A Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Bob Mizer & the Golden Age of the American Male

2012-01-21T18:08:00.007-05:00

Films From Bob Mizer’s Legendary Athletic Model Guild

Programed by Billy Miller,
in conjunction with the Mizer Foundation

Saturday, February 4th, 7:30pm

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission St San Francisco

INFO:
http://www.ybca.org/bros-hos

Sight Unseen

2012-01-21T18:02:00.001-05:00

Artists Television Access, 992 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA

Friday, February 3rd, 8:00pm

Short films by/about: Brian Belott • Gregory Kaplowitz • David King • Francis Faye • Jacuzzi Gals • Gilbert & George • Darrin Martin • Peter McGough • Heri Mkocha • M.O.V. • Jessica Plumb • Peter Rose • Alayne Patur Salahuddeen • Scott Treleaven

Programed by: Billy Miller

INFO:
http://www.atasite.org/2012/02/sight-unseen/

Note: free copies of REVEL IN NYC at door.

Babel

2012-01-21T18:01:00.001-05:00

by Peter Rose

Say NO to SOPA & PIPA

2012-01-18T10:28:00.002-05:00

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

The Red Cap of Liberty

2012-01-16T23:19:00.001-05:00

A.K.A., The Phrygian Cap.

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap

(Mr.) Common Sense

2012-01-16T22:50:00.016-05:00

"The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance."

"I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace."

"Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities."

"It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes."

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

"That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not."

"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst."

"My mind is my own church."

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."

"Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice."

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

-Thomas Paine

- - - -

As I went out one morning
To breathe the air around Tom Paine's,
I spied the fairest damsel
That ever did walk in chains.
I offer'd her my hand,
She took me by the arm.
I knew that very instant,
She meant to do me harm.

"Depart from me this moment,"
I told her with my voice.
Said she, "But I don't wish to,"
Said I, "But you have no choice."
"I beg you, sir," she pleaded
From the corners of her mouth,
"I will secretly accept you
And together we'll fly south."

Just then Tom Paine, himself,
Came running from across the field,
Shouting at this lovely girl
And commanding her to yield.
And as she was letting go her grip,
Up Tom Paine did run,
"I'm sorry, sir," he said to me,
"I'm sorry for what she's done."

-Bob Dylan

- - - -

Footnote:
To counter the sanitized story of the American Revolution being promulgated by the governing elite at the "Buy-centennial" of 1976, Jeremy Rifkin and others formed the People's Bicentennial Commission. "Although modern-day Tories will attempt to present themselves and the institutions they control - the corporations, the White House - as the true heirs and defenders of the struggle waged by the first American revolutionaries," the commission declared, "we will be celebrating radical heroes like Thomas Paine."

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine

Homeland "Security"

2012-01-05T00:15:00.000-05:00

"... the standing army is used not so much against the external enemy as against the internal enemy. Everywhere the standing army has become the weapon of reaction, the servant of capital in its struggle against labour..."

-V. Lenin (1905)

INFO:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/20/local-cops-ready-for-war-with-homeland-security-funded-military-weapons.html
http://www.thenation.com/article/164501/paramilitary-policing-seattle-occupy-wall-street

Heil Amerika

2012-01-05T00:12:00.003-05:00

Pictured above are 1940s American schoolchildren saluting the flag. The resemblance to the Nazi salute is uncanny; but actually both are derived from the same ancient Roman gesture. The American version was called "the Bellamy Salute", named after Francis Bellamy, who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance as part of a Columbus Day flag-selling promotion for a magazine. Bellamy, a Baptist minister, was part of a movement to put flags in every school. The placement of flags and the pledge continue to this day, and you can draw whatever conclusions you like from the practice. But during WW2, Americans became uncomfortable with the similarity to the Nazi practice and President Franklin D. Roosevelt rewrote the code and replaced it with the hand-over-the-heart gesture that is common today.
Then there's the "under God" part in the wording of the pledge, which is a whole other kettle of crosses. But even leaving "God" out of it, the basic problem with the Pledge of Allegiance and other loyalty oaths is that democracies are founded on the principle that the government owes allegiance to the people, not the other way around.

God, Country, & My Baby

2012-01-05T00:12:00.001-05:00

Chico Holiday

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."*

2012-01-04T23:28:00.001-05:00

*-Seneca the Younger

The God That Never Was

2011-12-26T23:54:00.001-05:00

Just as a reminder... "Jesus" didn't write anything, nor did anyone who had personal knowledge of him. There is no archeological evidence of his existence. There are no contemporaneous accounts of his life or death: no eyewitness accounts, or any other kind of first-hand record. All the accounts come from decades or centuries later; the gospels themselves all come from later times - and the earliest promoters of Christianity had no concept of an earthly Jesus at all. In short, there is no empirical evidence whatsoever that this mythical being ever existed... Sorry.

INFO:
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/time.html

Love, American Style

2011-12-22T02:19:00.002-05:00

Melvin Van Peebles #OWS

Follow The $

2011-12-22T02:16:00.002-05:00

Despite the rhetoric, it is clear that “we” as a nation are not broke. While the recession has led to job loss and shrinking incomes for many in recent years, the economy has produced substantial wealth over the last three decades, and economists agree that we can expect comparable growth over the next three decades as well. The question is rather where, and to whom, is the money flowing?

Capitalism = War

2011-12-22T02:10:00.003-05:00

"Capitalism has long since outlived its progressive historical role of creating a modern industrial economy. In order to maintain their rule, the national capitalist classes must exploit national, ethnic and racial divisions... impoverish the world’s masses, engage in continual wars for the maintenance and redivision of the world markets in order to prop up the falling rate of profit, and attempt to smash the revolutionary struggle of the workers wherever it breaks out. In its final frenzied effort to maintain its class rule, the bourgeoisie will not hesitate to plunge humanity into nuclear holocaust or dictatorial oppression of unprecedented ferocity."

-(above, excerpted from): Declaration of Principles and Some Elements of Program, International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

2011-12-01T02:29:00.000-05:00

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

(End of Statement)

The Wobblies

2011-12-01T02:28:00.001-05:00

"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old"

-Preamble to the current IWW Constitution

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World

Joel Emmanuel Hägglund (Joe Hill)

2011-12-01T02:27:00.000-05:00

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill

Pete Seeger

RE: The Revolution is sexy (Spartacus)

2011-11-23T00:03:00.005-05:00

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus

Let's Work Together

2011-11-23T00:03:00.001-05:00

Wilbert Harrrison

Editorial

2011-11-23T00:02:00.001-05:00

Neoliberal populists in the OWS movement are looking to moderate -rather than do away with- the despotism of the few against the many. This is not only impossible within a capitalist context, but a fundamentally unworthy goal. GOP, Dems, and Greens are all arms of the same machine. It's high time for an informed revolutionary consciousness to replace these half-measures and pipe dreams... just sayin'.

-A Poor Wayfaring Stranger

RE: The Revolution is sexy (Angela Davis)

2011-11-22T23:57:00.005-05:00

INFO:
http://old.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id91/pg1/

"Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex."*

2011-11-22T23:34:00.003-05:00

*-Karl Marx

(photo: OWS, NYC)

2011-11-22T23:24:00.002-05:00

"What is free trade, what is free trade under the present condition of society? It is freedom of capital. When you have overthrown the few national barriers which still restrict the progress of capital, you will merely have given it complete freedom of action."

-Karl Marx

Coming Soon To A Street Near You

2011-11-19T14:54:00.001-05:00

The police, together with the army, are the first line of defense against anything which disturbs the public order of capitalism. They use the public's fear of crime to build support for themselves and demand more power and resources. Large-scale marshaling of force against strikers and demonstrators, rather than against traditional 'crime', shows where real policing priorities lie.

INFO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pkV2ZKpyFM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zihj6HjWnVc

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/police-pepper-spray-seated-occupy-protesters-at-uc-davis/

Weaponry, and Policing The Status Quo

2011-11-19T14:33:00.006-05:00

INFO:
http://jamblichus.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/ten-reasons-to-feel-uneasy/

http://www.aele.org/alert-tactics.html

RISE

2011-11-13T21:51:00.004-05:00

‎"Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness."
-Leon Trotsky

The OTHER America

2011-10-29T14:49:00.001-04:00

"I feel "my country" is not the United States of the Ku Klux-ers, of moral censors in and out of office, of the suppressionists and reactionaries of every type. Not the America of Tammany or of Congress, of respectable inanity, of the highest skyscrapers and fattest moneybags. Not the United States of petty provincialism, narrow nationalism, vain materialism and naive exaggeration. There is fortunately, another United States - the land of Walt Whitmans, the Lloyd Garrisons, the Thoreaus, the Wendell Phillipses. The country of Young America of life and thought, or of art and letters; the America of the new generation knocking at the door, of men and women with ideals, with aspirations for a better day; the America of social rebellion and spiritual promise, of the glorious "undesirables"... It is to THAT America that I am proud to belong."

-Emma Goldman

Power Syndrome

2011-10-17T03:06:00.003-04:00

‎"Nothing is more dangerous for man's private morality than the habit of command. The best man, the most intelligent, disinterested, generous, pure, will infallibly and always be spoiled at this trade. Two sentiments inherent in power never fail to produce this demoralisation; they are: contempt for the masses and the overestimation of one's own merits."

-Michael Bakunin (1867)

Media-ocracy

2011-10-12T21:39:00.018-04:00

"The press ... traditionally sides with authority and the establishment."

- Sam Donaldson (ABC correspondent)

____________

"To keep information from the public is the function of the corporate media."

- Gore Vidal

____________

"We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

- John Swinton
(editor of the New York Tribune, in the 1880s, at a banquet of his fellow editors)

____________

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. "

- Edward Bernays
("father" of modern public relations (PR), on government propaganda)

____________

"They just don't come in contact with people not in their [income] bracket. They've lost touch with their community."

- Stan Opotowsky (of ABC News, about the journalistic elite)

____________

"The loud little handful will shout for war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously protest at first.... The great mass of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes, and will try to make out why there should be a war, and they will say earnestly and indignantly: "It is unjust and dishonorable and there is no need for war."

Then the few will shout even louder.... Before long you will see a curious thing: anti-war speakers will be stoned from the platform, and free speech will be strangled by hordes of furious men who still agree with the speakers but dare not admit it...

Next, the statesmen will invent cheap lies...and each man will be glad of these lies and will study them because they soothe his conscience; and thus he will bye and bye convince himself that the war is just and he will thank God for a better sleep he enjoys by his self-deception."

