Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Virginia Tech shootings, media spin, and politics....
Ok...so I've been watching all day about the shootings that happened on the Virginia Tech college campus early yesterday morning...and I have to say if there is anything worse then the shootings themselves it would have to be the obvious media and political spin placed on every aspect simply to boost ratings and discourage law suits. I've been entrenched in this horrific incident since about 11 am yesterday morning...much like I was when 9/11 happened. TV on, flipping from news channel to news channel to get the latest, in search of answers for an incident that so defies clear explanation....I foolishly look to the media like so many others.
Just the facts ma'am. Plain and simple is the way we want it. Leave the yellow journalism for the uneducated masses of yester-year....
As a viewer who's tirelessly kept abreast of the events of the day you begin, after 15 hours of continuous coverage, to get a feeling for the disgusting game unfolding right before our very eyes....First hand reports and first impressions from witnesses on the scene perverted throughout the day, a shadow of the truth.
Lets take the kid with the cell cam bravely playing the role of the videographer in a war torn area, shots fired every few seconds - he becomes the new pseudo-correspondent for the largest news network this side of the Atlantic for the duration. Nice. Like some discovery channel special on the lion cubs long, arduous journey to head of the pride we witness the metamorphosis of college student turned CNN correspondent in hours - shaking and recounting his initial feelings that "life will go on" and little more upon undertaking his new role as "I Reporter" through composure and eventual spin, mentioning finally in the past few hours that the gunman confronted the police, bursting through the doors and then back in again...a fact never, ever relented previously. A fact so deviously and transparently spun through the glowing screen of the television screen that I was prompted to voice my disgust for the whole damn thing through the creation of this blog.
You never said that earlier, brave kid with the cell phone...why now?
Why now do the police speculate there were two gunmen? All eyewitness reports claim the same - one gunman, Chinese decent, tall, maroon cap, oh...and the jacket that was introduced 7 hours into talks with *the same eye witnesses*. Never any mention of a jacket a few hours into the investigation. Students calling in to speak with CNN, MSNBC, Fox news...not one mentioned a "vest that made him look like a boyscout" early on. We mention the maroon cap and the ethnicity but never the vest. All the sudden, after Virginia Tech and the president offer their news conferences, do these same people who gave very clear, very identical descriptions of the assailant change their stories. Ah, and we never actually hear the majority of these witnesses who were so ready to speak to the press early on with their initial recounts changing or adding to their stories later on - on news anchors telling us of these changes after the fact. I wonder why that is....
At 1pm calls poured into the major news channels and they lapped it up, asking every question from here till Sunday to obtain a scoop over the next guy. Calm and collected each eye witness gave their description. One even says she was there for the dorm shooting, knew it was a domestic fight between the gunman and his girlfriend, and the R.A got in the middle and both ended up shot and left for dead as the single gunman ran off - only to disappear for 2 and a half hours while campus officials rammed their thumbs up their rears and tried to figure out a way to notify the campus of the murders - murders students should have been made aware of from the get go - in a calm and collected way as not to incite mass hysteria.
So for 2 hours they polished their campus wide email and press release, allowing the assailant free reign. Time to collect more ammo. Time to grab the chains that he used to barricade the entrance with. Time to execute his next attack. Time for 31 students and faculty in Norris Hall to perish at the hands of a very prepared, very determined gunman with nothing to lose.
It's come up through all of this how very accountable the campus should be held for the inefficiency of security and their lax attitude toward the initial two murders in the dorms at 7:15 am of the girlfriend and the R.A - never ordering a lock down, never even contacting the rest of the campus about what had happened in the dorms until 9:26 am - 4 minutes before the gunman's second attack on the engineering building across the campus.
That's when the spin began.
All of the sudden speculation arises. The wheels turn and the search for the second gunman is on. They're still "searching" for him, whoever he may or may not be. Perhaps he's on the grassy knoll....
See, the thing with all of this, and with most bullshit spins executed throughout history, is it's usually caught by anyone within ear shot.
"You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war".
