Hopped in a van with Austin’s hometown hero, Phranchyze and crew to New Mexico, which was the first of 3 dates he opened up for West Coaster and rap superstar,Snoop Dogg.Albuquerque to Lubbock to Austin. It was awesome……Heres some pictures of the first 2 dates as proof. enjoy.
Snoop Dogg performing in Lubbock.
Snoop’s dancers getting it in.They were mostly too fast for the lens, but i snapped a few shots during some of their slower moves.
Lubbock, home of Buddy Holly.
Dogg Pound’s KURUPT GOTTI performing with Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Doggying it. Snoop went through a great set including classics from The Chronic and Doggystyle.
Most player mic in the game…rappers, step your mic game up.
Phranchyze performing in Lubbock. Phran recieved a great response from the Lubbock crowd. Fans chanted his name after the set and wanted an encore after he freestyled a bit about the city and college sports teams.
Here’s some street art from Albuquerque..sweet lines.
Phranchyze in Albuquerque getting the crowd quite krunk.
Lupe Fiasco and Erykah Badu killing it at the BET Hip Hop Awards performing “Words I Never Said”. Lupe puts on an emotional performance in part to the current Occupy movement in which Lupe nods to with his #Occupy t-shirt. Burka-clad Erykah Badu further sets the mood and lends her amazing vocals to the song.
OCCUPY AUSTINis a movement that stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall street movement as well as the numerous other Occupy movements around the globe. We had been interested in the movement for a few weeks, and visited Day 1 of the Austin Occupation to see, hear, and learn more about why people have taken to the streets to voice their opinions.
The Occupy movement now currently going into its fourth week had many cities join in solidarity with October 6th being the start of most of them. Through research we have found that at the root of all the protests is that corporate lobbyists seemingly have too much control of our government. This pretty much means that our US government does not work for 99% of the citizens ;however, the current government instead works for the wealthiest 1% who run the corporations. This movement is not republican nor democrat but is instead just attempting to level the playing field, and make democracy the voice of the people…as it was designed to do. Some of the biggest misconceptions about the Occupy movement is that it is against corporations; this is not the case- instead, it is anti-corporate greed. This is a real chance for revolution and change in today’s crazy political weather.
Going into Occupy Austin’s day 1 , I had mixed feelings about what to expect but instead of making brash uneducated judgements about what was going on, I decided to go and check it out and learn about it firsthand to experience and see why people are outraged. Day 1 of Occupy Austin had reported over 1300 demonstrators that spanned people of all age and backgrounds. The Austin Police Department were as cool as can be, as compared to the NYPD whose arrest total well over 1000 as well as videotaped brutality, and as compared to yesterdays Occupy Boston movement that boasts over 100 arrests including those of Veterans for Peace members. APD as well as the city actually supported the movement- another reason I love this city.
The assembly also gave people a chance to voice their concerns and why they were there-which spanned everything from students wanting more affordable higher education, to people voicing and warning of credit card debt, to current banking practices. The thoughts were all over the place, but again, this was a place that opened discussion and ideas throughout, and at the end of the day-how can that be a bad thing?
A few weeks ago Animal Lovers of Austin heldBarkitecture 2011on the upscale (Dallas-like) 2nd street district. The event raises money for local area animal rescue groups. The money raised is by silent auction of these awesome doghouses built by some of Austin’s most creative architects and designers. A few blocks were lined with these one of a kind doghouses, as well as a lot of cool dogs enjoying the festivities and a great day out. Heres some pics of some of our favorites.
This doghouse had a slightly slanted roof with an opening so that the reservoir on the floor level could collect rainwater for the dogs to drink.
This guitar themed doghouse was built by students from the Art Institute of Austin.
Many of the doghouses used “green” materials in their construction, everything from found re-purposed wood, used tires, and even glass bottles.
Longhorn football- I honestly think most of these public art cows are annoying and gaudy, but this one was pretty cool.
QR codes were used as the siding on this doghouse, which is a pretty cool idea…but then again…well, whatever.
This doghouse was awesome; the water wall was used to help cool the inside of the house for a pampered pet on a hot day.
Ran across this graffiti piece on the east side while walking to the bi-annual Pecan Street Festival on 6th street. Those letters are well done, real cool color combo- painted by No Bounds Krew – painted by Reks, Saint, Shock, Worm, and Sloke
Then came across this cool collection of stickers. Big ups to FAILURE, cool image although some other artists added to it.
This lego made lion welcomed me to 6th street.
Then we got tired of looking at bad art in the numerous tents lining the street and dipped into visit with our friends at Sole Fresco , check out this dope ODB tee shirt.
I was digging a lot of these great caps that they have but was turned off by the snapback trends and lack of my fitted sizes. I was told they would be carrying more fitteds soon, which is way cool in my book.
Festival foods, this is really what Pecan Street Fest is all about.
