Lots’o’photos today. Partial because I did a lot, and partial because one event lent itself to photographing everything. As usually, images are on flickr
First off, I dragged myself into the City an hour & a half earlier than normal, because I wanted to join in on “The World’s Longest Unemployment Line” which ran along Broadway from Wall St to MSG. (That’s about 3+ miles). Participants were given large cardboard “Pink Slips” to wave. I joined the line at 23rd St (right by the Flatiron Building). Broadway is crossing 5th Ave there, so there this rather desolate island between the three streets, which needed to be covered. Our block leader wasn’t very good at talking people into moving, so while the sidewalk was crowded south of 23rd, we were a bit sparse just north of it. Oddly, the “Pants-on-Fire” car which I’d seen last night, was stationed at the intersection as well (I think it’s following me!) The protest was scheduled to last only 15 minutes.
At it, I met a woman who flew in from Olympia, WA for the protests. Last night, I met a couple from Arizona. So, it’s not just the “wild radicals” of NYC — dislike of W is widespread, and they are just converging here……
Over lunch, I roamed Union Square Park again. Many people selling protest t-shirts and button again, some the same as the last few days, and some new ones. The main attraction today was the “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit, by the American Friends Service Committee, which shows one pair of army boots for each soldier who has dies in the Iraqi War (976, so far) plus an other thousand pairs of ordinary shoes representing the thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. It was a very powerful demonstration.
After work, I head downtown again, this time to Battery Park, where the Axis of Eve (UPDATE 27-May-2013: Link to their website removed, as they’ve abandoned it, and it has since been taken over by a porn site) was holding their “Operation EXPOSE and DEPOSE” which was a “protest panty flash”. The idea was that about 200 woman would march and then on command, flash their panties, which had various anti-Bush slogans on them (“lick bush”, “expose bush”, “weapon of mass seduction”, “my cherry for kerry”). It was one of those rare events where you could feel patriotic, socially-conscious and get to see women in their underwear all at the same time. The actual demonstration lasted about 20 minutes, followed by over an hour of interviews with the media. I had nothing to do, so I hung around, hence lots of pictures. Also, there was lots of media there — or at least lots of people with video cameras, including two cops, though except for Fox, none of the majors— so frequently my attempt to get a picture was blocked at the last second by someone else trying to try one, so if you look through the gallery, you’ll often see several shots of the same scene, all slightly different and none exactly right. (UPDATE: I’m told CNN, ABC & WB all covered it– I should explain that many of those video cameras were professional quality, but without labels saying who they were) I even got a bit of video of the demonstration: I heard a few vague mentions of some topless women in the demonstration, but mostly it was nudity-free – many of the woman were wearing the panties over pantyhoses or tights. Several also wore American flags as skirts. (Close to the end, I saw one woman topless except for a pair of dollar-sign pasties, but I don’t she was part of the demonstration — I don’t think she even arrived till after it was over). I bumped into a friend while I was there, and he modeled one of the panties on his head. (see photos).
Finally, I headed back to the Union Sq area, to see a play called “Voting for Godot” a satire of modern elections. It was alright, but never really took off. I got the feeling that it was written & produced in just the last month or so, so the writing could have used some sharpening, and the actors could have used a bit more rehearsal to work on their timing. Also, I believe the action parallels “Waiting for Godot”: “Vladimir” and “Estragon” become “Quo” and “Poppy”, but I really don’t know the earlier play well enough to fully see the parallels.
After dashing a mile down 14th street to the PATH station after the show to catch a just departing train to Hoboken, I again miss a train to Bloomfield by seconds, and have to wait in the Hoboken station for 50 minutes before the next one.
(Update: I fixed a lot of typos again)