If Looks Could Kill - Graphic Art & Design

I’ve got global warming on the brain, have just endured a semester-long exercise in discomfort that was a Speech class, where I spoke on this. Here are some things I found striking, from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth:

• Over 650,000 years, the Earth has endured 7 ice ages and subsequent warming periods - the temperatures and carbon dioxide levels have NEVER been this high. What we are experiencing is NOT cyclical.
• Liken it to ice cubes melting in a glass of water. 1 cube melting is insignificant, but if several melt, your cup runneth over. With accelerated melting of glaciers, you’d better hope you’re not terribly attached to coastal cities or lower-lying areas!
• American cars are so piss-poor on emission standards that we cannot sell them to other countries because they have HIGHER STANDARDS than the US does
• A White House memo leaked reveals their strategy on Global Warming, and it is, “to reposition global warming as a theory, instead of a fact.” Well played, gentlemen! ;p

Rant on the vegetational & pestilence effects to follow. Also, were our “representatives” truly interested in our best interests, they could do so much by means of regulation.

In turn, the developments required could jump-start the economy - creating the means, advancing, enhancing, improving… Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be as personally lucrative to them or their corporate bedmates.

Sorry, moose, you’re fucked because the Jebus says you have no soul! :B Fuck that, profusely.

Anyhow, as always, thoroughly entertained with the patronizing art featured on religious propaganda. For example, these people can’t wait to die, yippie!

(Click for another fine sampling of god-shmooking artwork)

I love the points he makes on the absurdity, the absolute foolishness, of Old Testament mandates. >;)

It is now thought that he may have been poisoned by spiritualists, psychic mediums whose claims he’d debunked, even mocked - profusely.

There has been much speculation surrounding the death of Harry Houdini on Halloween of 1926. Now, his great-nephew wants the body exhumed to answer questions that persist.

• No autopsy. Appendicitis triggered by a gut-punch was accepted as cause of death.
• Death certificate filed post-burial
• According to forensic pathologists, the certificate listed his appendix on the left side (it’s on the right) and found the diagnosis listed “very unusual.”

On an aesthetic note, I love this photo of him, always have, from a visual and symbolic perspective of a man straining to escape from under lock and key, the chains that bind, but also because he was an all-around bad-ass.

SOURCE | INFO

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana pulled this ad under pressure from protests in Spain, and it even hit them where they live, in Italy.

The main issues seem to arise in the female model’s hands being pinned and her lowered lids, eyes hidden beneath either lashes or closed lids. The implications of powerlessness and unconsciousness seem to be the main source of contention, but if you look at her raised hips and arched back, it would suggest that she is digging the scene.

Some people do fantasize about this, as the designers say - it was intended to depict an “erotic dream,” a “sexual game.” The men do look particularly creepy and lecherous, but I think it was intended to be a fantasy of willing and wanting submission.

In Italy, the image first came out Feb. 5, in the most famous and bestselling [Italian] newspaper … at that time, there was no reaction. The effects did not arrive in Italy until after the poor Spanish reaction [to] the ad. We understand that in Spain there is a truly important social emergency as far as violence against women [is concerned], which is why we did not want to offend anyone, so we immediately withdrew the image from all Spanish press.
- STEFANO GABBANA

Here is a website containing this and other ads that are supposed to be offensive to women. Me? I don’t buy any of this stuff, so I don’t give a shit. I’m not their target audience. Even if I were, I could care less. Got your attention, didn’t it? Advertising mission accomplished, massive publicity for them ensues.

Additionally, I am an avid supporter of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION and If you don’t like it, put your money where your mouth is and don’t buy their product! That’s the best way to send a message, with your hard-earned dollars. Shouldn’t be too difficult to refrain, considering their prices, over-inflated by the imagined prestige of a brand label in the pretentious court of public opinion.

Otherwise, I believe that there are far more pressing issues in life other than an advertising campaign. Go find something PRODUCTIVE to do!

SOURCE

An interesting aside, is that Dolce & Gabbana work directly with their art directors and photographers to execute their campaigns, rather than an agency. This makes their advertising more personally aligned with their own unique vision and differentiates them from many, who outsource their creative work to established agencies who crank out a concept. I’ll bet this is a major factor in their success, not having committees or executive boards to syphon out creativity.

Click here for a 1998 Playboy article on legendary pin-up queen, Bettie Page. It’s a fascinating read and offers her point of view in contrast to the recent accounts in print and film.

Also, this contains an image of Bettie Page circa 1998. I had always been curious, since she was so careful about keeping her face hidden in shadows during interviews and not allowing pictures. I purposely didn’t post it for those who would rather not be disillusioned.

Bettie Page Quotes from the Interview, for the attention-span impaired:

• “I tried to imagine the camera was my boyfriend and I was entertaining him, with poses to please him.”
• “This new book by Foster says Bettie Page threatened people with a .22 at Bible Town. That is a lie. I did have a .22 for protection, but whatever Foster has heard from the police, it never left my dresser drawer.”
• “God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds.”