Joe’s Pub in NYC is putting up Ethan Lipton’s “No Place to Go” between March 14th and April 8th; set as Lipton’s company is relocated to another planet, it is described as a “musical ode to the unemployed”. Check out a song from it below:
An ungovernable art show
22 FebThe New Museum in New York City recently opened their latest Triennial, called “The Ungovernables“, an exhibition that “takes its inspiration from the concept of ‘ungovernability’ and its transformation from a pejorative term used to describe unruly ‘natives’ to a strategy of civil disobedience and self-determination. The Ungovernables is meant to suggest both anarchic and organized resistance and a dark humor about the limitations and potentials of this generation.” Judy Berman at Flavorpill writes of one of the most compelling qualities of the show, in that it “after a year that began with Arab Spring and ended with the global Occupy movement, this [focuses] on young people from around the world and their various ‘urgencies,’ while acknowledging that their particular concerns are only beginning to coalesce”.
If you’re in New York, it seems very worthwhile a visit.
Woody by Shepard
16 FebFrom our friends at the Woody Guthrie Archives, check out the new print designed by Shepard Fairey.
We bet the romantic-industrial complex doesn’t even know we exist…
14 FebOn this day of all things heart-shaped and/or fluffy, a look at the economics of Valentine’s Day, courtesy of Feministing’s Samhita Mukhophadyay (writing in The Nation).
(image courtesy of Ben Kling)
Join the great Internet Blackout of 2012
18 JanToday only. You can find out more, sign a petition, find your Congressional representatives phone number and get a handy toolkit, or all through our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who also give a good description of why action is important.
A Memo (song) for Mitt
11 JanNow that Mitt Romney – unwavering champion of corporate personhood – has won both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, we thought it appropriate to once again remind him of what seems obvious to many (including, in these past few days, the Montana Supreme Court and 67% of North Carolinians): that only people are people. But this time, we’ll do it in song, courtesy of Jan Edwards – who successfully managed to get her small town to abolish corporate personhood, as seen in This Land is Your Land – and guitarist/co-vocalist John Ause. Click “continue reading” for the lyrics and please, sing with us on this one!
Publicly funded elections?
8 JanIn another challenge to Citizens United this week, New York City’s Council joined Montana, L.A. and other local governments by passing a resolution to provide that corporations are not entitled to the same protections of natural persons. Though Corporate Personhood rights are not limited to influencing politics, it tends to get a greater bi-partisan response in election years. In Governor Cuomo’s State of the State address last week, he went as far to suggest there be publicly funded elections, like in NYC.
Invest in Main Street, Not Wall Street!
7 JanOWS encouraged individuals to take matters into their own hands and move their money on November 5th, 2011 out of the “Bix Six” banks (Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo) and instead, use community banks or credit unions.
11/05/11 has passed, but it’s the New Year!, and there’s no time like the present to make a resolution to move at least one account (if you have more than one) to a local bank. To learn more, check out “The Move Your Money” project at
http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/
There you can find local banks or credit unions in your neighborhood, and learn more about the foundation in general (co-founded by Arianna Huffington). According to Moebs Services (an economic research firm), more than 4 million accounts have already been moved out of big banks in the past year!
Join the movement, and make the next big bankers’ “fat bonus” check a little bit slimmer. (Slimmer… Hmm, that could be a resolution too! 🙂
Montana Supreme Court says “Corporations are Not People!”
4 JanThe Montana Supreme Court has done it again! 100 years later…
In 1912, the Montana Supreme Court passed an initiative barring corporate contributions for political candidates. That law was undone by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, when they gave corporations the same 1st Amendment rights as citizens -permitting them to give money freely to politicians.
That decision was rebuked by the Montana Supreme Court last week, denying corporations the right to donate to political parties and politicians.
The decision will apply to state-wide elections only, as of now. But if it’s appealed, it could force the issue back to the U.S. Supreme Court where critics of the decision in Citizens United vs. FEC could get a chance to overturn it.
“Corporations are not persons. Human beings are persons, and it is an affront to the inviolable dignity of our species that courts have created a legal fiction which forces people — human beings — to share fundamental, natural rights with soulless creatures of government,” wrote Justice James C. Nelson.
The Restless City
27 Dec“You can’t own New York”, says author Joanne Reitano. When our friend Marian, a librarian, was given the opportunity to re-stock a library where she works, we suggested Joanne’s book, The Restless City. It’s a fun, lively and extraordinary look at a city always in transition, always reinventing itself, but also one made great by 400 years of change by conflict – protests, strikes, boycotts, riots, controversies. Not just a book for New Yorkers, but for anyone who is interested in colorful stories of giving “voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless”. You can follow it up with The Restless City Reader.
Buy the film on DVD
Follow Hard Working Movies on Twitter
This Land is Your Land 