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It appears that the San Francisco Chronicle has no room for satire in their space for public comments. This became clear when my account got banned for posting the satirical phrase, “BART…and you’re dead” beneath a story about the killing of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) commuter Oscar Grant. As I noted in an earlier post, the phrase is a play off of the BART advertisement “BART…and you’re there.” In my original SFgate.com post I had initially included a link the image in my blog post – I soon learned this was in violation of their “no posting of direct image links”. So, I reposted with simply the phrase “BART…and you’re dead.” I was quickly banned.

My emails to them asking for explanation have gone unanswered. I can only imagine that they think they may be liable for my playing off of a trademarked (is it?) phrase. My gawd! What has this society come to when you can’t make fun of corporate symbols and sayings?! Especially when it is in such direct context. What upsets me more is if you read many of the comments that go untouched by the SF Chronicle editors you get the feeling that you are reading a Fox News web page. Did Fox News purchase the SF Chronicle? A majority of comments left are about how people like Oscar Grant deserve what they got because they are “smelly low-lifes”. I guess it boils down to this, I don’t see how a thoughtful piece of satirical shenanigans is worse than mean-spirited, reactionary and often racist nonsense. Oh well, I guess that’s why I don’t subscribe to the Chronicle and suggest you don’t either.

For solid news and analysis and then some:

www.alternet.org

www.harpers.org

www.counterpunch.org

www.theonion.com

news, politics, the media news

Culture jamming – imho – is best seen by the works created by the minds that are the Billboard Liberation Front. By subtlety modifying advertisements in the public space, these “culture jammers” express an opinion about how they feel about the public space being inundated with advertisements (so-called “a-political” advertisements). Letting advertisers take up massive amounts of space creates an environment where it becomes increasingly more impossible (read too expensive) for artistic and political voices to have a place in the public sphere to express themselves – freedom of speech is effectively taken away by the fact that in order to adequately speak you have to have millions of dollars.

Another point to remember is that advertising is NOT a-political; rather it is a HIGHLY political medium (capitalism is about as political as you can get, right?!).

So, culture jammers see our common public sphere being acquired by private, political interests and this acquisition is at the expense of cultural interests that reside outside of capital. I totally agree and love the idea of re-interpreting advertisements and putting them back out into the public. I can’t say I’m as good as the folks at BLF but, personally, I don’t really think it’s about “being good”.

About the image. The public transportation train in the SF Bay ARea is called BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and their police force has committed some serious blunders in their time but most recently they went over the edge. One night on the train there was a ruckus and the police took some people aside for questioning and felt one (Oscar Grant) was being uncooperative. So one of the officers forced Oscar to the ground and while Oscar lay face down on the concrete, with his arm twisted behind him, the cop proceeded to shoot him in the back. Dead. This whole scene was caught on video from various sources and no where is it clear that Oscar was ever resisting nor was his behavior warranting the use of a taser (the weapon the cop says he was intending to go for). Anyway, it’s a really, really sad story of which BART has not really made any significant changes that people can see. I mean they haven’t shot anyone lately so I reckon that’s a good thing. But when I saw BART’s new “…and you’re there” advertisements the first thing that came to mind was the above image. Not a masterpiece but you get the point.

Here’s an older image of mine. One in which I received my very own cease-and-desist letter from those wonderfully wealthy corporate attorneys at BofA…

[original BART image; BART video; original BofA advert]

Activism, capitalism, entertainment, news, politics, the media Activism, branding, consumerism, entertainment, funny signs, news

If you enjoyed Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” then you should like the true, non-fiction story of Leopold Trepper. In the book The Great Game, Trepper tells the story of how he came to create and lead one of the most effective spy networks fighting against Nazi Germany. It’s an intriguing story that I’m surprised has never made it to the silver screen. I highly recommend reading the book!

Rest in Peace, Leopold Trepper. You are not forgotten! February 23, 1904 – January 19, 1982

Click below for The Great Game.
The Great Game: Memoirs of the Spy Hitler Couldn’t Silence

Activism, news, politics Activism, anti-fascist, history, news