August 2008 Archives
This noteworthy museum exhibit on Judaism and comics will be making its way to Belgium next year.
The UK Tourette Syndrome Association wins the 2008 Chip Shop Award for best charity ad. I'd love to see the equivalent in the U.S.; for now, we'll have to rely on South Park.
Via about:blank, which is always full of good stuff.
The U.S. has a storied tradition of uncivil protest. In New York's gentrifying NoLita, a resident living above the new restaurant Delicatessan has registered his objection in a most creative way: by urinating on its glass roof.
Unfortunately, as this sign indicates, the pissed off tenant seems to have missed the mark, forcing another tenant to replace an air conditioner.
These old ads provide a striking example of the relation between technology and language. A few decades later everything would "atomic." In the early sixties, "-tronic." Now--eThis and iThat.
It's something folks need to remember when talking about social enterprise. The movement's rhetoric is an expression of its time, and times--like Electric Beans and Electro Balm--do change.
I actually address this issue in my latest article. If you'd like a copy, drop me a line.
From 1942, a reminder that the 2.0 generation is not sui generis, but the latest manifestation of a trend that has been building for well over the past century.
Back when I lived in a city where I drove to work, this always creeped me out. One main intersection on the way to work was near a high school; the intersection also had a gas station with its own commercial car wash. Rather frequently during the summer there would be a charity car wash for school groups where older guys would line up to get their cars hosed down by bikini-clad teen girls. Bad enough the charity car wash was taking business away from the gas station's; the overt Lolita dynamic skeezified the whole affair.
Y'know, where I grew up, despite their deep tradition of organized benevolence you never saw an Amish bikini buggy wash.
Index card via the ever insightful Indexed--bookmark it or subscribe if you haven't already!
The Ephemerist finds a copy of a 1962 comic adapting the film The Underwater City--with the evolutionary material scratched out & replaced with divine creation:
Katy Perry--whose "I kissed a girl" has become an international hit--has a cast made of her breasts. The bust of her bust will be auctioned off for Keep-a-breast.org.
The last daily was interesting, with an implicit slam on Lynn Johnston's ex-husband, who, it seems, left her for one of her own employees. Tomorrow's final Sunday has been scanned & Flickr'd, with happy endings for all.
Except perhaps for the dead guy.
From a 2003 interview on real estate investment trusts:
Saltzman: Investing is about relative value. There have been capital inflows to real estate because it has offered better returns than fixed income or stocks in recent years. No doubt real estate is getting bid up as part of that equation. Will real estate continue to be perceived as a good value or has it reached equilibrium? It's certainly possible that investor perceptions of relative value will shift once again.
"Black Creature" by Numskull. Available here for $1000 Australian.
From The Circle of Life: Rituals from the Human Family Album, Rasta kids smoke their sacred herb.
The world may now know Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, but folks in the charity biz no doubt remember her work in creating the charitable check-off provision for Alaskans receiving a Permanent Fund Dividend from the state's oil revenue. Under this new law, residents can donate part or all of their annual oil dividend to qualifying charities.
What?
You don't remember this?
Well, it was big news in Alaska, anyway. They even took a picture of her at the bill's signing, in a room with all the other residents of the state:
Were I to rename this site, "Pedigreed Bunk" would be in the running. Captain Billy's Whiz Bang is available here; its history is the subject of an eponymous essay that made a big impression on me growing up, in the landmark comics history collection All in Color for a Dime. My historical sensibility owes a lot to it.
In fact, I still have the copy of All in Color I bought at a flea market over thirty years ago. Back in the day I read it so many times the cover fell off & the book split in two.
Actually, Elizabeth, you won't, because your creator is killing you on Sunday.
Your doppleganger escapes from the Black Lodge on September 1.
From the AVN photo gallery taken at the world record lapdance for charity at Scores Las Vegas. NSFW, probably.
It's easy to say that stuff like this isn't really charity or social enterprise, but if that's your opinion, why not? On what basis should folks draw the line?
Speaking of which, porn star Tera Patrick has promised that if she wins the 2008 Booble Girl of the Year contest, she'll donate the $5000 prize to breast cancer charity B.A.B.E. Anyone who wants to demonstrate the power of web 2.0 fundraising can vote at the decidedly NSFW porn search engine Booble.com.
I really needed a break today, so for the subway ride home I picked up the copies of the Licensable Bear comics that I was delighted to find colonizing my postal lifeworld (thanks Nat!).
Brilliant! Piracy. Free culture. Anime. Social enterprise. And that's just the first issue--everything is fair game for this commercial satire. There's a lot here for folks in the charity biz, such as the library pitch above and the Licensable Bear PSAs. A collected edition is reportedly on the way; for now, be sure to check out all the fun--and licensable!--stuff on the LB site.
As the comics community commemorates Jack Kirby's birthday, here's the cover of what might very well be my favorite Kirby story of all time.
