Interesting parody on many US citizen's justification to bear arms. I always have found it interesting that we are more scared of each other than the government. This is especially true when one looks at the 2nd Amendment original purpose: to defend ourselves against our government.
"I bomb blank sheets of paper with different fireworks including color smoke bombs, jumping jacks, monster balls, fountains, magic whips, spinning carnations, ground blooms, rings of fire, and lasers. As I work, I create imagery by controlling the chaotic nature of the explosions in upside-down containers. When the paper becomes saturated in color, dark and burned, I take it back to my studio and collage blank paper circles onto the image to establish new planes and open up the composition. I then continue to bomb the pieces. These actions are repeated a number of times. The final works contain many layers of collaged explosions and are thick and heavy."
Neda Agha-Soltan was an Iranian protester. She was recently shot to death by out of uniform members of Basij along with her music teacher. The Basij is a crackpot fundamentalist militia that is known to carry out violent acts against Iranian dissidents.
More about Neda Agha-Solta can be found on the BBC website.
THE YES MEN FREE Film Showing Tuesday July 14th Potluck begins 6PM Film begins 7PM
At the Lucent Phoenix Located in Gallery5 200 W. Marshall St. Richmond, VA 23220
The Yes Men, a movie, follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world.
The story follows Andy and Mike from their beginnings with GWBush.com, and on to their tasteless parody of the WTO's website. Some visitors don’t notice the site is a fake, and send speaking invitations meant for the real WTO. Mike and Andy play along with the ruse and soon find themselves attending important functions as WTO representatives.
Delighted to speak for the organization they oppose, Andy and Mike don thrift-store suits and set out to shock their unwitting audiences with darkly comic satires on global free trade. Weirdly, the experts don’t notice the joke and seem to agree with every terrible idea the two can come up with.
Exhausted by their failed attempts to shock, Mike and Andy take a whole new approach for one final lecture.
The Yes Men is directed by Dan Olman, Sarah Price, and Chris Smith, whose previous credits include the 1999 Sundance Winner “American Movie.” It was released by United Artists.
During the past two years, Israel has tightened the closure of the Gaza Strip, almost completely preventing passage of goods and people to and from the Strip. Human rights organizations in Israel: It is up to Israel to lift the closure on the Gaza Strip for the betterment of both sides. http://www.gisha.org/2years
"UNSC/R: this is the abbreviation for the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. These documents represent the decisions of the UN’s executive body. This massive amount of data (more than 1700 documents) doesn’t come in any organized form. The purpose of this project is to apply information design strategies to create visual maps of the Resolutions to help students in politics approach the subject of the UN."
I decided to write this blog in hopes of getting over feeling paralyzed with fear to effectively do something that could actually benefit my friends and family in Iran. I am beginning to feel compelled to do what many American folk singers have done in the past. To present a snapshot of what is historically happening. Updates on my progress will hopefully be published on this blog.
If you haven't already heard, the Iranian People - mostly organized by students - are protesting the obviously rigged Iranian election results, re-electing President Ahmadinejad. What is the most surprising, is how crudely they rigged them. It makes one wonder if those in power are really so naive to think that no one would notice. With record numbers turning out to the polls; there was a 63% to 34% percent win for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his primary opponent, Hussein Moussavi. It shouldn't have been any surprise that the people would respond with massive demonstrations. Much of the demonstration organizing is accomplished using online tools such as YouTube and Twitter.
Note: In an admirable act of altruism, Twitter postponed their scheduled update in fear of disrupting the demonstrations since Iranians have restricted internet access, therefore, might not have the properly updated software to continue to utilize Twitter.
Iranian students impressive use of Twitter, YouTube and e-mail campaigns as tools to organize mass protests; is a model that organizers in the US should take note of. Many of the updates to orchestrate these admirable acts of defiance must be sent only minutes prior to the demonstration or the Iranian government might catch wind of them soon enough to react. Even with time restrictions, the attendance to these events are in the tens of thousands.
Updates on Twitter can be found at Tehran-based persiankiwi and Hussein Moussavi's twitter page. His most recent post: "I am prepared For martyrdom, go on strike if I am arrested."
Martyrdom culture is an interesting thing. The admiration of martyrs ensures that the more innocents whom are killed the larger the protest turn out will be. Therefore, the recent statements by Ali Khomeini for people not to hold demonstrations or they will be dealt with accordingly - next to the numerous deaths, beatings, torture and random searches - is thankfully only encouraging the protesters.
Awaiting Khomeini's statement at Friday prayer - of which students were asked not to attend by Mousavi - a student responded with:
"Saturday will be the biggest march to date probably, despite whatever announcement is made at Friday prayers.
I think something which those living outside Iran need to realize is that people here are not protesting because of a disapproval of the election outcome per say. Almost every individual has had a bad experience at some point with a Basij , a member of the security forces or a government official.
Whether it be a teenage party which they were attending being raided, harassed on the streets because of their clothes, visited by corrupt officials at work, or mistreated in a government office.
People are simply fed up, this is about far more than just the elections."
The important thing to note from this student is that last statement, ". . . this is about far more than just the elections." Iranian student organizers have been waiting for this opportune moment to make a powerful statement heard all around the world. However, they shouldn't have been forced to.
None of this bloodshed would have happened if it wasn't for the 1953 CIA staged coupe to overthrow the first democratically elected leader - both in the Middle-East and in Iran - Mohammed Mossadegh. He could have been the beginning of many reforms and a more democratic state. However, Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil which upset the western world, whom was calling him a communist to justify their reintroduction of an aristocracy via the Shah.
But, now the revolution is hopefully happening again as many are drawing a direct parallel to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah. BBC correspondent Joe Simpson states:
"The last time I found myself in Valy Asr avenue in Tehran, shouldering my way through a shouting, sweating, half-excited, half-frightened crowd - in order to get television pictures of a fire that was sending up a column of choking black smoke into the sky - it was 1979 and I was 30 years younger."
I hope that this might be a break from what famous Iranian political cartoonist, Ardeshir Mahasses, has deemed Iran's "Closed circuit history." Time after time Iranians see one despot off only to be confronted by yet another. Lets hope that the "Times Are A Changing" to a governmental structure that is more decentralized and by the people.
