
McCain is fucking stupid too. An old man with Alzhimers is the perfect puppet for the Neo-Cons to push fucked policies through. Same concept as Regan. Anyone with one iota of intelect should realise that a long time ago people who craved power realised that the real power comes from being behind the curtin not being the figurehead.
In addition to wanting to stay in Denver, Watson and Adolphus who I met at Rock the Bells offered me a room at there house and a lift to their town if I caught the bus to Alamosa. Alamosa was 5 hours bus from Denver near the New Mexican Boarder and their town of Crestone was 50 minutes drive from there. I decided my trip needed to relax and I wasn't going to make it to slow food or California just yet. Friday morning I packed up my stuff and boarded the Greyhound. See you at phase 3
So when I last left you I was about to head to Denver. I headed up on the 23rd of August for the Rock the Bells show. I stayed with some people from CouchSurfing who help out with Food Not Bombs in Denver. I dropped off my pack and headed to the ampitheater. The show was everything I had hoped. I scored a phat bag of weed and smoked blunts into the night seeing all my rap idols. Show highlights were blackstar, mos def, nas, methodman/redman, ghostface/raekwon, Dead Prez, Africa Bambatta ,murs and Imortal technique. Also a special surprise was Jay Electronia, a New Oreleans rapper who was rapping about DMT and time and space. My kind of music. The whole thing had a great vibe and a focus on socially consious hiphop and it was great seeing imortal technique telling a whole stadium of people about class struggle and globalisation. Met two great guys called Adolphus and Watson during methodman and smoked a blunt with them. This small act changed my life hugely for the better (see below).
The next day was the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I stayed in town until Obama's speech. It was crazy. American politics is like spectator sports. There are two teams, with mascots (people walked about in Donkey and Elephant costumes), people wave placards and wear T-shirts. Was really weird. Huge police presence. Each state in the US has its own set of storm troopers to prevent the people from being powerful. They had crazy riot armour and non-leathal wepons and were total assholes. I watched a few of the anti-war marchs but more as a spectator. Protests here seemed mainly to be antagonised by the police and then used by the news media to paint liberals and activist and total assholes. The best part was I saw Dead Prez play on the steps of the capitol. I saw some great conflicts between democrats and anti-abortion protesters too.
The best thing I participated in was the critical mass. It was huge and we rode for over 2 and a half hours with tens of hundreds of people. I bought a bike from the pawn shop and fixed it up and rode around Denver, which is a hugley sprawling suburban southwestern city. Great views of the Rockies and generally really nice people. I rode up to a great unban farm collective called black tail that run permaculture and eco-building etc and Deralier collective which did bike recycling and shit. The best part of the whole week was attending two sessions of radical urban sustainability training (R.U.S.T.) which taught one how to build a grey water filtration system and microfarm and home made solar ovens etc. I think that the real change we need will not come from the top but will be built from the bottom up. I loved all the sustainability activists becuase they offer real solutions not just yelling in the streets.
Caught a few other great bands at an anti-war rally at Denver Stadium with Iraq Verterans Against the War. A rap/funk band from Oakland, CA The Coup who did excellent political funk. A local denver Rap/Celtic band the Flobots and headlining RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. The show was huge, there were massive amounts of people and everyone yelled and shoved each other alot. Very satisfying. Followed it up with an Anarcist Variety show with lots of powerpop and dancing and acordian. I was supposed to leave for the Slow Food Nation conference on Wednesday, the day before the Rage show and two days before the speech but decided that i didn't want to attend a conference on policy and slow food becuase I really have no faith in policy to change the system while agribuisness is funding government and writing farm bills. Also, the wierd thing here is there is heaps of organic food but it is all too expensive for the poor. There is no equity in organics and we can't have a functioning society until all are equal. I love Anarcy but with real solutions not just chucking rocks at cops. I also wanted to stay around in Denver cuase it was cool to watch all the shit going on and do the RUST training.
Saw Obama's speech, was much as I expected. "oh, the poor hardworking american, everyone deserves a fair go, God Bless America, blah blah blah". Nationalism is fucking stupid and will get nobody anywhere. If Americans want solutions (and we in the world at large) we need to build and create them not wait for the corrupt regulation from the fucking broken beurcracy they call the government.
McCain is fucking stupid too. An old man with Alzhimers is the perfect puppet for the Neo-Cons to push fucked policies through. Same concept as Regan. Anyone with one iota of intelect should realise that a long time ago people who craved power realised that the real power comes from being behind the curtin not being the figurehead.
In addition to wanting to stay in Denver, Watson and Adolphus who I met at Rock the Bells offered me a room at there house and a lift to their town if I caught the bus to Alamosa. Alamosa was 5 hours bus from Denver near the New Mexican Boarder and their town of Crestone was 50 minutes drive from there. I decided my trip needed to relax and I wasn't going to make it to slow food or California just yet. Friday morning I packed up my stuff and boarded the Greyhound. See you at phase 3
posted by Angel Ironhead at 5:55 pm
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