Monthly Archives: August 2008

adventures in amateur filmmaking

Bare-Assed Editing

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A quick update of my progress with the short film, Streaking for the Shy.

All footage from the weekend of 08/01-08/03 has now been captured to my incredibly sexy 1 TB external HD, and I have begun the editing process.

I have spliced together the first several minutes of the movie, including the first of a series of scenes of bare-assedness. So far, it’s going well.

I have a little bit of shooting left to do, which I’m planning on completing on September 6th — I need the opening shot, a shot of some woo-woo girls, and some cutaways of the location at 37th and Loomis.

graffiti, politics

An Incitement To Negative Graffiti

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Last week, my mom sent me this nice little article from the LA Times about pro-Obama street-art. She had sent it to me because she was wondering if some graffiti in Chicago referred to in passing was the same graffiti I had blogged about last November (I think it was).

This article got me thinking about the cumulative effect of pro-Obama graffiti. Personally, I think it’s really positive, but I don’t know if it’s enough. I think that anti-McCain graffiti might be a necessary step for graffiti artists who hope to see Obama win the 2008 Presidency.

I don’t really discuss my political leanings too much (well, apart from that Go Away, Bush thingie on my right sidebar), but I do not want John McCain to win.

I feel kinda weird about writing a post that attempts to inspire others to attack another person. Well, I’m not so much asking people to attack McCain, but discuss his policies, and why he would be a terrible President. Still, maybe I shouldn’t? Am I just being a wishy-washy liberal (yeah, probably)? I just wanted to say that in this incitement for negative graffiti, I *have* thought about it, and after thinking about it I still think negative graffiti is required to defeat John McCain, and that its use is appropriate.

Earlier this year, I found a post on Bold Lentil, following a linkback from my Obama post.

The author had created a John McCain stencil as a tool for any interested parties in spreading McCain “fever”, and said people were free to reuse, change the text, etc. He was essentially doing what I’m trying to do now, but wasn’t being emphatic about it.

Okay. This is the emphatic part.

Graffiti artists. Street artists. People who just like slapping stickers on shit in public spaces. LISTEN TO ME. YOU NEED TO GET GOING. YOU NEED TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN. For every pro-Obama sticker you put up, put up an anti-McCain sticker. Get it?

Regarding the stencil above, I personally don’t think the “BEAT IRAQ” message would be terribly effective. I’m thinking “PRO-WAR” — “PRO-RICH” — feel free to add your own succinct slogan in the comments.

As I was walking to work from the train today, I saw a somber, black oval sticker on a NO TURN ON RED sign. It had small white letters that read “John McCain ’08”. Any doubt I had about this incitement to negative graffiti immediately evaporated.

So what are you waiting for? GET GOING.