New Heights for Freeway Blogging

[kpete]

New Heights for Freeway Blogging
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2006-03-12 20:10. Media



http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=comment/reply/8843

[demgurl]

1. Wow, I am speechless!

I think we can truly move mountains if we all work together. THis is k&r.

[babylonsister]

2. Aussies Rock! nt

[MADem]

3. This happened in 2003

On 18th March, 2003, the 'Coalition of the Willing' was poised to attack Iraq, in defiance of international law, in defiance of the UN, and in defiance of world public opinion, including 75% of Australians. At around 8am we climbed to the top of the highest sail of the Sydney Opera House and painted NO WAR in bright red paving paint, in a desperate last-ditched attempt to prevent Australian involvement.

We were arrested and charged with malicious damage. Our defence, under Section 418 of the NSW Crimes Act, was that our actions were an attempt to prevent imminent harm to other persons. We elected for a jury trial, and were confident of acquittal. However, at the trial, Justice Martin Blackmore ruled the entire defence case inadmissible, since Sydney Opera House represented no threat to anyone. The jury never heard the defence case at all. We were convicted, sentenced to 9 months periodic detention, and a compensation order for the entirety of the $151,000 claimed cleanup cost was made against us. The sentence started on St Valentines Day 2004.

We appealed against the conviction, the denial of parole, and the size of the compensation order. The appeal was heard in July 2004, and a ruling finally issued in February 2005,comprehensively rejecting the appeal in every last detail.

Will served his sentence at Silverwater and Paramatta gaol; Dave at Tomago and Wollongong. The sentences - interrupted by the appeal - were finished on 21st August 2005 (Will) and 3rd Sept 2005 (Dave). .... Much more -- and a closeup photo -- at link: http://www.sydneyoperahousenowarcleanupfund.org/

[Tigress DEM]

16. Hey Mad Dem!

Hmmm? Repeat of the offense or old picture?

[MADem]

20. Old picture

It was a gutsy thing to do, but it happened three years ago!

[Tigress DEM]

22. Wonder why it's getting new play now?

Maybe this tickeled the OP's funny bone and OP didn't realize it was old news.

I've got that pic of the soldier and the baby, but I never knew the origin date on it.

[MADem]

25. It happens sometimes

When you think about it, it's probably a little late to start shouting NO WAR...STOP THE WAR, sure, but it's been War Without End, Amen over there since we tromped into Baghdad. The time to say NO is before the event takes place!

[kpete]

27. Saw it at "After Downing St"

Thought it was cool...So I shared. Have to agree with some about graffiti .. But What is Art? I am not sure what my final answer is.....

[Historic NY]

4. Why this war sucks.............

George Bush executed it on my birthday. Thanks, Aussies for standing way up there and on my birthday too....even if it was in 2003.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. It was the 19th here...but Baghdad local time was the 20th

My birthday. I haven't celebrated it since. :(

I feel your pain. :hug:

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

6. A banner is cool, but not graffitti

I hate graffiti, even when I agree with the message.

[EFerrari]

7. Usually, I'd agree but can't this time.

These criminals are committing atrocities every day. Civilians, women, children are being slaughtered because our government is drunk on power.

The gloves are off.

[physioex]

8. I dislike graffiti myself....

But objects are just that objects, we can't replace people...

[EFerrari]

10. Just how NICE should we be when confronting a murderous

regime?

I understand the whole "don't become them" argument. But the slaughter must stop.

[Mythsaje]

9. Some graffiti is art

but some is just visual noise.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. I love graffiti

Used to do a bit (OK, a lot) of it myself. No message, either, just plain old street, train, and highway tagging. No regrets, either. Still love the subculture. ;-)

[EFerrari]

15. My kid, an amazing artist, was a writer. We had huge long

discussions about the ethics of graffiti. lol

And once, I had a student who was a writer, too. His hand was just amazing. And he'd never admit it, but I could tell by the beautiful, practiced marks.

:)

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. I wrote from age 12 to ...errr...(pretend to fill in end-age here)

Came in just before the trains in NYC were buffed before leaving the yards and sent back to the yards if we hiot them in the lay-ups. My era was mainly street and highway, truck yards, rooftops, subway stations, etc., although there were still a few trains hit here and again, mainly for flicks. For a few years there I was all about that scene so I got pretty good, and lots of ups.

The thing about the subculture is that it has its own internal ethics, but not a lot of relation to anything outside it. People will come on here and moralize, but graffiti writers really don't care about that morality, and - frankly - don't really write for people outside the subculture. They're not even trying to "stick it to society" or anything like that (which is why Turk 182 got it totally wrong). They write for other writers, period. I was also averse to the notion of graffiti as "art," a lame bourgeois way of justifying the practice popular among the legit avant garde. I don't have problems with graffiti writers making money this way, but we usually found the praise for the "limited" graffiti that could be "considered art" among the legit middle class to be laughable and disgusting. Not even sell-out shit so much as tasteless. Hell, I could piece, but I always like tags and fill-ins more than pieces, primarily because they were only evaluated within graffiti subcultures, and didn't rise to the level of "art" for the people outside that subculture. You could also do more of them, hit hit hit hit hit. Graffiti was about being illegal. We used to dog legal graffiti incessantly, as it was a violation of the code, real Pussy City stuff.

