The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    ironboltbruce's picture

    Graffiti Philosophy: The YouTube Video

     

     

    Uploaded by xraymike2012 on Jan 15, 2012

    This is a video illustrating the political/social commentary of public graffiti.

    It starts out juxtaposing Bush with Obama - essentially one just took the kleptocratic baton from the other without missing a beat. Then it touches on the downtrodden and disenfranchised. It then moves into the mass media propaganda machine, then mindless consumerism, our oil addiction, empire's oil-centric/exploitive foreign policy, the corporate driven military industrial complex, the environmental consequences of fossil fuels, and then the evolution (fate) of man.

    The soundtrack that accompanies the video is claimed to be an unreleased song by NIN entitled "It All Fades".

    Thanks to RG for the forward...

    ###

    http://tinyurl.com/creeping-fascism

    NO MORE LEFT. NO MORE RIGHT. TIME TO UNITE. STAND AND FIGHT!

    IronBoltBruce via VVV PR ( http://vvvpr.com | @vvvpr )

    Comments

    I watched the video without sound...graffiti should be able to stand on its own without a soundtrack.

    A few thoughts:

    There are some example of impressive works, both in technique and expression.  Graffiti can definitely act as a voice which sparks reflection and even something that elusive something more.

    • I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
    • ~Franz Kafka

    Yet, of course, I will find an issue with a word, in this case philosophy.  This is more graffiti sociology and political science, rather than philosophy.  As you state this is "political/social commentary."

    There is definitely a philosophical underpinning, and the works can cause someone to re-examine and reflect upon their own philosophy (not to mention the critical philosophical consequences for the artist going through the artistic process) - but as with art in general it can pose the questions, but rarely does it provide an answer.

    When it does to try to provide an answer, it merely comes across as didactic. 

    The thinking through is something more than art can contain, even as we can not do without it. And even as we think too much, having forgotten most of what we have thought.

    But like I said, these a just a few thoughts...


    Hi,

    Any comments or critiques you have regarding the making of this video should be given to the producers, who I'd wager will never see your posting.  Comments here should focus on the message of this video, although that will likely be difficult for some.

    IBB


    Send criticisms directly to martin.scorcese@#occupymeanstreets.com

     


    And if I want to talk directly to the boss, Harvey Keitel? Sick of getting stuck on speakerphone with Joe Pesci.


    Pesci.  He makes me laugh...


    I'll focus on whatever I want, thank you very much.  It's not like I'm taking a taking some revolutionary propaganda 203 course from you. I'm surprise to have such an authoritarian attitude coming from someone like you.

    And it's not like you're discussing some facet of the video that struck you.  It just offer the video and even make its title the title of your blog.  Seems you have embraced it in its entirety.  If I just offer in blog Hamlet as one of greatest plays ever written, then I expect people to direct whatever criticism they have to me, not William Shakespeare. 

    And as far as the message politically goes it is rather mundane and overly simplistic, no matter how true.  The whole Obama equals Bush is about as 10 grade political analysis as one gets.   I would say the same thing about Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, even though I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend people watching it. 

    In other words, as far as the message goes: meh.


    I like the video.  The people who created those works are sensitive souls justifiably horrified at the systematic violence and ugliness of the modern world, and the acquisitive greed that propels it.  The impulse to reject that world and repudiate the system of debts that tie people to it is a rudimentary start.

    But it's only a start.  It's not a plan.


    Yes. That appears to be the message of the video, and as DanK so eloquently says above, it is a nice video, depicting art done by people who do care what happens to our nation. I'd quibble with the choice of music were it not for the virtual gag order on discussion of the making of the video.

    "Und zere vill be no furzer discussion, only heartfelt sanks to me for pozting it here so you unenlightened foolz could finally see ze troos."

    Sigh. I'm going to avoid commenting any more on Bruce's threads; it's only going to make me look grumpy, and I don't see why I should provide favorable Google search juju to such an unpleasant fellow. He's not interested in my opinion, and should I ever join up with the "revolution" I hope he's well occupied on the other end of it. 

    Others have struggled with how to deal with this particular author. I'm providing two links, below. 

