yeah, yo's! i am taking this artist's retreat/workshop and we entered a competition today for political signs for front lawns during the Dem and Rep conventions. guess what? it's open to public voting. would you mind supporting me, if you like them, and perhaps mine will be seen on people's yards?
dubK, congrats on the award, 5k would go a long way in my house.
on the Timothy J. Russert passing, terribly saddened by his death, terribly saddened. i truly believe that you can measure the greatness of someone not by the affect they had their friends, but by the impact they had on total strangers. i don't believe much in saints, but he sure seems like the definition of a saint.
beta, thank you. And that's such a cool idea for a competition! I went to the link and I'm a little confused, so voting hasn't started yet? And how do I find yours?
hey does anyone remember Tim Russert on SNL? I thought he had such natural comedic presence. Whilst he was great on meet the press, I just really enjoy his style of hosting be it political or not. It is always sad to see someone die so young, and so unexpectedly.
Beta - I love your signs - I really hope they win - I will register and vote tomorrow. I think this one might get my vote.
I love the signs too, beta, graphically very well done and lovely. While the NIMBY message is a great one to turn on its head, I also just love this one, on its own:
I think it speaks to our American Dream and how it has many universal aspects that we seem bent on denying to others. It's somewhat opaque in a good way, I think it stands on its own as an art piece.
Ok, beta, I'm sorry, but I don't get it. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit out of the political spectrum, and I know the NIMBY is 'Not in My Backyard,' but I dont even know what that referes to. Can you please explain? I'm sure there is deep meaning behind it, but since I don't know it, I just know that it looks like an ominous flag, and in my mind its bringing up 'terrorism' notions, meaning that thats what I think of when I see it. Please don't say I'm dense, ect, cause I'm not, but I am definately not tuned in, much like most of the population.
okay peeps, i changed my name - look for the ken k. - sarah, i would never call you a dope or dense.
let the idea roll around for a bit. the flag is the iraq flag - or colors - the font is an arabic type of font, but in recognizable english letters...i'll leave it there. remember it's political.
i am totally into politics. but i am too dense to quite get what you are trying to say. it looks kool though and i like it.
wups...just a sec. there are 3 signs together. NOW i get it.
nice.
kay, so how do you know you are living in tokyo? because it is frickin 2 in the morning and you answer your professor's email...and he writes back immediately! I am up cuz i went to a party and just got in...but somehow i think my prof is just late working. and it is like this every day. japan is not healthy.
It is sad to have to say goodbye to an old friend.....but he or she
will be providing us with winter warmth this coming year. Tracking down an hydrolic wood splitter so I don't have to do all the splitting by hand.
nam that is one days work for five guys with a cherry picker bucket.
They did get it down just in time for another storm to roll in. We weren't hit as hard as last Saturday but it might have been a restless
night knowing the unstable tree was 12 feet from our bedroom.
I'm sitting here enjoying wireless whilst I sit and watch my niece at swim classes. Its a nice summer day with a lovely lawn. There are about 50 kids no older than 9 all swimming about.
did you consider harvesting the wood for your next project? I know of a few lumber mills that will process urban wood for a fee (or you caould have bought one of those rigs advertised in the back of magazines and done it yourself).
snook - :'o(. That is so sad to see the big guy gone. I really do have an affinity for old mature trees. They have such a presence, that I find it almost disturbing when they are gone. Are you two going to try to replace it with something else?
TK We not only kept the wood but the wood chips. The back yard is dog heaven....so they get to run around in wood chips. We have fenced off two raised beds One of them with a wood frame (non pessure treated, the other with old brownstone frame. I have a friend with a portable sawmill, but swamp maple really isn't a great
tree for cutting slabs out of or flooring. It however was a great shade tree. Our considerations for the future is to add solar panels to the roof of the garage which has a perfect orientation. I started stacking the smaller branch pieces of wood this morning for an hour. I figure if I keep after it I should have most of it stacked by the end of the week. I'm hoping to borrow a wood splitter from a client along with his caretaker for a couple of days inorder to split all of the big stuff.