[EFerrari]

24. Be safe, this mom says.

And be beautiful.

:)

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Oh, I don't really do it anymore

A few quick, safe tags when I was home for X-mas this year, but that was the first time in years, and only cuz I was drinking with some old friends and the wife went to sleep. Hell, I got a kid of my own on the way. ;-)

Peace to you and yours.

[EFerrari]

32. Be safe and thank you.

:)

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

37. tell me where you live, and I'll put some on your house.

We'll see how much you enjoy it.

Iiving in LA, I get sick of having to repaint my fence every couple of weeks because some idiot wants to tag it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

39. Too bad for you

Seriously, though. Among graffiti writers it is a no-no to hit somebody's house, but OK to hit an apartment building. I see the fence problem. Generally, you wouldn't hit someone's private fence unless it faced a major thoroughfare (if it was facing, say, a service road for a highway). Most graffiti - the vast majority - appears on businesses and public property. It's something like an ethic within the communities, though I of course understand your anger. That's why there is almost no graffiti on private cars or private houses, but plenty of graffiti on business, apartment buildings, work trucks and vans, highways, trains, train track walls, etc. The private fence facing a major road is the gray area here, and I can see how it pisses a lot of people off.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

40. have you ever been to los angeles?

your "ethic" is not seen in evidence here at all.

[alcibiades_mystery]

41. Nope, NYC graffiti

Can't speak for how they roll out there. This is how we've always done it here, so maybe we're more "ethical." ;-)

I would have to qualify that the ethic I'm describing is the one I love. If the gangbangers are out tagging on people's front doors and cars out there, that would be completely contrary to how we roll east coast. :shrug:

[GregW]

11. Defacing the Sydney Opera House was disgusting

You want to protest - paint your own fucking house.

This isn't "freeway blogging" - it's a crime against the people of Sydney.

[EFerrari]

14. The people of Sydney who should have an immaculate

opera house while people are slaughtered in Iraq.

Check.

[tabasco]

17. Absolutely right.

How about we go paint "Stop The Neocons" all over Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Let's go paint "Stop The War" in giant letters on El Capitan at Yosemite.

Lets get some spray paint and write "Save The Constitution" all over Independence Hall.

Some people have a screwed up idea of what constitutes effective or productive protest.

Vandalizing national treasures can only be counterproductive and stupid.

I agree that banners which can be easily removed are ok. But vandalizing with paint is stupid and destructive.

[EFerrari]

19. This must be the End of the World.

Because I'm so intuitively against stuff like this AND I'm a neatnik.

But, really, what measure do you throw out when dealing with this out of control level of criminality?

Honest question.

People are being kidnapped and tortured and killed but we're against GRAFFITI?

Help me sort this out.

[tabasco]

26. You are the one defending vandalism of national monuments.

Tell us. What do you think it achieves for the anti-war movement when protesters vandalize national treasures?

Is this the type of publicity the antiwar movement needs? Please explain.

[EFerrari]

28. So, the anti attrocity contingent needs a press agent?

So, we should just send scented notes to our Congress critters?

"Dear Nancy,

That whole torture thing, unlovely.

Yours,

Beth"

[SmokingJacket]

30. I'm with you, actually.

The situation is extreme. People are dying for NO REASON.

And yet we sit around fussing that the opera house is ugly now.

Boo. FUcking. HOo.

[EFerrari]

34. Yes. We draw the line at murder, kidnapping, god knows what else.

We never elected George Bush.

We never signed off on his criminal policy.

We will never ever agree to his killing fields.

Grafitti is the f#cking least of our worries.

[Tigress DEM]

21. "....it's a crime against the people of Sydney."

And the Aussie PM taking them into an unjust war against the wishes of 70-80% of the people wasn't?

Other legal avenues having been exhausted, these people paid their time and their fine - it was done back in 2003 as a cry for help against the impending war in IRAQ, not as just a "wah, I hate war," post on a national monument.

Did you see Madem's post? http://www.sydneyoperahousenowarcleanupfund.org

[Peace Patriot]

33. A "crime against the people of Sydney"? Good God, GregW, have you no

perspective at all? Tens of thousands of babies, children, women, old people were being blown to smithereens in the name of the "people of Sydney" and in all our names? The British doctors' report estimated 100,000 deaths from the initial bombing alone.

I am staggered by the fuss that was made over paint--over a hope against hope gesture for those TENS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE not to be slaughtered.

