From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Mon Aug 2 22:30:20 2004 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 22:30:20 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | 2 August Update Message-ID: Hello, I'm slowly but surely updating our web archives. Here are a few things from Stay F---! issue #20, the copyright issue: TAKE ACTION Five ways to fight over-reaching copyright law "But fighting the corporate juggernaut makes me bitter," you say. Well, it need not. Copyright laws are fun to mess with because they're just so wrong-selfish, shallow, and impractical. Here are five ways to help. http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/take-action.html WORLD VIEW Marketing news and other sick stuff http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/worldview.html MY NEW FAVORITE THING Movies, magazines, and other items we fancy (reviews) http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/reviews.html * 50 Enron Exposed! * Better than Beauty: A Guide to Charm by Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson; published in 1938 by Herald's Publishing Co., reissued in 2002 by Chronicle Books * Plunderphonics 69/96 by John Oswald * Badly-Drawn Comics * Together (Tillasammans) , 2000, 106 min., available on video *"Lisa's Got Hives," "Pinkarama," "I Believe in Killing Time," and other bootlegs SHOPPING WITH TED J.M. Tyree looks at the connection between serial kills and consumer culture. Ted Bundy, we learn, was obsessed with socks... http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/ted-bundy.html ::::::: WANT TO WRITE FOR STAY F---? The first step is to come up with something you'd like to write about. Then you'll just need to send us an email pitching the idea, along with examples of your work. Deadline for the next issue is August 25. This one has no theme, but we're particularly eager to hear ideas with a local (Brooklyn, NY) angle. Contact: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Mon Aug 9 21:21:18 2004 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 21:21:18 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | 10 August Message-ID: Posted at: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/index.html ------ Anyone remember how, after September 11, everyone in the news media seemed to be touting the line that irony is dead? Ok, well, maybe you don't, and maybe you also don't remember the series of Advertising Council public service announcements (PSAs) that launched just before Independence Day, in July 2002. So I'll refresh your memory. The PSAs portrayed short vignettes all geared to inspire pride in America, with the theme: "Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it." One spot, called "Library," (http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_library_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil) featured a young man who goes up to a library info desk and inquires about books that appear to be missing. "Those are no longer available," the librarian replies, then plies him for his name. When he declines to give it and turns to leave, scary secret-service types mysteriously appear, and we fade in to the 1984-ish clincher: "What if America Wasn't America?" I was reminded of the America That Wasn't when I came across a press release by the American Library Association last week, via BoingBoing.net: > Ashcroft orders public libraries to destroy law books > > The Justice Department is ordering public libraries to destroy certain > books it has deemed not "appropriate for external use." > > The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, > two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository > libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those > with access to a law office or law library. > > The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how > citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the > government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and > destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal > Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture > and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform > Act of 2000 (CAFRA). This is just more evidence that Ad Council's embarrassing attempt to promote patriotism praised the government for NOT doing exactly what it WAS and still is doing -- restricting citizens' basic civil rights. In fact, looking back at the other spots in the "Freedom" campaign, it is all but impossible to deny that the fictional "Big Brother" portrayed in the spots is precisely the America we've inherited under Bush. :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "LIBRARY" :::::: http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_church_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil The key fiction: The American government doesn't monitor libraries and arrest people based on what they read. The reality: San Francisco Chronicle: Santa Cruz libraries warn patrons that the government may monitor borrowing practices. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/MN14634.DTL CBS News: Statistics on how many libraries the FBI has contacted since the Patriot Act went into effect. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/21/national/main554924.shtml :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "CHURCH" :::::: http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_church_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil The key fiction: America isn't a place where people have to hold their religious services in secret. The reality: Working for Change: After a Saudi man creates a website for the Islamic Assembly of North America and links to other Muslim sites, he is arrested by the FBI and charged with "three counts of terrorism, four counts of making false statements, and seven counts of visa fraud." http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17139 Associated Press: Americans attack Muslims, post-9/11. http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-09092003-155967.html :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "DINER" :::::: http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_diner_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil The key fiction: In America, people don't have to worry about criticizing the government The reality: San Francisco Chronicle: The FBI investigates a man after fellow gym members report him for critizing Bush and the U.S. government http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2001/12/18/eguillermo.DTL Popular Mechanics: The U.S. Government is developing new technolgies to spy on its citizens http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/1/spying_on_us :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "ARREST" :::::: http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_arrest_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil The key fiction: American are free to read whatever they like, without government interference The reality: Peaceredding.org: Army officials question the mother of a peace activist, who was seen wearing a t-shirt that read: 'Unfuck the world' on the front, and 'Dethrone the Bushes' on the back. http://www.peaceredding.org/Army%20Questions%20Spearhead%20Mom.htm City Paper: Security at Philadelphia International Airport refuse to let a man fly after he is spotted carrying the book Hayduke Lives! by the radical environmental activist Edward Abbey. http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/news.godfrey.shtml The irony here is so sharp, it's painful. You can almost imagine the ACLU producing the very same spots to CRITICIZE our government... so it's no wonder that this first round of "Freedom" PSAs wasn't around for long. The Ad Council continues to promote its Campaign for Freedom ( http://www.explorefreedomusa.org/hear/index.html ), to be sure, but these days the PSAs have take a decidedly different approach. Gone are the scary portraits of an over-reaching government, which must have too closely resembled the real-life scenarios made possible by the PATRIOT ACT. Now, instead of portraying the threat of a sinister government, the Ad Council characterizes the threat as one of clueless, couch-potato Americans. "Youth," "Ummmm," and "Deaf Ears" are all pretty much the same: faux-documentary-style clips of Americans naming issues they care about -- segregation, racism, homelessness -- while saying they are "not really doing anything." Or "I get angry about it, but in my own apartment." http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/campaign_for_freedom The one actor who does hint at a real social critique -- a woman who says, "I don't vote. I refuse to vote..." -- is cut off before she finishes the sentence. The spots, one could argue, contain more than a germ of truth. (I'm often frustrated by the political apathies of friends or family.) But it is difficult to take homilies like "The first step toward making a difference is believing that we can," from the Advertising Council, which is essentially a front group for the mutual interests of multinational advertising agencies and the US government. The glossing-over of the public's legitimate frustrations with our government makes me want to punch someone. Hard. It gets worse. A radio ad, "The Biggest Threat," features an African-American man informing us of the following: The biggest threat to freedom isn't the next corporation involved in a scandal. It's not covert government operations, or even politicians. The most immediate, persistent, avoidable threat to your freedom is you. The only good thing about these PSAs is that they're so badly executed, it's hard to imagine them having much of an impact. While they may inspire some of us to swear and throw things, many people will simply find them pointless. If you are politically active at all, you know what happens when real, everyday, concerned people try to do good in America: they are silenced, harassed, spied on, and portrayed by the media as window-breaking, SUV-exploding lunatics. Michael Moore did a fine job portraying what happens when an honest, anti-war group tries to organize in Fahrenheit 9/11, but I've seen this happen to people I know personally. After September 11, the FBI listed Reclaim the Streets (RTS), an activist group here in New York, on its website as an example of a "left-wing terrorist" organization--a ludicrous claim. That the Advertising Council and its in-house Bushies dare to point the finger at us -- us! -- is but another sign of the unbearable, reality-defying hypocrisy that makes citizens feel defeated and powerless in the first place. With it's grossly misleading rhetoric, the Ad Council is itself the Big Brother it portrayed two years ago. And to think that September 11 was once thought to be the death of irony -- now THAT's ironic! -- Carrie McLaren -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/stayfree/attachments/20040809/9c83e2b4/attachment.html From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Mon Aug 16 18:00:06 2004 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 18:00:06 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | 16 August Message-ID: Hello, a couple of friends and I put together this site. It's not a Stay F---! thing but maybe you'll appreciate it: http://www.AnybodyButBush.org "Americans disgusted with President Bush have promised to vote for 'anybody but Bush.' To which we respond, 'ANYBODY?' To test critics' mettle, we've decided to put the matter to a vote. Thanks to our state-of-the-art survey software, people typically forbidden from voting -- teenagers, felons, Canadians, and African-Americans who live in Florida -- may join the rest of us in helping select the next U.S. President..." ::: Also, here's a query for the upcoming issue of Stay F---! geared to our readers here in Brooklyn. If you know any graphic designers, please let the know. THE PROBLEM: SHRINKING LESBIAN POPULATION The lesbian community in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has been rapidly declining due to a number of factors, including gentrification and low birth rate (Lesbians reproduce at a low rate, and even when they do produce offspring, there is no guarantee that the child will be a lesbian.) THE SOLUTION: BRANDING! We need your help. We're calling on designers and other creative people to come up with an ad campaign to help save the endangered lesbian population of Park Slope. Each contributor should create a logo, branding strategy, and sample advertisement for protecting and bolstering Park Slope lesbians. If you lack the resources to produce publishable work, sketch out your idea and, if we like it, we'll design it for you. We'll publish the best ideas in the upcoming edition of Stay Free! magazine, and (where desired) advertise the contributor's services to our readers. Digital files may be submitted in any Mac-friendly format (Indesign, Quark, Illustrator; Photoshop, tif, jpgs, eps at 300 dpi) Send to carrie (at) stayfreemagazine.org or Stay Free! magazine 390 Butler Street, 3rd fl Brooklyn NY 11217 Contact: Carrie McLaren, (718) 398-9425, with any questions ::::: ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT STAY F---! Beginning with the next issue, Stay F---! will be (nearly) doubling our circulation and distributing the magazine f--- in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Ad rates and deadlines here: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/adrates.pdf