Month: November 2004

Beautiful and sad set of journalistic photos about a group of performers in the pornography industry. It won first prize for documentary in the College Photographer of the year contest, whatever that is. Definitely worth a thoughtful glance (the captions are especially significant.)

[note: there IS NUDITY but there IS NOT PORNOGRAPHY, unless the two are the same to you.]

Note also: The second place winner, who’s look at poverty in american life is both unnerving and confusing (again, the terrain of destitution is rich with icons of the cult of America.) Though poingant and timely, I can’t help wondering about the ethical implications of this piece (which includes various acts of violence.) Was the photographer exaggerating, or did he actually watch a grown man pull a young girl around their front porch by her hair? Is a powerful window into the reality of a situation worth accepting its realization in front of your eyes without interveening?

(via. Xeni)

I swear to god, there is an Alternate-Universe, right-wing American Jeremy, and we are totally blogging each other.

[note: All Bush-voters will get their million dollars when they justify why they voted for a mildly-retarded sociopath, rather than just insulting the opposition]

The Majority reminds me that they still exist, there are still more of them than there are other people, and that they still embody everything that is bad about the world and this species of ours.

Seriously, the reaction of Bush voters to the previously blogged Sorryeverybody.com is not only immature, rude and unimaginative, it’s downright insulting. It’s a rare occasion that one can be exposed to so much hate, ignorance, racism, sexism, homophobia and reality distortion as in the images that these people chose to post, not to mention the downright terrifying accountenance some of them chose to portray (see right -> )

So many of them really don’t even seem to know what their hate is about. You voted for Bush because he fought the terrorists? Do you actually think Gore would have just ignored them and built more internet or something? And why does every second image have some reference to the “liberal elite”? What the fuck is the Liberal Elite? Last time I checked it was the neo-conservative elite that was getting all the tax cuts…

[note: they’re offering t-shirts for sale! I know you’ve always wanted to be both sexist and homophobic at the same time, HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!]

The sane half of the united states has stood up and cleared their throat with thousands of homebrew photos, the message “We swear, we thought democracy would work. We were sure of it.”

It helps to remember that really, 51% isn’t much of a majority, even if it is enough to keep a Stupid Jerk on the throne for another four years…

And besides, Nixon was booted out of the white house in his second term right?

right?

(via. Sarah Tracy)

Does anyone else remember the Heritage Minutes that used to (probably still do) run all over the Canadian TV networks talking about Canadian heros and turning points?
I’m writing a paper about Marshall McLuhan right now and kept coming back to that 1 minute spot where he spontaneously generates “THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE” while lecturing to a class. Turns out you can watch the whole thing on the Historica website, as well as all the others you know and love (did anyone else go to Wilder Penfield elementary? Smell burt toast?)

It’s almost kind of sad that these were likely the best thing that Canadian television ever produced, but also kind of uplifting. It’s probably a good thing that we’re better at forcing ourselves to learn despite the medium of television than we are at creating tube-drivel like everybody else.