RNC billboard: “Welcome, rich white oligarchs!”
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 8/22/08 • For The Daily Show, which is recording a few shows in Minneapolis-St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. Via East-Lake.
Continue Reading
Athletic Activism: With Cheek banned from China, will other Olympians step up?
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 8/6/08 • Apparently in an attempt to silence a critic, China has revoked the visa of Olympic gold-medal-winning American speedskater Joey Cheek just hours before he was to board a flight to the Summer Games in Beijing. The co-founder of the awareness-raising organization Team Darfur, Cheek has been outspoken about China’s relationship with Sudan, where the Beijing government has many oil-related interests (China is Sudan’s largest trading partner). Continue Reading
UnConvention yard-sign contest: And the winners are…
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 7/31/08 • The votes in The UnConvention’s “My Yard, Our Message” project have been tallied –nearly 1,000 people casting more than 24,000 votes — and the winners are in. While I’m sorry to say the “Dick Cheney Shot a Guy in the Face” yard sign is not among the 50 signs that’ll be produced and distributed in the neighborhooods near the Republican National Convention site in St. Continue Reading
Lucky Seven: Thanks, Minneapolis Library guards
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 7/28/08 • The other night, I got a call from a dejected Seven. My 12-year-old nephew, who’s been living with us since late March, was at the library, and his bike had been stolen. I drove down to get him and sincerely thanked the security guards who had helped him: they let him use the phone to call me, got a description of the bike, and said they’d check out their security camera tape to see if they could spot the theft. Continue Reading
Distress Symbols: Startling statistics on the state of the union
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 7/17/08 • New studies on American rankings on the well-being of its citizens and its human development progress worldwide are shocking to say the least. From several reports today:
10.5 Misery Index rating (unemployment + inflation): highest since Jan. ’93
Continue Reading
G8 leaders gnosh on 18-course meal while discussing food crisis
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 7/10/08 • The menu a few days ago when G8 leaders met to discuss the global food crisis? “An 18-course gastronomic extravaganza.” Plus note their “working lunch” menu, which includes “almond foam and tapenade” and “Chaud-froid of Kegani crab.”
Continue Reading
Three days left to submit RNC yard signs!
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 6/2/7/08 • You’ve only got three days to submit yard signs for the UnConvention’s My Yard, Our Message project, held in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. Looks like there are some good entries mixed in among the simply awful ones (this one falls under good concept, so-so design), so submit some and give me something to vote for when public ranking begins on Tuesday. Continue Reading
Democracy: “I’m mellllting!”
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 5/25/08 • Over at Minnesota Monitor, we just launched RNC DIY!, an ongoing series looking at creative responses to the Republican National Convention (if you’ve got a suggestion, let me know). Here’s our first installment:
“To hell with Shakespeare!”: Rightwing radio host decries Hmong rapper’s work with schools
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 5/20/08 • Listening to Minnesota conservative radio host Jason Lewis, you’d get the impression that a week of hip hop in a public school will shatter the very foundations of Western civilization. During his May 2 show, the KTLK talker went off about plans by Woodbury’s Lake Junior High to bring in Hmong hip hop artist Tou Saiko Lee for a series of classes teaching sixth graders about Hmong culture, collaborative poem-writing and emceeing. The week would conclude with an all-school assembly featuring a performance of student work.
Eye Contact: Errol Morris on Abu Ghraib and the Interrotron
|
by Paul Schmelzer, 5/21/08 • Watching Errol Morris’ new documentary, “Standard Operating Procedure,” I was reminded of a Jean Baudrillard quote I’d jotted in a notebook years ago: “Perhaps our eyes are merely a blank film which is taken from us after our deaths to be developed elsewhere and screened as our life story in some infernal cinema or despatched as microfilm into the sidereal void.”