When History Repeats...

We have all heard the saying “good things come to those who wait.” Duh, if you wait long enough something is bound to happen and hopefully some of it is decent.

Most punk or hardcore bands start off by releasing a demo tape or CD and yes tapes are still manufactured. Then if the group can pull it together they might release a 7-inch or two, by this time in many instances this is where the band calls it quits and members move on.

After making it past the break up hump and keeping a steady rotation of writing, recording, and playing, a full-length LP became a discussed goal. We just didn’t want to pay for it.

The new DCOI record, “When History Repeats,” was released in Europe in August. Fortunately Voltage Records from the Czech Republic offered to foot the bill.

Our cut of the records had been shipped by the end of August but it seems as though international postal carrying services just despise a decent price with timely delivery.

Turns out it cost over one hundred dollars to ship 50 LPs from the Czech to West Sacramento, quite unfortunate.

The wait became so obnoxious that the records were pretty much written off and discarded as irrelevant, but Thursday morning turned out to be particularly sweet and offered a pleasant surprise.

DCOI singer Jason and drummer Lee were laying in the living room after a birthday party trying to sober up from whatever happened the night before. Guitarist Justin was in his room sleeping, no one expected to see him till about 4 or 5pm, when he normally crawls out of his lair.

The aftermath of the party was quite telling of what happened through out the night, all the way from the first few beers to the McDonald’s breakfast wrappers strewn about that a small army must have stayed up for. Actually, there is a good chance neither Jason nor Lee had slept at all.

Finally, when all anyone wanted to think about was the prayer for a possible chance to sleep, the U.S. postal service was knocking on the door not only with DCOI records but birthday presents that had also failed to come timely, ironically also records and shipped from Europe.

Like Christmas, the records were promptly ripped open and distributed around to the small circle of people who still remained awake. Almost as quickly as the records were opened the house was emptied as everyone retreated to their own homes for a listen and sleep.

Satisfaction is king, especially when all it cost was life, two years of writing, 48 hours of recording time, but not pressing or shipping costs.

Occupy

On Thursday Oct 6, I was on the hunt for a story to meet my Friday deadline, which had already been extended from Wednesday. I heard over breakfast there was a protest going on in downtown and felt it could work out for a story.

That is all the information I had, so I began combing the grid to find this group of unsatisfied citizens.

After finding a fire drill near the capitol and circling numerous blocks, the line of protesters finally crossed right in front me. This was "Occupy Sacramento" an extension of "Occupy Wall Street," which has been going on in New York City for weeks now.

I had found my story and even though I had no idea what the protest was about, I would soon find out.

After parking, feeding the meter and running across Capitol Park I caught up to the march and was able to interview a few participants about what was going.

“We lost our home due to unfair lending practices caused by the big banks,” said protester Carlos Fernandez. “I am exercising my voice to speak out against the corruption on Wall Street and the unfair distribution of wealth in our country.”

A lot of participants seemed to be there in the name of future generations, the need for jobs and benefits.

“I am a grandparent,” said protester Chris Niehaus, “My son-in-law works 40 hours a week. He’s got no pension, no health benefits and my daughter had to drop out of state university because the tuition is too high. I am down here for my granddaughter.”

Interesting enough the protest has been popping up in hundreds of cities all over the Unites States and lacks any real leadership. Many protesters said they found out about the protest though Face book or other social media; much like the protests in Egypt.

Over the next few days the protest seemed to die down and lose its momentum, in Sacramento anyways. By Friday around noon there seemed to be only about 50 people “occupying” Cesar Chavez Plaza, some with tents and families while others attempted to rally the crowd with bullhorns. Sometimes it seemed there were more police officers around than protesters.

Though I may agree with many of the reasons for protesting, it seems the time could be used to work shop ideas for fixing problems rather than simply marching and occupying a park.

It would seem that this could be another one of those protests that happen every year, protesters get together, say they are unhappy with the way things are and then go back to work.

Maybe this will work out though, maybe the protest in all it’s various shapes and forms will pan out our for the 99 percent.