- Mark Twain

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

Capitalism is a Pyramid Scheme

2011-10-12T21:30:00.006-04:00

INFO:
http://www.roman-empire-america-now.com/capitalism.html

View of Outer Space from an Aquarium

2011-10-11T23:22:00.001-04:00

Oct 1 – Nov 6
Opening: Sat, Oct 1, 6-9pm
Famous Accountants (1673 Gates Ave, Bushwick, Bkln)
http://viewofouterspacefromanaquarium.blogspot.com/

Robbie Acklen • D-L Alvarez • Jonathan Berger • Matt Borruso • Elijah Burgher • Matthew Burcaw • Luke Butler • Brendan Carroll • Christophe Chemin • Wayne Coe • Ryan Cummings • Pia Dehne • Peter Eide • Carl Ferrero • Janine Gordon • Tina Hejtmanek • Charles Hovland • Scott Hug • Kysa Johnson • Gregory Kaplowitz • Brian Kenny • Lewis Klahr • Kristian Kozul • Patrick Lee • Scooter LaForge • Noah Lyon • Robert MacDonald • Michael Magnan • Peter Maloney • Darrin Martin • Rachel Mason • Mike McLeod • Slava Mogutin • Mary Nicholson • Genesis P. Orridge • Gwenaël Rattke • Jason Rodgers • Jo-ey Tang • Margaret Tedesco • Tillie • Nickolaus Typaldos • Jan Wandrag • Joel Westendorf

Curated by Billy Miller

Opening nite art demo by TILLIE: 8pm
http://tillog.tumblr.com/

AFTERPARTY
Video • Music Mixes • Drink Specials • Surprises
@ The Bodega
24 St. Nicholas Ave (Btwn Scott & Troutman St.)
Jefferson "L" stop
http://thebodegawinebar.wordpress.com/
9pm - 12am

(above: collage-painting by: Scott Hug)
http://www.scotthug.com/

Pink Elephants

2011-10-11T23:20:00.000-04:00

Sun Ra

Paper Clips*

2011-10-11T23:16:00.004-04:00

*one of the few things still made in the U.S.A.!

INFO:
http://www.officemuseum.com/paper_clips.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576524671643378078.html

Bodies & The Machine

2011-10-06T17:48:00.002-04:00

Mario Savio - "The Machine Speech", Sproul Hall Steps, Dec. 2, 1964

Bought & Paid For

2011-10-06T17:37:00.003-04:00

‎"I think what's driving people to the streets in NY and around the country now... is the realization that change is not going to come through the ballot box, because the political process has been bought and paid for."

-Naomi Klein

Royal Amerika

2011-09-26T14:43:00.011-04:00

“These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.”

-Franklin Roosevelt

(above: David H. Koch, Charles G. Koch)

Dial House graphics @ Boo Hooray

2011-09-16T01:35:00.008-04:00

IN ALL OUR DECADENCE PEOPLE DIE
An exhibition of fanzines 1976 - 1984
Curated by Johan Kugelberg
Sept 30 - Oct 20
@ Boo Hooray (265 Canal St. #601 NYC)

INFO:
http://boo-hooray.com/crass-fanzines/in-all-our-decadence-people-die/

The Left-Right Paradigm is Over: Its You Vs. Corporations

2011-09-11T02:41:00.003-04:00

INFO:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/you-vs-corporations/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood

A System In Crisis

2011-09-11T02:39:00.002-04:00

storyofstuff.org

I Shop, Therefore I Am

2011-09-11T02:29:00.002-04:00

“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satifaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption.”

-Victor LeBeau (a market research analyst writing circa 1946)

INFO:
http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1305/American-Consumer-RISE-CONSUMER-CULTURE.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism

Just Do It

2011-09-11T01:35:00.008-04:00

CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME... then die.

"That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees."*

2011-09-09T22:37:00.003-04:00

*-Marcus Aurelius

"Minding Everybody's Business But Your Own"

2011-09-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Titus Turner - Miss Rubberneck Jones

Like A Fox Watching The Henhouse

2011-09-05T03:46:00.001-04:00

“If you believe the promise that an authoritarian state makes that if it has enough knowledge on every citizen it will keep people safe. I think that’s a false promise. It doesn’t actually happen. If that was the case then East Germany would have been a really incredible place to live while in fact it wasn’t."

-Heather Brooke

INFO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/17/heather-brooke-data-deali_n_928985.html

Money Laundering

2011-09-05T03:44:00.001-04:00

John le Carré

"Many are those who trade in tricks and simulated miracles, duping the foolish multitude"

2011-09-05T03:40:00.000-04:00

"... and if nobody unmasked their subterfuges, they would impose them on everyone."

-Leonardo da Vinci

The Shock Doctrine

2011-09-05T03:38:00.000-04:00

The Shock Doctrine (2009) - Naomi Klein

Which Side Are You On?

2011-07-27T15:17:00.004-04:00

Oil-based tech developed over the past century has created a population explosion & is responsible for historically-unprecedented high standards of living for those in the 1st World. We owe plastics, cheap transportation & an abundant food supply -among other things- to OIL. But IT'S ON THE WAY OUT & oil-profits-entrenched-short-sighted capitalists don't care a fig about the damage & misery that waiting till the last minute to do anything about it is going to create. The "Economy" etc is NOT GOING TO GET "BETTER" or go back to a 20th century paradigm. In short, it's gonna be a very bumpy ride & get down to WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?!

