Austin, March 16th, 2013.
Janie and I went to the State Capitol for "The Musician's March for Peace". It was about a two and a half hour drive from Brownwood and the day was well worth the time spent on the road. This activity happens to be at the same time as the semi-famous South by Southwest festival (SXSW) which is a music, film and arts festival in downtown Austin. Because of this, as we pulled up to the parking garage, we learned that the parking rate was $20.00 for a short time or all day. The normal all day rate is $7.00. Huh! In talking to the attendant standing there with his wad of 20s, we were told that all of the public parking was set at that rate and set by the city or the tourism board or something. We happened to know that the metered parking was possibly fine, but we'd have to remember to run back and feed the meters, so we opted for the 20 bucks. At least we knew we were out of the sun and the car was reasonably safe. (and it wouldn't get towed off) As it turned out we were parked there from about 11:30 am to about 8:45 pm.
We had been following the Musician's March for Peace for a while on Facebook the day's events were to include a rally and concert at the steps of the capitol at 1:00 pm, a march through the streets of Austin starting at 3:00, followed by a second rally and concert at the stage outside of Austin City Hall. I suspect the march was about a mile or a little more, more on the march later. Prior to the event, one of the organizers, having heard my song, "The Occupy Song", asked us to play it as part of the show at the capitol. It was great fun meeting the other musicians, and helping one of the marchers to get set up with sound etc. We immediately felt like we were among friends. Whenever we meet "our people" there is always this ever-present question in the air - "who are you, what have you been doing?". So meeting and talking becomes little spontaneous snippets of who we are, who we know and what we've been doing. Anyway, the MC poet was wonderful and the acts were lovely. Some were more polished for stage presentation than others and all were equally welcomed by the attendees and other presenters. That's a sign of a wonderful community, a beloved and loving community.
Our song was very well received and within a verse or two most of the audience was singing "we're here to occupy, here to occupy, we're the 99%, we're here to occupy, here to occupy, starting on the corner with our tents." The song was really designed to be a song that folks can rally around and also a song that chronicles the beginning of the small Occupy sites (in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street) that cropped up around the US, with models from Un-Occupy Albuquerque, and Occupy Amarillo, Lubbock, and Fort Worth. The debut of the song was at the Occupy Lubbock site. By the way, Occupy is not gone but most of the former occupiers have joined movements trying to fix problems with our economy like Strike Debt, an organization that is buying up property and medical debt and then releasing the person from their particular debt.
Just as we were winding down the concert at the capitol, I noticed that a lot more people had gathered, with several in various costumes and some carrying drums, brass instruments, and shakers. The guy we had helped set up began mounting his sound system speakers on a shopping cart and some folks helped him carry a mobile sound system down the steps to the ground level while the jazz band had been playing "Down by the Riverside". Then we started down the sidewalk to Congress Ave, down Congress to head for City Hall.
The march took a detour which would allow it to travel down several blocks of Sixth Street (Austin's version of New Orleans' Bourbon Street) and all of this with the Jazz music in the front, and the rolling rock studio in the back. We were in sort of a swing state :-) moving slightly up in the crowd would allow us to hear and participate in the Jazz group, and falling back somewhat would put us with the rockers. Many of the revelers along the path, joined us for part or most of the march smiling, singing, dancing, and flashing peace signs everywhere. Here are some scenes from the march route.
As we approached City Hall the Jazz band was playing "Down by the Riverside" again and I think the rockers had joined too. There was another band on the city stage in front of City Hall, and our folks gathered in with these folks and kept the song going. Then the stage band did a few more great songs, and turned the stage over to open mic, an opportunity for poets and singers to present. We did a couple of more songs during the open mic, before heading out.
Now, about coming together: someone said they think there should be Musician's Marches for Peace all over the US at this time, as music is so good at bringing folks together; another thing in Austin that brings folks together is bats. As we were headed to dinner (a restaurant recommended by my cousin David) we noticed that people were lined up along Congress Street bridge. Me to Janie, "I didn't think that the bats were flying until later in the year." She looked it up on her phone and we asked a few folks and found out that indeed the bats are flying. We parked at Zax Pint and Plate, met my cousin's friend, and then headed to the bridge. The Austin bat watching experience is a perfect vision of the coming together of which I write. People from all walks with one goal, to see the bats. I was told that this is one of the largest urban bat colonies in the world. It grew here unintentionally, as I guess the bridge architect didn't realize that the design he built would become a perfect habitat for these bats. Google the Austin bat viewing and you'll find out all about them. Anyways, the people come together, various economic backgrounds, colors, education levels, politics, religion, etc., you name it. They gather above and below the bridge just to wait for and watch the bats come out every day at dusk. They help each other get great viewing spots. We had a guy walk up and give us a pin that commemorates the bat viewing. The man was deaf, had a bat on his hat and was friendly as could be. He also had a tag on the pin inviting us to give him a little something for the pins we got, which we did, and we were all happy. We got a lovely picture of Janie and me with the batman. The beloved and loving community.
For those that have read this far, I might as well tell you that we went back to Zax, had a nice conversation with my cousin's friend, had some wonderful pizza, and enjoyed a great trip back home. We fell into our little Winnebago home at about 11:30 pm tired and happy. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this. I encourage you each to find some activity that you can enjoy with people you might not ordinarily hang out with, and enjoy it, celebrate it, meet some new friends.
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