The DTLA Civic Center | Grand Park | City Hall Black Lives Matter Occupy Activism Event - Some Notes from Up-Close.

The Black Lives Matter Occupy movement is a slight of concurrent popular culture for many young people in the Greater Los Angeles area, who flock to the locale surrounding Downtown Los Angeles' City Hall, where some folks have taken up establishment of an "Occupy" basis, which is supported by various volunteers, and perhaps, through some local tax dollars, as far as keeping them fed.

One thing is for sure: these people are not here, per se, for the sake of seeking housing, such that many people might presume of a homeless demographic. Rather, these folks are here for an historical sit-in, where the popular movement that has become Black Lives Matter, amidst a tepid backdrop of that COVID-19 reports had not quite faded from the common imagination, or news feed, for that matter.

What's become of the Black Lives Matter sit-in Occupy movement out here, on the lawn, is an aggregation of various common popularly received and news-media outlet covered topics, ranging from the recent Supreme Court's decision on LGBTQ individuals receiving equal rights within the context of the workplace establishment, George Floyd's controversial death at the hands of a police officer, and of Breonna Taylor's untimely death. 

The campers, themselves, are quarantined off, loosely, in their perimeter within the Grand Park Event Lawn, by short metal fencing, where artistic renditions of what matters to protesters are hung, for decoration, and for the sake of offering a voice to the otherwise mostly silent tent camp-in community that's established itself out here, on the lawn. Other than that, the park's daily activities that had been in play, prior to this Occupy movement taking reign over some aspects of the park, go on, regardless of the activism installation that is the Black Lives Matter ongoing protests.

Then, inevitably, at some point in the late afternoon, the activism movement's assembling street marchers take to the roads outlining Grand Park, nearby City Hall. They march and chant, under the directorship of a man with a bullhorn, who leads the group in a collective ideation and evocation of what the purpose and credo of this activist assembly confers, unto the public, within earshot of the movement's manpower and social and civic impetus underlying the group's ideology.

Over in other parts of town, broken windows and shuttered businesses confer a tale of a more sordid assembly establishment, of that which is the trepidation and untimely failures, for some business and retail establishments, for the sake of being incapable of sustainability and basis foundry of keeping faith in the longer-term outlook for business, which has affected establishments across the spectrum of business economy. 

Now, nearly two years later (mid-April, 2022), 

There are some faint echoes of the as-of-yet still somewhat contentious racial unrest, in the society that comprises the Los Angeles, California, USA landscape. Here and now, at the lawn in front of City Hall, at Grand Park, the park is renewing itself, of its former days of people walking their dogs, there’s birds to be fed, and the park is generally open and being used by the public. I didn’t get a chance to connect with anyone who was part of the park’s occupation movement, mostly on account of that there were barriers to communication, such as “actual” physical barriers, as well as that I’d observed some hostility and in-fighting amongst the occupants of the park, during that time. Race relations are still, in some demographics, quite arcane and rigidly defined, or disregarded, in how racism displays itself, still; rearing it’s ugly head in unexpected ways, that it would. As for myself, I am tasked with the premise of that I’m the pigeon-feeding bum, out here, as my most standard self, of coming out to downtown Los Angeles, from my home, in South Los Angeles, yet I still do - here and there, experience a bout of literal homelessness, even though I am housed. I say: it’s on account of discrimination, yet it’s a seething issue of some other obscure nature (somewhat); I call it a lack of sobriety, or maturity, or cultural exposure and tolerance, perhaps. 

On one hand, out here, I generally tend towards that I “don’t” typically experience acts of discrimination, although my housing situation exploits the concepts of that racism still looms large, in various ways in which I can just “simply infer” that people see me as a simple and slight person, made up of my appearance and cultural heritage, which at times, becomes a trifling subject for the “locals” out in South Los Angeles - which is a place of a different sort, from the bustling big city, small town, that comprises downtown Los Angeles, in that - here and there, at times, archaic attitudes persist, which become visible in prejudiced and discriminatory behaviors that I’ve come to have observed. Today, here in 2022 (this article was originally authored on June 25th, 2020), we’ve been on a long journey - through unrest that had began it’s boil, following the civic unrest of many large cities across America, and later, through the more long-standing effects of the civil decrees that were laid out as part of the plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. 

