culturejam's topics - tribe.net

new Hunter S. Thompson Documentary

2008-01-23T22:33:42Z

Dear Friends,
This is a VERY funny and poignant film director Blue Kraning made about Hunter S. Thompson. You can follow this link to where the trailer is posted up on Tribe:

http://people.tribe.net/ef16dbc2-...e40916ff6d

or you can follow the other links to his website www.gonzopatriots.com to see the trailer and buy the film.

I went ahead and copied the text from the tribe page below so you get a better idea of the work.

Please support the spirit of independence in which this film was made AND BUY THIS FILM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Much Love To All,
Lisa Ferguson (aka Petunia Maple Cake)

New Hunter S. Thompson Documentary
This is the trailer for the fun-loving but poignant film that is a tribute to Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, and a document of how his legacy continues to live on in the hearts and minds of his fans. Blasted!!! follows the many "Gonzo Patriots" across America that volunteered their personally owned artillery to fulfill the good doctor's last wish to have his ashes fired from a cannon. Before Johnny Depp became involved with the ceremony, and paid over 2 million dollars for a professional fireworks company to blast his friend's ashes from a 200 foot tall 'Gonzo fist,' an essay contest was held by the Aspen Daily News (at the request of Hunter's family) to see who would be available to provide the service of firing his ashes. Over 50 private cannon owners applied and though these letters were published in Harper's magazine, these brave men and women, who had come forward to fulfill the dying wish of their hero...were eventually forgotten.

DVD's for this film can be purchased at www.gonzopatriots.com

Blue Kraning, Los Angeles based documentary director and Emmy Award winning writer, has just released the DVD of his film, Blasted, The Gonzo Patriots of Hunter S. Thompson, which recently premiered at the Starz Denver International Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Three years in the making, this film is a tribute to a great journalist and renowned physician. Kraning says the film, “is intended for any fan of Hunter S. Thompson or just anyone who likes to see large stuffed animals blown to bits by a homemade Bowling Ball Cannon fired by a man in a purple polyester suit, or see transgender Civil War re-enactors blast their aptly named mountain howitzer...’Lucrecia,’ while reciting Hunter’s wisdom. I made this film entirely as a one-man-band, in the tradition of Gonzo individuality and artistic freedom, so I will be distributing the film entirely by myself by selling the film off my website at www.gonzopatriots.com”

"Hunter S. Thompson embodied the American ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Blue Kraning's Blasted!!! is a twisted, anarchic, fun, and funny tribute to Hunter, those ideals, and Americans who don't merely mouth the Declaration of Independence, but live it." - Michael Simmons, The Huffington Post

“These are not the famous actors, politicians or even journalists. These are Hunter's readers who are “his people” in the purest sense, an army of thoughtful citizens who are inspired by Hunter's work and who do a fine job of carrying on his legacy.” –Anita Thompson, wife of the late author, Hunter S. Thompson

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Adbusters goes to Supreme Court in Canada

2008-01-09T01:37:23Z

Jammers and creatives,

Today is our big moment in court. Ever since the first issue of Adbusters was published seventeen years ago we've been fighting to break the corporate monopoly on access to the airwaves. After countless delays, and over $100,000 spent on legal fees, we've arrived at a critical juncture in the case. At issue is our freedom of speech on the most powerful social communications medium of our time, television.

Below is a copy of our press release as well as a sneak preview of an article that will appear in the upcoming issue of Adbusters (on newsstands February 18th). Please give us your support by getting the word out there.

If our lawsuit is successful in Canada, we'll try to raise the funds necessary to launch a suit in the United States as well. What's at stake here is a critical new human right for our information age, the right to communicate.

The Adbusters Team

PRESS RELEASE: THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE

On Monday, January 7th, the British Columbia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on whether or not Adbusters' lawsuit against Global Television, the CBC, and the CRTC, should go forward. If the Adbusters lawsuit clears this hurdle, media rights advocates will celebrate an important victory in the battle against censorship.

For more than a decade, Adbusters, a magazine and media foundation, has been trying to pay major commercial broadcasters to air its public-service TV spots, but these attempts have been routinely blocked by network executives, often with little or no explanation. In 2004, Adbusters finally turned to the courts. It filed a lawsuit against the government of Canada and some of the country's biggest media barons, arguing that the public has a constitutionally protected freedom of expression over the public airwaves.

At issue is the right of all Canadian citizens to have (as stipulated by the Canadian Broadcasting Act) "a reasonable opportunity...to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern."

"This case will decide if Canadians have the right to walk into their local TV stations and buy thirty seconds of airtime for a message they want to air," says Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of Adbusters.

Ryan Dalziel of Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP, who is representing Adbusters, explains the special nature of this suit.

"This is not," he says, "a bare-knuckle family law dispute, nor is it a Bay Street-style war of attrition between commercial entities. It is public interest litigation, brought by a not-for-profit organization with no chance of any monetary return."

Adbusters is hoping Canadians will pay close attention to a landmark case that pits ordinary citizens and consumers against powerful special interests. The outcome will determine the future role of television in Canada.

EDITOR'S NOTES

For more information about Adbusters and the global media democracy movement visit www.mediacarta.org and www.adbusters.org.

[1] Canadian Media facts: * Four corporations (CanWest, Quebecor, Torstar and Gesca) control 72 per cent of the country's daily newspaper circulation.
* Five major media acquisitions in Canada have occurred or are currently in the making in the past two years: CHUM was purchased by CTVglobemedia for $1.4 billion, which then sold five CityTV stations to Rogers for $375 million; CanWest purchased Alliance Atlantis for $2.3 billion; Astral Media bought Standard Broadcasting for $1.2 billion; and Black Press and Quebecor are vying for the Osprey Media newspaper chain in a deal that will be worth more than $400 million.

[2] Facts about Media Democracy:

* More than 30,000 people have signed the Media Carta <www.mediacarta.org> to voice their concerns about the way information is distributed in our society. * In the past year a growing number of grassroots media activist groups have been formed in Canada to express their dissatisfaction with the continued consolidation of the country's media: <www.democraticmedia.ca> <www.mediareform.ca> <www.mediademocracy.ca>

THE MEDIA'S NEW AESTHETIC: WHY TV IS ABOUT TO HAVE A MAJOR MOOD SWING.
by Clayton Dach

The last few years have been hard on poor old television.

Viewership has fallen across the board as core audiences -- guys aged 18 to 34 in particular - are abandoning the device that raised them, opting instead for game controllers and the internet. Meanwhile, those who have remained loyal to TV are failing to remain similarly loyal to the advertising that makes it profitable, increasingly choosing to get their tube fix via commercial-annihilating digital video recorders, advertising-light DVDs, and (horror of horrors) pirate downloads.

With viewers putting up blinders to the ad-program-ad rhythm of for-profit television, the desirability of conventional 30-second commercial spot is tanking. For the first time in decades, a number of key markets have witnessed decreases in the amount spent on traditional ads, as marketers demand the ever-elusive bigger bang with in-program product placements and full-on brand integration within storylines. The result: as much as 15 full minutes of every hour of programming in North America is now dedicated to thinly veiled product placements, with shows like American Idol topping out at over 4,000 placements per season -- all of this in addition to the average of 14 to 22 minutes out of 60 still set aside for traditional spots.

