The First 70

California is currently attempting to close 1/4 of the 278 State Parks as a way of cutting costs. The implications of this are terrifying both for a natural environment and for future generations to have access to such amazing places. The First 70 is a project, which was successfully funded via Kickstarter, with the goal of creating a short film covering the story of Californians banding together to stop the closing of the parks and shed light on the already grossly underfunded parks system.

The First 70 Trailer from Heath Hen Films on Vimeo.

Occupy urbanesque.org

I'm a cynic. Yes it's true. But I've been following the Occupy Wall Street news for the past 19 days or so and am so impressed by the passion, energy and intelligence of the folks who have dedicated almost three weeks of their lives to force themselves upon an ignorant and sleepy America with its eloquent and simple message. It saddens me that there are still folks out there that don't know that this amazing nation-wide movement is happening so I figured I'd dedicate a post linking to the various key documents or news sources to make it easy to join in on the national dialogue around corporate greed, unrepresntative decomcracy and the growing wage gap among American workers.

Yesterday, a few of us passed into the Occupy SF site in front of Federal Reserve Bank. It was small and seemingly disorganized but this is to be expected as the SFPD has been coming in and removing the participants support systems such as food tents, tarps, etc. periodically. You can follow SFist's coverage of the SF solidarity movement over here. There is definitely room for growth so if you have a minute, stop by and say hi to these folks. Maybe bring them some cupcakes?

What is Occupy Wall St? On September 29, the New York General Assembly (the Occupy Wall Street folks as of that date) passed the "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City." It details what "brought us together." It's a good read and - contrary to what the media would like you to believe - clearly outlines the intention behind this mvement.

Don't live in New York or SF? Find your local revolution at Occupy Together. Daily Kos also has a great map of Occupy Wall Street events.

Wonkette has some amazingly snarky but also greatly informative coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest, as does the Guardian (UK).

Finally, I found this video from Occupy LA pretty cool: 

Mercy Street

I didn't realize she would cover something so fabulous (at least according to me). And here's the Peter Gabriel version. The time we saw her live was underwhelming - mostly because one of the tracks she "sang" skipped and started over - but I applaud someone who's willing to give Peter Gabriel a go.