...but in this world of sin...

No ear could hear his coming...

This is an advent calendar set in Bethlehem. Each day in December a new window is opened.

...the blessings of his heav'n.

O Little Town of Bethlehem.....

...to human hearts....

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened.

So God imparts...

the wondrous gift is g'ven.

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar

How silently, how silently...

...are met in thee tonight.

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

...of all the years...

The hopes and fears....

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. For music and to see the complete lyrics: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm
Open a new brouser window to the music site and play the song while you look at the calendar.

...the everlasting light..

This is an advent calendar. Each day in December a new window is opened. All the photo images are from searching Bethlehem on the internet. for music and the complete lyrics: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm

Yet in thy dark streets shining...

...the silent stars go by.

All the photos in the windows of the virtual advent calendar are from googling images of Bethlehem.
For music: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm

above thy deep and dreamless sleep....

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep...

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep...

How still we see thee lie....

O Little Town of Bethlehem Advent Calendar

EACH DAY IN DECEMBER A NEW WINDOW WILL BE OPENED!
WATCH FOR THIS ON-GOING LOOK INTO THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHELEM



To hear the music: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm

Thanksgiving Special

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiphLMJKHCI

Protest in Kingston, NY

>

Bernie Madoff and the Anarchist Fairy

Bread and Puppet 2009

This is the side show that Nadine Bloch, Margo Bloch, Iolanthe Boneham Brooks and Helen Finagar produced.The web site for the Young Activist Club is http://sites.google.com/site/youngactivistclub/links

Another struggle going on in school lunchrooms is the quest for healthy locally produced food. A wonderful new tape is What's on Your Plate?
**********************************************************
This is the opening of the Dirt Cheap Money Circus:
The Circus part two

What is the power that is stronger than the power of metal?

and Bread and Puppet's contahistoria called FOREVER:

Cabinet and Foreign Affairs

I wanted to go to a book reading by Dan Graham, but got there too late. It was a very young crowd. The women were very neat and mostly had on spiked heels. The guys, on the other hand, looked scruffy, sort of like Graham at a younger age. They were all white. I didn't even see an Asian person there.
It was the first time I was in the book store called McNally-Jackson. It's on Prince Street. Their books were a really odd assortment. For example there was an issue of Cabinet (very trendy art journal but intelligent enough) on the same stand as Foreign Affairs.
I always remember making the Paper Tiger show, Archie Singham Reads Foreign Affairs. Archie was a great Brooklyn College professor who was a major advisor to many 3rd World countries. I remember him saying that in Foreign Affairs academics "earn their living by being obscure" and making what is actually a simple issue (of exploitation, colonialism, etc) so complicated that people don't understand.There was also a big display for Conde Nast Traveler with a cover straight out of colonial India. What century are we in anyway? There were no issues of NACLA, or the Indypendent, or any of the other more pointed left publications. I went there because I was curious about Graham, as I am not all that familiar with his work and I haven't seen his Whitney show yet. I did however recall getting a fax from him, or someone named Dan Graham, in early 1991 during the Gulf War, saying that he had seen the Gulf Crisis TV Project which we had sent to a few places in Europe. I thought it was Scotland, but could have been Ireland or London. Anyway I went to the fax machine one day and there was this scribbled message that said, "THANKS. I'M IN THE UK. SAW YOUR SHOW. MADE ME PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN. DAN GRAHAM." I always assumed it was THE Dan Graham even though I never had met him, I thought he must have seen the series at some gallery or event on the street. Lots of places showed it during those weeks. It was the only dissident series against the war. So for all these years I thought I had this secret admirer-- well not secret. I thought that Dan Graham loved Deep Dish/Paper Tiger-- our work.

But the other night at McNally-jackson when I asked him about it as he was leaving the bookstore he seemed quite annoyed with my question and said gruffly "I don't know what you are talking about. It wasn't me."

So I guess there is another American Dan Graham who was proud of our work.

