May Day, My Way

May Day has to be the Teabaggers favorite holiday; they just love to celebrate the seeds of Socialism & Unions, mixed with a little Paganism. I am sure that they would find solidarity with me, I am after all, a TEAMSTER (SAG, AFTRA, AEA) & a supporter of workers' rights.

Banksy

May Day just might have more holidays than any other day of the year. It is a celebration of Spring. It is a day of political protests. It is a pagan festival, the feast day of St Philip, & St James- patron saints of laborers, & a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday. In medieval England, people would celebrate the start of spring by going out to the country or woods to "go a-Maying, gathering greenery & flowers. Another English tradition is the maypole. Some towns had permanent maypoles that would stay up all year; others put up a new one each May. The pole, a phallus symbol of virility, would be hung with greenery & ribbons, brightly painted, & decorated, & served as the focus for the festivities.

My first May Pole Dance, in the school's new gymnasium.

Here is Portland, where there are as many strip clubs & titty-bars as churches, we have a special way of exalting the May Pole Male Pole Dance:

In many countries, May Day is also Labor Day. This originates with the United States labor movement in the late 19th Century. On May 1, 1886, unions across the country went on strike, demanding that the standard workday be shortened to 8 hours. The organizers of these strikes included socialists, anarchists, & others in organized labor movements. Rioting in Chicago's Haymarket Square, including a bomb thrown by an anarchist, led to the deaths of a dozens of people & the injury of over 100 more.

The protests were successful, as 8 hour work days eventually did become the norm for most people, if not for me. Labor leaders, socialists, & anarchists around the world took the American strikes as a rallying point, choosing May Day as a day for protests, parades, & pep talks. It was a major state holiday in the former Soviet Union & other communist countries.

Portland expects 7000 + people to participate in our annual May Day parade & rally on the South Park Blocks. Occupy Portland clashed with the Portland police earlier in the day. I am too old to be proletariat. I am going to stay home & do as little actual labor as I can muster.

In The Spirit OF The Holidays

I am in the mood for a little Banksy this Holiday Season:

Banksy?

"People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly."

I have recently discovered the origin of many images I have admired for the last few years. I have been interested & I have held in high regard, an artist that I know little about. In a world where the face of a politician, actor or artist is generally as widely recognized as their influence & work, Banksy has struggled for years to maintain the mystery of his identity. He has created work, around the world, with messages ranging from subversive to downright silly, but little is known for sure about his background. Much has been speculated & many have claimed to have figured out who he really is. Banksy is a pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Bristol & to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity & personal & biographical details.

Banksy’s works aren’t limited to paint & pencil drawings. He has been responsible for a number of social commentaries such as replacing hundreds of Paris Hilton's CDs with CDs of his own creation. He has sneaked his own work into several art museums, including a prehistoric looking piece at the British Museum which the museum decided to add to their own permanent collection.

Who is Banksy? We may not know his real name, but his art is unmistakably the work of a passionate person. His paintings, stencils, & other art pieces frequently address serious social issues. He takes on capitalism, war, poverty, racism, homophobia, & governments with humor & grace.There is good reason for leaving us guessing about Banksy. His work has been equated with vandalism on several occasions, & many have called for his prosecution. His choice of subject matter coupled with his medium (typically spray paint on public walls) upset people no matter where he is (or who he is).