Honestly, I was working on a post about a the Senate Health Care debate on health care reform that I watched on C-SPAN on Saturday morning. Yeah, Im cool like that. And did you know C-SPAN stands for Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network! But, about 500 wonky words later, I realized I was boring myself, which means I'd be boring. And this is not "You Borin dot com." Far from it.
In light of that, last week I came across a piece of YW history that I thought I'd share with the people. It was almost two years ago that Nickname and I had the idea for a forum of wildin, which eventually became the site you see today. The idea came on an afternoon when we were doing landscaping work upstate, and we were talking about this dude, Doc Ellis, who pitched a no-hitter while tripping on acid. The exchange, I believe, went something like:
Me: Yo, that guy was wildin!
NN: Yeah he was.
And BOOM! A blog is born. So last week I found an animated short, produced by No Mas, of Doc Ellis telling the story of that fateful game, and in a way, the story of this enterprise. It's incredibly well done. And this, ladies and gents, is what it means to be wildin.
Monday, November 23, 2009
That Dude Teaches History
Friday, November 6, 2009
Friday Street Art
Forget about the new Google Droid. Use your iPhone to level out that wobbly table. Finally see what happens when you drop your Blackberry out a seventh story window. Why? Because none of those "Smart" phones have a direct line to the G-o-d. Never has one phone booth been so poised to change the world since Bill and Ted dialed back through time. 
Compliments of Wooster Collective
Monday, November 2, 2009
ThatDude In The City: God Loves The Sexy Nurse
Its officially November. Time to put away the tank tops, the capris, and [tear] the boat shoes. Sure, for the last month or so its been too cold to wear any of our beloved summer attire, but until now the YW fam has hoped a child like hope that before fall carries out its sentence on summer, we might just get one last chance to throw on our boat shoes and take in the the skin deep beauty that summer brings to our fair city's fairer sex.
With the exception of a day here and a day there, that longed for renaissance of warmth has evaded us like universal health care. Until, that is, the universe checked its calender and, circling the day of October the 31st, remembered that God Loves The Sexy Nurse. As the sun went down on October, and the trick or treaters were coming down from their sugar highs, the temperature rose to a balmy 68 degrees, ensuring that the city, from the streets, to the bars, to the thump thump clubs, would be flooded with women incognito, bedecked in professional garb...from the oldest profession.
And yes, it rained on the Halloween parade up 6th avenue. But this was no ordinary rain. Imbued with the heat of the evening, these drops melted away the insecurities that our Halloween masks couldn't mask, flooding the city with a Dionysian rumpus that would make even the Wildest Thing do a double take. Walking in the parade, wine in a can in hand, I was overtaken by an old man in a clown costume pedaling a pedicab. But, like the evening's rain, this was no ordinary pedi cab. Oh no. This pedicab was pulling a platform with a stripper pole. Down one city block, a bevy of sexy professionals, drunk with the heat of the evening, took to the stage and let the night in; communing with the God who made it warm and made it rain, and, who Im now sure, loves the sexy nurse.
author's note: "God," as referred to above, represents some non-identifiable thing greater than myself. You may call it what you will.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Douche Bag Alert: Guys w Stupid Signs
Yes, its been a while since I last came on the YW scene. To tell you the truth, Im not quite sure why that is. Perhaps I've been too caught up in the quickly cooling lazy hazy crazy days of summer...though I think, on further consideration, I had become a bit disenchanted with writing here. Without boring you with the details, I think I'm over that, and ready to once again regularly spew verbiage onto this page.
To start, lets talk about the most for real wildin' of the summer. No, I'm not talking about Electric Zoo on Randall's Island (VT can bless with a few stories from that), nor one of the many blackout nights at YWs LES headquarters (hello Ella). I'm talking about the wilders, calling themselves 10thers (after a misinterpreted clause in the 10th amendment supposedly making national health care reform "unconstitutional"--though somehow Medicare is okay, though still unconstitutional, showing that these people are both batty and unprincipled). The 10thers, led by none other than Fox News' Glenn "Im a raving lunatic" Beck, and lifted on high with money and press from uber-right-wing lobbyists like Freedom Works and, you guessed it, Fox News, gathered on the mall in DC to protest big government.