Given televisions' incredible shrinking credibility, especially in the case of broadcast journalism, it is little wonder that we have suffered through the ceaseless debate over whether we live under the thumb of a "liberal media" or a "conservative media." Luckily, we can safely disregard the question of television's political affiliation, since we are rapidly approaching a sort of McLuhan-esque implosion which will render the answer irrelevant. It's that moment when the specifics of the rock 'em sock 'em, talking-head debates may be school massacres or missing pageant queens, but the message itself always remains the same. That message is television, an ingenious device for the capturing of eyeballs. Increasingly, this device is being pressed into the service of a singular purpose. While this purpose could hardly be called a philosophy in the proper sense, as a system of narrow values it does require the exclusion of dissonant ideas to efficiently function.

Adbusters began, in large part, as a product of outrage over just how destructive, self-serving, and at times downright insane the deliberate exclusions of this system have become. We've learned, for example, that the keepers of the airwaves will permit you to expose the perils of cardiovascular disease; you may not, however, tell the truth about a major advertiser's fat-laden products. Similarly, you are allowed to tell kids to get more exercise, but you can't tell them to turn off their TVs in order to do so. You may encourage women to ignore the images produced by the beauty industry and to feel good about their own bodies, no matter the shape or size -- but only if you're selling soap in the process. And, most gallingly, you can pay lip service to the urgency of tackling climate change, and yet you can't challenge people to buy less stuff as a way to actually go for it.

But it's possible that you don't care. Maybe you gave up on television a long time ago. Maybe you don't even own a TV set anymore. For your personal peace of mind, that was probably a good move; with an estimated 112 million television households in the United States alone, however, we ignore the stirrings of TV at our own peril. The last couple of decades have seen unprecedented levels of consolidation in the realm of mass media. Today, the movers and shakers of TV are the very same people and corporate entities who control the majority of newspapers, of radio stations, of book publishing, of outdoor advertising, of music distribution, of film production, and of your favorite social networking sites. The dirty tricks and the sleights of hand that are used to keep urgent, dissonant messages off the air aren't in any way specific to that TV. They are the natural consequences of corporate rule, and they will be brought to bear whenever we are too distracted to stand in the way.

Not by accident, more and more people are doing just that -- stepping up to join the ongoing battle against a media system that has left civil society out in the cold and in the dark, a media system that has been busily propagating itself at the expense of our social, cultural, political and environmental health. It's a battle that Adbusters has proudly taken up with its ongoing lawsuit against CanWest, Canada's biggest media conglomerate.

What's at stake in this struggle is not just access, but the creation of a whole new media aesthetic: a messier one, more spontaneous and unpredictable, one that fosters participation and social relevance, a genuine engine for the positive change. If Adbusters' lawsuit is a success, one of the first manifestations of this aesthetic will be a strange new mood - exciting, challenging, even slightly dangerous -- every time you switch on the box in your living room, where previously there was only a moribund device completely sewn-up by private, for-profit interests. This strange new mood will prove once and for all that television (just like newspapers, magazines and radio before it, and just like the internet after it) has the capacity to perform services other than selling us on the idea of buying, services of vital importance to the health of our species and its democracies. And like with all exciting, challenging, and slightly dangerous new moods, we're betting it will prove to be pretty damned infectious.

Get this from a friend? Want to join the Culture Jammers Network? Visit: <adbusters.org/network>

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culture jamming and gender and language

2007-12-03T21:23:42Z

Hey guys, I'm currently writing a final paper on culture jamming and I need a bit of help. I need to incorporate gender and language into my paper and am a bit stuck. Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

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please help free Gary Tyler

2007-03-03T04:45:53Z

story: http://www.freegarytyler.com/writings/gary-tylers-lost-decades.html

petition: www.freegarytyler.com/petition.php

thank you,
kim

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Robert Anton Wilson January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007

2007-02-23T06:56:01Z

rest well Robert, we will miss you

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Anywhere the Eye Can See, It’s Now Likely to See an Ad

2007-01-15T14:56:45Z

Anywhere the Eye Can See, It’s Now Likely to See an Ad
Advertisers say the best way to reach time-pressed consumers is to try to catch their eye at every turn.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

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Merging of the Culturejam tribes

2007-01-08T21:01:29Z

The Culture Jamming Tribe (http://culturejamming.tribe.net) with over 2000 members has basically the same mission and content as this tribe. Anyone up for a merger?

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Fourth of July Flag Burn

2006-06-16T16:10:51Z

Hello East Bay Comrades! This fourth of july, instead of celebrating a holiday that is loaded with American nationalism, let's take the opportunity to organize locally to have a celebration of our own. This is a chance to unite and show our "representatives" that they do not speak for us and we won't celebrate our countries freedom when it takes so much freedom from us and others. I'm going to need help organizing (finding a good spot that will get attention, making posters, flyers, getting the word out all that good stuff) Remember, this is not JUST a flag burning it's a chance for us to meet up, have some fun and let people know we're out there and we're active. Email me at ClassWarMolotov@gmail.com. Let's get the media's attention on this and get it as big as we can.

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reviving the grey sweat suit revolution in NYC. Please help!

2006-05-03T17:39:31Z

Hello, all. I am a DC Culturejammer relocated to NY. This is a broadside I've been distributing in the subway as of today. These words were handwritten and illustrated with a fountain pen, then photocopied onto yellow double-sided A4 paper, folded into enveloppes, and handed to persons who seemed aware/receptive/intelligent/down-to-earth. Let me know what you think!
-Geneviève

May 2006
Manhattan

Dear Sir or Madam:
Hi there!

You don't look like you've put much effort into your appearance.

It's funny, in American society today, this kind of comment tends to be taken as an insult (think makeover shows on TV, glossy magazines, red-carpet-obsessed tabloids, etc.) but I mean it as a compliment!
Yey you!!! (Really.)

As a female who grew up in Paris, France, I know what it's like to be swept up in fashion culture—as a teenager, every outfit I wore was planned head to toe, I was afraid to go out without makeup…sad, isn't it? Though clothing can be used as an artistic means of self-expression, Fashion Culture, more often than not, is as unhealthy as air pollution.

Fashion Culture is what tells teenagers that they have to have a "look" and identify themselves by that look (I'm a skater; I'm preppy; I'm a hippie; I'm a jock, etc). It's what persuades even the most intelligent individuals that they have to look like a sex toy in order to find a life-partner/soul-mate. It's what tells women in work environments that they don't look professional if they're not dressed/made-up like Catherine Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty. It's what drains our bank accounts and takes little jabs at our self-esteem on a daily basis, especially in New York, where there is always someone more attractive/better dressed than you nearby.

I lived in New York a full three months before I realized how silly it was that I, someone who values intellect and creativity and authenticity, was spending half an hour or more in front of the mirror every day and feeling intimidated in the streets by those better dressed/better groomed than I.

"ENOUGH!!!!!" I said to myself. I packed away my "nice" clothes and makeup and went on my last shopping spree: I bought some men's grey Champion shorts and some simple boy's black/white/grey Hanes undershirts, and a generic grey sweatshirt, and decided to wear only these with few exceptions (weddings, etc—I don't want to alienate my family!).

IMMEDIATELY I noticed several changes for the better:

1.) I didn’t have to wonder "How do I look?" or "What should I wear?" or "Does this go with this?" any more. Only "Is it raining?" and "Is it cold?" So I found myself with lots of EXTRA TIME to think about the things I actually wanted to think about!

2.) I felt physically comfortable all the time. This made me HAPPIER, FRIENDLIER, and MORE PRODUCTIVE!