If I can only use the splitter I will find someone else to give me a hand. The primary task at hand is to get our garden fences back up and the 6' stockade fence repaired and put back the fence and post I took out so the cherry picker can get back in the yard. It is a daunting task with all the work I have going on in the office.
I'm sorry, but the sock toy made me laugh. Am I a horrible person? I thought it did kinda look like him, but then I noticed the tail, and Obama doesn't have a tail, does he? I've never seen him from behind, but, being that he is human, I wouldn't expect a tail.
Is this the first time that a toy has been inspired by a candidtate?
And, if they made a version of McCain, would it be less offensive? I don't associate the monkey/blackpeople thing; monkeys are hairy, and just dont look human to me. There I go again, over-analysing.
okay I'm tired and miserable. This is so not how vacation is supposed to be. I think I might have to pull a Houdini (I misspelled that first and was reminded of the 80s group Whodini - fab)
I've woken up far too early to feed my niece and help her get ready, then dropped her to school as a good uncle would. But the sun wasn't fully out yet...and somehow it feels as if someone has filled me with stale air. Need coffee, need sleep - I respect and honour all those parents that do this on a daily basis, you have my awe!
Sarah, the problem with this one is that many people do choose to equate black people with monkeys, and those are the people this "toy" is targeted to. It's a "toy" that says Obama is a monkey. It's so racist I'm surprised it doesn't come with it's own porch and a bucket of chicken.
I'm trying to think of an equivalent sexist toy that could have been made against Hillary... I guess this would be something along the lines of a Miss Piggy Hillary Clinton doll maybe? Something that completely reduced her as a human being and an intelligent woman to a shrill sexist caricature of what asshole sexists perceive a woman to be. Maybe a Hooters doll or something. With a whiny voice.
...Actually I guess it's pretty similar to all the Fox News media anchormen (and anchorwomen!) who made sneering comments about how when Hillary talks, all they hear is (in falsetto nasal voice): "Take out the traaaashhh!"
Ugh, this world disgusts me sometimes. Thank god it also inspires me sometimes...
well archi...if you have kids of own someday you will get to learn how to deal with sleep-deprivation in a whole new way from what most architects are familiar with.
there was a time when i could crash after a long period of hard work, but with girls who wake up at 5 am most days it just isn't in the cards. if i'm lucky they let me stay in til 7. on the bright side i don't need an alarm clock anymore. ;-)
that black white thing doesn't bug me. didn't check the monkey sock deal.
mrs. obama was in article of NY times today where she basically was described as saying it is better to be uncomfortable with race than comfortable, and honest expression about what everyone is thinking needs to be out there or nothing happens to change the bad stuff - it all just gets suppressed, which ain't good.
that makes sense to me. maybe being honest is a good start. as long as its not of the "i don't like you so piss off" variety...and i think mdler was corrected pretty handily...so maybe someone learned something in the process.
I couldn't care less if Obama changes his speech patterns depending on his audience.... I'm just looking forward to having a president who can actually speak words with more than two syllables. What a refreshing change that will be.
sarah, "western" development is good for them? by who's standards? iraqi's? american's? i like the thinking, because it does provoke discourse, does it not?
about the monkey thing. here's another thought that you are missing; the doll is eerily reminiscent of early portrayals of african-americans by whites in minstrel shows - in black face - go see spike lee's movie "Bamboozle" and you'll see what i mean or watch Chappelle Show...
Betta, by 'western development' I meant democracy/equality sort of things, not taco bell and kentucky fried. I percieve that to be better than dictatorship, and from what I'd heard, the Iraqis do to, but maybe they don't, I havent actually asked any. Maybe Dictatorship does work better for their culture, it's not really my call.
