Post Titled: Manifest Destiny might develop Rabies

Going to camp in the woods for a few days now on account of Russ' wedding, hence- no postings.

lg,
;p

Post Titled: Big Sports
Postulating the probability of a future where all sports are simply twice thier current size, that would be something.
(actually this is just a huge tennis ball I bought at the Sports Authority for $.47, awesome.
afterall, "nothing's holier than sports." -cocorosie

Post Titled: Girl Talk

the album Manu and I have been listening to for the past week is really just a Pop Barf audio collage, but how well is sounds on the late night Los Angeles highways...
GIRL TALK OFFICIAL SITE
Myspace site where you can listen to songs.

Post Titled: Smurf UN Commercial

Speaking of baffling combinations:

Post Titled: Advertising.

Waiting for a call at my sister's place I am in a room with a television... and there are ads, many many ads. It comes as no surprise that advertising in the United States (and of course the rest of the world, but in particular the US) has had to go to extreme extremes NOTE: the absolute weirdness of the new Chocolate-Covered Altoids ads (that link has been fixed now)
Surrealism and absurdity have long held their place in the world of print and then video advertising, but it seems now that they are at a fever-pitch, much like everything really- like- as if the weirder and more absurd, the better chance this stuff has of sticking in our minds -or what-? ... and where does it go from there.
BUT, something I hadn't considered until just now is the product placement opportunities presented by the upcoming TRANSFORMERS cgi/live-action film, lo-and-behold there are now GM commercials in which the cars are transforming into robots... which is a perfect hybrid but also false advertising... see:

and here I am just passing that along, ...viral shite.

Post Titled: How to Get me to buy your Magazine
Post Subtitled: Put Jessica Biel on the cover in a brown bikini.

At the grocery store I bought GQ magazine for the first time because Jessica Biel is on the cover. That is all I have to say about that.
Which made me think how simple marketing can sometimes be... how Neanderthal.
More HERE.

I was searching for an image of this cover online and found something waaaay better, when read in English it expresses my sentiments exactly:

Unfortunately it is not written as in the misunderstanding from an episode of the Simpsons, in which case it would be: "DIE, HILTONS, DIE!"

stolen from PicaBlog

While searching for an image of the July 2007 Biel cover I came across two wierrrd blogs: the Assimilated Negro and the Screening Jock which is bizarre but kind of fascinating.

Post Titled: Don't Hate on Fatty

I got on the plane last night from LAX to SEA-TAC and the 60-year old man next to me dressed in safari-esque old-school Bannana Republic garb was trying to convince the young hippie in front of me to switch seats with him so he could sit next to his Spanish wife. The kid refused saying "Naw, I prefer to sit in the aisle seat."
to refute his selfishness I offered my seat to his wife and sat next to the hippie.
A minute later I would suffer the fallout of this decision when a HUGE smelly guy came to take his window seat next to me- this guy was so large that the armrest between us was completely out of the question and he overlapped a full 25 % into my seat, not to mention that he had to request a seatbelt extension (a portion of seatbelt that you can add to the original to make it larger just so he could fit it around his waist. THEN he took off his shoes and socks... this isn't the first time this exact thing has happened to me on an airplane.
I was totally pissed.
About half way through the flight we started talking and it turns out that the big guy was actually cool as hell, a Canadian who lives half the year in South America and the arrogant hippie had just come back from several months of traveling in Greece and Turkey, so we had a lot in common. "Yea, the Turks are a lot nicer than the Greeks... Ephasis is cool, been to Pamukkale-? i THINK IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES ON EARTH, it is the Blue Lagoon of Turkey..." and so on.
Then I felt like an ass for assuming so much about the people around me.
Just for visual reference, Pamukkale:

Post Titled: Talk Talk
Just in from Issara, sehr interessant:
"Dan Everett believes that Pirahã undermines Noam Chomsky’s idea of a universal grammar."

also "Freaky Plants with Eyes!!!"
- kind of beautiful...

Post Titled: (theme song to the OC)
Ok, just spent two days in Newport Beach (Orange County) with Vern Dawg, I like it. Perhaaaaps a few too many muscle-bound dudes talking about fucking the toned girls in bikinis (of which there were also many) but it is a'ight. a different california. Actually, all I did was drink, hang out in the sun poolside and read. Repeat.

Friday upon arriving in Orange County we hit up Aire, a resteraunt which Vernon will be opening a new nightclub above in August. They have a tornado fire. We stayed until 3 or 4am talking with the head chef -actually listening to him gush about his love for foie gras and then debating the Iraq war- I rarely talk about the Iraq war anymore, but Vern offers and interesting perspective: "I think they should re-institute the draft, that way everyone would feel the effect of having a family member over there, bot just the poorest percentile, and then they might think twice about what they are doing."

Saturday- went back to Aire and actually ate the food that had been talked about the night before, good stuff. Saw Amy and Amanda LAtimore, then picked up Brooke, went to a WIERD dance club- the best thing about which were the scantily clad asian go-go girls, but for the most part the place was packed with hundreds of OC skanks and smarmy guys. We just kind of huddled and chatted. Amy, Brooke and I all happen to be engaged at the moment, that his an unusual coincedence...

Vern threw a rad barbecue party Sunday. After some hectic shopping we managed to be prepared as people started arriving (whilst I was still assemnling the new patio set)

Post Titled: Day in Motion
Quote of the Day:
Bum stumbling out of the Beach Restrooms: "FREE BEER! FREEEEE BEEEEEER!!! FREE BEER! Gimme a buck and I'll tell ya where it is"
(looking directly at me)
"HEY- You flirt with my mermaid and I'll shoot you!"

ZEN OF TRAFFIC- morning routine:

On the Bike and Skate Path:


Hundreds of skateboarders ages 5 to 40 at a competition:




R.I.P., Sad Guy...
The front of Elliott Smith's recording studio absolutely covered in little graffiti'd messages:

Post Titled: Unsolicited Public Art in Santa Monica
I have seen a few of these Peeps-looking 2D birds spinning in the wind above intersections around LA counter-balanced by a padlock...

Post Titled: STAR WARS Dork-Off, June 20, 2007 Lost Angeles
My cousin Mikey (aged 6, also Gemini), who I haven't seen since he has started talking, had some very long complicated STAR WARS discussions, even though he hasn't seen all the movies yet- it was difficut explaining the Dark Side of the Force to him, particularly why the Emperor doesn't use a lightsaber but rather prefers to shoot lightning from his fintertips
"What doe the lightinging do to the people, does it turn them to the Dark Side? How do people turn to the dark side? How did Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader" (he hasn't seen Episode 3 yet) "Why was Lando working for Jabba?" etc, etc.
"Wellll..." then comes 45 minutes of explaining and more Q & A... it is kind of scary, I realised that i know a whole lot about the Star Wars Universe, much more than the average joe.

