Monthly Archives: February 2010

in this house you will never die \/\/ heavenly architecture 2

February 27, 2010
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in this house you will never die \/\/ heavenly architecture 2

In The Spirit of Terrorism, Jean Baudrillard points out that they are as willing to die as we are to live.  They are terrorists.  We are the consumer capitalist global order. Baudrillard sees a disturbing manifestation of a trend of consumer culture he first observed in Symbolic Exchange and Death more than thirty years before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center: that slavery functions by way of a prohibition against death, and of all the social taboos produced by ‘global’ culture in the later half of the 20th century, such a prohibition – a prohibition on death, against a person’s moral right to die – is the most widespread.   It is the slave owner, the master, who can die.  The slave cannot die.  Captured in war, the slave’s life is transferred to an infinite debt.  He lives on credit; his death becomes the most immoral act possible, because it constitutes a failure to amend the debt accrued when his life was spared by his master. When we see suicidal terrorism on TV, our reaction to it is one of moral indignation.  Of course, there is the outward violence of the event, the civilian casualties, the destruction, the reality [...]

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the avant guardian logo competition

February 25, 2010
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the avant guardian logo competition

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot! Ahh healthy competition. The healthiest kind. We at the avant guardian support both health and competition. Which is why we like all fighting styles. We like Tiger Fist and Flying Crane. We like the guy with the  moobs from Fight Club. We like beast wars (where you pick two animals and decide which would win based on nothing more than what you saw on Discovery Channel once). We like intellectual sparring, broad sword sparring, and sexual sparring. We like the chase, the hunt, the pursuit, AND the run down. So it begins. The Proposition: A logo contest. We need a logo. Helvetica just isn’t cutting it anymore. Please all of you designers, illustrators, artists, sketchers, and creative types make us a logo. Due date 2 weeks from Monday. March 1st, 2010. No rules, besides it being a logo for this site. All entries will be published. That’s right, people, you gettin’ press. Send your entries to tracey@theavantguardian.org. The Prize: 1) Eternal admiration of your peers. 2) Your logo everyday at the top of the site and future merchandise. 3) A bottle of Dan Akroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka. Good god you know you want to try it. [...]

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salt lick \/\/ branding wounds

February 25, 2010
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salt lick \/\/ branding wounds

The German literary critic Walter Benjamin, as much an avant guardian as anyone yet mentioned in these pages, once saw the revolution in an advertisement for this salt. Bullrich’s. He tells the story in his unfinished Arcades Project, his massive collage of historical ephemera drawn from nineteenth century Parisian street life. Benjamin left his manuscript of the Arcades Project in the hands of Georges Bataille, then a librarian at the Bibliotheque Nationale, while he attempted to escape Nazi persecution in America. He ended up committing suicide on the Spanish-French border, despairing this endeavor. His masterpiece languished in tantalizing obscurity for many years until it was published in German in the 1970′s and translated into English at the turn of the millenium.  In the meantime, his work slowly attracted considerable interest among artists and radicals the world over. The story’s a bit longish, but has stuck with me for many years, so I’d like to pass it along to you. Here goes: “Many years ago, on a streetcar, I saw a poster that, if things had their due in this world, would have found its admirers, historians, exegetes and copyists just as surely as any great poem or painting. And, in fact, [...]

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branding leads to revolution via performance, or how I learned to dress like an indian and bring the british government to its knees

February 24, 2010
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branding leads to revolution via performance, or how I learned to dress like an indian and bring the british government to its knees

During the Boston massacre, six civilians were killed and six more were injured when British troops, garrisoned in Boston, opened fire on an unruly mob.  Seven of the soldiers accused of murder were acquitted.  Two were found guilty of manslaughter and branded as punishment. When I learned about this as a kid in school I had to imagine the scenario as something akin to the OJ trial.  Really, how the fuck do these guys get off!?!  When I learned that John Adams, future president of the United States and all around proponent of and friend to the colonies was the defense attorney, I kind of pulled a Kyle’s mom. Now if you’ve seen the mini-series or read the book John Adams, you’re probably saying “hold on a sec’ mister ari g.  Ol’ Johnny had a plan!  He wanted us to look civilized like the British so they would see that we were not savages!”  And I might say, sure, whatever.  That may have been his plan, but it’s not what led to the revolution and it certainly did not garner any respect from the British.  It was a concerted public performance that led to the revolution that arose out of [...]

