Subversive Artist Appropriates Scrooge McDuck
Recently, I checked in with my pal Hector Hernandez to see what the Art Czar was up to … In a recent post, the ‘Czar had an abbreviated conversation with subversive pop artist Dave MacDowell:
Art Czar: Tell me about “Duck and Cover”
MacDowell: “Duck and Cover” was painted for a group show at Crewest Gallery in LA. I wanted an urban graffiti vibe to fit with the gallery, so I constructed the spray can out of cardboard and glued it to the canvas. The theme comments on human nature’s natural ability to lift up heros, only to knock them down. How anyone who has an original thought or idea outside of the status quo, usually gets silenced and sacrificed. People in power fear the power of the people.
Amen.
Check out more great posts from the Art Czar!
‘Star Wars’ As A Silent Film
I know scenes have been floating around on the internet, but in my opinion the climax from Empire is the best use of this treatment:
The Big Lebowski Matrix Mashup Video
Ever wonder what it would be like to explain The Matrix to The Dude? Morpheus gives it his best.
Star Wars Yoga: May Be Force Be With You For Attempting These Poses
… Especially without George Lucas’ permission. Spotted on the You Will Not Believe blog:
(Beware of the dark side.)
A Fun New (Old) Game to Play While Drinking
While the readers — and writers — on this site are no strangers to a good time, even the heartiest of partiers can find themselves stranded in a rut caused by lack of novelty. We’ve all known the soul-crushing boredom that results from having the same conversation with the same people in the same place again. It can transform one’s imbibing from recreational to medicinal. We can all use a shake-up every now and then, and it often seems that the best way forward can be found by reaching back.
The next time your good times are more boring than blaring, why not introduce an Exquisite Corpse?
Wikipedia explains:
Exquisite corpse (also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. “The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun”)…
Is Plagiarism OK?
The New York Times ponders plagiarism in the digital age, where films like Rip: A Remix Manifesto question traditional notions of copyright and fair use:
At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness — and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information.
At DePaul University, the tip-off to one student’s copying was the purple shade of several paragraphs he had lifted from the Web; when confronted by a writing tutor his professor had sent him to, he was not defensive — he just wanted to know how to change purple text to black.
And at the University of Maryland, a student reprimanded for copying from Wikipedia in a paper on the Great Depression said he thought its entries — unsigned and collectively written — did not need to be credited since…
The World Cup’s Effect on South Africa’s District 9…
A mashup of two films about South Africa: one you’ll surely recognize, the other is World Cup Soccer in Africa, distributed by Disinformation.
The Latest Mystery Web Trend: Go Ahead and Google 2204355
Culture-jamming or internet prank? Decide for yourself: call it “bullshit” or “it’s really f-d up” in the comments below.
Many news outlets are confused exactly what is the point of this video (deal with the ’80s Nintendo video game sounds at your own risk).
I have tried to figure what the hell this is about, the site Know Your Meme did an exemplar job of why the internet media is even talking about this now, and Matt Zoller Setiz on Salon made a good connection where some of the video was sourced from:
Forgotten Verses From “This Land is Your Land”
In 2005, I published a book with Disinformation called 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed To Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism.
Hope you like what you read, for more about me, please check out my blog at www.mickeyz.net.
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If you were to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my land.” The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 classic is common knowledge … as are the first couple of verses.
But it isn’t until you get to the later verses — the verses often omitted from official versions — that you start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody (1912–1967) had in mind:
As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there
And that sign said “No tresspassin’”
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me
In the squares of the city / In the…
Rebranding BP
Greenpeace UK held a rebranding contest to generate fresh new redesigns of the BP logo.
That plain green flower was introduced in 2000, and ten years later … it’s time for an update.
One of my favorites is to the right.
500+ results are included in a Flickr set. Enjoy.
These Golden Books Are Not For Children (Photos)
This definitely would have messed with my head as a kid. Thanks to Luke Plunkett for the post about Josh Cooley’s wonderfully twisted artwork. Luke Plunkett writes on Kotaku:
Most, if not all of you, will at some stage of your life been read to from a Golden Book. They’re a childhood staple. But what if there were Golden Books that, uh, weren’t exactly suitable for the little ones?