Post Titled: Hairless Cat Love

Ok, until just a few years ago I did not like cats at all, then Clayton and Stacy broke me of that -and now- as of last night I would've never come within 10 feet of a hairless cat, BUT low-and-behold my aunt's hairless cat is one of the coolest animals I have ever met, - he is cuddly, sweet, gentile, friendly and quiet, all the attributes you could ever want in a pet- AND he looks cool:

Post Titled: the Zen of Traffic Congestion and da Getty Center


I managed to get myself across town again and to the Getty Center to see the Tim Hawkinson new works exhibit.

I go to the Getty every time I come to LA, it is a ritual of sorts, I like being above the city and looking down on the smog, looking across to wonder who the hell must live up on this hill overlooking Brentwood, Beverly Hills, etc. Drove by and took another peek at the spot where Nicole Brown was found stabbed to death by a mysterious and still-at-large killer...

This visit to the Getty I spent most of my time looking at the European and Italian Painting from the 1400's to the late 1800's. Normally that stuff would bore me to death, but this time each one came across as fascinating, warped and a perverse, human superstitiuosmadness- I was sort of going through the galleries at the same time as a Chinese family thinking "What must THEY be thinking looking at these images of a guy being tortured on a cross adn John the Baptist beheaded, jeez, they must think we are barbarians" because I couldn't think of any such imagery in old Chinese silkscreens... but here in the old Euroimagery Mary is being notified by an angel (Michael? or Gabriel) with Parrot-colored wings that she is knocked-up, or the images of Saints (Francis and Catherine of Siena) receiving their stigmata like laserbeams directly shot from Jesus' own wounds, the angels and Saints all doing their thing...
I also kind-of fell in love with a recently restored painting by Jean-BAPTISTE Oudry of a life-sized rhinocerous named "Clara" who was (in real life) on tour throughout Europe in the 1740's.

Tim Hawkinson "Zoopsia" show consisted of only 5 works total,- I believe- but the ueberorgan in the entry- an enormous functioning organ made from plastic sheeting, netting, paint cans and coiled tubing, plays a strange tune every hour, -it must've taken a lot lot lot of work, so maybe we can count that as more that one work of art compared to the life-sized bat made of plastic bags and twist-ties... meticulously created. THe other new works were also good- however the octopus photocollage in which the suckers are human lips making a smooshy-kiss steals the show, people just stare and huff-laugh, it is amazing. Oh, duh, got some video of Uberorgan:


Stuck in traffic for an hour on my way to LA and then another hour across town later I began to reach a feeling of one-ness with all the other drivers. Crazy spastic sneaky Los ANgeles drivers, you can get away with things here driving that would definitely not fly anywhere else. I was listening to Bjork's new album closely and extremely loudly for the first time, wearing sunglasses (which i never do but it was so goddamn bright that I had to) and really was just all-around content with the situation. However, i am always relieve to hand the car back off to Manuel at the end of the day.

Post Titled: More Photos- Venice, etc.


Cactus impaled itself on a fence...


wierd dead flower the size of a motorcycle helmet hanging upside down:

Sunset:

aforementioned cloud of smoke in the distance:

Post Titled: Reactable (an instrument of sorts)

Why I always come half way around the world just to find out what is going on in my own neck of the woods??
The Reactable is a new synthesizer instrument Manuel told me about, which is apparently used to creat IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) which is non-repetitive electronic music (?no idea) and was also used in the most recent Bjork tour, Paul Der Andere -you might dig this:
EXPLANATION:

DEMO 1

DEMO 2

IN USE BJORK COACHELLA 2007 "HYPERBALLAD" AND "PLUTO" (NOTE:really gets going after first 2 minutes-)

"Declare Independence" a bit harsh on the ears but it is a good example of the use of the Reactable (seen in background):

or a more polished version on the Jools Holland show

Post Titled: LOstangeles

Got lost driving from East LA to VEnice. Then when i finally arrived, visited Manu in the former Google Building in Santa Monica and was able to put my toes in the Pacific all was worth it and well.
Wandered the Canals of Venice and had margaritas on the boardwalk whilst the skateboarders invoked Dogtown and Z-Boys.


Venice Canals:

Post Titled: Bjork interview on Charlie Rose

Post Titled: Lost Angeles

Here! Santa Monica Pier. Like Coney Island of the West. Well, not really, but at first glance- ... after margeritas on the end of the pier we walked back towards the beach and there was a huge plume of black smoke in the distance behind the ferris wheeel.

Spent the night at Manu's in East LA, I am not sure if I have been here before, and I am intimidated about driving,,....

Post Titled: Wikipedia, Laffy Taffy, Iraq

Ok, why does LAFFY TAFFY (the song, not the candy) get a Wikipedia page and TAR ART RAT doesn't?...

as complained about long ago, the Wiki-Nazis shot me down twice... scheisse. But not Laffy Taffy... a catchy little diddy, which seems to also have excited soldiers in Iraq- on that note I have actually been watching Youtube videos from Iraq, which are verrry interesting


and huge scary sandstorm in Iraq,

kind of reminds me of SPider-Man 3

Post Titled: The Big Lebowski F*cking Short Version

Post Titled: Busta Rhymes' Migration to the Dark Side of Flipmode Revisited

Flipping through my sister's iPod yesterday I cam across one of his more recent videos which samples Daft Punk. I want to like Busta, I really do, and I know that it is ultimately just pure pop but he has definitely migrated to more of a (well, completely) stereotypical maistream worship-of-materialism cash-and-booty-and-cars stance, disappointing...


In the late 1990's I really thought Busta Rhymes was doing some pretty fun stuff, just a bit more over the top and creative, goofy almost (Woo-Hah feat. Ol'Dirty Bastard):


Then, *sigh* somewhere along the way,... alas.

OK, here is some seriously wierd shit: ADAM ANT

Post Titled: AWWWH SH*T, GOT MY HANDS ON A SCANNER

Post Titled: Photobooth
contribution for Greg Boudreau's PROJECT 1042 photobooth project

second one is actually a handstand but didn't turn out that well...

Post Titled: FLight of the Conchords
Not to shamelessly promote HBO or anything, (not my purpose at all here) but I saw the Flight of the Conchords -a New Zealand Spoof-FOlk duo at Bumbershoot two summers ago and they were completely and ridiculously funny- and now thy have their own show, which I will embed without having previously viewed so I don't know how well it translates to television:
LARGER FORMAT FULL EPISODE click HERE

..5 minutes later: ok, pretty darn fun.\
...15 minutes later: ok!

