Screaming crowds at Alice Cooper concert, Boston Garden by Boston Public Library on Flickr.
Screaming crowds at Alice Cooper concert, Boston Garden
"We don’t go after anybody… Actually, they go after me. They’re demonstrating in front of my building, calling me every kind of name. If you want to talk about civil-rights violations, what about that?"
Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, accused by the Dept. of justice of engaging in civil-rights violations against prisoners and Latinos, commenting to the Arizona Republic. Source: Dennis Wagner, “Arpaio now faces difficult options,” The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com (Dec. 17, 2011).
(via Childish | Matt Davies)
An annual event in the town where I live — the burning of a huge, handmade wooden bird (via Photos of The Phoenixville Firebird Festival).
“The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse.” — Banksy describing his new artwork, Cardinal Sin, a Baroque-styled bust of a church official whose face has been hacked off and replaced with bathroom tiles to produce a pixelated-looking pattern. Source: “Banksy unveils church abuse work,” BBC News (Dec. 15, 2011).
"America is employing a decreasing proportion of its people. At the start of the recession, the employment-to-population rate was 62.7 per cent. The rate is now 58.5 per cent. Last month, unemployment fell from 9 per cent to 8.6 per cent. On the surface, this looked like a welcome leap in job creation. In reality, more than half of the fall was accounted for by a decrease in the numbers “actively seeking” work. The 315,000 who dropped out of the labour market far exceeded the 120,000 new jobs. According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 per cent. Some have moved from claiming unemployment benefits to disability benefits, and have thus permanently dropped out of the labour force. Others have fallen back on the charity of relatives. Others still have ended up in prison. In 1982 there were just over 500,000 in jail; today there are 2.5m – more than the combined population of Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Kansas City."
Edward Luce, “Can America regain most dynamic labour market mantle?,” Financial Times (Dec. 11, 2011).
"Of course we’re going to riot… What do they expect when they tell us at 10 o’clock that they fired our football coach?"
Paul Howard, age 24, described as “an aerospace engineering student,” speaking to a reporter about the riots at Penn State University following the announcement of coach Joe Paterno’s firing. Of course! Tahrir Square, then Madison, now College Avenue, right? Source: Nate Schweber, “Penn State Students Clash With Police After Paterno Announcement,” The New York Times (November 10, 2011).
"The list of cuts, achieved or proposed, on the right-wing agenda is too long to recite, but recent examples include the astonishing obstruction of assistance to recent victims of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee unless other programs are cut; opposition to extending unemployment benefits; defeat of the Dream Act, which would give immigrant children a path to citizenship; opposition to spending for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) as well as Head Start, and so on. It appears that no one is so unfortunate that he or she is exempt from spending cuts, while at the same time no one is so fortunate as to be ineligible for a tax cut."
Jonathan Schell, “Cruel America,” The Nation (Sept. 28, 2011).
(Source: colinphotodiary, via womenoccupy)
"I’m often on my Blackberry worried about three things I have to do the next day, [but] I never feel more in the present than when I’m scared in a horror film… And I think that is a very addictive feeling."
Jason Zinoman, author of Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror, in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, discussing the enduring appeal of frightening movies. Source: “Modern Horror Defined By Edgy Realism Of The 1970s,” All Things Considered (October 8, 2011).
"It is right to see people who consume more than they deserve shattered by a financial crisis from time to time, to suffer so that they can become more reasonable… Many people … in the world do not realize that they have not earned the food they eat, that they take without giving… But if someone consumes more than they have earned, it means someone else is starving… Everybody can be a good broker but this does not bring much benefit for the world… We have so quickly lost our human appearance, we have become beasts… There’s no-one to count on and say “hey neighbour come help me.” He will come but demand a payment…. Milk is not produced by computers, bread doesn’t come from a good company PR. It is necessary to plough, sow and harvest before that."
Comments by Hristo Mishkov, now known as Brother Nikanor, a former NASDAQ trader who returned to his native Bulgaria to enter a monastery. He was speaking about the 2008 financial crisis. Sources: Nick Squires, “Wall Street trader becomes a monk,” The Telegraph (October 2, 2008) and Anna Mudeva, “Broker turned monk offers home truths to needy,” Reuters Wire (Oct. 1, 2008).
Stocking vending machine, Stockholm, 1956. Source: LIFE.
Source: ALTERED ZONES. Wicked.
The Exciters, “Just Not Ready” (1965).
