News:

"FILL ME IN!"

"BICYCLISTS GIVE GIFT TO THE CHIEF THAT GAVE THEM HELL"

PHOTO/ARTICLE by JEFFERSON SEIGEL

"A ‘FAMILY’ MOURNS A PUNK ROCKER WHO DEIED HIS AGE: 80 "

by ARTICLE by COLIN MOYNIHAN

"CYCLISTS ARE ARRESTED,,,,"

by ARTICLE byBy RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD; COLIN MOYNIHAN, WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM AND JUDY TONG

....feat. XRIS / BEN / whole lotta cops

"NEW YORK POLICE COVERTLY JOIN (BIKE RIDES) "

by ARTICLE by JIM DWYER / Based on VIDEO by XRIS

TEAM SPIDER TV SHUT DOWN

June 30th 2005 : those watching TEAM SPIDER TV tonight and curious why the screen went
BLACK after 5 minutes,, we were SHUT DOWN in the middle of a live
broadcast.

why? because BIKE MESSENGERS were sitting on their bikes...

Even though the entire purpose of the show was to promote the
MESSENGER
RACES this weekend, we practically had to beg to even be allowed to
bring bikes on to our set...
-"no sports equipment allowed in the building"
-" you'll track mud in"
-"then we'll have to let everyone bring bikes in"

oh no.

well, eventually we were BLESSED with the ability to have a couple
bikes on our set, (a set we spent 2 hours building and miking...
complete with a TEAM SPIDER live music corner.)

over 50 bike messengers showed up, and though it would have been
visually cool to have a million bikes in there, i think we came to
some
compromise like 10. and let everyone else be audience members

we were so blessed.

anyhow, episode starts and the messemgers proceed to sit on their
bikes, demonstrating their "track stand" ability to sit still and not
move, we hear " get off the bikes"

even though it is physically impossible to ride bikes in the MNN
studio,
they had a caniption, said it again,,
people got off their bikes, but it was "too late"
we were shut down,

so about 50 messengers, from around the globe, who came up to promote
their upcoming 4th of July competitions, and waited out in the rain
for
an hour to get in, were all sent home, as the American messengers
muttered "free speech" under their breath, and the Europeans scratched
their heads not sure what was happening.

So as usual we were painted as the -trouble makers team spider-, who
always have "creative ideas".

sorry. i thought the staff at MNN is there to support US and free
speech, not consistantly, non-stop harass us for inconviences to them
such as "loud bands", a "cooking episode", promoting the "BIKE
COMMUNITY"

they bothered us about ?why? we only filled in an estimate of *6-12
guests* on the studio reservation sheet we filled out 2 months ago,
well before we even decided on a topic.

as i was battling to bring some bikes in, and stating "yes . i will
personally mop any mud that appears", i told them that in the future
i
will update any forms with emails whenever i find more things out, but
the fact is i never know what exactly is gong to happen, we have bands
cancel 15 minutes before we air, and other times we (obviously) have
messengers spontaneously decide our show is 'the place to be'

it is really frustrating and sad. it is hard enough to put together
an
episode with no money, unrelieable guests, unpredictable crew members,
but the staff makes sure to keep it hostile and stifling on top of it
all, which manages to keep all "creative" people / ideas
out. i believe nothing would make them happier then if nothing
happened there except 1967 level production value 2 person talk
shows.

they just want to shut down ideas, rather than facilitate them. its
really sad when i am afraid to even mention what i am considering
doing
each episode, because then THEY are programing our show, not us. i
dont want to go through a
"Naw, what else you got"
conversation every week.
which,( assuming they arent going to now get vengeful and try to take
us off the air or something,) is a conversation we are going to have
to
have every time we walk in "their" building.

anyhow...
as Dave said,
( before he returned to the =company paid for!!= night out with his
girl / which he cut short to come in and crew the show...)
"SHORTEST EPISODE EVER."

--xris
------team spider

--see us perform live this Monday ( july 4th) @ THE HOOK, ''shoved off
to the ghettos of red hook brooklyn... team spider"

TEAM SPIDER ROCKS CBGB CLOSING FESTIVAL

team spider were invited to play CBGB's one LAST TiME before they close the doors... Honored to send CBGB out in style, rockin' it with ole legends like BAD BRAINS, and new Friends like MISCHIEF BREW