Post Titled: A Fair/Sensible Proposal from Helen regarding Secondhand Books and Libraries

"As it happens, I have just posted a long post about secondhand sales on my blog -- all about how secondhand sales & libraries & the kind of reader who lends a copy to many many many many friends are Very Good Things for the planet and Very Bad Things for writers who only get paid for planet-rape, i.e.
manufacture and sale of new copies. So why not change the system, I ask
-- why shouldn't we tip writers the way we tip waitresses? Through my
good old friend PayPal? Why would it it not be better to buy a
secondhand book for $1.25 and send the author a discretionary $1 than
buy a new one for $14.95 of which the author gets $1.12? Usw usw usw."

FULL POST HERE

Indeed, it is really not fair at all that only the initial purchase of a book actually sends revenue to the author- which is odd because all books have the ISBN number, so having such a system set up is definitely possible... I suppose in a perfect world... then again, does an artist receive money each time someone spends a minute looking at their painting, and does a musician get anything every time someone hears their song?
Sure, that is slightly different, but same ballpark principle I suppose...

They Hella Fine Bitschez at tha Library
Speaking of libraries, it is a chilly rainy Seattle day, I want to go to the library and newly renovated art museum. THinking about it, though, I realize that the Amerikanishes Gedenkbibliotek which I frequent in Berlin is always teeming with life, which is not always the case here, I mean, it seems like people are usually using the internet at libraries here- which makes me wonder- are the Germans more book-hungry or just more thrifty?

Post Titled: Bordercrossing Berlin

Paul der Andere aka PDA aka Paul the Orange aka Paul Diddy has drawings in the new issue of Bordercrossing Berlin

Post Titled: Yet another good reason to go by TAR ART RAT

On NPR radio this morning they said that the USA-Canada US border control agents have started Googling people's names as they go through the crossing and can refuse you entry into the country if they find something they don't like, for example: a Canadian Psychologist was refused based on a few articles he wrote about his experiments with LSD in the early 1970's, they barred him entry permanently to the United States based on the fact that he was an admitted illegal drug user, even though his children both live in the United States he is no longer allowed to visit the country. They denied entry to 71,000 coming from Canada in 2006- but I cannot remember if that was just for the border crossing between Washington State and Vancouver or not.

In other unsurprising News:

"The new perspective reveals DNA to be not just a string of biological code but a dauntingly complex operating system that processes many more kinds of information than previously appreciated."
full story from Washington Post

Post Titled: WHITE GIRL by Rashid Johnson

had a beer with ceas who imparted the glorious "WHITE GIRL" by Rashid Johnson, upcoming show called DARK MATTERS curated by herself at James Harris Gallery, Seattle.

I think I love it.

What is it- ?

HIS SITE HERE

Post Titled: Jack in the Box Drive-Thru, Broadway, Seattle

Post Titled: Freakishly Large Wild Boar Killed by 11-Year Old Thanks, darling! Igit!!!

Story HERE in the Stern Online

Unsolicited Public Art INstallation

Miguel an Unsolicited Public Art INstallation, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

hey ALICIA- this is what I meant by Unsolicited Public Art Installation,


;p

Seattle Waterfront

Post Tree CLimb

P1010631, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

happy survivors impersonating Art Garfunkel and Toshiro Mifune

Treeburn, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

Samurai Jeff Ra and I woke up and trekked over to climb my favorite tree (aka arch nemesis) in Volunteer park. After several attempts to scale the base We did finally make it to the first branch and then all the way to the the top, jittery with adrenaline and swaying back and forth in the strong-ish wind, but you can get this view nowhere else, folks- seriously, this is THE best view in town: miles and miles of everything- Puget sound, all mountain ranges, water, Mt. Rainier, Bellevue, Lake Washington, etc. etc. Downtown Seattle . As mentioned before (perhaps many times) I have only successfully climbed this tree 7 -maybe 8- times because for the first 14 feet or so there are NO branches -and using the tension yer sinewy tendons you have to dig your fingertips and toes into the grooves in the thick bark. once that is past it is a cake walk 50 feet to the top- ahh... I never manage to avoid treeburn from the worn away parts and rough bark on the way down, and then you have chunks of crusty dry sap in your hair too and maybe a few spiders, but it is a great thing every time no matter what.

This time I left my ring from Morocco on a baby treebranch way up high, I hope it doesn't strangle it in 10 years as the branch grows, but it it is slow enough maybe it will expand along with it (silver is soft- right?) Jeff tied his red bandanna as a wedding present for me with our names on written on it, and there those items will stay at the top of that tree until the elements or other climbers deem that they should come down. Odd...

Post Tiled: Faces of METH at the Department of Motor Vehicles

Sooo, I started the day at the Globe with my sister, good stuff, then went to the DMV downtown to get a new copy of my driver's liscence, which I have seemed to - well- lost, and all over the room there were the FACES OF METH posters, eeeek!!!

DMV is full of wierdoes. All kinds of wierdoes, even elderly wierdos, I sat between an old lady who whas there in cahoots whier her middle-aged daughter who were apparently planninf to pull a fast one on the DMV workers - the woman's daughter was quietly coaching her on the answers to questions - manwhile a sorority girl plops down next to me and begins reading Augustin Burroughs, I guess she left her Cosmo in the car-? An old asian Harley Davidson guy with a mowhawk sat in fromt of me, and the reso of the room was full of discruntlet people from all races, creeds adn walks of life. Now that is equality- everyone pissed and waiting, although the wait really isn't that bad.

Post Titled: Just kidding I love switzerland so much it is so nice.

we went shpping downtown today. since I only go shopping once or twice a year I was really upset about things being so expensive in relation to their production costs.
la-dee-da.

now I am watching tv. it is a lot to handle. david hasselhof and jerry springer have a show called "America's Got Talent" which is like the Gong Show meets American Idol, I suppose,... except the whole point seems to be schadenfreude because it is a very cruel show...

Queen Anne, Seattle

Queen Anne, Seattle, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

weird stand-alone rickety law firm of sorts guarded by scary crows

Family

Family, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

on the porch, central district, seattle.

Post titled: The internet sucks. I forgot my laptop in Berlin. -Thank god.

suddenly I can look around, breathe, think, feel, and interact with the world instead of constantly getting electonic stimulus straight through the retinae.

and, joy of joys, it is like an international catfight in the mind these days- a constant hyper critique of both Germany and the US, scratching and clawing, I think it is causing headaches.

good news: hey helen! I found a pristine used hardback copy of your novel in one of my favorite bookstores here, will finally (looking forward to) getting to reading it.

