Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Fox News Sucks: Boycott Fox News Advertisers

An Artist Site dedicated to the downfall of Fox News

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Gospel of Matthew 24


And Luther said go forth and make art then buy and sell art. No wait, Buy thy Art. Chapter5 verse 15: purchase all thy art that you enjoy and is good for you and others. Make art so others make art for you. Chapter6 verse 23: look at art and consume all that is artistic become all one with thy art. Chapter6 verse 26: art is life , life is art. Chapter9 verse 44: worship in the houses of those that encompass art; galleries, coffeehouses, cafes, dinners, museum's and sculpture gardens. Chapter8 verse 67: fear thy artist, repent.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Buttered Noodles, and Oh Martha.....

So I was transplanting lettuce in the field at my friends farm and we were talking about the state of affairs in the world. I mention that New York city over the past year had paid out over 10 million dollars to the families of the victims of wrongful shooting or deaths. I kinda left the statement at that and began to think a little more about how fucked up what I just said was. A couple of things immediately come to mind and the first being that obviously the NYPD has an issue with itchy trigger fingers. One officer when asked why he fired his weapon replied " I was spooked", let that sink in, spooked, an officer on the streets of New York was spooked. I get spooked sometimes you know in the dark and stuff, but not with a gun and I sure as hell am not going to blindly fire a weapon. The second thing about all of this is that New York has set a monetary price on human life and it is between 2 and 3 million if you are a minority, and shot by them. As for for farms, a family farm is lots every 30 minutes in America, support your local farmer, support your local market.
Oh Martha, the antarctic ozone hole is 8 million square miles on a good day and the average learning curve of our culture is around 30 years. Company's now are gearing there campaigns to go green because the public is now demanding it,..now. G.E. ( who has raped and pillaged like no other), Walmart, 3M, DuPont, McDonalds and Home Depot to name a few. There is money to be made in green and there is money to be made in guilt. You know the best way to recycle, not to buy anything in the first fucking place. You know a little over year ago there was literally nothing in the papers about global warming or environmental issues and now you can't escape it. Day in day out and people are eating the hype, why, because they were never paying attention in the first place. This is not old, just ye old gas bag Al Gore ( lets not forget Tipper and the PMRC) made a fucking movie 20 years to late and the Laurie David goes around wasting more oxygen on Gore and not real issues like oh, maybe over population ( possibly the only and most important issue), deforestation, the huge fucking ozone hole. I worked for Greenpeace for 2 years back in 1988 an 89 and it was, an experience. I was young idealistic and wanted people to listen, but no one would. The recurring chime was " green who, you a hippie, slam". I was not the best canvasser in the world, kinda of sheepish and I would stumble over my words a bit. I worked in the D.C. / Baltimore metro area so whether we liked or not we would hit neighborhoods in Arlington and Alexandria that of course were DOE and DOD housing. Sometimes I would get the doting house wife and 100 buck, and it felt like pity because I could feel the litterateur go straight to the trash, but usually I scummed to a slammed door, every now and then a weapon was brandished, lots of verbal abuse, etc. Those who did listen and get past the "save the whales shit" I pressed small campaigns, like.... you guessed it greenhouse gas theory, reforming clear cut logging, and western grazing and the Bureau of Land Mismanagement. So I get the feeling now all these people running out buying green, and pulling there Prius's into their suburban duplexes feel a little guilty. Sell your Yukon and buy a Compact(this a good idea, but to make a point) but if you suck at driving it really won't make a huge difference, because the E.P.A. can't rate the color of their urine much less mileage of a piece of metal, and if you are a stop and gun it lead foot their goes the mileage. Speaking of driving people on the west side of Madison CAN NOT drive, man. But drive threw Coos County Oregon and you would be disgusted at the clear cuts, the mountain side are ravaged and laying down in front of a tractor only derails things for , oh 1 or 2 days. It's as if some one said hey lets just fuck everything up here, I mean it's pretty and all, but fuck it. So they polluted the air, fragmented the forest, destroyed the matrix, silted the steams and made some money off junk bonds while biodiversity goes out the window, yet does anyone ever really consider the impact not to just the area but to the nation/world and global warming. And as I ramble here and there like crossing the western states, one thing that has really been pissing me off lately is all the junk mail I have been getting. Someone and I know who sold my shit and now I get at least 1 or 2 pieces of mail from environmental, farm or animal rights groups a day. This kills me because it is the biggest waste of resources around, and some of the worst letters are the ones were they feel they need to underline shit as if you can't figure it out for yourself, and I am sure there are people out there who can't. But the other day I got a "package" from the Arbor Day Foundation and it weighted in at about 2 ounces and was full of paper stock. This is a foundation set up to protect and honor trees, and they are sending me one, ironic uh. You know it's like I have always thought it was funny when someone runs around telling everyone their an "environmentalist", what does that mean? Everyone should be it's patriotic and it is the land that keeps you alive, we should all be good shepherds. It all involves a little of What is and What isn't, and more importantly "If your not pissed off your not paying attention". Everything is connected, everything. Hayduke lives!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Man from Nantucket


I was thinking of Jean Baudrillard his theories of simulacra recently and how it evolves into a social simulacra. We live in this hyperreality with out boundaries, as in to say visually what is or what is isn't. Where does our fundamental context end and begin and our ideas of what is real and true. Such as if I told you the photo next to to this is real you would believe, but would believe it is an engine, or a working engine or a yellow engine. And since it is a photograph it must entail some reality, but has it been manipulated and for what purpose. Was any manipulation to deceive or mislead the viewer or simply an aesthetic detail. These are all questions I tend to ask when looking at photograph, but especially advertising. The idea of What is or What isn't.
Like listening to the radio. I was asked recently why I listen to sports radio, and maybe not so much why just about sports radio. I listen to a lot of radio and have for the past 10 years and the difference between radio and all of stimuli is the obvious that it is audio, but that there is a certain mystery in radio and the lack of any visual imagery. Anyone who has listen to Art Bell or Coast to Coast surely can attest to the mystery side of radio, but there so many other interesting social dynamics that happen on radio, and the main being "callers". The true believers that call in to a show to express their views, it usually begins with " hello, Marcy. long time listener, first time caller", and then there are the callers that call on a regular basis, and some some are part of the show. The the thing that is nice about sports radio is that there is little political diatribe going on, and often I crave that, but with sports radio you pretty much know what your getting. Its the What is of the What isn't.
With radio its the mystery, and go back to Orson Welles in 1938 when he broadcast War of the Worlds. He literally had over a million people scared or freaked that martians were landing and strange gas was in the air. A true example of the power of radio as a medium, maybe, but it is the mind of the individual who decides what is and is isn't, he created a total simulacra out of thin air, or maybe over the air, with only the power of his voice and noise and no visual evidence. Similar to 1984 when Ronald Regan more jokingly (ha fucking ha) announced he was going to start bombing the Soviets in 5 minutes, when unknowingly his mike was on before a radio address. This to created a stir, although spun and turned political within hours, days. Not to mention Don Imus who impacted people, but it was through bigotry and racism, and he should have never been allowed on the airs in the first place.
For a time, before the ultimate nausea set in I listen to Sean Hannity who took over the time slot in our market for Alan Colmes, (ah, can't figure it out Madison). And to side track here, if you have ever heard the expression "they have a face for radio", that is Alan Colmes, kinda looks like an alien to me, and is the liberal side of the Hannity Colmes duo, but if you work for Fox I think you know where you are going when you die, no need for sun screen. But anyways callers on the Hannity show as if to the tune of a robotic implantation spout out the words " your a great American" or patriot as if no else in the world listening is not, then after expelling to their leader their right of passage then it is jump on a liberal or bash a lefty time or by way of usually speaking in tongues make sure everyone knows that Bush is just misunderstood or we have to beat everybody down over seas, you known deam terrorists, or they will come her and get us in rural Alabama. And don't get me wrong I love Alabama, I have family in Alabama, I just don't think that terrorist will be stopping in at Haleville for pie.
So social simulacra, to the daily radio listener like myself maybe I can take in a little of the madness around all of us. I think to most radio and the personality behind it becomes a preacher giving a sermon, someone they can throw up on a pedestal and get behind. Millions of Americans listen to the radio at work on a daily basis. So radio creates all these non contextual boundaries, like photography, film, television, print and advertising. Radio then like all of these mediums intrude or inhabit our daily lives and affect the way we in turn react to that medium and to the space and individuals around us. What is What isn't, we in turn judge everything around us by what we have learned via mass culture, we are judged by what is previous knowledge of an account whether small or large i.e. you have tattoos you must a criminal , or you drive a truck you don't care about the environment. Now these are examples that could pretty much be set to anyone these days and its as if ends justify the means, as to say everyone wants an easy solution to problems not easily solved, but for the most part people want to feel better that others and they want to point fingers and place blame. The example may seem convoluted , but the idea is that the vast majority of people walk around and react the way the way the have been socially "programmed" I don't like using that word, but media has conditioned our reaction to social events and to social interaction. This is simulacra. This idea this condition we live in is like a state of zombie and at times the intellectual zombie, the worst. But it is what we expect of other people and family of how they will or won't react to social situations or social stigma which stems from societal pressures, or pressures of the church, something I am not well versed in, but undeniable.
I saw this poster once and it was of two cats mating and in big letters it said " if your not pissed off, your not paying attention", and that pretty much summed it all up for me. I though wow why didn't I make that, damn, because someone was a little more ambitions, more clever, and paying attention. What is What isn't, that man from Nantucket what did he really do with that bucket.

Thursday, May 17, 2007