On the walk back we came up on the Dub Academy. This place was amazing. I had heard a lot about this place from a few folk and was really interested in checking the spot out. Creative Director, Lorenzo Villareal explained that the school taught students the art of DJ’ing through serato as well as the ability to make beats using Ableton. All of the rigs use professional Rane mixers, Technics tables, and Mac interfaces….impressive. The space was great, high ceilings with custom paint from Austin graffiti favorites SLOKE and MEZ 1. Make sure toc heck out their website or space if you or someone you know is interested in learning to mix, scratch, or produce.
The following week Rob Swift of X-ecutioners fame held a Q and A and scratch session at the academy….found out the day after, bummer.
I have been really interested in the movement that has grown on New York’s Wall Street in the last few weeks. “Occupy Wall Street” buzzed on our “social media” radar before last weekend, you know, about the same time that the weekends parties and multiple event invites for rookie rappers’ online mixtape releases hit my twitter/FB stream. It only peaked through a few streams though, and only from a few very liberal friends, and there wasn’t anything on mainstream media…and still hardly is. As I went looking into the movement I was really wary of the hype (same goes with those event invites), you know “the boy who cried wolf” effect. The online pictures and videos were strong and professionally composed so I was drawn into them more so from a visually composed aspect as opposed to the emotional outlet. This changed for myself throughout the week, however, and even moreso as I researched the movement for this blog..
Truth be told, though; unless you are the 1% of wealthy Americans, which I seriously doubt will ever come upon this blog- this should interest you. 1 in 6 Americans are living beneath the poverty line.
Photos and videos of fed up Americans in groves that were peacefully protesting on Wall Street to bring attention to the woes and evils of corporate greed and then being assaulted and arrested by city police for doing no more than documenting the event was enough to keep this “event” on my radar.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is hard to define; there is not just one idea or demand. This is what probably most people and media are using to discredit the movement. The Occupy movement is more the understanding that there is not just one problem in today’s society; instead, it is opening discussion and protesting against the complex and numerous affinities that plague the current state of our union. It is the state that 99% of our country lives in spanning from judicial wrongdoings, rising higher education costs, poor health care, shaky economy, corporations running our government, the 2008 Banking bailouts, rise in unemployment….you know, pretty much everything that has resulted from corporate greed. This is why you have not seen or heard of this movement from mass media, not so much because of the “disorganization” of the protesters. This is also why the movement itself has been full steam ahead into the media of today’s generation; social media. We are going into week 3 as Occupy Wall Street activists have been camped out in NY’s financial district and are being aided by volunteers and people from all over the world who have been sending supplies, food, encouragement, and coverage to the protestors. The Occupy Wall Street website blogs daily as well as offers a live feed from Wall street so that anyone could see and hear exactly what is going on without having bias of what a reporter may say. This video from Democracy Now of Dr.Cornell West explaining the movement can perhaps be the best said reason of what is going on in our society right now. In reference to the revolutions and protests happening this past year from many Arab countries, “it’s the makings of a U.S. Autumn responding to the Arab Spring.”
The group has garnered support and some legitimacy from some NY union members including the United Federation of Teachers and the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Here is another great video of rapper Immortal Technique visiting the movement at 2am on September 26th to drop knowledge on the current state and the movement.
…and a video of Immortal Technique’s rap poetry, “A Toast to the Dead”
September 26, Michael Moore visited Liberty Plaza to offer some demands for the protests such as corporate accountability and higher taxes for the rich as he explains that “The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than 150 million combined.”
On the 11th day of the protests, over 700 uniformed pilots representing the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) carriers also took to Wall Street to voice grievances as they protested for wages and benefits in light of a stalled merger between the airlines.
On Day 12 of the protest, hip hop mogul, Russel Simmons lends his support as he explains that “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”
Through this weekend the movement in New York had protesters march over the Brooklyn Bridge which led to the eventual netting of and arrest of 700 peaceful protesters. Several sources write that the protesters were led by police to the bridge and then trapped and arrested. Here’s some video.
The “Occupy” movement has now seen a rise in protests and plans for protests in over 66 U.S.Cities, as well as in other countries including Canada, Mexico, and Japan that are standing in solidarity for the Wall Street protestors.
Occupy LA, over the weekend saw over 1500 protestors at City Hall, Occupy Boston has seen well over 1000 (in the rain) in front of the Federal Reserve Bank. Most of the other cities are using October 6th as the date to protest in their cities, including our fair city of Austin.
Occupy Austin will occupy the Austin City Hall beginning at 3pm on October 6th
Here’s some pics of the Gary Clark Jr show at Sam’s in San Antonio, TX. The show was sold out, and people were waiting for hours before the show to get in. It’s pretty cool to see that Gary is now truly being recognized for the talent he is. This San Antonio show was somewhat of a homecoming to Texas, as Gary and band had been touring for months selling out shows from NY, to Chicago, to all over Canada. More recently, Gary has been invited to 3 Brazil show dates in the next few weeks to open for guitar god, Eric Clapton. Kudos.
