jorge.cortell.net

First read this post.

Then watch this South Park episode.

Now, if you are not going to cook something, get out of the kitchen (and at least start selling )

And you thought I was talking about Princess Leia?

source

In Spain, the conservative PP government is planning to make “passive resistance” a crime (as well as organizing demonstrations using internet technologies).

I have these 4 criminals’ magnetic puppets on my fridge. 2 were outlawed (and had to flee) by German Nazis. 1 had to flee Spanish dictatorship because he was a Communist. And the other one was thrown in jail by British occupation forces for “passive resistance”.

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

Mahatma Gandhi

Today, as I headed to work, I exit my apartment, turn the corner onto 5th Ave. and see the film crew of Person of Interest. It doesn’t surprise me any more. Am I getting used to living in Manhattan?

Lego web design, anyone?

seen in Tumblr (user: hragv)

From the #thisIsHowItsDone (not the movie adaptations, but special events to make people go more to the movie theaters) department, here is an awesome initiative from AMC movie theaters:

Get ready to watch the greatest Marvel movie event ever held at your local AMC Theatre on May 3rd! Experience THE ULTIMATE MARVEL MARATHON with six movies on one epic day. Watch the heroes’ stories unfold as they assemble for the midnight premiere of The Avengers 3D! Here’s a list of the six movies being shown at THE ULTIMATE MARVEL MARATHON: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor in 3D, Captain America in 3D, The Avengers in 3D.

No wise man ever wished to be younger

Live everyday of your life

Jonathan Swift

Yesterday I attended WhiteBox’s exhibition closing party. The invitation said:

Author and curator Raul Zamudio in conversation with Mookie Tenembaum.

Please join us at White Box for the closing reception of DISILLUSIONISM, and to engage in a stimulating conversation between Raul Zamudio and Mookie Tenembaum at 8pm sharp. Mookie will be presenting his new artist book, Paranoia. Malbec wines and truffles will be served.

Although I am grateful for the invitation, and it sure was an interesting event, some things just beg to be commented. Here are some curious trivia about the evening:

• I met Igor(?), the Russian man who “saved the gallery’s ass” (according to the Director, J. Puntes). The gallery’s website hosting company (Dreamhost) was hacked and passwords were stolen. As a result, their website got redirected to what they like to say it was a “porn site” (although in reality it was a rogue pharmaceutical online store). And since nobody remembered the FTP address or password, their site was “kidnapped” for two days, until Igor finally fixed it.
• I found Mr. Tenembaum’s work interesting, slap-in-the-face wake up calls, quite literal, and obvious. Yet, when I commented this to him, in a good Argentinian way, he told me “it’s all subjective, there is no way I can experience what it is to be you as there is no way you can experience what it is to be me”. Sure. No wonder their country is the shrink factory of the world.
• The stimulating conversation was supposed to start at 8pm sharp. Which in the art world seems to mean 8:45pm.
• Even more funny: their scrambling to get the audio for the projection to work, which obviously they had to subsequently mute because otherwise nobody could hear the stimulating conversation. It was also quite absurd to see them wrestle with a light beam, which they tried to direct at the panelists’ faces, completely blinding them, for the higher good of “recording it all on video”.
• The truffles were cheese and nuts, by the way. Weird how some people off the street just saw what was going on inside, went in, took some wine and cheese, and left, not even caring about the art work being displayed. Sad. Reality.

But, in the end a fun, non-stuffy, keep-it-real evening. Too bad they made so many efforts to keep-it-real. Too many, if you ask me.

On Saturday morning, as I was walking towards the gym on Park Avenue, I saw waves of young adults (although acting like teenagers or frat boys) wearing green (some just a t-shirt or sweater, some a full leprechaun costume) on a procession towards their favorite Irish watering hole to “celebrate” St. Patricks Day in the only way that they seem to believe to be appropriate, besides a 5th Ave. official parade: drink until you pass out.

This oversimplification is getting out of hand.

Simplistically but efficiently explained in Zeitgeist the movie (watch here), agricultural-astronomical events were usurped by religious (mostly Christian, as I will explain later why) holy-days, which in turn are being usurped by consumer days, and in order to do so, icons and symbols have been used.

Christmas is believed by many people to be a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. But Jesus (if at all) would have been born in spring, not winter. Christians decided to take a pagan agricultural celebration, and turn it into “their” celebration. Modern versions of this include such non-sense as the German Christmas tree tradition, Santa Claus, etc. All this symbolized by the colors green (the tree), red and mainly white (snow). The same can be explained for Valentine’s day (appropriating the color red and heart symbol thanks to the greeting card industry), the Astarte fertility celebration and Spring Equinox turned Easter (multicolored and chocolate coated by the food industry), or the harvest pagan festivity and All Saints turned into Halloween (a funky mix of orange, pumpkins and horror).

Why and how did that happen? As Kira explains:

When Christianity sought to stamp out Paganism because it threatened its sovereignty, they took on a lot of their customs in order to make Pagans feel more comfortable converting. The issue was never spirituality, it was power. They wanted as many converts as possible. Constantine saw the benefit of making Christianity the national religion because he saw how their numbers were ever increasing. He saw if he didn’t convert, and didn’t make Christianity acceptable to his people, there would be riots. Riots mean soldiers, and soldiers cost money. Not to mention the amount he would lose in the lives of his people, which meant decrease in tribute and taxes. 

Constantine followed the line many conquerors and kings have taken before him: the Greeks, Macedonians, etc. He saw the importance of holy days and festivals for Paganism, and knew that would lock in new believers to this new national religion. To this day Christians celebrate Pagan holidays, though they choose only to see their religious importance. These holidays have been around for so long, no one wants to change anything, and to do so would even be considered inappropriate, even though it would also be accurate.

But when we take that into the next level (consumerism), we end up with an absurd line of source-result, and even worst: oversimplification.

So, Spring Equinox becomes Astarte, which becomes Easter, which becomes colored chocolate eggs.

As at the end of the day I look at the young men and (mostly, due to their usually lower endurance of alcohol) women on the side walk, wasted, throwing up, or worse, in bed with a stranger, I wonder how easy it is to be manipulated by power and money (which usually go hand in hand) short-sighted interests, by the simple formula: natural significant event turned into religious holiday, turned into consumer holiday, turned into expected (even if irrationally damaging) grupal behavior.

I say:

embrace ancient wisdom if you wish, but fuck ignorant tradition.