First off, many of these 10thers are probably people who would most benefit from some substantive progressive health care reform, nor that a number of them are covered by the VA health plan (an example of a tremendously well run government run health plan). But all that aside, I respect that argument for a restricted role of government. I understand the "get your big bureaucratic hand out of my pocket" sentiment that brings these camo covered gun toting wing nuts together a stones throw from the White House on the steps of the capital. I don't agree with it, but I respect, if nothing else, their right to an opinion.
What I can't respect, among other things, are simple-minded ideological rhetorically charged meant-to-be-clever-but-just-make-you-and-me-look-like-dumb-Americans signs that say little to nothing substantive about the politics and policy that have electrified this small piece of the countries electorate. You make the rest of us look like ass holes. Please, by all means, protest. Yell from rooftops, scream in the face of politicians on both sides of the aisle who make you mad even if you dont know why, shout corny and ineffective call and response chants on the Washington Mall. But dont make me look a douche. I'm talking to you, guy with this sign, and all your sign makin buddies:
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Great Fall
Here is a medical definition:
Fall (noun)- according to the American Medical Director's Association: the failure to maintain an appropriate lying, sitting, or standing position, resulting in an individual's abrupt, undesired relocation to the ground.
Yeeeeaaahhhh...Maybe one way we can lower the cost of health care in this country is to cut down on our leading physicians' verbosity, which surely lends itself well to the abundance of red tape that has so many politicians' panties in a twist.
Here's the YW defintion: Fall (noun), ending up on the ground in a painful and embarrassing way, possibly due to gettin' it crunked.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Orgasm a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Saw this on HuffPo today, hidden down towards the bottom of the page. Apparently Britain's National Health Service has begun a new educational campaignpromoting the idea that "school pupils [...] have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health." The new campaign's tag line, "An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away," is beautifully crafted, aesthetically simple, and dripping with a Dionysian reality that is often suppressed by the enormous stick that seems to be up the worlds butt. And though telling school children that sex is indeed a beautiful and enjoyable activity, and only results in baby making if you are stupid about "doin' it," is a step towards removing that stick that seems so stuck, there are still haters out there who are a)clearly not getting enough, and b)insistent upon projecting their sex starved rigidity on the rest of us.
A British physician opposed to the campaign had this to say:
'If you look at the people who come into my surgery, it's the orgasm that got them there - not kept them away,' he said. 'It is unbelievable that this is being sent to schools.
'I'd like to know what scientific evidence there is to back this up. There are an awful lot of overpaid and under-occupied health promotion officers around who are obsessed with sex.
'This leaflet encourages the idea that there is nothing more to sex than pleasure, and inciting underage sex is doing nothing less than encouraging child abuse.
'If the NHS wants to promote a healthy heart, as it says it does in this leaflet, it should put the money into reducing smoking and alcohol - which cause far more cardiac damage than encouraging people to have sex.
'The strapline I'd have is - sex is an adult activity. Underage sex is as dangerous as underage drink and usually leads to sexual ill-health.'
There are so many points of contention here. First of all, to the idea that there is "nothing more to sex than pleasure:" Sex is pleasurable, if you do it right, and frankly, if world leaders were having great sex, I would venture to say we would have less wars on our hands. Not even sure where he's going with the child abuse thing. That's almost to absurd to fend off. Now, to the idea that putting "money into reducing smoking and alcohol:" We spend far too much time and energy telling people what not to do, rather than encouraging healthy behaviors.
