Breaking News: Reverend Billy Was @ Lawrenceville March

As I suspected, Reverend Billy Talen was at this afternoon's G20 protest in Lawrenceville. (The AP says he led the march)

How did I provide you with this scoop. In my past life as an artist in NYC, I became friends with some artists and poet types who were close friends of his. This was during the general 1998-2001 period of the WTO protests in Seattle which I heard about.

Anyway, I have a general agreement with Reverend Billy. The idea that a time when many tapped out consumers are finally recovering from an irresponsible, unsustainable credit binge and choosing to buy less. While many lenders are recovering from the Fed's credit crack are lending more rationally, that the federal government, already having racked up 70trillion or more in hidden liabilities is now putting the nation on the hook for more of the same is simply amazing.

I'm a fraid that given his associations, that while I am highly entertained by him, I think his credentials as a peace activist to be thin.

myG20 Protest Update 2

I won't keep on putting these things up. As stated before, the blog is not a good source of updated info at this point. I'm at home in Shadyside and have no intent of wandering too much till this evening and I haven't been monitoring all twitter tags aside from Myg20

The Post Gazette seems to have fairly accurate coverage.

Lawrenceville protest march was broken up by tear gas @ around 37Th and Buttler. A large group of protesters then headed up Liberty into Bloomfield. I hear helicopters but not enough activity to indicate much beyond the normal police state G20 vibe.

The Big O (not to be confused with the dirty O) is now in town.

myG20 Protest Update

OOPS, shouldn't have gotten involved in this. In the time since the last update crowds have grown downtown.

One protest is against the current regime in Ethiopia and looks considerable.

Also, the protest march planned to start in Lawrencville started in Arsenal park, and was quite a bit bigger than it looked at first, It's now heading across the 40th Street bridge with plans to come into downtown across a bridge, I think.

Last tweet on MYg20 said "The Line Is Drawn".

The rest of the tweets are by paid city or foundation employees beating off over positive press articles.

G2O Art & Protest Update

First of all, this blog is not an up to date source of all G20 info. With that in mind, here are a few updates from the MYg20 twitter feed.

The unpermited march that implied it might be a violent attempt to disrupt the conference appears very very small.

The Mattress factory updated shots of the march by Burmese monks to protest the oppression in Burma which did reach the no-go perimeter downtown. This march I think made no direct reference to China.

A much more taboo gathering happened in Oakland, with a protest by Free Tibet demonstrators. Tibet is an absolutely off the table topic. Not only does the G20 include China,which considers Tibet a province, it also includes India, which has given sanctuary to the Dalai Lama and shares a militarised and disputed border with China. In 1962, a bitter border war was fought between the two countries resulting in the deaths of thousands.

Go to Myg20 for updates or follow tags like #myg20, #g20 #Pittsburgh on Twitter.