On the monkey thing, just because it used to be derogatory, why can't we move past it, and let it no longer have those associations?
beta - that's the very first thing I thought of when I saw the sock monkey (black face). Put a bad taste in my mouth all around. For its horrible racial intonations and for the fact they used an innocent cuddly toy to do so (my niece grew up with one of those) to construe such a notion. I don't know it I'll ever be able to look at a sock monkey the same way ever again. Meh!!!!
i used to be of the 'why can we move past it?' position but, as i've gotten older i've realized that as long as a significant portion of our population is NOT past it, we're not past it. we can't wish racism away and we can't ignore it because that effectively enables it to continue unchecked.
in my mind it's always necessary to speak against racism - even to the point of not letting an 'innocent' remark slip past without taking issue. this monkey, despite any pretense/feigned shock by the distributors, was not developed in innocence. no way.
and I think what is most remarkable about the black face cum monkey Obama doll is the fact that people are not letting it go, on either side of the fences black/white democrat/repubilican. Things that affect the core of civilisation cannot, Sarah I'm sorry be moved passed without breaking them apart and putting them back together correctly.
isn't there a monkey version of bush out there, somewhere? I guess I just see it as an anthropomorphic toy; hows that for throwing out some art history lingo. I know the whole history thing, the black face stuff, but many arent offended by white face stuff. I know black face was used some of the time with negative connotations, but at times, it was used simply as a physical discription. I have white skin, so you can say Im a white person, but it says nothing about my culture or personality. You can also say I have blonde hair. My buddy Bilal, is black skinned, since its darker than tan, and he has black hair. But, again, its just physical discription.
Steven, I understand what you're saying, but at times I wonder if we aren't over-sensitising the issue, and creating one where there isn't one. What if we have gotten past it, but people keep bringing it up and reminding us, even if its meant as a way NOT to offend?
one last chance to hook up the oil giants, tuna...his days are numbered, remember!
a great line from a great show, it's always sunny in philadelphia:
"politics is just one big ass-blast."
i agree that bush looks like a monkey or an ape of some kind. and i can't wait for that snickering chimpanzee to be out of office and back at his "ranch." you know, because he's a cowboy and all. remember those old photos of a chimp riding a dog or something, wearing a little cowboy hat on? that's who i'm talking about.
and what's hilarious about the oil "drilling" (leasing, actually) thing, is that his own administration doesn't even think it's a good idea. what a tool.
do people actually think that if oil is drilled for here in the states that the oil will not be sold on the international market??? do they think that they will just receive their oil of the month shipment in the mail or what???
According to this blog, only 17% of areas currently leased for drilling are in production. I agree with its conclusions that this sudden new interest in offshore drilling is nothing more than a deliberate attempt by the Bush "administration" to drive up energy prices to further enrich their corporate overlords.
Thread Central
yeah, yo's! i am taking this artist's retreat/workshop and we entered a competition today for political signs for front lawns during the Dem and Rep conventions. guess what? it's open to public voting. would you mind supporting me, if you like them, and perhaps mine will be seen on people's yards?
go here http://www.myyardourmessage.com/
Public voting on yard sign entrants will run from July 1–27, 2008
look for me betadinesutures. it's my first go at "art" in a public sphere...it's been fun and i've got two more days!
dubK, congrats on the award, 5k would go a long way in my house.
on the Timothy J. Russert passing, terribly saddened by his death, terribly saddened. i truly believe that you can measure the greatness of someone not by the affect they had their friends, but by the impact they had on total strangers. i don't believe much in saints, but he sure seems like the definition of a saint.
beta, thank you. And that's such a cool idea for a competition! I went to the link and I'm a little confused, so voting hasn't started yet? And how do I find yours?
hey does anyone remember Tim Russert on SNL? I thought he had such natural comedic presence. Whilst he was great on meet the press, I just really enjoy his style of hosting be it political or not. It is always sad to see someone die so young, and so unexpectedly.
Beta - I love your signs - I really hope they win - I will register and vote tomorrow. I think this one might get my vote.
I love the signs too, beta, graphically very well done and lovely. While the NIMBY message is a great one to turn on its head, I also just love this one, on its own:
I think it speaks to our American Dream and how it has many universal aspects that we seem bent on denying to others. It's somewhat opaque in a good way, I think it stands on its own as an art piece.