Treating sex as an illicit drug has led us perhaps to perpetuate that its consequences remain unspoken, swept under the rug, and demonized as wholly other and outside accepted social mores. Were we to celebrate sex rather than demonize it (and I'm not talking about American Apparel ads, which simply prey on our societal unease concerning sex), I imagine a lot less pregnant teenagers, a lot less single mothers, lower rates of STDs, and a lot more shit-eating I just had the best sex of my life grins.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Friday Street Art
Apparently my outrage at the commodification of public space has friends, friends with spray paint. A recent AdBusters article discussed the combatting of "illegal street advertising." Illegal in this case means the coopting of public space to push product on unsuspecting consumers, and combat means, well...this:
Armed with paint rollers, spray cans and video equipment, activists took to the streets on April 25th wearing florescent orange construction vests. (Covertness, it seemed, was not a top priority). The mixed brigade of culture jammers — ranging from artists and architects to software developers and bio-physicists — swiftly whitewashed 126 of the offending advertisements.
Calling themselves the Municipal Landscape Control Committee, the team turned the newly-buffed billboards into multimedia art. Across Manhattan, walls that formerly peddled electronics, designer clothes and alcohol were reclaimed in the name of peace, laughter and high-fives.
For more on how to take back the streets, peep Illegalbillboards.org and PublicAdCampaign.com
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday Street Art
From Sir X From Gijon, Spain, found at Wooster Collective
The Spanish, with their socialized medicine, massive wine drinking, and siestas are apparently very creative yet still malcontent. Cheers to that.
Bon Weekend,
TD
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Who Is Keith Hernandez?
(spolier: The Wildest Dude Ever)
Who Is Keith Hernandez?
Two weeks ago I posted a picture of a Keith hernandez wheat paste that I came across on some scaffolding in Tribeca. Initially I thought that this piece was just another in a long line of seemingly random yet likely inspired stencils that have been growing in number around the city since Banksy ascended to (counter-)cultural fame.
How wrong I was. This was no random wheat paste and Keith is no random Hernandez. Ladies and gentlemen, wilders of all shapes, sizes, colors, and creeds, allow me to introduce you to "I Am Keith Hernandez." This twenty minute film tracks Hernandez's ascent from a HS baseball star through his all-star major league career, climaxing with his role as team leader and original cocaine cowboy of the 1986 NY Mets. Coke and Keith were tight like fingers. The great white hope fed Keith''s drive and concentration on the field, and as a the veteran leader of the 86 Mets, you best believe that Keith shared the wealth. Among other things, this film enlightens us to the idea that Keith was responsible for introducing Darryl and Doc to the white lady, and blackmailed then-President Reagan to lift his suspension after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for cocaine use. The film makes crisp connections, painting Keith as the embodiment of the uber-macho mustachio'd, white-lined cultural lineages of the 1980s. After watching this, there is no doubt in my mind that Keith Hernandez was, is, and always will be the MAN of his time and ours.
"Life-changing..."
-me
This is worth your time, I swear.
Go In
Friday, May 15, 2009
Friday Street Art-Dude Where's My Car?
Oh. Its there. Its just INVISIBLE?!
From the always inspired Wooster Collective:
Sara Watson, a design student studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire, spent three weeks taking a battered old Skoda and making it "disappear" by painting it so that it blends in with the surrounding area.
That's tight.
Happy Friday.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Is Kweli a Sell-Out?
First of all, definitely not. But now you're reading so.....
Perusing the interweb this morning I came across a mad interesting interview with one of YW's favorite artists, Talib Kweli. As an MC Kweli has always been associated with "conscious" or "progressive" hip-hop, in fact, for many hip-hop heads he epitomizes those terms. As "progressive" hip-hop's popularity has grown and its audience has become more robust, everyone from hip-hop nerd to Rasta-loving white boys seem to fill these shows, debates about what it means to be a "conscious" MC are frequently taken up--me and Nickname have had many such debates over many glasses of Scotch. The underlying theme of all our debates seems to be: Does an MC who is considered "conscious" have a responsibility to live up to that label? Can Kweli make a club banger? What is the role of music in our lives (super deep)? I once heard Mos Def say that he was tired of people expecting him to put on a cape and "go save hip-hop" from the commercial garbage that floods mainstream radio. I feel that. But I digress...