It went from one deranged individual to two to a terrorist attack within hours. It's all still "speculation" even though I'd be inclined to believe initial, unadulterated reports. They slaughtered the story just as the lone gunman slaughtered the victims in cold blood. I've heard everything today from a modern day Mexican standoff from our good friend the cell phone cam guy to ethnic connections between college campus gunmen and terrorist conspiracy theorized by CNN. There's a fascinating wiki on this very subject and the BBC even has its own "inside sources" to the incident. Everyone is "in the know". Has an "inside track". Even when stories begin to unravel and things just don't seem to add up - if it's packaged neatly enough and people only tune in for the end, the beginning is irrelevant...isn't it?
Right. If you believe that I have a bus ticket to Hawaii I am just dying to sell you real cheap.
Everyone wants something. The college wants a reason not to have the pants sued off of them. The police want to look like heroes so the Mexican standoff scenario is a brilliant speel to feed the hungry masses looking for even more drama then the actual story, that's dramatic and disgusting enough already, even when it is obvious from glorious video what really transpired. The media wants the next story of the year, no doubt sick of chewing the liquid fat of the worn out Anna Nicole story that is as dead as she is. Correspondents from here, there, and everywhere want a chance to psychologically profile the unidentified gunman, so rather than wait for confirmation they too speculate and add fuel to an already blazing fire. Even sweet old Jamal the cell phone camera dude wants recognition for his "brilliant" journalistic feat as honorary "I reporter" for CNN.
The spin is ridiculous and I personally find it disgusting. Do they really think we are that stupid? That blind? That ignorant?
Now I am not saying the witnesses have been corrupted, or the police or even the campus didn't do what they felt was right - but hind sight is 20/20. And they weren't right in the end. And now to spin it just to look better in the face of very real backlash and accountability is the lowest of the low. Take responsibility for your short comings. Yes, you should be sued. The school should have been locked down immediately after the school was made aware of the first murders in the dorms at 7:15 - emails over 2 hours later are not sufficient enough when a gunman is on the loose and *you don't know where he is*. Why it took everyone 2 hours to take anymore action then notifying those just in the dorm where the 2 initial murders took place is beyond comprehension - and someone needs to be held accountable.
31 people are dead because the ball was dropped and that's the bottom line. No political or media spin will negate that. You can't hide from the truth. I only hope the families of the victims demand more for their loved ones lost in this tragedy then officials and the media have. Because if the spin wins, that would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Just the facts ma'am. Plain and simple is the way we want it. Leave the yellow journalism for the uneducated masses of yester-year....
As a viewer who's tirelessly kept abreast of the events of the day you begin, after 15 hours of continuous coverage, to get a feeling for the disgusting game unfolding right before our very eyes....First hand reports and first impressions from witnesses on the scene perverted throughout the day, a shadow of the truth.
Lets take the kid with the cell cam bravely playing the role of the videographer in a war torn area, shots fired every few seconds - he becomes the new pseudo-correspondent for the largest news network this side of the Atlantic for the duration. Nice. Like some discovery channel special on the lion cubs long, arduous journey to head of the pride we witness the metamorphosis of college student turned CNN correspondent in hours - shaking and recounting his initial feelings that "life will go on" and little more upon undertaking his new role as "I Reporter" through composure and eventual spin, mentioning finally in the past few hours that the gunman confronted the police, bursting through the doors and then back in again...a fact never, ever relented previously. A fact so deviously and transparently spun through the glowing screen of the television screen that I was prompted to voice my disgust for the whole damn thing through the creation of this blog.
You never said that earlier, brave kid with the cell phone...why now?
Why now do the police speculate there were two gunmen? All eyewitness reports claim the same - one gunman, Chinese decent, tall, maroon cap, oh...and the jacket that was introduced 7 hours into talks with *the same eye witnesses*. Never any mention of a jacket a few hours into the investigation. Students calling in to speak with CNN, MSNBC, Fox news...not one mentioned a "vest that made him look like a boyscout" early on. We mention the maroon cap and the ethnicity but never the vest. All the sudden, after Virginia Tech and the president offer their news conferences, do these same people who gave very clear, very identical descriptions of the assailant change their stories. Ah, and we never actually hear the majority of these witnesses who were so ready to speak to the press early on with their initial recounts changing or adding to their stories later on - on news anchors telling us of these changes after the fact. I wonder why that is....
