Chewbacca, what a Wookie.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh!

Lets raise the level of discussion

Not surprisingly, intellectuals commonly use allegations of anti-intellectualism as a charge against their critics…. The term 'intellectual' implies knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence, and thus to be called 'anti-intellectual' can often be perceived as meaning one favors ignorance or stupidity.
Sometimes criticism of intellectuals can take the form of a specific critique of an intellectual's specific field of study or theory. Not all 'intellectual' theories are correct, and thus an intellectual's beliefs can be disputed without necessarily being against the larger concept of intellectual study.
…..
The worst offenders are the artists and the intellectuals. The artists invariably believe that since God has provided them with an easel, a canvas, a few brushes and some paint, they are superior to the rest of the species. Therefore, you are likely to come across them looking either lost or with fire in the eyes. Both these are legitimate expressions. No one will ever bother to insinuate that they are either uncomfortable and constipated or have had one too many.

A story of a man and his cave...

International Astromen World Headquarters?

55th and 6th. Midtown Manhatten. Best cheap greasy spoon hamburger I have ever had. The bottomless coffee mugs bear this logo as well.

In other news we score as high as 4th with a Google search of the forum title, along with a headline pleading "Notify Blogger about objectionable content."

Graffiti Archaeology

Link to neat-o time-lapse images of graffitied walls, taken over the period of years. Via Artcyclopedia.

"Non-rational logic will not go away."

Here's another exhibition I didn't see. A few years ago, David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, showed a suite of PowerPoint™ presentations that he had made; which where essentially a taxonomy of coporate-ese. The project was called "Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information". Byrne is someone you can count on for oblique, unexpected insights, even if they are somewhat hodge-podge. A cursory search of the Web only turns up a handful of stills from the project, though there was an NPR spot, and a Wired article.Link to Wired article, "Learning to Love PowerPoint."
Link to David Byrne's website.
Link to NPR Day to Day spot, Jan. 14th, 2004.

Negativland's "Gimme the Mermaid"

This is a Negativland piece about Disney's copyright lobbying, and is the best Black Flag cover ever. (or maybe it comes in second to Ice-T doing "Police Story".) I still feel guilty about missing these guys' gallery show in NYC a couple months ago.

Link, via Illegal Art.
Edit: Also, you can download the classic "Spin", in its entirety, from the Illegal Art website. Link to mp4 (133 mb).

"You will pay us to see!"

"The Act contains certain anti-speech aspects which will directly affect illustrators, photographers and others.

It will serve to eliminate the current protection for non-commercial speech currently contained in the Lanham Act. It will prevent businesses (artists)and consumers from invoking famous trademarks to explain or illustrate their discussion of public issues.

For example, using the phrase "Where's the Beef" could be actionable. Although you might use it in a non-commercial way, the (very) famous Wendy's slogan when used to comment might not be protected by the fair use exception.

The Act would give companies considerable leverage in preventing artists and photographers from employing their marks in images by claiming the mark is being "diluted". The bigger the company, the more famous the trademark, the easier it will be to prevent you guys from using it. National companies with highly recognizable marks would have more leverage than any single creator or small business and would easily outspend any of you to prevent your using their mark. Exceptions for fair use, non-commercial use, reportage, commentary, etc. currently existing could disappear and would be no defense to claims of infringement of a registered or unregistered mark."

More here...

Luke-warm left-overs

George played political softball tonight; mentioning little about the how's and wherefore's of his foreign and domestic policies. He was most noticeably unspecific about any kind of quantitative, or explanatory, (read, answerable) observations on our country's military engagements and espionage activities. The term "hopeful society" seemed to be the stand-in term for "moral values", but with more of a siege mentality flavor.
All-in-all this was nothing new, left-overs really. He did some mincing about the Palestinian elections, to what end, who knows.
Each year during the State of the Union, I'm waiting for George to lose his cookies and dissolve the government, while storm troopers march into the Congressional chambers. (see "Pres. Manson" below.)
P.S.: Also, it was a spooky moment when the President warned of "human-animal hybrids"; is there something he knows that we don't?