The premise is deceptively simple: in the future after the Great Disaster, Kamandi encounters a tribe of gorillas that worship The Mighty One. Legend tells them that The Mighty One disappeared when bearing the weight of a new continent he created to fill the void created by a destructive quake. The tribe awaits his return, with the stronger gorillas undertaking mighty feats so they can wear the only thing of Superman that remains: his super-suit.
For our purposes, let's set aside the obvious joke that perhaps the reason Superman hadn't returned was his embarrassment over flying around naked. Sure, that's funny, but there's something else going on here.
Think of this tale as a metaphor for the direction of comics--and fictional narrative--itself. Superman starts as a story, bears the weight of our ideals and becomes a symbol--or, in more commercial terms, a legend or mark that anyone can wear so as to associate themselves with what the brand represents. It's one reason you see the occasional superhero tattoo or clothing on this site--the hero has evolved from a narrative subject to a transformative sign. It's a cultural transition that we academics yack about with convoluted verbiage, but Kirby had it all right here in 22 pages 30+ years ago.
The Burlesque Hall of Fame is a Las Vegas charity dedicated to fostering an appreciation & understanding of the art of burlesque. Gothamist does the same thing in this interview with the Hall's 2008 Reigning Queen, New York's own Angie Pontani.
Creative design on a city wall--art.
Bland moralizing--urban blight.
Current bid is 5000 dollars, but at least the shipping is free--and the designer fashion for the red carpet premiere is included!
If this is on-the-level, wow:
I attempted to get up to use the restroom, rather urgently, during the 7th inning stretch as God Bless America was beginning. As I attempted to walk down the aisle and exit my section into the tunnel, I was stopped by a police officer. He informed me that I had to wait until the song was over. I responded that I had to
"As soon as the latter came out of my mouth, my right arm was twisted violently behind my back and I was informed that I was being escorted out of the stadium. A second officer then joined in and twisted my left arm, also in an excessively forceful manner, behind my back. I informed them they were violating my First Amendment rights and that I had done nothing wrong, with no response from them.
"I was sitting in the Tier Level, and of course this is the highest level of the stadium and I was escorted in this painful manner down the entire length of the stadium. About halfway down, I informed them that they were hurting me, repeated that I had done nothing wrong, and that I was not resisting nor talking back to them. One of them said something to the effect that if I continued to speak, he would find a way to hurt me more.
"When we reached the exit of the stadium, they confiscated my ticket and the first officer shoved me through the turnstiles, saying 'Get the hell out of my country if you don't like it.'
God, country, city and sports exist on a continuum, something we'll chat about a bit more here later. For now, a commenter chimes with a sentiment felt by many in NYC:
I'm a Yankees fan and I am sick to death of "God Bless America." I wish they would stop playing it. You know how certain things lose their effectiveness through overuse? This is one of them. It may have been a nice gesture in the months immediately following 9/11, but come on, people, it's been seven years.
As a youngster I went to see the Clint Eastwood "Every Which Way" films--not because of the plot, of course, but because of co-star Clyde the Orangutan. Here's what I didn't know about them until today:
According to "Visions of Caliban: On Chimpanzees and People" by famed primatologist Jane Goodall and Dale Peterson, the original "Clyde" was trained with a can of mace and a pipe wrapped in newspaper. He was viciously beaten the day before filming started to make him more docile. Near the end of filming the sequel "Any Which Way You Can," the orangutan was caught stealing doughnuts on the set, brought back to the training facility and beaten for 20 minutes with a 3 1/2 -foot ax handle. He died soon after of a cerebral hemorrhage.
An application to Speed Racer follows in this Defamer post.
Sigh.
Catching up on summer reading, here's a Business Week article on social entrepreneurship joint ventures in Palestine & Israel. It's innovative and do-gooding, but so is this Oscar-winning short:
You can't really get more American than this, photographed on display at Salvatore's Italian Gardens in Depew, NY:
And in the spirit of the season, here's a tourist 9/11 meditation from Overheard in New York.
Scenes from a video collage of representations of the internet in film. This screenshot array is compelling in itself.
A collage of footage from various Hollywood movies from mid 90ies and on, where internet is portrayed. What is shown is obviously not the real internet, but rather a meta internet, fabricated to work in favor of a certain plot or narrative. The imagery isn't necessarily very authentic, yet we have no difficulty interpreting this imaginary aesthetic. We’ve been taught to expect it, and we’re now completely immune to its disparateness.
Another intriguing work from Anna Lundh is Mickey's Trailer, in which she recreates in 3D a transformable trailer from a Disney film that has become a Christmas Eve tradition in Sweden. Be sure to check her explanation & the original frames for comparison.
Too twee for me. I swear, the next time I'm invited to a chari-tea or sustaina-ball, I'm gonna chuck do-goodery for weapons trading and strip mines.
Via Philanthropy 2173.
Above: a Peking Olympics-themed Dutch cartoon, "The 100 meters free speech" race. The Ephemerist particularly likes the "implicaton that free speech automatically entails uncouth language and verbal abuse."
