Old Blog Resurrection

It's is once again time to chronicle the chaos that is about to befall Pittsburgh, PA. I am speaking only of Occupy Pittsburgh and once again I am in the center, on the march route, and close to mini ralley's #4 and #5!

So get ready for some violence, anarchy, and me, a completely uninformed observer to lead you through a web of guesses and rumors for as long as my interest holds out.

I need to be a part of something bigger! Even if it is from my basement office.

Bitter Wrap Up

This will be my final post on this blog. Although it has turned me on a little to blogging, it has not really accomplished anything.

The G20 has been erased and no one in Pittsburgh even remembers why it happened or what it was about and no one ever knew what people were protesting in the first place.

My personal G20 experience left me with two things: a kickass limited edition Shepard Fairey political poster and my one and only adult hickey. One is classy and I will frame it and hang it on my wall. The other is trashy and I will forget it ever happened.

I would bet that in a collective sense, nothing got accomplished in Pittsburgh that week. Most businesses had their regular schedules interupted or closed. Workers had their schedules changed, had two or three days of unpaid vacation, had to sleep in their workplace or just had a damn hard time getting there. The protestors made a small bit of noise, loitered, and fell away as quickly as they had arrived. The world leaders didn't solve the world economic problems while having dinner in our gardens. And I went to work just to hang out and think about all the work I really wasn't doing.

At least if there had been fireworks or cotton candy we could have called it a holiday.

Recent looting weighs heavy on the bodies of concerned employees!

This just in:

A few moments ago my place of employment was raided by one scary looter! She wasn't even hungry! She just used her key to get into catering and raid the muffin tray! Several casualties were reported including this poor fallen guy in the picture. An anonymous participant said, "The ones that are really good are the mushy cinnamon ones!" Although the breakfast eaters tomorrow will be crushed, no one has been taken into custody.

The truth is:

Downtown is a ghost town populated by a few curious bikers who enjoy, like myself, the freedom to ride around without the obstruction of cars.

I am still at work. Work is also deserted at the moment except for some sleepy security guards and me. I'm waiting around for the crew that will be uploading news feed to a satellite.

All the action is in other neighborhoods, Lawrenceville, Friendship, Oakland, everywhere but downtown. Reports of property damage have been coming in all day and I have yet to see anything even mildly rowdy.

I'm gonna go look for trouble.

Free Tibet!

You march towards the Convention Center. You've got a great number of flags and some loud speakers. But you mumble so we can't tell what you're chanting. Then you get stopped by a line of riot police. You scream in their faces. For a really long time.

And then...

I get bored and go back into my office. I couldn't figure out the end goal. They aren't out there right now. I bet they went for dinner.

I wondered about how bored the police might be, just standing around all day. Then I realized I was just standing there watching them stand there.

Celebration!

I'm nervous like a first date.

It's not often that I get invited anywhere, let alone a reception the night before the G20. The invitation said "business casual" so I had to improvise. Out came the only skirt I own and a new top because the old one needed held up with double sided tape....

to be continued...

Anticipation

The G20 is on it's way to my home town. The anticipation of this event is a thick cloud drifting towards Point State Park. It's bringing a sense of excitement and fear to my beautiful city. It makes the city feel alive even as it hunkers down, sensing it's own mortality.

Yesterday a load of lumber was dropped off in our loading dock downtown. We blamed the contractors and looked into getting it moved. Today a man with a hand saw was working with that same pile of lumber. He explained that he was boarding up our alleyway. The rest of the lumber was "just in case."

Similar to preparations made for a hurricane, businesses are boarding up and people are getting out of town. But instead of Mother Nature's wrath, my city is guarded against protestors' bricks. The commonly accepted notion is that protestors will be coming with cart loads of bricks or possibly dismantling buildings to steal the bricks. However they are acquiring these bricks, they will most assuredly throw them through windows.

As I rode home from downtown to the North Side tonight, I expected to see armies marching around with riot gear on, protestors swinging from the trees throwing poo, and general mayhem. My sense of anticipation had gotten ahead of me. In reality I saw people going to work the nightshift cleaning downtown buildings, people on their way back from dinner, and the Pirate game letting out. It was a simple, quiet evening. Even the crew of men erecting the 8' barricade down Penn Ave. seemed to be doing it in a calm manner. I returned to my apartment a bit disappointed, but certain that there would be stories to come.

My excitement is fueled by my work place location, only a block away from the Convention Center. We also have an "unofficially" important role as a media center. So important in fact, that we have box meals ordered for our skeleton staff for the rest of the week.

More interesting than work is the invitation I scored to the Clean Energy For American reception being held at the Andy Warhol Museum and hosted by Teresa Heinz and Senator John Kerry tomorrow night.

I will fall asleep tonight relishing in the unknown. So should you.

Reporting From Within

Greetings!

Follow along as I become your window into the real-life G20 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Starting now.

You have the opportunity to voyeuristically read on and glimpse the effect and process of the G20 Summit, reported first hand by a resident of the Mexican War Streets and someone who's job is located in the RED ZONE.

But before I continue on, a brief disclaimer:

I do not make any claim to be a reporter of any sort, amateur or professional. I do not even claim to be a blogger. The fact is I was inspired by the almost 200 bloggers who will be setting up at my place of work in order to blog continuously about meetings none of them are invited to. If they can do that, for a living I assume, I can do this.