MaXX McKenzie, shown occupying Emmet Park for Occupy Savannah

Local economic justice movement concerned about education, student loans

“I have no idea what Occupy Savannah is,” Armstrong student Casey Beckley said on the week that the movement celebrated 100 days. According to Occupy Savannah protestors, Beckley’s bewilderment is not unique to college students.

 ”It’s not just the students who don’t know what the Occupy movement is,” retired school teacher, Sandra Crewe said. “The adults who drive down the road don’t know what it is.”

Although each participant will vary in his or her definition, Occupy Savannah is a local model of the Occupy Wall Street which began on Sep. 17, 2011 which led to a growing encampment in Zuccutti Park in New York City. The non-violent protest promoted civil disobedience and was originated by Adbusters, an ad-free magazine, that suggested a protest.

Citizens targeted Wall Street for it’s role in the 2008 recession. As parallel movements sprang up in different cities last fall, so did Occupy Savannah. The Occupy Savannah movement has continued for 109 days in historic Emmet Park on Bay Street. While the group seems to have slimmed down since their first days in October, the general group seems to be about twenty people.

“I think this movement is great,” said Armstrong Biology major Devonte Davis. “I think it’s a great thing for the city of Savannah.”

Another protester, retired Margaret “MaXX” McKenzie said that for her the movement is a group of different people celebrating diversity.

“Where is everyone?,” McKenzie said. “They are playing their video games, shopping, and going to the movies. They are doing a lot of other things rather than being concerned about other things.

“Occupy is an umbrella of people who want  to be awake, conscience and learning. They want to be discussing and having a conversation about it.”

Crewe sets up camp on Bay Street to protest alongside her daughter Vickie O’Donnell, a 39-year old East Broad Elementary schoolteacher , and 13-year old granddaughter, Bonny O’Donnell, also continue to come to the Occupy space in Emmet Park on Bay Street. Crewe told the Inkwell that even when she sustained an injury that left her wheelchair bound for the first two weeks, she still came to Emmet park in her wheelchair. According to her, one of her biggest issues was education. Her daughter, now a local school teacher, accrued over thirty thousand dollars worth of debt in student loans.

“It’s hard for the kids to get a better education and go through school, and then you want to charge them so much to go to school,” said Crewe. “They can’t afford to do it. Then, they get out of school, and there’s no jobs in the profession they’ve studied in school.

“Then, Uncle Sam says ‘Knock, knock. I want my money.’ He don’t care if you’re working or not.

“I want to see it changed.”

Environmental artist Philip DeWolf said he participates in the movement because people need to be educated about what happens in the United States. Born in South Africa, DeWolf spent the past several decades residing in California before making the trek to Savannah.

“People believe all the garbage they see on television and they don’t bother to find out what’s really going on,” said DeWolf. “Especially younger people, they are going to suffer the most from what is brought about by the older generation.”

Several Armstrong students from the younger generation said they had varied opinions about Occupy Savannah’s presence in Savannah.

“I think Occupy is an overall good movement,” said Biology major Nicholas Battyanyi. “I think there are some problems with there not being an exact unified purpose.

The main criticism from a lot of people is that they don’t exactly have an entire stance. However, that’s to be expected since it’s a collective without one leader. Over all, I support it.”

“Really, I feel that I have a mixed opinion,” said Undeclared major Michael Vasquez. “I think it’s a little odd that everyone will stand in the middle of nowhere just because there’s a one percent. I am just wondering how they are going to enact change for that goal. It’s a little strange.”

Crewe, however maintains that the participants are doing much more than standing in the middle of nowhere. She said that they routinely get involved in the community, and meet people whether it be homeless people or members of other Occupy movements. Frequently, they are called hippies, told to get jobs, or to move to China. On one occasion, a passerby attempted to assail Crewe with food.

 ”I had a day where a guy threw a sausage at me,” Crewe said. “I was lucky that Brett was here to deflect it. Brett put his sign up and it hit it.”

While people like Crewe are sometimes met with resistance, the participants maintained that the experience was rewarding for them. Armstrong History major, Amir Ogburn, said he had been engaged in Occupy Savannah for the past seven days at the time of the interview.

“I’m becoming more and more active here,” Ogburn said. “This is my first semester at Armstrong.” Born in Santiago de Chile, and a practicing Muslim, Ogburn said he plans to come every day that he can, when he is not obligated to religious duties on Fridays.

