Shepard Fairey Arrested at DNC (update) 0 comments
Creator of Iconic Obama Hope poster was arrested in Denver
This is a story I hadn't heard. His imagery was everywhere in Denver. The frisbie has an adaptation of his original "Obey" type of image. Throngs of people snatched up merchandise everywhere, official and unofficial. People came from all over the country just to sell. The "party" image is from the Hope design. Image in plastic is from Portland Saturday Market. I have a huge signed version in my living room.
So what is the story of the arrest?
He was one of 152 arrested (compared with maybe 800 at the RNC convention in St. Paul the following week.) Shepard Fairey is one of the most famous street artists in the world. He was part of the Manifest Hope gallery show inspired by Barack Obama. On August 25, Fairey took a break from hanging the show and wheat pasted a few to buildings, along with a small film crew. They were then jailed at "Gitmo on the Platte" warehouse. The same night, police sprayed down around 300 "anarchists" near Civic Center Park and arrested 100 of them. Fairey was bailed out by his wife for $500 bucks after pleading guilty to "interference" but having charges of "unauthorized posting" dropped. He also had to pay $171 fine.
Fairey has been arrested thirteen times before for hanging art illegally. They were apprehended by cops in full riot gear who drew guns. “Get on the fucking ground or we’re going to kick you in the fucking head" is what they said. Fairey and his crew spent sixteen hours in jail during which time they ate PBJ sandwiches, played paper football and hung with anarchists. He intends to continue noctural posting. "I enjoy it. I think it’s really important too. It would take me having potential jail time to quit postering and that’s not likely to happen.”
(photos by Slugbug)
I Witnessed History! Barack at Invesco Field, Denver 2008 0 comments
I went to Denver knowing I had arranged access to the Big Tent for "new media" and that was great (see previous accounts earlier in the week!) I didn't expect to go in the Pepsi Center (and didn't) and even more did not expect to get into Invesco Center the last night. My brother had a ticket but I was geared up to watch on a big screen in a bar or at MSNBC stage.
I got a phone call around noon from Washington Dems and if I headed out to Hyatt Tech Center I might be able to score a ticket! I had to figure out which light rail and it took over an hour to get there but I got my ticket! Then I think that I was in line for at least a couple of hours - it was the longest line I'd ever seen let alone been in. It was lively enough though - Trick or Vote vampires, Obama merch entrepreneurs, people screaming that both parties are the same, some guy dressed as a Pope with a naked boy facsimile on his back and one of those inbred Phelps Family people going nuts into a megaphone that we'd all be going to hell.
My seat was way up in the nosebleed section and the stadium was so vertically inclined that it introduced a kind of vertigo. I got ahold of my brother via cell phone and he was directly across the stadium but we had to stay in our own sections. It took me a long time to get around the upper level of the stadium to even find my section but I could hear Will-I-Am singing his viral video song! Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, Stevie Wonder and Al Gore, Dick Durbin, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, surely I'm forgetting someone, and then finally Barack Obama!
After he finished his speech, there were fireworks in the manner of the Chinese Olympics Opening (on a smaller scale but certain more than the Republicans could ever pull off, though I've seen the Rolling Stones do it!) & it was cool to see the podium descend right into the ground, like one of the trick sets of Cirque du Soleil.
Notice on the photos that I was enjoying photographing people going up and down in the stands, the security marksmen way up high, the changing colors of the sky and anyone who had unusual regalia or made me feel especially happy. It was a logjam getting out, with people converging from all directions to try to cross a single bridge to the light rail, and trains packed Tokyo-style.
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