At 1pm calls poured into the major news channels and they lapped it up, asking every question from here till Sunday to obtain a scoop over the next guy. Calm and collected each eye witness gave their description. One even says she was there for the dorm shooting, knew it was a domestic fight between the gunman and his girlfriend, and the R.A got in the middle and both ended up shot and left for dead as the single gunman ran off - only to disappear for 2 and a half hours while campus officials rammed their thumbs up their rears and tried to figure out a way to notify the campus of the murders - murders students should have been made aware of from the get go - in a calm and collected way as not to incite mass hysteria.
So for 2 hours they polished their campus wide email and press release, allowing the assailant free reign. Time to collect more ammo. Time to grab the chains that he used to barricade the entrance with. Time to execute his next attack. Time for 31 students and faculty in Norris Hall to perish at the hands of a very prepared, very determined gunman with nothing to lose.
It's come up through all of this how very accountable the campus should be held for the inefficiency of security and their lax attitude toward the initial two murders in the dorms at 7:15 am of the girlfriend and the R.A - never ordering a lock down, never even contacting the rest of the campus about what had happened in the dorms until 9:26 am - 4 minutes before the gunman's second attack on the engineering building across the campus.
That's when the spin began.
All of the sudden speculation arises. The wheels turn and the search for the second gunman is on. They're still "searching" for him, whoever he may or may not be. Perhaps he's on the grassy knoll....
See, the thing with all of this, and with most bullshit spins executed throughout history, is it's usually caught by anyone within ear shot.
"You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war".
It went from one deranged individual to two to a terrorist attack within hours. It's all still "speculation" even though I'd be inclined to believe initial, unadulterated reports. They slaughtered the story just as the lone gunman slaughtered the victims in cold blood. I've heard everything today from a modern day Mexican standoff from our good friend the cell phone cam guy to ethnic connections between college campus gunmen and terrorist conspiracy theorized by CNN. There's a fascinating wiki on this very subject and the BBC even has its own "inside sources" to the incident. Everyone is "in the know". Has an "inside track". Even when stories begin to unravel and things just don't seem to add up - if it's packaged neatly enough and people only tune in for the end, the beginning is irrelevant...isn't it?
Right. If you believe that I have a bus ticket to Hawaii I am just dying to sell you real cheap.
Everyone wants something. The college wants a reason not to have the pants sued off of them. The police want to look like heroes so the Mexican standoff scenario is a brilliant speel to feed the hungry masses looking for even more drama then the actual story, that's dramatic and disgusting enough already, even when it is obvious from glorious video what really transpired. The media wants the next story of the year, no doubt sick of chewing the liquid fat of the worn out Anna Nicole story that is as dead as she is. Correspondents from here, there, and everywhere want a chance to psychologically profile the unidentified gunman, so rather than wait for confirmation they too speculate and add fuel to an already blazing fire. Even sweet old Jamal the cell phone camera dude wants recognition for his "brilliant" journalistic feat as honorary "I reporter" for CNN.
The spin is ridiculous and I personally find it disgusting. Do they really think we are that stupid? That blind? That ignorant?
Now I am not saying the witnesses have been corrupted, or the police or even the campus didn't do what they felt was right - but hind sight is 20/20. And they weren't right in the end. And now to spin it just to look better in the face of very real backlash and accountability is the lowest of the low. Take responsibility for your short comings. Yes, you should be sued. The school should have been locked down immediately after the school was made aware of the first murders in the dorms at 7:15 - emails over 2 hours later are not sufficient enough when a gunman is on the loose and *you don't know where he is*. Why it took everyone 2 hours to take anymore action then notifying those just in the dorm where the 2 initial murders took place is beyond comprehension - and someone needs to be held accountable.
