I SPENT THIS MORNING WIPING BABY FOOD OFF CDS BEFORE HAULING A 60 POUND DUFFEL THROUGH NY TO GET OUR MAIL ORDER SORTED. THIS IS REAL.

IF YOU ARE IN NEW YORK AND CAN COME TO LIBERTY PLAZA TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT. PLEASE DO SO.
CORPORATE DOUBLE SPEAK AS EXCUSE TO CLEAR THE PARK TOMORROW MORNING AND ENFORCE RULES REGARDING PARK USAGE THAT EFFECTIVELY ENDS THE OCCUPATION. IN SPAIN THEY UPROOTED BUSHES TO PLANT FOOD. I DONT THINK OCCUPY WALL ST IS THE BEST THING EVER BUT IT IS POWERFUL. THE ONLY THING BAD ABOUT NEW YORK IS THAT THERE IS NO RED INK.

“[Zuccotti Park] was recently renovated at Brookfield’s considerable expense as an amenity for the general public. It is intended to be a relaxing tree-filled oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Lower Manhattan,” the letter explained.

The management company seemed most concerned about the health and public safety issues of the park, claiming “conditions at the Park have deteriorated to unsanitary and unsafe levels.”

“Complaints [received from concerned citizens and office workers in the neighborhood] range from outrage over numerous laws being broken including but not limited to lewdness, groping, drinking, and drug use.”

The letter also expressed concern for the lack of security and screening for the large number of packages that have been delivered to the park.

“Brookfield protocol and practice is to clean the park on a daily basis, power-washing it each weeknight, and to perform necessary inspection, maintenance, and repairs on a regular, as-needed basis. Since the occupation began, we have not been able to perform basic cleaning and maintenance activity, let alone perform more basic repairs. For example, if the lenses to the underground lighting have become cracked, water could infiltrate the electrical system, putting occupants of the Park at risk of an electrical hazard or causing short-circuiting which result in repairs requiring the Park to be torn apart for rewiring,” the letter continued.

“Brookfield has rights, too,” Mayor Bloomberg told chanting protestors in Zuccotti Park Wednesday evening.

DJ RIPLEY- who is a genius- pretty much knocked it out the box on her commentary about Occupy Wall Street/Boston , writing
“In the camps, people are providing it for themselves and each other. So rather than saving up money, inheriting it, borrowing it, abandoning one’s responsibilities, or simply not having any yet, in order to stick it to the man without fear of losing your health care or child care or whatever…these people in these camps are demonstrating how you can do without the man. And the skills that come from that are indeed transferable. And as I keep suggesting, these skills are also unglamorous. Often seen as “feminine.” The caregiving, organizational, maintaining skills. But they are the skills that make things accessible to more people, especially to people more at the margins. They are also the skills of people who are not dependent on the system, they make it easier to resist selling out or buying in.”>”in the camps, people are providing it for themselves and each other. So rather than saving up money, inheriting it, borrowing it, abandoning one’s responsibilities, or simply not having any yet, in order to stick it to the man without fear of losing your health care or child care or whatever…these people in these camps are demonstrating how you can do without the man. And the skills that come from that are indeed transferable.

And as I keep suggesting, these skills are also unglamorous. Often seen as “feminine.” The caregiving, organizational, maintaining skills. But they are the skills that make things accessible to more people, especially to people more at the margins. They are also the skills of people who are not dependent on the system, they make it easier to resist selling out or buying in.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWzPL4d7ATI[/youtube]

Next Friday 10.21.11, Matt Shadetek and I, Atropolis, will be holding it down at Public Assembly with an amazing line up: Trouble and Bass will be in the front room, and we will be in the back room with Toy Selectah and Mexican With Guns– these two cats will be rocking their new collaborative project Gun Selectah.

This event is presented by Dutty Artz/ Bond Music Group and Trouble & Bass

MORE LIFE – CAPE COAST GHANA 2012
We are currently working on a major major DA WEB OVERHAUL. as you can tell, we have been running this wordpress setup since the beginning. a part of the big re-design will be a new DA webshop /merch table. Inspired by places like Kiosk, and the markets of the world, we will share an increasingly astounding collection of items and ephemera. We will start with the things we have, music on different recording mediums, clothes, hats, stickers, and move into increasingly interesting territories. One-off cassette mixes, pirated architecture thesis’, plant seeds, and platinum pocket compasses are all real possibilities. We are tired of being a “net-label” focused on “tropical music” – we built this zinc-oxide hyperlink hole and we are building its future.

For now it is really simple- http://duttyartz.bigcartel.com/ – with five things for sale because that’s the limit to a free big cartel site. Not that we are not going to put money into this- but we are just starting with what is available to us.

We care about music. We will release music that reflects this care. But we also care about architecture, sci-fi, paintings, obsolete futures, really good food and the best tacos in D.F.

Things will get weird. Stick with us. I’ll be packing all the boxes from our shop in our hq/my living room in Queens and putting in lots of dope extras because we got you like that.

