{"id":3320,"date":"2011-10-22T09:32:25","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T15:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2011-10-22T10:15:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-22T16:15:23","slug":"the-problem-is-the-drummers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3320","title":{"rendered":"The Problem is the Drummers . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

. . . at Occupy Wall Street. It makes your average large Pagan festival sound much better organized\u2014and these days, most of them are\u2014perhaps because they have (a) an end date and (b) do not try to abolish the idea of private property (“my” sleeping bag.).<\/p>\n

From New York <\/em>magazine: <\/a><\/p>\n

It began, as it so often does, with a drum circle. The ten-hour groove marathons weren\u2019t sitting well with the neighborhood\u2019s community board, the ironically situated High School of Economics and Finance that sits on the corner of Zuccotti Park, or many of the sleep-deprived protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The high school] couldn\u2019t teach,\u201d explained Josh Nelson, a 27-year-old occupier from Nebraska. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve had issues with the drummers too. They drum incessantly all day, and really loud.\u201d Facilitators spearheaded a General Assembly proposal to limit the drumming to two hours a day. \u201cThe drumming is a major issue which has the potential to get us kicked out,” said Lauren Digion, a leader on the sanitation working group.<\/p>\n

But the drums were fun. They brought in publicity and money. Many non-facilitators were infuriated by the decision and claimed that it had been forced through the General Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re imposing a structure on the natural flow of music,” said Seth Harper, an 18-year-old from Georgia. \u201cThe GA decided to do it … they suppressed people\u2019s opinions. I wanted to do introduce a different proposal, but a big black organizer chick with an Afro said I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, anarchy. And it can turn on you fast, eating its own.<\/a><\/p>\n

At festivals, I have slept peacefully through all-night drumming, because I knew what it was, who was doing it, and what it meant. And it was sort of trance-y.<\/p>\n

A lot of Americans share the protestors’ frustrations about government and business, I suspect, but are turned off by the grubbiness, the mess, the cacaphony of clashing slogans and demands.<\/p>\n

Drum circles and giant puppets <\/a>are not how you change minds in the year 2011. You can “share your feelings” and “make a statement,” but do you project the image of someone whose statement is worth anything?<\/p>\n

Plenty of pathos<\/em> here, but not much logos <\/em>or ethos.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . at Occupy Wall Street. It makes your average large Pagan festival sound much better organized\u2014and these days, most of them are\u2014perhaps because they have (a) an end date and (b) do not try to abolish the idea of private property (“my” sleeping bag.). From New York magazine: It began, as it so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Ry","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":713,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=713","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":0},"title":"Drum circles in northern Colorado","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Longmont Times-Call goes to some drum circles.Drumming circles allow drummers of all levels to participate, and individuals walk away feeling enlightened, energized, empowered, cleansed and blessed.\u201cWe\u2019re just as passionate about our religion as anybody,\u201d said Bob Anzlovar, who holds a monthly drumming circle, magical in nature, that draws upward\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7629,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7629","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":1},"title":"On the Sidelines in the Solstice Wars","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh wait, it is Christmas that has (news media-generated) \"wars.\" How the winter solstice should be observed, however, has become the subject of almost rabbinical discussion on one of the Colorado Pagan listservs, again. There are always two core factions, the calendrical and the astronomical. The event at stake is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"Siberianwinterking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Siberianwinterking-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1223,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1223","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":2},"title":"Dancing Homer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Sannion, links to a site of choreographers who attempt to reconstruct ancient Greek choral dance. (Scroll down for videos.)Here dancers and drummers perform while a rhapsode declaims the Catalog of Ships from the Iliad.I suppose it's one of those interesting ideas that goes into the \"But we'll never know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dance\"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dance"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12735,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12735","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":3},"title":"A Historic Shaman’s Drum is Restored to the S\u00e1mi People","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the fall of 2021, S\u00e1mi((Also called Laplanders, who live in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and a bit of Russia)) people living in Norway asked the the queen of Denmark and the\u00a0 Danish National Museum if they could have one of their old-time shaman's drum back. The drum belonged to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Denmark\"","block_context":{"text":"Denmark","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=denmark"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saami_Family_1900.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=207","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":4},"title":"A Caravaggio moment We spent\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A Caravaggio moment We spent the weekend at the Front Range Pagan Festival (one of three annual festivals in Colorado that I know of), held at a private campground southwest of Denver. It's a low-key (sometimes too low-key) event, with lots of kids and dogs--no stages for performers, no communal\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4971,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4971","url_meta":{"origin":3320,"position":5},"title":"Celebrate Winter (2)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"You thought that you had a drum circle. Read more about it.","rel":"","context":"In \"Russian\"","block_context":{"text":"Russian","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=russian"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3324,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}