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a word from our silence

February 23, 2010
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a word from our silence

“The Logos became man, so that man might become Logos.” ~ The Philokalia, Vol. I, p. 156. I. We humans are creatures of comfort, and that applies no less to our purchasing choices than to our desire for warmth, food, and a roof over our heads. Enter the brand: the staple of a commercial and high-tech civilization. The difference between that which is branded and that which is not is tangibly summed up in the price difference between the “genuine” article on your store shelf, and the cheap knock-off sitting next to it—however the quantified difference may or may not correspond to a difference in quality. The brand is most forcefully seen as the logo, shorthand for the early 19th century term “logotype” or “logogram,” which combines the Greek terms for “word” (logos, λόγος) and “writing” or “what is written”: hence, from potential and abstract to act and reality. Accordingly, for all the public is aware, a company without a logo and the means to make it visible might as well not even exist. The logo concentrates into a unique, provocative and clever visual signifier the company’s mission and, ideally, the collective experience of dense hordes of anonymous peers, the magnitude [...]

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this week on the avantguardian \/\/ branding leads to revolution

February 22, 2010
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this week on the avantguardian \/\/ branding leads to revolution

This week we are leading up to a special kind of climax. An epic moment in theavantguardian’s history will unveil itself properly next Monday the First of March. We will have a logo. Righteous. We are moving on up. But in order to get a logo we have decided to hold a logo competition. Thus moving on up facilitated by our readership. The artistic (wo)man we love thee. Link here: http://theavantguardian.org/2010/02/20/the-avant-guardian-logo-competition/ In honor of the logo competition we will focus our thoughts on branding. We hope to be branded. I am sure some of my fellow compatriots will have lots of interesting angles on what that means, or whether it is a good thing or not, so without bogging you down with my thoughts, I will leave you with a story from Ancient Rome. It tells of a slave revolution around the year 135 B.C. in Sicily. The slaves rose up because of cruel treatment. One of the things that was unjustly done to them was skin branding. Keep in mind that the Romans typically branded their slaves ON THEIR FACES, and the contemporary reader would understand this. The whole thing is super METAL. Nothing like a primary source badassery to [...]

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the cherubs are not what they seem \/\/ heavenly architecture 1

February 21, 2010
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the cherubs are not what they seem \/\/ heavenly architecture 1

      The West, meaning Europe, was a really crappy place to live for the millennia-and-a-half (roughly) between the fall of the Romans and the Renaissance, especially when you compare the state of European life during the dark ages to the life elsewhere on the planet.  Architecturally (again roughly), it was all about churches and castles.  Churches and monastic centers meant to solidify and eternalize the dominance of the Christian religion, and served as the infrastructural hardware requisite to homogenize European identity generally in a time of feudal competition between insular communities.    Defensive castles, rarer than churches (though no less important), served to ensure that the rich people didn’t get killed every time a barbarian horde decided to invade. The contemplative and stoical Romanesque, coupled with intellectual, geometry-obsessed Byzantine architecture, piggybacking on religion and utilizing a more or less standard cannon of rules concerning construction and design, provided a stylistic unity for Europe roughly until the dawn of the 2nd millennia.  The Gothic mode intensified the brooding, introspective aspect of European architecture, until the relative opulence of the Renaissance resuscitated a certain levity and exhibitionist confidence in European structures. The idea is that when life sucks it becomes all [...]

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pink hearts mcqueen

February 18, 2010
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pink hearts mcqueen

a small tribute, to a talent larger than life. there is a pink spot inside each and every one of us… especially those with rusted hearts. “Hope there’s someone Who’ll take care of me When I die, will I go Hope there’s someone Who’ll set my heart free Nice to hold when I’m tired” -Antony R.I.P. Alexander McQueen

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the set up

February 12, 2010
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the set up

What you got? You think this is a hustle? I’m pretty sure you don’t know me or the Don Kix I rode in on. That shit talkin’ is straight bullshit. Fresh Kid Icing around the block. Oi. Please. (QUICK ASIDE: The Pharcyde’s “Ya Mama”. Possibly the best diss track of all time.) Personally, I prefer constant contradiction. What’s that? No that’s that. You’re right, but you’re wrong. I hate America and love America. I’m sure you can relate but I’d rather you didn’t. WHO DAT? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? WHO DAT? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? FYI I found out the other day that the bald eagle is a frat boy. It’s gonna be really sad when it goes extinct. Inevitable. “We regret to inform you tonight that last remaining member of the species Haliaeetus leucocephalus more commonly known as the ‘Bald Eagle’ died. Our thoughts and our prayers and the stern face that I’m making right now go out to each American family out there. These are troubling times. God Bless us all.” Sometimes shittalking comes in the form of advice. I had someone say, just the other day, hey, why don’t [...]

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shit talkin’ & busting crime

February 11, 2010
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shit talkin’ & busting crime

We are PROTECTED by the LAW these guys will take those suckers DOWN! Shit talkin’ always made it’s way to the top! Shit talkin’ always has it’s mouth full, and hands as well. They  be talkin it up! And still……..we wonder.

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