Found this poster in Centre Way (one of the few places where street art hasn't been cleaned up) on Thursday. More than half of Sierra Leone's Commonwealth Games team have gone missing because they don't want to go back. The Age's most recent article on them is here.
A couple of people (including MUMZ) have asked about how Forest Edge was. I have said that there was some good stuff and some crap stuff. In some ways it was fairly disorganised, and thus we got people turning up to some of our seminar things expecting a different seminar. There was a fair trade cafe area run by More Praxis, where there were a lot of social justice type seminars on, and a lot more laid back music than the rest of the festival, so that was good.
We listened to two guys argue about something they almost completely agreed on for about three hours.
We had chilli con carne sin chilli. So basically, it was just carne.
DeeDee's friend Sasha wanted me to introduce myself to this guy who she reckoned I must have been related to. It turned out to be John D'Alton. Except she reckoned he was called Calvin.
Christian City Youth, all the way from Christian City, had no tops to their heads.
A redback spider landed on Sounds Like Chicken's drum kit.
Our tent got blown down because it wasn't put up properly.
Saturday night we stayed up till about 2am helping Marcus work out what to do for his Colossians Remixed seminar the next day.
And Tomsy was:
And we got to get away from the city for a few days, just before it got absolutely insane. Now there are police and security guards and helicopters everywhere.
I didn't end up staying inside all day after all.
This afternoon I went with Gin to visit Black GST's camp, at King's Domain. When we got there we were asked to put some gum leaves in the sacred fire (from the Tent Embassy), and then stand in the smoke, to get rid of any bad spirits from outside the camp.
It turned out that Mary, who worked on one of the murals in our laneway, was there painting a map of the camp. There was a lot of painting going on, as well as music, cooking, football and preparation for subversive action.
Yesterday morning we took some couches out into the laneway, and served coffee and biscuits, from 10:30 until lunch. We're doing it because a lot of the service providers in the CBD are cutting back their services during the Games, because they figure that most of the people who use them won't want to be around, because of all the police, et cetera. So we thought we should try and make it more comfortable for people to be in the city. So we'll be doing it today, as well as Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week.
I looked out the office window just before, and wondered why there were bins blocking off the laneway.
Then I realised it was so no-one would park where we'll be setting up.
This has already been going on for a little while now, but I forgot to mention it here. We've started the Monitoring 2006 Project to record how disadvantaged people are being effected by the Commonwealth Games, particularly the 12 500 police and 4500 security guards. Our press release is here. We got mentioned in The Age, here.
A roaming graffiti wall has been created as part of the Melbourne 2006 Graffiti Games. I spotted it yesterday in Degraves Street. Pictures here, here and here.
Apparently the Games Opening Ceremony was on last night, while we were having tea, and while CLEAN was opening, in Hosier Lane. We went down to have a look after we'd had tea, and then went down to Flinders Street Station, where the food vans come most nights. Recently there hasn't been much people there because the police appear to have been bothering them a lot. But last night quite a lot of people turned up, particularly young people. (There haven't been many young people down there at all this year, apparently because of the police. We also noticed that there were a lot of young people in Credo yesterday.) So although there were a lot of police around, I think it would've been difficult for them to move people on, because so many turned up to the food vans, and because of the crowns of people going to watch the Opening Ceremony at the MCG or on the big screens.
Melbourne, Commonwealth Games, Opening Ceremony
All the bins at Flinders Street Station have been replaced with transparent ones, so it's easier to see if someone's put a bomb in them or whatever:
When I was at the same station on Saturday, I noticed that Coke had a stage set up where they were giving away free drinks. They were actually yelling out slogans through a megaphone.
Some of us around here have been talking a bit about how similar the new Coke campaign (Why can't relationships come with a gap year? Why can't we have a big money job with zero responsibilities?) is to the offers the devil makes to Jesus during his forty days in the desert.
The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.'Coke and the devil both seem to be offering no limits, without any consequences.
Jesus answered, 'It is written: "Man does not live on bread alone."'
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.'
Jesus answered, 'It is written: "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."'
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down from here. For it is written:'"He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."'Jesus answered, 'It says: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."'
(Luke 4:3-12)
One of the few billboards I actually liked (it was for Next Wave Festival) has just been replaced with this:
And now that I've had a look at the website I don't think it's so bad. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another Zero Movement.
After work tomorrow night I'm going down to Forest Edge Festival. Hurrah. It goes till Monday, I think. The education guys are running some of the seminar type stuff.
Wednesday afternoon, for Pain in the Arts (the Credo art group), I went for a walk with Andre and Marie around the city, so we could take pictures of what's going on leading up to the Games. They wanted to take some photos of Melbourne's wonderful street art, but most of it's been taken down, so we took a few photos of the bare walls.
Before we went back to Credo we went up Hosier Lane, one of the few places in the CBD that's not being sterilised to impress our visitors.
I love how art can make the ugliest things beautiful. Not just concrete walls, but even garbage:
I drew this when we got back:
Got me thinking again about a conversation we had with Brian McLaren, when he and Grace were visiting a couple of weeks ago. We (mostly Brian and Marcus) were talking about the implications of calling something (or someone) waste. How can a part of God's creation be considered waste?
Been thinking over the last six months or so about what a creation myth would look like if it developed completely in an urban environment. Would the creator spirit of an urban mythology create towers and trains and powerlines? Would it create some really good rubbish for the people to find uses for?
As of yesterday there's been security guards everywhere as well as the extra police. It seems there's a security guard down every laneway I walk past. One good thing is that they're not going to have any security guards stationed in our laneway, although one security guard will be coming down regualrly to check that everyone's being good. Another good thing is that the police have said that they'll call us if there's a situation involving drug use or overdose.
Thanks to Vic from Empire Games, I've been able to find some of the legislation that's been passed just for the Commonwealth Games:
Melbourne, Commonwealth Games, legislation, Commonwealth Games legislation
As you may or may not know, there is a Commonwealth Games Act (which I've found impossible to access online), which prohibits people from carrying certain items at Commonwealth Games venues, including skateboards, unauthorised recording equipment and voice amplification devices.
Something you may be more likely to know, (considering how hot it was in Melbourne today) is that 7 Eleven are giving 15c from every Green & Gold Slurpee they sell to our Commonwealth Games heroes.
However, 7 Eleven are also encouraging their customers to breach the Commonwealth Games Act by turning their Slurpee cups into megaphones, in order to 'cheer on our Aussies'!
Black GST (Genocide to end, Sovreignty to beacknowledged, Treaty to be made) have set up a website for the Stolenwealth Games.
The Graffiti Games Organising Committee (GGOC) has declared Melbourne CBD a maximum tolerance zone for graffiti.
Unlike the elitist Commonwealth Games the Graffiti Games will be open to anyone with a spray-can and a good or bad idea. The entire population of Victoria, as well as interstate and international visitors, are encouraged to compete.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent is the forty days before Easter Sunday (not counting the Sundays), which is traditionally a time for 'reflection, repentance and resolve to live differently.' (That's from Mark's Lenten Reflections 06)
Been thinking a lot recently about how we can look after the God's creation, which we depend on, and are part of. So I'm going to try and go without meat for Lent, largely because it takes so much land to produce meat. Not only do livestock take up the land they live on, they also take up the land needed to grow their food. I'm also going to go without alcohol, but I don't want to be obsessive about either.
This afternoon EcoPaul asked if I wanted to go down to Albert Park, to have tea at the Hare Krishna temple, and then go to the beach.
So after Eco had finished work, we caught the tram down to Albert Park, and then walked to the temple. We went through a garden, to the back of the kitchen, to grab some steel trays to eat off, because Eco won't use the disposable cardboard trays.
One of the monks in the kitchen was talking on his mobile phone, so Eco yelled at him to turn it off, reasoning that it'd give everyone cancer. The monk said he wasn't going to get rid of his phone, because millions of cows are being killed every day, and he can use his phone to organise action against this. Eco asked the monk what he thought about whales being killed, and the monk said that cows are more important, because we drink the cow's milk, so the cow is like our mother. Then Eco said that whales are the cows of the sea.
We went into the prayer room, where there were statues of various forms of Krishna, paintings of Krishna's story, and a statue of Srila Prabhupada. Eco explained what some of the pictures were about.
Then we went and sat in the garden for a while. There were a few people chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, which sounded a lot like Pentecostal christians when the speak in tongues (just like the Indigo Children do when they speak Star Language).