3.) Laundry became much EASIER and cheaper! (No brights, fancy delicate fabrics to worry about, and no dry cleaning bills!)

4.) I broke my cycle of peer-pressure induced compulsive buying ("I need new makeup, clothes, shoes…" –No, I really don't. (!!!)) This SAVED me MONEY and time.

5.) Most importantly: the people I began attracting (in cafés, in parks, at parties) were always the most intelligent, genuine, no B.S., free-thinking people around—the people I wanted to meet anyway! My outfit was so neutral that no one could form socio-economic/cultural prejudices against me, and the asexuality of my grey garb caused people to treat me first and foremost as a person, not as a "pretty girl" or, worse, a "hot chick."

Then I did some internet browsing one night and I discovered:
www.thegreysweatsuitrevolution.com These kids in Montréal have a great idea: if all those people who have gotten over fashion or (hear my applause) were never into it anyway TRADE IN their "WHATEVER" CLOTHES FOR A GREY SWEAT-SUIT, then we would, together, make a strong and identifiable VISIBLE STATEMENT to the world at large that says:

"Let's get over our vanity, and EARN RESPECT from others FOR WHO WE REALLY ARE."

Because you looked to me like you might be up to this sort of challenge, I have personally handed you a photocopy of this letter to ask you to consider adopting the grey sweat-suit uniform yourself--however, whenever, to whatever extent you can.
It's not political, it's not anarchist, it's simply human. It's not anti-fashion so much as pro-humanity. Common sense distinguishing itself from the sheep mentality that permeates our culture. And you don't have to go all or nothing: you can start gradually, say, wearing the grey sweat-suit only on weekends at first. But know that any time you go out in public wearing a grey sweat-suit, you will be taking a step towards saving the self-esteem and integrity of future generations!

Some very "cool" and "classy" and "venerable" people are already adopting the grey sweat-suit uniform in New York right now: artists, writers, musicians, actors, elected officials, academics… Even a few brave souls in the corporate world, whom I want to congratulate especially, have started grey sweat-suit trends in their offices!
(The Scandinavians are way ahead of us on this: they've realized that workers are much more productive when they are physically comfortable and traditional suit/tie pumps/lipstick business attire is finally being modernized, meaning, got rid of. If you work in the corporate world, try speaking candidly to your boss about the psychological effects of wearing constricting clothing in the workplace. If you get fired, sue me, but it simply hasn't occurred to most executives that there are other better options for business attire, and many have been receptive to an optional grey sweat-suit uniform for their employees.)

Please check out www.thegreysweatuitrevolution.com and feel free to contact me with questions/thoughts/concerns on the matter: I'd love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Geneviève Galvani

email: yeygreynyc@yahoo.com

ps. according to Wikipedia: Manual of Style (spelling), "grey" is the most common (worldwide) spelling of the word in English. Only USA and Canada use "gray" as an alternate spelling. So I'm going with "grey", for the purpose of universality.

pps. Again, thanks for looking like a real person in New York! It's why I handed you this letter. Ask your friends what they think of the grey sweat-suit idea, and get your grandmother in on it! The more we are, and the more diverse we are, the more powerful our collective statement will be.

Have a nice day!

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football

2006-04-30T01:44:29Z

FOOTBALL FOLLY / The NFL: Professional Fantasy Football?

Have you ever watched a professional football game that was "too good to be true"? In 1969, the National Football League (NFL) merged with the American Football League (AFL), and a multi-million dollar business was born. From the Super Bowl of 1969 through the 2001 "storybook" pictory of the appropriately patriotic New England Patriots, author Brian Tuohy uses quotes from the players themselves and other public sources to expose the NFL's hidden history. Tuohy wonders whether, in order to dramatize its "Cinderella stories" and "unabashed tragedies," and to get maximum output from it's product, the NFL fixes, tweaks, or scripts its games. As Tuohy concludes, the ticket you purchase is for amusement purposes only. There is nothing on your ticket stating otherwise. If you take the game to be real (as some do pro wrestling) who is at fault?

"Pro football provides the circus for the hordes." - Congressman Emanuel Celler

In 1969, the NFL was in the biggest developmental stage in its history. It was merging with its rival, the AFL, and fans of the NFL, werent accepting the new competition. In both Superbowl I & !!, the NFL (represented by the Green Bay Packers) had proven its dominance over the younger, weakerAFL. Now, with Superbowl III looming, and the merger and the resulting television contracts in the balance, something had to be done.
This time, the AFL would be represented by the New York Jets, led by the highest-paid player of the time, quarterback Joe Namath. Representing the NFL, was on of its oldest franchises, the Baltimore Colts, who were made 18-point favorites by the bookmakers to win the game. Yet, just a few days prior to the game, Joe Namath brashly guaranteed the Jets would win, Namath was proven correct when the Jets beat the Colts 16-7 in one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. More than an upset, it was a turning point for the NFL. Not only did it give credibility to the AFL teams in the fan's eyes, it further opened the NFL's doors to the TV networks, whose deep pockets finance football to this day.
The question remains, however, why was Namath so sure of victory? I would suggest Joe Namath is the "smoking gun" of the NFL, and thatSuper Bowl III was the first-but definitely not the last-time that the NFL fixed the outcome of one of its own games.
"Namath & his teammates" performance secured the two leagues, at the very least, $100,000,000 in future TV revenue. The game was almost too good to be true," commented former NFL playerBernie Parrish in 1971. "Considering other devices imposed by TV's needs to lift fan interest & raise the advertisers' prices, perhaps it was too good to be true." Football great Bubba Smith, who played for the Colts in Super Bowl III, wrote in his autobiography that the game had been "set up" for the Jets in order to boost the AFL's credibility. I a later Playboy interview, Smith elaborated, "That Superbowl game, which we lost by nine points, was the critical year. The game just seemed odd to me. Everything was out of place. I tried to rationalize that our coach, Dan Shula, got out-coached, but that wasn't the case. I don't know if any of the teammates were in on the fix."
FIXES and TWEAKS
The NFL is a business, first & foremost. In 1996, Financial World magazine valued the worth of the average NFL franchise at $174 million. Consumers spent $3 billion dollars on NFL team related merchandise. On average, more that 12 million viewers watch a regular telecasted game. And it is television thatfeeds the most money to this ever-hungry beast.
Originally, each NFL team sold its broadcast rights individually. However, in 1961, thanks in part to President John F. Kennedy, Congress passed the Sports Antitrust Broadcast Act, which paved the way for the NFL to market it's games as a package. This first "package" was sold to CBS for $4.65 million. Three years later it was up to $14.1 million. By 1974, with the addition of Monday Night Football, it was a robust $57.6 million. A 1978 poll showed that 70 percent of the nation's sports fans followed football, compared to 54 percent pursuing baseball. The prices escalated accordingly. By 1984, the networks were paying the NFL $434 million. In 1998, the last time the networks purchased the rights to the NFL's games, CBS paid $4 billion dollars for 8 years, with ESPN shelling out over $600 million and ABC adding an additional $550 million a year. That doesnt include more than $1 billion the Fox network paid just a few years earlier.
The only way these numbers can be recouped is through the rating and the resulting advertising revenue. But how has football become America's number one spectator sport? Certainly, it offers drama, violence, and raw emotion for 12 hours every Sunday in the fall, and Cinderella stories, remarkable comebacks, & unabashed tragedies in every play, game, & season. However, to develop these stories & keep those ratings soaring higher, does the NFL fix, tweak, or script its games to get the maximum output from its product?
Over the years, there has been speculation about whether Super Bowls are
"won," or whether they are "awarded." Some Super Bowls are awarded because of the stories they provide, others as rewards, but each for a reason: for instance, to Green Bay for bringing tradition back to the game; to Denver & John Elway in 1997 for their long-suffering seasons (perhaps at the League's insistence); to St. Louis & Tennessee in 1999 for their willingness to relocate for the league; to the relocated Baltimore Ravens in 2000 for their long-time owner, Art Modell, whose commitment to the NFL reaches back to the 1960s; and, most recently, in perhaps one of the most blatant examples of scripting an entire season, to the 2001 New England Patriopts. In an immediately post-9/11 America, what more symbolic team could the NFL crown its champion than the Patriots, who were the biggest underdog in Super Bowl's 36 year history?

