Your interests: Explain them!
Nov. 11th, 2010 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyMeme time! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snarkitysnarks asked me to explain the following LJ interests:
billboard improvement (I don't believe I ever asked about this)
making baby jesus cry (hee)
maoist kitsch (?)
phil ochs (are there more songs of his I should know about?)
‽ (what is...what? this is your last interest)
billboard improvement
Okay, so there is no such thing as free speech.
Maybe you have an abstract right to free speech. You will, in most places, not be arrested for tacking up a poster. But it will be taken down. You can shout on a street corner, or send a letter to the editor, but no on actually listens to you. Even in this age of democratized media, you can make the most rational, sensible statements and be utterly ignored.
Meanwhile, a large corporation can hire psychologists, marketing experts, and graphic designers to create something perfectly eye-catching and spend millions of dollars to put up a massive billboard that will violate your mental and physical space. You have no say in this whatsoever. You cannot simply choose to ignore it. Your visual environment is consistently under assault from all directions. A large corporation can buy speech; you cannot afford it.
So, of course, I find it tremendously cathartic when some punk gets up on a billboard late at night and improves it.
True story: When I first moved to Toronto, Sauza was running a series of subway ads. One of them was this:
Photo: A scantily clad woman. Caption: ”She’s a he. Life is harsh. Your tequila shouldn’t be.
Anyway, I noticed a young guy on the subway improving that ad with a sticker that changed it to: “Life is harsh. Unless you’re open-minded.” I told him that this was way cool, we exchanged numbers, and he invited me to a party put on by the Media Collective. Some of the folks I met introduced me some other people, and that’s how I made friends in this cold, unfriendly city.
making baby jesus cry
I don’t know how this got started. I thinkzingerella and I started saying it all the time for some reason. And then we started saying “sad panda” and the result was “you make baby Jesus a sad panda.” Oh, and at one point I made this Flash animation that was Leila Khaled chasing Ann Coulter around with an axe, and Eva Braun showed up, or something. I don’t think there’s much more of a story than that.
maoist kitsch
Hmm. Some people think I’m a Maoist because of my conditional support for the Naxalites or whatever but I’m not. Mostly I collect Maoist kitsch because it’s funny as hell. It doesn’t matter what bizarre object exists, Maoists manage to slap a piece of socialist realist art on it. Like I have a Mao alarm clock and a Mao hat and a poster on my wall that roughly translates to: “Unite and drive out the imperialists and the ass-kissers.”
I genuinely like the aesthetic of socialist realism, by the way. I shouldn’t. The art critic in me shudders. But I think it’s pretty.
phil ochs
I grew up listening to Phil Ochs and knowing the words to “Draft Dodger Rag” and “Love Me, I’m a Liberal,” but I didn’t know they were by the same guy or anything about him. And then years later, I was searching for good songs about anarchism and found “Spanish Civil War Song.” It struck me, despite the reference to “25 years ago,” as sounding quite contemporary, so I looked around for information on this Phil Ochs guy so that I could maybe attend a show.
Oh. He killed himself. Also he was the Tupac to Bob Dylan’s Biggie. And if you read anything about his life you will totally hate Dylan. Shitgoddamnit.
Really, all of his songs are fantastic. He can be a bit didactic in his political songs, but he makes up for it with scathing wit. In terms of songs you should hear, besides the ones I mentioned:
“Changes”—Pretty much everyone agrees this is his best song. Also it was written in Toronto.
“I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore”—The song that political people think is his best song.
”When I’m Gone”—That’s another one of his best songs. Hahaha.
“Cops of the World”—One of those songs that you think is contemporary. I made a video about the Iraq War to this song and it totally fit.
“White Boots Marching In a Yellow Land”—Along the same lines.
“I’ll Be There”—I don’t think there is a decent recording of this anywhere, but it’s great.
“Here’s to the State of Mississippi”—More historically specific except not really.
“The Iron Lady”—I actually prefer Diamanda Galas’ cover, but not by much.
“Remember Me”—snarkitysnarks, remind me to put that on the next mixtape. For Molly. You’ll see why.
Someone is going to inevitably jump in the comments and say that “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” is actually Phil Ochs’ best song, but this is not true.
Despite the fact that he was a blatant pinko commie, Phil Ochs’ estate and record company are capitalist asshats and thus it is hard to find his music online. I have bunches; I’m happy to share. He would have approved.
‽
That’s an interrobang. It is a Real Actual Punctuation mark. It is the grammatical equivalent of saying:
WHAT
Except louder.