WE REALLY WANT THIS TO WORK- I MEAN THE WHOLE PROJECT THAT IS DUTTY ARTZ- THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING. YOU KNOW US. WE ARN’T FUCKING STOPPING.

CROSS POSTED ON GOOGLE

I arrived at the Maiquetia airport around midnight and after a month in Colombia. The first thing that noticeably stood out in the parking lot, as I exited the terminal, was the impressive array of SUVs. Almost half the parking spots were occupied by them. My host, Piki from the group Bituaya, walks me to his sedan sized vehicle and breaks it down for me.

“Gas costs the equivalent of 50 cents”

“Per liter or per gallon?” I ask

“No, the whole tank.

A bottle of water costs more than it does to fill a hummer

Caracas Venezuela- Sept 2011

I’ve was invited by Bituaya to touch down in Caracas and the neighboring city Maracay thanks to a government grant issued to us by the Ministry of Culture. My itinerary for my trip is jam packed with youth activism, speaking engagements, radio interviews and, of course, some DJ gigs.  My first morning, I’m told we’re taking out Radio Verdura- a sound system van that cruises the streets of Venezuela instead of broadcasting its sounds. This is how the youth take it to the streets in Caracas.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwLcleSgH8[/youtube]

The action by the kids was a demonstration on their part, in an effort to take over an old movie theater by a sister organization called Catia. There appears to be some legislation that allows for squatters rights  and organizations have popped up and reclaimed some amazing spaces like el Nuevo Circo- the city’s old bull fighting arena

This space now hosts, yoga classes, acrobatics, breakdancing workshops and the like. Its a total win for the arts and culture movement in Caracas. A like minded space that was taken over years ago is called Tiuna El Fuerte. Its an enormous lot right off the highway that recently won an architectural award for its design. There are no formal building structures on the lot instead a series of interconnected shipping containers re-purposed as studios, art facilities, class rooms and media centers. Many of the city’s largest hip hop events have been hosted here and it has served workshops encompassing not just the 4 cornerstones of hip hop but also classes on reason, a full recording studio, a silk screening press and several other amenities that make it a great environment to keep kids engaged

The director of Tiuna El Fuerte took me for a ride on the metro cable to show me first hand why they work so heard on youth outreach. The metrocable connects people whose homes are on very steep and often dangerous barrios overlooking the greater metropolitan area of Caracas. As I left the second station, I saw a group of kids, none of them older than 14 walking around with 45s as big as their forearms in hand. I worried for the safety of the old lady walking toward them as they turned the corner but they gave her a kiss on the cheek as they passed. The barrios aren’t really policed by the government. They are autonomous zones where the law is passed down by gang capos and street soldiers. Outsiders aren’t usually welcomed.

Tiuna has a working relationship with the gang that runs Barrio 70.  A lot of the kids that live in the neighborhood have come through Tiuna and come out better for it. DJ Cristian El Lunatico, for example, is from el 70 and learned how to DJ at Tiuna El Fuerte. He now plays most of the local parties. Tiuna asked the local bosses if they would allow them to bring a soundsystem and let a brooklyn DJ come wreck shop in the hood. They gave us use of a basketball court and let us set up a stage, sound and lights for the party. You’ll see here in the video that a lot of the faces are really young but there a few things the video doesn’t put you on to… A) Cabs don’t go up to the barrio, the transport buses used to go up radio in any unfamiliar faces and get clearance first B) the kids weren’t doing a bunch of drugs like I’d expect at a street party like that and C) salsa de baul! (who knew that what hood kids in Caracas really loved to dance to was epicly slow emo salsa ballads? Where I’m from we call those tunes cortavenas -wrist slitters)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxOjL8AJ5VI[/youtube]

Aside from the drunk dude that needed to make it absolutely clear that he had a gun standing right behind warning me that I didn’t need to worry because he was on guard duty, the party was a totally fun. Along with a lil help from DJ Cristian El Lunatico and Systema Sonoro Tiuna we got the hands up and the crowd jumpin to some new sounds.

Our last gig was the big show that we got the grant for in Maracay. Its about a 2 hour drive so along the way I had time to contemplate the visual overload of propaganda murals and posters that paint the town red. Even in the barrios where neither government nor police have jurisdiction you’ll see the “Adelante Commandante” slogans. The campaign has had an interesting effect. The people distinguish Chavez as an agent of change but show disdain for a government run by the interests of Big Petro.

We could spend hours getting into the pros and cons of different forms of government but in the end the story looked pretty much the same to me. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer because the shopping mall parking lot is always full. Nuff politkin tho.

You can watch the video to our last show here. Special shout outs to Arianna and Nanu and Tiuna El Fuerte for the light speed documentation. To Zona Verde and La Mega for hosting me on radio. To Insajuv for the awesome event logistics in Maracay and big huuuge massive ups to Bituaya for putting it all together and putting on a hell of a show to a receptive junglist massive in the midst of a tropical monsoon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq365f6Yv74&feature=related[/youtube]