Post Titled: dissipating confusion
DISCLAIMER - it is slightly offensive, which I why you have been prepped with the post title.

EXCERPT/root concept and seed of Europe's future problems, DELETED from the article I finished this morning:
"Interesting encounter at a swimming pool in Berlin. A group of teenagers approached the group I was with asking to use our football,
“No, look- There is a storm rolling in, so we are leaving soon” I answered. They wouldn’t take no for an answer, and then after they gave up on the ball they began asking for money.
After more mild arguing and explaining they finally asked “where are you from?”
“well, we two are American, he’s Australian
“You aren’t German?"
“No,”
“American?”
“Yea-“
“Bush! I spit on Bush, Bush is trash, I §/%# his mother! I §/%# his mother and his sisters and the mothers of all the Jews, §/%# all the mothers of the Jews also, I spit on them!”
“Sorry, we didn’t vote for him, we did what we could-“
“You support him?!?”
“No, we did notsupport him. I think only 51% of the country did, so… where are you from?”
“Beirut. Pure Lebanese from Beirut.”
“Oh, nice- I know a very talented painter from Beirut”- etc, etc.
After a few minutes the search for a football and money was called-off, we went our separate ways on good terms having gone from an aggressive beginning to a satisfactory understanding in a matter of minutes...-

Just thought I'd share that.

Post Titled: Eff You Photobucket, Boobs are not Porn, OK? Jeez. Most of us spend the first couple months of out lives with titties in out faces, sucking on nipples, so ONCE AGAIN: EFF you photobucket! stop deleting my goddamn g=fotos with boobies in them, just stop. I mean, shame on me as well for not just switiching to another service, bus still... c'mon

INdeed, the irony is that - as metioned before- at work there are copies of the BILD laying about, Germany's most popular newspaper... ugh, I give up. ok, wow, somebody actually sent me some funny spam:


oh, America. is is true that the 4-letter word law was repealed so they could play the Big Lwbowski on television of did I just dream that I read that in the Neue Zuricher Zeitung the other day,... the NZZ kind of sucks balls, by the way. Boring Swiss shit.

Ok, jetlag is clearly eating my brain straight mad-cow style. and I can't post any more photos of BILD boobs becuase the middle americans at the breakfast buffet behind me will totally bum-rush me and beat me to a pulp in the parking lont, scheisse. Fucking Switzerland.

Post Titled: Oh, hey ELECTROPEASANT!

Paul and Jesi's ELECTROPEASANT is up, and has been for awhile, and although they claim that "nothing is there yet" I beg to differ becuse of those musical teeth.

Meanwhile, back on planet wierd... I get to enjoy breakfast with a bosload of senior citizens from somewhere in middle America again who compulstively say "Pardom me, excuse me, pardon me-" totally gives me the creeps. Like I am stangin three feet away from you waiting to get a cop of coffee- what is the need to do teh jorry dance and jig, so bizarre, this humbler-than-thou copetition that plazs out.

I bought a really really really cool illustrated dinosaur book yesterday, most of teh drawings are done in a completely ripped-off art nouveau poster style, gotta scan it. If I were re-introduced to dinosaurs from scratch, that is how I would want it to happen.

Post Titled: 500 Years of Women in Western Art

5:29 am, hotel lobby.

To my horror I realised the other day that Europe is not in the Western Hemisphere... why did I think it was... and can we possibly scoot it over?

Ok, this is going to give me nightmares:

thanks, ceas.

Nadine wearing a Wolfmask, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

genau.

now that I am back in Seattle I figured it would be a good idea to start reading the SLOG, and sure enough, because I found this cute picture of a Kitten on Crack, which made it all worth it.

Cherry Lizard

Cherry Lizard, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

We had a small auto accident... that was after I saw THis lizard this morning. THe lizard was eating cherries at Pike"s Place Market in Seattle. we went to a cathederal full of Catholics, I was bored, although there were good decorations. I am still very tired from jetlag. it is raining. all the time, and the 40,000 attendees of the UW graduation at the football stadium spent hours in the rain... graduating.
I am very confused about being back here. america just seems like a big movie set.

lauren and dad walking in the rain

lauren and dad walking in the rain, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

warning in taxi

warning in taxi, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

hmm..

Post Titled: Update from Adam
NOTE: this letter refers to THIS situation in Bolivia)

"Hi Everybody,

To follow up on my promise to keep you all informed of what is
happening, today I had the preliminary hearing at which I abstained
from making a declaration. This means that an investigation will open
up in which investigators will try to prove that I am guilty of the
accusations. If they are unable to do so, the magistrate will declare
the case unfit to go to trial. Being that I am innocent of the
charges of sedition and that the whole situation appears to be a
political charade to justify the violent attacks on May 24th and 25th,
my lawyer fully expects this to happen. His advice is to just
continue with my research as though nothing happened and he will
contact me if anything changes or if anything urgent comes up.

For a little while I really was not sure how things would turn out due
to the severity of the charges and the fact that Bolivian newspapers
and news channels were reporting the prefect´s official story that I
was linked to an assassination conspiracy. This, combined with
threats that I and others received, made for a very tense week.
Ironically, with all the attention about my arrest, I actually feel a
little bit guilty about not having something more interesting to share
will you all (but at the same time, I hope it stays that way).

Nonetheless, I am glad that the violent attacks on free speech at the
hands of people directly linked to the prefecture got some
international exposure. And it is very likely that the 200 plus
letters that the prefect receieved from all over the world following
that the attacks will make him think twice about doing so callously
doing it again.

At the same time, the tensions between the poor majority seeking
changes and the elite minority wanting to prevent them continue and
right-wing attacks like the ones on May 24th and 25th are likely to
reoccur. The organizations who are the focus of my investigation will
most definitely be organizing to expose the attacks that have occured,
to defend ourselves from future attacks, and defend the right of the
majority to make fundamental changes. Bolivian members of the CWI
(Comittee for a Workers´ International) periodically write articles
related to the political situation in Bolivia and I can say for sure
that an in depth article on the events of the last few weeks as well
as an article about what the social movements are doing to defend
themselves will be posted in the next few days. To read these
articles, go to www.socialistworld.net .

Please email this to anybody who has voiced concern about my situation
in the last week as well as any listserves that carried information
about my arrest.


