Special (Photo) Ops
If you've been following the wires, the tactic of surrounding Bush with service men and women has reached almost manic proportions. It's one thing to put Dubya on a chow line, but this shot -- taken yesterday during a "visit" with the US Coast Guard in Miami -- hardly...
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Any Boob Can Tell You
Isn't breast feeding supposed to be a pleasurable act, one which expands the (otherwise incredibly narrow American) definition of healthy sexuality?
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YearlyKos: Susan, Mike And The Rest Of Us Oddballs
I can't say how many NYT articles fail to make it into the on-line edition. One that didn't was Sunday's piece about YearlyKos by Adam Nagourney ("Politicians Embrace Bloggers, Not Personal Attacks"). Sort of strange, too, since the subject matter was of natural interest to the on-line readership.
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The Wingnut Mannequins
Maybe the culture war's "battle of the week" was slated for Washington, but it seems Boston saw a lot more of a showdown. The AP reported Wednesday (via Huffington Post) that an anti-gay rights group in Boston had intimidated Macy's into removing two store-window mannequins honoring the 2006 Boston Pride...
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In Arlington
There are many funerals and cemeteries in the visual press today. For some reason, however, I was drawn to a video feature on the nyt.com home page titled "Finite Arlington." The piece is narrarated by Andrew C. Revkin, a Times science reporter with a love of music. It shows scenes...
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Seeing The Unseen, Fifty Years Later
News photographer Robert Adams captured this moment as Shuttlesworth was attempting to enter a whites-only waiting room at the Birmingham Terminal Station on March 6, 1957.... Just a few years after this picture was made, Birmingham’s black citizens would be tortured by Bull Connor’s police dogs, slammed into brick...
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Condomnation?
It's a striking photo-illustration on the cover of the latest NYT Mag. But is the magazine giving up too much ground to the radical fundies? The thesis of the article Is that the conservative tide has become so swollen (the authors metaphor, not mine) that sexuality itself has become...
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The Lei Away Plan
As the Telegraph points out (link), lesbian and gay families on Monday encountered probably the most disarming enforcers the White House has ever employed. If you were following Easter's edition of the culture wars, you might have heard how gay families from across the country had been planning to claim...
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I'll Trade You 12 Danish Mohammeds For An Austrian Bush
What if a European country, through the actions of its own media, realized it could be accused of having solicited and published blasphemous images ridiculing a symbolic figure of world-wide importance? Would it dig in its heels and defend those images in the name of press freedom? Or,...
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Your Turn: Jobs Vs. The Google Boys
(image 1: ART STREIBER FOR TIME.... People Who Mattered.... (image 2: WILLIAM MERCER MCLEOD FOR TIME.... People Who Mattered.
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Plame Noir
I took some heat for my visual critique of the Mata Hari Vanity Fair shot in front of the White House. I thought it was too heavy handed and, from a PR standpoint, probably gave back (rich folks, taking advantage more than being hurt) more than it gained.... Now,...
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Tookie's Celebrity
Admittedly, I didn't follow the Tookie Williams story very closely. However, I got an email today from Mark Spittle, who is customarily a satirist and who's new blog has been advertised on The BAG.
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The "Brokeback Effect"
In large segments of American society, especially in sports and the military, those doors remain sealed.... Another recent film, "Jarhead" (in which Mr. Gyllenhaal plays a marine), suggests how any kind of male behavior perceived as soft and feminine within certain closed male environments triggers abuse and violence and...
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War Is H(Sw)ell
The reporter discovered the slick DVD (called "Stand Ready: Being a Soldier in the Army Reserve") in an ad on the MTV website.... With war having become America's primary export, it's no wonder it continues to achieve greater levels of glamour and production value.
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Fit To Be Tried
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4445150.stm Why do prisoners wear lurid jumpsuits? ...A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines The suits may be removed before the defendant appears in the court, but this is up to the contractor in charge of transporting the...
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If They All Do It…
I feel I’ve got to play devil’s advocate here. Dennis Dunleavy, a professor of communications at Southern Oregon University, picked up this story via Radar Magazine. It concerns hip hop artist Beyonce Knowles, who fronts the latest issue of Vanity Fair. In becoming the first black woman to appear...
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Flat Head Tastes Flat Bread
The visuals are just too good to believe — as expose, I mean. Karen Hughes, self-described "Mom," supposed PR expert, Bush hand-holder and now US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, is just wrapping up her first trip abroad, having visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. ...
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No Fear From The Fuelhardy
Give the NYT Mag a free car wash for trying. Today’s lead article (The Breaking Point – link) discusses various factors and scenarios that could lead to a dramatic oil shortfall. Following the theme, the cover illustration asks the reader to imagine the sudden possibility of not enough oil...
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