Pete Seeger

Hero

2011-07-27T15:06:00.006-04:00

Advocate for the environment Tom DeChristopher was sentenced to 2 years in federal prison for an act of civil disobedience aimed at drawing attention to the unethical practices of the oil and natural gas industries.

-----

"Most of us know that we’ve probably passed the point where we can avoid the collapse of our industrial civilization, and when we look at prior examples of collapse, the greatest atrocities weren’t because of direct impacts, it was because of what those in power did to try to maintain that power as it started to fall away, and what they did in the name of restoring order and security. In Darfur, the greatest atrocity wasn’t the water and food shortage, it was what was done in response to that. In Germany in the 1930s, the biggest deal wasn’t the inflation -- it was really a trigger of a lot of those problems -- it was the laws that were passed in the name of restoring order and security.

I think as a climate movement, most of us should be aware that we can pretty well count on the fact that there will be some scapegoat chosen over the course of this century. Some laws that are passed that sacrifice one or several groups of people in the name of restoring order and security. The big question for us at this point is how we as citizens are going to respond to that, what we as citizens are going to be willing to do to our fellow human beings in the name of just following the law. When the government tells us that it’s not our job to question whether that law is right or wrong, as the judge did in this case to the jury, I think we need to be prepared for that moment, and make a more conscious decision of what we want our role to really be."

-Tom DeChristopher

INFO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/why-liberals-should-be-ou_b_910432.html
http://www.grist.org/climate-energy/2011-07-27-dechristopher-supporters-go-to-jail-for-justice

"The Animal Within"

2011-07-22T22:10:00.003-04:00

FRIDAY, August 5th, 8:00pm

ARTISTS TELEVISION ACCESS
992 Valencia Street. San Francisco, CA

Short films by: CATHERINE CHALMERS • IRA COHEN • STEVE DAVIS • JONATHAN HARRIS • PETER MALONEY • ASHLEIGH NANKIVELL • TARA SINN • JUSTIN SPRING • RANDAL WILCOX

Selected by: Billy Miller

INFO:
http://www.atasite.org/2011/08/the-animal-within/

Badlands Special Edition Gazette

2011-07-20T23:47:00.003-04:00

(above)
"Badlands Gazette" (special edition)
Featuring artwork by:
Paul Gabrielli, Paul McCarthy, Luc Sante, Eric Yahnker
text by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Available for a limited time only by sending $3.00 (U.S.) to:
Box 20424 NYC 10023,
or via PayPal by writing to:
translux@earthlink.net

"B-B-B-BAD"

2011-06-30T11:11:00.007-04:00

Anna Kustera Gallery
520 West 21st Street NYC

June 30 - August 12
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 30, 6-8PM

Featuring:
Adam Axel • Mattia Biagi • Keith Boadwee • Matt Borruso • Charles Browning • Elijah Burgher • Luke Butler • Wayne Coe • Steve Davis • Peter Eide • Scott Ewalt • Glen Fogel • Jonah Freeman • Martha Friedman • Paul Gabrielli • John Wayne Gacy • Joe Graham-Felsen • Gregory Green • Adam Helms • Lisa Kirk • Kristian Kozul • Scooter LaForge • Wes Lang • Karine Laval • Patrick Lee • Michael Magnan • Paul McCarthy • Adam McEwen • Bob Mizer • John Monteith • John Ensor Parker & Johnny Moreno • Luc Sante • Ryan Schneider • Jeff Shagawat • Tara Sinn • HankWillisThomas • Wolfgang Tillmans • John Waters • Karlheinz Weinberger • Eric Yahnker

Curated by: Doug McClemont & Billy Miller

INFO:
http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/art/1747433/review-“b-b-b-bad”

(Above: sculpture by Gregory Green)

Channeling

2011-06-24T17:36:00.002-04:00

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

-Martha Graham

Dumb No More

2011-06-24T17:34:00.000-04:00

“The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men’s rights nor women’s rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.”

—Helen Keller, 1911

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller
http://www.nndb.com/people/074/000046933/

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."*

2011-06-18T19:32:00.002-04:00

*-Michelangelo

“It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.”*

2011-05-30T12:49:00.007-04:00

*-Jean-Luc Godard

above: "Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?" (1956) by Richard Hamilton

INFO:
http://vimeo.com/11749071
http://storychasers.org/2011/02/02/creation-requires-influence-understanding-remix-power-in-star-wars/

Music Is My Mistress (new blog)

2011-05-25T02:17:00.003-04:00

INFO:
http://music-is-my-mistress.blogspot.com/

Jack Smith

2011-05-25T02:17:00.001-04:00

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Smith_(film_director)

http://swedenburg.blogspot.com/2010/07/jack-smiths-orientalism-warning-photos.html

"Art exists because reality is neither real nor significant."*

2011-05-25T02:16:00.000-04:00

*-J.G. Ballard

(above: paintings by Thomas Downing, Kenneth Nolan)

The Whole Twentieth Century Was A Mistake

2011-05-23T01:34:00.006-04:00

"I am expensive. I am subsidized by all the poor people in the world. I dress as though I were a gift to unwrap. I am a rich American heiress looking for a husband"
-program notes from a 2007 Vivienne Westwood fashion show(!)