“I believe in helping people,” he said. “Too many people talk and that’s all they ever do. Everyone falls into the bi-stander effect. I have always been told that if you don’t lend a hand, then you are at fault too. We are planning to get involved to feed the hungry.”

“To me, Occupy, is about social activism. We stand for a variety of different causes, but it all relates to the economy.

“For us, we all have student debt. When I come out of school, the one thing I will have besides a degree is a lot of money that I owe somebody. There’s interest on that. Some peoplewho go to law school, graduate with six figures worth of debt.

“I’m not against corporations making money, but some of it should go towards helping people,” he said. “Students should be able to get an education without debt.”

Another Armstrong history major, who is not participating in the movement, gave her approval.

“I support Occupy Savannah one hundred percent,” said Kelsey Buff. “I think it’s for a good cause.”

O’Donnell had some advice for Armstrong students who may be left with contradictory notions about the purpose of the peaceful protest.

“If you’re not sure what Occupy Savannah is, come down and talk to us.”

For more on Occupy Savannah visit http://occupysavannah.org/

Photo by Chia Chong courtesy of Dare Dukes

“Thugs and China Dolls” available this Tuesday

Fans of M. Ward and Architecture in Helsinki, would be interested to see an all-ages Dare Dukes show this weekend. On Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m., Dukes celebrates the release of his second album, “Thugs and China Dolls” at The Sentient Bean on Park Avenue.

While it’s been three years since Dukes’ first album, “Prettiest Transmitter of All”, the songwriter’s album shows he’s been hard at work between albums. “The one big difference is that there are tons more people on this album. I’m not that great of a musician, but I did what I could with different players,” said Dukes.

Some members of the long roster of collaborators include Peter Hess from TV On The Radio and Thayer Sarrano from Of Montreal. Additionally, singer-songwriter Jim White produced “Simon Says,” a track Dukes almost threw out.

“‘Simon Says’ was a really weird song for me. I recorded it twice, and both times I hated how it sounded. The arrangement didn’t sound right, and I was ready to axe it.

“Then I met Jim [White.]  He really loved the song and told me how he would do it.

“It was totally different than how I imagined it but I agreed that’s how it should be done. We recorded it in the way that’s the most fun to record. If you have a ton of money, this is how you record. You go song by song because we started with my tracks.”

Another noteworthy contribution comes from Dukes’ wife, Susan Falls. The couple met over seven years ago while living in New York. Falls, a professor of Cultural Anthropology at Savannah College of Art and Design, plays piano on the track “Mighty Love.”

“My grandmother had given me a piano years ago,” Falls said. “Of course, I’m from North Carolina, and I had no way to take it to New York. My sister had it for ages. When I came to Savannah, I thought, I’m going to bring it down. He[Dukes] did manage to teach me a couple songs.”

While Falls’ has her grandmother’s piano, Dukes actually did not grow up in a musical family. The singer-songwriter said he discovered music while listening to his father’s radio.

“My dad listened to Perry Como. It was a good compromise if I got him to listen to Strauss waltzes,” said Dukes.

“I know the first moment I feel like I discovered music was when I was about ten years old.

My father had his radio on a baseball game and I was sitting in the living room playing legos. When he flipped the channel and I heard disco, I was like ‘Oh my God.’ It was on AM radio and I loved it.

“I remember feeling it was like a window had opened up.”

After a series of what Dukes deemed bad piano teachers, he eventually formed a band in high school. “I was in a bad, hilarious rock band in junior high, called Exodus. It was named that because like most good rock bands of the time, we were getting our name from the Bible.”

Dukes was able to use his band membership as a reason to convince his mother to get him guitar lessons.

“I found a guy who could teach me ‘House of the Rising Sun.’  I didn’t want to learn the instrument, I wanted to learn the song. Which, now that I say that, it’s kind of interesting.” After his high school band, the singer-songwriter  lived in Minneapolis for a while and had a band that he described as derivative of the Pixies.

“That was my first real band. I really loved the Pixies and Fugazi. It’s funny, because at the time, I really felt like I was the only person who loved them [the Pixies] as much. After the fact, I read that Kurt Coban wrote ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ because he was trying to write a Pixies song.”

