My bus out of Milwaukee was scheduled for 1p on Wednesday and I left the Laundry Chute far too close to that time for comfort. The city bus was running a few minutes late, which set me even more on edge as I raced against time toward the departure point.

Even in my hurry I loved what there was to love about Milwaukee. The city really grew on me in those three days I was there - good vibes.

I ran the two long blocks from Wisconsin Ave to Clybourn St, holding my guitar case securely against my butt with one hand and my backpack against my stomach with the other (I can run faster when my gear's not bouncing all over the place). I could see the bus in the distance, about ready to pull away toward Chicago.

My stay in Chicago was short. I had hoped to meet with an organizer from Occupy to discuss actions for the upcoming NATO summit, but she was unable to make it in the end (she had tweeted the night before, asking whether expired NyQuil would kill her. I advised that alcohol gets better with age..) I spent the hour-and-fifteen sitting at a cafe on the first floor of Union Station, leeching their wifi. I waited longer than I should to buy a sandwich and ran back toward the Megabuses to make my connection to Toledo.

Now if you'll indulge me, I'd like to rant a bit about Megabus. I've been a huge proponent ever since I discovered this charter bus service about two years ago. I've taken Megabuses to nearly 30 cities and spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on tickets. So you can imagine the disappointment I've experienced, never having heard back from Megabus about my idea to have a GioSafari Megabus Tour, sponsored by the actual company. Basically, my pitch was that I would brand the tour in their honor if they just allowed me to take empty seats on their buses for free (and trust me, there have been more than enough seats to spare on nearly all of these buses).

Megabus originally appealed to me for several reasons:

1) they're cheap, much cheaper than Greyhound in most cases, though very rarely $1 as they so proudly and misleadingly advertise. 

2) they're relatively reliable. At least compared to hitch hiking..

3) they have FREE wifi!!! Or so they say. Of the 20+ rides I've taken on this tour, no more than 3 buses have had a tolerable connection. I now see through the advertising and marketing departments' smoke and mirrors. 

As a result of these negated advantages with Megabus, I've really got a sense on this tour that "you get what you pay for"; in comparison, the few Greyhound buses I've taken as of late have had really reliable wifi connections, which is a huge plus when I have so much work to do #ontheroad. All this plus the feeling of being snubbed is leaving a REAL sour taste in my mouth toward Megabus.

Which brings me to the reason I brought on this rant in the first place: although in all other cities Megabus drivers and attendants allow me to stow my guitar, no questions asked, they always make such a big fuss about it in Chicago. This is a huge pain for me because Chicago, being a major hub for Megabus, is a city I ride out of fairly often (my last departure toward NYC will be the fifth on this tour alone!). So I was not a little annoyed that the attendants made me take the guitar with me on the bus, leaving my backpack and phone charger in the luggage compartment below.

The bus was already well on its way to Toledo when it occurred to me that I had not secured a couch for the night. I had a couch for Thursday night at the house venue where I was to perform, but it had slipped my mind to ask about Wednesday also. I shot a text to the venue owner, Danny, to see whether he could put me up or pick me up when I arrived in Toledo. He said he couldn't but that there were cheap hotels in the area where the Megabus dropped off, over eight miles away from his home. This was simply not an option for me, as I need to save all the money I can on this tour. I resolved to find another way.

Danny suggested other ideas but they weren't working either. And it was getting late. Meanwhile, my phone was dying and I had no way to charge it. I'd have to wait til I touched down in Toledo to make another way.

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I'm #ontheroad! Here are my updates from Omaha & Chicago, including my show at Farnam House, picnics in TWO places (!), and a May Day march in Chi-town, where May Day originally began :D

This may be the last of my high-tech-professional-video-edited-quality updates, since my tour companion of 3+ weeks is leaving me today.. Annie (the silent one washing dishes toward the beginning of this video) is the one with the macbook. She also happens to be the greatest tour companion ever. So It will be very sad to lose her today, as she's headed back to NYC and I'll have to fend for myself for the last two weeks of this tour. Not sure how I'll even get myself out of bed in the mornings.

No, I mean it. Annie was the one who would wake me up in the mornings on time :/
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I've got a ton of new video footage to post but it'll be a while before I can get it all edited down.