PROFIT DRIVEN

Like any CEO, the NFL owners are profit driven. The fan is secondary in their scheme. Why else would they pull teams like the Baltimore Colts and the Cleveland Browns out of their respective cities when these teamsconstantly played to sell-out crowds? Both moves were made because the new cities (Indianapolis & Baltimore) offered the owners better stadium deals, and more cash in the owner's pockets, The media may label such moves "tragedies," yet according to author Jon Morgan in his book, "Glory for Sale: Fans, Dollars and the New NFL, "Television network executives said they didnt care where teams were based. The NFL had become a national broadcast product. It would garner high viewership wheever the games were played."
Another huge source of revenue for the League comes from expansion teams. New teams are asked to pay an "initiation" fee of $150 million or more just to join the League. What, exactly, is this money for? Nothing. It is simply "profit divided up among the other rich kids that got there first." Expansion is always on the NFL's mind. In fact, I believe it accounts for the success of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. Both teams, in just their second year of existence, managed to reach their respective conference championship, just one win shy of the Super Bowl. Neither won, yet they were each hailed as success stories. This justified further expansion, with the addition of the new Cleveland Browns & Houston Texans.
"Football has become our national religion, & NFL owners are the druids. Men of business, men of state, men of war: All are inexorably drawn toward the people who won and control these teams." The idea that this elite group of 32 men sometimes reach down from their skybox & dabble in the happenings on the field is not a stretch of the imagination.
The NFL's Dirty Little Secret

According to Dan Molden, in Interference: How Organized Crim Influences Professional Football, many early NFL owners were known to be gamblers. Moldea alleges that the following owners were known to have bet on football games, and some even bet on their own teams: Onetime Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, Jr., Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt (son of oilman H.L. Hunt Jr), Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell, New Orleans Saints owner John Mccom, Jr, Chicago/St Louis/Arizona Cardinals owner Charles Bidwell, and Philadelphia Eagles owner DeBenneville "Bert" Bell.
Moldea alleges that Carroll Rosenbloom, one time owner of the Baltimore Colts, not only bet on his team, but also altered the outcome of a game because of it. Oddly enough, it was this very game that legitimized football for the television networks. It has been called the greatest game ever played: the 1958 NFL championship game. Rosenbloom's Colts were playing the New York Giants, who were 3 1/2-to 5 1/2-point underdogs. Moldea also alleges that Rosenbloom laid down $1 million on his boys to win."
The Colts were losing until the last seven seconds, when the Colts kicker, Steve Myhra, kicked a field goal to tie the game at 17-17 and send it into overtime. In overtime, the Colts marched 80 yards down the field to get to the Giants 8 yard line-easy field territory. But they never kicked. Instead, accordingto Moldea, Rosenbloom, knowing the game was won but his bet lost with the field goal, had his general manager force Coach Webb Eubank to go in for the touchdown. Final score: Colts 23, Giants 17, which covered the point spread, and Rosenbloom's money. (Sports gamblers generally bet not just on the victor, but on a particular "spread", or margin of victory.)
Players, too, have been tempted by the bookmaker. Several star players of the 1950s-1960's were known to have gambled, and some to have fixed games. Bookmaker/gambler Don Dawson has admitted that during those two decades, he had personally been involved in fixing no fewer than 32 NFL games." Washington Redskins quarterback Sammy Baugh, Pittsburgh/Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne, and Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson were alleged to have gambled (and perhaps shaved points), but were never charged or convicted of a crime. Green Bay Packers great Paul Horning and Detroit Lions star Alex Karras were not so fortunate.
On the January 16, 1963, edition of the NBC evening news program The Huntley-Brinkley Report, Detroit Lions star defensive tackle Alex Karras admitted that he had bet on football games in which he played. A national scandal erupted. It was quickly quelledon April 17, 1963, when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended indefinitely Karras & Horning (who had also bet on games in which he played) and fined five other Detroit Lions players $2,000 each for betting on games in which they did not play. Rozelle also announced he had evidence that several other players around the League were gambling on the NFL, and these players had been "reprimanded, but not fined."

The NFL's FBI

As a result of the 1963 betting scandal, NFL Commissioner Rozelle created NFL Security. NFL Security (the League's FBI, if you will) has employed former intelligence officers, Justice Dept officials, and ex-FBI officers throughout its years. It has branches in everycity in which the NFL plays. Former director of NFL Security Warren Welsh has said, "These representatives (NFL Security officials) are on retainer to the League, and they specifically report to the League. In addition to their game day coverage and their laisonwith the local law enforcement community, they would also do background investigations the we might have for game officials, an ownership group, impersonations, misrepresentations, whatever it might be, as opposed to just working for the local team." They are on the watch for gambling, drugs, and whatever other troubles the players and coaches can get into. And these men are kept very, very busy.
In their extensively researched book, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, Jeff Benedict & Don Yaeger chronicle just how rampant criminal activity is in the League. According to their 1998 research, 1 out of 5 (21%) of the players in the NFL have been charged with a serious crime. The crimes they detail go beyond the drinking & driving offenses we often hear reported. These crimes include rape, kidnapping, assault & battery, domestic violence, and homicide. Of course, there is a big difference between being charged & being convicted, but the fact that this many pro football players have such problems is alarming. Even worse, these players are allowed to continue to play in the NFL.

DRUG DEALINGS

Drugs are a way of life in the NFL. One of the first things discussed at the NFL rookie camp are drugs, but these talks tend to fall on deaf ears. Be they illegal, like marijuana or cocaine, or legal prescription drugs, like steroids & pain killers, drugs are very much in use in the NFL. Former NFL player Tim Green claims in his book The Dark Side of the Game, "Moderate use of some drugs is just a neccessary reality of big-time football." He goes on to say "One of the main reasons performance drugs (steroids) have played such a major part in the evolution of the modern football player is because the players themselves feel like the will never die.......They'll do whatever it takes to be the best they can be."
Whether performance-enhancing or recreational, drugs are officially not allowed in the NFL. But this doesnt stop their use. The NFL's policy regarding drugs & drug testing has no effect because it is simply not enforced. Former Washington Redskin Dexter Manley was caught using drugs several times & finally was banned for life-twice. In his book, You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise, former Oakland Raider team doctor Ron Huizenga, M.D., tells of one player who tested positive for cocaine 10 times with no action taken by the league. He also recounts the story of an unnamed member of the Denver Broncos who was going to be suspended because of a second positive drug test. He never was, and was in the line-up the following week. According to Huizenga, "I knew then that something was wrong with the new drug penalty system. Either the fix was in at the commissioner's office or some major legal roadblock had been thrown up.

