Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 09:48 AM

Luddites were NOT against technology. They were against technology taking away jobs. They fully supported the advances in technology as long as people from the old jobs were employed to use it.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:59 AM

Now sister Az, you know as well as I that this was a "geft" directly lifted from the poor black churches in the American south. It is well documented in North Carolina and Mississippi. Harper Lee notes it in her To Kill a Mocking Bird when the Fitch children attend a "negro" church.

Also called "lining," "linging-out," "surge singing," and the texts sometimes "Dr. Watts."

1. Baily, Ben, E., "The Lined-Hymn Tradion in Black Mississippi Churches," The Black Perspective in Music, Published by the Foundation for Research in the Afro-American Creative Arts, 1-15 pp., Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring, 1978. (retrived through h/www jstor.org/pss/1214299)

.

2. Campbell, Gavin James, "The Development of Sacred Singing," Tar Heel Junior Historian, North Carolina Museum of History 37, no. 2. (Spring 1998). (retrived through h/www learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/4453).

3. Mouw, Richard J., Mouw (editor), Noll, Mark A., (editor), "Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology," Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004-03, p 36. ( ISBN: 978-0-8028-2160-7).

4. Smith, Therese, "Lining, Testifying, and 'Blackenizing': the musical expression of Black American families." Irish Journal of American Studies, vol 7: 55-78.

Sincerely,
Brother Gargoyle

The quote by Campbell, "they sounded like 'a parcel of frantic creatures.'” seems appropriate.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 08:36 PM

Cool... They're going to be here in Charlotte next week...

Bob

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Stringsinger
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 08:05 PM

Rhianon of the Carolina Chocolate Drops has developed a call and response approach to
singing of her song, "We are the Ninety Nine". I think it might work for other songs
as well as it is a musical "human microphone".

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 06:33 PM

Oh, also cuts down on long speeches... Just the facts, mam...

B~

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 06:31 PM

It's a little disconcerting when you are first part of it but it grows on you... I now love it...

Forget PAs...

B~

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: GUEST,azizi
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 06:09 PM

Another value in this communication method may be to foster a sense of community among people.

However, I think that there's also the danger that the solution to the lack of amplification can be seen as an end in itself. I think it would not be the best outcome if protestors started thinking. "Aren't we cool to have thought of this way of communicating in large groups. Even when we get electronic amplification which will allow us to discuss more complicated subjects and solutiond, we'll continue with this cool human microphone system."

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: GUEST,azizi
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 06:02 PM

Here's the top entry as of this date for the phrase "Human Microphone" from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Human%20Microphone&defid=6130688


October 19, 2011 Urban Word of the Day

A tactic protesters can use to circumvent police bans on electronic amplification of speech. One person starts to speak to a large crowd. After a short sentence, everyone within hearing distance repeats whatever was said at the top of their lungs, allowing people outside of hearing distance to hear the speech.

The Human Microphone on Wall Street announced this speech:

"Mic Check."

"MIC CHECK!!"

"The human microphone is slow and cumbersome"

"THE HUMAN MICROPHONE IS SLOW AND CUMBERSOME!!"

"but it really makes you think through"

"BUT IT REALLY MAKES YOU THINK THROUGH"

"what it is you want"

"WHAT IT IS YOU WANT!!"

"to say."

"TO SAY!!"

by Occupy Urban Dictionary Oct 10, 2011

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 03:55 PM

The technique mentioned was used to make announcements & teach songs at Occupy Boston this noon. I thought it was amusing.

I suppose I count as a Luddite. I do not have a cell phone, and I think loudspeakers are vile.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 03:05 PM

Inasmuch as the vast majority of OWers come equipped with cell phones of dome degree of smartness, a less Luddite means of communication would seem to be in order.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:10 PM

Here's a link to a video of Rhiannon Giddens pf the Carolina Chocolate Drops leading people in Liberty Park in singing her song "We Are the 99". After the rendition of that song, Rhiannon is shown using the human microphone system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97mHvtbSLqk

Subject: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:06 PM

This purpose of this post is to document & discuss on this forum "the human microphone" pattern of communication that is being used by Occupy Wall Street protestors and perhaps by protestors in other Occupy movements in the USA and elsewhere.

As background, to paraphrase the article http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141109428/the-nation-we-are-all-human-microphones October 6, 2011; The Nation: "We Are All Human Microphones" by Richard Kim: The Occupy Wall Street protestors don't have a permit for 'amplified sound' in public. That means that "microphones and speakers are banned from Liberty Plaza. The New York Police Department has also been interpreting the law to include battery-powered bullhorns. Violators can be sentenced for up to thirty days in prison...

-snip-

Therefore, (from that same article) "the protesters aren't deterred one bit; they've adopted an ingeniously simple people-powered method of sound amplification. After the mic check, the meeting proceeds:
with every few words/ WITH EVERY FEW WORDS!
repeated and amplified out loud/REPEATED AND AMPLIFIED OUT LOUD!
by what has been dubbed/BY WHAT HAS BEEN DUBBED!
the human microphone/THE HUMAN MICROPHONE!!! (jazz hands here)."

-snip-

I wrote a post on my blog about how Occupy Wall Street's Human Microphone system reminds me of African American call & response songs. That post can be found at http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-streets-human-microphone.html.

And, by the way, I think that Richard Kim's mention of "jazz hands" refers to American Sign Language symbol for "applause"-waving both hands in the air.