Cherry Blossoms

[Scout26]

Could that be a Nerve gas or Anthrax dispenser ??


What about those bits being ejected into the air ??  Could that be radioactive material as part of "dirty bomb" ??


Sorry, dumb, stupid, lame idea. 

[Perd Hapley]

"It's lame because I disagree with it!" 

No, it's just lame.  Even if you do "agree with it." 

What's pretentious about this? What's a less 'pretentious' way to recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face?

I don't find it pretentious.  Just lame. 

[Gewehr98]

There's a Caterpillar dealer nearby.  Maybe aforementioned peacenik would care to play "chicken" with a big Cat D9, ala' Rachel Corrie? 

[roo_ster]

What's pretentious about this? What's a less 'pretentious' way to recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face?

How do you know she's a trustafarian? The two MIT grads that I know personally came from middle-class families.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/pretentiousness
Main Entry:
    pre?ten?tious

1: characterized by pretension: as a: making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing) <the pretentious fraud who assumes a love of culture that is alien to him  Richard Watts> b: expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature <pretentious language> <pretentious houses>2: making demands on one's skill, ability, or means : ambitious <the pretentious daring of the Green Mountain Boys in crossing the lake  American Guide Series: Vermont>

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/pretension
Main Entry:
    pre?ten?sion

1 : an allegation of doubtful value : pretext 2 : a claim or an effort to establish a claim 3 : a claim or right to attention or honor because of merit 4 : an aspiration or intention that may or may not reach fulfillment <has serious literary pretensions> 5 : vanity pretentiousness

Alyssa began working on Cherry Blossoms last semester, wondering how to think about  and feel about  the civilian war deaths in Baghdad.
["I wonder how I should think about civilian war deaths in Baghdad?  I mean, I already know what I think of them, but I must find a way to be perceived as especially thoughtful by my peers," she said aloud on the way to her Interdisciplinary Studies ovular."]

...it failed to engender the empathy and sense of tragedy that remarkable works of art can.
[So, the model she took the idea from was a work of art, but was not remarkable.  Obviously, her modified t-shirt cannon manages the leap from picayune to remarkable.]

...the backpack detonates and releases a compressed air cloud of confetti, looking for all the world like smoke and shrapnel.
[Really? For "all the world," or just pinhead coeds?  Strangely, the images of it in action look very little like any smoke & shrapnel I have had experience with.]

Alyssas genius was in sacrificing herself.
[A true Christ figure, is that Alyssa.  She bears the burden of all America's sin on her back in the shape of her cherry Blossom t-shirt cannon.]

He was brave to wear it...
[Why, yes he was, because it is so risky to voice "dissent" in one of America's most liberal bastions.]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered empathy the most primary, most basic human emotion...
[JJR worked to create empathy and Alyssa works to create empathy, so Alyssa is like JJR.]

---------

There is no way to "recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face" without oozing pretension and getting it all over ones' pants. 

---------

I guessed at the trustafarian bit, but a web search will show you she is a grad student at MIT with a non-tech undergrad degree and a "performance artist" with no visible means of support or means to pay MIT tuition.

Barring access to her financials or some quality time with her and some "hard, pipe-fitting -------," I will have to go with that.  If you want to claim middle class status for her, I will concede the point.

-------

G98, that is priceless.

[wooderson]

There is no way to "recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face" without oozing pretension and getting it all over ones' pants. 

Ah there we go - nothing she could have done would satisfy you, as she's engaging with an issue you choose not to, in a manner you are unwilling to give a chance.

Look at your interpretation of her thought process - pure ad hominem. Why, she can't be sincere about conflicting thoughts and feelings about civilian deaths, and how to give them shape, she had to be pursuing this egotistically!

Then you put words in her mouth - the Rousseau comparison is someone writing about her, not part of her artist's statement or other writings, so far as I can tell.

I guessed at the trustafarian bit, but a web search will show you she is a grad student at MIT with a non-tech undergrad degree and a "performance artist" with no visible means of support or means to pay MIT tuition.

Or, you know... stipends, off-campus jobs and loans.

By your logic, any grad student at any institution must be immediately treated as a trustafarian - as they have no "visible means" to pay tuition. Given that they're still in school and all.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Lame indeed.  Another case of hopelessly unimportant people trying desperately to matter, and failing.

Whoa!  That's quite a bit different than all the whining coming from the Bush adminstration and its sycophant pro war crowd who constantly bemoan the 'undermining of the war effort and the war against terra'.

You can't have it both ways.  Which is it?

Huh?  If you were aiming to say something sensible, you missed.

Look, there are better ways to oppose the war, ways that matter and make a difference.  There are also ways to undermine the war, which also matter and make a difference.  But this cherry blossom thing?  Nada.  It's neither influential nor important.  It's just lame.  And amusing.  And look how much she's invested in it, look how self-important she thinks it/she is.  She thinks this is art, for crissakes!

Lame.  L-A-M-E

No doubt it makes her feel better about herself, though.

[wooderson]

Look, there are better ways to oppose the war, ways that matter and make a difference.

This is true of almost everything, from charity, to work, to "support[ing] the war" - few of us have found the ideal solution to what we want to accomplish. You don't, of course, make a good case for her actions having no value at all.

How do you know she isn't also pursuing opposition to the war through regular protests or writing her Congressmen?

Why is this - a public stunt that's getting talked about by a bunch of 'wingers who've never met her - less effective than said protesting or letter writing?