Beautiful work.
thanks LB and techno, it's amazing what your noggin can turn out in 2 hours time. i guess sometimes deadlines are good things.
Your signs are great beta. Very powerful. I like the visual interest of all the words together. The colors are powerful too.
Ok, beta, I'm sorry, but I don't get it. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit out of the political spectrum, and I know the NIMBY is 'Not in My Backyard,' but I dont even know what that referes to. Can you please explain? I'm sure there is deep meaning behind it, but since I don't know it, I just know that it looks like an ominous flag, and in my mind its bringing up 'terrorism' notions, meaning that thats what I think of when I see it. Please don't say I'm dense, ect, cause I'm not, but I am definately not tuned in, much like most of the population.
okay peeps, i changed my name - look for the ken k. - sarah, i would never call you a dope or dense.
let the idea roll around for a bit. the flag is the iraq flag - or colors - the font is an arabic type of font, but in recognizable english letters...i'll leave it there. remember it's political.
mornin folks
g'mawning....yawn! Going to drop my folks off at the airport and then stop for coffee...talk to all there.
beta- you have a second career as a graphic designer ahead of you! rationalist better watch out.
i am totally into politics. but i am too dense to quite get what you are trying to say. it looks kool though and i like it.
wups...just a sec. there are 3 signs together. NOW i get it.
nice.
kay, so how do you know you are living in tokyo? because it is frickin 2 in the morning and you answer your professor's email...and he writes back immediately! I am up cuz i went to a party and just got in...but somehow i think my prof is just late working. and it is like this every day. japan is not healthy.
It is sad to have to say goodbye to an old friend.....but he or she
will be providing us with winter warmth this coming year. Tracking down an hydrolic wood splitter so I don't have to do all the splitting by hand.
http://bp1.blogger.com/_XShjyw4F-Vo/SFeagdWTw0I/AAAAAAAAAGc/dLa8JYbVkGo/s320/IMG_8305.JPG
Damm snook they work quick...
nam that is one days work for five guys with a cherry picker bucket.
They did get it down just in time for another storm to roll in. We weren't hit as hard as last Saturday but it might have been a restless
night knowing the unstable tree was 12 feet from our bedroom.
I'm sitting here enjoying wireless whilst I sit and watch my niece at swim classes. Its a nice summer day with a lovely lawn. There are about 50 kids no older than 9 all swimming about.
snook-
did you consider harvesting the wood for your next project? I know of a few lumber mills that will process urban wood for a fee (or you caould have bought one of those rigs advertised in the back of magazines and done it yourself).
did you at least keep the fire wood?
beta your signs are great. Most of the other ones need graphic design lessons. The "Vote while you still can" one is kinda funny though.
I have nothing to do at work today, so I'm getting a whole bunch done for myself. Yay.
snook - :'o(. That is so sad to see the big guy gone. I really do have an affinity for old mature trees. They have such a presence, that I find it almost disturbing when they are gone. Are you two going to try to replace it with something else?
Tuna.
It is like a whole in the fabric of the location they stood.
Almost a loss of place(ness)?
TK We not only kept the wood but the wood chips. The back yard is dog heaven....so they get to run around in wood chips. We have fenced off two raised beds One of them with a wood frame (non pessure treated, the other with old brownstone frame. I have a friend with a portable sawmill, but swamp maple really isn't a great
tree for cutting slabs out of or flooring. It however was a great shade tree. Our considerations for the future is to add solar panels to the roof of the garage which has a perfect orientation. I started stacking the smaller branch pieces of wood this morning for an hour. I figure if I keep after it I should have most of it stacked by the end of the week. I'm hoping to borrow a wood splitter from a client along with his caretaker for a couple of days inorder to split all of the big stuff.
