Jeff Occupies Wall Street!

I had an opportunity to go down to NYC this week.  My friend is interning with a federal district court judge, and that judge was going to be sitting on the Second Circuit Court of Appeal to hear arguments this week.  It was perfect day to take a field trip!

We took the train down, and got to the court house.





The court room was  really cool and ornate, and it was great to see some arguments.  A third year student from NYU was probably the best orator we saw, he was really impressive.

Arguments ended around 4pm, and it just so happened that the Occupy Wall Streeters were planning to meet for their march across the brooklyn bridge at 5pm, right in front of the court house.  With an hour to kill, however we decided to walk down to Zuccotti Park to where all the "occupiers" were hanging out.

The place is surrounded by police barricades, and it looked a lot like a petting zoo.  The sheep inside the gates, bleating on and on about who knows what and people gathered around them, taking pictures, but taking care not to get too close to the wild animals.  Hats off to the NYC Public Works department, as they cleaned up the place really well, and I couldnt smell any of the human feces and rat droppings that had apparantly been littering the park a few days before.  I got some video of some of the people at the park.

These people were just standing around this tree, humming. They kept doing this for the whole time we were there (around 30 mins) and im sure they had been doing it a long time before and long time after we left.



This guy was just rambling on and on about who knows what!  at one point he said that JFK had called for the assassination of MLK... odd.  **warning: watching this video will make you dumber**



There were police all around the occupation, and i spoke with a few of them.  They mostly just laughed at the "protesters." I asked them if they were getting overtime, and every officer i spoke to said "yes" with a big smile.  It seems to me that the protesters actions are doing more to waste money than the big business they are protesting are. 

We made our way back to the courthouse to see the rally there.  As we made our way back, I was handed several signs and posters.  i was wondering where on earth these homeless people got the money for such nice posters, but upon further inspection i found that they were provided by the AFL-CIO.  not surprising.  here is me, doing my best to look like a 99%er.

You can see behind me, where all the people were gathering getting ready to march across the brooklyn bridge.  Around this time, the police started shutting down the sidewalks, so it was around this time that my buddy and I got the heck out of there.  I hand off my sign to some students, that were very into the cause.

We decided to walk up to little italy to get some dinner before taking the train back to Albany, but as we passed through Chinatown, we got caught up in a heavy stream of occupiers.  It was pretty exciting.



You can see i was doing my best to fit in with the rabble rousers.

Finally they all disappeared and we ate dinner, went to penn station, waited for our train, got on the train and headed back to law school, where we are preparing to become part of the 1%.  And we managed to do that without a single instance of civil disobedience!

One Great Weekend, Return of the Greyhound.

Oh, Boston. Responsible for greatness. Like this. And this. Some of the best ballads ever. But you didn't come to Chronicles today to hear about an aging rock band, but for the dramatic finale of One Great Weekend! and what a finale it is!

My day started on Sunday October 11, at 5:30 AM when i turned off my alarm and laid back down on the hardwood floor i was sleeping on. My day restarted at 6:42 AM when i woke up with a jump and realized i had 18 minutes to get to a bus stop almost 80 blocks away.

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So i quickly threw everything in my backpack, put on my soon to be NLCS Champion Dodgers tshirt and bolted out the door. I looked silly in my basketball shorts, my disheveled hair and black rim glasses as i ran through the streets looking for a cab that was going my way. Luckily a yellow cab took pity on my haggard state and pulled over. When i told him where i needed to be and when i needed to be there, my poor Pakistani chauffeur was a bit taken aback, and politely let me know that the chances of me getting to the bus on time were as about as good as the chances Barack Obama would win the Nobel Peace prize after 8 months in office and not much to show for it. Who would guessed those odds were pretty good?!? and i made it to the bus just as the last people were getting on. Sadly my good friend Garrett didn't make it to the bus to join me in Boston, so it was just me and some kid who seemed really thrilled to be sitting next to an unshowered, kinda sweaty and pretty out of breath weary traveller for the next three hours and change.

The trip was pleasant and i got to see states id never seen before! lets let google show you my route!
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look at all those miles!

I finally arrived in Boston, and i was definitely under dressed... basketball shorts and a tshirt are no match for weather in the low 60's, especially for a wussy CA boy like me! luckily i only had to wait in the bitter cold for a little while when my old coworker and good friend Ryan picked me up. He took me back to his house where he lives with his wife Piper, who i grew up with in Rancho Cucamonga. They have a great apt in the south side! it was fun to catch up with them, and go on a grand tour of Boston!

Our first stop was in Cambridge, where we saw a grand parade of all sorts of hippies! here you can see Ryan and me and in the background some of the stuff they were carrying around at the parade.



We went to Harvard too.

You can tell i was really excited to be there! Ryan told me some good will hunting joke, but since i have never seen that movie, i had no clue what he was talking about... but i really felt intellectual, almost transcendental, so i needed something to push me over the edge...

so we went to Walden's Pond!
The place where Walden wrote one of the best works of literature/best sleep aids known to man. we paid homage to the man of many words in the best way we knew how. By imitating a statue erected in his honor.

I often wondered what compelled Thoreau to move out into the middle of the woods and live in a shack for two years. i wondered if it was the trees, or the ants, or just the close proximity of a sparkling pond nearby that gave him adequate privacy to skinny dip... but the real reason was the absolute comfort he lived in.

I don't know if it was the fact that i had slept on a hardwood floor the night before, or that i had only slept on that floor for about 4 hours that made this old dirty bed so comfortable. i woulda stayed there longer but I'm sure the park service didn't want me trancendentalizing much longer on my man Henry's bed.

we walked down to the pond, which was remarkably very clean! and beautiful! No amount of words could describe that setting (i know this because Thoreau tried... and he has a long book that doesn't quite do it justice....)

Piper and I at Walden Pond.

We then walked through Back bay and the Garden and Boston Commons. The locals (ryan and piper) tell me this is the most photographed locale in Boston!


Little did you all know that me and Ryan had started a business together.

Ryan Johnston and Jeff Murphy.

We walked through the downtown, i saw the State House, with its real gold dome, Samuel Adams' grave, and the oldest marketplace in the US! Boston is an old,almost ancient place, but unlike most old things, its clean, smells nice and serves a purpose in society.

That night we ate at Rob Lowe's favorite pizza place, Pizzeria Regina! it was really delicious, so delicious Danny ainge even likes it. See there i dropped two big names, so you know its good!

early the next morning, i had to leave Boston and make the trek from Boston to dc... one last time we will let google show you...
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I really enjoyed my stay in Boston and i want to go back for longer than 20 hours next time. Boston seems like a big city that is actually livable. NYC on the other hand is a nice place for the weekend...

the trip back wasn't too bad. i rode the greyhound from NYC back to DC and even got on an early bus out! our bus driver was pretty hardcore though. he told us if we broke the rules he would have no qualms about pulling over and kicking us out in the middle of nowhere. Also while he was giving his spiel these ladies were chatting to each other and he stopped what he was saying and told them to shut their mouths until he was finished talking. it was pretty exciting, i made sure to mind my p's and q's... but other than that, no strange odors and no coughing. i still wont ever "go greyhound" again.

so i feel like i really made the most of my long weekend. It was tons of fun and great to get out and see the many many many things there are around this country! I look forward to more great weekends while I'm here and ill keep you posted on the jmurph chronicles.

Touch My Body (Tuts My Barreh) / Karaoke Fail (English subtitles)

One Great Weekend. Part Duex.

Okay so, 11 oclock rolls around and its time to do some more touristy stuff! so we decided to hop on the subway and head downtown and see the statue of liberty! well, we got off a little too early, but we ran into a bunch of fun stuff that we intended to see, but hadnt planned on at that moment!

We saw the bull on wall street! heres hoping to a bull market!

As you can probably tell, thats not me. In fact i dont know who that is. I googled a picture of the bull because mark took all the pics of us there and im too lazy to get them from him right now. Just imagine thats me pointing at the bull, as you all know i would.

we walked by ground zero, and the trinity church from national treasure and then went over to battery park. i always imagine battery park was called such because people were battered there... i dunno why but thats just what i conjured up in my mind. anyhow we looked to see if there were some tickets to the island, but it was a no-go so we took the staten island ferry instead!

heres some fotos from the ferry!

Anyhow, that was fun. and then we went to lunch at this place really specific to new york city. Its got this garden of olives, and they have a deal where you can get unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks for around 10 bucks. Im sure you all wish you had one of those in every city in america! after our tasty repast, it was off to hunt for tickets to some shows! being the shrewd students we are, we looked for the best deals in town. we managed to find a bunch of tickets to mary poppins for 35 bucks and one ticket to chicago for 35. so i took the chicago ticket and a bunch of the other interns went to mary poppins.

Chicago was really good, great dancing, the music was incredible... it was a bit racy at times, but it truly is broadways "sure thing". very entertaining, all that jazz.

so we stayed at my roommate devin's old college roommates apartment uptown. it was really nice, in a quiet part of town. it was nice to be able to lie down, especially after going strong for about 36 hours...

the next morning, i had a chance to sleep in a little bit and walk around downtown. i went to all the box offices to see who was selling student tickets on the cheap! we went to a matinee of "finians rainbow". it was a fun show, with good music and a lot of jokes that were funny now, even tho the play was first put on in the forties(you might wanna check wikipedia on that one). we got box seats for cheap!

It was a really good show, i highly recommend it!

After that we went to another local eatery that claims when youre there its always friday! isnt that charming?! why dont these restaraunts branch out!?! anyhow after that we went to see Shrek! it was also very good, with great production value! the set was outta this world and king farquahd(sp) was really funny! hes on his knees almost the entire show! it was a great sight gag!

here you can see shrek advertised on the screens in times square! it was fun and we had a good group of us there. I woulda posted the group photo, but once again laziness overcomes me and i dont know who has it anyway... after the show we hungout around town and went home to prepare for our next big day. Just like im going to now! till next time,stay tuned for the conclusion of our thrill-ogy, One Great Weekend.

One Great Weekend. Part I

So our usual Friday class got cancelled, and thanks to that evil man who gave all the indians small pox and discovered America (and as my friend ben pointed out hes a member of the church by proxy...), I got to enjoy a four day weekend! What better way to spend 4 days of freedom than by going up north to NYC and Boston!?!? It was very specatacular and i will do my best to capture all the joy i had on this trip in a simple blog...

My friend Mark Williams and I decided to leave Thursday night/Friday morning (depending on how you look at it) and take the 1:00 am bus to NYC.
On our way to the bus station, we ran to our fair share of hooligans...

This is how I learned lesson #1- Dont ever do anything a drunk person tells you.


Here we can see the wine-bibbers in their natural habitat... the last train outta metro center... anyhow they asked me to slap their catatonic looking friend in the face to wake him up. i wasnt about to be a part of that, which led the ringleader to remark "look a little more manly with those signs...." What signs you may be asking? Why the signs we had made in order to get us on the TODAY Show!!! and thats why were taking the late/early bus, so we could arrive just in time for the taping!

so we got to the greyhound station, and there is already about 25 people in line, including a group of korean students, who dont even know im spying on them and translating to mark. Anyhow the bus finally arrives and about 20 people get off and get in the reboarding line... now im starting to get nervous. The line starts moving and we get closer and closer. finally we get to the front and the bus driver takes our tickets and the tickets of two people behind us and we get on the bus! when we get up there, there are no seats, except for a big bench of three in the very back. so i walk back there and sit down and as i breath in, my nose is stung with the vile stench of port-o-potty... which brings me to lesson #2- dont be the last one on a greyhound bus or else you will have sit in the back and it smells like pee. After i learned that lesson i figured i had learned enough and stopped writing down the life lessons i was learning.

Mark was lucky enough to sit right next to the bathroom....

The bus ride went well with just a few hiccups, like how everyone was coughing like they had the swine flu, how everytime the bathroom door opened i wanted to barf and the time i woke up and thought mark had been replaced with someone else. We arrived safely to NYC and the first thing i did was wash my hands, there is no telling what kind of germs i contracted! then we headed over to rockefeller center to get ready for our national tv debut!

Heres me with my sign (created by the talented mark jensen)!

so we got there around 615 and the TODAY show started taping at 7. around 7:20 al roker came out and said hello and i yelled and hooted and hollered and at around 7:40 Al set up the shot right in front of us AND- lets go to the tape!




Pretty much awesome.

So we hung out at Today for a while, met and shook hands with all the anchors. When Meredith Viera came out i asked her for a kiss! and she gave me a peck right on the cheek! they were all really nice and it was a great experience! i would do it again in a hearbeat!

after the today show we went over to a really neat Cathedral called St Peters(?)... anyhow while we there i saw the archbishop walking around with some dudes in suits. I walked over to get a better a look and much to my surprise there was Elder Richard G. Scott and Elder Jensen!It was pretty cool to see them and talk with them for a little bit. Usually when you see general authorities they are being thronged in much the same way me and mark thronged them, but there is just more people. they were really nice and it was a great experience! so when that was all done it was about 10 am and it was time to do more! but right now its 12:45 and its time for me to go to sleep! there will be much more to come! stay tuned!

I have a lot to write about, but first this gem, brought to you by Eddie Barfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxvsShaAoA&feature=player_embedded#

Things to do in "The District"

The best part about living in DC is that there is a ton of stuff to do. But even with all that stuff, its still like Provo cause its often hard to get anyone else to do it with you. Luckily I have found somef fun people that like to go on adventures! Here are some highlights.

#1. Baseball

Now, Washington is definitely a football city. It seems that most people eat, sleep, and die Redskins. Even if they lose to the worst football team in the league (which technically cant happen since teams cant play themselves....) people still cheer for them and pay a ton of money to do so. Anyhow, my point in all this is, the Nationals are awful. And because of their sheer pitifulness, no one goes to their games, so you can buy a cheap 5 or 10 dollar ticket and sit way close and enjoy a good game of baseball.

I got to see the Phillies, the Braves and the team with the best record in the National League, the NL West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers!
Here me and Aubrey are at Nationals field. She agreed to come to the Dodgers game if I went to the Braves game...




Here is my man Man-Ram. Steroids and all, I love him! He ain't Albert Pujols. Thank heavens.

the game was fun, and exciting, but here's how it ended up.

Dodgers lost...

And then at the Braves game, the Nationals lost and Aubrey was so excited cause the team of her childhood won! I granted her permission to roll.



Oh and the best part about the games is this.




#2 Eat.

There are a lot of great places to eat here in our nations capital. besides the obvious McDonald's and Burger Kings that are a staple of every Americans diet, there is a myriad of eclectic and special foods! Even heads of state like our very own Barack Obama eats food in The District. One very unique place to DC is Ben's Chili Bowl and it is real good!

The thing to get is a half smokey, as seen below. Its a sausage covered in chili with onions and mustard! and it is tasty and delicious. When President Obama ate here he had a half smokey with cheese fries... i am almost presidential in my meal.. but not quite.
This had me saying mmm mmm mmm! Barack Hussein Obama really liked this place for good reason!

Kelli, Mara (like Sara) and I were just ecstatic!


Kit here (with Britney) was amazed at how much i could eat! He didn't think i could finish such a large meal but somehow i got it all in!

#3 Dancing.

Most people know I'm from the mean streets of Rancho Cucamonga, and i have seen a lot of moves in my day. But i am amazed everyday by the incredible dancing of the people of DC. here Mara demonstrates the 'jerk'. I'm pretty good at it. but i wont bore you with pictures of me making a fool of myself.

#4 People watching, and becoming subjects of people watching...

subways are a great place to find people and for people to find you!

If you make a face like this:

people like this will look at you strangely:
Similarly, if you take a picture over you shoulder at just the right moment, you may catch the person behind you looking at what they just found in their nasal cavity.

And finally if you look like this and you are sitting in front of the white house, I will take a picture of you.
(I heard this was the African doctor that signed President Obama's birth certificate.)

Anyhow there are lots of other things that i am doing besides these subversive activities, I promise. But in the meantime i hope you enjoyed your stay here with the Chronicles and check back often for more excitement soon!