And.. Well, to be honest, I just wanted to test out this new iPhone app by Weebly.
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New shoes from our host in Chi-town.
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Two years ago, for May Day, I released my song Pax Americana which was later released as a live track on Protest Songs (Are Dead). Last year I released the video on YouTube for May Day. 

And I was cautioned by my Cuban parents on these occasions about the meaning of this so-called holiday, especially in Cuba, where the day is marked by celebration of a regime regarded by many as violent, oppressive and unjust.

While this may be the case in Cuba, it's worth bearing in mind that International Worker's Day (aka May Day or First May) was started right here in the US! In fact it's as American as cherry pie, even though it has hardly been observed in the US since past presidents mockingly formed "Law And Order Day" on May 1st and, later, a watered-down "Labor Day" in September.

This year, Occupy Wall Street hopes to change all that. Already dozens of actions are taking place all around NYC, but I'll be marching today in the city where May Day really got its radical start - Chicago.

For more info about the origins of the holiday and what it has meant to the working class people of the US and around the world, check out this article from from www.iww.org, by Eric Chase - 1993.
Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class.

At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers' lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.

A variety of socialist organizations sprung up throughout the later half of the 19th century, ranging from political parties to choir groups. In fact, many socialists were elected into governmental office by their constituency. But again, many of these socialists were ham-strung by the political process which was so evidently controlled by big business and the bi-partisan political machine. Tens of thousands of socialists broke ranks from their parties, rebuffed the entire political process, which was seen as nothing more than protection for the wealthy, and created anarchist groups throughout the country. Literally thousands of working people embraced the ideals of anarchism, which sought to put an end to all hierarchical structures (including government), emphasized worker controlled industry, and valued direct action over the bureaucratic political process. It is inaccurate to say that labor unions were "taken over" by anarchists and socialists, but rather anarchists and socialist made up the labor unions.

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many Knights of Labor locals, reiterated their proclamation stating that it would be supported by strikes and demonstrations. At first, most radicals and anarchists regarded this demand as too reformist, failing to strike "at the root of the evil." A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden pointed out in the anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that "whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave."

Despite the misgivings of many of the anarchists, an estimated quarter million workers in the Chicago area became directly involved in the crusade to implement the eight hour work day, including the Trades and Labor Assembly, the Socialistic Labor Party and local Knights of Labor. As more and more of the workforce mobilized against the employers, these radicals conceded to fight for the 8-hour day, realizing that "the tide of opinion and determination of most wage-workers was set in this direction." With the involvement of the anarchists, there seemed to be an infusion of greater issues than the 8-hour day. There grew a sense of a greater social revolution beyond the more immediate gains of shortened hours, but a drastic change in the economic structure of capitalism.

In a proclamation printed just before May 1, 1886, one publisher appealed to working people with this plea:
  • Workingmen to Arms!
  • War to the Palace, Peace to the Cottage, and Death to LUXURIOUS IDLENESS.
  • The wage system is the only cause of the World's misery. It is supported by the rich classes, and to destroy it, they must be either made to work or DIE.
  • One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS!
  • MAKE YOUR DEMAND FOR EIGHT HOURS with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalistic bloodhounds, police, and militia in proper manner.
Not surprisingly the entire city was prepared for mass bloodshed, reminiscent of the railroad strike a decade earlier when police and soldiers gunned down hundreds of striking workers. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists.

The names of many - Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg - became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers' strength and unity, yet didn't become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.

More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers.

For six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers belonged to the "anarchist-dominated" Metal Workers' Union. During a speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.

Full of rage, a public meeting was called by some of the anarchists for the following day in Haymarket Square to discuss the police brutality. Due to bad weather and short notice, only about 3000 of the tens of thousands of people showed up from the day before. This affair included families with children and the mayor of Chicago himself. Later, the mayor would testify that the crowd remained calm and orderly and that speaker August Spies made "no suggestion... for immediate use of force or violence toward any person..."

