How Marlon Brando helped Natives (video)

Sacheen Littlefeather, Marlon Brando, Dick Cavett; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sacheen Littlefeather's oral history: Oscars, Marlon Brando, and a Legacy of Activism | A.frame

Marlon Brando in brownface as Zapata

(Democracy Now!) The American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1973 really needed an ally, and Hollywood actor Marlon Brando stepped up. He was more than the Godfather, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar, he was someone who genuinely cared about Native American Indians. Hollywood did much harm, as part of the American military's propaganda arm, and Brando tried to right the record. Democracy Now! remembers Indigenous actress Sacheen Littlefeather, who was mocked and threatened at the Academy Awards/Oscars in 1973. #democracynow

• Latina Rita Moreno was love of Brando's life
• Native Americans in the news: WHYY.org
• Native Americans on National Public Radio

Occupy Los Angeles hit by Rain and Snow

Wisdom Quarterly

In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and its Halloween winter, Occupy Los Angeles (City Hall, Van Nuys, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks...) is drowning in a sudden storm.

The skies have been seeded with chemical spraying from the secret government's aerosol campaign (like most weeks). When the spraying meets sufficient moisture from cold fronts, there is a desert deluge.

Snow is expected at the 4,000 foot level. Snow in LA? "Los Angeles" is largely forest and wilderness. Look at a map. But no one calls our mostly burned out adjacent forest "LA." It's the Angeles National Forest, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Santa Monica Mountains, and so on. The snow falls up there, quickly melts, and floods our all-concrete "river."

But everyone knows LA is a "concrete jungle." That it is. And our tents and blankets are wet. Angelenos have no real winter clothes, just windbreakers, flip flops, and tees.

Bailout?
(VideoNation)

On Sept. 25th filmmaker Laura Hanna took her camera to Wall Street and captured protesters gathered to express their opposition to the proposed Wall Street bailout.

• City Hall has a lawn for peaceful assemblies, but
• LA mayor wants to move the movement
• Occupy Los Angeles responds to mayor
  

That was 2008. The $700,000,000,000 (billion) bailout Bush endorsed has been widely unpopular with the public. Its lack of support reaches beyond party affiliation and ideological sympathies. But the 1 percent likes it.

No more "privatizing profits and socializing losses," declared one protester. "They live by the free market; let them die by the free market."

"Stop and frisk" in New York: #OWS says no to illegal searches!

Occupy The Valley (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Occupy San Diego will not be stopped by oppressive police tactics. Instead, the Occupy Movement in California is growing in response.

This is our currency! We will occupy it! (occupygeorge.com)

It will soon be in Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks (the world-famous Valley), which is part of the San Fernando Valley in northwest Los Angeles County. It is also coming to Pasadena, in the progressive adjacent northeast San Gabriel Valley. These are largely residential enclaves in the megalopolis that is 50-mile-long "Los Angeles." The people united will never be defeated.

• Occupy LA to branch out (ABC News)
• Occupying the LA Unified School District
• Occupy the Valley begins Saturday, Oct. 29th
• Britain to abolish rule of male succession
  

Wolf condemns "Stalinist" erosion of protest rights Author Naomi Wolf and her partner Avram Ludwig are arrested in New York at an Occupy Wall Street protest (Guardian.co.uk/Mike Shane).

(Guardian) Feminist author Naomi Wolf has criticized the erosion of the right to public protest in the United States after she was arrested alongside Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in New York City. Wolf was led away in handcuffs after addressing protesters outside an awards ceremony held to honor New York's governor, at which she was a guest. The author had disputed claims by police that a permit granted to the event -- organized by the Huffington Post website on Tuesday night -- allowed them to clear the sidewalk outside the venue in the Soho district of Manhattan. More

Wanderlust Festival: Yoga and Music

Kristine David

A new kind of festival brings together the world's top yogis and best rock performers in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty on July 24-26, 2009 in California.

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Wanderlust will feature both yoga instructors and eclectic music artists. The festival takes place on July 24-26 at Squaw Valley USA in North Lake Tahoe. The festival is structured on the betterment of the human body and mind.

Attendees can take morning yoga classes taught by Shiva Rea, John Friend, Annie Carpenter, Christy Nones, Duncan Wong, Elena Brower, Janet Stone, and Sianna Sherman, as well as instructors from San Francisco’s Yoga Tree studios.

Musical artists will perform on stages nestled in the Sierra Nevadas. These include Michael Franti & Spearhead, Spoon, Andrew Bird, Jenny Lewis, Broken Social Scene, Gillian Welch, and Girl Talk. There will also be a series of late night DJ sessions at the Casbah stage in the village.

• wanderlustfestival.com
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