Maintaining Ranks

"We have a basic rule in the NFL," says a former law-enforcement official who advises the NFL on security matters. "It is to keep it upbeat & keep it positive. But, above all, they want to keep everything quiet." That's the way it is in the NFL today. Keep all potential problems within the League. The only press allowed is cleared by the League. According to the NFL's drug program, the League's "drug czar" has been banned from speaking with the press."
In order to recieve his pension, former League treasurer Austin H. Gunsel had to sign a contract with a gag clause reminiscent of those required of retiring CIA officers: "Neither shall Gunsel, without the prior consent of the Commissioner of this League, publish any newspaper or magazine article, book or publication, nor submit to any newspaper, radio, or TV (an) interview or program which discusses, involves, or refers to the affairs or activities of the NFL, its officers or employees, or to any of the member clubs thereof, or their owners, officers, employees or others holding any interest therein."
Players, too, are not immune to this type of censorship. Both players & coaches are fined for speaking about things not deemed to be in the NFL's best interest (like baseball's John Rocker) "The very nature of a football player, and one of the essential elements to ever get to the NFL, is to maintain ranks........Football is a game that requires the discipline & unquestioning obedience of a soldier. Right or wrong, the fact is that all football players are programmed to march to a certain beat." This is true both on & off the field. Players, throughout their playing career are taught to toe the line. Break the rules, and you're out. Even after players leave the game, it is rare to hear a bad word spoken about the NFL. Maybe this is because all ex-NFL players draw some sort of pension from the NFL & the players union.

COINCIDENCE OR A FIX?

Anyone who has watched football has seen games or plays that seemed just too good to be true, games where the play on the field somehow matched or beat the pre-game hype. Could it be coincidence? Maybe. But I believe it to be more.
Take Super Bowl XXX, played in 1995 between the Pittsburgh Steelers & the Dallas Cowboys. The Steelers lost the game 27-17 because of two statistically-unusual plays-two Neil O'Donnell interceptions. Going into that game, O'Donnell has the lowest interception per pass attempt ratio in NFL history. Yet, here he threw two passes that were seemingly gift wrapped for Cowboy Larry Brown (who was named Super Bowl MVP). In the following off-season, both O'Donnell & Brown signed multi-million dollar free-agent contracts with other teams, going on to careers of mediocrity.
Absent evidence of outright payoffs, a subtler mechanism exists for the NFL to potentially coerce its players into fixing games. Consider a player who gets into trouble, be it for steroids, drunken driving, etc. With 21% of NFL players finding themselves in some sort of legal trouble, there is plenty to choose from. When caught, would he perhaps be pulled aside & given certain options? Keep in mind that just one play, and just one player, can alter the outcome of a football game. Be ita field goal attempt, an interception, or a fumble, one player can change everything. Something as simple as a missed block, a botched snap, or biting on a pump fake, can be the difference between maintaining a drive or being forced to punt.

Players & Patsies

Certainly, not all games are fixed, and many NFL players engage in honest play for their entire careers. In fact, It may be that most players are inwitting patsies in the NFL conspiracy.
Coaches have a huge sway over what happens on the field and are directly responsible to the owner. It is the coach who decides who plays & how. Conceivably, a player who won't "play ball" might not see the ball during the game. This might explain the unusual benching in the 1999 AFC playoffs, when Buffalo Bills starting quarterback, Doug Flutie, was benched in favor of back-up Rob Johnson. Johnson hadnt started a single game during the entire year, but he was coach Wade Phillips' choice to play this critical game, while a healthy Flutie sat the game out. Buffalo went on to lose the game to the Tennessee Titans on the famous "homerun throwback" play (itself a disputed call). Could it be that Flutie was benched because he wouldnt lose the game for the League?
Coaches influence every play. What might seem like a bad performance on a player's part may instead be an ill-advised play sent in from the sidelines. Take what happened in Super Bowl XXXII. Late in the fourth quarter, with Denverknocking on their goal line, Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Holmgren admittedly told his defense to lie down and allow Denver's Terrell Davis to score a touchdown. He defended his action, saying he wanted to leave enough time for his offense to come back and score. However they never did. Davis's touchdown won the Super Bowl for the Broncos.
Like the playersthey rule over, coaches also have "run-ins" with the law. As Detailed in Pro and Cons, Minnesota Vikings head coach Dennis Green and assistant Richard Solomon were investigated by the team for charges of sexual harassment on more than one occasion in the 1990's. To the frustration of their fans, the Vikings never seem to reach the Super Bowl despite a talented roster.
Then there are the referees-the only people on the field directly employed by the NFL. To a large degree, and despite claims to the contrary, they control what happens on the field. The penalties they call can alter a play, the score, and hence the outcome of a game. NFL referees are actually only part-time employees of the NFL, even so they have to have a minimum of 10 years of college experience & 3 years of monitoring by the League before even being considered to referee a game in the NFL. Each week, the NFL scrutinizes game tapes just to watch the officiating. They have to. Teams file weekly reports with the League on calls for which they want "further clarification." These reports never find their way to the media, however. "Conversations between the NFL officiating dept & teams are confidential. We do not comment on them," NFL spokesman Michael Signora told ESPN.
Instant replay, a device television helped usher into the League, was supposed to clear up any controversies that may arise in a game. However, a referee is supposed to have "conclusive evidence" in order to reverse a call that has been challenged. "Conclusive" being the key word. What may seem conclusive to viewers at home is not always what's deemed conclusive to the referee calling the game. It's still a judgement call. And no matter how well instant replay supposedly works, it cannot-ever-overturn a penalty called by a referee.

TV's Influence

With the wide variety of ways in which the game can be controlled, detecting a fix would be very difficult. The people who should be the public's eye's & ears, the sports reporters, are merely just another cog in the NFL's propaganda machine.
On a local level, the sports reporter is nothing but a cheerleader. He has to be. Should he begin to ask the "tough" questions, he will quickly find himself on the outside of the locker room looking in. Without the cooperation of the team, a local reporter will find it impossible to get close to the team, much less fill his column or broadcast.
On the national level, it is even worse. "All play-by-play TV and radio announcers are approved by not only the club management but by (the Commissioner) himself." The list of current announcers/anchors of NFL broadcasts almost reads like a Pro-Bowl roster: Dan Marino, Deion Sanders, Boomer Esiason, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Steve Young, Tom Jackson, Sterling Sharpe, Troy Aikman, Chris Collinsworth, etc. Even legendary commentators like Pat Summerall & John Madden have direct NFL experience. So whose interests are they more likely to represent, the fan or their former or current employer?
When a sticky situation arises within the League, or if the League has an issue it needs pushed (a need for new stadiums, higher ticket prices, etc.), it often relies on it's phalanx of announcers to sway public opinion. As ex-NFL star, Bernie Parrish, put it, "The words we hear coming from our telvision sets don't seem to have the same meaning as they used to, whether they are coming from the White House or the NFL hucksters. The images we see are what the paid packagers want us to see. In the case of pro football, the packages are designed & decorated behind the closed doors of the Commissioner's office, and there is no consumer protection for the public."
Television has changed the way football is played. It is because of TV that the 2 minute warning exists (to allow for a commercial break when interest in the game has peaked). Former president of ABC Sports Roone Arledge (the man behind Monday Night Football), once said, "Most of what TV does wrong is done to generate more dollars for (NFL) owners & the Leagues are so damned greedy in what they ask for rights."
In 1965, when CBS paid over $14 million for the rights to NFL games, "they acted as if they had bought the sport, including the people who played it." Perhaps they did. Former NFL player Tim Green wrote, "If you thinkthat the players in an NFL game arent only aware, but affected by the television cameras & microphones, youre wrong. Players often know when the cameras are on them, whether they can see the little red lights or not, and they play to them as if they were on a Hollywood movie set."
So, is the NFL closer to what some feared the defunct XFL would become: A scripted soap opera much like professional wrestling? It could very well be. If it's not neccessarily illegal for them to be so. There is nothing printed on your ticket indicating that the game you see will be played by certain rules. There is no attempt at defrauding you, because the ticket you purchase is for amusement purposes only. And what they give you is a form of entertainment. If you take it to be real (as some do pro wrestling) who is at fault?
Just because it seems real doesnt mean it truly is. There is nothing anywhere that states the NFL and the networks couldnt script the season to get the maximum amount of fan appeal if they desire. Does that mean every single game is fixed? No. But could they spot a potential story line in a team & play it for all it's worth? Certainly.
In 1971, former NFL star Bernie Parrish wrote, "With $139 million at stake for the owners, $84 million for the television networks, and up to $66 BILLION for organized crime's bookmaking syndicates, and with what I learned as a player, no one will ever convince me that numerous NFL games arent fixed." Now, 30 years later, with the dollar figures 10 times what they were then, one would have to be naive to believe that the NFL would leave everything-its name, its money, its very existence-up to chance!