After his early band years, Dukes moved from Minneapolis to New York in order to write a novel. He sold all of his records and quit playing music.

“I had this amazing record collection, from my very first record on, with almost every David Bowie record up to “Let’s Dance” and weird new Romantics. I had a ton of great music, and it was a bad choice. I thought it would be interesting and symbolic to sell all of my music.

“I got 113 dollars for 2,000 records. “

Because he was moving to New York, he needed to have nothing with him except what was in the back of his Subaru station wagon. He said because he was going to be a novelist, he felt he had to leave his music behind.

“I eradicated that part of my life. I didn’t have any instruments.”

Dukes loaned his instruments to people and never got them back. He moved to New York, and began working on  his novel. Dukes said at the time, his life began to fall apart.

“The novel never got published. I got an agent, but the novel never got published. As the novel wasn’t getting published, I really just crashed and burned. When I crashed and burned, I was forced to make new choices. One of the choices I made while I was in that process was to ask myself ‘why am I not playing music?’”

Dukes said his music started insisting itself upon him. He was trying to work on a second novel, and  could not work on it. While he  continued to work on his second novel, but he started to place music as more of a priority in his life.

“At one point, it just became clear that I was banging my head against this novel. I knew some professional musicians and they liked my stuff and they started playing out with me. It was fun and it felt right.”

When Falls secured a job at SCAD in Savannah, Dukes wanted to memorialize what he was doing with his band in New York. “I got some studio time and we recorded it. I wasn’t really thinking of putting it out. It sounded a lot better then I thought it was going to sound. So, when I got down here [to Savannah], I started adding tracks.”

Falls said they were both looking forward to the move. “Everything happened really fast,” she said. “We were just kind of ready for a change. We came down here and looked around and felt like Savannah was an interesting town. It was the entire opposite of New York.

“We thought it would be an adventure.”

Shortly after moving to Savannah, Dukes added to the tracks he recorded in New York. The memorial became the backbone for his 2008 release “Prettiest Transmitter of All.”  Dukes described neglecting his music, as if it were like neglecting his dog. “It was like my dog was outside, and I finally let him come into the living room. Something seemed right about honoring my music.

“Its really easy to go insane with music, but I could probably say that about anything I do.

“I was really pleasantly surprised with the attention the first record received and I went ‘Oh, so I guess I kind of am a musician. That’s interesting. What will I do with that?’

The answer to that question is “Thugs and China Dolls.” The second album, is self-aware with greater attention to lyrics and arrangements.

“The first time that I heard the album, I just thought ‘wow.’” Falls said. “I’ve been watching from the sidelines of course. I know the songs. I’ve heard him play them hundreds of times, but when I heard them altogether,

“When I heard the whole arc of the whole project, I felt really happy and proud.

“I was blown away.” Part of the wow-factor in “Thugs and China Dolls”, might be Dukes’ background in writing and storytelling, that shines through lyrically.

“I do like writing songs and stories about other people,” Dukes said. “There’s a place, where you force yourself to take an imaginative leap. To me, you’re more likely to create something dynamic than if I sit down and scrutinize my everyday existence.”

Part of that everyday existence for Dukes is also performing live, which he says he is still not entirely comfortable doing.

“Playing live still terrifies me. I enjoy it once I’ve started. Sometimes I hate it the whole time. Sometimes I know the way I’m feeling about it is totally wrong.”

However, he also said that he looks forward to his upcoming release party at the Bean, specifically because of the venue itself.

“One of the reasons I love The Sentient Bean is that the audiences there are very respectful. They close the curtain and they just watch you. It’s really amazing. I have a lot of quiet songs so it’s nice to be able to play venues like that.

“It’s wonderful to play somewhere like the bean where I can walk into the audience without a mic and have everybody listen.”

Dare Dukes will perform Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at The Sentient Bean. Cover is 5$ for students and 8$ for the general public. The first 50 people will get a free download card for “Thugs and China Dolls” entire album.

He will also perform Friday, Jan 20 at The Jinx on Congress Street. Cover is $7.

Not many people would quit their jobs and move to another country. However, Swedish musician Sofia Talvik and her husband Jonas Westin  decided last year to move from Stockholm, Sweden to Florida to pursue a career in music.

They are now touring across the United States, from their new home in an RV.