I still hope to see his show at the Whitney before it closes.

Clips from the Woodstock Forum

THE WOODSTOCK FORUM:
Building a Peaceful, Just and Sustainable Economy


Introduction and Background
It is 40 years since the historic Woodstock Festival crowned an era now associated with peace, love and rock and roll. Although the 1969 festival itself did not take place in Woodstock, but in Bethel many miles across the Catskills, the town of Woodstock, New York, nevertheless, has become a pilgrimage point for people seeking to either rekindle those years of love and music, or at the very least to buy a tie-dye T-shirt. Despite the great deal of hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary of the famous festival, very little attention has been paid to the philosophical culture which permeated the event and its aftermath.
In 1969 the Vietnam War was a central focus for the passion of the crowd and the many songs of protest. At the Woodstock Forum, which took place August 15 and 16, well over 300 people heard and discussed the many pressing issues of OUR time. We are overwhelmed with on-going wars, continuing exploitation of people and resources around the world, worsening ecological devastation and usurpation of our communities for weaponry and repression. In 2009, although the name Woodstock is synonymous with "peace and love", the biggest employer in our own town is a military contractor. Given the perilous state of New York, the nation and the world, we need more than ever to discuss how to convert the engines of war for a peaceful future.
In the sessions held at the Woodstock Town Hall on Saturday we heard from historians, poets, workers, social critics and journalists such as:
Peter Woodruff, worker in a Maine weapons factory; grass roots organizer, Mary Beth Sullivan; legendary activist Diane Wilson, author, An Unreasonable Woman and co-founder Code Pink; poet and teacher, Janine Vega; curator and gallery director, Ariel Shanberg; award winning journalists Jeremy Scahill and Jeff Cohen; economist Robert Pollin; historians Silvia Federici, Simon Harak, SJ, and Richard Grossman; social critics Joel Kovel and George Caffentzis; filmmakers DeeDee Halleck and Tobe Carey.
The speakers painted an ominous view of how militarism has gripped our communities, our culture and our lives.
On Sunday the Forum switched from presentations on what was wrong to reflections on how citizens could right those wrongs. A day of deliberation, contentious at times but essentially forward moving, led to the drafting of an initial statement and the framing of ways to build movements, local as well as regional and national, to carry the struggle forward.

Statement from the Woodstock Forum

We, participants of the Woodstock Forum, meeting August 15 and 16, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, reclaim the authority for our lives and our communities. We reject the usurpation of our rights by the military-industrial-media complex.

We reject the actions of our country to foment wars around the world and to manufacture, export and sell weapons. Weapons are the number one U.S. export. Our cities and towns have become home to industries for death and destruction.

We declare that:
1. we will map and research the military industries that control the economies of our communities, that control the minds and pockets of our government officials, that pollute and destroy our land and waters.
2. we will draw attention to these industries of death through educational outreach to local and national media and with imaginative and creative non-violent actions.
3. we will build coalitions to convert weapons-making to peaceful manufacturing and to create meaningful work in education, the arts, health care, and ecological development.
4. we vow to take personal responsibility for the products in our workplaces and in our lives.

We will not cease our resistance to the death machines in our midst and to the laws that support them.

The Woodstock Forum Committee:
Nicholas Abramson, Laurie Arbeiter, DeeDee Halleck, Tarak Kauff, Laurie Kirby, Joel Kovel, Helaine Meisler, Fred Nagel, Katya and Paul Rehm, Laurie Sheridan

Anniversary of Death of Kerwin Herdenking

'Kerwin-herdenking' -- Poster for the 2005 edition of the yearly memorial of Kerwin, one of the most well known victims of racism in Holland. He got murdered on the Dam square in Amsterdam. His memorial day became an important anti-racism event. This edition was organized in coöperation with Samen tegen racisme. Also visit: http://www.samentegenracisme.nl and http://www.kerwin.nl 20 August 1983: Kerwin was walking with a friend in Amsterdam when he was pestered by a group of skinheads. He went into a nearby snackbar but when he came out, one of the group told Kerwin he had no right to walk there and abused him racially. Kerwin said he could walk wherever he wanted to, whereupon he was stabbed in the stomach. The attacker had the words '100% white' tatooed on his arm.

