Bottled up

Another oldie from the circuit, this one goes way back.

Ritalin Nation

How did we become a Ritalin nation?

Just when did we begin to medicate to mediate the distinction between truth and abnormality,

Manipulating right and wrong to a profit based morality,

Three out of four doctors recommend, that you suspend your own discretion,

Adherence to prescriptions, a sign of our progression,

A.D.D. attention deprivation disposition,

If child's attention span lasts the breadth of a commercial,

Makes you wonder if it’s nature or nurture?

Soccer moms on Valium; show high rates of self-satisfaction,

The numbness makes it easier to swallow daily interaction,

We all want to be sedated to the point where we don’t even feel the real,

Just the other day I saw an infomercial for my salvation,

It told me to call my doctor without hesitation,

Surgeon generals warning, you don’t need to go under the knife,

A “better” body is not a better life,

Yet we keep on fixing what’s never been broken,

Constantly feeling as we’re in need of repair,

See, the problem doesn’t matter if the solutions there,

On the other hand, is it wrong to request self medication,

Isn’t that taking responsibility for my own “situation.”

Here goes; Doctor please Placebo my ego,

I need 55 hours of analysis to tell me how to get by.

Sugar pills have the same affect, but why settle for the sugar high?

Let’s bypass the analysis and go straight to an intoxicated state,

I can buy my self-assurance at an hourly rate,

Popping pills until these chills down my spine aren’t even mine,

Diagnosing psychoses out of neuroses,

Out of those things that used to be called eccentric, different and true,

Using science to stigmatize the difference between everyone else and you,

Mold-makers don’t make room for anomalies, deviation is not inherent

But it is apparent, And apparently it must be the fault of the parent,

so these guilty children of the baby boom become engulfed in their own doom,

Convinced because they weren’t baby genius’s or athletic superstars,

That their chemical composition is somehow marred,

But rest assure there a cure,

There’s a commodity for every oddity,

We’ll bio-engineer a fear of deformity,

We can medicate and gene slice people into Utopian conformity,

You don’t feel pain; and you don’t know sorrow

Call your doctor today, to be new by tomorrow,

Doctors prescribing notions of reality,

Science making human nature its slave,

breaking what does not bend,

re-making what does not mend,

we are emblematic test tube babies, born outside natures womb,

Drug companies have privatized our lives,

Medicated and manipulated, all at the same time,

Sex love and politics all in a childproof bottle,

We are the perfect commercial, the “working” human model.

Sarah Haskins EX-Plosion

little people, big world

A tiny street art project little handpainted people, left in london to fend for themselves




The artist has a great site and even a book.

Happy Clouds in Grey London

via psfk

The thought is cool, the effect is slightly reminiscent of that plastic bag video in American Beauty. 

8 1/2 things I kinda learned today

So I didn't feel like writing a specific post about any of these delightful tidbits, but I would be remiss if I neglected them entirely. So, instead, I have assembled them in a brief list.

very important, utterly vital news items

1. If you gotta go, it may soon cost you a pound per pee.

2. Doodling now means you are paying attention to people.

3. Men use half-brain before calling something pretty. Women use the whole thing.

4. If you have an erection for more than 12 hours, it indeed, can kill you.

5. Mermaids are now real. Well kind of real.

6. Stand up desks help children learn good.

7. And a messy house means your children won't read good or something.

... Unless, the house is painted red.

8. Lastly, video games are ample childhood preparation for a post-apocalyptic future.

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Something about inanimate object love always gets me

This wall-Esque video is sort of sweet.

 

But then again I've always been a sucker for sad lighting fixtures.

Cardboard Furniture

If you're feeling creative, you can learn how to make your own at instructables.

I wish the fatty drinks weren't so tasty.

     Ad for Miller Genuine Draft from Y&R. 

Why I no longer rage...

If Daily Obsessional was written a couple months ago, it would have been all politics, all the time. I was obsessed: I read every blog, watched every stat, waited with bated breath as the CNN map lit up, county after county, and now weeks after a democrat has actually won, I’ve lost that spark.