“I was getting kind of tired of Sweden,” said Talvik.  “It’s such a small country. Everything is kind of the same all the time. For a few years, I was thinking of getting a job abroad.”

Talvik studied art and graphic design at Bergh University in Sweden. Until this tour, she had worked as an art director and freelance graphic designer. The singer/songwriter does all her own art work for her website and albums.

Talvik has released four albums since her 2005 debut, “Blue Moon.” On January 31, her album “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” will be available on iTunes.

After seeing Tavlik perform live at The Sentient Bean, and listening to “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” I can see why she was the first Swedish artist to ever perform at Lollapalooza. Although Tavlik has an amazing voice, for many listeners like myself, talent is not enough.

“The Owls Are Not What They Seem” offers creative, interesting and enjoyable music. Although Tavlik has been compared to Aimee Mann, I would argue that she sings more in the style of Alison Kraus with the sensibilities of Feist. While listening to the album, I imagined seeing her again at a bluegrass festival or the Savannah Stopover festival.

In addition to being an artist, singer and songwriter, Talvik and Westin also own their own record label Makaki Music in Sweden. Before making the move, Westin also left a job working at TV4, one of the biggest TV stations in Sweden. According to Tavlik, they both could not be happier with the decision they made.

“I am excited that we did this everyday,” said Tavlik. “Ever day is an adventure. We meet new people everyday. For the tour, everyone’s been so nice and invited us to their homes. We have such a good time all that time.”

She also noted the interesting take United States citizens seem to have on geography. “A lot of Americans do mix up Sweden and Switzerland,” said Talvik with a laugh.

Still, of the Americans Talvik has met on tour so far, she said everyone has been supportive of her music. She attributes this to the face that she went “back to basics” for this album.

“When I recorded my first album, it was a live album,” said Talvik. “We recorded all the instruments at the same time. So we did the basic tracks first and then you add and you add. I just felt for this album, so I wanted to do something that felt had a live feel.

“The guitar and vocals are recorded at the same time. “

For anyone looking to further his or her music career, Talvik had some advice.

“You should try to listen to yourself. See what you can do for yourself and don’t hang around and wait for someone to discover you. There’s so many people you can contact if you want advice.

“The only way to do this is to do it on your own. “

Sofia Talvik and her husband, Jonas Westin.

Local performance artist, Seth, of Oubliette can be seen decorating a tiny christmas tree while playing his music at Jefferson House. The noise band duo pictured in a colorful jacket and feather strewn hat, may well also be interpreted as performance art. They were able to exercise the literal futility of their instruments by banging on guitars, cymbals, pots and pans with drum sticks, rather than playing the instruments in the conventional fashion.

For this homecoming notch on their tour, founding members Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope played with Carl McGinley, member since 2006, and Tyler Newberry, the most recent addition. Although fans already expect a creative, energetic live performance, it’s noteworthy that the band seems to have hit their sweet spot with the two drummers, who were on point the entire night.

On Sunday July 12th, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros performed at the Trustees Theater on Broughton St. The unorthodox band of talented musicians unleashed a night of chaos and reckless abandon.

Veterans of Bonaroo and Coachella, this folk-rolk act benchmarked the middle of their tour in Savannah.

Led by Alex Ebert, who plays the character Edward Sharp, ES&TMZ offer a reinvented sound with pensive lyrics and a folk-pop undercurrent of upbeat back up vocals.

During each song, some members sauntered on stage only to play their part. Trumpet player Stewart Cole arrived with a bloody mary in tow. After
setting his drink down and  playing on cue, Cole swiftly got his beverage and left mid-song.

ES&TMZ even overcame SCAD’s poor sound management to let all their songs shine. The stand out performances came from the pianist Tay Strathairn,  guitarists Nico Aglietti and Airin Older, and accordion player Nora Kirkpatrick. Combined with the charisma of Ebert and female lead Jade Castrinos, ES&TMZ literally left the audience wanting more.

By their last song, Ebert had  left stage numerous times to sing shoulder to shoulder with the fans in the crowd.

After submitting to an uproarious demand for ES&TMZ to play an encore, the eccentric bunch may have already expected what would come next.

The audience stormed the stage to rock out with the band. SCAD did not anticipate the security issues and abruptly cut the sound, at perhaps one of the most enrapturing moments to happen in Savannah this summer.