And the civil chaos in which many, many more innocents have suffered and succumbed. And the torture. And the loss of hope in international law, in peace, in justice.

This compares to an expense of paint...how?

I don't get it.

You remind me of the monks in the Dark Ages for whom counting the angels on the head of a pin was a big issue--while a third of Europe died of plague, due to the enforced irrationality of the Church, and the loss of medical knowledge in its witch-burnings and book-burnings, and while millions died of torture for their knowledge of herbs and healing techniques.

But, by God, the real important things were attended to--the idle concerns of a theology gone mad. No "no war" messages on the opera houses in that society. No errant messages of any kind.

The punishment of well-intended people who wanted to stop horrible killing seems to me like an idle theological concern--a myopic concern for a MINOR law, in a system of law gone mad--national and international law permitting tens of thousands to be killed.

These Australian protesters are heroes, not vandals. Society--if it were not gone mad with a system of governance and law that permitted the slaughter in Iraq to occur, in defiance of the will of the people whose militaries were used for this purpose, and in defiance of all law--should have forgiven them this very minor violation, and lauded them for their courage, ingenuity and faith in humankind.

That they suffered jail and onerous fines, and that John Howard and George Bush and Tony Blair go free, is the crime.

[leftchick]

13. didn't they do this a couple of years ago?

only with a banner?

[MADem]

23. That photo is three years old, this happened at the start of the war

See my post above, with the link. The people who did it have already served their time, and been assessed a rather large fine as well.

[tomreedtoon]

29. Where's the freeway? I see a boatway!

And anyone who owns a boat (anything above a rowboat) is rich and likely to be a Bush supporter.

[lostnfound]

35. The Coalition could've just painted Falluja, or alQaeda painted the WTC...

No such luck. Only the disempowered use such tactics... :shrug:

Those damn activists. If they want to get their message out they should buy their own media empire. Otherwise, stay voiceless.

How selfish of them. Bet they made a lot of money off it. Like Rupert Murdoch.

I'm so sick of the surreal painting of a world we are living in. There's no up, no down, just funhouse mirrors.

[EFerrari]

38. Exactly. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

36. A note about graffiti: I don't like gang graffiti. It seems to me to

come from the same impulse as that of fatcat CEOs who graffiti beautiful natural landscapes with billboards, and graffiti dramatic presentations on TV with their horrid, mind-assaulting commercials, and privatize our commons for their own profit. They would stamp their graffiti on the faces of new born babies, if they could. It's egotism--whether small-scale, like gangs, or big scale, like Chevron, Gap and all the rest.

Ordinary poor and middle class people pay the bulk of the cost for parks, transportation systems, and other public places and public works. And most do not share the aesthetics of graffiti gangs, just as they would prefer trees or clear sky to corporate billboards, and would certainly prefer to see dramas and other productions without the mind-fragmenting blare of commercials, on our PUBLIC airwaves (sold to the highest bidder by corrupt politicians). In both cases, ordinary poor and middle class people are having an aesthetic IMPOSED upon them--the aesthetic of graffiti-ists and corporatists--that they don't want, and would not choose.

I have some sympathy for the small-time graffiti-ists--because they're small and poor themselves, and I imagine them to be otherwise powerless in this corporatist/fascist state. I have no sympathy for the corporatists and THEIR graffiti.

But neither of these things has any relevance whatsoever to the "no war" sign on the Sydney Opera House. That action is in the category of the "defense of necessity"--a moral right--such as Fr. Daniel Berrigan and other Vietnam war protesters argued with regard to throwing blood and home-made napalm on Draft records. Such a terrible crime against the state. Right!

The Aussie protesters did not destroy the Sydney Opera House. They merely painted some words on it, in moral protest. They thus, in my opinion, enhanced the very meaning of all true art--operative or otherwise--to enhance human life and to promote love, enjoyment and understanding, in opposition to war, hatred, torture, deceitfulness, egotism and greed.

It was an act of the highest art. It should have been left there and not repainted.

[grace0418]

42. Two FANTASTIC quotes in the link from post #3...

"The act of those guys climbing up on the Sydney Opera House and painting 'No War' on there, I thought that was a fantastic bloody thing. It was disgusting, the fact that they had to graffiti a beautiful landmark in Australia, but that's what it fucking takes to be heard. They're not going to let the average person stand up and say, 'This is what's wrong'."

Heath Ledger


"I think it was on Wednesday, I was just driving along – and I looked up and saw the cleaning up that was happening following the "No War" slogan that was painted on top of the one of the sails earlier in the week. It was quite a disturbing sight – as they washed the red paint off the tiles – the red colour was running down the whole length of the sail – and it looked like blood was flowing down the surface of this massive structure. It spoke to me of the blood that would be shed during this war – and it spoke to me of the pain of the nation and the world that is so divided over the issue."

Reverend Atsushi Shibaoka, Sermon, St. James Church Sydney, 23/3/03