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood
http://www.paulgormanis.com/?p=624

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."*

2011-05-08T16:53:00.005-04:00

*-Eleanor Roosevelt

The World Is Getting Smaller

2011-04-29T01:37:00.001-04:00

Mark Dinning

Zan Yu said, "Once there are so many people, what should be done?"... *

2011-04-29T01:26:00.003-04:00

*... "Enrich them," said the Master.

"Once they are enriched, what next?"

"Educate them."

-Confucius (c. 551 - c. 479 BC)

_________________________________

The world’s human population doubled from 1 to 2 billion between 1800 and 1930, and then doubled again by 1975. Sometime in 2011, it’s expected to top 7 billion. This staggering increase and the massive consumption it drives are overwhelming the planet’s finite resources. We’ve already witnessed the devastating effects of overpopulation on biodiversity: Species abundant in North America two centuries ago — from the woodland bison of West Virginia and Arizona’s Merriam’s elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper and Puerto Rico’s Culebra parrot — have been wiped out by growing human numbers.

As the world’s population grows unsustainably, so do its unyielding demands for water, land, trees and fossil fuels — all of which come at a steep price for already endangered plants and animals. Most biologists agree we’re in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event; species are disappearing about 1,000 times faster than is typical of the planet’s history. This time, though, it isn’t because of geologic or cosmic forces but unsustainable human population growth.
Today’s global human population stands at 6.9 billion. Every day, the planet sees a net gain of roughly 250,000 people. If the pace continues, we’ll be on course to reach 8 billion by 2020 and 9 billion by 2050.

By any ecological measure, Homo sapiens sapiens has exceeded its sustainable population size. Just a single human waste product — greenhouse gas — has drastically altered the chemistry of the planet’s atmosphere and oceans, causing global warming and ocean acidification.
In the United States, which has the world’s third largest population after China and India, the fertility rate peaked in 2007 at its highest level since 1971 before dropping off slightly due to the recent economic recession. At 2.1 children per woman, the U.S. fertility rate remains the highest among developed nations, which average around 1.6. The current U.S. population exceeds 300 million and is projected to grow 50 percent by 2050.
The mission of the Center for Biological Diversity is to stop the planetary extinction crisis wiping out rare plants and animals around the world. Explosive, unsustainable human population growth is an essential root cause of this crisis.

We can reduce our own population to an ecologically sustainable level in a number of ways, including the empowerment of women, education of all people, universal access to birth control and a societal commitment to ensuring that all species are given a chance to live and thrive. All of these steps will decrease human poverty and overcrowding, raise our standard of living and sustain the lives of plants, animals and ecosystems everywhere.

-Center for Biological Diversity

INFO:
http://tetrahedral.blogspot.com/2010/12/some-effects-of-human-overpopulation.html

John Law & the Mississippi Bubble

2011-04-27T13:18:00.001-04:00

John Law (1671-1729) was a a Scottish economist (and convicted murderer) who pioneered the use of paper money when, after moving to France, he established himself as the Controller General and then subsequently engineered the greatest money swindle in history up till that time - which became known as "The Mississippi Bubble", that ended in the collapse of the French economy.

INFO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Law_(economist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Company

An entertaining animated short detailing the swindle HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADv5-Pen1L4

An insightful hourlong video presentation explaining more about John Law and the evolution of his and other moneymaking schemes HERE:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/featured/the-ascent-of-money-episode-2-bonds-of-war/90/

The Corporate States of America

2011-04-27T12:52:00.011-04:00

• In the Corporate States of America, health care "reform" consists of gutting all efforts to put real competition back into monopolized markets while at the same time putting into place fines for those who don’t buy insurance from the monopolies.

• In the Corporate States of America, "contractors" outnumber military personnel in war efforts. "Contractors" also are immune from all laws and are able to kill indiscriminately in "security" operations and to carry out extrajudicial killings with drone missiles that also kill large numbers of civilians.

• In the Corporate States of America, practically the entire treasury of the country is put into the hands of the "banks" to rescue them after they bankrupt themselves due to a poor investment strategy based on pure greed.

• In the Corporate States of America, laws are written to provide immunity after the fact when it is discovered that communications companies have assisted the government in spying illegally on the citizens.

• In the Corporate States of America, laws are written by lobbyists and transcribed by the legislature.

• In the Corporate States of America, news is scripted by corporate-owned politicians and transcribed by the media.

• In the Corporate States of America, taxes are for low level employees only.

• In the Corporate States of America, prisons are privatized, and funds paid to private prisons are then plowed back into lobbying for stricter laws and sentencing guidelines, in order to steadily expand the pool of “clients” that can be drawn from the underclass.

• In the Corporate States of America, a corporation have all the legal rights of an individual person with none of the liabilities, and will virtually never face criminal charges no matter what it does.

• In the Corporate States of America, elections are investments.

