Reading the writing on the wall
Posted: Friday, January 26, 2007 12:02 PM by Will Femia
Advertising = graffiti - From the folks at the Graffiti Research Lab - I was concerned that this was a little too NYC-specific, but it has some philosophy behind it that everyone can consider. As the video makes clear, one of the chief points of the street art movement is that the aesthetic of our surroundings shouldn't be the sole domain of the people with enough money to own it. Street artists resent that the appearance of their surroundings is the sole domain of advertisers.
That said, not everyone is so pleased with the idea of self-appointed artists decorating public space either. Recently New York City has been in the midst of a struggle between street artists and at least one person who has been defacing others' works. The vandals' vandal, sometimes referred to as "the splasher" for reasons that are obvious if you click through to the pictures, is apparently a Dadaist activist who, if I understand the manifesto correctly, resents the way art creates a context of audience and performer, "agents and a mass." Since pretty much everything in our society creates that context it's not clear why street art is the target but there does seem to be contempt for it as a "bourgeois fad."
Speaking of the spirit of rebellion, Smells Like Teen Spirit backward - Since the advent of CDs we don't really hear songs played backward anymore, but someone found a way to do it with this song and found -almost- a second song. Some parts sound pretty close to real words but others are a stretch even with help from the subtitles.
"Ask Me, Don't Tell Me is a 1961 educational film about gangs in San Francisco."
Speaking of San Francisco, Slate's review of the new Sony Bravia commercial has put their old bouncing balls video back in viral circulation. I clicked the YouTube version but the better quality sound and video is on the Sony site.
The Real Hustle - Proposition Bet - The bottom line is that if someone wants to make a bet that they can do something, chances are good they actually can. In fact, I don't even think this is a hustle. It's more like, "How much will you pay me to show you this cool trick?"
Say no to dirt - The self-cleaning rehab toilet.
That Dick Cheney/Wolf Blitzer video - I was trying to write an item comparing this with the time the president asked Jim Webb about his son and was told essentially, "None of your business" but after thinking about it, other than the fact that both incidents involve politicians talking about their kids, they're really apples and oranges.
I'm blogging - In case it wasn't already clear, the backlash is here.
Co dokaze zena... (What a woman can do...) - Unless you understand whatever language the song is being sung in (Czech?) then you really only need to see the first 23 seconds of this one. I ignored thy misogyny and instead focused on the bizarre physics of it.
