I again share this piece of video vandalism art on September 11, as has become my personal tradition. DC 9/11 was a Showtime movie and piece of agitprop written by a Bush loyalist, portraying an official version of events which didn’t even hold at the time. Here, Timothy Bottoms pays his Faustian bargain for starring in “That’s My Bush!” by depicting a solemn, decisive George W. Bush responding to the nightmarish events unfolding around him with wisdom and compassion.

Conspiracy theories, sentimental manipulation, and a dismal response by the US government aside, 9/11 is still the most chilling day in my life and changed me forever. Many others took that experience to empower other agendas they already sought to preach. In a number of ways, this has amplified the tragedy many more times over.

It is in this mashup, DC 9/11: The Evildoers Remix, I find some of the most important lessons from 9/11 still survive: the reality of the devastation inter-cut with the dramatized nostalgia, an all-too-ready cabal poised to exploit America’s point, and the need for satire to sober the pomposity. And that it wasn’t just me, there was some chemistry between W and Condi.

Cross-posted at The Huffington Post

For all of his grand-standing and sustained demands for jobs, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (OH-8) might not seem like one fearing the loss of his own job. Even in an Ohio that has been among the hardest hit by the economy, John Boehner has not let job insecurity threaten his tireless devotion to protect the rights of Wall Street executives and lobbyists. In a curious defiance tacked on to the anti-government Tea Party movement, it has been a persistent point of pride for Boehner to loudly fend off the U.S. Government from exercising any restrictions to campaign finance or any effort to regulate the financial markets which led to the economic crash, and instead sought to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 so that more federal money could be earned off working Americans.

And now, John Boehner appears poised to become the Speaker of the House. Read More »

A particularly beautiful piece by Alec Monopoly just went up on Melrose on my street.  Is it just me, or is the Monopoly Man winking at me??

And another one right next to it went up last week:

A coincidence?? Right after my short doc on him and his work was featured on Wooster Collective?

Probably.

Interested in acquiring an original Alec Monopoly artwork?  Pick some up and help our film PAY 2 PLAY!

If Fat Beats must close, let it go out with a boom.  From last Friday’s in-store by Hawdwerk & Jansport J.

Hawdwerk & Jansport J High Power Moves album:  hawdwerkjansportj.bandcamp.com
Hawdwerk Off The Clock mixtape:  hawdwerk.bandcamp.com

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Odds are if you have been around Los Angeles, you have seen his work. Among the entertainment capital’s omnipresent billboards and bus ads for the latest studio mush, little deposits of his artwork spring out of the urban marketplace like willful foliage to wink at you on your commute. Some call it vandalism, some are incapable of even seeing it, and some will pay hundreds for an original.

Digable Planets ‘ emcee Butterfly once declared, “The city’s a museum with its posters and graffiti.” While the urban gallery of Los Angeles exhibits colorful murals and tagging scrawled in the city’s margins, there is a subculture that lurks in the dead of night to adorn utility boxes, street signs, dumpsters, and unclaimed walls with paint, posters and paste, in the pursuit of what is simply known as “street art.”

Less than a year ago, the recognizable Monopoly Man figure began appearing around town plastered against traffic light boxes, lampposts, and building tops. The tuxedoed icon would be recognizable with his pocket watch and top hat, but now he was spinning turntables, or needing healthcare. In an era of billion dollar bailouts for banks that already own the country and moguls decrying regulation as un-American, the re-contextualization of the childhood symbol of success and wealth almost needed no explanation. Read More »

Okay, this, I have not seen before: a hip hop video about the microloan program of the Grameen Bank, as seen in the upcoming film Bonsai.  Please give them a vote here to help them win a grant from American Express and Take Part!

The money it takes to run for office makes candidates beg, borrow, and steal.

www.pay2play.tv

Please, donate a quick couple bucks to our all-or-none fund raising effort on Kickstarter:

Maybe if Target hadn’t been the first major corporation to donate to campaigns in the wake of Citizens United v FEC,  plucky protesters with tubas would have had to set their sights on a business much harder to assemble in, like Lockheed Martin.  Now Target likely wishes it had sat out the Minnesota governor race, at least a little while, because in this day and age, this is obviously what people do in response.

On Tuesday, August 10, dozens of citizens assembled in front of Congressmen Henry Waxman’s Los Angeles office as part of a national coordination by MoveOn to protest corporate influence in Washington. Demonstrators with colorful signs urged Rep. Waxman to take charge of the fight on a number of fronts in the wake of Citizens United, from campaign finance reform to collecting corporate taxes to ending lax oversight of industry. As Target has felt the ire across the country from its decision to donate in Minnesota to an ultra-conservative candidate for governor, the debate has grown over the consequences corporations will face under public scrutiny. This protest suggested that people are very aware and energized on this issue of corporatized democracy.

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