Friday, January 23, 2004
PETA and Dead Animals
I was just shopping at Hollywood and Highland (this is "Hollywood" to everyone who doesn't live in LA) and I noticed a billboard with a beautiful girl on it holding up the skinned body of a fox. It was a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) ad and the caption said something like "This is the rest of your fur coat." Two things occurred to me when I saw this: 1)did PETA skin a fox just to make a point? 2)placing this ad in the most tourist-ridden spot in Los Angeles (instead of say, Rodeo Drive, where someone who lives here may actually be buying a fur coat) is so typically LA it's sickening. This is the moral equivalent of the guy at the football games who holds the sign with Bible verses on it. He doesn't expect any real response, but everyone is convinced he really believes in something because he's made a spectacle of himself. Even a radical political organization can't escape from being as sickeningly exhibitionistic as it's surroundings. Also, this is just the type of thing that fits in with the Los Angeles pseudo-morality. You will never see a billboard with aborted human fetuses on it (not that you should) or a "God Hates Fags" billboard from Fred Phelps (again, not that you should). Because being nice to animals is a trendy political campaign, though, I have to see a skinned fox on a billboard when I go shopping. I'm buying a fur coat next time.
-Matt 18:13 EST |
|
|
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Find this girl
As the fluff-piece reporter on this blog, I feel I must share with you something I heard on the radio in LA this morning. Apparently there's this girl who will write things on her breasts and post the picture on her website for the low, low price of $10.
-Matt 08:50 EST |
|
|
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Win a Date With Tad Hamilton
Why didn't I find THIS sooner (see "Where Was This When I Was 13")? It could've made life so much more interesting in college. Plus, girls LOVE guys who are taken. What a fool I've been.
-Matt 20:42 EST |
|
|
CU students trying to ruin CU degree
As we're all alums of the University of Colorado, I thought I would give you a little update on some of the goings-on from our old alma mater, dear. It seems that, once again, CU Boulder tops the list of party schools, at least according to The Princeton Review. I'm certain there will be disagreement here, but I see nothing at all wrong with this distinction. I like to party and think that partying gets a bad rap. Of course, for me, college was about little else. For two current students, this "honor" of being appointed number one party school in the nation is a dubious distinction. They feel that it makes their degrees worth less than "normal." Personally, I think they're jackasses, but, then again, I'm using my degree to... be a gambler. You see my point.
-Matt 20:18 EST |
|
|
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Font
Not to diverge from the very important topics at hand, but could we maybe get a new font for the body of this blog; one in which the italics don't look horrible? I'd like to add emphasis to my statements, but I refuse to lower my aesthetic standards to do so. I'm speaking mostly to Ben, the blogmaster, but if any of you disagree, by all means, speak up.
-Matt 13:56 EST |
|
|
Starving For Justice
OR: Why I haven't eaten in days.
As I'm sure you're all aware, there's been a grocery workers strike in SoCal for several months now. For the last two months, the UFCW has graciously refrained from picketing Ralph's chain, instead focusing on VONS, Pavilions, and Albertsons, allowing us lazy people at least one major supermarket that we can frequent. I'll admit that I have gone to Ralph's a couple times since the strike, but now I'm faced with a refreshed moral dillemma. The way this strike first began, as I understand it, is that the UFCW had a beef with management at VONS, Pavilions, and Albertson's in SoCal over healthcare for it's workers. They decided to go on strike. As a show of "corporate solidarity," Krogers, who owns Ralph's, decided to force it's union workers to stop working at it's stores (lock out). Sounds to me like they're trying to break the union for grocery stores in Southern California (I don't actually think that's possible, but this has been going on since Oct. 11, 2003). After recent talks have broken down, the strike is now back in place at every grocery store, including Ralph's.
Now, this may not seem like something fascinating to those of you in a world devoid of chain grocery markets (NYC), but for me it really is a problem. I have to go to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, neither of which have the items I want at the prices I want. Though I have very mixed feelings about unions, I have no mixed feelings about people, and I feel bad for the "workers" who haven't worked in three-and-a-half months because they don't want to pay exorbitant prices for healthcare. I can justify shopping at Ralph's when I just have to deal with poorly-trained scabs, but I refuse to go shopping when I have to cross a picket line and, in so doing, basically tell these people that I couldn't care less about them.
I guess I'll just waste away into nothing. This may be the last post I make, as I am no longer strong enough to type (this is an elaborate, and possibly terribly unfunny hoax -- my job feeds me well every day just for coming in).
P.S. -- What the hell is "corporate solidarity" anyway? Can a company fire everyone just because they do the same job as another company whose worker's have a disagreement with management?
-Matt 13:27 EST |
|
|
Friday, January 09, 2004
Already mixing it up...
I just watched the "A" side of Michel Gondry's music videos collection on the Director's Series DVD and I now have to add him to my list of all-time most brilliant people ever. A list which includes, in no particular order, Luis Bunuel, especially for Un Chien Andalou and L'age d'Or; Michael Almereyda for the only watchable version of Hamlet ever put on film; David Lynch, especially for Mulholland Drive; Spike Jonze for anything and everything he has ever touched; Leni Riefenstahl, the best Nazi there was; Altman, for everything; Brakhage, the only man on this list I've ever met; and Spielberg, but only for Minority Report.
But I digress.
This is the man responsible for such videos as The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With a Girl" video (the lego video) and "Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground" video. Also, he's done "Star Guitar" by the Chemical Brothers and "Come Into My World" by Kylie Minogue. I have a feeling like I'm pissing into the wind here with this post, but I'm going to continue anyway. What makes these videos so interesting is their obsession with cycles and reflexivity. He uses the camera and film tricks (not to mention an optical printer -- a lot) to turn the world of his focus into a world that mimics not the real world, but the world of the mind. In "Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground," the spectator feels as though he can see the thoughts of the protagonist through Gondry's use of projection for events that (seemingly) occurred in the protagonist's past. In "Come Into My World," the world cycles, but is not refreshed, in a way similar to the world of the song. In this way, the events that occur in cycle begin to back-up on each other and mingle in a way that is both interesting and terrifying (also, creating tension in a way similar to the build-up of the rhythm of the song). What if you just kept meeting yourself over and over and over doing exactly the same thing?
Anyhow, check this out if you get the opportunity. It's like watching a moving painting (very much like watching Brakhage's films).
-Matt 06:23 EST |
|
|
Hi. I'm Matt, a professional gambler who just happened to meet these three guys at the bar. I don't know as much as they do about, er, stuff, but I may have something to say about stuff they don't know as much about. Anyhow, my vote for the italics thing is the same as Mark's. They look like crap.
-Matt 02:16 EST |
|
|
|