posted in culturejam - 0 replies

McInformation

2005-10-27T07:11:23Z

I realize this should be filed under "old news", but the openness with which McDonalds' ad firm discusses misleading the public in <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/24/news/fortune500/mcdonalds.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes" target="blank">this CNN article</a> remains truly amazing to me:

"Maybe if people think they have this terrific quality, then they'll forget about the calories and the fat," said Jack Trout, president of marketing strategy firm Trout & Partners. "Will it fix it with the naysayers? No. But what it will do is present more of a rationale for the people who take their kids to this place."

What does it say about the possibility for adbusting/culture jamming when the brand institutions feel comfortable openly stating that they are creating a smokescreen?

posted in culturejam - 2 replies

How to Identify Misinformation

2005-09-06T20:29:30Z

Compare:

http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jul/27-595713.html

http://www.company23.net/missing/

posted in culturejam - 0 replies

Dolphin Protection Crew Recruiting Drive

2005-08-23T06:02:28Z

There is need to create a crew to fight a battle for the defense of our dolphin kin. A nasty situation is about to occur and we needs to create a pi-rate team to mastermind a global strategy. This needs to happen asap.

tribes.tribe.net/dolphinprotection

posted in culturejam - 0 replies

Evolution as a Team Sport

2005-08-16T03:19:27Z

Evolution as a Team Sport
By Douglas Rushkoff

Nothing is around the corner. There's no threshold to reach, event horizon to cross, or moment of novelty to await. The change has happened. Indeed, you're soaking in it.

Those of us who like to think of ourselves on the progressive or countercultural end of the spectrum can't help but try to foment change. We want our revolution, after all, and won't be satisfied until we've won - and done so in a way that everyone notices. Catastrophe and climax are prizes for our long uphill battle. But by insisting on getting to notice change in dramatic ways, we guarantee it never truly happening.

There's a disturbing fundamentalism brewing in the counterculture these days - an aching towards apocalypse as dangerous as that of our counterparts in the reddest of states, and understood just as literally. We are to await the apex of novelty, that singularity when consciousness rises from the chrysalis of matter into a new state, beyond time and maybe even energy. And, of course, only those of us with proper spiritual or psychedelic credentials will be prepared for this inevitability, and make it through the bottleneck at the end of linear history. The rest, well, they finally get their comeuppance.

The story is no different in structure than any of the others we've developed over the last two thousand or so years since Aristotle identified the narrative arc of linear drama: create a character or group we like, put them into danger, increase the stakes until the audience can't take it anymore and then provide a solution: salvation, a political ideology, or even, in the age of marketing, a product that relieves the crisis and saves the day. It's the male orgasm curve that has dominated Western narrative for centuries: crisis, climax, release...and then you get to go to sleep. Winners and losers, saved and damned are properly categorized and justice is finally done. Just buy my product, believe in my god, vote for my guy, or suck my dick, and everything's gonna be alright.

The problem with this structure is that it postpones resolution to some distant and, for the most part, mythical future. Instead of taking actions and facilitating real, if only incremental progress at relieving human suffering, we dismiss reality as some temporary state - a precursor to the much more important light at the end of the tunnel. We keep our eyes on the fanciful prize, and relegate the plights of those around us to the category of distraction.

Whether we're setting out on the communist, capitalist, or Christian narrative journey, we're to endure or, a bit better, witness others' pain now for the promise of gain later on. The ends justify the present. For this, too, shall pass.

I've never liked revolutions. They just go in circles, after all. The downside of getting to "win" is that someone else loses, and invariably the cycle begins again. That's why I've begun to think about our current shift less as a revolution than a renaissance. It's not a whole new order coming into power, but rather, as the word "renaissance" implies, the rebirth of old ideas in a new context. Renaissances are not events we work towards, but processes occurring in the present. Revolutions require faith, because movements generally involve killing and other nastiness that people won't generally commit without some spirited motivation. Revolutions happen in the future; Renaissances happen now.

The more I study the original Renaissance, the more I see our own era as having at least as much renaissance character and potential. Where the Renaissance brought us perspective painting, the current one brings virtual reality and holography. The Renaissance saw humanity circumnavigating the globe; in our own era we've learned to orbit it from space. Calculus emerged in the 15th Century, while systems theory and chaos math emerged in the 20th. Our analog to the printing press is the Internet, our equivalent of the sonnet and extended metaphor is hypertext.

Renaissance innovations all involve an increase in our ability to contend with dimension: perspective. Perspective painting allowed us to see three dimensions where there were previously only two. Circumnavigation of the globe changed the world from a flat map to a 3D sphere. Calculus allowed us to relate points to lines and lines to objects; integrals move from x to x-squared, to x-cubed, and so on. The printing press promoted individual perspectives on religion and politics. We all could sit with a text and come up with our own, personal opinions on it. This was no small shift: it's what led to the Protestant wars, after all.

The original Renaissance invented perspective - and out of that was born the notion of the individual: the Renaissance Man. Sure, there were individual people before the Renaissance, but they existed mostly as parts of small groups. With literacy and perspective came the abstract notion the person as a separate entity. This idea of a human being as a "self," with independent will, capacity, and agency, was pure Renaissance - a rebirth and extension of the Ancient Greek idea of personhood. And from it, we got all sorts of great stuff like the autonomy of the individual, agency, and even democracy and the republic. The right to individual freedom is what led to all those revolutions, in the first place.

For it was also during the first great Renaissance that we developed the concept of competition. Authorities became more centralized, and individuals competed for how high they could rise in the system. We like to think of it as a high-minded meritocracy, but the rat-race that ensued only strengthened the authority of central command. We learned compete for resources and credit made artificially scarce by centralized banking and government.

For just one example, it was during the Renaissance that centralized currency came into widespread use. Before then, localities developed their own currencies, often based on real commodities, and many of which existed side-by-side more centralized currencies that were used for transacting with other regions. With the establishment of the nation state came the exclusive right of kings to create money by "fiat" - literally by invention - and then force everyone else to compete to pay it back. To this day, people who want to buy a house must borrow, say, $100,000 from the bank and then pay back $300,000 over thirty years. Where does the other $200,000 come from? The borrower is to compete for it in the marketplace. Only $100,000 was loaned into existence. The rest must be taken from others.

The idea of competition between individuals was a potentially dangerous side effect of Renaissance thinking. Sure, competition has been a powerful motivator, particularly when applied to capitalism, and on a completely level playing field can competition yield some terrific innovation and growth. But we may have reached the end of what competition can offer us, and new models for innovation and interaction - the ones emerging out of our own renaissance - might prove more appropriate to our current situation.

While our renaissance also brings with it a shift in our relationship to dimension, the character of this shift is different. In a holograph, fractal, or even an Internet web site, perspective is no longer about the individual observer's position; it's about that individual's connection to the whole. Any part of a holographic plate recapitulates the whole image; bringing all the pieces together generates greater resolution. Each detail of a fractal reflects the whole. Web sites live not by their own strength but the strength of their links. As Internet enthusiasts like to say, the power of a network is not the nodes, it's the connections.

That's why new models for both collaboration and progress have emerged during our renaissance - ones that obviate the need for competition between individuals, and instead value the power of collectivism. The open source development model, shunning the corporate secrets of the competitive marketplace, promotes the free and open exchange of the codes underlying the software we use. Anyone and everyone is invited to make improvements and additions, and the resulting projects - like the Firefox browser - are more nimble, stable, and user-friendly. Likewise, the development of complementary currency models, such as Ithaca Hours, allow people to agree together what their goods and services are worth to one another without involving the Fed. They don't need to compete for currency in order to pay back the central creditor - currency is an enabler of collaborative efforts rather than purely competitive ones.

For while the Renaissance invented the individual and spawned many institutions enabling personal choices and freedoms, our renaissance is instead reinventing the collective in a new context. Originally, the collective was the clan or the tribe - an entity defined no more by what members had in common with each other than what they had in opposition to the clan or tribe over the hill. Networks give us a new understanding of our potential relationships to one another. Membership in one group does not preclude membership in a myriad of others. We are all parts of a multitude of overlapping groups with often paradoxically contradictory priorities. Because we can contend with having more than one perspective at a time, we needn't force them to compete for authority in our hearts and minds - we can hold them all, provisionally. That's the beauty of renaissance: our capacity to contend with multiple dimensions is increased. Things don't have to be just one way or directed by some central authority, alive, dead or channeled. We have the capacity to contend with spontaneous, emergent reality.

As collaborators, we are no longer setting ourselves up for exclusion, conflict, or even the postponement of joy. We don't need to dangle the carrot of cash prizes, salvation, or Bhoddisatvahood in order to get others to join in our enterprises, because they are so much fun to do right now, for their own sake.

By the same token, our relationship to the human story changes, as well. Instead of aching towards conclusion, and seeing every global and personal crisis as a sign of impending cosmic state change, we evolve together as a natural course of events. We won't get those dramatic, cataclysmic shifts to look forward to, but neither will we need them. New threads and understandings simply emerge from our collective engagement, just as new traits species and emerge from our exchange of genomes.

Evolution is a team sport, not a competition. There's just one thing going on here, however many eyes and "I's" it may seem to have. We all make it, together, or none of us do.

posted in culturejam - 0 replies

Chicago Seminar worth jamming?

2005-06-22T15:59:51Z

Chicago Aug 1-3

The annual U.S. Account Planning Conference will be in Chicago this year. Account planners are the social engineers who design communication strategies for companies.

Ever read One Market Under God by Thomas Frank? Remember the part where he explained how Nike made themselves cool with skaters? He saw that presentation at the U.S. Account Planning Group conference.

Have you seen Martin Howard's We Know What You Want? The people that use these techniques are account planners and brand strategists.

Wanna meet professional cool hunters? Wanna make some mischief? See the bottom of this link for the conference details and then show upand do something funky:

www.apg.org.uk/about-us/international.cfm

If anybody wants to split a hotel room with me, please let me know. howard.campbell -at- gmail -dot- com Having a hotel room will entitle me to sit at the lobby bar where I will give away a video that challenges the industry, The Pitch, Poker and The Public

These folks are the puppet masters--what kind of theater might makean impressionon them and get the sympathetic to think twice about what they are doing?

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

I have created a new tribe for all to join!

2005-06-15T02:51:05Z

Join my new site the Worshippers of Jared! That is all...

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

KILL YOUR TV...

2005-06-15T02:50:15Z

or just turn it off for a week:
http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/tvturnoff/

posted in culturejam - 3 replies

Museum of media history: 2014

2005-05-23T07:20:22Z

you need 8 minuts...
to check it out
http://letitblog.com/epic

it's freezing over here!

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

Revolving ad panels

2005-05-11T19:29:11Z

Hey, I just joined tribe, and I have great news!

My city just put up street ads that are visible right outside my window. They are VERY cool. Anytime I look outside I can see up to three glossy advertisements that rotate on a scroll behind a glass panel - and they're illuminated from behind, so at night THEY GLOW!

I gotta do something with them. If they were normal ads, I'd just get out a marker and go at it one night. But as they rotate behind the glass panel, it's going to be more difficult - I want to not just vandalize them, but change the message.

Any ideas? They're about 5 feet high and three feet wide.

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

Buy Nothing Day: November 26th

2004-11-30T22:06:15Z

Hey Jammers,

Was it when you first heard the polar ice caps were melting? Or when
you read that mother's milk is now too toxic for newborns? Maybe it was
when you first tasted the sweet, rich flesh of a homegrown tomato? Or
when you finally figured out that even if half the people on the planet
lived like us, we'd all be dead in 20 years?

Those are the ahhh moments when you suddenly see the world anew and
realize that there has to be -- we have to find -- another way to live.

Buy Nothing Day is one step in that direction. We get together and take
a stand against the chronic overconsumption that is the mother of all
our ecological, psychological and political problems.

On November 26th, we refuse to participate. We flip our routines and
discover new angles. We get active in our communities. And some of us
go out and create some mayhem.

Here's a good place to get started: <http://adbusters.org/>
See what other people around the world are doing this year. Discover a
new way to meet other activists in your city. Visit the Action Pyramid
and help make this BND the blast that's heard around the world.

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

Activists! Nuclear Free Great Basin Fall Gathering

2004-09-20T21:33:50Z

Nuclear Free Great Basin
Fall Gathering – Oct. 8-10th 2004
Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, Utah

Private Fuel Storage (PFS) wants to site a “temporary” above ground nuclear waste dump for over 40,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste on the ancestral and Reservation land of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. The Reservation is located about 45 miles South-west of Salt Lake City, Utah.

This proposed project continues to enflame controversy within the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, and between various governmental and citizen non-governmental entities.

This issue is at critical stage. At the request of Margene Bullcreek, a Goshute activist, and Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, Nuclear Activist and founder of The Shundahai Network, and the Shundahai Network Board, and staff have begun preparation for 3 days of events in Skull Valley October 8-10th 2004. The purpose of these events is to educate, to demonstrate opposition to this project and to give concerned interests an opportunity to offer public testimony on this issue.

Please join us at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation to support Margene Bullcreek and all those who oppose the Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste dump site on the Goshute Reservation. We will hear presentations by Indigenous speakers, including Corbin Harney, Margene Bullcreek and other groups working on these issues.