As the speech wound down, two detectives rushed to the main body of police, reporting that a speaker was using inflammatory language, inciting the police to march on the speakers' wagon. As the police began to disperse the already thinning crowd, a bomb was thrown into the police ranks. No one knows who threw the bomb, but speculations varied from blaming any one of the anarchists, to an agent provocateur working for the police.

Enraged, the police fired into the crowd. The exact number of civilians killed or wounded was never determined, but an estimated seven or eight civilians died, and up to forty were wounded. One officer died immediately and another seven died in the following weeks. Later evidence indicated that only one of the police deaths could be attributed to the bomb and that all the other police fatalities had or could have had been due to their own indiscriminate gun fire. Aside from the bomb thrower, who was never identified, it was the police, not the anarchists, who perpetrated the violence.

Eight anarchists - Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg - were arrested and convicted of murder, though only three were even present at Haymarket and those three were in full view of all when the bombing occurred. The jury in their trial was comprised of business leaders in a gross mockery of justice similar to the Sacco-Vanzetti case thirty years later, or the trials of AIM and Black Panther members in the seventies. The entire world watched as these eight organizers were convicted, not for their actions, of which all of were innocent, but for their political and social beliefs. On November 11, 1887, after many failed appeals, Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fisher were hung to death. Louis Lingg, in his final protest of the state's claim of authority and punishment, took his own life the night before with an explosive device in his mouth.

The remaining organizers, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab, were pardoned six years later by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on a travesty of justice. Immediately after the Haymarket Massacre, big business and government conducted what some say was the very first "Red Scare" in this country. Spun by mainstream media, anarchism became synonymous with bomb throwing and socialism became un-American. The common image of an anarchist became a bearded, eastern European immigrant with a bomb in one hand and a dagger in the other.

Today we see tens of thousands of activists embracing the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs and those who established May Day as an International Workers' Day. Ironically, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely is it recognized in this country where it began.

Over one hundred years have passed since that first May Day. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the US government tried to curb the celebration and further wipe it from the public's memory by establishing "Law and Order Day" on May 1. We can draw many parallels between the events of 1886 and today. We still have locked out steelworkers struggling for justice. We still have voices of freedom behind bars as in the cases of Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier. We still had the ability to mobilize tens of thousands of people in the streets of a major city to proclaim "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!" at the WTO and FTAA demonstrations.

Words stronger than any I could write are engraved on the Haymarket Monument:

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we celebrate May Day.
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Greetings from Omaha! 

Here's the report for Chicago & Iowa City, mostly put together on the megabus en route to Omaha. Enjoy!
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Hey there, 
here are the #ontheroad reports from Kansas City & St Louis:
We have since been to Chicago, Iowa City, and we're moving fast. Omaha, NE tomorrow. Des Moines on Monday and completing the loop to Chicago for May 1! Of course I'll have these reports for you later. 

In the mean time, enjoy these videos from the house show at Rondevu in Kansas City!

Those Anarcho Punks (Against Me! cover)
Canta Y No Llores
Attempting to play Jimmy Buffet
Psychology of a Bike Wreck Survivor
Sing At The Top Of Your Lungs
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Hey there,
we're in Chicago right now, taking a lazy day before the show tonight at Uncommon Ground. I'm working on video updates from KC and St Louis, but in the mean time, here's a short update from the looong day walking/busing from Memphis to Kansas City.
Enjoy!
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Howdy y'all! 
Sorry for the long delay. I actually intend to post these videos every 2 cities, but I got behind. So here's the report for Chattanooga, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Memphis - our southern cities.
Enjoy!
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On April 14, 2012, I played at Knoxville's daily matinee music showcase, Blue Plate Special, broadcast on WDVX 89.9 fm. I kicked it off with one of my new songs, and the namesake of this tour, On The Road. I plan to record it for my first full length album this summer.
Then I played Protest Song, Canta Y No Llores, and VVOT. The audio from Canta didn't come out for some reason, but I got pretty good takes of the other two. Here they are! 

Protest Song
Vagrants & Vagabonds, Outlaws & Thieves
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We had trouble uploading videos to youtube... drove me a little bonkers. But I've finally figured it out! So here are the tour updates from DC and Knoxville. I'll post news on Chattanooga and Atlanta soon. Stay tuned!
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