late october 2011 i resolved to relocate to new york’s zuccotti park, fascinated by the bacchanalian / populist occupy wall street protests. sleeping in the park with hundreds of others, i managed to get mixed up in the business of the press relations working group. early one morning some daily show producers came by the press desk and asked for a zuccotti tour, which i gladly provided. later they asked if i minded performing the same on camera with samantha bee, i said no. thus the 15 seconds of fame warhol foretold as future birthright literally came to pass.

taking a brand new chance
we open our hearts to new romance
in the dead of night

using our thoughts to dream
we’re finding ourselves in different scenes
full of love and light

dreaming builds the future
only we can lead us there

it’s time to use our imaginations

everyone take a hand
use our hearts to heal this land
from nightmares of war

taking a brand new chance
we open our hearts to new romance
that’s what hearts are for

the sun is all full of light
a brilliant dawn is coming on
like an open door

updated US one dollar bill great seal (an incantation)

late summer 2010 i ended up attending the uk climate camp 2010 direct occupation / action against the royal bank of scotland’s headquarters outside edinburgh. the action was intended to aggressively protest and publicize RBS’s deeply irresponsible investments in the canadian tar sands oil extraction project, one of earth’s biggest currently unfolding environmental disasters. several hundred protesters managed to occupy territory on RBS’s HQ. workshops, talks, and planning sessions were held in preparation against a day of action, with a rigid emphasis on ‘non-hierarchical’ organization and decentralized planning, which seemed theoretically admirable but practically resulted in what i couldn’t help regarding as a sadly comic squandering of the camp’s genuine potential to create a noticed media sensation. what could have been, with some organizational leadership and delegation, a headline seizing global publicity event instead worked out as a series of petty aggravations and vandalisms the UK press predictably spun as the work of over-privileged malcontents, mostly failing to spark any significant public scrutiny of RBS’s little known dirty investments. in any case, these photos are from the main action against the bank, in which many protesters in white hazmat style suits overpowered an unprepared police force, stormed the campus, broke a window, and generally dissolved into a confused mass of people with no plan and mostly no idea what was even happening.