iRaq

Get your graphics on:

Gallery Phone: (818) 677-2156

Your Sneakers, your iPod or Your Life. Branding has never been hotter. Adults and children alike are targeted by ads and pressured by peers to buy the right clothes, the right toys and the right cars, and often pay extra for the privilege of being a walking advertisement. Many items have become worth killing for just for the logo.

Throughout the world, political artists are taking advantage of highly marketed advertising campaigns to bring diverse social causes to the forefront. An iPod ad becomes an image of torture in Abu Ghraib prison. Insecticide Raid becomes anti-immigrant spray Fraid. Tony the Tiger becomes Frankentony. Whether they are protesting the Viet Nam or Iraq wars, drawing our attention to sweatshop labor, or opposing the use of pesticides and genetically modified foods, these posters provide an alternative view of reality.

For more information or to schedule a tour of the exhibition, p

Trapped in the Closet - Hypocrisy

I guess R. Kelly put this 'hip-hopera' together in part based on his experience in getting lots of bad karma based on his pissing on young girls. Hypocrisy - don't do it. I think that was R. Kelly's underlying theme - people were dissin him for his freaky behavior. I only diss him for messing with underage girls - if that was the case.

I have to say this, SFist let me know about this event, and for that they deserve mad props. But SFist is the worst blog on the internets, except for all the other ones. They truly are horrible.

I have to figure out how to avoid details of Gavin Newsome's ass-wiping sesssions. I use Google Reader - if you know how, please let me know. Thanks. I'm sure SFist thinks his shit is sparkling shiny cool, but I'm just not interested.

Too drunk, still, to detail what happened, but it was brilliant. There was singing. Dancing. Lots of laughing. '8-mile'-type rapping nonsense. More laughing. A *very* lively crowd. Singing out the wazoo. (For once in my entire 1.5 yrs or so in the Bay Area, I was proud of an SF audience - they at least pretended to be alive - that was a minor miracle, I thought.) It was stupid. A night like tonight could make one almost unafraid to claim the Bay Area as a hometown. Almost. On the whole, a brilliant experience. Totally. Completely. Fun. and Cool.

...fixed spelling/links/etc. That Mezzanine joint was legit.

And because this event page doesn't seem to have a permalink, here is the ad text for future ref:

SF360 Film+Club: Trapped in the Closet Sing-Along

On March 21, SF360 Film+Club returns to Mezzanine with Trapped in the Closet Sing-Along. The night will be an exploration of R. Kelly's artistic canon, complete with audience participation throughout (starting with a rapping contest). The event will feature R. Kelly's 45-minute hip hopera video Trapped in the Closet; a remake a high school student made for a class project; several of R. Kelly's classic early videos like "Sex Me" and "Bump and Grind;" and, of course, general R. Kelly celebration. It all starts at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $8 at the door, but you can email info@sf360.org for $5 tickets.

Trapped in the Closet is a hip-hop opera released by R. Kelly in 2005. It is an astonishing creation—both for its creative music and equally creative narrative—and, as R. Kelly himself says in the director's commentary, a work for the ages. This show is guest curated by our good friend Henri Mazza of the Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. SF360 Film+Club is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, Mezzanine and Rehab. It is sponsored by SFWeekly and 7x7. SF360 Film+Club is a monthly event, and past events have included NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting, Wholphin and Colma: The Musical.

An Evening with Barbara Ehrenreich

Saw Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel & Dimed, at Stanford last week. She was pretty darn good. Pretty darn good.

With a pretty bad cold and all, she toughed it out. Props.

Some folks from the audience gave her some cough drops. That was cool.

She was pretty funny - definitely entertaining. She seemed very down to earth - very chill - laid-back.

She mentioned how our health care was tied to our jobs, but how our jobs were not tied to us. I thought that was a good point. Go without working in America, and you go without healthcare. And having a job is still no guarantee having healthcare - not by any stretch.

Her 'white collar' union organization, United Professionals, seems very cool.

She gave big props to SLAC, the Stanford Labor Action Coalition, for doing great organizing work surrounding their 'Living Wage' campaign. A couple of girls from the group spoke briefly after Ehrenreich's talk.

