Cranial Discharge

OWS – Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street has been going for just over a month now. I went in to NYC a couple of days in weeks 2 and 3, and talked to people, checked things out and took pictures.

Even though the protest is entering its second month, there is still a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it is clearly purposeful, while much is simply a lack of facts. Funny how many people are willing to express an opinion with only the flimsiest of actual information to back it up.

A couple of things surprised me: First, the group is amazingly organized for such a loose knit gathering. Schedules, teams, people working together, and people helping each other. That was great to see. I also hadn’t expected the range of people that I found. I expected younger people and students, but there are a lot of older people, and people with a wide variety of backgrounds. Some I spoke to were very knowledgable about specific areas of concern, such as banking and the finance industry, corporate influence on political campaigns and our government, monetary systems and the fed, and a host of other topics.

I certainly do not agree with everyone I saw or spoke with, but I can say that everyone was great to talk to and very reasonable. Almost all of the people I’ve heard or read bashing the protesters as deadbeats, hippies, dirtbags, socialists, communists, anti-capitalists, etc., have not actually ventured inside the park to speak at length with people, and worse, some have cherry picked individuals that represent (imo) the worst of the pack. No different from picking out a racist with a grammatically horrible sign at a Tea Party event. Does that represent all Tea Partiers? I don’t think so.

One of the points that is missed most often, and I think purposely so in many cases, is the idea of Occupy as a “liberal” event, sponsored, staged, and directed by some group out there. From what I saw that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although I agree that most attendees I met were on the left side of the spectrum, there is definitely not a “left-right” bent to the messages coming out. The primary messages are much bigger than left-right – they are concerned with a variety of fundamental problems currently driving our system.

The interesting, and disappointing, thing to me so far is that the outcomes the OWS protesters want would help the vast majority of Americans, regardless of political leanings. The overall result would be a greater voice for the individual people of this nation, and a better opportunity to achieve the “Amercan Dream.”  Nearly everyone I spoke with is very much pro-capitalism, and pro-individual freedoms, yet somehow that seems to be lost on the majority. I’ve seen many of the “53%” responses, and it’s clear that a very high percentage of those posting actually support the argument of the 99% – they’re working more hours, more weeks, more jobs, and have less to show for it than they should. The perception of the 53% group is that the OWS protesters are whiners who want something for nothing. Some do I’m sure, but nearly all I spoke to just want to do good work, get paid what they’re worth and have a real say on how things are run. Pretty universal and not too much to ask for, really.

Video Series – Embrace your Inner Guido

Play off of all the Jersey Shore nonsense and build it up. Show “every day” people taking on the look and behavior of the guido world and see what happens. Probably a really bad idea.

Giant Music Box

Build a large music box type of machine – maybe a 55 gallon drum with spikes of some sort that is turned via a geared crank mechanism. Large tines made out of metal strips would produce tones as the spikes hit them.

The trick is to make it so the music can be changed as needed. The drum would have holes drilled all over it, and the spikes can be plugged into any of the holes. That way moving the spikes results in a different piece of music being played as the drum is turned.

Issues: spacing the holes so that even notes (8th and 16th notes) and odd groupings (at least triplets) can be played.

Large Color Clock

A large clock that shows time by two or three large, overlapping color wheels. Each wheel is some sort of gradient with a line showing the start and end of each gradient. Those lines are the hour, minute and second hands. The wheels are at least somewhat transparent so the colors are constantly changing.

I think it would be easy to build since clock parts are easy to get. A strong enough motor would be required, and the material for the wheels has to be light weight.

Nature City Song/Video Idea

A guy in his city apartment watches the Nature channel all the time. Video shows his day from commute in, to commute home. Very gray and down, sort of a “Brazil” look. As in Brazil, row after row of gray workers. Weekends he goes to the park and is a little brighter, imagining he is at a national park or some great natural setting.

Does he ever really get out?  I don’t know yet.

1930′s Style Song Idea

A song about a man who leaves prison after serving his time. It’s done in a 30′s swing style, and uses slang – especially prison slang – of the era. He comes home to find his girl with another man. The song is all about how he deals with the situation. I don’t know the story yet.