Feb 19

Feb 19 Resist

Who could imagine
That they would freak out in washington, d.c.
D.c. d.c. d.c. d.c. d.c.
It can't happen here. ...

Everybody's safe and it can't happen here
No freaks for us
It can't happen here
Everybody's clean and it can't happen here

Frank Zappa - It Can't Happen Here (1966) 51 Years Ago

I left the house today looking for shadows and light in the South Loop, but when the bus turned the corner from Michigan onto Wacker Drive, demonstrators were spilling from the sidewalk into the street as a police horse brigade held the line. I had the wrong camera and the wrong lenses for covering a demonstration, but as they say, "Your best camera is the one that is with you." What I needed was a 28mm lens (a 21 would have been better), but all I had was an 80mm to 200mm zoom. The zoom came in handy, but I need to keep running down the street ahead of the leaders to capture a wider angle.

I watched the proceedings along the river across from the Trump Hotel--He had to put his name on the building while the police kept the demonstrators from crossing the Wabash bridge to get to the hotel.

After 45 minutes or so, the demonstrators headed out, first down State, then across Congress toward the Eisenhower Expressway, but then up Dearborn to Federal Plaza. Probably the most inspiring part of the day was seeing the Muslim men and women peacefully praying in Federal Plaza under the Calder Orange Flamingo.

In high school and college, I and a number of my friends worshipped Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Revisiting the early Verve albums tonight, it is quite apparent Frank was both in and of his time and well ahead of it.