I am not the biggest political activist, nor do I follow the US election that intense as I feel I should. Nonetheless, I can’t bear the look of John McCain. It seems many Americans think of him as a lovable patriot with a maverick streak: The war hero of Vietnam, who will fight and stand up for the war in Iraq until the Muslim terrorists are sure they can’t mess with the Americans.
But! The inescapable ‘but’! Away from the political speeches and Republican newspaper’s headlines he’s an anti-abortion Creationist who surrounds himself with religious extremists. No matter how hard he tries to disguise it, the fact that McCain believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral is difficult to oversee. Sure, gays probably aren’t the ones helping to rid of Aids and Hiv, but I mean, isn’t it natural now-a-days that people have the possibility to be respected no matter what sex they prefer? Maybe not, but the sad thing is, that the dark sides of McCain’s primeval ideas doesn’t stop here. My beloved friend, John McCain, wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned, just like his late ancestors would have it. Anachronism if you like - either way disastrous. But then again, could we expect something else from a man who was born on a military base, in Panama?
As young Americans return in bodybags from Iraq - and probably Iran too before long - an old soldier like McCain, who is from a family of warriors, seems a natural choice as the superpower-leader in this dangerous world. In my world John McCain seems to be a little bit like the new disability dolls: either he is a sick joke or a blessing - of course this depends on what mask you see him wearing. But, as Oscar Wilde pointed out in his ‘Truth of Masks’ : the usage of masks are very important in all games. Masks, he argued, has a double function as they are both picturesque and dramatic - just like McCain (patriot vs. creationist) can be argued to be.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
My last post was about Candy People’s newly produced T-Shirts for Sidespring/ Tigerspring. To be a little bit more ego-centric, I have uploaded some pictures of our new Zine called ‘Living La Vida Loca’. It is made by Jakob, Lukas, Rasmus, Frederik Allan and myself over the last two months or so (yes, a little lazy, I know). IThe idea was, in main, to make some weird drawings, some stupid notions, some graphic elements and then produce about 50 a5 sized zines. One can call it propaganda, marketing or pr - we consider it fun! Being able to mix up some thoughts and sketches and put them in a zine is what the real motive behind the zine is, and whether you like it or not, we surely did making it! Candy People works most of all as a creative platform where we (above mentioned) comment on each others work and have a good reason to eat a proper Christmass lunch together every winter! Initiated by Jakob and me, we want to make sure our ideas get through a so-called ’second-opinion’. Anyways, our size, will over the next couple of weeks be spread out over Copenhagen, so if you are lucky enough to be in Cph, you might catch one of them!
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I believe the Danes and Hollanders have learnt by now that it can be dangerous to make burlesque or critically postulates/ depictions about and of the Islamic prophet; Muhammad. This includes cartoons as well as short films and will also include a Muhammad Look Alike Contest even though it wouldn’t seize to amaze me if a such contest would happen in the western part of Denmark (Jutland) next year.
Anyhow, if you are skinny, white, tall, bearded, long haired and wears sandals (just look like a hippie from the 70s, really) you might as well go to San Fransisco where you’ll find this year’s annual Jesus Look Alike Contest pictures by politiken.dk). Apparently you don’t necessarily have to look like afore described as this year’s competitors include a black, a fat, a short, a comedian (whatever that is supposed to mean?) and a fitness Jesus look alike. Somebody once made a song about San Fransisco where he said that you should wear flowers in your hair if you went there - I believe the flowers are substituted with a crown of thorn today. For my own matter, I guess I have to wait until a Ray Liotta look alike contest is made - anybody, help me out! And while I am at look alike contests I earlier today found out of somebody who came up with the idea of making Abraham Lincoln look like Ziggy Stardust just by adding his famous makeup - I think the outcome is pretty cool (see picture below - found through fffound).
As I am back in London, after a hectic week on ski in Switzerland and a short dentist-visit in Copenhagen as a cheeky wisdom tooth bothered me quite a lot, I will begin to posts in here again. Really, I should be reading for my exams right now but I can’t really bother in this sunny weather and with this pounding tooth of mine. Instead I will write a little on, and show you an amazing portrait of, one of my biggest idols in the creative and business minded capitalistic American commercial corporation sphere (some words and some introduction huh!): Steve Jobs. He is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc., and is the founder of Pixar Animation Studios and was also the CEO until it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Quite amazing I reckon, but what is also quite amazing (or at least close to) is the portrait of him made by apple products or icons. I have always imagined people who do this kind of illustration as quite bored or at least very very patient, and I think that is why I am so impressed - I mean, personally, I would get so impatient after 2 minutes and just drop the project, but it is nice that some people have the tolerence to sit in front of a computer for a couple of hours to make a portrait of Steve Jobs.
For more interesting stories on life and the world (such as portraits of Steve Jobs) you should stay tuned the next couples of weeks as I promise I will put up some rather rad posts! Weeehaaaa…..
Some weeks ago at 7inch somebody posted ablog about the Garfield minus Garfield comics. I have had in mind to post them in here ever since, though until earlier today I must admit I had forgotten about them. Luckily enough, Mark sent me an email where he mentioned them - so, thanx for that mate!
The name it self is a bit stupid as I reckon they should just call it Jon Arbuckle. I mean, wouldn’t Batman minus Batman not just be called Robin? Hmm… Nonetheless, Garfield minus Garfield is the Garfield comic as we know, just minus Garfield! Taadaah! Now the funny thing though, is that without the famous fat orange cat, the comic is more about Jon Arbuckle in relation to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life as the creator writes it up! It is quite funny how the meaning is changed just by removing Garfield - it still seems like a proper comic, just with a twisted and totally changed outcome. I wonder if it would be possible to do with any other comics, and still get a meaning, or a point at least, out of it?
City of Santa Ana (Downtown Orange County) is asking parents; Is Your Child A Tagger?
I personally found this through Wooster Collective, and I simply had to post it in here as well. I Especially like the guidelines on how to see or how to know if your son/ daughter is doing graffiti. Some of the points are really extremely funny and so old school. The second and the last indicators are particularly droll; “Your child frequently wears baggy pants or carries a large backpack.” & “Your child associates with other people who exhibit these same traits. These other people may be members of your child’s “tagging crew.”
But talking of tagging, I know I did mention my amazement by good street here on simplecommonsense last week , but no need not to do it again, as I just want to highlight the cool blog post PingMag is running on their blog at the time of this is written. It is about street art in Columbia with focus on the wicked street-art collective ‘Excusado Printsystem’ - definitely worth checking out!
And while I am at it I recommend you to check out the Pictures Of Walls website for clever, funny, amusing, weird and stupid tagging’s all over the planet!
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That is why I am studying Anthropology & Media.
Look Magazine printed this in 1940. While Clark Kent was working as a journalist, keeping Lois Lane happy and saving people in need, nobody actually knew that he was fighting Hitler in Europe at the same time. Apparently the people behind X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Batman, Daredevil and Superman were all Jewish, and made the cartoons to give a positive illustration of the world they were struggling in. Additional useless knowledge: The guy behind Batman even changed his name from Robert Kahn to Bob Kane, so his name wouldn’t sound too jewish.