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Rupert Murdoch is the Shitpile

Coincidentally, as I am listening to this whole fiasco happening in the UK where the MPs are going apeshit up Murdoch's and Prime Minister Cameron's asses on phone hacking and complete fuckery of moral decency, all in the name of world domination, hubris and profit, I am re-reading Valerie Solanas' "SCUM Manifesto."

SCUM Manifesto is a nice cold lemonade with a couple of blades splashed in,  invigorating  my senses and thoughts on how patriarchical oppression is still with us in this society (via media, education, economics, laws ) as women are losing rights to abortion, our future generations' independent critical thinking skills are being dulled by over-testing and a profit-driven education system, and how complicit politicians are with the Murdoch empire in disempowering the people with their fear-mongering, bullying propaganda.

During this time, Solanas' words wake up me from the stupor of silence, of not taking the risk to speak out against 'conventional' oppressive behaviors/norms people do all in the name of imperialism and maintaining the status-quo. As I have the freedom to, I must speak what's really on my mind.  Her sharp insights, wit, humor and lots of angry passion validate we still live in a world where self-annointed godmonsters of the media and politics want critical thinking, honest citizens of all backgrounds to shut the fuck up about the truth on misogyny, racism, classism, etc. in both the public and private realms of our lives. I take her arguments, however,  of tearing down "the Man" or patriarchy, metaphorically since I do not want to actually kill anyone to create a peaceful society. But I do understand and identify with her violent energies and passion that fuels her writing - I, too, have the real urge to use my creativity to further independence and compassion in myself and in others.

So, anyway, back to Murdoch. He is the shitpile Solanas talks about in the manifesto. The shitpile is a system of work that is meaningless,  that dehumanizes and coerces people to forfeit ethics, love, creativity and compassion, to instead become mindless drones and machines that feed the System everyone is afraid of turning against. Murdoch embodies the Shitpile.

Lastly, I found this passage of the manifesto enlightening in its explanation of Murdoch's tabloid empire and of perhaps why he gained so much power from it:

"3. Exposés. The male's chief delight in life -  insofar as the tense,  grim male* can ever be said to delight in anything - is exposing others. It doesn't much matter what they're exposed as, so long as they're exposed; it distracts attention from himself. Exposing others as enemy agents (Communists and Socialists) is one of his favorite pastimes, as it removes the source of the threat to him not only from himself, but from the country and the Western world. The bugs up his aren't in him, they're in Russia"(Solanas 63).

*Personally, I'd use the term "misogynist" who can of course be a male, female, hermaphrodite, etc.
as anyone, if self-hating enough, is capable of doing this.

Photo Zines @ CCNY Zine Fair, 7/16-7/17

So, I was bad about telling people to check out this cool show of photo zines at CCNY last weekend.
I also did a bad job taking photos of the event, and of my submissions. My friend, Kat, is the only witness who can testify I actually submitted and went to this shindig. Making copies of photos at Staples was not fun, and certainly not cheap... which sucks. Because I'd like to make more copies to sell at other events. On a positive note, I enjoyed looking at all types of photo zines of cityscapes to conceptual narratives.

Anyway, here is my first photo zine, or rather parts of it. It's about my grandma and the house she had to leave behind because of Alzheimer's disease. Of course, I included a Susan Sontag quotation in the introduction to add dramatic effect and context. Susan Sontag is good for such things and putting photography into a sociological perspective.

This is the quotation I included:
"To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt."