Jan. 11, '03 was certainly a big success, but.... i'm so sick of THE TRUCK and the HUGE sound systems.

does anybody else agree?

Without the truck and the sound system how will people see the speakers or hear them?

The truck and sound system were necessary at the rally point, but not necessarily during the march itself.

The most infuriating thing about the early part of the march was that we were constantly stopping and going. Sometimes we would stop for ten minutes at a time. It took half an hour to go one block. Why? Was this the fault of the lead truck, the cops, or what? I was so P.O.'d about this that I was thinking about leaving the march early. Fortunately the situation got better.

I was following the directions and pace set by the march organizers walking alongside the truck and the police in front, who probably for traffic related reasons stopped several times. As much as I might have wanted to plow on ahead, it would have ruined the spirit of non-violent protest to mow down the cops in front of me. The march truck also came in useful at the corner of 4th and Broadway for collecting much needed monetary contributions for the event. Also, our truck was setting a good example by using a solar powered sound system. Here's a few photos...

I think dj's are entitled to their expression as well during a march.

If the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the U.S. to subsidize and protect the oil, gas and nuclear industries had been invested instead into a renewable energy economy, our protest would not have been needed.



"We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind, and tide. I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy."



~Thomas Alva Edison

I've always wanted to do a solar-powered DJ/Sound system. I'll assume the one in the photo uses a battery/inverter setup.

Now if you could just get the truck to run solar. It would probably be easier to rig a mobile platform out of prefab aluminum struts and use a direct-drive chassis then trying to retrofit that huge-ass truck for solar. (IE, independently powered DC motors geared or directly wheeled and a battery/solar grid, with appropriate control linkage.

If anyone knows who rigged the sound system, please email me, (gnosis23 (at!) hotmail.com) I'd like to shop-talk. Over the years I've been mildly involved in outdoor "music appreciation" events, and the most obnoxious part of it is having to use a gas powered generator! Using a generator sucks because of the whole fuel thing, but also the noise is most problematic and disheartening.

I would like to create a system that doesn't rely on a DC to AC inverter to power the turntables and amplifiers. I know most DJ mixers seem to run at 12 volts DC internally, and I suspect the technics 1200's run at 12 volts DC internally as well. Bypass the internal transformers, utilize a 12v DC power conditioner/rectifier to give them a solid and clean 12 volts, and then use either car audio amplifiers (running at, you guessed it, 12vdc!) and speakers, or use only PA amps that run 12vdc internally for the sound reinforcement.

I'm also working on a design for *collapsible* bassbins and drivers. (I have a design in mind that would eliminate most of the "loose cabinet" problems that would normally plague such a scheme.)

My long term goal is to get a robust, medium concert sized capable sound system that fits entirely in a smaller car, or is trailer-able by bicycle.

Get in touch! Let's collaborate!

-Buckminster Fulleresque

Someday after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire.

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

to some anti-authoritarian children, it might seem amazing that the pathological tendencies of stadium culture are not acknowledged by general concensus.

we love the complexity of crowds.... but we don't like huge sound systems and big stages.

of course solar and other sustainable energy technologies are preferable to the petroleum products running the truck, but "clean" energy didn't cure the madness of the colosseum, didn't free the lions and tigers and elephants, didn't save the bulls, etc. etc.

the truck and the huge sound systems are not only completely unnecessary -- we would be MUCH better off without them. but still, Scott Galindez asks: "Without the truck and the sound system how will people see the speakers or hear them?"

in order to address Scott's concern we would need to use our imaginations. we would need to envision a way of doing things that is new, at least to european culture.... we would need to envision (or remember?) an alternative to the structure and form of fascist rallies, an alternative to the structure and form of democratic and republican party conventions, an alternative to the structure and form of communist rallies, an alternative to the structure and form of Nader's rallies, an alternative to the structure and form of Woodstock, an alternative to the structure and form of Live Aid, an alternative to the structure and form of Sol Fest (the one day there were no birds in Griffith park)....

some anti-authoritarians ask an additional rhetorical question: "How will people see and hear each other when the truck and the huge sound systems take over?"

the answer to the question of the anti-authoritarians requires no imagination at all; we lived it.... as usual. we could not hear each other. we stopped our chants. we stopped our beats. we lowered our signs. in order to communicate we yelled into the ears of our standing, sitting, staring, friends. they covered one ear to hear us.... we stopped fooling around. we paid attention. we listened. we clapped when it was time to clap. we cheered when it was time to cheer. we thought the right thoughts. we thought good things about us. we thought bad things about them. we felt hatred for nothing. but.....

....only an hour earlier i felt free:

i stood in a doorway around fifth street and watched the entire march go by (it was much much longer than i expected) and the sound was revelation after revelation, cacophonous beats blending into tight beats blending into impassioned rants blending into thunderous beats punctuated by horns demarcating the root notes of long vigorous beat phrases, blending into a wash of cheers building in a steady crescendo, subsiding into the next blended beat. our sound was truly too complex to know - like the ultimate goal of our movements - it can be fully experienced and understood only by all of us together.

the destination of our march on the other hand, sadly, perhaps inevitably, for now, was blasted into our ears in the perfect unison required by our stadium culture. Slash's self-indulgent bombast topped it all off.

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another important but maybe too obvious point is that huge sound sytems may help a FEW to BE HEARD in the short term, but in the long term they help MANY to LOSE THEIR HEARING altogether. this is a real problem, believe it or not. you might ask some of the rockers next time....

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here on la-imc i noticed at least one proposal for an alternative to the standard centralized hierarchical climax.

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anticrisis

it was depressing to be marching with people shouting around me "no blood for oil!","this war is all about oil!", etc. while all 20,000 of us, or whatever, are being LED by not only lapd squad cars (that's another post for another time) but also our OWN truck!

using what? OIL! yeah for oil!

ay.

i hate the truck.. at every protest i go to, it dominates. and deafens.

how much cooler is mindullae with the drumming and the aztec dancers with the drumming and the kids yelling out to passerbyes and random drumming all around--

i get a thrill with THAT part of the protest.

as for the djs' expressing themselves, yeah, well, i'm a potter and i want to be able to express myself at the protest too, why don't you let me bring my potter's wheel? or, how about, i'm a synchronized swimmer, that's my skill and how i express myself, why don't you let me flood the streets so i can swim and show everyone how anti-war i feel.. nothing against dj-ing, i think it is a valuable skill and all that, but i just hate how LOUD it has to be (why!) and how that truck is always in the front.. the negativeness of the truck and sound system is enough for me to ourweigh the positives of djs expressing themselves.

another thing,

why is the truck in the front? at one point a bunch of bicyclists went in front of the truck, but still behind the police, and they were all orderly and stuff but were made to get back behind the truck.. now, i heard the police saying that as long as we protesters were behind them (yuck) then we were fine so obviously this was something determined by the answer coalition.. why? why can't the truck be at the end, possibly bringing people into the march, or why can't it just be NOT there at all, till the rally?

lastly, it was disgusting how in the beginning, for the first half hour at least, the truck was mostly carrying the PRESS taking pictures of us. SO... not only were we led by the LAPD, a TRUCK with overwhelmingly LOUD sound systems, but also by the PRESS!

this protest was good but could have been so much more, please, let's dare to dream, huh? no truck?

are breakaways a constructive option?

isn't one of the points of marching to disrupt the "norm" for as long as possible?

the truck sucks - can't we loose it for at least the march segment of the protest?