I asked a question at the end - 'what is it about the U.S. and Israel that makes them #1 and #2, respectively, in wealth disparity? (Ehrenreich mentioned this.) Is it racism? Militarism?' She said something to the effect, 'they have nearly the same exact fiscal policies.' Wasn't exactly the type of answer I was looking for, but somewhat helpful. I was more looking for an underlying reason why Israeli and U.S. citizens were so willing to accept such extreme levels of corruption, wealth disparity, etc.

Misplaced my notes for the meeting, so lots of stuff gone forever. Sorry. :(

...SLAC has a couple of good videos:

SF Anarchist Book Fair

Good scene downtown. Check the other blog for more details.

Fishing Hurts

What say you?

Many people have never stopped to think about it, but fish are smart, interesting animals with their own unique personalities—just like the dogs and cats we share our homes with. Did you know that fish can learn to avoid nets by watching other fish in their group and that they can recognize individual "shoal mates"? Some fish gather information by eavesdropping on others, and some-such as a type of South African fish that lays eggs on leaves so that they can be carried to a safe place—even use tools.

Even if you're a fish-eater, like me, you should be honest about it. If you believe humans feel pain, and animals, why not fish?

And yes, insects, etc., too.

Corrupt Cops

Imagine that:

Juan Catalan, 28, was arrested in the May 2003 murder of Martha Puebla, 16, outside her Sun Valley home, even though he told detectives that he was innocent and had been at a Dodgers game with his 6-year-old daughter at the time of the crime. Catalan's defense attorney, Todd Melnik, went through footage of crowd shots from the televised game between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, but he did not find his client. Then he learned that Curb Your Enthusiasm had been shooting at the ballpark that day. Sure enough, there he was on the cutting room floor, eating a hotdog. Juan spent nearly five months in jail for a crime he did not commit — he filed a suit for police misconduct and today he was awarded $320,000. Catalan was not a fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" before his time in jail. "He is now," Casselman said. Well, duh.

'N' word banned in NYC

1984 in NYC, apparently:

The city council of New York has voted to ban the use of the word "nigger".

The resolution to ban the so-called "N-word" is largely symbolic as it carries no weight in law and those who use the word would face no punishment.

Chomsky has this:

"Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech." Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992).

I'm about to whip somebody's ass

Pretty incredible Ze Frank episode today:

I'm not one for religion, but some good religious folks can make you forget about all the evil religious folks in an instant.

Well, Ray, I been tryin to look out. A couple of days ago I helped some old lady who'd fallen down to get up - myself and a couple of other passers-by - I was driving; and today on my way home from work some dude's older Honda Accord died in the left turn lane of Alma Rd heading into Palo Alto during rush hour, so I pushed him into a nearby driveway after parking my own car around the block.

San Francisco Urban Iditarod

It's almost that time again:

This year's race is Saturday, March 10.

More on the original doggie race, here.

And a shout-out to the people who look out for those who can't look out for themselves - the dogs in the real dog race:

Dogs die every year in the Iditarod. At least four died in the 2006 race, and in 2005, at least three died, from causes including hypothermia, gastric ulcers, or “sled dog myopathy”—literally being run to death.

Just send 'em your $25/yr or whatever it is and try not to think about where that chicken sandwich comes from. Maybe eat a veggie burger once in a while. And do the Urban Iditarod, of course.

...best I can tell, this race is shut down this year (2007). MySpace page is down. Odd, that. Sorry.

...you can see the cached MySpace profile here. And going to the blog gets you this msg:

This user's profile has been temporarily disabled for special maintenance. The profile will be available again shortly.
Sorry for the inconvenience. 3/10/2007

Special maintenance on the blog. Going to the regular myspace page gives you the following error:

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.

The whole thing is odd. If the event is canceled, why would MySpace take the page down?

Google Docs & Spreadsheets Still Sucks

Not trying to re-state the obvious, but it still sucks. I tried it a few months ago and it sucked. I tried it again just now, thinking they'd have had time to fix a few thousands bugs, and they did, but that's still a few thousand bugs short.

This 'product' - and that's really a stretch to call it that - still sucks. Like, really sucks. I can't even get to the point where we can talk about a Word vs. GoogleDocsSucks comparison - that'd be like a fight between with a broadsword-armed Jet Li and a hot fudge sundae.

Let me mention just one bug for posterity's sake - once you use the 'center' formatting option, it'll never go away, ever, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many times you delete the formatted text and areas, no matter anything. Just stop. Don't do battle with Google Docs & Spreadsheets. It's like when you drown - you'll only sink quicker if you fight it.