Sometimes, I think maybe it was the rat race that fired me up. Now, that Barack Obama embarks on the day to day work of being president, I can’t say I’m full of hope. It feels like politics for the next few years will just be about making the best from the worst of times. Now, when I read about politics, I’m not angered or riled up, I'm just sad. Sad, that the problems seem so pressing, but the solutions seem so far off.

We’re putting out stimulus after stimulus package, bailout after bailout, and the banks are still not lending out money; “dead men walking” according to some. Morale is down and every day you meet someone that has just lost a job. I read the news about new appointments and old feuds, and I feel that for all the changes, and Barack Obama is doing a lot, probably more in his first couple weeks then Bush did for months, there’s not that much to cling to. Every day there is a new setback, a new burden. One day Barack Obama puts out a statement to the Middle East. Hope. Within weeks, we have to send more troops into Afghanistan and Iran further develops their nuclear program. Reality.

The problems don’t end. The problems don’t even mitigate, and the pace of progress is a crawl. And a crawl is almost painful to watch, after the elation of change in theory. I’m still watching, still reading, but I’m only registering a whimper about it all.

Your girlfriend is an optical illusion

your Hood in six words

This is a couple days old, but I had to include it. The folks over at Flavorwire put up a post encouraging people to Buck Stereotypes and describe their ‘hood in six words. Some of the answers are funny and some are just so true. Any other suggestions?

Here’s mine:
Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill - People a lot richer than me

And here’s some of my favorites from Brooklyn:

Red Hook: Can I stay at your place?
Boerum Hill: not on a hill at all.
Windsor Terrace : Old White Trash , New White Yuppies
Brooklyn Heights: Why is everyone so old?
Park Slope: It's midnight, Whitey it's your stop.
pk slope: babies, babies, babies, babies, babies, babies
Bushwick: Hipster who like to get mugged!
Williamsburg: hipsters + yuppies = time to move on
Prospect Heights: Gentrifiers hardly notice the occasional gunshot.
Crown Heights: Jew, Black, Jew, Black, Jew, Black
Sheepshead Bay: El Greco in my Maxima, son

You can see more here, including some for you nonbrooklynites.

TOP CHEF: the tortoise loses the race

So Top Chef's winner was Hoseah Rosenberg. Sadly, this means that Carla Hall, and her many faces won't beam into our living room Wednesday nights. Please give this lady her own show, I will miss her facial expressions dearly.

She Farted and Created The World

She Farted And Created The World from Scott Coello on Vimeo.
Strange but delightful animated video, the whole thing is made from recycled paper: old bank statements, spam, bills and scraps from the street all put to quirky use.

Private jets made out of rubies and veal.

Countess LuAnn on the prowl...

So the New York tabloids are up in a tizzy, claiming that Countless LuAnn of Real Housewives of New York is off being "disCountess" all over town.

" LuAnn, who was there with her husband, Alexandre Count de Lessups, was trying to make out with women and married men,” -cityfile

"And with that, de Lesseps, who's married to Alexandre Count de Lesseps but has been caught in clinches with other men this year, announced, "There are no cute men worth my attention here," and left."- New York Post

How can LuAnn mess around on such a "doting" husband? And most importantly, how could she stand the thought of of putting her fancy title in jeopardy, dooming herself to a torturous existence where she is only referred to by the name LuAnn?

So, who is the Countess making her way around town with? Who could possibly replace Count de Lesseps in her bed and heart? I've narrowed it down to three eligible bachelors.

sometimes the mean girls tell the truth

Anyone who watched last night's Real Housewives of Orange County reunion, was probably "shocked" when Tamra accused Gretchen Rossi of having a tumultuous affair with a hot number with a bad dialing habit. Apparently Jay Photoglu is that guy. His picture was recently revealed in the National Enquirer. According, to the Enquirer's renowned experts, after Jeff passed away Jay Photoglou - moved in to Gretchen's home . He then allegedly broke up with her because she went on a date with former cast member Slade Smiley, who was arrested at Gretchen's house last week. It seems like even more drama goes on off camera, then on camera.

are arms supposed to be sexy?

Too toned?



Not toned enough?










What's a girl to do?