My take on what’s left of the dilemma of failing race relations? Don’t make it about race, per se. Make it a topic for open conversation, if need be, but be equitable and just, in speaking of, or on - the matter of race. Many people, in this enlightened age of access to information and culture, burgeoned by the knowledge base that is the internet - slighter and higher levels of intelligence can be pursued, and attained, while greater opportunities are afforded, even still, after the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Award money had been distributed, as well as the economic stimulus payments - all of those things were a boon, to us, as Americans. We are all Americans, in that sense - I believe that we ought to seek a common identity, rather than define ourselves by what conceived of us, perhaps little more than that, as it would come to be seen, I would surmise, in the current day and age, and in to the future, for the fact that we are creatures, now - capable of intelligent design, rather than natural selection, or selective breeding, per se. Let the distinctions and nuances of knowing each other, and one another, be the measure by which we relate unto ourselves, and thereby forge our identities, while keeping true to our American heritage, for all it stands for, rather than seek to discover what makes us different, and thereby perpetuate the disparities between us, as individuals, and as representatives of our culture.

Quick update on the green pine cone development effort: an ad hoc cottage industry occupation, at minimum.

 I've had the pine cone sunken into a handful of mud I collected from beneath a leaking fire hydrant, and prior to finding the mud, I determined that the pine cone might do well if it was given some blessings and offerings of Texas Cedarwood essential oil from Aura Cacia as well as some ConcenTrace liquid ionic minerals. In addition, I supposed that I could, perhaps, inspire some sort of ionic burgeoning of bringing the cone's still-living ostensible self to sprout a sapling branch out of it, if I made a reaction of the ionic mineral and oil coating of it along with some tobacco smoke and heat from the fire of the rolled cigarillo tobacco from underneath and around the pine cone; it seemed to attract some gravity unto itself with the combination.

After a few days of traveling around with me while coated with the mud and being brought out into the sun for some intervals in time, I brought it out of the mud bag upon arriving back at my place, and I washed the cone off with warm water.

The particularly special thing that was notable about the pine cone, despite the fact that it had browned a bit, and that the tips of the spikes of the cone had seemed to develop nodes at the tip; one had broken off, and I've yet to identify just what these nodes entail in the scope of the lifespan and development of the pine cone as it expends it's life energy into something. Perhaps it's not been a proper induction into sprouting into a sapling, yet I'm still hopeful for it. What I did nitice, though, which was of promise, was that the oil, mineral liquids, and tobacco smoke ash combination left a thick, resinous smooth and shiny black tar with a beautiful spicy scent.

I decided to keep on in developing the incense-like resin basis of what the cone might merit, and I'm working on covering it with a new and more dedicated purpose towards establishing an incense resin development cycle for a purpose that I might apply to green pine cones; perhaps I'll make it an outing basis out to the mountains nearby, locally, to establish a collection of similar young pine cones to establish one of the cottage industry aspirations that would inevitably arise from doing these various treks around town, and establish various takes on incense products from scratch and by hand that obviously herald from such cultures as northern French African infusions of trade and society from which the Morrocan variety of Texas Cedarwood essential oil, particularly fine, as it's offered by Aura Cacia, for the disparity in price of the bulk-sized alternate offering of Texas Cedarwood oil by Whole Foods Market brand, which is taken from the a Juniper or Spruce of a Mexican varietal.

Ostensibly, with so much nuclear disparagement of the soils and atmosphere of the regionally localized environment; this being Los Angeles of southern California; it makes for a notably less fine and distinctive array of aromatics of the tree's specieal or acute conditioning produce capacity at this time, in addition to being diluted with a carrier oil, (I belidve), in the Whole Foods Brand offering. In some cases, not particularly much to disparage the much more actual aromatics and volatile oils in what's offered, by weight; yet I'm interested in developing products and distinction in end product in line with ethical and sustainable offerings, as my first-outset in doing things of product-related manufacturing and finery considerations at hand, in the same vein as the iPigeon branding heraldry of racing pigeons trade convention and social economy basis of meeting and establishing well-wrought and considerate relations where such distinctions are trusted from the source, as I'm responsible for in my own .institute output and for sustainable work developments that may arise from having the extra time, care, budgeting, and conscientious discernment of having had ostensibly finer pigeons, someday: to show for such slight, yet significant (in terms of my single-handedly retail purchase at Whole Foods in that I have a choice between two bottles, both of them seemingly slight in their purpose, in some consideration); I'd obviously make it the finest available as ad hoc development findings, and perhaps develop from there, based on aesthetics and merit that make the difference in making sustainable and secure establishments in relationships to come.

[Sorry, long-winded; I'm being regionally trifled by localized and regional playback of competitive minds and Disavowal of all sorts of reasonable basis in showing face in the development cycle].