Feature Archives

"We don't need another parking lot" read one of over 30 stenciled cardboard signs erected on the evening of August 1st across the fences of various failed businesses in Santa Cruz by a group of bicyclists as part of a "Going Out of Business & Green Futures" community ride. Part protest against car culture, part living art project, and part prank, the bicyclists visited the sites of former gas stations, drive thrus, auto-dealerships, and more, planting wild flower seeds, and other decorations depicting a deteriorating economy and hopes for a greener, wilder future.

Bike radicals will gather on Friday, August 1st at 5:30pm at Pacific and Cooper and then start riding at 6:00pm through the streets of Santa Cruz, touring the damage done to local businesses as the American economy starts to skid and crash. Particular attention will be paid to the auto-dependent businesses that have failed in the wake of a 5 year old war in Iraq and record oil-company profits. The ride will conclude in downtown Santa Cruz at the Guerilla Drive-In's annual Subversive Shorts Festival.

On July 19th, a monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was spray painted with the words “Viva Durruti Y Orwell.” The graffiti was in reference to Buenaventura Durruti and George Orwell, who opposed the Republican army that the Lincoln brigade was part of. In a statement posted on Indybay, the Worker Memorial Project wrote that the artwork was vandalized because “[t]he revolutionary movement in Spain was defeated by the Stalinist Soviet Union and its global puppets and public relations hacks.” Some supporters and opponents of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade have condemned the attack on a public artwork and called for different tactics to express political differences.

On the July 25th indynewswire on Freak Radio, danielsan spoke with Carmina Eliason, curator of the multimedia exhibit Remembering the Struggle, opening August 1st in Watsonville, which showcases art and history about the Watsonville Cannery Strike of 1985-87.

The Sprockettes, Portland's all female mini-bike dance team, rolled their veggie oil powered bus into Santa Cruz to give two free performances at the Bike Church on July 22nd. Operation Bike Nation 2008, stopping in bike-friendly towns from Santa Cruz to Seattle, features sex-positive club music while The Sprockettes dance in hot pink and black clothing and do tricks on mini-bikes.

Short Version

Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz interviewed media analyst John Anderson about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to be discussed at the G8 summit in Japan and H.R. 4279, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2007. Although ACTA's title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines), what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope, and in particular, will deal with tools targeting "Internet distribution and information technology." The PRO IP Act proposes to make substantial changes to federal copyright law, including the appointment of a copyright Czar.