Showing posts with label punish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punish. Show all posts

16 March 2012

on fliers and vandalism

America's cities are waging war against those of their citizens who beautify with graffiti the visually sterile urban environment. Deemed a nuisance and incarcerated frequently on charges of vandalism, today's street artist is treated with revulsion and disdain and badgered incessantly by city councils and police forces alike. These brave and selfless individuals venture forth constantly in their efforts to bring color and joy to the bland and unadorned phaltscape. Yet beyond these fearless individuals, there are others who do much as graffiti artists do, but who act without fear of repercussion or punishment – those people who put up fliers for lost and missing cats or dogs, to offer home cleaning or grooming services, and to guerrilla-advertise goods and services somewhere other than in a penny publication.

The self-advertising city dweller will tape her message to her neighborhood telephone pole with many turns from a roll of clear packaging tape, or she will staple it to her local tree enough times to keep it affixed even in gale-force winds. But unlike the graffiti artist, this city dweller will go about her business in full daylight without being talked to, approached by, or otherwise harassed by John Law. To harness this new and liberating reality, and to prove to the world that they are not ashamed of their actions, SDUBS (self-directed urban beautification specialists) in major metropolitan areas across America are setting up websites that parallel the messages they apply to physical sites in order to justify their beautification efforts as those of self-promotion (should such justification be necessary, which it rarely is, as SDUBS go about their business with cat-like stealth and formidable deliberation).

Beyond the positive effect of making bland cities more colorful, these newest, cross-genre efforts by America's SDUBS increase the number of people visiting their respective cities by showcasing the artwork they have labored so hard to produce, artwork which they apply freely and without demanding recompense. And unlike his self-promoting, guerrilla-advertising, house-cleaning-while-hair-cutting neighbor, the street artist is not trying to sell anything – he wishes only to pursue his Happiness without restriction, and to beautify his drab surroundings in peace.

場黑麥 ioanni elymucampus fecit

28 November 2011

on idiotic Americans (abroad)


  If someone here in America were to do what Gregory Porter, Derrik Sweeney and Luke Gates did in Egypt, which was to participate in an uprising by tossing Molotov cocktails from a rooftop (allegedly), that person would not be on the news, and no diplomats would be fighting for his release.

  That person would be in prison, charged with a slew of crimes. That person would not be on television, he would not be in the newspaper, no one would care about that person. In my humble opinion, if you are in a strange country and there is a revolution going on outside of your residence, you batten down the hatches, keep low, and mind your own business. If you leave your room besides to flee a fire, let alone if you decide to venture out onto a rooftop, you are being a fucking retard and you deserve any punishment you will get.

  We should have let Porter and Sweeney and Gates receive the punishment they deserved according to the laws of the country in which they were being politically active - instead, we wasted time and diplomatic effort to free a bunch of stupid kids who were tossing shit from rooftops (allegedly). Please, news cycle, stop lionizing these idiotic Americans whose actions are only harming America's reputation around the world.

JPR