Thanks for all your help,

Adam Ziemkowski"

Adam, a US national is in Bolivia on an international scholarship studying marginalised and oppressed groups is charged with ‘sedition and incitement to violence’. Bolivian members of the CWI have also been threatened by right-wing thugs and in one case threatened with rape. A solidarity campaign is being built in Cochabamba along with a campaign against violence and repression by the right-wing.

The CWI appeals to all workers’ and youth internationally to rush protest letters to the Prefectura in Conchabamba demanding that the charges against Adam Ziemkowski be dropped.

Protest letters should be e/mail or faxed to Manfred Reyes Villa at the following e/mail:

prefectura@prefecturacochabamba.gov.bo or
faxed to +591 4459100

To Manfred Reyes Villa
Gobierno Departemental de Cochabamba
Plaza 14 de Septembrre Acreca Norte 243
Cochabamba
Bolivia

lauren porch june 2007, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

a couple flights and a bit of jetlag, I am now at my sister's house in seattle, top on a hill in the Central District she has a Fraiser-esque view, minus space needle. surreal, ever since I got on the Northwest Airlines flight is has been all weird loud voices and - like, well, weird loud americannness talking about absolutely nothing all the goddamn time and being creepily and unnecessarily polite all the time, DISCLIMER: jetlag has eaten my brain, oh, whatever, well, It becomes clear to me why I don"t much care to live here all over again... although Seattle is a special bubble all its own. Ok, I am braindead, maybe I will have some amazing praises to sing in the morning, but now, just braindead....

12 hours later: went to get contact lens solution at the gleaming new QFC on Roy next tot he space needle and I was dumbfouinded, spent a half-hour (albeit blind) just to find juice, a newspaper, and the lens solution... so so sooo many products. -miss you, da(h)rling.

Post Titled: Adam Ziemkowski and Social injustice in Bolivia

It isn't every day that you get an email like this from one of your friends-
Fortunately, things seem to have stabilised and the hearing is on Friday is looking good, knock on wood or pray ot whatever, Adam is a great person and Fullbright scholar researching in Bolivia who was treated very unfairly (searched, beaten, arrested) due to shady local politics... read on:

"Hi Everyone,

In the last week, the right-wing prefect of Cochabamba has
dramatically increased his attacks on the democratic rights of working
class, peasant, and poor people to express themselves freely in the
city´s central plaza. Just so the issue hits home, last Thursday, I
and a number of other people were assaulted by thugs who emerged
directly from the building of the prefecture. On Wednesday, I was
arrested and charged with sedition, conspiracy, and inciting violence.

An international campaign to bring these attacks to light is well
under way. The people heading this campaign want to bombard the
prefect office with hundreds of letters from all over the world
attacking these occurrences. Please read the following reports and
take the simple action of emailing the prefecture and copying us
(those of you who lead up listserves and/or who have a lot of friends,
please forward this widely:

prefectura@prefecturacochabamba.gov.bo

Please copy us on all emails so we can print them off and put them in
the plaza as an international public denunciation and as a way of
organizing a massive rally early next week

cwi@worldsoc.co.uk and citbolivia@gmail.com

---------------------------------------------

Bolivia
Protest against the violent intimidation of social activists

The prefecture of Manfred Reyes Villa organises thugs to intimidate opposition
CWI, London

On the 24th of May, a group of thugs violently attacked social
activists at the "14 de septiembre" square in the centre of
Cochabamba. This cowardly attack was organised out of the office of
the Prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa.

Manfred Reyes Villa is one of the main figureheads of the right-wing
opposition in Bolivia. Villa, accused of corruption and the theft of
public property, sparked protest last January when he announced that
he would attempt to repeal the referendum results which rejected the
idea of autonomy for the Eastern departments of Bolivia. In ensuing
confrontation between the ultra right-wing pro-autonomists, who
resemble paramilitary gangs, and the working class and indigenous
people two were killed and 150 wounded.

Please send protest letters to Manfred Reyes Villa, Fax: ++591 4
4519100, email: prefectura@cochabamba.bo

Please send copies to citbolivia@gmail.com and cwi@worldsoc.co.uk

Model letter:

To Manfred Reyes Villa

Gobierno departemental de Cochabamba

Plaza 14 de septiembre acera norte nr 243

Cochabamba

Bolivia"

Post Titled: From the New York Review of Books

OUCH.

A few sentances that really popped-out:

"America is an "empire of bases," he writes, with a network of vast, hardened military encampments across the earth, each one a match for any Roman or Raj outpost. Official figures speak of 737 US military bases in foreign countries, adding up to an armed American presence, whether large or small, in 132 of the 190 member states of the United Nations."

"The Romans often preferred to exercise power through friendly client regimes, rather than direct rule: until Jay Garner and L. Paul Bremer became US proconsuls in Baghdad, that was the American method too. Rome even took in the scions of their defeated peoples' leading families, the better to prepare them for their future as Rome's puppets; perhaps comparable are Washington's elite private schools, full of the "pro-Western" Arab kings, South American presidents, and Afri-can leaders of the future. Sometimes the approach backfired, then and now. Several of those who rebelled against Rome had earlier been sponsored as pliant allies; their contemporary counterparts would surely be Saddam Hussein, a former US ally against Iran, and the one-time CIA-funded "freedom fighter," Osama bin Laden."

Post Titled: Ira Glass by Tomby

Great illustration HERE

Naked Girl in the Zitty KleineAnzeigen

Naked Girl in the Zitty KleineAnzeigen, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

while searching the classifieds in the local Berlin city weekly magazine "Zitty" I came aross this image implanted in the Jobs section for nude models needed for artsy fotos, so I drew on it and blurred it a whole bunch - so... ultimately, (John!) we could discuss its worth or validity as a work of art... or, perhaps *gasp* it actually (quite unintentionally falls into that strangest of strange categories called "Erotic Art" (ick.) Either way, it has grown on me, whatever it is.

New Hammock

New Hammock, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

the floors might be in a perpetully unfinished state, but if you can just suspend yourself above them then that doesn"t really matter much, does it. Ok, I'll cut it out with the foto binge...

Fallen Tree

Fallen Tree, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

as described below...

Remember those Flash storms I mentioned...

Tree splintered, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

I came across this old tree along in the near of the Auslaenderbehoerde on my. It was occupuying almost ALL of the park where it had splintered and fallen... it had been thouroughly brutalized by Mother Nature herself in the storms of days past, I think it will survive, it just slit in 2, the half that is still standing looks like it will pull through.

