Peaceful, Positive, and Pink

As part of my personal day today, I went to Union Square to attend a hip hop rally in protest of Hot 97's tsunami song. I don't know if this made national news, but basically what happend is the unintelligent hosts of Hot 97's morning show (Hot 97 is the station where 50 Cent recently spoke and where someone from his entourage was shot outside) wrote and aired an ignorant, disrespectful, distasteful, and utterly racist song about the tsunami victims shortly after the tragedy.

These were the lyrics: (these are very insensitive and offensive, so don't read if you're not willing to deal with this)

There was a time
When the sun was shining bright
So I went down to the beach to catch me a tan
Then the next thing I knew
A wave 20 feet high came and washed your whole country away
And all at once you could hear all the screaming Chinks
And no one was safe from the wave
There were Africans drowning
Little Chinamen swept way
You could hear God laughing "Swim You bitches, swim"
[Chorus]
So now you're screwed, it's a tsunami
You better run and better kiss your ass away
Go find your mommy
I just saw her float by, a tree right through her head, and now your children will be sold child slavery
[Repeat chorus]

Heinous. Completely and utterly heinous. I could go off, but I won't. You know how I feel.

Obviously New Yorkers have been up in arms, demanding that Miss Jones (the host of the morning show) and the remaining morning staff be terminated. It's tough, though, because of freedom of speech.

A rally was held today in order to stress the positive and peaceful qualities of hip hop, and to dismiss the violence and hatred associated with the culture.

Here's the link:

http://www.hiphopliveshere.com/

Here is what the rally looked like from the Filene's Basement in Union Square, which clearly isn't in the basement:



And here is another shot:



As you can see, it wasn't very crowded. It wasn't that good of a rally. The sound system was on very low, so you couldn't tell a rally was happening unless you were right on top of it.



People had signs. This woman's baby was awesome.



Suchin Pak from MTV was there. I kept following her around, semi-hoping she'd ask to interview me so I could say "No thanks, Suchin, and you look much cuter with glasses." I have a suspicion that I'll be hovering in the background of every interview that airs on MTV.



The best thing about Suchin Pak was that she was being followed around by her cameraman and this nerdy early-20's PA (and me) who had a notebook that said "Why are you here?" and "What did you think of the tsunami song?" in case Suchin forgot what to say. I desperately tried to get a photo of it over his shoulder but couldn't get the right angle. Curse my shortness.



Here's another dude with a sign.



There was more interviewing going on than actual rallying.



There was music, but you couldn't really hear it.



And rapping, which you could hear. Very socially aware and very good, but sadly the crowd never got into it.



I never really got into it either, and it was cold and I couldn't hear what was going on, so I went up to Filene's Basement to photograph things from above and happened upon the annual bridal gown madness insanity event. Unfortunately it wasn't crazy when I got there.



I decided to shop, since it was a personal day and I could do whatever I want! I need a spring coat. I've never had a good spring coat, mainly because I can never find coats that fit me. They are always too big. I found one - its very very hot pink - and while trying it on in the store I was torturing myself. It fit so nicely - it seemed slightly too big - and was so pink. I asked a woman who worked there, who was like 400 pounds, what she thought. She told me it was "too small" and that I should really try a larger size. I wanted to yell "Dude, I just wanted to know if you thought it was TOO PINK!" She kept rolling her eyes and huffing "Honey, move your arms around - see? It's TOO SMALL."

Hmph.

I took it into the dressing room with me along with all sorts of other lovely pink items for future spring and summer weddings, and found myself becoming Joe-Pesci-on-Saturday-Night-Live about the whole thing. Have you seen that sketch where he's buying a ring and looking at himself in the mirror and doing all of the poses he might do in real life that would showcase the ring? That was me with the coat. I blame that large woman. Here I am being out of control with various poses I might make while wearing the coat.



I bought the coat, as well as two of the dresses. To be determined. I have 30 days to decide. Roommate thinks the coat fits beautifully but is unsure about its pinkness. I am going to have to ask D and M, who's visiting this weekend. Yipee!

On my way home, there were a dozen red roses on some trash cans on N. 3rd St. I tried to get a picture of them with Brooklyn and the Brooklyn sky in the background, but it didn't work. I took 15 of them and this is, regrettably, the best one.



Ah, personal day.

And now, the weekend.