Fascinating + Disgusting = Martin Parr (his photos, not him)

From the rumors and whisperings that I have heard around Magnum Photographers and other Magnum agency folk, I know that Martin Parr is, for some- especially those of the more old-school-war-photojournalist set- a somewhat controversial figure. This is in part because of Magnum's roots in war photography, and also in part because of Parr's immense success and influence (though I always thought that if Elliot Erwitt was acceptable alongside the likes of Capa and Phillip Jones-Griffiths, then why not Parr; maybe his gravitational pull is moving Magnum unconsciously away from its war roots, but I find his photographic insights into the world to be no less revelatory than Jones-Griffiths work).

I think that it took me a little bit of time to really get into what Parr has been tryng to do with is work (my first exposure to Magnum as an entity was the 'degrees' book, and Parr's work really stuck out of that collection both for its subject matter and formal properties) but he is now one of my favorite photographers and a huge influence on my own work (though I am careful not to try and copy him- Parr is Parr and its futile to try to do what he does best). I find his best work to be that which is both fascinating and disgusting: like a social and cultural train wreck that you can't look away from. In some ways I think his work and Bruce Gilden's street-surprise portraits are two sides of the same coin.

Here is a short little piece from TateShots about Parr:

Do you run out of Kleenex, Paper Towels and Toilet Paper at the Same Time? You know its true!

So a commenter on one of Ta-Nehisi Coates' postings about Glenn Beck (posted as a joke comparing Beck to Mos Def asking whether white people should be embarrassed about Beck like he jokingly suggested that black people were expected to be embarrassed of Mos Def. Just to throw in my 2 cents on the Mos Def thing, I was only slightly uncomfortable because I like Mos Def's work and assumed he was a pretty smart guy. While he sounds naive at best and conspiracy-addled at worst, I think that in there is a grain of a good point, which is that there never was a lot of media air time devoted to what folks like al-Qaeda and the Taliban actually say about themselves and the rest of the world. Hitchens says to go and watch bin Laden's videos or listen to his tapes, but that kind of shit was never broadcast on TV or radio, which I think should have been Mos Def's point. Why not? The words of these fools ought to be broadcast so that there is no confusion about where they stand and so that reasonable people can reject and oppose their ways. Marketplace of ideas or something like that. Mostly I think the problem for Mos Def was that he had the misfortune of coming onto the show on a night when Christopher Hitchens was not visibly drunk. Don't get me wrong: he's a smart guy and very interesting to listen to and read, but I have definitely seen him drunk on Bill Maher's show before.) linked to this great clip from True Stories (more David Byrne for ya. I wish he made more movies). Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories, unfortunately, are not nearly as baroque as even this guy's, but he's still young, and has time to grow....

Twitter is Good for Something

OK, so in delving further into the mysteries and absurdities of Twitter, I came across this, which actually is really cool. I only use Twitter to keep up with my brother (we don't phone or email very regularly and when my mom asks if I've heard from him recently, I interpret "heard from" loosely and cite his frequent and cryptic tweets as evidence that he is still out there doing stuff) and to decide where and when I will be getting together with my teenage friends to make drugs.

I like this especially because it doesn't really even involve actualy Twittering, just turning a knob and pressing a button. Fresh pizza would be a good one, too (slices are so much better when they don't have to be reheated). And if they could twitter when the G Train is coming, that would save a lot of people a lot of pain. From adafruit industries via Make:

BakerTweet is a way for busy bakers to tell the world that something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. It’s as simple as turning the dial and hitting the button. All of the baker’s followers get a Twitter alert to tell them that it’s bun-time. Or bread time. Or whatever.

BakerTweet from BakerTweet on Vimeo.

Orwell Goes to the Pictures

The Orwell Diaries is a project that reprints George Orwell's diaries as if he were writing a blog. The day and month are correct, but the year is off by seventy. He doesn't write every day, but he travels a bit, and is quite observant (as to be expected) of both the banal and the important.

He is aboard the Yaskunimaru right now, crossing the Bay of Biscay, and on his way back to London. Before he departed, he went to the movies in Casablanca:

In Casablanca went to the pictures, & saw films making it virtually certain that the French Gov.t expects war. The first a film on the life of a soldier, following up all the different branches & with some very good shots of the inner arrangement of the Maginot line. This film had evidently been hurriedly constructed & went into much greater detail than is normal in films of this kind. The other was the Pathé news gazette, in which the announcer gave what was practically a political speech denouncing Germany. Then more shots of British & French troops etc. The significant point was the attitude of the audience – utterly unenthusiastic, hardly a clap, & a few hostile comments.
This time all French people are convinced it is war. A number began talking to us spontaneously about it, all deploring the prospect (eg. in one or two cases, “It does no good to us, it’s only the rich who profit out of it”, etc., etc.), though sometimes describing Hitler as a “salaud.”
A.R.P. (ie F.A.P.A.C.) notices, calling for volunteer helpers, posted in Marrakech for the first time about 20th March. According to Madame M., whose son is at St Cyr, even the cadets there do not want war, though ready for it, of course.

Its fascinating to read about how the war was anticipated and regarded before the fact. And not a little bit morbid to read all of this knowing that war is indeed imminent and that Orwell and his wife are headed to London and the Blitz, which will begin in about a year-and-a-half.

Glenn Beck Admits that he was Wrong [but only because he discovered that now he's even more right than before]

Although I don't really have the stomach to watch any of these cable/talk-radio/whatever guys anymore, I really think that Glenn Beck has taken the medium to another level. I suppose in a way, he is the logical outcome of the cable-talking system: he seems to be a synthesis of Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, a televangelist, and circus/freakshow ringmaster with the added wrinkle that he slides in and out of coherence and hallucination quite regularly.



While I especially admire this clip for its sheer over-the-topness (and graphic design) and blind grasping at some kind of populism-in-the-face-of-totalitarianism, he really ought to read or re-read '1984' because that book really does have important things to say about our world (especially with information-control-technology reaching the capabilities of what was envisioned in the book). Perhaps it is too much to expect from a man in his position to actually engage in a coherent analysis of a piece of literature as it may relate to our current state of affairs, but to confuse the world we are now living in with Orwell's vision is to just be confused. And to call that world 'totalitarianism with a happy face' is to not have paid attention to the book at all:

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain."

Davy Byrne in England

If Glenn Beck is worried about creeping fascism and society becoming more like '1984', he ought to go to England (well, he ought to at least re-read '1984' if he's going to claim that we're headed down that road and maybe tweak his arguments a little bit). David Byrne sent this snapshot in to Boing Boing while on the road. I assumed at first that it had to be a joke, but based on other things I've seen coming out of England's police-propaganda machines [see below], I fear that it may be serious.

I've been enjoying the postings of terrorist alert, security and CCTV posters on Boing Boing. All Eyes On You was a lovely one!

here's one I saw on the road near Newcastle, where I performed the other night. love the "be taken down" in smaller type...I want one of these for my house!

DB
en route to Liverpool

And also from the London Metropolitan Police (via Boing Boing):

Terrorism: If you suspect it, report it

TERRORISTS NEED INFORMATION
Observation and surveillance help terrorists plan attacks. Have you seen anyone taking pictures of security arrangements?

TERRORISTS NEED TRANSPORTATION
If you work in vehicle hire or sales, has a sale or rental made you suspicious?

TERRORISTS NEED TO TRAVEL
Meetings, training and planning can take place anywhere. Do you know someone who travels but is vague about where they are going?

TERRORISTS USE COMPUTERS
Do you know someone who visits terrorism-related websites?

TERRORISTS NEED COMMUNICATION
Anonymous, pay-as-you-go and stolen mobiles are typical. Have you seen someone with large quantities of mobiles? Has it made you suspicious?

Translation: god help you if you worry about CCTVs in your neighbourhood, get into an argument at the car-rental agency, don't feel like telling your co-workers that you go off to have regular dialysis treatments, look at websites that the guy next to you in the Internet cafe isn't familiar with, or can't get credit and use pay-as-you-go phones instead. After all, the police here don't even need to charge you with a crime in order to lock you up for 42 days. Absolutely the stupidest salvo in the war on terror to date, Tesco's, Islington, London, UK

Deeper Into Cartoons

After discovering wikiSimpsons, I was disappointed to see that the wikiRenandStimpy was pretty much empty. I usually am disappointed when I go back to watch cartoons from my childhood (Thundercats and He-Man were particularly devastatingly bad) but I think Ren and Stimpy still got it. The classic, Space Madness:

Ren and Stimpy - Space Madness

(Annoyed-Grunt!)

Today's featured article on WikiSimpsons:

D'oh (represented in the shows script as "annoyed-grunt") is Homer Simpson's famous catchphrase. It is used when Homer hurts himself, finds out something to his embarrassment or chagrin, is outsmarted, or undergoes or anticipates misfortune.

When Dan Castellaneta,Homer's voice actor, was first asked to voice the exclamation, he rendered it as a drawn out "doooh", inspired by Jimmy Finlayson, the moustached Scottish actor who appeared in many Laurel and Hardy films. Finlayson coined the term as a minced oath to stand for the word "Damn!" The show's creator Matt Groening felt that it would better suit the timing of animation if it were spoken faster so Castellaneta shortened it to "D'oh!"

It was first heard on a Tracey Ullman Show short entitled "Punching Bag", which aired on November 27, 1988. When Bart and Lisa try to hide a punching bag with his face on it, and it knocks him out. Homer's reaction is "D'oh!" The next occasion it was heard was in the first episodes of The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airing on December 17, 1989.

And this year's Nominee for Most Awkward World Leader Group Photo

Awkward, yes, but in a totally different way from last year's winner in which everybody scurried away from George Bust as fast as they could (Sarkozy is like, 'oh, shit, how can I get past without him seeing me...'):


Correction: I referred to George Bush above as 'George Bust'; I should correct it. However, I like it when typos actually become freudian slips, so I am just going to leave it like that.

Twitter Understood

For those of us who have used Twitter on occasion, but aren't quite sure when or why to use it, and CERTAINLY can't explain to anybody else what the point of it is, Dan Kennedy at McSweeny's lets us in on his Groundbreaking Marketing Research:

Twitter seems to be, first and foremost, an online haven where teenagers making drugs can telegraph secret code words to arrange gang fights and orgies. It also functions as a vehicle for teasing peers until they commit suicide. In order to become a "follower" on Twitter, teens first must flash their high-beam headlights at an oncoming motorist on the highway. Then, if that motorist flashes his or her high-beam headlights back in reply, the teen must kill the motorist in order to be initiated into "following" the online gang.

Colbert + Beck =

Stephen Colbert is on the Glenn Beck bandwagon (finally!).
This guy (Beck) just gets better and better. I can't wait until they put him on south Park:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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comedycentral.com
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Clip Art Bonanza