Enjoy Fast Food Resteraunt

Enjoy Fast Food Resteraunt, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

I saw this in Wedding (a neighborhood in berlin) this morning when i went to drop off my paperwork for the arbeitsamt. I guess I just loved how the resteraunt was called "ENJOY FAST FOOD" like a subtle and persuasive demand- IF asian take-out can be considered "Fast Food" ...
Other than that I did an english-dub voice-over for a corporate promotional IT film after work, that was interesting. I had to play the role of a Microsoft suit and 12 year old Turkish boy who inspired to be a furniture varnisher- "that is my dream job" he said... which was wierd, I mean the kid probably (or at least could've) been from our neighborhood... anyhow, I was able to impersonate these folks in my best neutral american english, and I got a great quality copy to use in case I ever want to apply for such a job again. Very easy work, except focusing on every part adn pronunciation of every word over and over and over.

Post Titled: Blog born.

Alexander Frey has started a blog, definitely not under any peer pressue.

Post Titled: Margaret Wallström's BLOG

After months of having to use the European Commision's USELESS website I have come to the conclusion that the only good thing on it is the BLOG of EC Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Institutional Relations and Communication,Margaret Wallström.

all else is loop-de-loop useless bunk and dead-end and/or informationless lings. grr.

Post Titled: BUBBA has a blog now

It is true, called TENFOOTMAN and it already features Megan -so check it.

and Vern- quit bugging me about my crappy spelling. dammit. I know I can't spell caucophany.

INteresting Quote from Jean-Noël Cuénod, Tribune de Genève. Switzerland regarding the fake Kidney donor show in the Netherlands:
"In this sentimental society that worships technology, reason has become a dirty word and the desire to understand has become a nasty neurosis. Our new media-finance capitalism needs consumers, not citizens."
effing Switzerland, man. I don't get it. In 1999 when i read Tom Freidman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" for a college course I was horrified by his statement that trying to hold back globalisation would be like trying to hold back the rising of the sun. (mind you this was circa WTO) and now I don't particularly care- globalisation, sure. It is here to stay so long as it isn't rendered completely impotent by international conflict... but it is still funny to read a statement such at the above quoted in a Swiss newspaper... little fortress country on the high horse. Where does reason even fit into ANYthing nowadays... other that the motivations that cause people adn countries to do what they do... are insane, but make a whole lotta sense at their very core (in kind of an inhuman way).
Why do we worship technology?
Because it has changes our world in the most dramatic ways ever seen in human history.
Consumers-? citizens-? is there a difference when it comes to GDP? Hardly.
Occasionally I think: "America is perhaps just an economic medium disguised as a country..." sometimes that seems so clear.
Anyhow, enough of that. Effing Switzerland, man.

Post Titled: Ok, Dr. StrangePutin-!

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States that the deployment of anti-missile systems across Eastern Europe could prompt Russia to deploy its own missiles pointing towards European targets that could potentially lead to a nuclear war."

Post Titled: Sarah Silverman roasting Paris Hilton

Normally I would never stoop so low as to blog anythign about Paris Hilton, but this is a definite exception:

Post Titled: Iraq War Casualty: "Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery"
From John Moore's Blog on Getty Images photo of Mary McHugh at the grave of her fiancé completely completely broke my heart...

Post Titled: London Unveils New Logo for 1989 Olympics


Ok, ok, it is actually for 2012 Olympics, but seriously, brings it all back, don't it? Design of the late 80's and early 90's? Click HERE for large image on offical site. THe cool thing, however, is that you can design your own logo.
But still, the previous logo was much classier... maybe this will grow on me. I am only mildly offended because I wrote an article about the 2012 Olympic committee and how they were doing everything right... now comes this, a slightly ridiculous move on their part...

found later: Lloydengland agrees
and found the next morning: "15,000 Sign Petition to Scrap Olympic Logo"

JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY- who are the readers in Munster, Germany and Herndon, VA? do me a favor and drop me a line, very curious. ;p

Front Lawn

Front Lawn 2, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

This is the front lawn, requires very little attention.

Nadine in the new Hammock

Nadine in the new Hammock, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

Nadine bought a hammock which we installed in the bay window, genius if you ask me.

Post Titled: Do you hear what I hear?...

I APOLOGISE, THIS IS THE FIRST "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" TYPE SITUATION I HAVE HAD WITH THE BLOG, APPARENTLY FOR SOME READERS (mac users?) THERE IS A CAUCOPHANY OF NOISE ON THE BLOG, IF SO I APOLOGISE AND WILL TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS... NO CLUE.

THANKS,
:p

Post Titled: The (Daily) Inaccuracy of Online Translation Services.

THe constant battle between Altavista Babelfish and Leo.de (in my experience) is based on accuracy and options: namely Babelfish tends to give you what you want and Leo just throws two dozen possible tranlstion options for every word.
THis morning I entered "Qualleninstinkt" into Babelfish and got "Agony-Lenin-stunk" back... I will attribute that to a spelling error... furthermore, most of the Germans I know only use Leo, where did this brand loyalty come from? Qual does mean agony, though and strangely enought Babelfish offers no article attached to the nouns, the article is a PART of the word in German- hmml. Grr.

On the topic of words and information, I finally uploaded to the Internet Archive, first upload being the sound of a game of Galaga being played. Recorded in April 2007 at the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, Germany) from a group od arcade games functioning as an installation by the late Jason Rhoades, some of the other arcade games nearby can be heard in the background."
now if I could just figure out how to link directly to the mp3...
ALSO ADDED:
THe sound of a Jazz Band that was playing as I walked home along the Carl-Herz Ufer
and
a group of Greek men playing gituar and dancing, also along the canal.
also me reading about the dinosaur "Allosaurus" (actually used as a voice sample)

Post Titled: G8 Protests in Rostock

Post Titled: Wu-Tang...huh?
Post Titled: Taking part in the imaginary Life

Just found the wierdest Wu-Tang song ever, a balad half in German... "Ich Kenne Nichts"
If you know Wu-Tang Clan at all then - yea, this is the most UN-Wu-Tang thing ever...
found on the Wu-Tang Corp. site MP3 list.
Wu-Tang, once being at the forefront of mass-marketed rap music in the late 1990's, now seems completely fragmentented, nonsensical and almost completely irrelevant, -however the RZA seems to maintain respect and visability within pop culture, thus being the only exception from the group that I can think of. ODB is also a kind of exception becuase he is dead... and will no longer show up to pick up his food stamps in a limosine. (true story.)

Hadn't seen this until now, Ol' Dirty Bastard's video for "Baby I got cha money" makes absolutely no sense...


Furthermore Furthermore Having a television back in the house (after basically 10 years without) is like diving back into the game of the imaginary life, so odd... hm.