Sorority Girls Stick Up for the Underdog

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

Not a headline one might expect to read about sorority girls:

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

Good for them six who quit.

Cops after Good Samaritan

Listen, the guy already helped prevent some lady from getting her ass kicked/robbed/worse - why not leave him the fuck alone now?

The Palo Alto Police Department made public on Friday its hunt for an anonymous citizen who recently helped defend a woman during an attack.

On Jan. 21 around 7:45 p.m. a Palo Alto resident in her 40s was walking her dog on the 4200 block of Wilkie Way when a man attacked her. When she tried to fight back, a passerby rushed to her aid and scared off the suspect, police Sgt. Sandra Brown said.
...
The police department requests that anyone with information about the case or the identity of the good Samaritan contact Detective Agent Zach Perron at 650-329-2307.

People don't want to be terrorized by the cops - obviously - so don't terrorize the dude. Is that so difficult to understand? If he's wanted for 'Suspicion of Being a Good Samaritan', then say so, but the obvious answer here is to leave him alone.

If the cops continue to terrorize Good Samaritans, we won't have anyone willing to step up when the time comes for fear of getting harassed and terrorized by the police when the event is over. I mean, Good Samaritans are already taking on a big risk by sticking up for their fellow man. Is it really necessary to hunt this guy down just because he went out of his way to help protect this lady?

Don't worry, coppers - I'm sure the lesson has already come through for him loud and clear already - don't go trying to be a good citizen, thereby encroaching on police turf - stick to what you were doing - don't interfere. Or else.

Gil Mantera's Party Dream at Baeble Music

UPDATE: I stopped using Baeble Music. They suck ass. When I bought a couple of videos, they published my real full name on the website. And they'd deleted at least one of my comments on two different occasions - at least once was, I suspect, because I remarked that a broken video was their fault (as opposed to part of the show, or that was what users should expect from all videos on the site) and they needed to fix it. Remarkably, pointing out to users of the site, and at least one anonymous commenter, that the video actually had a glitch was what got the comments deleted (anonymous commenter tried to tell me the video wasn't broken - at which point the video was removed from Baeble's search index - because it was broken, of course - because i'm usually right). The whole situation reminds me of those clowns at MyBlogFogDog who banned ShoeMoney for pointing out bugs in their crappy software.

-- old post below --

Best damn music site, period, fools.

Get some!

Listen - don't even fuck around. This is where it's at.

...previous Party Dream coverage.

...can't leave my boys out. Oxford Collapse. These guys rock, too:

Saw Oxford Collapse play the Hotel Utah a few short months ago - had never heard of them - and they were insane. And the lame-ass hipster SF crowd sucked it, as usual, but it didn't stop me from rockin out.

...some more love for Oxford Collapse. Sick song. Sick video:

...bought the downloadable versions of both Party Dream and Oxford Collapse's videos. Tellin ya - the Party Dream. It's just un#*#*#*#&&#&@believable. It's manic, drug-fueled mayhem. It's perfect.

And Oxford Collapse's video is very strong, too. They kick the shit out of it. Can't wait to see both these bands again.

Baeble Music is the greatest thing to happen to music since the iPod.

...Ultimate Donny, the lead singer for Gil Mantera's Party Dream, has an incredible voice. You would never know it if you read all the 'serious' reviews of their music, but I thought I heard it when I first saw them live in SF, and now I'm certain. At 31:25 of the Baeble video - the show at The Knitting Factory in NYC - they launch into this song called 'Tigers (Live Style Remix)'. First, the song is just damn awesome - the music, the lyrics, the heights and troughs - everything. But a special note is reserved for Ultimate Donny's voice - he goes off in this Bruce Springsteen-like roar, but more intense, during the early part of the song and all of a sudden, if you weren't yet a believer, you're convinced. There's no more hesitation. And you're pissed that we live in a time when it's possible for a band like this to exist for years before you ever heard of them. You will now be telling all your friends about this incredible band - or life experience/philosophical outlook/etc.