It's bad enough that a girl's face, legs,boobs,butt, thighs, and even abdomen need be deemed sexy, now the female arm is becoming fetishized as well. All thanks to Michelle Obama. Michelle's sculpted arms, have prompted a love-fest in the Irish Times, the New York Times, and a feisty discussion on the pages of Jezebel. Silly me, all this time, I thought my arms were solely for the purpose of lifting things (albeit not very heavy things, mostly forks.) I didn't realize that they were the new erogenous zone. Here I was, exposing my arms freely to anyone that would look. And now I have to go and ponder the hotness of my flabby arms. I'm hoping this fad passes quickly. But while it's here, enjoy some steamy quotes about Michelle Obama's perfect pair.

"Muscled, curvy, brown and – dare I say – sexy. Slick and subtly shining... strong, sleek, buff arms. The arms say: “I work." - Irish Times

"But arms? You can’t go wrong with well-toned arms. We all want them now. It’s a new arms race." - Irish Times

"Nancy Reagan wore spangled ballgowns. Barbara Bush had fake pearls. Michelle Obama wears her bare arms." - New York Times

"On the Vogue cover, the first lady wears little makeup, subtle jewelry, a simple sheath. It’s her arms that pop out, rippled and gleaming."- New York Times

Dying wish to be Demi.

People have always been fascinated with the idea of a dying wish. It's become a staple of our movies, subject matter for countless books. How many times have we watched teary-eyed as a patient on their deathbed utters their last words? The resonance of the last wish is probably the reason, besides the utter brilliance of Randy Pausch, that a last lecture by a professor became one of the most successful youtube videos of all time.

Maybe, we all feel that in these last moments of life, there's some higher understanding of what it all means, some discovery of what life is really about. Perhaps, that's why I look at the story of Lisa Connell and I can't help but be saddened by it. Lisa Conell's last wish is to die beautiful. In an attempt to fulfill this wish, the terminally ill, Lisa Connell is spending £40,000 on plastic surgery to look like Demi Moore. In the next couple of weeks, Lisa will undergo liposuction, a breast enhancement and eyebrow lift, plus work on her skin and teeth.

In her own words:

“I’ve always dreamed of looking like Demi Moore and I’m determined that when I die I will,” she said. She added: “People think I’m crazy for wanting to do this, but I know it will make my last months or years happier. I want to die beautiful. This is my way of getting the control back in my life.”

Lisa was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor at age 27. The tumor has caused her to lose sight in her left eye, an eye that is now starting to droop. While Lisa continues to do charitable work for cancer patients, even setting up a website to raise money for those afflicted with brain tumors,www.rentadate forcharity.com, where people can bid for dates with celebrities backing her cause, this work is not enough to fulfill her. As the news about her brain tumor became dire, Lisa began to feel that the only thing that will actually make her happy is plastic surgery.

It's not my place, to begrudge someone their dying wish. Lisa seems like a very kind person, one whose done some great things for others. I have no idea how I would feel if I was in her place, and I admit I'm projecting here, but I can't help being bothered by this story. Not for what it says about Lisa, but for what it says about the world we live in, a world where physical beauty is what determines worth.

What does it say about our society, when a woman's last wish is to die looking like somebody else? And what does it say when the celebrity that this women idolizes has gone through £250,000 worth of plastic surgery herself. Is it wrong to want to be beautiful, or to have to buy that beauty? We all try to buy beauty in small ways everyday. But there's something off-putting about an ideal so distanced from the reality of what real women look like, and what, in my opinion, real women should look like , that striving for it only makes the rest of us feel like failures. Lisa is a pretty woman, even more importantly, she seems like e a good person, who has so much to be confident about, so much that she's accomplished in her last days. But, she'll make headlines for this last wish to be Demi.

According to Lisa, surgery will give her confidence and a new lease on life, it will allow her to " die a happy women. happy and beautiful." For me, there's something very sad in the fact that one can't exist without the other. Either way, I hope she does find happiness.

Poster Boy defaces Art on Atlantic

In a strange meeting of last week's posts, Poster Boy the subway scribbler, seen in this video has set his sights on the MOMA displays I talked about here. Creating a lovechild which you can see here.

Beauty is Disposable

I don't know why but watching the picture perfect get warped is entrancing for me.  You can see the rest of the modelles on the artist's, Christiane Feser, site.