Post Titled: Goodbye, Lenin!

From the BBC: Pole Wakes Up after 19 Year Coma.

-where those Spreewaldgurken at?

Post Titled: The Little Aesthetic Nazi on your shoulder who won't stop whistering in your ear.
I think I hinted at this argument a few years back- but it was just reawakened in my senses (well, come to think of it- this maybe a result of having been outside the untied states for 8 months now) but I haven't come across much Faeiry or Kitschy Art recently, that is- until I receieved a Myspace friend request from Fantasy Gallery art and was swept-up into another world...

TO which my response was "... Oh my god..." I guess it has just been long enough that I had forgotten about the world of... whatever this kind of art is... then try to compare it in my mind to the likes of Thomas Kinkaide, the Painter of Light, showin in most major American Shopping Malls, and/or Jeff Koons- a sculptor of Kitsch, shown in most major Museums in the Western Hemisphere.
Kinkaide, who seems to have recently also aquired a split personality witht he persona of "Robert Girrard" say this of his most recent work:

"Gingerbread Cottage is based on a real 19th Century house I discovered in Southern England. The whimsical structure with its brick, stone, wood filigree, shingle siding, awnings, dormers, and spires, revels in a spirit of romantic excess. Here is the fairy tale charm of Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread Cottage brought to life.
The front garden is a riot of rainbow colors with lavish flowers dancing in the evening breeze. I've provided a whimsical bench from which you may enjoy the advance of evening at Gingerbread Cottage.

-Thomas kinkade "
whimsical bench? decide for yourselves, folks:
See this amazing work on the left and, well, a well-known Koons on the right:



and god bless wimpkiller for the Kinkaide remix:

Post Titled: A Brunch like CLUE (minus the Murder.)
Post Sub-Titled: Seattle vs. Berlin or the US vs. Germany
Post Sub-Subtitled: IRAQ... Iraq... Iraq...

Constnatly had to weigh the pros and cons of Seattle and Berlin this morning, (which I do in my own mind quite often anyhow), but today a young Air Force Officer at brunch was leaving the service soon and seriously trying to decide which one he should to move to... so, simple and brief, it goes:

Seattle Pros: Beautiful location, many interesting and intelligent people, great arts and music scene,
Berlin Pros: all of the same minus the ocean and rainforest, but plus the cheap cost of living and an excellent public transit system.
Seattle COns: full of Americans, Rain, crazy people (i.e hipsters, crackheads/junkies, apathy, social clique-ishness...
Berlin CONs: cold, humidity, unemployment, (or difficulty getting work permit or residence permit if you are non-EU), language barriers, Germans (are often) considered to be notoriously hard-to-get-to-know.
so cite a few...
COnsidering that Seattle has one million or so population and Berlin has 4-5 million, I would rate their cultural advantages as almost equal after the adjustment for polulation and size. Jesi said once: "Berlin is like New YOrk in the 80's" - not that I have any way to qualify that statement other than what I saw in Downtown 81 and those graffitti documentaries, but somehow that sounds about right... random, active, broke-ass and unfinished... gimey, decomposing and brightly-colored at the same time... (minus the murder rate, though.)

Brunch at Yorckschlosschen this morning had a most unique lineup: an Author, a rock musician, an Italian Professor of sorts, a Conductor/Composer, a Teacher of many things, and Iraq War Vet, and the "Blogger" (myself.) Such a peculiar lineup constantly reminded me of the characters of the boardgame CLUE... great way to officially start a weekend. I was fascinated by what the Air FOrce guy had to say (he will remain anonymous) but was also quoted via Helen on Freakonomics recently: CLICK HERE.

"That country is FUCKED, and we fucked it up. Every day our guys found 20-40 corpses in the streets of Baghdad whose kneecaps and eyeballs had been drilled out with electric drills, then they were shot in the head. How can they be expected to function normallsy living in constant fear if they could be dragged out of their bed in the middle of the night and killed at any time, or their wives or daughters could be raped in front of them? There are just streams of raw sewage running down the streets that you have to avoid stepping in all the time... I mean, yea- Saddam was a horrible dictator but at least then you didn't have stuff like this happening." This was making my stomach turn, it was a strange was a moment in which everything I have ever read in the news sunndenly matched up with someone who had seen it with their own eyes. I hadn't felt so gross about the war since my mom and sister made cookies and we brought them to Landstuhl hospital in the winter of 2004 and saw the wards of injured troops recovering from all manner of injuries sustained in Iraq. It was just yesterday that I had emailed my father that I really had no further ideas, recommendations or comments to add to the Iraq debacle. The young Air Force Officer said "We just have to leave. They (the insurgents) can still rile all these young men against the Americans so long as we are there. I mean, they hate us- and they should hate us, look what we've done!- we've invaded their country and turned it into a nightmare- ! Basically, we need to pull out, and the violence will most likely then escalate to become a full-blown civil war, and then- after a lot more suffering- I think things will at least reach a balance..."

Post Titled: Michael Vermillion Live on KEXP

Pleasantly surprised to find Michael Vermillion's live studio set on KEXP's AudiOasis.

Post Titled: IDEA STUB #3: Mike Tyson as Mr. T
Sitting watching Spongebob Schwammkopf on the Super RTL Toggo Saturday morning cartoons and I thought "How great would if be if Mike Tyson would dress like Mr. T and do those public service announcemnets about not beating kids up for their lunch money?!" as was a staple of Saturday morning cartooons in the mid-80's... especially since Tyson has no moral ground to stand on... I mean, Mr. T was moody, but not insane and borderline-evil... I think they would have to cover Mike's facial tatoo with make-up if possible...
I couldn't find any of the shorts, here is a music video called "Peer Pressure"

Post Titled: Is there actually any reason to Trust Google?
Nigel raises a good point in his recent comment on the Google COnspiracy Post (Click here for original post)
"why would you trust Google? Let's say they're not evil now, but turn to the dark side later. There's no way for you to take away the data that they might have gathered about you. It's theirs to do what they like with. If they're not evil, but evil people get access to their data you're also a victim.
Trust is earned over time and lost in an instant. Can you ever imagine trusting your government for instance?"
and Vernon won't switch to Gmail because he doesn't trust google scanning his email... for me there isn"t any reason not to trust Google, but then again- is there any reason TO trust them?

Hmm... HMMMMMM...