31 people are dead because the ball was dropped and that's the bottom line. No political or media spin will negate that. You can't hide from the truth. I only hope the families of the victims demand more for their loved ones lost in this tragedy then officials and the media have. Because if the spin wins, that would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Exotica
Fresh off the easel is this 8x10 abstract female nude oil painting I've named "Exotica"...just how it felt to me. A lot of the time I will name my paintings the first word that comes to mind because generally the first impression is a keeper lol.
I've just finished another piece that's sitting on the easel right now awaiting natural light to photograph tomorrow. I'm delving further into the female form, getting closer yet more abstracted at the same time.... You'll see with tomorrow's piece what I mean.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Projekt30
Thought I'd let everyone know I was juried into Projekt30's April show! Please click on the pic to see the work I have in the online exhibition :)
The Wall
Forget the past. Toss the tinfoil hat in the toybox with the legos and lincoln logs where it belongs... lock it up, swallow the key, and choke on naievity. Show those conspiracy theories and plastic building blocks who's really boss. Unless those skeletons in the closet or monsters under the bed pick the lock and then I'm really screwed. Best to speak softly and carry a big stick to beat the fuckers to bloody submission. They know they have it comin so I can forget about shock and awe, just like I know I have it coming...that's what the big stick is for.
Fester in the open wound that is ironic existence and walk the goose step to the tyranical oppression of one's self. Beat myself with the stick for a moment or two only to turn around and deny self-infliction. If anyone asks it was anyone but me. Plausable deniability so transparent the hollow eye sockets peer through the cracked closet door and see right through. Can one really discern pitty in the empty orafices where the windows to the soul used to reside?
Sure...why not?
Keep the masses at arms length, build the brick wall piece by piece against my will but in line with my better judgement. Skeletons can't get to you when you have no closet. Let's hear it for loop holes.
Yeah right. Like I wanna confine myself in a one room brick shanty of which was self-constructed. I got too much livin to do.
I wanna be the subject of a power ballad circa 1989 and keep it a secret. I wanna open up a 454 on a secluded Montana highway in the middle of July topless. I wanna drink cheap alcohol for a month straight on an expensive resort island in the tropics. I wanna paint every clock I encounter black and forget time even exists...and not have reprocutions. I wanna climb a tree, smoke a joint, and watch the sun set...and then watch it rise completely baked feeling alittle bit more free and a whole lot of gravitational pull. I wanna ride a train across country, pretend I have multiple personality disorder, and chat up unsuspecting passengers in horribly executed accents while sipping on malibu and coke and periodically arguing with one or all of the other 9 personalities I create.
I wanna find a remote field of flowers and frolic through it like in the movies...while on an eighth of shrooms. I wanna have sex in the grass on a rainy summer night. I wanna spend a week in Vegas and not remember. I wanna be loved so deeply and love so deeply in return that it actually makes me cry.
Now where in the hell is that door in the wall...I know I built one just in case.
Fester in the open wound that is ironic existence and walk the goose step to the tyranical oppression of one's self. Beat myself with the stick for a moment or two only to turn around and deny self-infliction. If anyone asks it was anyone but me. Plausable deniability so transparent the hollow eye sockets peer through the cracked closet door and see right through. Can one really discern pitty in the empty orafices where the windows to the soul used to reside?
Sure...why not?
Keep the masses at arms length, build the brick wall piece by piece against my will but in line with my better judgement. Skeletons can't get to you when you have no closet. Let's hear it for loop holes.
Yeah right. Like I wanna confine myself in a one room brick shanty of which was self-constructed. I got too much livin to do.
I wanna be the subject of a power ballad circa 1989 and keep it a secret. I wanna open up a 454 on a secluded Montana highway in the middle of July topless. I wanna drink cheap alcohol for a month straight on an expensive resort island in the tropics. I wanna paint every clock I encounter black and forget time even exists...and not have reprocutions. I wanna climb a tree, smoke a joint, and watch the sun set...and then watch it rise completely baked feeling alittle bit more free and a whole lot of gravitational pull. I wanna ride a train across country, pretend I have multiple personality disorder, and chat up unsuspecting passengers in horribly executed accents while sipping on malibu and coke and periodically arguing with one or all of the other 9 personalities I create.
I wanna find a remote field of flowers and frolic through it like in the movies...while on an eighth of shrooms. I wanna have sex in the grass on a rainy summer night. I wanna spend a week in Vegas and not remember. I wanna be loved so deeply and love so deeply in return that it actually makes me cry.
Now where in the hell is that door in the wall...I know I built one just in case.
Testoster-world
Wrote this some time back, thought I'd share it here. When I am not painting I'm writing....
Welcome to the machine. Step right up and take your best shot, win a teddy bear if you hit the mark. Win an excessively large one with a velvet red ribbon tied around its neck like a noose if you do one better. Take the prize and ride the conveyor belt to your destiny - do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars...it'll all be sucked back into the machine anyways so why even bother.
Locate a match and light another cigarette, one stick closer to demise. Quench the thirst with a frosty cold one and dehydrate in your refreshment. These are the days of our lives. Tip your hat to the passerby who clenches her purse, what a horribly polite mugger you must be. While you're at it hold the door for her and she'll scoff at the gender role you have presented without even trying. Fuck that shit.
Live and let live. Smash the machine with a sledgehammer...brandishing it at the snotty feminazi might be fun too. Who the hell cares anyhow, her opinion has already been made and she's fit you into a box with all the other stereotypes in recent memory so why not go out with a bang? Brandish the sledgehammer and its attempted assault. She pulls a gun and shoots your ass and she's heralded on the front page of the local paper as the courageous young woman who beat the odds and becomes the poster girl for feminine self-defense classes everywhere. How typical.
Speed away in the car you pay an exorbitant amount of money to insure toward the waiting police cruiser who might have let you off with a warning if you had the gift of cleavage and could cry on command and pout seductively. Ain't that just a bitch.
Fine line blurred but the line is still there. Fight for the right to just be you, forget the balls and the dick, just a human sans gender bullshit. Shed a tear, watch a "chick flick", ask for directions when you're lost and hold your head high despite the societal shift in favor of the "fairer" sex.
Pick some friggin flowers in a sun kissed field already so you can smell the roses for once cause it's truly never been tougher being you
Welcome to the machine. Step right up and take your best shot, win a teddy bear if you hit the mark. Win an excessively large one with a velvet red ribbon tied around its neck like a noose if you do one better. Take the prize and ride the conveyor belt to your destiny - do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars...it'll all be sucked back into the machine anyways so why even bother.
Locate a match and light another cigarette, one stick closer to demise. Quench the thirst with a frosty cold one and dehydrate in your refreshment. These are the days of our lives. Tip your hat to the passerby who clenches her purse, what a horribly polite mugger you must be. While you're at it hold the door for her and she'll scoff at the gender role you have presented without even trying. Fuck that shit.
Live and let live. Smash the machine with a sledgehammer...brandishing it at the snotty feminazi might be fun too. Who the hell cares anyhow, her opinion has already been made and she's fit you into a box with all the other stereotypes in recent memory so why not go out with a bang? Brandish the sledgehammer and its attempted assault. She pulls a gun and shoots your ass and she's heralded on the front page of the local paper as the courageous young woman who beat the odds and becomes the poster girl for feminine self-defense classes everywhere. How typical.
Speed away in the car you pay an exorbitant amount of money to insure toward the waiting police cruiser who might have let you off with a warning if you had the gift of cleavage and could cry on command and pout seductively. Ain't that just a bitch.
Fine line blurred but the line is still there. Fight for the right to just be you, forget the balls and the dick, just a human sans gender bullshit. Shed a tear, watch a "chick flick", ask for directions when you're lost and hold your head high despite the societal shift in favor of the "fairer" sex.
Pick some friggin flowers in a sun kissed field already so you can smell the roses for once cause it's truly never been tougher being you
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