Nov. 6, 2004

Cracktoberfest

there were many various incidents, but the one that inspired the beat downs and arrests was when someone smashed a police van's windshield with a beer bottle.
that was captured on video, as was the subsequent beat down of the wrong person.
so, thanks to all who made this the "best cracktober ever", soon to be a major motion holiday.
there was a special surprise that unfortunately the cops fucked up, we made a very limited edition 50 DVD run of the 'cracktober in august' 5 camera shoot. they were all set up to be sold for 'donations' since we had no vending permit, in order to pay stage / pa / truck costs.
first thing the cops did after pulling the Genny was storm the dvd table, which was being watched by Team Spider bassist Ladybug, she managed to get away with the cash box, and lil dvd player. someone grabbed all the merch and bolted, but fortunately they just hid it and weren't thieves ( which a cop later accused me of, to incite to me to hit him, after i tried to rescue a backpack of an arrestee)
<whoever our lil guardian angel is, thanks, i hope you at least stole one dvd for yourself > so anyhow, so we didnt get to sell the dvd's to offset costs, that sucks
we will try to get them out to whoever wants em through the teamspider site
also lots of pics and video to be posted
---oh, everyone who was planning to contribute to the vid/dvd of tonight's concert/events, please contact me at teamspider@yahoo.com
=====put, -camera person- in the subject=====
we will immed. give dvd's of 'cracktober in august' to you, and you will get free dvd's of final piece of this undoubtably legendary night. alright, must sleep, important: if you taped criminal police behavior, & think that could help someone, lets use the forum to coordinate getting it to the right people.

Favorite Article on the Cracktoberfest 2004 riot

More Accurate Article on the Cracktoberfest 2004 riot (yet still under-exaggerating the attendance)

