terça-feira, 5 de abril de 2011

Brandalism

People abuse you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They're on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

However you are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say whatever they like wherever they like with impunity.

Screw that. Any advert in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep the rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.

Banksy

domingo, 16 de janeiro de 2011

Trecho de "Dick Contino's Blues"

"You know, I'd love to use you in a movie -- you and Janie, what a pair of filmic lovebirds you could be. Most of your publicity has been poison, but it's not like you're Fatty Arbuckle, banging starlets with Coke bottles. Dick, a wholesome young slice of low-fat cheese like Jane DePugh could ream me, steam me, dry clean me and get me off this B-movie treadmill to Nowheresville that has had me exploiting aggrieved schvartzes and taco benders to glom the cash to make these lox epics that have given me three heart attacks and a spastic colon. Dick, I own this factory. I hired illegal aliens to sew cut-rate garments until the INS nailed me for harboring wetbacks, because I let them sleep here on the premises in exchange for a scant one-half of their pay deducted from their checks. The INS nailed me and fined me and shipped most of my slaves -- I mean workers -- back to Mexico, so I glommed some Border Patrol cars for buppkis at a police auction and decided to make Wetback! to atone for my exploitation sins and defer the cost of my fine. Now the Feds want to crucify me for my egalitarian tendencies, so I won't be able to shoot Wetback! I've got these Mex prelim boxers lined up to play illegals, but they're really illegals, so if I shoot the movie, the INS will round them up and put them on the night bus to Tijuana. Dick, all I want to do is make serious movies that explore social issues and turn a profit, and slip the schnitzel to Jane DePugh. Dick, I am at a loss for words. What do you recommend?"

domingo, 31 de janeiro de 2010

O programa da tirania

"Nunca às coisas os seus verdadeiros nomes".

"São poucos os homens que têm ideias claras sobre as coisas, e a maior parte preocupa-se somente com as palavras. (...) Iludidos pelas palavras, não se horrorizam os homens com as mais infames, se decoradas de belos nomes; e horrorizam-nos as mais louváveis, quando aviltadas por nomes odiosos. Assim o artifício corrente dos ministérios é corromper os povos pervertendo o sentido das palavras".

Jean-Paul Marat