Eco was saying stuff about how he reckons Jesus was a vegetarian. I said I didn't think he was, because a number of times he gave people fish to eat. So Eco said that that was the same as me giving people meat to eat in Credo. So I pointed out that I'm not actually a vegetarian, I just try not to eat too much meat. So Eco started yelling out to everyone, 'He's not a vegetarian! He eats meat!'
Later we went upstairs to eat. We had buckwheat, tomato, zuccini, tofu, potato, a dessert that had coconut in it, and an orange drink. When we had finished eating, we went back to the kitchen to wash our trays. I went over to the bins to get rid of my polystyrene cup. One of the monks was hosing the concrete around the bins.
I said to him, 'Is this bin one for garbage?'
He said, 'What does it look like?'
So I walked across the patch of concrete he was hosing, to put my cup in the bin.
Then he said, 'Fine, would you like to clean the concrete yourself?'
So I said, 'Sorry, I just had to get to the bin.'
He smirked and said, 'Have you ever been to a temple before?'
I said I hadn't, and he gave me a smug look. Most of the other people were very nice. But that was probably the worst conversation I've had with a religious person since I visited a certain church last year, where the pastor said that if he wasn't a Christian he'd punch me.
After that we walked down to the beach. Eco turned off someone's sprinkler system on the way.
Kate (Urban Seed resident from last year)'s housemate got a letter in The Age today:
Tarting up to impress the tourists
WELL, I for one am so relieved to hear that, due to the new Victoria Police and State Government policy, there will be no "distressed" homeless people on our streets during the Commonwealth Games. I would be so worried if all the important international visitors thought that our homeless people were distressed about their living situations. How embarrassing that would be for our city!
And thank goodness for the 24-hour number that will direct homeless people to shelter. They can just whip out their latest model mobile phones, dial the number, and be hidden from sight in no time. Now, that's a load off my mind.
Rebecca Rowe, Thornbury
letter, Melbourne, Commonwealth Games, homeless, homelessness,
CLEAN is an ambush-style audio installation, bringing the dirty side of Melbourne to life in the midst of the 2006 Commonwealth Games urban polish. CLEAN explores what it means to scrub up a city in the name of sport.Nic Low's been going around interviewing street people, beggars, street artists and others who feel as though they're being excluded from the Commonwealth Games, asking them about the clean-up process that's been going on. When Commonwealth Games visitors go up Hosier Lane, they'll set off motion sensors, starting speakers hidden in pipes and drains, so the voices of those who probably won't be around anymore can still be heard.
Melbourne, Commonwealth Games, art, installation, installation art, art installation, street art, graffiti, begging, homeless
The Age printed this article yesterday. A lot of what the article says doesn't sound very much like what we've been hearing from police, or from people on the street, or what some of us have seen.
The article quotes an article Sue Hogan (our advocacy worker) wrote about how the Commonwealth Games are effecting people we know. Melbourne, Commonwealth Games, homeless, homelessness, police, policing,
Stayed up till abouy 1:30 this morning helping Marcus, Chris, Jono and Giant set up the church sanctuary for a the school group that's here today. The education team are trying to get 170 year 12 students to think about vocation, and the sanctuary's been set up as a kind of reflection area.
Theres different things set up in different areas of the church, like an area full of ticking clocks and egg-timers, for a reflection on time.
There's also a coffin, to help studnets think about the kind of legacy they wnat to leave when they die. And there's a TV playing bits from The Simpsons, the episodes where Marge paints Mr Burns's picture, and the one where Lisa and Bart have to do a test to work out what kind of career best suits them.
And there are the graffiti towers. We set up some ladders...
...covered them with cardboard...
...and then covered them with paper, so the students can draw and paint stuff on them, representing the different voices that are directing them in regards to how they choose to use their lives. With the really tall one, we threw a box up onto the top of the ladder, to try and cover the top...
...which made it look kind of like a tyrannosaurus, or a siege tower. We considered making a big photocopy of Giant's face to go on the front of the box. We tried to get a sheet over the top of the box, so all the carboard would be covered, but we weren't able to, so we ended up taking the box down, and just putting the sheet over the top.
Tonight at church we looked at the story of Jesus and the que-jumpers. I blogged about it in January, so read that.
