Power & Politics
VASAMUSEET – 17th Century Warship Raised From the Deep
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | Pop Culture Notions, Power & Politics | No Comments
The Vasamuseet is one of the top 20 museums I’ve ever visited .
The Vasa, once Sweden’s largest warship, was built in the 17th century and sunk outside Stockholm moments after it set sail ( the engineer made a mistake calculating ballast so the vessel tipped over with a sudden gust and sunk ) Many survived, but some of the ocean goers tragically drowned.
There the Vasa sat upright in the muddy depths, preserved in the cold brackish (mostly fresh, part salt) waters of the Swedish archipelago for nearly 300 years when in the 1960’s and 1970’s Sweden raised the boat like Lazarus – whole. After years of careful restoration and research, they built the Vasamuseet around the wreck.
Be sure to flip through these pics showing the wooden vessel, diagrams of trees containing specific ship parts, and reconstructions of victim’s faces based on their remains.
-Tonky
Iranian Expats Protest Election Fraud | Stockholm, Sweden
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | Power & Politics | No Comments
A few pics of Iranian expatriates protesting last week’s apparently fraudulent re-election of President Aahmadinejad in Iran.
While the size of the modest gathering in downtown Stockholm pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of marchers in Tehran, the show of solidarity with their moderates brothers and sisters back home is heartening.
-Tonky
Historiska Museet: Mary the Dream of the Woman
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | Contemporary Art, Power & Politics | No Comments
Ok I realized I was wrong to claim Sweden is totally godless after yesterday’s trip to Historiska Museet in Stockholm to see “Mary, the Dream of the Woman.”
Essentially they take a look at modern femininity through the lens of ancient religious icons and the work of contemporary artists, musicians, and dancers like Anne Hamilton, Eva Dahlgren, and Virpi Pahkinen respectively.
The sound environment is sublime and their thoughtful combination of old art with new art engages the effect the historical/mythology Mary has on our world and our notion of the female ideal. This show is important to see whether or not you believe in God.
Check out their website and translated press release HERE
WPA Posters – Selling America on Leisure Time, Health, and War
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 | Pop Culture Notions, Power & Politics | No Comments
Today on WNYC radio, Leonard Lopate spoke with Nick Taylor about his fascinating new book American-Made about Great Depression era Works and Progress Administration (WPA).
Listen to the segment online or download MP3 at WNYC.org
The WPA built roads, addressed public health issues, facilitated industry, spearheaded healthy recreation activities, and promoted tourism. Towards the end of its existence the WPA also played an important role in educating Americans about their place in the war effort (WWII)
It seems some fondly look back at the WPA as an all-purpose advocate for the common man, while others see it as the showcase example of wasteful government spending.
Franklin Roosevelt founded the WPA and I’ve noticed a number of historians and commentators forward to the Obama administration for a similarly efficient and wide-reaching program to pull us out of our current economic doldrums and to get Americans back to work. Perhaps this time they will build turbines and solar farms!
Nick Taylor mentioned how the WPA was officialy decommissioned during WWII. Take a look at this selection of WPA poster I found online at Library Of Congress site. Interesting how the content shifts from public service/recreation information to war propaganda.
New York Times Hoax: The YES MEN See Our Future
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Contemporary Art, Pop Culture Notions, Power & Politics, Public Art/Interventions | No Comments
Thankfully I got my hands on a hard copy of the document at the center of the elaborate hoax reported to have been staged by The Yes Men today in NYC and apparently across the county.
According to Steve Lambert -who responded to my email query addressed to the hoax website’s owner registration on the WhoIs- told me that other groups involved in planning include: the Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Not An Alternative, May First/People Link, Improv Everywhere, Evil Twin Publications, and Cultures of Resistance.
The Pranksters handed out thousand of fake New York Times in subway stations across the city and over 1.2 million copies nationwide.
The Yes Men is a group of performance artists that stages interventions of the mainstream media in order to expose and elucidate topics pertinent to social justice. Or in their words, the Yes Men takes pride in, “Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.”
The Yes Men’s fake NYtimes “special edition” is dated Saturday, July 4th, 2009 and features such headlines as IRAQ WAR ENDS and advertisements such as the one from Exxon Mobil that takes responsibility for the Iraq War. The issue is printed on genuine newsprint and it is remarkably detailed and well crafted.
For those who didn’t get to see the analog version of the hoax, I have scanned the whole damn thing for your viewing pleasure. There are hidden gems throughout.
View gallery by clicking below.
or
Download 14 page Hi-Res PDF (12 MB) <CLICK HERE>
also
Visit the NYtimes Hoax Website Here
&
Read more about the prank here at nytimes.com City Room Blog
READ more in WIRED’s Blog
In 2006, The Yes Men famously duped the BBC into airing a live interview of their fictional Dow Chemical Representative. They did so with this hoax website: http://dowethics.com/
Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, the company responsible for the chemical spill in Bhopal, India that killed 8,000 people and has since sickened tens of thousands more. So, the Yes Men went on air with their fictional PR wonk from Dow Chemical proclaiming they would liquidate Union Carbide in order to :
-pay for reparations
-clean up the disaster site
-provide medical care for those effected
This prank sparked a world wide plunge of Dow Chemical stock and in turn forced an embarrassed Dow Chemical to issue an official press release stating in effect: We do not accept responsibility, we will not clean up the spill, we will not provide medical attention, we will not compensate the victims.
Let’s hope some day they will. The Human Element my ass.
See video below. Pure genius.
Al Franken Senate Victory in Sight for MN Race
Saturday, November 8th, 2008 | Power & Politics | No Comments
On November 4th, 2008 nearly 3 million Minnesotan voters cast ballots in the race for Senate between Al Franken (D) and incumbent Norm Coleman (R). After all precincts reported their tallies, Coleman lead Franken by 725 votes.
By Thursday morning after districts had checked their reporting and corrected some typographical errors Coleman’s lead dwindled to a mere 438. ( one official improperly recorded Franken’s vote at his polling station effectively shorting him a full 100 votes )
Currently officials are struggling to assure that each vote cast has been counted. There are irregularities being reported in a number of districts including urban Minneapolis (heavily leaning Democratic district) Apparently stations there ran out of Minnesota’s same-day registration forms and voters ostensibly cast provisional ballot pending confirmation of their eligibility to vote.
Once these votes are counted it can reasonibly be inferred that Al Franken will overtake Coleman and emerge the victor rendering Norm Coleman a lame duck Senator.
In the face of this news, the desperate Norm Coleman is calling for Franken to concede. Franken simply prefers to let the voters decide.
SOURCE:
BARACK OBAMA President Elect – Webpage Roundup
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | Pop Culture Notions, Power & Politics | No Comments
Check out this gallery of webpages as of last night. Al Jazeera’s arabic site is pretty interesting and also notice the advertisements on each page.
I like BBC’s (shown above) “Whiter Whites” ad for some laundry detergent (Tide? Clorox?) , a perfect partner for a lead story about America’s first black president. hee hee. Roland Barthes has some interesting thoughts about Laundry Detergents in his collection of essays Mythologies. In one essay Barthes uses psychoanalysis to break apart the methods that soap companies use to sell detergents. His writing is wonderfully dense, here is a excerp:
“Persil Whiteness,” for instance, bases its prestige on the evidence of the result; it calls into play vanity, a social concern with appearances, by offering for comparison two objects, one of which is whiter than the other. Advertisements for Omo also indicate the effect of the product (and in superlative fashion, incidentally), but they chiefly reveal its mode of action; in doing so, they involve the consumer in a kind of direct experience of the substance, make him the accomplice of a liberation rather than the mere beneficiary of a result; matter here is endowed with value-bearing states.
Anyhow, how are all you election addicts handling the withdrawl? I sat around all day tinkering with the website, drinking coffee and listening to WNYC. Amazing how quickly these news agencies shift gears. Most are focusing on Obama’s plan for transition of power. FOX NEWS on the other hand seems to be ALREADY setting up Obama for failure during his first 100 days in office. This win is the best thing to ever happen for Sean Hannnity’s career.