Here is a section of the interview I read and Kweli's take on a very poignant question:
Has progressive rap sold out, and are you part of the problem?
Talib Kweli: I think you have to be clear on what you job is… I provide a public service. I provide music for people. What is people’s relationship to music? Throughout our history, people use music for spiritual upliftment and to take their mind off things, not to be beat in the head with a bunch of facts and what’s wrong with the world. If they want to hear that, I go speak at colleges all the time. We can build and have a session and talk about the world’s problems. I consider it an honor and a blessing that I can take a message and put it into something entertaining. But, I realize that it’s my job is to be entertaining.
Kweli on the co-opting of "progressive" hip-hop
Is there external pressure to even that out? The reason so many progressive groups were grabbed up in the last few years is because they represent cred… they want our cred, but they don’t want what we have to say…
TK: As artists, the era of record companies stifling your creative control doesn’t really make sense anymore. They don’t even have to go about the business of stifling someone’s creative control once they sign them. Once they sign them, it’s really about the profitability. If they make money with Dead Prez, they’ll sign them regardless. They haven’t figure out how to make money with them yet. Once they do, Dead Prez could be the biggest group in the world, regardless of their politics. They could be talking about burning down everything; if they’re making money it don’t matter.
To read the whole interview (you should) peep it at Flavorpill
Friday, May 8, 2009
Friday Street Art
Seen in Tribeca, NYC. Keith Hernandez, former NY Met, once one of the best fielding first basemen of all time, the only professional athlete to achieve true Senifeldian fame, and the all too eager spokesmen for Just For Men, has now been immortalized in wheat paste stencil. 'Bout time. We can only hope that stencils of more Met greats in are in the works. Keep your eyes out for The Straw, Mookie, Doc, Nails, Jesse Orosco and more.
Big ups to Abba for the flick.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Pic of the Day 5.6.09
I'm going to check out a screening tonight of Jim Henson's Youth '68. From the 92Y Tribeca Blog:
Sex. Drugs. Religion. War. Rock & Roll. This ain’t the Muppets. In the days before he was a household name, Jim Henson created Youth ’68 – a documentary produced for NBC’s “Experiment in Television” series. Believe it or not, the film has not had a public screening since its original broadcast (in, you guessed it, 1968) – until now, scheduled for May 6 at 92YTribeca. Billed as a “portrait of youth today,” the film is a collage of interviews, literary quotations, popular music and modern dance. Henson talked to people of all ages across the country – some who were part of the movement and others who despised it – to create a vivid portrayal of a society rife with juxtapositions in the context of a changing world.
The film includes appearances by Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and The Papas, and The Vanilla Fudge, as well as music from The Beatles, The Who, and Simon & Garfunkel. It’s essentially a snapshot of the ‘60s in 60 minutes
Should be dope on a rope. The Muppet Man was a true wilder at heart: a counter-culture evangelist before counter culture was co-opted and sold to us in Che T-shirts, skinny jeans, and the Whole Foods buffet. A review to follow.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday Street Art
For a gritty NYC throw back:
In 1980 visual artist Bill Brand installed his "Masstransiscopewas" in the abandoned Myrtle Avenue subway station in Brooklyn. You can see the piece if you look out the north side of a Manhattan bound B or Q train as it travels between the Dekalb Avenue stop and the Manhattan Bridge. The 228 hand-painted panels are viewed through a series of vertical slits set into a specially constructed housing. The piece works on the principle of the Zoetrope, a 19th century optical toy. The result is a flipbook like animation of colorful moving geometric shapes. The piece was recently restored and is super cool...yeah I said it...super cool. Check it out next time you get the chance. Shout to RSD for putting me on.
