2012
by Bosch Fawstin
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Posts Tagged ‘hope’
Shepard Fairey’s Piracy: Rank Hypocrisy in the Art Community
by Stage RightEver wonder why ushers on Broadway become “Camera Nazis” whenever they spot a still camera or video camera in the house?
Ever wonder why you can’t just skip over those FBI warnings at the start of every DVD?
Ever wonder why “piracy” is always such a big issue for Hollywood when discussing our economic relationship with China?
It’s because writers, actors, directors and producers all live and die from royalties and residuals (payments for the repeated use of a copyright protected piece of intellectual property). I know most people don’t want to hear this, but being a writer, director or actor is usually not a great life. Until (or unless) you are lucky enough to make it big, it is fiscally challenging to say the least. So many actors who are not stars are lucky if they get one or two weeks’ worth of work in Hollywood per year. How does an actor survive on only two weeks’ pay? They don’t. But, one thing that helps them is they get paid for every subsequent use of the show they were on. Same with the writer and the other creative folks working on the show. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Og, The Original Forgotten Man
by Veronica DiPippoPerhaps it went something like this…
Og, Bog, and Grog were out hunting mammoth one day somewhere in the mountains of Prehistoric Europe. Grog’s job was to select the most succulent, Grade A Prime Mammuthus primigenius available in the Mesolithic grocer’s aisle and herd it towards his spear-bearing buddies who were hidden in the brush. Grog made his choice and, using his trusty, flaming torch, chased the big woolly one brush-ward. Unfortunately, in the midst of all the excitement, Grog forgot the cardinal rule of torch-bearing hunters everywhere: always stay at least ten stone lengths away from the back end of a mammoth after it’s eaten a fir tree for lunch.
Over Grog’s ashes, Og ponders the lesson of his friend’s untimely incineration and thinks: “I’m gonna recommend the Chief hold a hunter’s refresher course and change it to twenty stone lengths.” Meanwhile, Bog, though he has access to the same information, processes it differently. He ends up dismissing the whole episode as a fluke and decides that, even if the conditions were similar, the same result could never happen to him. As Og is busy absorbing the cause and effect of Grog’s sudden demise, Bog thinks: “Let’s see, I had half a bison for breakfast, eighteen crow eggs, hand full of pine cones, pig fat smoothie with a scoop of roe deer hoof powder…which means, if I jog back to the cave reallyreally fast I can eat that entire pit of flame-broiled grubs.” (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
The Anti-Churchill: Obama Talks, The Market Drops.
by Ernie MannixAll through the campaign Barack Obama told us not to listen to the “politics of fear.” These are the ways of the old guard, the naysayers, the negative ones - he said. Those who won’t sit and talk with the bad men are the warmongers - he called them. These are the guys who created our enemies, he inferred. Don’t listen when they use words like “terrorist” and ”disaster” and ignore the call to be vigilant. It’s a neo-con ruse. It’s a plot to scare you.
So what has our president been saying lately? The economic slump is a “continuing disaster,” he told us. He said the economy is “in crisis.” Back in December he told us it was “going to get worse.” Recently he warned of a “national catastrophe” if the stimulus bill wasn’t passed. He kept his speech before the joint session somewhat more positive in a stylistic sense (style points count when you blow off your promise about not tolerating any earmarks). But still, again down goes the Dow. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Was Bush A Gift To The Left?
by Derek Broes
During the election the chants of “Hope” from Mr. Obama and his followers always seemed to be said with a smile. Today those smiles are gone and have been replaced by the stern condescending look of someone very frustrated that a socialist agenda is being met with resistance from the right and conservatives all around the country. Thankfully, conservatives have finally spoken up and we can only “hope it’s not too late to reverse course. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Platitudes are not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things
by Charles WinecoffThe other day I was stuck in traffic behind a young woman whose rear bumper sported three popular cries for help: Hope, Free Tibet, and Save the Planet. Her ass was covered.
For some reason, it made me think of my late grandmother, an English rose with a backbone of steel – what us Americans call a “tough cookie.” As a young divorcee, she single-handedly raised my mother, and took care of her own mother, through the Great Depression and beyond.
I used to love asking her about all the events she’d seen take place in her lifetime: the rise of the automobile, the night of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the blackouts during WW2, the “Stars Over America” war bond blitz (which even Hollywood nonconformist Bette Davis threw herself into), the arrival of television, and on and on.
As a boy, it seemed to me my grandmother had lived many lives, and seen more sweeping, historical changes than I could ever dream of. I had missed the boat. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Cracking the Obama Code: Don Quixote vs. the Windmill Owners
by Oleg AtbashianFour hundred years ago, Miguel Cervantes described an archetypal delirious fruitcake who wanted to change the world by turning the clock back to the idealized Utopian times that never really existed. Imagine what Cervantes would write today about the futility of his satirical effort, if he were to learn that four centuries later, a whole movement would arise that emulated his loony character and elected one of their kind as the leader of the free world.
Some conservative commentators are demonstratively wishing President Obama well. My heart admires their good intentions, but as I watched Obama’s inauguration on TV, my mind couldn’t help but ponder the possible consequences thereof. As someone coming from another country (ex-USSR) I don’t participate in racial debates nor do I want to. Being post-racial is fine by me. So let’s accept Obama’s post-racial premise, leave the issue of melanin content aside, and judge the man solely by the content of his agenda. And the more I look at Obama’s agenda the more I realize that wishing him well is like wishing luck to Don Quixote in wrecking the windmill that feeds me and my family. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Tips & Feedback