The Largest Minority

February 21st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will be testing his filmmaking ability by using the anime classic “Akira” as his guinea pig. The original “Akira” takes place in 2019, and deals with the member of a biker gang who is subjected to government experiments which unleash his latent powers. “Akira” started out as a manga in 1988 and was directed into an animated film by Katsuhiro Otomo.

DiCaprio has made the ingenious decision to alter the original story by making it a “two-part epic” and setting it in “New Manhattan” instead of “New Tokyo”. Millions of fans around the world are eagerly awaiting the day when this new American version will completely taint their appreciation of a once classic work of art. I’m sure George Lucas and whoever the hell did the American Godzilla movie both have something to do with this.

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February 6th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The ever-elusive Banksy is one of my favorite artists. Unless you’re completely lame, he should be one of yours too.

January 14th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

World renowned Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has taken Palestinian citizenship as a symbol for peace between Jews and Arabs. After a Beethoven piano recital in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Barenboim said it was a great honor to be offered a passport. “I have also accepted it because I believe that the destinies of … the Israeli people and the Palestinian people are inextricably linked,” Barenboim said. “We are blessed — or cursed — to live with each other. And I prefer the first.”

Barenboim was born in Argentina and is a controversial figure in Israel for his promotion of German music and opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. He has also promoted Arab-Israeli cultural contacts in the past decade, alongside the late Palestinian-American writer Edward Said. When US President George W. Bush called for Israel to end “the occupation” during a speech last week, Barenboim took the opportunity to observe that, “Now even not very intelligent people are saying that the occupation has to be stopped.”

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December 5th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

The West Bank city of Bethlehem is Jesus’ birth place. Its economy relied heavily on tourism in the past, but the apartheid wall has nearly killed that industry and forced its citizens into poverty. Because of this, Hamas donated $50,000 to the city last year during Christmas. However, since Hamas and its charities have been outlawed in the West Bank by President Abbas (Israeli puppet and Fatah leader), Bethlehem and many other citizens in the West Bank will not be able to count on the support they so desperately need.

British graffiti artist Banksy has made the plight of these Palestinians more visible by painting six new images on buildings and on the apartheid wall in Bethlehem just before Christmas. He has also converted a fast food restaurant, opposite Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, into an art gallery to display the works of Palestinian and international artists. The pieces will be auctioned off, and all proceeds will be donated to local charities.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Banksy’s work, I have him linked under the Artist section in the left column.

November 10th, 2007 by deadissue

(deadissue) This is one of my own creations, cliped out of what I consider to be far and away the best episode of Real Time w/ Bill Maher this season. Rahm Emanuel was also scheduled, but he didn’t show up. What a blessing! The result was honest, brilliant, alive and often hilarious. The video is all of the panel discussion, without any of the interviews or Bill’s solo segments at the beginning or end. Enjoy!

October 20th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Our friend Davis Fleetwood has a challenge for the students of America. This is a topic near and dear to my heart as well since I’ve personally been more than frustrated on several occasions in urging my peers, both in college and out, to actually take some sort of action with me. If you talk to people my age and younger, it’s clear that we do care about what’s going on. So why the paralyzing fog spread across high schools and college campuses? The main reason for this general inaction is that we don’t think anything we do will make a difference. Sadly, this is not a conclusion we’ve arrived at on our own through failed trials of civil disobedience or general unrest. Rather, this dominant sentiment of powerlessness is something we’ve been indoctrinated with through the corporate media. It’s no coincidence that those generations which seem most politically apathetic are also those who’ve spent most of their childhood in front of the television.

October 19th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

A new Jackson Pollock exhibition in Boston’s McMullen Museum, with paintings of questionable authenticity, is stirring some controversy in the art world. Luckily, Resident Expert John Hodgman is here to tell us how to spot the difference between the splatters of paint made by a forger and the intentional dripping technique of a genius. Rather than study the chaotic swirls of Pollock paintings, said to display the properties of mathematical fractals, Hodgman has a much more hands-on approach. He demonstrates this amazing skill of detection on Pollock’s No. 5, 1948. Brilliant points are actually made by Hodgman, who explains that the importance of an original piece is not just in its historical significance, but in the fact that you can own and horde that piece of history for yourself.

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October 9th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Hat tip to Cyanide and Happiness for such brilliance.