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© C. Ford.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
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© C. Ford.
Downy Woodpecker & whoosh, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Stefan Drashan photographs people in museums. People Touching Artworks:
Visitor at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, from Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Touching Artworks (all photos courtesy Stefan Drashan).
Visitor at the Musee Picasso in Paris, from Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Matching Artworks.
From Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Matching Artworks.
From Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Sleeping in Museums.
Via Hyperallergic.
“Ecce homo erectus” (image courtesy Hogre).
Anonymous artist Hogre wasn’t expecting to be arrested while checking their email at an internet café in Rome. Neither were they anticipating being charged under an archaic Italian law that punishes a public offense to religion with a fine of up to 5,000 Euros or a prison sentence of up to two years.
Hogre was one of two artists who, on June 1 of this year, placed satirical posters in bus stop advertising spaces in the Italian capital. Hogre’s poster “Ecce homo erectus” depicts Jesus with a conspicuous erection, resting one hand on the head of a praying, kneeling child. This was a response to sexual abuse charges against Cardinal Pell, the third highest-ranking Vatican official.
The other poster, “Immacolata conception in vitro,” is by Hogre’s friend doublewhY. Less obviously inflammatory, it shows two women holding a baby; one of the women is flipping off the viewer. The text and image suggest a parallel between in vitro and immaculate conception.
The moral panic that ensued was instigated by right-wing politician Fabrizio Ghera, who called for the resignation of the transport official responsible for the posters. The Italian media fanned the flames of this panic; according to Hogre in an interview with Hyperallergic,“the articles that were around looked like they were written by parrots and pigeons.”
Ads by Hogre and doublewhY at bus stop in Rome, Italy (photo courtesy Hogre).
Another lofty height achieved in the annals of pious hypocrisy. “Jesus with an erection, the whole world will fall apart!” but it’s perfectly okay for the Catholic Church to keep playing transfer the rapist, making denials, and protecting and sheltering those who sexually assault and abuse. Is that not an offense to religion? Might be nice if the church was more concerned about actual harm, rather than depiction of Jesus’s boner.
Self-styled “prophet” Mark Taylor has a shiny, new prediction – dead and shaken former presidents.
Taylor said that when he saw all five former presidents gathered at an event to raise money for hurricane relief, he received a word from the Lord that “two will be taken, three will be shaken.”
Sounds like pills and a martini.
“They were doing this Hurricane Harvey relief effort,” Taylor said. “They were trying to raise money for Hurricane Harvey, but we all know that is a bunch of lies. These guys could care less about people, it’s about their agenda. They disguised it as a relief effort for Hurricane Harvey victims and they go in there and they trash Donald Trump.”
Oh no, they didn’t trash Donny, the Tiny Tyrant doesn’t need help in that department. These former presidents were appalled and dismayed by the compleat lack of action on the part of the Tiny Tyrant, so they did something, while also providing a nice example of how a president should act. They did raise money for Hurricane relief, that’s all easily verifiable from trustworthy sources.
“The Bible says, ‘Do not touch my anointed, but especially my prophets,’” he continued. “These guys have now touched God’s anointed, Donald Trump. They used it as a platform to go in there and attack.”
Now, now, they didn’t touch one hair on Donny’s head (who would want to?) and they didn’t attack. They didn’t even mention Donny. That their effort put Donny in a bad light, well, that’s on Donny, no one else. It’s not the fault of the former presidents that the Tiny Tyrant is a fucking idiot who doesn’t know how to handle the least thing, let alone a crisis.
Taylor said that God told him that because of their supposed attack on Trump, “the covenant that these five presidents have had with that entity called Baal—because Baal is the strongman over America—is going to be broken. And then He said, ‘Two of these ex-presidents will be taken and and three will be shaken.’”
Crispy Fried Christ, you’re still on about Ba’al. I’ve already covered just how bloody wrong you are on that one, Mr. Taylor. Predicting the death of two former presidents is a very cheap shot, Mr. Taylor. Isn’t Bush the Elder in his 90s now? He’s been in hospital recently, too. Carter is fairly old, too. At any rate, with the exception of Pres. Obama, most of the former presidents are of an age where dying isn’t exactly uncommon. Mostly, I think your prediction points to you being a shitty conman who couldn’t make ‘prophet’ under any circumstance.
“God is just going to take these guys home, period. He is going to remove them and it will be a sign for certain things,” said Taylor. “The other three will be shaken and I believe that two of them will run the risk of going to prison and the third one will also be shaken due to having to testify or legal issues or whatever the case may be. Now, I don’t know if all three of those will go to prison, but I believe there is a very good possibility that two out of the three could face jail time because of what they have done.”
Aaaaand your “prophesying” just gets worse. Even cold reading cons can do much better than this pile of vagueness and wishful thinking. Everyone is going to die at some point. There are people being shaken because of having to testify and legal issues – y’know, all the lying, nasty assholes who colluded with Russia to get the Tiny Tyrant elected. You have the wrong group, Mr. Taylor. You need to look closer to your political home, rather than attempting to point a minatory finger at former presidents who did a spot of good works. As one very creative person in Hawaii put on their sign: MAGA: Many Are Getting Arrested.