Living up to their reputation for unconventional performances, ES&TMZ wrapped up the night with a bang. Starry-eyed members of the crowd could pick up tie-dyed t-shirts and the ES&TMZ LP on vinyl to commemorate the strange but fun occasion.

Desoto Strut 2010 kicks off June 5th.

Niche, Mass Plastic and Cusses all performed in the sweltering summer heat at the fourth annual Desoto Strut on DeSoto Avenue. Organized by Rachel Raab, the event also featured a screen printing workshop.

Table

On May 16th, Tusk and Table performed at the Pony Pen.

Table, featuring one-man-show, Jeff Zagers, plays the sax, keys, and sings, all to loops of his own music. He will be performing again on Monday, June 14th at the Jinx with Female Topics.

An energetic trio from Oakland, CA, Tusk brought the house down! Switching from sax, clarinet (briefly), trumpet, drums, and guitar, each member of Tusk might play 2 to 3 instruments in one set, sometimes playing one another’s. In one energetic moment of jumping on an amp, a guitar punctured a hole in the ceiling. Resident and coordinator at the Pony Pen, Aaron Wood insists it was all in good fun. Other residents chimed in that they would be able to repair the hole easily.

Aside from their killer energy, this band brings good music and a fun live performance. If you weren’t lucky enough to get an awesome cassette tape with a handmade case at their show, you can still check

out  Tusk at www.tusksongs.com.

Tusk

For many years, Vance found difficulty in forming bands with humans. People in the bands either had giant egos or couldn’t go on tour because of family obligations.

“I figured that this is just sucking. I had to have a band that could continue and would be relatively easy. Basically, I either had to build robots or quit music. So one day, I decided to build a robot. I had never done anything like it before. I just sort of came up with the idea and improved it. It’s been working ever since,” said Vance.

The actual process of learning to build robots took about 1 year. Captured! By Robots has performed consecutively for 12 years since their formation. Since then, he has even built robots for non-musical purposes.

“I built my niece a giant blue story-telling lion. In order to ship it, it was so big that I had to send her the head and have her Mom stuff it after it arrived with packing peanuts after it came through the mail. She loved it,” said Vance.

After these creations, the inventor says now he concentrates mostly on musical robots. Commonly people misconceive that Captured! By Robots is just a name. Anyone who has been to their show can attest that the robots are actually playing instruments.

“[A lot of people] think that the robots make beeping sounds, when they are real robots that play real instruments and they sound great! I mean, I’d put us up against any band and we’ll probably put on a more entertaining show than most bands out there.”

Having played trombone as a kid, Vance then picked up guitar, drums, bass and piano. He programs his robots to perform what he writes. In addition to writing, Captured! By Robots hosts many themed tours.

“I had the “We Got Married by Captured!By Robots” tour where I actually married couples. Savannah was great. The people at the Jinx decorated the club with wedding bells and wedding paraphernalia. We had cake at every show. Two guys even came to get married in wedding dresses.”

Although getting married at a show, can be pretty wild, Vance’s most memorable performance was for the Ten Commandments tour. The tour basically served as a musical adaptation of the movie, where Vance, as JBOT, played Moses.

“Yeah, it was great! I parted the Red Sea. I held up my staff and everybody moved aside. I got all the Hebrews and we walked out of Egypt. It was so, so wonderful.”

As far as this Spring tour goes, Captured! By Robots may find it hard to out-do themselves.

“Basically,[I want to do] a tour based on the ending of humanity. I’m torn as whether to do it as the various ways the human race will die out or a life story of humanity leading up to the end. The robots will be showing off for that tour. One thing that I’ve learned is that the robots can play incredibly fast and incredibly accurate.”

The show will begin at 11PM, Saturday, May 8th at the Jinx. Cover is 10$ in advance, 12$ at the door.

-Photo courtesy of Captured! By Robots

On Monday, April 26th, the police shut down a show at the Pony Pen. Located at 650 E. 36th St., the venue hosted Black Death All-Stars and Shadows of Creation.

According to the police officer on the scene, one can obtain a “noise permit” to be allowed to play music.

You can review the actual Savannah Code of Noise Ordinance from the city’s website.

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To sum up, here are some ways the Pony Pen can comply with the noise ordinance: