Many Occupiers remember Octupy the Corporate Octopus–we had over fifty people on the steps of City Hall in the rain with Octupy’s debut. The puppet was built during the encampment, involved a wonderful cross section of Occupy Los Angeles and, in part, is actually made out of its trash.

I am offering tentacle training between now and the parade. The puppet won’t be fully assembled again before January 1 in Pasadena, but the tentacles need to learn some of the visual effects (like galaxies and wheel of life). Tentacles are a team of 4 people, and work best in sets of two (eight people, two teams). I want the core to be Occupy Los Angeles, because Octupy is a child of Solidarity Park. Once the Occupiers from other areas come in, I anticipate lots of volunteers with very little time to train them.

Octopy will be an autonomous puppet, operated by the process of consensus and moved by horizontal, participatory people power.

I will be doing a teach-in with the puppet makers (Matt and Janet) on Monday, December 26th. If you would like to attend, contact them through occupytheroseparade.org

The first Octupy Affinity Group meeting will be a tentacle class at the La Brea Tarpits on Tuesday, December 27th at 2pm. Teams of four are preferred, but singles, couples and threesomes will also be welcome. We’ll meet just inside the Wilshire entrance at the borrow pit’s western end.

gio