All Natural Colors. Love it.

If Munchies Frank only had this!!

I guess there's decals for everything

Munchies Frank gets off easy

So I came upon this commercial on adage. Many critics have already claimed that this commercial exaggerates the harmful side-effects of cannabis. But, I for one, don't think it goes far enough. In fact, it seems to me, that Giggling Frank, Relax Frank, Munchies Frank, and Talkative Frank get off far too easy. But what bad things could possibly come of these seemingly harmless side-effects. What else could go wrong with our friend Frank?

Giggling Frank.

Giggling seems all good and fun, until one day Frank giggles too long and too hard, and finds himself inexplicably wetting his pants. This actions sets off  life-long bed wetting, dooming Frank to spends his nights, cold and alone, sleeping with only his stuffed animal, also named Frank.

Talkative Frank

Frank's new chatty nature leads him into conversations with rosy-cheeked strangers at local bars. One night he sparks up a conversation with a rowdy television pundit, nondiscouraged by the pundit's rants and raves, Frank talks on, winning the host's hard earned favor, and condemning himself to a future of loofah love.

Munchies and Relax Frank, a dastardly combination.

It starts off innocently enough, with trips to Taco Bell, but soon these far-flung treats seem to hard to come by, for our pal Frank. Frank's munchies have become more than a nightly affair. Frank is now all munchies, all the time. But, alas, Frank is now too relaxed to move and procure his own lard. Then, in a moment of cannabis induced inspiration, Frank develops a conveyor belt, directly linking his kitchen to his couch. Frank soon balloons to 700 pounds. After two gluttonous weeks, Frank decides to get up and relieve himself, but his fat ass has become cemented to the couch.

Happy Frank

Well this one's easy. No one likes happy people. Frank becomes a despondex addict, in an attempt to cure himself of his new peppy personality.

Pure Waters: What would you throw in?

I love Ads that feel like a strange movie. This one feels like a mix of Deliverance and Big Fish. Though that's probably a very bad combination, now that I think about it.  Either way the narrator is great.

The Reader controversy

I finally watched The Reader last night. I was initially reluctant to see the movie, after it was harshly condemned by Ron Rosenbaum over at slate. But I did end up watching it, and since then I can’t stop thinking about it. The movie is incredibly depressing. Yes, it is sad because it deals with the Holocaust. But, it is also sad because it shows how individual flaws and fears can be used for the most destructive of ends. And how the past, and the guilt it induces, is something we never escape. The movie is less about the holocaust, then it is about consequences of the Holocaust, and about morality as determined by the interlocking of individual demons and collective influence.

First off, I have to say that I don’t think an attempt to understand the perpetrator of a crime is an attempt to exonerate them. Many critics argued that by using Kate Winslet, particularly in the sexualized way she was used, the filmmaker was trying to make a Nazi character palpable , romanticizing her even. I disagree. I don't think the affair between Hanna and a young Michael Berg was a depiction of sweet first love. For me, it was an example of a highly sexualized relationship based on co-dependency and disturbing power relations. The affair with this young boy, is the initial indicator of Hanna’s emotionally stunted character. She chose him because he was impressionable enough to love her. She used her body because that was all she had to give. While Hanna tries to control the relationship sexually, she is always painfully aware that Michael is smarter than her. Hanna’s illiteracy and her poverty is a source of lifelong shame, a shame, in my opinion, that is only exacerbated by the presence of this young boy with all the potential in the world.

In the end of the movie, when Hanna was asked what she learned after all her years in prison, she replied I learned to read. Critics were angered that Hanna felt more shame at being illiterate than at sending hundreds of women to their deaths in the camps. And people should be angry, it made me very angry watching it. And that’s the point. This movie is not about the wonders of literacy. It is about the complexities of human relationships, with each other and with society as a whole. Michael never came to visit Hanna in prison, and never tried to convince her that hiding her secret was less important than lessening her punishment. Her whole life Hanna was taught to keep her illiteracy hidden. It was an insecurity that made her feel constantly excluded . In fact, after all her years in prison, she probably thought that by revealing her ability to read Michael, he might deem her worthy to love again.

