Freaky Friday :: #Guitarmy 99 Mile March

Welcome to the DFH Freaky Friday weekly music series Because Team DFH operates more or less like a herd of cats, we’re here at roughly 9PM Eastern, every week. So take off your shoes, plop down on that beanbag chair over there, let your hair down, and get some groovy on.

99milemarch.org
Occupy Guitarmy

As the Occupy National Gathering (#natgat) concluded yesterday, the #Guitarmy set off from the Independence Mall in Philadelphia on a #99MileMarch to Zuccotti Park in New York City.  

This march is in honor of Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday (July 14, 2012) and in celebration of the National Gathering of Occupy movement.  

You can follow them on Twitter (#99MileMarch, #Guitarmy) and there are several livestreamers on the march:
JesseHadden from Portland, Oregon: on UStream

OWS Music Working Group: on UStream

CodeframeSF from San Francisco: on UStream

So get on Twitter and UStream and show the marchers some support and love tonight and during the next few days and help them make it through this march in a heat wave.

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And let's celebrate with them with some photos and music because after all, it's Freaky Friday night :)  Below are some photos and one video that I took at their send off on Thursday morning.

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I'm a soldier marching in the army Got no gun to shoot But what I got is One guitar I got one guitar

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Independence Hall (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Fixing the sign to the van (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Guitarmy warming up (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Guitarmy warming up (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Putting the bags in a van (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Constant companions... cough (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Hanging out, waiting (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

Heading out (photo by joanneleon, 7/5/12)

 

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Occupy movement begins march to NYC
Their goal is to arrive Wednesday at Wall Street in New York City. They will avoid the New Jersey Turnpike in favor of pedestrian-friendly streets through Trenton, Princeton, and New Brunswick. Carr said she had made arrangements for the marchers, who call themselves the Occupy Guitarmy for the musical instruments many tote, to sleep outdoors legally on each night of the trip.

Invoking Woody Guthrie, 'guitarmy' sets off on trek to Wall St.
"We played all over Occupy Wall Street in New York City," says Paul Stein, a retired lawyer and part of The Occuponics, a musical group.

"Music is so important, culture is so important for the Occupy movement. It conveys a message in a very easy to understand and non-threatening way," Stein said. "So in our songs, we talk about the things we want to change."

While the plan is to play mostly protest and traditional songs along the way, Brooklyn resident Stein says he's adding some new lyrics to the repertoire.

"I'll sing you a verse," Stein agreed Thursday morning.

"We're marching to the beat of Occupy Wall Street.

We're here to shout we've been left out we're turning up the heat.

We're the 99 percent, our income slashed our savings spent.

Wall Street created this predicament so we occupy for change."

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Imagine… an exciting new independent blog and news site with a focus on a better future, waging peace, battling ignorance and greed. “Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, something you do , something you are, and something you give away.” ― John Lennon

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It's Freaky Friday!  Bring some tunes, whatever you got! Feel free to comment with just a song-link and your thoughts, or try for the embed, for however long that works for us. Either way, we're just chillin' here, so c'mon and join in. Here's HOW: To add vids in comments: Click on "share"; then the "embed" button; change the size of the video graphic too, so when it posts, it is smaller. Use 300pixels in the custom parameters (last one on the right) under the embed code. {h/t joanneleon}