INFO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/the-united-corporate-stat_b_436937.html

Unequal Union

2011-04-27T12:50:00.003-04:00

"Economists long ago tried to justify the vast inequalities that seemed so troubling in the mid-19th century—inequalities that are but a pale shadow of what we are seeing in America today. The justification they came up with was called “marginal-productivity theory.” In a nutshell, this theory associated higher incomes with higher productivity and a greater contribution to society. It is a theory that has always been cherished by the rich. Evidence for its validity, however, remains thin. The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years—whose contribution to our society, and to their own companies, has been massively negative—went on to receive large bonuses. In some cases, companies were so embarrassed about calling such rewards “performance bonuses” that they felt compelled to change the name to “retention bonuses” (even if the only thing being retained was bad performance). Those who have contributed great positive innovations to our society, from the pioneers of genetic understanding to the pioneers of the Information Age, have received a pittance compared with those responsible for the financial innovations that brought our global economy to the brink of ruin."

-Joseph E. Stiglitz

(excerpted from:" Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" - Vanity Fair, May 2011)

The "Media"

2011-04-27T12:49:00.003-04:00

"Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic."*

2011-04-27T12:49:00.001-04:00

... "Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt - until recently - and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, blacks, and anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties."

*-Gore Vidal

Pledge Of Allegiance

2011-04-27T12:48:00.001-04:00

•Exxon Mobil's 2009 profits totaled $19 billion, yet according to its SEC filings, the company received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, plus, IT DIDN'T PAY ANY FEDERAL TAXES.

•Bank of America made $4.4 billion in profits last year. This was after it received a $1 TRILLION BAILOUT from the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, and A $1.9 BILLION TAX REFUND from the IRS.

•General Electric has made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years. It's also received a $4.1 BILLION TAX REFUND from the IRS. GE HAS CUT A FIFTH OF ITS AMERICAN JOBS in the past nine years, and is boosting jobs overseas - where tax rates are lower. And where it can continue evading U.S. taxes.

•Chevron's IRS REFUND LAST YEAR TOTALED $19 MILLION, but it's 2009 profits came to a whopping $10 billion.

•Boeing received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers. It also received a $124 MILLION REFUND FROM THE IRS.

•Valero Energy made $68 billion in sales and received a $157 MILLION TAX REFUND check from the IRS. Over the past three years, it has received a $134 million tax break thanks to the oil and gas manufacturing tax reduction.

•Goldman Sachs paid 1.1% OF ITS 2008 INCOME TAXES and received a $800 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. Yet it made a PROFIT OF $2.3 BILLION in profit for the same year.

•Citigroup profits last year totaled more than $4 billion. But it paid zero dollars in federal income tax, and RECEIVED A $2.5 TRILLION BAILOUT from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

•Conoco Phillips' profits from 2007 through 2009 totaled $16 billion. BUT IT WAS STILL AWARDED $451 MILLION IN TAX BREAKS.

•Carnival Cruise Lines' profit over the past five years totaled more than $11 billion, BUT ITS FEDERAL INCOME TAX CAME TO JUST 1.1%

Willing Prisoners

2011-04-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

Joe Bageant

"Them that don't know don't know they don't know."*

2011-04-21T15:42:00.007-04:00

"If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-fucked? Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.

We create institutions whose function is to pretend to know, which makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, it also makes the savviest among us -- those elites who run the institutions -- very rich, or safe from the vicissitudes that buffet the rest of us.

Directly or indirectly, they understand that the real function of American social institutions is to justify, rationalize and hide the true purpose of cultural behavior from the lumpenproletariat, and to shape that behavior to the benefit of the institution's members.

Two hundred years ago no one would have thought sheer volume of available facts in the digital information age would produce informed Americans. Founders of the republic, steeped in the Enlightenment as they were, and believers in an informed citizenry being vital to freedom and democracy, would be delirious with joy at the prospect. Imagine Jefferson and Franklin high on Google.

The fatal assumption was that Americans would choose to think and learn, instead of cherry picking the blogs and TV channels to reinforce their particular branded choice cultural ignorance, consumer, scientific or political, but especially political.

In a nation that equates democracy with everyman's right to an opinion, no matter how ridiculous, this was probably inevitable.

But when Americans too poor to buy health care nevertheless vote to retain the corporate auction process, that is cultural stupidity.

Cultural stupidity might not be so bad, were it not self-reproducing and viral, and prone to place stupid people in charge.

Neither populist, nor authentic movement, the Tea Party may yet prove historic, however, by seriously fucking things up more than they already are. Spun entirely from manufactured spectacle (and thus void of cohesive political philosophy or internal logic), the Tea Party lurches across the political landscape bellowing at the cameras and collecting the victims of cultural ignorance in sort of a medieval idiots crusade.

Meanwhile, here we are, American riders on the short bus, barreling into the Grand Canyon."

-Joe Bageant

*(excerpted from: "AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM?")
Read the entire article HERE: http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html#more

Defenders of the Decline

2011-04-21T01:50:00.016-04:00

"The struggle for human rights is a continuum with no beginning and no end. I don’t think there’s any such thing as “postracism.”

The militias are, in my opinion, the modern manifestation of the Klan’s tradition of violence and white rule. The militia agenda, in some respects and in many areas, is far more drastic than the Klan could have ever conceived. The Klan, by and large, was considered patriotic and supportive of the US government, whereas the militias want to overthrow the American federal government by force and rewrite the Constitution so that only Caucasian whites would have citizenship.
It would be, in effect, a 100 percent fascist, Nazi concept of America.
The Tea Party people are the counterparts of the first Nazi Germany storm troopers when Hitler had only a handful of them.
They’ve got the same sort of psychology and personality and potential for evil.