And a word on having confidence in your own musical taste. If you dig it, say so. Don't throw in a million disclaimers about keyboards and dress and all that nonsense - be brave. In other words, don't be like all the people who get paid to tell you what music you can and can't like. You won't find a paid review now, and you probably never will, that will just outright praise the Party Dream - because that would require actual bravery and independence on the part of that paid-for reviewer. If Gil's keyboard sounds originate in the 1980s or the 1880s, they're good enough for me. If Donny oversings or Gil uses a vocoder, then that's the way I want it. Let the haters hate, but don't lose your nerve because some hipster refuses to drop their air of superiority.

...found lyrics to the 'Tigers' song mentioned above. I've reproduced here, with corrections of typos, as well as concert-specific lyrics - as best I could make them out. You should check out the original copy because it looks like the concert version left out a whole stanza. I haven't heard the actual recording.

everybody knows
i heard it from michael
now everybody knows
i heard it from gina
now everyone knows
i heard it from gina
and all them crazy dudes they been fuckin' you
in the craziest spots available

but i can't compare to no rainbow no more
now baby
we ain't gonna find a pot o' gold
and no goddamn leprechaun gonna leave it for me
and so i'm stuck
and so you're there
and so i'm here
and so i need, i need some kind of resolution
that i can fit into

'cause broads come and go
but your family they is better than gold
because blood is thicker than water
and baby i'm hotter than you could ever, ever know

...than you ever, ever, ever...

[Remix!]

don't laugh at the tigers. show them your diamond heart (x4)

i can see how you don't want me (x7)

i see...

That song is just too much. wow.

Time to pay the piper, you fucks

I would not expect a conviction, but nonetheless, it'll be nice having these criminals hauled into court a couple of times:

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard will seek criminal charges, including felony murder, against three Atlanta narcotics officers involved in a botched drug raid that resulted in the shooting death of an elderly woman, according to a proposed indictment.

The proposed indictment drawn up by the prosecutor's office names officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Tesler. Howard accuses them of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, burglary, making false statements and violation of oath.

Straight-up terrorists.

Fucked up

Fuck with national security, and you're out of the slammer in no time, but fuck with a terrorist, and you're in for the long haul:

Those attending the demonstration held up signs with the words "Free Josh," and speakers were insistent on the unfairness of his imprisonment. Ross Mirkarimi, a San Francisco supervisor, said he was "angry as hell about this" and called for a "serious outcry, and not just only by us." In a statement, California state Assemblyman Mark Leno, who did not attend the rally, called Wolf's plight a "travesty of justice."

Typical.

Orange rocket launchers

So, the U.S. knocks off a Brit, then covers it up:

Precautions have since been taken - orange panels were fitted to allied vehicles to alert pilots during the 2003 invasion. The pilots on the tape can be heard concluding the panels were "orange rocket launchers" before opening fire.

If I was a member of the resistance, that is exactly the tack I would take. I'd paint my rocket launchers orange so the invasion forces could see me clearly. Yep.

And that, my friends, is how U.S. forces offed a 'friendly'. Makes you wonder what the U.S. does to the unfriendly. Oh wait, we already know.

U.S. Kidnappers

Wish I could say I was surprised that the U.S. government wants to be able to continue to legally kidnap us...

UN divided over 'disappearances'
Arbour urged the US to sign the treaty [AP]

Fifty-seven countries signed a treaty on Tuesday banning forced disappearances but the US, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy were notably absent among the signatories.

France introduced the convention, which bars governments from holding people in secret detention, at the UN General Assembly in November and it was adopted in December.

Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, told reporters after the signing at his ministry in Paris: "Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony, unfortunately, they weren't able to join us."

Forced disappearances. If that ain't democracy, I don't know what is.

It's OK to be a guy today...

...because today is the Super Bowl:

With a little recognition of the evils of capitalism, for good measure:

Jim Gray Missing: Help find him by searching satellite imagery

Interesting use of Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

I looked through three sets of images, and it seems like it'd be almost impossible to see anything in them. But, I figured I'd try at least a little bit.

About the name, 'Mechanical Turk'.

Hope they/we find him alive and well.

Terrorists Strike in Kansas City, Missouri!

Officers suspended in case of woman who miscarried - CNN.com:

No tapes were available of Salva's time in the jail, but she contends in the lawsuit that her continued pleas for help were ignored. The department said videotapes from that period had been recycled before it became aware of Salva's claims.

Oh, it's just another case of police terrorism. Nothing to see here. Move along.