Hanna was not a person predisposed to true cruelty. Yes, she could be calculating at times, even cold, but that is a part of all of our natures. Showing her kinder moments with her young lover was not intended to redeem her, nor was showing her learning to read redeeming, it just makes her a real person. And a real person who can commit such horrific deeds is far scarier than a heartless monster. When she became a Nazi, Hanna's instincts probably told her what she was doing was wrong, but the world she lived in told her she was right. In contrast, to her treatment as an outcast before, as a Nazi, Hanna was promoted, respected by her peers, and entrusted with a sense of responsibility to her job and to her country. At the trial, she seemed exasperated at the questioning, because in her simple mind, she did just what the others did.

The movie in no way denies the reality of events of the Holocaust, in fact Hanna’s role was openly revealed and condemned in her trial. The fact that her young lover still has affection for her, despite being disgusted by her actions, speaks not to her innocence, but to a sad truth, that before they were participants in the Holocaust Nazis were real people. And it is these same real people, capable of intimacy and affection, remorse and shame, that performed some of the most monstrous acts in history.

The movie made me think of that famous psychological experiment where a man in a lab coat instructs participants to shock people. The man in the lab coat encourages them, tells them its o.k., while the "shocked" person, hidden behind a wall, cries out in pain with each shock. The shocker hears them, but he is encourage further by the man in the lab coat, go on the man says, you can't stop the experiment now. Of course, the person can stop the experiment, they can just get up and walk away. In the testing groups, this case was always rarest.

Was Hannah different then these people? Is Hannah different then an executioner told to flip the switch by the state? Or a soldier told to kill in war time? Every solider is programmed to become numb to murder, trained to hate the enemy, and convinced that it is their responsibility to serve their commanders. Killing is not a source of shame, the real shame is in not doing what you're told. Many viewers were horrified upon learning Hanna had her victims read to her before sending them off to die, that she used them this way. But, perhaps for her, this was just a ritual, like the last meal. Maybe it was her way of normalizing what she did.

There are many degrees of cruelty. No one wants to think we have a Hannah in us. But throughout history, time and time again, people willingly take part in war, torture, genocide, and murder. More often we take part in even everyday forms of complacency; the factory worker that doesn't tell anyone about the poison peanut butter, the bystander that passes an injured man on the street, we all do it. Hanna is not meant for you to sympathize with, though in some ways you do. She's there to make you think about how normal people can do terrible things.

At one point a law student in Michael's class addresses the hypocrisy of putting the five women on trial, while the whole country was complacent, while the whole country deserved to be indicted. Hanna was merely one person in an entire country of people, who all contributed to mass-murder, who contributed both in their actions and in their passivity. I don't think this movie was revisionism. I think for the Holocaust to never happen again, movies like this are necessary.

Crayon Art

Remember when you were little and all your masterworks were created with a box of crayola crayons. Well, Christian Faur never lost his affection for the medium.  These images  are formed from the surfaces of thousands of tightly packed crayon tips. Pretty cool stuff.

FREE STORE opens tonight

Just saw this on PSFK. The FREE STORE exhibit runs through March 22nd at a temporary gallery space located at 99 Nassau Street (between Fulton & Ann Streets).

The exhibit opens today. Created by artists Athena Robles and Anna Stein, the space is a "cultural pop-up shop, functioning through bartering and exchange and allowing visitors to give something useful or get something useful. The store is the first Global Free Store and will accept and offer World Bills, a global currency, for everyday items brought in by the public, such as a map, clothing or a bag. The store will carry one or two stocked items that are produced in-house. Free Store will also feature special projects and events by curators Felicity Hogan, Edwin Ramoran, Julie Sengle and Herb Tam." Check it out if you're in the area.

Dirty Inkblots

Commercial running for Beate Uhse Erotic TV: Child lock from agency Kempertautmann in Germany."You will see it, you child won't".  Part creative. Part disturbing. This may not necessarily be safe for work.

Loathe it. (Oscar Edition)

I don't know what this guy was doing, but there's no helping this dress. My eyes. Oh my eyes.

At first glance this was pretty. At second glance it was a doile.

I love Sophia Lauren but this remind me of a Ye Olde Saloon.

Heidi Klum wears the read carpet.

And Jessica Biel wears a handkerchief.