Nyan Cat attends Occupy Vancouver!
Yesterday I attended the Occupy Vancouver protests… because Michael Moore said so! I couldn’t summarise any coherent points into a sign message so I just wrote “Meow!” I decided against bringing the sign as I thought it might take attention away from the more serious messages of other participants.
Here’s my buddy Natasha and I precariously balanced on the edge of a fountain:
I was there from 9:30 a.m. until about 4:30 p.m. I scanned the crowd and noticed several attendees with a pooch in tow… but no cats!
Where were the cats?!
The first two hours or so were devoted to hashing out how we’d communicate at the General Assembly. It was agreed that the speakers on the podium would communicate through the microphone but if someone in the crowd wanted to say something their words would be ampliphied by a “human mic” in which the crowd repeats what they say.
As soon as we figured this out I was tempted to use the human mic to just say “meow”.
“Don’t abuse the human mic, Nathaniel!” said my friend Justine. So… I didn’t and as a result, no cats could find me. So yeah, I did my best to find evidence of kitties at the occupation without the assistance of the human mic.
The most obvious representation of cats was this kick ass Nyan cat sign. “I thought it would be fun,” said the girl who made it.
This woman used cats to illustrate the movement. The fat grey cat on the left represents the privileged one per cent with his bow-tie, cigar, money, and spectacles for money countin’. Hopefully he can pay the vet bills – smoking’ll catch up with him eventually! The five kittens in the cage represent the rest of us. They are cute and spritely but stuck in a prison of sorts.
Finally, here’s one of the many wonderful Occupy Vancouver volunteers going around the crowd with a collection bin. If you’re a cat owner you may recognise the donation pail as a Purina Maxx Scoop cat litter bin!
Have you seen any cats or anything related to cats at your local occupation? Let me know!
Nice to see this post–and, who says a revolution can’t be fun, amiright? You get points for referring to me as a ‘girl’ and for generally being quite awesome. To be clear, I don’t mean to water down the serious (and frightening) issues with a nyan cat sign; rather, it was a lighthearted attempt to make the message inclusive to others–most notably, bystanders–who may mistakenly believe that this movement (for lack of a better word) has no relevance to them. I understand that many seek to discount our voices, with claims that we are primarily made up of long-haired unemployed dope-smoking hippies; I sought a way to represent an alternative demographic….and yes, why not create a few smiles along the way!
Didn’t see you there!