====================================================================================
NEW YORK TIMES 11-7-2004
5 Arrested in Clash at East Village Rock Concert
By THOMAS J. LUECK and COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: November 7, 2004
ive people were arrested yesterday when a Tompkins Square Park concert erupted into a noisy confrontation with the police that witnesses described as a throwback to the larger and more violent clashes that rocked the same East Village park more than a decade ago.
The police said there were no injuries. They said four men and a woman were charged with disorderly conduct.
People in a crowd of about 400 that attended the four-hour concert by several punk-rock groups offered conflicting accounts of what led to the clash at about 6 p.m., just as the show was scheduled to end, but they said the police were not unprovoked.
Several witnesses said a beer bottle was thrown from somewhere in the crowd, and could be seen sailing high into the air before landing with a thud directly on top of a police van that was parked nearby.
What followed, "reminded me of the old days of Tompkins Square in the 80's and 90's," said Hugh Mack Dill, 54, a longtime East Village resident who was walking his dog next to the park. "It seemed almost like a riot."
Just as a band called Leftover Crack was roaring through the last song of the day, two officers entered the crowd, apparently to arrest a young man who appeared drunk, witnesses said. They said several other concertgoers turned on the officers, shouting epithets and throwing lighted cigarettes.
Moments later, more than 30 officers surrounded the crowd, and a police helicopter appeared overhead. When the officers brought the concert to an abrupt end and ordered everyone out of the park, several people objected, and more beer bottles were thrown in the direction of the police, witnesses said.
It ended quickly, with a crowd of concertgoers lumbering noisily west on St. Marks Place, which the police closed briefly to traffic between Avenue A and Second Avenue.
The clash was modest compared to several others in the past 20 years that made Tompkins Square Park, long a magnet for political protest, a rallying point for self-described anarchists, strident advocates for the homeless, opponents of gentrification and disaffected young people.
The worst was in August 1988, when a riot resulted in 50 injuries, 31 arrests and 121 complaints of police brutality. In that disturbance, and others that followed, people stormed police barricades, set fire to garbage cans and vandalized property, including a condominium building east of the park that was spray painted with the phrase "Die Yuppie Scum."
Some of yesterday's concertgoers, who were mostly in their teens and 20's, faulted the police more for their timing than for their tactics, saying the officers entered the park too abruptly during the final crescendo in an afternoon of live music.
"The cops jumped the gun," said John Martoglio, a 16-year-old concertgoer from Westfield, N.J., with rigid spikes of black hair. "People would have left peacefully, but they weren't given the chance."
===============================================================================================
NEW YORK POST 11-7-2004
6 BUSTED IN E. VILLAGE ATTACK ON COPS
Erin Calabreseand Zach Haberman. . pg. 005
November 7, 2004 -- Six rowdy concert-goers were arrested in the East Village last night for tossing glass bottles at cops dispersing the crowd, police said.
More than 200 people had gathered for an afternoon concert in Tompkins Square Park where the punk group Leftover Crack sang songs urging violence against cops.
As the concert started to wind down at 6 p.m., witnesses said several unruly people started to skirmish with arriving officers. "I'm not going to lie. They were throwing bottles at the cops," said spectator Caroline Coughlin, 18. "But it was in reaction to the cops' violence." Four men and a woman face charges ranging from disorderly conduct to inciting a riot to resisting arrest.
A fifth man faces a criminal-mischief count for smashing the windows of a police car and drug charges after he was found with some leftover crack in his pocket. No one on either side was injured.
================================================================================================
THE VILLAGE VOICE 9-12-2005
9-11 Conspiracists Invade Ground Zero
The alt.truth crowd takes its message to the memorial service, ‘The New York Times’, and a great big punk concert
by Sarah Ferguson
September 12th, 2005 11:05 AMPreaching to the uncoverted at Ground Zero.
photo: Sarah Ferguson
The anguish was palpable at Ground Zero yesterday, as family members made their way down a long ramp into the vast emptiness of the World Trade Center site, then took turns reading out the names of their lost loved ones.
"We love you, Georgie. We'll see you soon," pledged the parents of a fallen firefighter, their sad voices broadcast to the crowds of grieving onlookers milling quietly around the perimeter.
Into this somber setting marched about a dozen 9-11 conspiracists, who claimed a patch of sidewalk to preach what they called the truth. "These people weren't killed by Arab terrorists. You've been lied to!" shouted a woman who looked vaguely like Joey Ramone, holding up one end of a banner that read, "9-11 World Trade Center: Controlled Demolition."
Her name was Lisa Giuliani and she broadcasts her theories though a Pennsylvania grassroots video collective called Wing TV.
She lectured about how only a series of controlled explosions could have so rapidly pancaked the twin towers. "There's no way jet fuel could have melted all that steel. It was a freefall. The concrete was so thoroughly pulverized, Manhattan was blanketed in dust. Think about it," she urged. "Do your homework, please!"
Her message played about as badly as could be expected. "I was there, so shut the fuck up. You don't know what you're talking about," snapped an enraged firefighter in fatigues, stalking off into the crowd.
"You shouldn't be here. Have some respect," another firefighter shouted.
"It's a crime scene," Lisa Giuliani shot back. "We honor them with the truth. Al Qaeda is a concept. This is state-sponsored terrorism."
The clamor was all too much for a passing tourist. "God bless America, you bitch!" he screamed in a thick accent.
"Go back to where you came from, you foreigner," groused a fellow conspiracist.
"But I am French," the tourist responded indignantly.
And so it went, a sad comedy of slurs that went on for most of the morning, drawing crowds of puzzled onlookers before the police would shoo them away to clear the sidewalk.
At one point, an auxiliary fireman stepped forward and tried to reason with the protesters to "respect the memorial sentiment."
"Believe me, I have questions too," he told the protesters. "But you've got to respect the dead. These people are not ready for this. You're just creating resentment."
The demolition lady was adamant. "There is no good time. I lost a lot of firefighter friends too," she maintained, adding, "This is the only way we can reach the 9-11 families."
Victor Ortiz mourns the loss of his mom with wife Amanda
photo: Sarah Ferguson
It seemed most family members did their best to ignore the speakout. "That's what this country is about, that people can say what they want even if I don't agree with it," said Rudy Dimmling of Westbury, Long Island, whose brother William died in the North Tower, leaving behind a wife and two kids. "To have more fingerpointing and Congressional hearings, where does that get us? I can't live with myself to think that that was a conspiracy," he said, clearly pained at the thought of even having to address such a question.
One might have thought the Bush administration's bungled response to the Katrina catastrophe could put a crimp in conspiracists' efforts to prove that the 9-11 was much more than just a colossal "failure of the imagination," as the 9-11 commission claimed. After seeing firsthand how President Bush and FEMA ignored years of warnings about the threat of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast, then dawdled while people drowned, maybe it's not so hard to fathom how our vacationing president could have blown off repeated intelligence warnings about the growing threat of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the summer of 2001.
Yet it seems Katrina is now just more fuel for the conspiracy pyre, with the Internet buzzing with theories of how the feds blew up the levees to flood poor areas of New Orleans and preserve the ritzy French Quarter.
Down at Ground Zero, the 9-11 "truth" warriors were clearly emboldened by the hurricane fiasco. "The public saw people dying while Condi was shopping for shoes, Dick Cheney was playing fake cowboy, and Bush was backstage playing guitar," relished Ben Maurier of Brooklyn, who predicted a wash of new converts to the cause. "If they knowingly allowed that many people to die in New Orleans, why should it be a stretch that the government did 9-11?"
Had they gotten off their soap boxes, the conspiracists might have found more empathy among survivors like Kevin Lester, who worked on the 102nd floor of the North Tower, and who lost his brother and numerous coworkers there. "I sometimes wonder if there could have been a conspiracy," confessed Lester, who said he survived on 9-11 only because he popped downstairs to get his shoes shined just before the first plane hit. "Some of the arguments kind of make sense, like the slow response rate [to the hijacked planes], or how Bush reacted that day. I saw Fahrenheit 911. It makes you wonder.
"But still, I just kind of deplore heavy-duty political rhetoric at a memorial. Why today? Why?" he demanded. "Right now I'm still dealing with survivor's guilt. How about giving us a hug rather than stamping in our face?"
The 9-11 Truth squad protesting outside Rockefeller Plaza, home to NBC.
photo: Sarah Ferguson
Not all the 9-11 skeptics were so brazen. Distinguishing themselves from the proselytizers downtown, about 200 protesters gathered outside the offices of the New York Times shouting, "Tell the truth!" The protest was organized by members of NY911truth.org to condemn the failure of the mainstream press. They say the media failed to raise questions about the numerous unexplained anomalies of 9-11-like why it took NORAD so long to scramble planes when five war games were running that day, or why World Trade Center owner Ken Silverstein implied that that WTC building 7 was "pulled"—a reported comment which leads conspiracists to presume that the other towers could have been intentionally taken down, too.
"Why isn't the media asking these questions?" demanded retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bowman, who has become one of the celebrity skeptics because of his credentials as a former interceptor pilot who helped direct the Star Wars program under Carter and Ford. "Where are the tapes of the Pentagon hit? Where are the tapes of the conversations between NORAD and the air traffic controllers? Why are they hiding them? If our government had done nothing and just let normal procedures happen, those planes would have been intercepted and thousands of people would still be alive. It's treason," he insisted. "Bush and Cheney should be impeached."
But the Grey Lady didn't even blink, with not so much as a reporter poking a head out of one of the windows.
Many in the crowd seemed shocked that more New Yorkers had not joined them. They pointed to a Zogby poll taken last summer that showed half of all New Yorkers believe the U.S. leaders had "foreknowledge" of the attacks and "consciously" failed to act.
But that word "consciously" is slippery, and could just as well refer to what people can now read in the media: that Bush, the NSA, CIA and FBI on down had information that a big attack on America was about to happen.
Undaunted, the protesters marched through the canyons of Midtown, shoveling leaflets at bewildered shoppers as they chanted things like "Figure it out. It's not hard. Nine-11 was an inside job!" and even "Remember New Orleans!"—as if anyone could forget. They passed by the headquarters of FOX, NBC, Time Warner, and CNN, pausing to shout at the media for ignoring them as a few police officers looked on.Choking Victim inciting the masses to "Fuck World Trade" on 9-11.
photo: Sarah Ferguson
Maybe the marchers should have tried Tompkins Square Park, which by Sunday afternoon was awash in about 2,000 sweaty teenagers moshing at a 9-11 protest concert headlined by punk bands Million Dead Cops and Choking Victim.
According to organizers, it took a team of three lawyers to swing the permit past Parks Department officials, who reportedly didn't like the timing and theme of the concert, nor the fact that the lead singer of Choking Victim is also the singer of Leftover Crack, whose last concert sparked a melee between police and bottle-throwing punks last November.
But this time, the police seemed virtually nonexistent as Choking Victims' myriad fans sang along to lyrics like "Kill the cops," "Fuck America," and "Fuck world trade."
Onstage, lead singer "Stza Crack" preached more conspiracies. "George Bush's brother Marvin Bush was head of security at the World Trade Center up until 9-11, and they were doing nefarious things," Crack told his drunken fans. "They wanted another Pearl Harbor to install the Patriot Act and take us to war. Don't listen to the media; the media is there for maximum security—to tell you lies!"
As the band broke into their hit anthem of alienation, "Born to Die," a young punk in bleached hair and mod sunglasses dashed to the mike and shouted: "Kill George Bush! Or we're all going to die!"
Unlike at Ground Zero, the folks here seemed not to mind such giddy provocation. Josh Copeland, a 21-year-old Rutgers student sporting a heavy chain and padlock around his neck, said he didn't buy the conspiracy angles voiced onstage but supported more dissent about the "social and economic" causes of 9-11. "This is really for the sake of acting out. You see there's a huge turnout for this. People are really very angry and they don't know what to do. Protest is losing its power."
"Yeah," said one of his beer-addled female companions. "The only thing left is drinking, drugs, and suicide."
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Catch Team Spider at:

Bush Bash in Brooklyn on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004

at Cafe 111, 111 Court St. (b/w State & Schermerhorn), Brooklyn, NY.

The cover charge is $10. ALL proceeds will go to MoveOn PAC. See www.moveonpac.org for more info.

Team Spider 8:15PM

Jen Chapin 10:00PM

For Directions, click here