If I can only use the splitter I will find someone else to give me a hand. The primary task at hand is to get our garden fences back up and the 6' stockade fence repaired and put back the fence and post I took out so the cherry picker can get back in the yard. It is a daunting task with all the work I have going on in the office.
nothing racist here
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/17/creators-of-the-sock-obama-toy-plan-to-go-ahead-with-production/
hmmm seems like I won't be going to Canada - I'll get confirmation in a few days. Interesting days I tell you.
Is anyone else as offended by this thread as I am?
And don't forget about Green Thread Central....it may be slower than TC but it's still kicking.
EmKem - just the title of the thread offended me enough to not even want to look at it.
I'm sorry, but the sock toy made me laugh. Am I a horrible person? I thought it did kinda look like him, but then I noticed the tail, and Obama doesn't have a tail, does he? I've never seen him from behind, but, being that he is human, I wouldn't expect a tail.
Is this the first time that a toy has been inspired by a candidtate?
And, if they made a version of McCain, would it be less offensive? I don't associate the monkey/blackpeople thing; monkeys are hairy, and just dont look human to me. There I go again, over-analysing.
Oh, and Beta, I've been muling it over, and I still don't think I get it.
Are you an 'Iraqi' who doesn't want 'western' development in your 'backyard' even though its good for you, or
Are you 'American' who doesn't want 'Iraqis' in your backyard, even though its good for you?
Did I go too deep?
okay I'm tired and miserable. This is so not how vacation is supposed to be. I think I might have to pull a Houdini (I misspelled that first and was reminded of the 80s group Whodini - fab)
I've woken up far too early to feed my niece and help her get ready, then dropped her to school as a good uncle would. But the sun wasn't fully out yet...and somehow it feels as if someone has filled me with stale air. Need coffee, need sleep - I respect and honour all those parents that do this on a daily basis, you have my awe!
Sarah, the problem with this one is that many people do choose to equate black people with monkeys, and those are the people this "toy" is targeted to. It's a "toy" that says Obama is a monkey. It's so racist I'm surprised it doesn't come with it's own porch and a bucket of chicken.
I'm trying to think of an equivalent sexist toy that could have been made against Hillary... I guess this would be something along the lines of a Miss Piggy Hillary Clinton doll maybe? Something that completely reduced her as a human being and an intelligent woman to a shrill sexist caricature of what asshole sexists perceive a woman to be. Maybe a Hooters doll or something. With a whiny voice.
...Actually I guess it's pretty similar to all the Fox News media anchormen (and anchorwomen!) who made sneering comments about how when Hillary talks, all they hear is (in falsetto nasal voice): "Take out the traaaashhh!"
Ugh, this world disgusts me sometimes. Thank god it also inspires me sometimes...
well archi...if you have kids of own someday you will get to learn how to deal with sleep-deprivation in a whole new way from what most architects are familiar with.
there was a time when i could crash after a long period of hard work, but with girls who wake up at 5 am most days it just isn't in the cards. if i'm lucky they let me stay in til 7. on the bright side i don't need an alarm clock anymore. ;-)
that black white thing doesn't bug me. didn't check the monkey sock deal.
mrs. obama was in article of NY times today where she basically was described as saying it is better to be uncomfortable with race than comfortable, and honest expression about what everyone is thinking needs to be out there or nothing happens to change the bad stuff - it all just gets suppressed, which ain't good.
that makes sense to me. maybe being honest is a good start. as long as its not of the "i don't like you so piss off" variety...and i think mdler was corrected pretty handily...so maybe someone learned something in the process.
I couldn't care less if Obama changes his speech patterns depending on his audience.... I'm just looking forward to having a president who can actually speak words with more than two syllables. What a refreshing change that will be.
Ironically, if anybody reminds me of a monkey, it's the current White House occupant.
sarah, "western" development is good for them? by who's standards? iraqi's? american's? i like the thinking, because it does provoke discourse, does it not?
about the monkey thing. here's another thought that you are missing; the doll is eerily reminiscent of early portrayals of african-americans by whites in minstrel shows - in black face - go see spike lee's movie "Bamboozle" and you'll see what i mean or watch Chappelle Show...
it's wrong, wrong, wrong....
