Archive for February, 2017
Trump Talk
Donald to Donald: “I am the most famous man in the world. I AM THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN THE WORLD. I CAN DO ANYTHING! I have OVER 25 MILLION TWITTER FOLLOWERS. I AM THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN THE WORLD! I need to have another rally!”
Steve Bannon enters the room.
Steve to Donald: “Donald, we’ve got to turn back the clock! This country is in total disarray. It’s our job to clean things up. We’ve got to stop people from illegally pouring in to our country and taking away our resources. Stealing the welfare from hard working Americans!”
Donald to Steve: “Steve, you write it up and I sign it! 100% agree! I’m here to make America great again. This is why I won by a landslide!”
Donald to Donald: “I am AMAZING!”
Steve to Steve: “My dreams will be realized! White Christian Right America once again! Ours for at least the next 50 years, perhaps a 100 years when we get the second and third terms!”
Donald to Donald: “I love this office! I need an escape to the Southern White House! I need a rally! The people need to adore me!”
Steve to Donald: “I’ll get to work and have something drafted by the morning. Oh and we need to do something about the gays. People can’t just be going into any bathroom they want! The perverts can harm the innocent.”
Donald to Steve: “Draw it up! I’ll sign it!”
Donald to Donald: “I am amazing. The people love me! RALLY!”
Kelly Sears’s Animations During Trump Administration
Animator Kelly Sears creates eerie speculative narratives by superimposing a voice on to archival footage. The voice presents a state of surveillance and authoritarianism as the viewer watches post-war American footage that she manipulates through various forms of animation. Sears’s work has even greater resonance and seems increasingly foreboding given the Trumpian political climate.
Although “The Rancher” (2012) uses footage of Lyndon B. Johnson, upon listening to the narration, Trump immediately comes to mind.
The Rancher (excerpt) from Kelly Sears on Vimeo.
“Voice on the Line” (2009) stirs to mind the NSA’s wiretapping, but again with Trump’s assault on immigrants and initial legislative actions, the Trump administration and ICE come to mind as I watch excerpts from this film in which a secret police listen to conversations with phone operators. Unknowingly the operators have become complicit in the monitoring and spying of the U.S. population.
Voice on the Line (excerpt) from Kelly Sears on Vimeo.
Trail of Tears: Sledding on Storm Day
Yesterday was a snow day. 9.4 inches of powder fell upon New York City along with gusting winds and cold temperatures causing much of that snow to turn to ice. One person died in the Upper East Side. As my 8 year old son was at home with his mother, I wanted to spend time with him, so around mid-day I ventured out for a 20 minute walk over to their place from Park Slope to Prospect Heights. Due to the wind and swirling snow, the walk was frigid and unpleasant. I get there, my son and I hang out for a bit primarily working on a comic that we are co-authoring, but my ex appears hell-bent on getting our kid outside the apartment. He badly wants a play date, because I don’t present the company he wants as he complains of being alone.
Since I had first-hand experience being outside, I wasn’t so keen on taking him out. However, it was now a couple hours later, the snow had stopped and according to my ex the wind had calmed down. She showed us a picture of a few people sledding in Prospect Park and told us to get outside. In the tradition of our failed marriage, I obliged against my own judgement. In order to satiate my kid’s demand, I offered to take one of his friends and that boy’s little sister (a first grader) out with us. (The two boys are in the third grade.) The parents were happy to accept the offer. My son quickly got ready and gleefully ran down the block and half to his friend’s building.
After a meltdown by the little girl with her mom over mittens that were not at all for the snow, we all head out. For the most part it’s fine, though the two boys are kind of not listening. But after 1.5hr, the big brother pegs the little sister in the arm with a piece of ice, she breaks down crying and between sobs tells me that she’s going to have a bruise there. So, I say it’s time to go. The girl is at my side ready to head home, however the boys are still throwing ice. I start yelling. We trudge along and get the brother and sister home (not without incident as the friend pelts my kid’s head with a large piece of ice). After dropping them off, my kid has a melt down because he wants to stay with his friend… He informs me that I’m not his father, I’m just a guy named Ricardo.
I drop him off at his mother’s, then I head to my place which means crossing Prospect Park. At this point, the temperature is dropping and the winds are gusting and everywhere I look, kids are crying and parents are either ignoring them as they drag them along or yelling at the kids. One mom chaperoning four kids, looses a kid on the sled that she is pulling as a large mound of ice causes him to bounce off the sled. It’s five paces later, with everyone observing yelling to her that she lost a kid that she finally looks back only to scream at the kid to hurry up and run…
The take away – take the kids out sledding the day after the snow storm.