During the 3 days there will be many events, including:
Traditional Sunrise Ceremonies, by Corbin Harney
Sweat Lodges open to all persons (there are certain protocols for sweat lodges and ceremonies, if you are unsure of what these are, please ask an organizer when you arrive at the site.).
People’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearing
Traditional Native Dancers
A Benefit concert by David Rovics
A raffle with lots of great items to win
And much, much more!

The Shundahai Network would also like to thank the following organizations for their support of this gathering: HEAL Utah, People for Peace and Justice, Western Shoshone Defense Project, JEDI for Women, Honor the Earth, Center for Energy Research, Nanish Shontie- Inter-Tribal Intentional Community, and Poo-Ha-Bah- Center for Indigenous Healing.

The Shundahai Network is the organization supporting Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness (“ODGA”), the Goshute Organization hosting this event.

Please join us for this historical event! You can come for a day or camp for the weekend! Registration is $10 per person/per day, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. All meals and events are included with registration. There will be both meat and vegetarian options provided.

For more information, to donate or volunteer, please contact the Shundahai Network office at:

Shundahai Network
P.O. Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Phone: (801) 533-0128
Fax: (801) 533-0129
Email: shundahai@shundahai.org
Website: www.shundahai.org

Thank you, and we hope that you will support our action in creating a Nuclear Free Great Basin, and Nuclear Free World!

posted in culturejam - 0 replies

Calicos are evil!

2004-04-21T04:37:13Z

I know this is old news, but it amused my nontheless:
Shortly after becoming Attorney General, John Ashcroft was headed abroad. An advance team showed up at the American embassy in the Hague to check out the digs, saw cats in residence, and got nervous. They were worried there might be a calico cat. No, they were told, no calicos. Visible relief. Their boss, they explained, believes calico cats are signs of the devil.

So since I own a pair of calicos, I thought it would be amusing to flood Ashcrack's email with a pic of them attached and a message like: "see you in hell... love, the kitties"

Apparently his email address is a state secret, if he even has sense enough to operate a computer (they are the devil's work, after all ;) If anyone can find his email, or snail mail addy, i will try to figure out a way to flood him without ending up at Guantanamo....

posted in culturejam - 1 reply

Uhhhh

2004-04-20T09:53:41Z

Culture Jamming
An Entertainment & Arts tribe
Adbusting, culture jamming, billboard liberation, sampling,
copyright infringement and other (often illegal) art.
http://culturejamming.tribe.net
tribeid=53a57dda-b7f0-4676-874a-a0db968d279a

660 members ...

posted in culturejam - 4 replies

operation gobstopper

2004-04-18T13:24:38Z

http://liquidsnowman2.neptune.com/

posted in culturejam - 4 replies

Some links to get us started...

2004-04-18T08:27:40Z

http://www.adbusters.org/
http://www.culturejamming101.com/
http://www.sniggle.net/
http://www.billboardliberation.com/

and the must see video that inspired this tribe:
http://www.culturejamthefilm.com/

posted in culturejam - 6 replies

atms

2004-04-18T07:59:11Z

does anyone have any ideas for a campaign to target automatic teller machines? like using small discreet mailing labels near the card or $ slot that say something like "enjoy debt!" or "yuppie food stamps"... maybe something about dubya or iraq, like "what would jesus bomb?" or "ABBA'04" for the diebold machines. obviously, camera avoidance and discretion are the best ways to minimize the possibility of being caught...also, i would recommend using something that won't damage the machine when removed. no torches, spray paint, or chisels :P
some common sense tips:
prior planning for any hacktivism is key. scout the area before you do the deed to make sure there aren't any obvious cameras around, and plan for an after hours visit for ones that are attached to a bank. have your labels pre-printed, approach the machine from the side, wear a hat & sunglasses, keep your head down, don't attract too much attention to yourself, label and laterally exit...the drive up kind may have a camera pointed to catch license plates, that is why i prefer to walk up to even the drive up ones. that might be just my paranoia talking, so take that for what it is worth.

also, this might be an effective action for e-voting machines, come november.
input welcome!

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BLF manifesto...verbose but great!

2004-04-17T06:19:22Z

The BLF Manifesto

In the beginning was the Ad. The Ad was brought to the consumer by the Advertiser. Desire, self worth, self image, ambition, hope; all find their genesis in the Ad. Through the Ad and the intent of the Advertiser we form our ideas and learn the myths that make us into what we are as a people. That this method of self definition displaced the earlier methods is beyond debate. It is now clear that the Ad holds the most esteemed position in our cosmology.

Advertising suffuses all corners of our waking lives; it so permeates our consciousness that even our dreams are often indistinguishable from a rapid succession of TV commercials.

Different forms of media serve the Ad as primary conduits to the people. Entirely new media have been invented solely to streamline the process of bringing the Ad to the people.

Old fashioned notions about art, science and spirituality being the peak achievements and the noblest goals of the spirit of man have been dashed on the crystalline shores of Acquisition; the holy pursuit of consumer goods. All old forms and philosophies have been cleverly co-opted and re"spun" as marketing strategies and consumer campaigns by the new shamans, the Ad men.

Spiritualism, literature and the physical arts: painting, sculpture, music and dance are by and large produced, packaged and consumed in the same fashion as a new car. Product contents, dictated by trends in hipness, contain a half-life matching the producers calender for being supplanted by newer models.

Product placement in television and film have overtaken story line, character development and other dated strategies in importance in the agendas of the filmmakers. The directors commanding the biggest budgets have more often than not cut their teeth on TV Ads & music videos.

Artists are judged and rewarded on the basis of their relative standing in the ongoing commodification of art objects. Bowing to fashion and the vagaries of gallery culture, these creators attempt to manufacture collectible baubles and contemporary or "period" objects that will successfully penetrate the collectors market. The most successful artists are those who can most successfully sell their art. With increasing frequency they apprentice to the Advertisers; no longer needing to falsely maintain the distinction between "Fine" & "Commercial" art.

And so we see, the Ad defines our world, creating both the focus on "image" and the culture of consumption that ultimately attract and inspire all individuals desirous of communicating to their fellow man in a profound fashion. It is clear that He who controls the Ad speaks with the voice of our Age.

You can switch off/smash/shoot/hack or in other ways avoid Television, Computers and Radio. You are not compelled to buy magazines or subscribe to newspapers. You can sic your rotweiler on door to door salesman. Of all the types of media used to disseminate the Ad there is only one which is entirely inescapable to all but the bedridden shut-in or the Thoreauian misanthrope. We speak, of course of the Billboard. Along with its lesser cousins, advertising posters and "bullet" outdoor graphics, the Billboard is ubiquitous and inescapable to anyone who moves through our world. Everyone knows the Billboard; the Billboard is in everyones mind.

For these reasons the Billboard Liberation Front states emphatically and for all time herein that to Advertise is to Exist. To Exist is to Advertise. Our ultimate goal is nothing short of a personal and singular Billboard for each citizen. Until that glorious day for global communications when every man, woman and child can scream at or sing to the world in 100Pt. type from their very own rooftop; until that day we will continue to do all in our power to encourage the masses to use any means possible to commandeer the existing media and to alter it to their own design.

Each time you change the Advertising message in your own mind, whether you climb up onto the board and physically change the original copy and graphics or not, each time you improve the message, you enter in to the High Priesthood of Advertisers.

Jack Napier
John Thomas

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