Kerwin ran to the Dam Square, got into a taxi and asked to be taken to hospital. The taxi driver said he didn't want blood all over the seat, took him out of the car, lay him on the ground and told him to wait for the ambulance

Kerwin lay there while onlookers stood round him watching his blood seep into the cracks between the cobble stones. It was almost 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived to take him to hospital. He died shortly after.

Both Kerwin and his killer were 15 years old.Every year on 20 August you will find us at the Dam Square, remembering what happened here in 1983, affirming our commitment to the condemnation of attitudes which say that one colour is better than another, one belief is better than another, one culture or language or custom is better than any other culture, language or custom.
By doing this we hope to remind people of the other side of tolerance; the side which allows children to kill each other and fascist mindsets to sanction such murders. We do it also to repeat that no matter how individuals or the media may try to reframe it, there is no denying that this murder was racism - plain and simple.

Kerwin
While some of them will hunt you down
to kill the rest of you
the others will hold festivals
to have something to do

And even while they make of you
the very first to die
because of age-old Dutch racism
we both know it's a lie

And even if it were the truth
what would it really change?
the jingle of the guilder
is the rattle of the chains

The chains they used to bind the blacks
and certain whites as slaves
strange the ways they have devised
to get folks to behave

Lord knows the list is long
no space is left to fill
the names of those they've wronged
the unknown ones they've killed

A-h-h Europe - your rope - your rope
around my people's neck
after all you have taken and done
what more do you expect?

Yes!!! they come and why not
to see theirdiamondstolen sparkle in your sky
for us poor / folk / of a darker race
it's always been a place to go and die

Kerwin:
The 1st black to set a foot
in America as a slave
was left in trade
from a Dutch man-o-war

Kerwin: what makes you differ
from the others racism had die
is that your case of death by race
is one they can't deny

A blood-stain on a taxi-seat
meant more than your life
that's why you layed down on the street
when you were wounded by that knife

When they decide
that one must die
it's while the blood is wet
that we're obliged
to ask ourselves
which one of us is next?

Remember the friends close to you
who did not look like you?
who did not treat you as
so many of the others do?
Friend is a friend is a friend
is not a color of a skin
but a way of being
this! hate cannot relate
and this is where racism steps in

Racism is one thing we learn from history
has done more to damage man than any one disease
people live and people die: that is a natural fact
but not so if the reason why is
just because you're black

Kerwin you were not the first
but we want you to be the last
we want fascism to stop
and we must do it fast

Kerwin
No one believes it - Kerwin did not - had he - alive
he would be - but he didn't believe -
racism - fascism - Adolf Hitlerism
or just plain Amsterdam snobism

No one really believes there is a thing called
racism
it's always something else -
it's not because of your color
they say: it's the way you carry yourself -
School children in Kenya reenact the death of Kerwin.

Who knows what reasons they'll retrieve
racism is something no one believes
even when the black lays dying in the street
no one believes it

Closed eyes don't see it
racial abuse / an excuse
no one believes it though it is true -
Kerwin didn't believe / why should you?
Plus how could he?
no one believes racism to be -
like they didn't believe the Vietnamese
pleas to live in peace
they didn't believe blacks should be free
after 400 years of misery

KERWIN
They didn't believe / they didn't
believe that we too should
have a right to breathe -
no one believes racism to be /
that people are people
with a right to be happy and free - happy and free

No one believes that to be the way it should be
no one believes it possible because no one believes
people don't even believe
what their eyes can see
the injustice / the waste / the inhumanity
they just don't believe - they just don't believe

The horror is so normal
so, so, so informal
that the normal horror is believed good
even at the cost of blood �

Maurice Di, 25 August 1984One of the annual memorials for Kerwin and against racism organized in Holland by Amina Marix Evans.