The cartoon is actually pretty much on target. Swearing and other vituperative speech help build social norms and cohesion; allowing such speech strengthens the group. The title of this academic article reflects the broader research: "Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: When anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable."
$#!%, even evangelicals are doing it!
"In the age of the bikini and of skin-diving, we begin to understand 'the castle of our skin' as a space and world of its own."
--Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Via EntreComics.com
Longtime readers of my sites are by now familiar with Marshall McLuhan's observation that in our age of convergence the skin is an extension of the self. The role of the flesh as a communications medium is nowhere more evident than in this stunning Wired slideshow of comic fans showing off their tattoos.
Above: Wonder Woman on the arm of Michael Boyce, a San Diego comic shop owner. His theme of choice: superheroines. "I want to have arms that look like comic book pages with the girls bursting out."
Below: Captain America, tattooed on a strip-club manager who is into the "whole patriotic thing."
The Democratic National Convention isn't the only nonprofit action in Denver. At a local nightclub party, local fire fighters lathered their muscles in baby oil and were auctioned off for charity. The beneficiary: Fired Up for Kids, which is also selling a calendar featuring buff (and partially in the buff) men & women from Colorado fire departments.
The charity's PR rep, Yvette Rebik, offers this post-feminist perspective on why the calendar is a sure-fire seller . . .
"It's the whole rescue thing," Rebik said. "Women can't help themselves."
. . . and the news coverage explains that some firefighters hold their tools while others don't, which, given the position of the axe head above, is probably a good thing to clarify.
With regard to gender parity, as the photo below illustrates the women in the calendar wear shirts, unlike the men--and unlike the women at this nonprofit event last Saturday in Central Park.
A cause marketing alliance from Superman #27: a ten cent donation to the March of Dimes got you a free membership in the Supermen of America Club or, for current members, an autographed Superman picture.
"A nationwide promotion for a music festival's green credentials. We built a promotion get people to go and plant flowers illegally in towns across Hungary for a free ticket to the festival. We had 11,000 unique visitors to the microsite (http://www.zoldvadmuvelet.hu), nationwide press, and 63 teams of people who joined the promotion to go guerilla gardening."
Or is it the other way around? Anyway, you can see this up-with-commerce logo on both city walls and t-shirts.
A few days ago on a walk through the city I spotted a sign for Ozymandias Realty & straightway said to my Esteemed Colleague, "Look on my works, New Yorkers, and despair!"
Jeremiah's Vanishing New York offers a revealing riff on this theme in this report on synagondos--"religious-residential hybrid buildings [that] may become more common as developers look to capitalize on a great location and synagogues look to improve their finances and physical conditions."
Social enterprise or social decay? The debate continues . . .
Today, Michael Phelps gets swimming energy from his McDonalds diet.
Above, the 1940 Michael Phelps touts Camel cigarettes.
You can't afford to be skinny! A self-improvement ad from 1969, back when "convalescents" were apparently the third sex.
Long story short: High school creates giant comic strip to promote clean water charity; student takes panel home and it flies off into the highway, narrowly missing a car. Thus the painted BAM! almost manifested itself in real life.
What particularly interested me: the decision to represent the kids' charitable fundraiser--"Sunset Saves the World"--through a superhero expressing the school's "Sunset Apollo" identity.
I don't really have time today to write a full post on the current Mickey Mouse copyright buzz (I made a brief comment here). Folks interested in such things are no doubt familiar with Air Pirates and the Uncensored Mouse, but as a pop art aficionado I'd be remiss if I didn't call attention to another classic in the appropriated Disney genre: Eduardo Paolozzi's Real Gold collage from 1948, published in Bunk in 1972:
On sidewalk today: a United Homeless table selling Tropic Thunder & other bootleg DVDs.
Variety on the Democratic National Convention & social issues, via The Beat.
This Harvard Business Review essay by Pixar's Ed Catmull is essential reading for anyone interested in, well, life. His nod to academics is nice, but the real story is the way that Pixar--and Pixar University--have subsumed the traditional information processing role of the professor, or "one who speaks forth."
Can a German body-modder reclaim an ancient spiritual symbol from its Nazi appropriators, or does this tattoo Superman & swastika cross the line? The debate ensues in the comments on this BMEZine pic.
Via Bill Kartalopolous' On Panel--an excellent source for the latest on comics as graphic literature--comes a link to this exchange from a Scott McCloud Q&A:
Now McCloud is taking audience questions, and here comes one that seems aimed in my direction.
What about those still-numerous naysayers, he is asked, who resist the idea that books filled with word balloons should be taken as seriously as pure prose? Isn't there a way to educate those annoying old fogies -- perhaps through some kind of "adult literacy campaign for comics"?
Sounds good to me. After all, isn't education what I'm here for?
McCloud offers a different perspective. Some people will never get it, he says.
"And it's okay. They'll die."