[wooderson]

Personally, my view is that it's somewhat interesting conceptually but not particularly well done. A good idea that, with refinement and in the proper context (why Boston? because that's where she lives - would the project have more impact in DC? in a violence-stricken urban locale - Baltimore?), might be capable of making the statement she desires.

[Twycross]

Personally, my view is that it's somewhat interesting conceptually but not particularly well done. A good idea that, with refinement and in the proper context (why Boston? because that's where she lives - would the project have more impact in DC? in a violence-stricken urban locale - Baltimore?), might be capable of making the statement she desires.

I'd agree with that. Not that I support it, but a long-term place/event-marking protest like this on a larger scale might not be such a bad idea for those opposed to the war.

[Scout26]

G98, that is priceless.

Yes, but Rachel's own friends topped that bumper sticker:
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?6017S

The Rachel Corrie Memorial Committee Pancake Breakfast
Posted by Vic IMC on Sunday, August 26th at 10:36 AM

The Rachel Corrie Memorial Committee of Victoria Invites you to a pancake breakfast at Dennys Restaurant Sunday September 12, 2007 10 am.
The Public is invited to a memorial pancake breakfast at Dennys Restaurant on Douglas Street near Finlayson, 10 am, Sunday September 12, 2007 to celebrate the life and untimely death of Rachel Corrie, Peace Activist with the International Solidarity Movement.

There will be a reading of selections from Ms. Corries letters and diary, followed by a ceremony at Topaz Park, where a stone cairn will be erected in her honour.

Attendees are encouraged to wear their keffiahs, and to dress in black.

No weapons, drugs, or alcohol please.

www.palsolidarity.org/main/

ISM offers many ways for you to get involved in the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Whether youre thinking of traveling to Palestine to work with us, or youd like to work to educate your community about the reality in Palestine, we welcome your involvement.

Yeppers, I wanna go to Palestine and become track lube for a D9 Bulldozer.  



Anywho, back to Ms. IwanttogetintouchwithmyinnerBaghdadian.

The surge is working, how about we finish the job and we win ??

[Twycross]

A pancake breakfast.   

[roo_ster]

There is no way to "recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face" without oozing pretension and getting it all over ones' pants. 

Ah there we go - nothing she could have done would satisfy you, as she's engaging with an issue you choose not to, in a manner you are unwilling to give a chance.

Look at your interpretation of her thought process - pure ad hominem. Why, she can't be sincere about conflicting thoughts and feelings about civilian deaths, and how to give them shape, she had to be pursuing this egotistically!

Then you put words in her mouth - the Rousseau comparison is someone writing about her, not part of her artist's statement or other writings, so far as I can tell.

I guessed at the trustafarian bit, but a web search will show you she is a grad student at MIT with a non-tech undergrad degree and a "performance artist" with no visible means of support or means to pay MIT tuition.

Or, you know... stipends, off-campus jobs and loans.

By your logic, any grad student at any institution must be immediately treated as a trustafarian - as they have no "visible means" to pay tuition. Given that they're still in school and all.

Oh, there are lots of things she could have done that would satisfy me.  None of them involve fatuous performance art.

Such wastage of finite time on earth is worthy of ridicule, whatever the underlying bathos.

...conflicting thoughts and feelings about civilian deaths, and how to give them shape...

We can welcome her to adulthood, where ambivalence is rife and every choice made precludes others. 

Adults deal with such and move on, they don't strap party poppers to their *expletive deleted*ss and mope about urban areas, hoping someone will notice their over/mis-educated selves.

---------

The "Cherry Blossom Party Popper Pretension Kit" is all about conspicuous, ineffective posing:
 "Check me out, I am really sensitive & thoughtful* and actively put my sensitivity & thoughtfulness on display so others can marvel at it."







* "Thoughtful" translated as:
1. Learning about some outrage perpetrated by a foreign person or group
2. Holding back judgment on the perpetrating parties to avoid the "easy" answer and re-victimizing the victims of colonization
3. Referring to one of one's favorite Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn works for guidance
4. Realizing that, yes, indeed, all the evil in the world has been perpetrated by European-derived folk and that this new outrage is in reaction to something done by America at some time in the near or distant past
5. Donning the smug attitude known to mis/over-educated twits the world over

[Perd Hapley]

What's a less 'pretentious' way to recontextualize the violence in Iraq, giving it an American face?

You know, that's exactly what is so lame about it.  It's meaningless.  It's nothing but sappy emotional appeal.  Why "recontextualize"?  Why give it an American face?   

[Paddy]

Look, there are better ways to oppose the war, ways that matter and make a difference.  There are also ways to undermine the war, which also matter and make a difference.

Well, I agree with you there, and the pattern for success can be found back in the 60's demonstrations against the Vietnam 'war'.  Eventually the politicians caved as they would today in the face of the same kind of public display.  This Iraq occupation is no more popular than was Vietnam.  I'm in favor of any kind of public anti-war display, regardless of how 'lame'.

[wooderson]

A sappy emotional appeal would be pictures of dead kids without any kind of context.

Nothing about this resembles a "sappy emotional appeal." Unless, as I said, you're predisposed to hate it merely on the basis of its existence ("conceptual/performance art?! ewwww! must be a trustafarian!!!") and political viewpoint.

And, in fact, it's not really an appeal at all, insofar as the message drawn is entirely up to the viewer. The narrow categorizations offered by APS detractors do not, by and large, fit.

[Gewehr98]

That's a very nice anthrax/hantavirus/plague distribution device she's got there, that's for sure.   

[Perd Hapley]

OK, then, wood, you're just in denial.