5/6 Protest
5/07/2006
The Jonas Adrian Trio played a concert on Friday night, which was great, exhausting fun. I was completely worn out afterwards. To add more difficulty to my experience, just before we started playing, someone passed a message on to me that PG5YP (my other band) was playing at the Bush Protest Site Saturday morning. 8:00 AM. Ugh.
The Trio played well that night. PG5YP showed up to help break down, which was very nice, then I drove home half-dead to get some rest.
Woke up Saturday morning after only 3.5 hours of sleep. I was zombie-like and quite grumpy. We stuffed the car with last-minute items and left for Stillwater at 6:00.
Unloaded our gear at Happy Narwhal, the super-cool little record store that we would be partying down at after the protest. Arrived at the OSU campus shortly after 8, joining a crowd of at least 250 protesters.
The man who brought the PA only had 3 microphones, so the drums, accordian and backup vocals were completely un-miced. Also, the crowd was half-awake, so there was not a lot of enthusiasm at first. But the crowd became larger and larger, and some have estimated that, at its peak, there were around 500-600 people there protesting Bush's arrival.
The local media, as usual, portrayed the entire event as a nice, happy fun time that gave Bush a warm welcome, and that only about 250 protesters showed up. Total bullshit. No mention of the professors who walked out of the commencement speech. No mention of the small but significant riot stoked by the pro-Bush crowd (maybe a dozen people). Fuck you, media.
All in all, it was a kick-ass event. Solidarity in a red state makes it even more significant, I believe. Check out some reviews/pics of the protest here: Defiance_01's Xanga Site
And here: Tulsa Can't Wait
I have absolutely no photographic evidence of this event, so if anyone has pictures of the band playing, I would appreciate you emailing them to me at maximumhong (at) gmail dot com.
The show at Happy Narwhal afterwards was great, exhausting fun, though it wasn't properly plugged at the protest site and so few people actually knew about it. By the time it was over, I was ready to pass out from sheer exhaustion.
All in all, it was definitely worth the effort! I'm glad my drum and I played a part in giving Bush a cold-shouldered welcome to Oklahoma.
posted by novachild @ Sunday, May 07, 2006,
