Friday, March 25, 2005
- "Ahh...The Name is Banksy, Baby...": Guerrilla painter Banksy talks to NPR's Michele Norris:
A self-described "career graffiti writer" and "painter-decorator," Banksy tells Michele Norris that he consulted biographies of Harry Houdini to get ideas about how to sneak into the museums with his artworks, some of which are not small at all.
Asked why he carried out the pranks, Banksy says, simply: "I thought some of [the paintings] were quite good. That's why I thought, you know, put them in a gallery. Otherwise, they would just sit at home and no one would see them." - Random observation #1: there are few things in life grosser than an unexpectedly slimy doorknob.
- Random observation #2: with a few minor exceptions*, avoid all movies named after popular song titles unless the movie actually has some logical connection to the song it's named for, such as there being an exclusive, eponymous song on the soundtrack that became a hit after the film's release, e.g., Footloose. This "let's name the movie after a hit song we had nothing to do with!" trend seemed to originate in the early 1980's - but after the first few uses the gimmick stopped being cute, funny, or even memorable. That is all.
* Pretty Woman comes to mind. - Boston University Journalism School takes a stand on "video news releases,"
Unanimous Resolution
of the Boston University Journalism Faculty
Condemning Fraudulent Use of Video News Releases
March 22, 2005
RESOLVED, THAT...
As educators of the next generation of American journalists, we the journalism faculty at the College of Communication, Boston University:
Recognize the need of citizens in a democracy for information that is accurate, unbiased and independently gathered and presented;
Recognize the vital need of government to communicate with its citizens and the useful role print and video news releases (VNRs) can play in this process;
Recognize the obligation of news organizations to identify clearly the origin of any editorial material provided by government, business, interest group or any source other than their own news gathering or that of affiliated news organizations; [continue reading on PressThink] - NYC education officals withdraw school math prep guides after finding an abundance of errors....and the publisher misspelled "Fourth" on the cover of the 4th grade book. [New York Times]
- The Friday Random Ten:
- Low - Monkey
- Pete Townshend - Uniforms (Corps d'Esprit)
- Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday - Stardust
- Skaos - Too Late
- Aix Em Klemm - Sophteonal
- Marcos Valle - Mustang Cor de Sangue
- Vegas - Wise Guy
- David Bowie with Queen - Under Pressure
- Isaac Hayes - Breakthrough
- The Black Heart Procession - Waterfront
- BookBlog on the death of the "scoop" [via Grits for Breakfast]
- The Guardian UK on the Myth of Dying:
[Today, Good Friday] happens to be a good day for contemplating how we die and watch others die as the US courts finally let Terri Schiavo go. She has been 15 years a-dying in a persistent vegetative state, probably beyond pain, though not beyond reflex responses. But if there is still suffering to be had, now in her seventh slow day without water or food, the law inflicts death by slow dehydration in the name of "ethics". It's a shocking spectacle that could be stopped with one merciful injection. But here in our own dying rooms similar terrible ethical deaths are inflicted on British citizens every day by kindly nurses and doctors. There is a conspiracy of silence about the actual processes of death. [continue reading]
[via Brutal Women]
farkleberries Links du Jour 73
