Archive - Dec 17, 2009

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An Aesthetic of Poverty?

It's a little too late for me to be writing a full-blown essay on this tonight. But I was just flipping through a photo essay from the Washington Post titled: Recession in the Rust Belt and became disturbed by what seems to be a poverty aesthetic.

Update: This morning Emily West, a prof at U Mass, posted this Slate article on Levi's new "Go Forth" ad campaign and it's use of iconic Walt Whitman verse, and dramatic imagery such as; "children playing in run-down neighborhoods, an embattled business executive surrounded by an angry mob, and young people frolicking in blue jeans", to produce a feeling of "squalor and anxiety" paired with what you might call a pioneer spirit.

After setting the ominous tone, the spot goes on to portray youth in distressed jeans, carrying heroic signage. Slate's Seth Stevenson proposes that the ad "acts as a galvanizing call to generational action: Times may be tough, but we've been here before, and America's youth will not be broken." Yes, and the first action will be Googling Walt Whitman, the second, paying full price for a pair of 501s.

Winter biking

Memory Tapes - Bicycle

This is the 3rd or 4th track by these guys that I have loved on Hype M. So I think I should go buy the album. I wish I could find Happy Cycling by Boards of Canada then my day would be complete.

Boards of Canada - happy Cycling

Update:Thank you Erin for the track, and thank you windchill for not attacking me this evening on the way home. I swear that was almost pleasant, I think the wind must have been at my back.