I need to use it more frequently than you might think.
snarkitysnarks asked me to explain the following LJ interests: billboard improvement (I don't believe I ever asked about this)
making baby jesus cry (hee)
maoist kitsch (?)
phil ochs (are there more songs of his I should know about?)
‽ (what is...what? this is your last interest)
billboard improvement
Okay, so there is no such thing as free speech.
Maybe you have an abstract right to free speech. You will, in most places, not be arrested for tacking up a poster. But it will be taken down. You can shout on a street corner, or send a letter to the editor, but no on actually listens to you. Even in this age of democratized media, you can make the most rational, sensible statements and be utterly ignored.
Meanwhile, a large corporation can hire psychologists, marketing experts, and graphic designers to create something perfectly eye-catching and spend millions of dollars to put up a massive billboard that will violate your mental and physical space. You have no say in this whatsoever. You cannot simply choose to ignore it. Your visual environment is consistently under assault from all directions. A large corporation can buy speech; you cannot afford it.
So, of course, I find it tremendously cathartic when some punk gets up on a billboard late at night and improves it.
True story: When I first moved to Toronto, Sauza was running a series of subway ads. One of them was this:
Photo: A scantily clad woman. Caption: ”She’s a he. Life is harsh. Your tequila shouldn’t be.
Anyway, I noticed a young guy on the subway improving that ad with a sticker that changed it to: “Life is harsh. Unless you’re open-minded.” I told him that this was way cool, we exchanged numbers, and he invited me to a party put on by the Media Collective. Some of the folks I met introduced me some other people, and that’s how I made friends in this cold, unfriendly city.
making baby jesus cry
I don’t know how this got started. I think
zingerella and I started saying it all the time for some reason. And then we started saying “sad panda” and the result was “you make baby Jesus a sad panda.” Oh, and at one point I made this Flash animation that was Leila Khaled chasing Ann Coulter around with an axe, and Eva Braun showed up, or something. I don’t think there’s much more of a story than that.maoist kitsch
Hmm. Some people think I’m a Maoist because of my conditional support for the Naxalites or whatever but I’m not. Mostly I collect Maoist kitsch because it’s funny as hell. It doesn’t matter what bizarre object exists, Maoists manage to slap a piece of socialist realist art on it. Like I have a Mao alarm clock and a Mao hat and a poster on my wall that roughly translates to: “Unite and drive out the imperialists and the ass-kissers.”
I genuinely like the aesthetic of socialist realism, by the way. I shouldn’t. The art critic in me shudders. But I think it’s pretty.
phil ochs
I grew up listening to Phil Ochs and knowing the words to “Draft Dodger Rag” and “Love Me, I’m a Liberal,” but I didn’t know they were by the same guy or anything about him. And then years later, I was searching for good songs about anarchism and found “Spanish Civil War Song.” It struck me, despite the reference to “25 years ago,” as sounding quite contemporary, so I looked around for information on this Phil Ochs guy so that I could maybe attend a show.
Oh. He killed himself. Also he was the Tupac to Bob Dylan’s Biggie. And if you read anything about his life you will totally hate Dylan. Shitgoddamnit.
Really, all of his songs are fantastic. He can be a bit didactic in his political songs, but he makes up for it with scathing wit. In terms of songs you should hear, besides the ones I mentioned:
“Changes”—Pretty much everyone agrees this is his best song. Also it was written in Toronto.
“I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore”—The song that political people think is his best song.
”When I’m Gone”—That’s another one of his best songs. Hahaha.
“Cops of the World”—One of those songs that you think is contemporary. I made a video about the Iraq War to this song and it totally fit.
“White Boots Marching In a Yellow Land”—Along the same lines.
“I’ll Be There”—I don’t think there is a decent recording of this anywhere, but it’s great.
“Here’s to the State of Mississippi”—More historically specific except not really.
“The Iron Lady”—I actually prefer Diamanda Galas’ cover, but not by much.
“Remember Me”—
snarkitysnarks, remind me to put that on the next mixtape. For Molly. You’ll see why.Someone is going to inevitably jump in the comments and say that “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” is actually Phil Ochs’ best song, but this is not true.
Despite the fact that he was a blatant pinko commie, Phil Ochs’ estate and record company are capitalist asshats and thus it is hard to find his music online. I have bunches; I’m happy to share. He would have approved.
‽
That’s an interrobang. It is a Real Actual Punctuation mark. It is the grammatical equivalent of saying:
WHAT
Except louder.
I need to use it more frequently than you might think.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 01:09 pm (UTC)Can I ask you about some of your interests and then you can ask me about mine. Mine are very interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 10:06 pm (UTC)transmetropolitan (because <3 <3 <3)
whiny folk chicks
canadian film
online comics
probably other things