For more info check out the artist's website, BBoptics.com.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Friday Street Art
Per usual, this is from the amazing people at Wooster Collective Jerm IX from Vancouver has donated his body to art. My man will be a living breathing walking canvas for artists around the globe...dot com.
From jerm IX in Vancouver:
"thought i'd share my latest project with you. i have donated my body to street artists. i recently put out a call to street artists around the world via flickr and stencilrevolution.com that i was accepting design submissions to be inked to my body, creating a body suit of street art, with the aim of celebrating street artists and their work in a somewhat more permanent form than the ephemeral nature of the streets allow.
i have designs coming from artists i have admired for so long and i am so inspired by the giving nature that seems to be embodied at every stop on the street artist spectrum. From the legends such as Microbo, Miss Van & BISERama to the unsung heroes like starheadboy and cameraman, everyone has been gracious, giving the fact that this is not a 'sponsored' project, for lack of a better word...and funds. anyway, i'm getting inked at a pace of at least one sitting a month and would love it if you spread the word and give all of the amazing people and artists on the site a glimpse into the project, so they may become involved if so inclined.
You can see the set as it evolves here.
thanks, love the site.
keep smiling.
jerm IX
Monday, April 13, 2009
Oval Office Erotica: Sex and Politics in America
California based artist Justine Lai has produced a series of paintings entitled "Join or Die," in which she depicts herself having sex with each of the American Presidents. The paintings aren't quite porn. They are more like Oval Office Erotica, but Lai does not hesitate to put the former leaders of the free world in some very real, very randy sexual positions. So, yes, that is Abe Lincoln getting domed out, and I believe that is Ulysses S. Grant spanking the artists toosh like he spanked the Confederate Army in the Civil War. The idea is to humanize and "demyhtologize" the Presidents by putting them in honest, private situations. Lai does a good job of actually undressing the men who have occupied one of the most "impenetrable institutions" in history. The artist reminds us that even Presidents are human beings. She also reminds us that the mind can be a place where a person can do just about anything with anybody (you know you gets down). So take a peek at some of the images below, read her mission statement, and think about what she's saying.
Mission Statement
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that's strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably "controversial." One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its "Fuck the Man" symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.
Check out all the Presidents doing their dirty at the aritsts website
Friday, April 10, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Friday Street Art
From a small Zimbabwean newspaper who have taken to printing there ads on real money, which is now completely worthless thanks to Mugabe. The way things are going, we might be using money to make more than advertisements...imagine the fort that you could build with the bills from a seven billion dollar bailout.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Don't Let th Door Hit Ya' Where the Good Lord Split Ya'
Rush Limbaugh, fat bastard that he is, told his listeners that he wasn't going to take it anymore. He was going to stand up and do something about it. That's right, in response to news of a significant increase in income tax on New Yorkers making over $300,000 (just about YW's annual income), Rush has declared that he will sell his condo, move his studio, and leave this godforsaken land of immigrants, intellects and homosexuals once and for all. I know, I know...it hurts. But dry your eyes, hold back those tears, and watch Jon Stewart bid Rush a deserved farewell on last night's Daily Show. For those of you who don't watch (spoiler alert) here's the gist from Huff Po's Jason Linkin:
"For years, New Yorkers have done everything in our power to get this guy to leave town." Tactics included holding gay pride parades, kicking Rush's potential narco connects out of Times Square, and stocking Chinatown with "Chinese extras." "He was the Truman in our city-wide Truman Show," said Stewart. "If you're heading out from Uptown, take 42nd Street west to Ninth Avenue take a left, go down four blocks, Lincoln Tunnel's on your right, and you know what? Here's my EZ-Pass. Get the fuck out of here."
It's gold. You should watch it.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Rush Limbaugh Leaves New York | ||||
| ||||