It goes without saying that the tendency of so-called law enforcement was—and this is municipal, state, county, and federal—to smile upon militias as good ol’ boys letting off steam who don’t mean anyone any harm. But one could imagine what would happen if the NAACP or Anti-Defamation League or B’nai B’rith or La Raza started wearing fatigues, carrying military weapons, and practicing warfare with live ammo. They’d all be behind barbed wire by sundown.

The prohibition against private armies is in there, it’s just not being enforced. I think we’re putting our nation in grave peril by allowing it to continue. I was saying things like this on a local radio station a while back, and the head of the area militia called in. I asked him, “Well, do you consider yourself well armed?” And he said, “Well, I certainly do.” Then he recited every weapon in his arsenal and was very proud of it. I asked, “Who are you planning to kill?” And he said, “Anyone who tries to take away my guns.” If the incumbent national administration happened to impose the constitutional statutory laws against private armies, I don’t know if we’d have a virtual civil war on our hands or not. These people are fanatics. My concern is not just racism—these people are large-scale counterrevolutionists, and by that I’m referring to the American Revolution. They are terrorists simply biding their time.

During the Great Depression, the American dream, the ultimate goal of society, was to have a “chicken in every pot.” Now it’s owning two automobiles and a runabout boat and all sorts of other things. During the middle of the 20th century, the US Chamber of Commerce’s slogan was “Build the Middle Class.” That is something worthwhile. Now, a half century later, we’re face to face with the phenomenon of the middle class being precipitously plunged into something less than middle class. And the flight of industry and capital to other low-cost labor markets in the world has left America to wither on the vine, so much that instead of worrying about “rust belts” we would do well to start worrying about a “rust continent.” To my mind, that is nothing less than high treason. Capitalists decided they were going to escape from two centuries of bloody, painful struggle to improve labor conditions. They packed it up to go to places where they didn’t have to worry about child-labor laws, workman’s comp, unemployment insurance, retirement insurance, safety regulations, or environmental protection. This means the Industrial Revolution is starting over again with no holds barred. What that means for the future remains to be seen. It has the potential of making us a third-world debtor, flash-in-the-pan, has-been nation."

-Stetson Kennedy

(excerpted from: "BUSTING UP THE KLAN AND STICKING IT TO THE MAN")
Read the entire article HERE:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v18n4/htdocs/busting-up-the-klan-771.php

Serf City Here We Come*

2011-04-12T18:40:00.023-04:00

"Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still peasants as far as i can see"

-John Lennon ("Working Class Hero")

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxMyFe81FUg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom

Emale

2011-03-10T22:06:00.004-05:00

"In Antiquity, people sought moderation because they did not have it. In the Middle Ages, they sought logic because they did not have it. In modernism, they sought emotion because they did not have it. In post-modernism, they seek meaning because they do not have it. After post-modernism, they will seek man because they will not have him."

-Yorgos Lamprakos

Contact

2011-03-03T22:37:00.004-05:00

2001: A Space Odyssey, (1968)

The Last Act

2011-03-03T22:03:00.008-05:00

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion,” and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

-I.J. Good (1965)

INFO:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html

Little People In Your Ears

2011-02-10T20:48:00.004-05:00

"Just as there won’t be a clear distinction between nonbiological and biological intelligence, there won’t be a clear distinction between real and virtual realities. It’s going to be mixed up—we’re going to have augmented reality. You’ll look at someone and there will be little pop-ups and little virtual people who whisper in our ears and tell us what’s going on, or just remind us what people’s names are."

-RAY KURZWEIL

Read the rest at Vice Magazine:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n4/htdocs/ray-kurzweil-800.php

(illustration by: Eduardo Paolozzi)

Meet the new boss; Same as the old boss

2011-02-06T20:01:00.007-05:00

The Who

Won't Get Fooled Again(?)*

2011-02-06T19:52:00.001-05:00

"The duty of youth is to challenge corruption."*

2011-02-06T19:01:00.004-05:00

*-Kurt Cobain

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."*

2011-01-22T01:47:00.005-05:00

*-Pablo Picasso

Relearning Learning

2011-01-17T23:06:00.002-05:00

Ken Robinson on reforming public education

Born To Buy

2011-01-16T06:40:00.009-05:00

"Marketing is fundamentally altering the experience of childhood. Corporations have infiltrated the core activities and institutions of youth, with virtually no resistance from government or parents. Advertising is widespread in schools. Electronic media are replacing conventional play. We have become a nation that places a lower priority on teaching its children how to thrive socially, intellectually, and morally than it does on training them to consume.
Kids can recognize logos by eighteen months and before reaching their second birthday, they're asking for products by brand name. By three and a half years old, experts say children start to believe that brands communicate their personal qualities. Upon arrival at the schoolhouse steps, the typical first grader can evoke hundreds of brands, and he or she has already accumulated an unprecedented amount of possessions.
As kids age, they turn to teen culture, which is is saturated by the media with gratutious sexuality, based on unrealistic body images, constraining gender stereotypes, and, all too frequently, the degradation of women.
The dominant teen culture is also rife with materialism and preaches that if you're not rich, you're a loser. Adolescents are subjected to unremitting pressure to conform to the market's definition of cool. And now these values have migrated down to younger children. Eight and nine year olds watch reality shows and other prime-time fare ostensibly aimed at teens and adults. Marketers are deliberately investing children's culture with themes and sensibilities that have worked with teens - a widespread practice known as "tweening".
These developments have not been beneficial. Research has shown that involvement in consumer culture causes dysfunction in the forms of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and psychosomatic complaints.
American youth has emerged as the most brand-oriented, consumer-involved, and materialistic generation in history."