They’d look like these! Josh Cooley, an artist at Pixar, has been whipping these up in his spare time for the past two years, and they’re amazing. Most are pretty self-explanatory — and if I have to tell you the movie, you won’t get the joke — but if you’re finding yourself lost by most of them, you might want to catch up on your ’70s movies…
FCC Gives Hollywood The Right To Break Your TV/DVR … Just ‘Cause
It is always disheartening when something is made illegal because you could do something naughty with it. Techdirt reports:
Photo: Mattl (CC)
For a couple years now, the MPAA has been asking the FCC to break your TV/DVR, and let them effectively put a type of DRM (by enabling “Selectable Output Control” or SOC) on video content, such that you will not be able to access the content via third party devices, such as your DVR or your Slingbox. Effectively, they want to break the ability of your equipment to work. You wouldn’t be able to legally record the movie that was playing on your TV. The MPAA’s argument here makes absolutely no sense at all — and when they’re called on it, the doubletalk comes out.
The MPAA’s argument is that if it could block people from recording movies, they could release the movies on things like PPV before they release them on…
Hitler ‘Downfall’ Parodies Removed from YouTube
Nein! Nein! Nein! Gottverdammt YouTube! Gottverdammt Constantin Film! Es ist wahr! Mein Leben ist vorbei.
What the hell YouTube, you did this on Hitler’s birthday?!? WTF. Reports Mashable:
The movie studio responsible for the award-winning, German-Austrian film Downfall (German: Der Untergang) has asked YouTube to take down several videos from the massively popular subtitled “Hitler finds out…” meme, and the site has complied.Search YouTube and you’ll still find hundreds of Downfall parodies, but click through to some of the bigger ones and you’ll now get the message, “This video contains content from Constantin Film, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
Yep, all the ones we have on disinfo.com are gone…
Google Unleashes Make-Your-Own Video Tool
Jason Kincaid reveals the details, at TechCrunch:
Remember Google’s Hell-froze-over, critically acclaimed Super Bowl ad Parisian Love? The one that managed to use a series of basic search queries to tell a touching love story? Now you’ve got a chance to tell a story of your own.
Some time in the last few days Google launched a new feature called the “Search Stories Video Creator“. And damn if it isn’t fun. The new feature prompts you to input up to seven search queries spread across Google’s search features (including Images, Maps, and standard web search), choose a song, and it generates a video in the same style as Google’s other Search Stories.
The whole process only takes a few minutes (the tool automatically uploads your video to YouTube when you’re ready). And while there are plenty of parodies already out there, we can expect a whole lot more of them to pop up in…
Tiger Woods’ ‘Nike Of The Living Dead’ Commercial – Raunchy Remix
Disinformation’s Ralph Bernardo already posted his favorite Tiger Woods commercial remix, but the people at Popeater have assembled a great collection of additional parody remixes of the now infamous Nike commercial with Tiger and the voice of his late father. Check them all out at Popeater. Here’s just one example:
Tiger Woods Nike Ad Parodies Hit the Web
Wow, those internets really move fast. Nike debuted Tiger Woods’ ad this morning, and only hours later, people already uploaded plenty of remixed goodness. The original Woods ad has already creeped out plenty of folks: it has a silent Woods gazing at the camera while the voice of his late father Earl gives him a lecture from beyond the grave.
My favorite of the remixed ads so far is this one with the final parole board speech from Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption:
Now You Have Two Ways To Go Blind … Lazer Tits!
According to the movers & shakers of the internets, this is the new trend sweeping the web …
You are forewarned, I am not responsible for blindness resulting from viewing of these (many NSFW) pics. LazerTits says:
For centuries the female bosom has been wrongfully held in the prison of maternal duty and manboy motor-boating … It’s time to get ZAPPED!!!!
What will YOU say when your kids ask where you were during the revolution? Don’t burn your bra, BLAST IT!!!
Could Hitler Serve in the United States Senate?
Here’s what Hitler would look like minus his mustache and with a flag lapel pin added: basically, ready to sit in Congress next to Orrin Hatch.
Fear And Loathing On Sesame Street
Poor Count … One, two, three … via All That’s Interesting:
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