    Regarding the first, giving credit where credit is due, I will say that

                   "What's going on right now is not a game, 

                    you perhaps well-meaning Wine Country weirdo."

    is gorgeous, right up there with the best one-liners I've seen.

    Regarding the second link, well, one can only imagine how the interns in Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon's office must vie for the privilege of reading out loud each new correspondence from Bruce!

    http://www.occupyr.com/Strategy/thread.php?id=1027#1262997239

    http://occupywallst.org/forum/fw-from-the-desk-of-congressman-buck-mckeon/

    So it's catch-and-release for you, Bruce. Good luck in your quest to change the world without making an actual plan or being nice to anybody! I suspect that if anyone could get that program to work, it would be you. Happy trails, friend.


    Once again, children,

    I did not make this video, I only shared it.  If you don't like it, that's no concern of mine.  And if you don't like me, well, that's no concern of mine either.

    But know that a day will come when you will want to scream "Nobody warned us about this!"  And if you do so scream, know now that you will be lying...

    IBB


    Once again, my dear naive child,

    If it is no concern to you that people don't like it, then why share on a community blog site.  In general, a revolutionary activist tends to want people to become persuaded and switch their paradigm to his or her paradigm.  Since you make the point that the video, which you voluntarily and consciously shared with the community, is socio-political commentary the conclusion is that you agree with the content of the video unless stated otherwise.  It is pretty obvious that you think the video makes in its commentary a valid point (or points) about the current condition.

    If you really actually do care about this country as you claim to you do, then you should bloody well should care whether people like the commentary you provide them. Otherwise the best one can claim is that you're just a performance artist posing as angry young arrogant revolutionary Che wanna-be.

    Your responses highlight perfectly the trap too many hardcore activists fall into - they believe that if people are not acting and thinking exactly like them, then they must not be aware of the things they are aware of.  Of course, seeing oneself as one of the few truly enlightened ones is a feel-good state of being.  It is easy to want to grasp it, and to sustain it. When people don't fall into your authoritarian demands regarding insights and action, it reinforces that feel-good emotion - so much so you will (unconsciously) present your commentary in such a way as to alienate people, thus maintaining your position as one of the few chosen ones. 

    I have to agree with what erica wrote. 

    Sigh. I'm going to avoid commenting any more on Bruce's threads; it's only going to make me look grumpy, and I don't see why I should provide favorable Google search juju to such an unpleasant fellow. He's not interested in my opinion, and should I ever join up with the "revolution" I hope he's well occupied on the other end of it. 

    ....

    So it's catch-and-release for you, Bruce. Good luck in your quest to change the world without making an actual plan or being nice to anybody! I suspect that if anyone could get that program to work, it would be you. Happy trails, friend.



    That song could make anyone angry.  I want my two-and-a-half minutes back.


    It would appear that the name of the game here is to post either the least relevant or least significant comment.  Going for broke on both, here is my official entry:

    'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

    "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
    The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!"

    He took his vorpal sword in hand:
    Long time the manxome foe he sought--
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
    And stood awhile in thought.

    And as in uffish thought he stood,
    The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
    Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
    And burbled as it came!

    One, two! One, two! and through and through
    The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
    He left it dead, and with its head
    He went galumphing back.

    "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
    Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
    He chortled in his joy.

    'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

     


    It would appear that the name of the game here

    The odd thing about you saying that is a P.R. agent, which you claim to be, is supposed to be an expert at knowing what "the name of the game" is with any public group or audience ahead of time. That is the main skill they are supposed to be selling to their clients, that they know how to communicate something to a public for a desired effect. It almost seems like your interactions with the audience on this site are trying to prove how bad you are at it, and that's very curious, like negative advertising about yourself.


    AA, do you remember that run of trolls at the old TPM, who would generate right wing talking points with such machine like perfection that their authors were eventually revealed to be parodists with nothing personally invested in their speech? The cut and paste nature of this material combined with the evident delight in agitated responses suggests something equally disingenuous is at work here. Even the arrogance sounds contrived.


    What kinds of comments would be relevant?


    I can't imagine living in a world where quoting Lewis Carrol wouldn't be one of the most relevant things that a person could do.  Bats and Tea-Trays!