- excerpted from Born To Buy by Juliet Schor

"The only reason a great many American families don't own an elephant... *

2011-01-13T22:15:00.004-05:00

*... is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments."

-Mad Magazine

Shop Till You Drop

2011-01-13T03:14:00.005-05:00

"An important new issue is emerging in the arena of sustainable development that rivals environmental concerns in importance. It is consumption — or rather, mis- and over-consumption. This is a less tractable problem than environmental degradation in that politicians see efforts to contain consumption as a superb way to lose votes. It is at the heart of the sustainability debate, as it covers the depletion of natural capital, such as key non-renewable resources, and the capacity to absorb pollution."

-Norman Myers (from Confronting Consumerism, MIT Press)

INFO:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=8734&ttype=2
http://web.utk.edu/~arouthe/mli/Confronting%20Consumption.pdf

"A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy."*

2010-12-26T17:54:00.005-05:00

*-Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Speech in the House of Commons, Mar. 3, 1845

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo"*

2010-12-25T11:09:00.001-05:00

*-H.G. Wells

Tell It Like It Is

2010-12-25T11:03:00.003-05:00

Nina Simone

Give It A Go

2010-12-24T01:19:00.008-05:00

I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes
His license in the field of time,
Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
The heart that never plighted troth
But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

("In Memoriam", 1849)

Not Afraid To Take A Stand

2010-12-12T22:32:00.001-05:00

15-year old British student stands up for his generation

United We Stand

2010-12-10T01:13:00.001-05:00

Brotherhood of Man

United States of Stupid

2010-12-10T01:00:00.004-05:00

INFO:
http://www.slate.com/id/2109218/

Altered States

2010-12-10T00:41:00.012-05:00

CYBERNETIC INDIANS • X-RATED CLOWNS • JUSTIN BIEBER • ERUPTING VESSELS • PLUSHIES • JENNA JAMESON • DEATH-DEFYING FEATS • PRISON TRADE • SUPERHEROES • ECSTATIC STATES • UNDERWATER DRUMMING • REVENGE THERAPY • PENTECOSTAL SNAKE HANDLERS • & MORE…

SHORT FILMS by: Colby Bird • Darrin Martin & Torston Zenas Burns • Wayne Coe • Michael Economy • Peter Eide • Tony Feyer • Michael Greenblatt • Rose Kallal • Lewis Klahr • Kristian Kozul • Steve LaFreniere • Rachel Mason • Ashleigh Nankivell • Peter Rand • Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny • programmed by Billy Miller

Sunday, December 19, 8:00pm
@ Artists' Television Access
992 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 824-3890

INFO:
http://www.artslant.com/sf/articles/show/20411
http://www.atasite.org/2010/12/“altered-statehood”-2/

(above:"The History of Magic" -Rose Kallal)

State of the Art

2010-11-21T12:54:00.005-05:00

trained elephant paints a pretty picture

INFO:
(writer/editor/curator Bob Nickas' take on the art game):
http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n11/htdocs/bob-nickas-601.php

"Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil."*

2010-11-17T22:27:00.003-05:00

Above: A rare Qing Dynasty vase found in a dusty suburban attic that recently sold at an auction house for $85.9 million dollars.
INFO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/europe/13vase.html?_r=3

*-J. Paul Getty

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."*

2010-11-17T22:03:00.007-05:00

*-Philip K. Dick

(above: sculpture by Donald Judd)

Uplifted

2010-10-30T00:26:00.007-04:00

VJ Peter Rand

C2C

2010-10-08T17:28:00.007-04:00

Cradle to Cradle is essentially a play on the "Cradle to Grave" phrase, implying that the C2C model is sustainable and considerate of life in general.

Technical nutrients are basically inorganic or synthetic materials manufactured by humans—such as plastics and metals--that can be used many times over without any loss in quality, staying in a continuous cycle.

Biological nutrients and materials are organic materials that can decompose into the natural environment, soil, water, etc. without affecting it in a negative way, providing food for bacteria and microbiological life.

Materials are usually referred to as the building blocks of other materials, such as the dyes used in colouring fibers or rubbers used in the sole of a shoe.

Downcycling is a term used to describe what is conventionally known as recycling, which is seen as "downcycling" materials into lesser products, a plastic computer housing becomes a plastic cup, which then becomes a park bench, eventually becoming waste.

Waste = Food is a basic concept of organic waste materials becoming food for bugs, insects and other small forms of life who can feed on it, decompose it and return it to the natural environment which we then indirectly use for food ourselves.

INFO:
http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/cradle.html
http://www.mbdc.com/detail.aspx?linkid=2&sublink=8

Little Things

2010-10-08T17:03:00.000-04:00

Bobby Goldsboro

"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."*

2010-10-08T00:37:00.012-04:00

*-Julie Andrews

Note: The above graphic is a sample from a series of postcards produced by The Mormons in the 1950s(!): http://tinypineapple.com/tag/be-honest-with-yourself