Anyhow, we went to a film night the other night in the storefront aparement of a guy named Udo, he showed "The Birth of the B-52" CORRECTION per Nadine, the film is actually BIRTH OF THE B-29" an old War Department film which called the Japanese "The little people who wanted to take over the world!" in that quintessentially American oldschool radio broadcaster voice, it was kind of awesome.
Part 1:

LinK: Parts 2 &3 I wish they would make some of those about terrorists now so future generations could sit back, watch and be amazed at our boorishness. Then again... Pearl Harbor + retaliation + enter war + atom bomb... if by learning from history we actually mean "not repeating the exact same mistakes again" then we are doing ok... by creating new mistakes to learn from... anyhow, I have completely run out of ideas or suggestions how anyone can/could fix any of the mess we are in.
THe second film- was some sort of French collage-animation, slept through it. THe third, however, was Fischli and Weiss "Der Lauf Der Dinge" (the run of things) which is a half-hour of objects painstakingly affecting one another in a domino-fashionlike this:
and a longer segment:

but, yea, for a half hour, nuts. There were a lot of german guys with glasses there, the one next to me asked me what I thought of the end of the film as the steam bubbles away from the last chemical reaction... I just said I thought it couldn't go any further because there was nothing else set-up for it to affect. He wasn"t satiffied, and thought there should"ve been a long shot of things set-up off into the horizon... hm.

I was looking for a copy of the B-52 film, but all I found was this creepy video of Nuclear explosions set to techno:

Post Titled: French take on G8

gotta love it:

"France - L'Express

"Three months ago everyone was predicting that the G8's main topic would be poverty", recalls the essayist Jacques Attali. "Today, the only theme that counts is the refusal of the United States to set precise objectives for the reduction of greenhouse gas, against the will of the seven other members; this means that we can expect the summit to fail on one very serious matter: the Kyoto protocol will expire in 2012 without either the United States, China or India being prepared to be part of its prorogation. Then, several hours away from the summit, another subject will impose itself: for a long time it was the Soviet Union followed by Afghanistan and then Iraq. Next week it will most likely be Iran. Grand statements will be made and, once again, the question of what the point of the G8 is will be posed. ... Once again it will be concluded that in order for a real reform of worldwide governance to work, it would be necessary to merge the G8 with the United Nations Security Council. Then, like every year, there will be a change of subject." (31/05/2007)"

ripped from Eurotopics.net

Post Titled: New Copyright Legislation in the EU

being monitored on copycrime.eu

more to come...

Post Titled: Relationship between the yawn and the Ohrwurm and the Origins of the Superman "S"

Notes from the road to work: The yawn passes from person to person through a sort of sympathy system that is as-of-yet still not understood.
The Orhwurm (aka getting a song stuck in your head) is passed in a similar fashion throughout society on a word-of-mouth (or audiovisual sympathetic)-type basis.
Both are viral in nature and... well, just keep on speading and dying out. I realized this this morning at work when I found myself whistiling the Rolling stones "Paint it Black" which I had seen in a commercial last night, then my co-worker started humming it a half hour later, having caught the opening melody from me whistling it...
Meanwhile, on my bike-ride to work I was wondering what the "S" on superman's chest actually stands for, because according to the first (Richard Donner, Christpher Reeves) Superman film it cannot possible stand for Superman because his parents on Krypton have the very same symbol on their chests
and they sure as hell weren't speaking english on Krypton, that would be impossible, nor did they posses superpowers there because Superman's
powers derive from his aline presence on earth- and the rules (or phyics and gravity) being slightly different on Krypton so he therefore
is automatically Super in the Earth environment (well, outerspace as well-?)
Anyhow, I did a quick search for an answer and came up with dissapointingly inconclusive results from many a superman nerd in various forums, for example some of the fundamental flaws are outlined in the comments:



Posted by albertasuperman
Now I know that many of you are saying to yourself, "The S stands for Superman of course". But that cannot be it. Remember Superman's ship with the on it, or his suit that he supposably got from the fortress of solitude. And as well in the movies Lois Lane gave him the name Superman (as well as in Lois & Clark")

So with the understanding that every movie or series Clark has gotten his name Superman from Lois and the fact that he got the symbol from Krypton, it must be.......a kryptonian symbol.

Originally Posted by Iphus
What does the 'S' stand for? Well, it stands for Superman.

And therin lies the problem.

When the character was first created, he had an S on his chest because he was called Superman. It makes sense.

Posted by MildMannered
Superman's backstory was told in roughly a dozen drawn frames-- He was sent to Earth by Jor-El, put into an orphanage, then adopted by the Kents. When he left for Metropolis as a grown man, he knew he was going to have a secret identity and fight crime as "Superman." The creators never felt the need to flesh out the nuts & bolts of his beginnings or his costume so that it would all make "sense" 60 years later to a much more sophisticated audience. That omission has presented a big challenge to filmmakers, because doing a "realistic" telling of the Superman story requires convincing details in order to achieve a suspension of disbelief. You could get away with vagueness in a 20-page 1938 comic book, but not in $200 or $300 million film. Tom Clancy said it best when he described what made writing fiction much more difficult that writing non-fiction. To paraphrase, he said, "People will accept that unexplained things happen in real life, but when you're writing fiction you have to make sense."

When the Reeves TV series aired, they had to invent a lot of his early life out of thin air. Ma Kent made the suit in that show. To me, that was the simplest way to explain the "S". Knowing what he was destined for, she had to let her adopted son go, and she fashioned his suit from the blankets he had been wrapped in when the found him. "You're not my little Clark anymore. You're a man. A super man."

I'm not really sure why Donner didn't just make that simple concept work, because it's a lot less complicated than the abstract Kryptonian "S" thing he put together. Seems that he coud have a found a way to get around the issue of the material being indestructible, which would have logically made it impossible for Ma Kent to construct the suit without Clark's help. Anyway, this thread will lead to a debate which nobody can ever really win because the guys who came up with the whole idea simply neglected to make things clear.

But then, when you think about his origin in any kind of detail then unless Clark Kent always intended to call himself Superman then it makes no sense at all that he should have an 'S' on his chest.

Hence why the movie made it a symbol of Krypton and had Lois give him the name 'Superman'.

It's one of the things that gets my goat about the Man of Steel mini-series - the fact that Jonathan Kent designed the 'S' so he could call his son 'Superman'. I just find that silly. Hence the reason I liked what the movie and Birthright did - have the S be a kryptonian symbol and have Lois give him the name.

It makes about as much sense as anything.

Complete forum discussion HERE

Uhm, based on this information, then... Objectively, I would have to say that in this image, the pillar of TRUTH himself is lying:


IDEA STUB: Culturemix explanation of evolution of European Culture in a cooperative visual form...

Anyhow, HERE is some supposedly brand- new footage of the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie.