Clog The System

Billy in the Low Ground

2008-01-10T05:03:00.001-08:00

click to watch

One of my favorite Old time songs to play in C or D tuning.

New Video!

2007-11-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

(click to watch)
Howdy folks!,
New teaser video on Youtube from the BenchPress Burlesque show.

CLOG THE SYSTEM w/ BPB

2007-09-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

Performing with BenchPressBurlesque!

So far it was awesome. This is the first time I've tap-clog performed as "clog the system"...and act in itself. It's a developing thing for me...the performance thing.. and I'm excited about where it's going. Stay tuned for pictures!

the following is the updates from BenchPressBurlesque

NEWS & UPDATES

9.20.07
We are on the road! We're gathering the forces of immodesty at IDA right now, getting our show ready for Saturday. Look it up and get here now!
And we're on for shows at Antioch University, and for Milo Arts center in Columbus OH. RSVP to misshapp@gmail.com by Monday the 24th for a 2$ discount. We've also got special guests with us- Clog the System (Ithaca, NY/Yellow Springs,OH) and Dr. Sustain (Columbus,OH). Please tell your friends!!!
We're trying to organize a show for St. Louis between the 26th and Oct. 2nd. Stay posted for details!

Ida-Saturday afternoon show.

Antioch-College Theater, doors 7:30, show 8PM.
all ages, donations welcomed!

Coumbus, OH- Milo Arts- 617 E. 3rd St.-just south of 5th, just east of Cleveland Ave. in the big schoolhouse!
Doors 7:30, show 8pm. Non-smoking, all ages.
10$ door, 6$ for residents of Milo, 2$ discount with RSVP to misshapp@gmail.com by Monday sept 24th.

Clifftop 2007

2007-08-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Click to watch

Clifftop 2007, the Appalachian stringband music festival. This is the Dance competition for traditional flatfoot dance. Age group 14 - 59.

I got 3rd place. This is the first time I've placed in the adult competition! HORRAY!
Congratulations to the other winners, Josephine and Ira.

Cloggin' in St. Louis

2006-11-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

'Can't remember what day it was...but I did a cloggin' teachin at a Squaredance Benefit for the fireUP workcrew in St. Louis. It was an amazing event put together by Parys, a member of the workcrew. It's been a blast traveling with these folks and doing cloggin' demonstrations. This event was great. A whole group of us got in on the 'shuffleStep/BackStep' move and clogged away to live oldtimey music. Then we did a classic dance circle with everyone in the group steppin up into the middle of the circle with a personalized improv clog style. It was a faboulous and energy charged event. FireUP!

Check out our fireUPdates blog to see pictures and get Updates from FireUP collective.

Headin' off to Fire it UP!

2006-11-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

I'm about to embark on a journey with the FireUP workcrew to Black Mesa. Click on the link to check it out. I'll be disconnected from the Internet for a while...but hopefully I'll be able to take this chance to make some great cloggin' videos. Alas, I am off!

Old Time Music is Anarchist Music

2006-09-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Old Time Music is music of the people. It's a style of music that promotes inclusion, rather than a dynamic of spectator and performer. While there are performances here and there...and Old Time Music is getting more and more popular these days...it will never sound as good as a hot jam between 3 or 4 people out in the woods at 2:00am.

"Old Time Music, better than it sounds..." I picked that up somewhere... In fact, I think it was my Dad's cap. Anyways... It's always stuck with me because it's a comical way of expressing the fact that Old Time music is deep...complicated...and has a significant cultural meaning to many people, and many different types of people as well.
For me it means ANARCHY. Improvised, community Creativity. This isn't what it means to everyone and that's okay.. i'm not trying to convince anyone that Old Time Music is The Movement but for me...it's part of my MOVEMENT toward freedom and peace.

But Old Time Music does in fact sound really good. It's like Punk though... it's always better live. That's where the Spirit lies...in the action of playing and in the moment of improvised harmony. It is this chaos that is the core the jam session. It is this playful exploration of chaos patterns that gives old time music such energy and passion.

Anarchist movement is a movement organizes around simular principals. I think that growing up in the Old-Time scene nourished my ability to think in non-hierarchal patterns...and to recognize the drain that authoritative power has on a group dynamic. Anarchist movements are organized around the idea of autonomous harmony. This form of organization on a social level is not only POSSIBLE...not just a dream...but HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! Otherwise..who would be excited about it? The reason there is an anarchist movement at all is because we create it, we create the world we want to live in. In fact, people do this whether or not they call it "anarchism". Given the opportunity, people always create the world they want to live in. However, in this society, we've been socialised to reproduce abusive and coercive patterns of hierarchy. These patterns...THE SYSTEM... are toxic to our social environment, and this toxicity expands to the land in which we live. Since the pattern of domination is learned, I believe it can be unlearned... We must stop craving to take power away from people around us...our friends, our family. COMPETITION as a worldview is destructive and we must learn COOPERATION as an alternative. Anarchist movement offers these ideas and gives some great examples of ways to get there. Join the movement! Create your own! Just get up and git at it! FireUP!

"Clifftop"

2006-09-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

"Clifftop" The Appalachian String Band Music Festival

http://www.wvculture.org/stringband/

A five day mountaintop gathering of musicians and friends with contests, concerts, workshops, square dances, camping and a hymn-sing. West Virginia masters are presented to an audience of more than 3000 musicians and string band music lovers from around the world. Over the history of this festival, more than 20 foreign countries and 40 of the 50 states have been represented, with many returning year after year to this much-loved festival.

Devyn Devour

2006-09-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

i am

Devin
Devyn Devour
Dev Endevour
Dev in Cyberspace
Dr. Dev Devor
(in real life though...you can call me ryan)
-----------------
Here...in the midst of internet world... I am what you make of me. It is up to you. I am your imaginary friend.
Stay posted to learn about my inventory, magical items, and spells...
Thatz Right!... I am a wizard! An Anarchist...free to invent, shape and mold my identity in this virtual world... creativity sets free this process. *sigh Alas! Let the dance begin!
click to watch

This short video is a self portrait that I made... a small clue into my world...

Clifftop 2006! (9 yrs later!)

2006-08-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Click to watch

After pullin' together some last minute plans and workin' on my other project, Social Detox, I managed to catch a ride down to this year's Clifftop Festival. So glad I went! I met a lot of dancers, played a lot of banjo (which I am fairly new at) and even got to hang out with my Dad.
This video is really fun back to back with clifftop 97', because it shows a nine-year difference. Stay tuned to Clog the System!

Clifftop 97'

2006-08-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

Watch this Video

The ultimate prelude to ClogTheSystem... Here I am a young, budding revolutionary...Flatfooting in a youth dance competition in West Virginia. Who would have thought I would have gone on to CLOG the System! Anyways, this short video is a look into my roots. Enjoy.

Playground Takeover

2006-08-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Click here to watch video

In the darkest of nights, my Anarchist Clog Dance ritual brings us to a playground! In this video I go covert into State Territory and lay out this short maneuver. Enjoy!

Music soundtrack by: "Aphex Twin"

The radical Anarchist Link of the day is...
Youth Liberation Front

"School is not about education: it's about conditioning youth for their future roles in capitalism and numbing us to the destructive nature of industrial civilization. By attacking the institutions responsible for conditioning and domestication (schools, psych wards, juvenile detention centers), youth liberation strikes at the heart of this alienated society." - YLN

Note: If you are skeptical about this website and the ideology, please keep in mind the years of serious pschological conditioning you are exposed to within our society...who's history you are taught, whos philosophy you read and what you have learned to percieve as normal. -Thanks!

Fireside Cloggin'

2006-08-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Click here to watch video

This video is the foundation of this project. It was the first video I produced for a Vlog and the first video I produced where I Clog. I had fun editing this one...I learned a lot in the process. This project (clogthesystem) all started with a blog called TapDownTheState. So that's why in this video it says Anarchist Tap Dancing... but notice all the down to earth heel kicks and stomps... thats cloggin for you. This isn't about persuasion, or tapping for that matter.
This is serious. I want the system to stop. I want to clog the system.

Music soundtrack by: "Vytear" at G25 productions

What Barry Says

2006-08-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

Click to Watch

What Barry Says
written by Barry Mc Namara
Winner of Best Animation in the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Portabello Film Festival 2004.

This movie explains pretty well some good reasons to clog the system. Other explanations are sadly everywhere. This system depletes our creative energy and destroys everything by assimilating and commodifying it for the privileged few.

The Tap-Clog Manifesto

2006-08-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Tap-Clog Manifesto ~ by Devyn Devour
CLOGtheSYSTEM

“The building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless. And with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world.” V

It began long ago with a wooden shoe playfully tossed into the gears of capitalist machinery…
And now… this shoe, the dance, the act itself is wielded as a symbol of resistance!

At one moment in some time or another there was a boy walkin’ down a street spinning a yo yo and hummin’ a tune. The tune sounded like this;

Baa tadA dA dA… tA duM! Of course this scene is nearly impossible to describe with words, for it is a bodily experience of the most incredible circustances. The young boy is me and I just was tappin’ my feet real good on that ground, skippin’ over the sidewalk cracks and the little dandelion heads poking through… The music flowed through my every motion… Alas! My daily routine enriched with Rhythms of expression! There I was, on my way to school… and back again. Then, as I grew older, my routine brought me to work. And I worked and worked…and eventually, the music faded and was replaced by the spectacle of passive participation. My body nearly stopped moving. Insecurity, fear, and coercion assimilated me.

But wait! Behold, Anarchism!, this powerful expression! This enriching movement of folk-tales and dance…this community of mutual aid and solidarity. Anarchist resistance giving fire to my inner core, rekindling culture and identity. Live free or Die Tryin’! That’s what they say! Long Live Anarchy! And now I’m back! Back from the Dead…

“If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” – Emma Goldman

The SYSTEM is a pretty intense and complicated subject so I'll be honest about my premises and get to the point.

#1. The System is a patriarchal colonial civilization keeping us under various levels of occupation by facilitating our common needs; food, water, shelter, community, culture, land, etc...

#2. The System is hierarchical, abstract, alienating, and controlling… The system is inherently oppressive... Because it is a hierarchy, that means it is built on the backs of working and poor people’s energy...furthermore, it is built on the exploitation and objectification of land-bases and eco-systems considered "raw materials". The system can only be considered non-oppressive or benefitial by the privileged classes.

#3. The System will not voluntarily change any of these things. Writing your congressman or favorite CEO will not change any of these things. Even dancing won't change these things on a large scale (dammit! however dancing does bring life and empowerment...).

Based on these premises I believe that the System should be destroyed, battled, and brought down by any means. People should be able to live in ways that are self-determined and appropriate to the contexts in which we live. Problems in our communities can be solved within those communities. However, it is not this easy. The system is more than an external force. By destroying it, I also mean healing. Hierarchal and mechanistic worldviews are internalised, and are a threat to our ability to have community, to have relationships, to have a movement. Only when we can see the system in ourselves and confront it accordingly, can we ever have an effective movement… A decentralised movement based in solidarity, responsibility and cooperation.

So dancing won't stop the SYSTEM... but what will? Since I've made this blog, I've been empowered to explore tap-clogging, a dance I've been doing since I was a toddler. Old-time music and everything that goes with it (participatory culture, decentralised gatherings, and oral traditions) has been a huge influence on my life and my understanding of Anarchism. Making this blog gave me media literacy, helped me network and meet people, and has been creatively fun. This creative process is a huge part of resistance to the sterile, homogenous, spectator sport of THE SYSTEM. So I will step back, and tap-clog...

To Learn about Sabotage! from the root word, SABOT = shoe... to literally throw a shoe into the machinery of Industrial Civilization! CLOG THE SYSTEM!
To Learn about the Story of Anti-Civilization Resistance and the Luddite Rebellions… click here.

---Devin Devour, PHD

Cloggin History

2006-08-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

Like any oral culture, this history must be told by about my experience. Not because I am the cloggin' master or any of that, but because I can't remove myself from this story. The story of clogging is rich with meaning and many many passions.

>---workin' process,
Devin Clover

Anarchism

2006-08-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

Anarchism;

This is such an interesting concept, such an interesting word. The truth is, that there is no single definition nor description. I like it because it has sparked a kind of self-determination in my life that has empowered me to take action toward changing myself and transforming my social relationships. Because of Anarchist theory, I've learned to connect the dots and work against oppression and create an awareness and strategy toward change.

--->Enter description here<--- Wikipedia, an anarchic functioning website (like most wikis) is a good place to find a contemporary definition and history of Anarchism. Check out Anarchism at Wikipedia!

CTS Graphics

2005-10-04T10:41:00.000-07:00