Noun, plural –gies.
1a: a portentous event: Omen. b: something extraordinary or inexplicable.
2a: an extraordinary, marvelous, or unusual accomplishment, deed, or event. b: a highly talented child or youth.
[Origin: Middle English, from Latin prodigium omen, monster, from pro–, prod– + igium (akin to aio I say).]
(15th Century).
“In the northern parts of England as well, we know of another prodigy, not unlike this one and equally strange, that happened around the same time. At the mouth of the river Tweed and under the jurisdiction of the king of Scotland, there is a noble town called Berwick. In this town there lived a man of wealth, but a scoundrel, as became clear afterward. After his death he was buried, but at night he went forth from his grave through the workings – as some believe – of Satan. And followed by a pack of loudly barking dogs, he wandered about hither and thither.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.
“In truth, we should clearly remember very carefully that whenever prodigies are clearly revealed to people who are still alive whether by good or evil spirits, it often happens that those who see them do not live for very long thereafter.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.
Art by Harry Clarke.
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© C. Ford.
The Lavender Girls, a story about gay car-hops should qualify as one of the stupidest story ideas ever. The cover should get a really bad idea award too.
Baird’s Sparrow, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Oh, all the Religious Reich is getting het up, over this, that, and everything. One hissy fit after another. I’ve chosen two for now, Bryan Fischer and Jim Bakker. Bryan Fischer is one nasty piece of work, a tremendously poisonous and hate filled person. Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall attracted Fischer and those like him, as Marshall was running against Danica Roem, a transgender woman. [Danica Roem won, YES!] Marshall took the time on election day to call into Fischer’s program.
“I’m asking your listeners to pray the prayer that King David did when his son Absalom was in rebellion,” Marshall said. “He prayed that his counselor would not give solid advice. We need to, one, proceed first with prayer, then thought, then action. You can’t be a sideline Christian and think you’re going to keep your rights in a society that’s becoming ever more secular every day.”
Aww, guess the prayin’ didn’t work. How, exactly, does a person who happens to be transgender interfere with your rights? How, exactly, does that interfere with you being a christian of any flavour? I can’t stand you self-righteous, hateful assholes with your hypocritical piety, but I’m not going around announcing my rights are being taken away because you exist. Anymore, I find myself thinking that the monastic system is ripe for a big comeback – let us fund monasteries, a monastery for everyone! You can have family monasteries, monasteries for men, for women, for all the different flavours of fanaticism christianity. Then we would see if you’d put your money where your mouth is, and you would all retire from this evil world and concentrate on the next life, which is what is supposed to matter more to christians. I’d be happy to help fund monasteries, if it would get you immoral idiots where you belong, on your knees and out of the way. No more television. No more internet. No more newspapers. No more politics. Nope, just concentrating on how well you’ll do in the next life. (You’ll have to pardon me, I’m doing a great deal of monastic reading right now.)
I’d be willing to bet not one of you, not a single one, would take up a monastic life. You’re addicted to your wealth and you crave power so much, it consumes you. The mere fact that other people exist does not infringe on your rights in any way. If you feel that other people existing does infringe on your rights as a person, then really, a monastery is where you need to be, because you are not capable of being a good member of society.
The full mess is at RWW.
On to Jim Bakker, who is throwing yet another fit:
“Trump is not crazy,” Bakker bellowed. “They want him to be crazy because they want to impeach him. There is nothing they can impeach him over because this thing with the collusion with Russia they can’t prove, but they want to say this man is crazy. They’re trying to get doctors to say the president is crazy.”
No, Trump isn’t crazy. He is a malignant narcissist, which is not a good thing. As for the collusion with Russia, well that is being proved, Jim, every day. More and more proof is just piling up. There are a lot of people concerned about the Tiny Tyrant’s mental state, beyond his being a fucking moron, many of those concerned are those who make up his staff, and work with him every day. The Tiny Tyrant is bad enough, we don’t need a repeat of Reagan’s Alzheimer years.
“I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “If they go through with that, there will be a riot in the United States of America and you’re going to find little old ladies rioting, you’re going to find the church people out rioting because they’re not going to take it any more. This is stupid and insanity what is going on in our country right now.”
Really? Who cares? Just so I have this right, protesting, if done by anyone interested in social justice, is wrong and immoral, but rioting is wonderful and moral if done by christians. Just be sure to conduct your riot on the sidewalks, because blocking the streets is really, really wrong and terrible. Oh right, unless it’s done by christians. Are you going to set fire to your churches? That might be entertaining. I do agree there’s much stupid going on these days, most of it is sitting like a lump in the white house, and the rest of it are all the sitting lumps of his base, including you, Mr. Bakker.