“Hawks and Sparrows” (2003) is a collection of reconstructions, rearrangements, and reenactments drawn from field recordings of four anti-war demonstrations (Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC) protesting the US invasion of Iraq in late winter 2003.
Washington DC January 21st 2003 On the bus down I was sitting with a group of Iraqi women who fed me Baby Ruth bars and Almond Joys. I met my mother on the steps of the Supreme Court and spent the day separating from her and meeting up again, getting lost in the crowd. We walked along the march route for a long time, but split off to visit a farmers’ market in a neighborhood she had heard of but had never visited.
Seattle February 15th 2003 I got a ride up with my friends Brian and Morgan on Saturday. We bumped into a number of people from our school as we marched through the city. When the monorail passed over, the drivers honked in support. After the protest ended, we went to an enormous Asian supermarket for lunch.
New York City February 15th 2003 Becca was set to meet me by the downtown lion at the main branch of the public library, but I had to fight my way to get to it, there were so many people. Everyone was making a ruckus of some sort. This lady stood out, she was making a different sort of ruckus into her cell phone. The obscenities pouring out of this lady’s mouth were a bit more exaggerated than the protest banter. She had agreed to meet her friend at the downtown lion as well, but her friend was at the uptown lion. This lady could not walk 30 feet to resolve the miscommunication. Instead she had to chastise and humiliate her friend over the cell phone, let her know how angry she was, let everyone around her know as well. Cops stole my drumsticks and I had to use spoons which I bought from a hardware store. someone threw fireworks at a horsie cop. Then I met up with becca, she had been less than 10 feet away from me the entire time!
Philadelphia March 30th 2003 It was very cold and raining off and on. Peter and I walked all the way from our house down to where we thought the protest was, several miles away, but the place was empty. We met a girl who thought maybe people had moved to the federal building so we walked there. We were the first ones there, but after a short while the marchers showed up and we joined them.
A crime was carried out in our name. we spoke out against it. How will time change our memory of this? Memory is our weapon. All sound sources used in the making of this cd were recorded at the protests listed above. Spoken language, rhetoric, dogma, incantations, and chants have been removed, leaving behind music, pauses, affect. No synthesizers were used on this recording.
“Hawks and Sparrows” includes contributions by Wrist + Pistols and Big A Little a. Released April 4th, 2003 as a free unlimited download and a limited edition of 100 cd-rs packaged individually with the first flowers of spring in clear glass cases, distributed by reverse shoplifting, filed under “h” in any record store.
This work is in the public domain.