Garlic Harvest

Pulling them out of the new raised beds was easier than when I just planted in the clay soil directly.
Mnnn! Time for some really frest pesto: walnuts, basil and as many cloves of this garlic I want to peel!

Beached

I was suspicious about the rave reviews of Varda's new auto-bio-pic. I've never been a big fan of Varda. I found the film Daguerréotypes (also known I think as Rue Daguerre) excruciating. The Gleaners, which so many swooned over, just made me angry. An insult to Millet.

Years ago I did see and rather liked Lions' Love, but only because Shirley Clarke and Viva were in it-- in all their glory.

Her new film, The Beaches of Agnes, is just as cloying as Daguerreotypes and even more (if that is possible) narcissistic. Lots of familiar folk here and lovely images of Guillaume (Chris Marker's signature cat)-- as a larger than life cut out walking down the street. Perhaps the best image in the entire film. But there is no real appreciation of Marker or of any of the people she mentions. Beaches is replete with name dropping, like a society column.

The problem is there is really no sense of history. In any of her films. History for Varda is like an antique shop-- there only for consumption. In Beaches, she breezes past WWII, Vietnam, the Black Panthers, as if they were tableaux in shop windows--and all she is interested in is her own reflected image.

She uses art the same way. She culls contemporary art and takes the visuals for her "background" and leaves the concept behind. The film opens with a scene on the beach with a group of interns each holding or placing mirrors. Joan Jonas did stark and scary work in the 1970s carrying mirrors around--showing the audience to themselves or looking at various parts of her own body. Her performances made the mirror an instrument of terror. In Varda the mirror is just part of the decor.

Varda takes her office to the street which has been covered with sand (beach). Beuys did performances in the streets of many European cities--performances that challenged the prevailing mores. Varda's office street beach is reassuring. There is a smugness about putting your office outside. It doesn't challenge anything. It borders on cute, sort of like a child's lemonade stand.
For an interview with Varda check out Liza Bear's piece in Interview:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/beachesofagnes/Agnesvarda2.pdf

The Weaving Porch

Xena, Molly and Io made this rug.
For our annual 4th of July party Molly and I set up a loom for the guests to weave. It took Molly two days to warp it, but it was a great experience for all!
This is Iolanthe's rug:
This is Molly's rug:
Tolan started weaving after everyone left Willow.
Tolan kept weaving deep into the night. This is his rug:

The State Dept Visits the Waves of Change Site

For 11 Minutes...
the search terms were "community radio Senegal"

NYU/Yale Open Media Conference

lots of boys.
lots of code talk
drupal, plumi, etc

and then there's a whole other bunch talking
about things like elevator pitches.
which i thought must be a new form of muzak-- something
that goes directly into your blackberry while you're in an elevator ..
but no
it's just how to get your "concept" to the CEO in the time it takes you to get from the first to the 12th floor.
In other words,
lots of guys looking to sell their 'concepts".

lots of the presentations are on line at www.openvideoconference.org

this is no next five minutes.
unfortunately.

but there are some good ole indymedia friends.

On Friday night they had a great lineup of the workshops and speakers archived on their web site.
But today (Tuesday) I am trying to catch up with some of the stuff I missed on Saturday and all that is
up are a few "remixes". Where are the talks? Where are the workshops?

So much for "open video"...........
Did all the geeks jump on the pirate ship and sail away?

Arise you prisoners of starvation !!

In honor of Harvey Goldberg and Paul Buhle

Harvey Goldberg Day at the Brecht Forum in NYC

Daniel's Tango

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger

This rousing version of the Woody Guthrie song was sung by Pete Seeger on October 28, 2002 at a rally against the invasion of Iraq held in Kingston, New York. Today Pete Seegar is 90 years old.