Betta, by 'western development' I meant democracy/equality sort of things, not taco bell and kentucky fried. I percieve that to be better than dictatorship, and from what I'd heard, the Iraqis do to, but maybe they don't, I havent actually asked any. Maybe Dictatorship does work better for their culture, it's not really my call.
On the monkey thing, just because it used to be derogatory, why can't we move past it, and let it no longer have those associations?
in other happier news..
Philarct just beat his minesweeper record of 179 secs, replacing
it with a stunning 155 seconds.
A fine addition to the Slack On Job Olympics Hall of Fame
Round 2 of layoffs this morning. Sweet Jesus. Two layoffs just weeks from each other.
I'm still safe.
beta - that's the very first thing I thought of when I saw the sock monkey (black face). Put a bad taste in my mouth all around. For its horrible racial intonations and for the fact they used an innocent cuddly toy to do so (my niece grew up with one of those) to construe such a notion. I don't know it I'll ever be able to look at a sock monkey the same way ever again. Meh!!!!
Beta and Tuna,
At least to me the reference was immediately obvious.
Personally, Bamboozeled is my fav Spike Lee film.
i used to be of the 'why can we move past it?' position but, as i've gotten older i've realized that as long as a significant portion of our population is NOT past it, we're not past it. we can't wish racism away and we can't ignore it because that effectively enables it to continue unchecked.
in my mind it's always necessary to speak against racism - even to the point of not letting an 'innocent' remark slip past without taking issue. this monkey, despite any pretense/feigned shock by the distributors, was not developed in innocence. no way.
and I think what is most remarkable about the black face cum monkey Obama doll is the fact that people are not letting it go, on either side of the fences black/white democrat/repubilican. Things that affect the core of civilisation cannot, Sarah I'm sorry be moved passed without breaking them apart and putting them back together correctly.
In other news today...
Did anyone seethis
I so love the idea that using a short term solution will resolve our long term problem. Way to go Shrub....er Bush!
isn't there a monkey version of bush out there, somewhere? I guess I just see it as an anthropomorphic toy; hows that for throwing out some art history lingo. I know the whole history thing, the black face stuff, but many arent offended by white face stuff. I know black face was used some of the time with negative connotations, but at times, it was used simply as a physical discription. I have white skin, so you can say Im a white person, but it says nothing about my culture or personality. You can also say I have blonde hair. My buddy Bilal, is black skinned, since its darker than tan, and he has black hair. But, again, its just physical discription.
Steven, I understand what you're saying, but at times I wonder if we aren't over-sensitising the issue, and creating one where there isn't one. What if we have gotten past it, but people keep bringing it up and reminding us, even if its meant as a way NOT to offend?
I really like that response Sarah, very physiogamical
one last chance to hook up the oil giants, tuna...his days are numbered, remember!
a great line from a great show, it's always sunny in philadelphia:
"politics is just one big ass-blast."
i agree that bush looks like a monkey or an ape of some kind. and i can't wait for that snickering chimpanzee to be out of office and back at his "ranch." you know, because he's a cowboy and all. remember those old photos of a chimp riding a dog or something, wearing a little cowboy hat on? that's who i'm talking about.
and what's hilarious about the oil "drilling" (leasing, actually) thing, is that his own administration doesn't even think it's a good idea. what a tool.
story on the dept. of energy's ANWR findings from last month here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/38223.html
we'd save $0.75 a barrel...wheeeeeee!
do people actually think that if oil is drilled for here in the states that the oil will not be sold on the international market??? do they think that they will just receive their oil of the month shipment in the mail or what???
i'm hoping for my June gallon of chamomile-infused light-sweet-crude to arrive soon.
According to this blog, only 17% of areas currently leased for drilling are in production. I agree with its conclusions that this sudden new interest in offshore drilling is nothing more than a deliberate attempt by the Bush "administration" to drive up energy prices to further enrich their corporate overlords.
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